I could live without a cell phone 99% of the time. Unless I need to have a conversation, most of the communication in my life can be handled via email or a short text message. So the idea of the Peek Pronto really intrigues me. It's got all the email and texting of a cell phone without the bother of ever having to answer the a call. Think of Peek as the push email functionality of a Blackberry unencumbered from all the other stuff Blackberry piles on in the way of features.
Continue reading Peek Pronto - Mobile Email Device .
With both California and Washington requiring some sort of hands-free device for all drivers as of July 1, 2008, a large percentage of iPhone owners need a viable hands-free solution. Many of the hands-free options are considerably cheaper than the Etymotic hf2, but all those options also sound awful. I dread talking to anyone using a Bluetooth speakerphone because there's always an unnecessary amount of repeating involved. Bluetooth wireless headsets are better, but they don't play to the iPhone also being an iPod. Etymotic gets it right, offering a wired headset with inline microphone, for stereo listening to music, or receiving and placing calls as they come in. When you're driving, simply remove the second ear bud and stay connected to safely answer phone calls. You'll shout less while wearing the hf2 headset because it blocks noise just like other 
If you've been waiting for a Blu-ray burner to add to your Mac toolset, MCE has finally brought that wait to a close with their new 
The number of choices available for tuning television on a Mac remain rather limited, so it's good to see AVerMedia crossing over from the Windows world to provide a Mac solution. At Computex 2008, AVerMedia showed off the new AVerTV DVB-T tuner for Mac OS X. It works with the Mac remote, integrating easily into existing systems. The DVB-T solution connects via USB, with additional "rabbit ears" antenna that clips on the top of a MacBook and easily folds away for travel. While this doesn't expand the device choices for the US market, since there is no DVB-T in the US, it shows a promise of things to come as AVerMedia plans to adapt the existing DVB-T tuner into something that functions with US television standards later this year. The device also works with Windows. Pricing should be available later this month.
I don't view my car as a desirable theft target, so the likelihood of my buying something like this 
This is the first handheld camcorder designed to be waterproof. 1.5 meters (roughly 5 feet) is the suggested depth, although you can likely go a bit deeper as long as you don't stay under for too long - it's pressure that ultimately breaks the seal on these things. Buttons are big enough for easy use underwater, as long as you aren't wearing gloves. Video records to either SD or SDHC cards. The Xacti E1 shoots MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 at 640x480, with an approximate record time of just over 5 hours with a 4GB card. While I have only tested this camcorder with great lighting, it's supposed to do well down to 2 lux, which is the equivalent of candlelight. One key feature that sets this appart is the flip out view screen - this is a plus for shooting video of yourself and a greater risk of bumping it underwater while swimming around. Still images are recorded with a 6MP CCD at up to ISO1600, with a 5x optical zoom, which should make this a solid choice for underwater use. There's a manual mode for still images, although I can't imagine trying to use it underwater. 
Pentax was one of the first camera makers to get in on the waterproof camera market. The current Optio W30 is rated to 10 feet for up to 2 hours. Image recording is 7MP with ISO1600 and 3x optical zoom. Videos are 640x480 in MOV QuickTime MJPEG format. Both SD and SDHC are supported. In many the Optio W30 has an edge on the competition. While other digital camera makers on this list work out the kinks for their early generation products, Pentax is making updates to a proven product. In talking with one of their reps, it seems that the Pentax marketing team is much more conservative than competitors like Olympus, making the W30 look like it might not be able to go as deeply as it actually can.
Olympus currently offers 4 different underwater cameras. Two are rated to 10 feet and two are rated to 33 feet. All four of them are designed to survive 14 degree temperatures and falls up to 6.6 feet. Top of the line Stylus 1030 SW is what I'll focus on here. Rated to 33 feet, this is the deepest water digicam on the list. At 10 Megapixels, ISO1600, and a 3.6x optical zoom, this may also be the most well rounded camera. Olympus gets low marks in my book for using the xD card format, which is primarily used only in Olympus cameras.
Panasonic makes the one pure video camrea on this list. A 10x optical zoom is best in this class of cameras. Unfortunately the still imaging options are basically non-existent, with a 0.3MP 640x480 still imaging capability. On the plus side, the SDR-SW20 is waterproof to 5 feet, similar to the Xacti VPC-E1. The SDR-SW20 is a slight improvement over the SDR-S10, which was the previous Panasonic camera in this style. The body and design seem better designed for shooting underwater than some of the options on this list, although I'd still lean toward Olympus or Pentax for flexibility. Video is recorded in MPEG-2 format at up to 10 Mbps, making it easy to edit in virutally anything but Windows Movie Maker.
At the budget end of the underwater camera class sits the VuPoint WPC-ST531T. This digital camera is available for under $100 and looks and feels like it should. I didn't get a chance to actually take pictures, so I don't have personal experience with image quality. Specs are rough, with 5MP and a max of ISO200, which means fast motion and low light are likely going to be rough on picture quality. There's no optical zoom. If there's one bright spot for this camera, it's that the company says it can go 50 feet under water, which crushes the competition. Video is limited to 640x480 at 20fps in an AVI format. SD is your card option up to 2GB. This might be a good option for your kids, but expect to get what you pay for with this camera.
If buying a new camera doesn't seem appealing, there is an afforable alternative for your existing camera - an underwater camera housing. As shown in the video, you can wrap your entire camera in a waterproof housing that's flexible enough to access camera controls, while providing you solid protection for damaging water. I'm of the opinion that a naked lens will take better pictures than one trapped behind hard plastic, but with some practice you can still get good results from one of these housings.
I'm currently getting enough interference on the wireless connection in my house that I wanted a better solution for connecting my Xbox 360 to my network. Corinex sent me one of their 
If you're inclined to do some soldering, ProdMod has a tutorial on how to make your own LED Light that connects to the tripod mount on the bottom of your digital camera. The DIY camera light is based on the 
Printer ink for photo printers remains one of the most expensive components of home PC use. Back in 2004, it was estimated that the 
The new ASUS EEE PC packs some great features into a small package and 
Solid state storage is one of the things that attracted me to the EEE PC. It's super quiet and no moving parts helps increase battery life. You can triple your storage by adding an 8GB SD card, which currently runs about $65 on Amazon and other online stores (you might find one cheaper through a rebate program). This gives me plenty of room for DVD quality movies, some music, and any files I need to get real work done. It also offers enough storage space for small video editing projects and any amount of podcasting work I might want to do. You may also want a 150GB pocket sized drive for serious storage, but for most tasks, that extra 8GB will get you what you need.
Amazon didn't officially include podcasting support when they shipped the first 
SanDisk continues to present the biggest rival to the Apple iPod empire, consistent producing some of the top selling MP3 players on Amazon.com. Their latest player, the diminutive Sansa Clip, is directly going after the iPod Shuffle market. SanDisk is hitting Apple in places it will hurt the most: price, features and most importantly Sansa managed to put a screen on Clip.
If you're in the market for an ultra-portable, highly affordable camcorder, the Flip Video and slightly improved 
I'm regularly asked what's the best computer for [insert media project here]. My typical answer is the best computer for your project is the best one you can afford; with the caveat you should meet the recommended (not minimum) system requirements for your project. Jason Dunn recently put together what I'd call a great computer for almost any media project, combining a compact Shuttle SD39P2 with an Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme X6800 and other handpicked components. If you plan on using a new PC for editing HD, my only change to Jason's configuration would be a video card (preferably ATI if you install Vista) with 512MB of dedicated video RAM; smooth playback on the video editing timeline is easier to achieve by maximizing graphics resources.
One thing laptops never have enough of is battery life. I'm always resorting to power saving hacks like 
If you have a Sony camcorder, one of the best things you can do to improve your home movies is to invest in the Sony ECM-HW1 wireless microphone. People are much more likely to watch video with great audio than they are video with mediocre audio. The biggest limiting factor in getting great audio for video is the proximity of the microphone to what you're trying to record. The ECM-HW1 solves the proximity problem for Sony camcorder owners because it's a clip-on solution that puts the microphone where the action is - not where the video camera is. The actual microphone body is just larger than the two AAA batteries used to power it, which makes it a little clunkier than a traditional lavaliere microphone. The bulk of the microphone body is more than made up for by a lack of wires you need to run through someone's shirt. What makes the microphone interesting is the wireless used is Bluetooth, which seemingly translates to better range and less noise than I get from traditional radio frequency wireless microphones. Another key advantage is the integration of the receiver with the camcorder. Normally a wireless microphone receiver is a bulky affair involving a power pack that gets wired into the microphone line in on the camcorder. The wireless receiver for the ECM-HW1 fits neatly in the hot shoe found on most of Sony's camcorder line, with no additional wires required. I picked up one of these microphones around the same time I got my Sony HDR-SR1 hard drive camcorder and find it to be indispensible. The wireless microphone works both for stereo audio and the 5.1 surround touted on many of Sony's camcorders. The only word of caution here is that the 5.1 surround on most of these camcorders is typically AC3 audio, which isn't supported by several of the consumer video editing suites. List price is $199.00, but you can typically find the ECM-HW1 for less with some thrifty shopping.
If your camcorder uses MiniDV tape, one of the best things you can do for it is spend something under $30 on a tape rewinder. Basically, it's a simple device that does nothing other than rewinding or fast forwarding MiniDV tapes used in both HDV and MiniDV camcorders. The mechanism that turns the tapes in your camcorder is one of the most likely parts to break down and can be prohibitively expensive to fix. You can give it a break by offloading the rewind task to a rewinder, which is a great way to prep your video for ingesting into your editing application of choice, or simply applying some tension to the tape before storing it away for months. My preference is for the type that runs on battery power with optional AC input, so that I can easily take the rewinder in my bag without needing a second AC adapter. Of course, if you've got money to burn, the 
If you need an HDMI cable or HDMI-to-DVI cable to connect your PC to an HDTV, most of the retailers offer ridiculously overpriced solutions. Both HDMI and DVI cables deliver a digital signal, similar to the way USB or FireWire cables deliver digital signals. These are signals that can't be degraded by environmental interference because they are made up of binary data that's transmitted from the source (PC, PlayStation 3, HD-DVD player, etc) and displayed on the other end (the screen). The only scenario where the cable ceases to work is if it's damaged in some way. 
As of this writing, the only officially supported operating system for the iRiver Clix is Windows XP. This is in part because it relies on Windows Media Player 10 for syncing your music library. Presumably iRiver will extend support to include Windows Vista although the official system requirements for iRiver Clix at this point are:
Digital zoom is the measure of a cameras ability to magnify pixels in an image. You don't get a close up shot with digital zoom, you get an enlarged version of the best optical zoom your camera supports, which ultimately results in grainy looking video. This is the same effect as blowing up a digital image to 500% (or more) in image preview mode on your computer. The bigger the image gets, the worse it looks. While digital video cameras attempt to compensate for this by smoothing the edges of pixels, you still aren't getting a better close up. Optical zoom performance is the number that matters when choosing a digital video camera. Optical zoom measures a camera's ability to magnify an image to give you great looking close-up shots. If zoom is important to your digital video recording needs, either spend the money on a better optical zoom or buy an after market add-on lens that further enhances your cameras optical ability. Both options will give you better looking video than turning on digital zoom.
If possible, take a demo unit of the digital video camera you plan to buy outside before making a purchase. Many of the LCD screens on camcorders don't perform well in bright sunlight, making it next to impossible to see what you're recording. There are little visors you can get to shade the LCD screen from the sun, but that's also one more thing to carry. If you can find a camcorder with a great LCD screen, you'll be better served.
If you buy a digital video camera, you need a tripod to go with it. There's no other accessory, outside of a longer life battery, that will improve your video recording experience. The key here is to get the right tripod. It's tempting to get the off-the-shelf options at the electronics store, but they always fall short. Look for a fluid-head. Make sure the tripod extends high enough to shoot effectively - 72-inches is a good starting point, because anything less often leaves you shooting the backs of people's heads in a crowded area.
When the Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1 first shipped, it was panned for being lousy at image stabilization. A shaky image is never pleasant to look at, but a shaky HD image is almost enough to make you sick. Sanyo made some improvements and recently released the VPC-HD1a. I got to see the the VPC-HD1 and VPC-HD1a side-by-side and compare the image stabilization at the Portable Media Expo. The revisions to the HD1a make it a functional highly portable video camera. The revised Xacti camera still boasts 10x optical zoom, 5.1 megapixel still images, 1280x720 (aka 720p) video resolution and on-the-fly MPEG-4 encoding to allow about 40 minutes of video to fit on a 2GB SD card. While I wouldn't consider a pocket sized camcorder a replacement for many of the larger handheld models, especially for shooting any kind of serious HD video, the Xacti VPC-HD1a shines in an area dramatically underserved in the digital video camera market - portability. By making the improvements to image stabilization, Sanyo is now doing for the digital video market what Canon did for digital still cameras when they launched the Digital Elph line several years back. The Xacti VPC-HD1a leaves you no excuse not to take a video camera with you everywhere. If you plan to only shoot for iPod viewing, there's a mode that automatically records at 320x240. The still images are good enough you could even dump your pocket-sized digital still as well. While the price makes portability a little spendy at $699 (the lowest price I could find as of this writing), it's the most affordable way to dip your toe into HD video and the only way to get HD video in your pocket (at least for now). The next time you see me, you can almost guarantee I'll have one of these in my pocket.
One of several things that didn't come out well in my 
I got face time with a Zune this weekend and decided to look at how the form factor compares to the 80GB iPod I picked up a few days ago. The Zune weighs considerably less than the iPod, although I didn't have a scale on hand to get exact comparison. It felt like the Zune was more comparable to my Cingular 2125 phone, while the iPod weighs quite a bit more.
Back in early 2002 I voiced an entire 2 hour AM radio show using a Plantronics USB headset microphone and an old 166 MHz PC. Not ideal recording conditions, but the show actually sounded quite good considering the limitations of available gear. Over the past couple of weeks, I've been testing out the new Plantronics 550 DSP Ultimate Performance Headset. So far I'm impressed. The earphones offer great audio output from a comfortable design that I can wear without getting annoyed that I have headphones on. I get up from my computer often enough that I never kept them on to the point where I was feeling any ear discomfort. The microphone positioning is flexible to the point where you can get a good microphone position without getting too much plosive impact from P and B sounds. While there's noise cancellation built-in, the microphone is still extremely sensitive and picks up things like the click-clack of fingers on a keyboard, which means you need to eliminate extraneous noise if you're recording audio for any kind of published project. I don't have a way to test latency in lab conditions, but there seems to be almost no noticeable lag. Overall, I'm giving the 550 DSP a big thumbs up for both speech recognition tasks and for doing things like solo podcasting efforts. You'll get great sounding audio from recording directly to a PC application like Audacity or Adobe Audition, speech recognition apps will effectively capture your voice and if you use voice applications like Skype, your friends will be pleasantly surprised at how well your audio sounds. At $60 from most online retailers, this headset microphone combination is a steal.
While I still don't consider the Mac mini 
I've written a fair number of articles on DIY solutions for 
It's hard to get excited about a portable hard drive. The drive I carry with me on most trips is 
My first TV tuner card crashed during channel changes, which could have been the Win 95 operating system or some lousy drivers. Not the best experience for about $200. Either way, I was sold on the concept of TV on a PC, just not on the implementation. Flash forward ten years and the computer stores have shelves filled with TV tuner options. I'm partial to the Hauppauge cards for desktop use, but when I'm portable, everything boils down to size. The PVR-TV 300U Dongle from KWorld wins in the size department for form factor, at about the same size as a large thumb drive, with no external power requirements. Its ability to encode video to MPEG-4 keeps file sizes down on my hard drive, which is a big deal when I'm traveling with a limit of 60GB on my hard drive. And the price is an affordable $40-60 depending on who currently offers the best deal.
At several conferences this year, I've encountered the iGo power adapter products from Mobility Electronics. Power isn't something I get particularly excited about, but I can't really live without an easy way to keep all my batteries charged. After shrinking my travel needs, the things that still waste a great deal of space are my battery chargers for various devices. The iGo line of products solves this problem by offer charges with interchangeable tips optimized for charging multiple gadgets simultaneously. After 
One of the many tricks for getting great sounding voice audio for both podcasting and Internet radio is making sure the microphone is positioned comfortably close to your mouth. An easy way to accomplish this is by using a boom arm mounted to your desk. Pro boom arms often cost over $100 from audio gear retailers by the time the table mount and other extras are factored in. Ebay seller cdpeddler is selling a bunch of boom arms, including cabling and multiple bases for about $59.95 plus shipping. The booms include a number of features typically reserved for higher priced models. If you're looking for a simple way to improve your sound, proper microphone positioning goes a long way and a boom arm is one of the best ways to get a microphone at the exact position you need it.
In an ideal world I'd have an office closet where my computers are stored, interfacing them via keyboard and monitor in a relatively noise-free environment. Audio recording is hard enough without introducing several computer fans to the equation. Logistically that's impossible for my current office so I work to reduce noise and eliminate space wasting hardware in other ways. HP and Dell still haven't grasped the concept of low noise computing (at least not with the computer models I use regularly. I'm also hitting the point where I want my desktop PCs to take up less space, look decent, keep noise to a minimum and still perform all the functions I need. Shuttle is one company with a finger on the pulse of both quiet computing and form factor elegance. Jason Dunn at Digital Media Thoughts recently reviewed the Shuttle SD11G5 and came back impressed overall:
Microsoft did a great job with the wireless controllers for the Xbox 360. The grips are comfortable, the buttons are placed well, but they still require a wired connection for the headset. Industrious Flickr user fateit77 hacked together a solution using 
After you already spent an odd $30 or $100 on accessories for your 3G iPod, it hardly seems fair to throw out a perfectly good FM tuner, remote control or [Insert iPod extra here] just because you bought an iPod nano. With the average price of an iPod add-on in the $30 range, these things add up fast. Fortunately, U-Link might be able to save you a few bucks by acting as a proxy for those 3G and 4G devices you still want to use with your nano. It won't work with everything (Griffin's iTalk is incompatible), but the U-Link should integrate most of the add-ons you purchased for previous generation iPods. Battery Technology is the manufacturer, but finding the U-Link on their site is a bit of a challenge. They also make a VLink version for the video iPod. Thanks to 
I'm always on the lookout for new innovations in tripod mounting. Bogen may offer top-of-the-line gear, but packing a heavy tripod for a weekend trip or a cross town jaunt doesn't make sense. In some cases my 
If you are the type of person inclined to sport one a Kenpo Jacket for iPod, the natural pairing in cold weather is a pair of 180s Tec Fleece headphones powered by JVC. A combination of over-the-ear headphones and muff-style 180s Tec Fleece ear warmers, these headphones are compatible with any portable media player and make more sense than trying to shove a pair of ear buds under traditional ear warming gear. The headphones feature an inline volume control (although with a Kenpo Jacket you wouldn't need it). You get sound quality on par with headphones typically priced in the $25-50 range, warm ears and a presentation that doesn't scream geek. No white cord decreases the likelihood of a mugging, because the black cable running to the Tec Fleece will dupe everyone into thinking your still carrying a $20 CD player instead of a $300 iPod. For $40, this is a set of headphones perfect for the winter in New York, Iowa, or the ski slopes of the Cascades.
At CES 2006, the new "new thing" in TV land is 1080p screens as standard. Felix Torres of DigitalMediaThoughts.com takes an indepth look at a 37-inch Westinghouse screen and comes away reasonably impressed. I'm not entirely sold on the idea of LCD HDTV, because the black levels just aren't on par with the colors you get from plasma screens. Still the image quality blows away anything we've seen in the average living room prior to the new millennium. On the plus side, you do get a much more affordable HDTV screen with LCD and 1080p is one direction a large section of the industry is banking on.
I hate ear bud style headphones. Apparently my ears aren't standard sized because those little speakers either don't fit correctly or start causing me physical pain after very minimal use. For that reason I primarily use over-the-ear headphones when I'm not broadcasting my audio to a room over a speaker system. Etymotic headphones solve my problem with earplug-style fit, but I don't like to travel with something I'll regret accidentally leaving behind in a hotel room or airplane seat. Griffin's EarThumps are the perfect middle ground between ear bud discomfort and the elegant audio of Etymotic. EarThumps come with three different sizes of cushions designed to fit more ear sizes. The soft rubber cushions aren't quite as comfortable as Etymotic headphones, but the middle size fits nicely in my ears for comfort that seals out most outside noise (meaning you can turn the volume down) and wears longer than a standard ear bud. The sound quality is on par with most of the factory ear buds shipping with iPod, Creative and iRiver devices. A bundled carrying case will hold the EarThumps and your PSP Memory Stick or SD card for flash based portable players. At $20, you won't kick yourself if the EarThumps happen to get left behind in your daily travels.
Robin (my wife) claims ownership of the Fujitsu Stylistic slate-style Tablet PC in our household as an almost perfect solution for taking notes at culinary school and as a reference in the kitchen. I never latched on because my typing speed makes for better productivity than attempting to scribble on the screen. Fujitsu's latest offering in the Tablet space just might convert me. All through the CES show I've been drooling over the compact size of the convertible LifeBook P1500D Notebook. The 8.9-inch screen might seem small in the age of desktop replacements, but I travel frequently and want to eliminate some pounds from my travel bag. There's enough horsepower to handle the live audio stream for the radio show, the hard drive is big enough to transport my travel needs. By eliminating a DVD drive, there's less wasted space (I never install anything to my current laptop from a shiny disk). The screen offers both stylus and touch screen sensitivity for the best of both worlds. As an alternative to carrying a portable DVD or media player, the 8.9-inch screen is a dream. You definitely need the lager 6 cell battery for extended life, although the 3.5 hours of the stock 3 cell battery is no worse than my current HP DV1000. My only complaint is smaller than standard key sizes on the keyboard, but I generally check mail and catch up on reading while traveling, making the P1500D line almost perfect.
I got the chance to see one of the GVD-1000 MiniDV VCR decks in action the other night; I'm convinced I need one. The feature set of the GVD-1000 makes it a digital video camera without a lens, optimized for reviewing and editing your movies. It's got a screen to 4-inch preview your movie. On board editing features let you specify up to 20 clips on each tape, making it easy to pre-edit or do a rough edit before importing your video into your computer. A Memory Stick slot makes a quick solution for saving reference movies. S-Video and composite video inputs and outputs act as a source for recording virtually any analog video signal or passing through a Hi8 or VHS source directly through FireWire. If you record and edit video frequently, possibly the best reason to consider the GVD-1000 is to extend the life of your digital video camera. All that time spinning the motor on your camcorder during import will dramatically reduce the life of your camcorder. The GVD-1000 is optimized for editing and playback, with considerably more robust features optimized specifically for recording and playback. Another key advantage of this style deck over larger decks is portability. If you frequently record while traveling, you can easily fit the GVD-1000 in you camera bag and take it with you. Battery life is much longer than camcorders using the same Sony battery pack common to many of their cameras. If you still use Digital8, there's also the 
eHomeUpgrade 
The one thing Sony forgot to put in the PlayStation Portable box is a real case. Sure there's a lightly padded leather job to protect the shiny surface from scratches and scrapes, but it does nothing to keep the screen from getting cracked in your pocket or backpack. The only case I found offering both solid protection from screen breakage, with enough rubber padding to help prevent breakage in the event of a fall, without totally bulking up the PSP, is the Logitech PlayGear Pocket. There are other cases with rugged features like metal casing and thick foam padding, but they won't fit in cargo pants pockets. As a former Creative Zen Portable Media Center owner, I liked the fact that Creative made the case double as a stand for viewing movies; Logitech added this feature to the PlayGear Pocket too. Some industrious folk over at 
In general, we have a higher expectation of data persistence from our cell phones than we do from our computers. We expect data like phone numbers, appointments and contact info to reside in non-volatile memory safe from stupid mistakes and unforeseen failures. Now I'm not suggesting cell phones are infallible (they certainly aren't), but the core software systems are reasonably well protected. With our computers, we may save data to hard disk, but what happens when that disk fails, or when a virus infects the system or something gets corrupted? If you didn't create a backup, several hours of data recovery are in your future. Plenty of software imaging solutions will create an image of your current configuration for recovery purposes. Remembering to keep that image up-to-date through various configuration changes can be a colossal task. Jackson Armor Card provides an alternative solution for protecting your PC configuration. With a small card that sits in a spare PC slot, Jackson Armor Card recovers from system failures, blue screens and botched software installations. After installing the card, you configure software to help configure your protection. BIOS settings are protected, operating system files are fully recoverable with a revert to previous state option. While I don't know if I'm ready to use something like the Jackson Armor Card on my own systems full time, because I have a reasonably comprehensive backup system already, this is perfect for helping protect family member PCs or in small business configurations where downtime is expensive and IT resources are limited. Price $79.99
One of the more complicated aspects of podcasting is getting your audio to sound good without investing massive amounts of time in improving your sound quality. While one school of thought suggests you are only as good as the time you spend in production, it's nice to know a few tools exist to make your life easier. One of the best pieces of hardware I found for improving sound quality with almost no additional investment of time is the Shark DSP110 from Behringer. The Shark does double duty as both a compressor and a noise gate, which helps prevent massive dynamic fluctuations and cut out some of the room noise picked up by your microphone. The Shark has phantom power for condenser microphones, making it a solid solution as a go-between for taking your microphone to your sound card. Default settings using the "learn" features of the Shark deliver impressive results, although like anything else, manually adjusting the settings further improves your sound. If you do voice recording with your PC, record podcasts or want an affordable gating system for instrumental recording, Behringer's Shark DSP110 delivers for a fraction of the price for comparable gear.
I'm still looking for the perfect car mounting solution. Keeping my eye on eBay, I ran across this car mount for spotting scopes. It uses the same threaded mount as a traditional tripod, which makes it interesting for mounting a digital camera or DV cam for taking pictures from the car. The base fits over your car window, creating a sort of adjustable height while providing more stability than you'd get leaning out the window to snap a photo. It hadn't occurred to me to look for this kind of thing in hunting supplies, but I'm keeping my eyes out for additional alternatives. I don't think this is what I want for my car mounted DV cam, but for under $20 this is an interesting solution for travel photograpers. Had I known this type of mount existed, I'd have purchased one ages ago. You can find it listed as both a 
The Game Boy Micro, complete with interchangeable faceplates, is no Sony PSP, but it's got a retro cool factor to it perfect for playing your favorite Nintendo classics. It's essentially a repackaged Game Boy Advance, built like a sleek looking Super Nintendo console controller with a screen in the middle. Weighing in at under 3 ounces, the Micro will fit almost anywhere and you won't notice the weight. The screen is a tiny 2 inches, which makes it like playing games on the back of your digital camera, but my guess is there's more appeal here for younger eyes. If you have a large percentage of the more than 700 Game Boy Advance titles, this is an easy way to retain your cool factor while playing games you likely beat ages ago. Look for Game Boy Micro on September 19, 2005.
Cingular, Motorola and Apple all conspired to launch the most hyped phone of the year. Dubbed the iTunes phone for it's iPod like music interface and integration with Apple's popular music service, the Motorola ROKR doesn't deserve the buzz. Somewhere in the trio of companies, there's fear preventing the ROKR from being the overnight success it could be. Whether it's Apple's fear of losing iPod market share to a much lower margin cell phone hobbling the phone with a mere 100 song maximum. Or Cingular's fear of losing ringtone sales hampering over-the-air purchase and download of tracks from the iTunes music store. Or Motorola's reluctance to give the design job over to the more competent iPod usability team, the phone falls short on many counts. Still there are a few features that make it a potentially interesting upgrade for a small segment of the cell phone market. I offer a more indepth look in my regular InformIT column.
The original round of Portable Media Center devices launched late last year held the unrealized promise of portable movie viewing in an on-the-go universe. The varying form factors of the three releases and lack of convenient add-ons ultimately relegate PMC products from Creative, iRiver and Samsung to the over-priced novelty bin a year later. Sure, I thought the devices were cool enough to own a Creative Zen PMC and launch a site dedicated to 320x240 movies, but I remain convinced the PMC wasn't the best we could do for portable video. 
High fidelity is one of the key pieces missing from most of what we think of as digital music. Portable devices collectively thought of as MP3 players are delivering inferior audio experience with compressed sound good enough for playback of over-engineered pop tunes, but lacking the finesse necessary to deliver the same experience an audiophile might expect from DVD-Audio. After investing hundreds or thousands of dollars in a sound system, the experience is somewhat cheapened by sub-standard audio quality. It's like watching basic cable on a plasma screen, you can here all the artifacts and noise in the file loud and clear. Enter the Olive Symphony. Symphony supports AIFF, WAV and FLAC formats, ripping tracks to an onboard 80GB hard drive. An IBM PowerPC chip handles onboard processing duties. Digital SPDIF and TOSLINK options keep the signal path clean, at least until it hit the speakers. WiFi on board supports signal distribution to other playback devices throughout the house. If you happen to be a Mac user, an application helps manage the on board library, with an option to build playlists from the on-device LCD. The one thing this device lacks is clear support for surround capable audio formats. At $899 MSRP, Symphony isn't cheap, but if want a component that fits nicely in your home theater and supports high quality digital audio, this may be the way to go.
It's odd how something as mundane as a flashlight can seem exciting when it's coupled with an even more mundane source of energy. When it came time to purchase a new flashlight, instead of a rechargeable battery draining, incandescent beam I opted for something that combines ages old technology with the latest craze in lighting. What I didn't realize when I picked one up at a local electronics store is that there are literally dozens of these things floating around. The flashlight recharges itself via a hand crank, churning out 1 hour of lighting power for every minute of cranking. I haven't tested to see how many hours of juice the battery will store, but thirty seconds of turning the crank produced a light source with plenty of power. The 3 LEDs inside provide a ton of light, making it easy to see where you're going and creating an interesting tool for adding a fill in low-lit photographic opportunities. As long as you can turn the handle, this light will keep shining for hours and hours, even in those remote locations where a batteries and power outlets are a mysterious invention undiscovered. Instead of worrying whether that flashlight you stashed in the bureau drawer in case of power failure still has juice; a hand crank flashlight makes sure you'll have the light you need when you need it.
While a watch with the ominously cartoonish Skullcandy logo is likely to make the shortlist for very few Father's Day gift buyer's this weekend, it's one of the few gadgets combining the functional style of a sport watch with the geek factor of portable music player in a package meant to be strapped to the wrist. Coming in three different drive sizes: 256MB, 512MB and 1GB, playback support requires jacking headphones into the side of the watch. A built in microphone records to WAV. 5 equalizer modes tweak the sound of WAV, MP3 and WMA files, although no word on PlaysForSure status (I'm assuming it doesn't). Playback time is a solid five hours per battery charge. USB 1.1 is slightly disappointing, but isn't too surprising considering the compact size. I'd be more inclined to use this watch as a wrist top thumb drive alternative, since the likelihood of accidentally misplacing something strapped to the wrist is much less than pocket-toting a keychain drive or Flash memory card. Presumably you could add an encrypted partition to keep data secure in the event of a mugging. I still find the 
Home automation currently involves fairly expensive setup, complete with rewiring certain functions of the house and figuring out how to tie everything into a common interface. Security requires an outside company to monitor possible intrusions, which is like paying to have your own 'big brother'. For those that want some of the potential convenience of home automation without needing an overhaul of the way you house operates, Home HeartBeat from Eaton Electrical looks like a compelling alternative. With support for monitoring whether doors are open or closed, the power to a potential fire hazard, water shutoff and friendly reminders, Home HeartBeat provides a snapshot of all the major question marks. Unlike many automation systems which either interface with your PC or have a central command center mounted in your wall, Home HeartBeat is meant to be portable. The Home Key display is portable enough to fit in your pocket, allowing you to check the status of everything your Home HeartBeat monitors. The system functions using radio frequency and when you leave in your care, it retains a snapshot of what was going on in the house at the time you dropped out of range; so you know if the doors are closed and the monitored devices in your house are on or off. With an expected price of $150 for the base unit when the product ships this summer, this is one of the easiest, most affordable ways to start automating your home.
The Lightscribe technology for burning images to the surface of DVDs is a compelling alternative to scribbling text with a Sharpie or using a stick-on label whose sole purpose is to comsume printing fluids. HP offers a range of DVD burning drives capable of burning text and simple graphic to the label side of DVD and CD blanks with the same laser your drive might use to burn data to the storage side of the disk. In order to take advantage of this new burning development you need two things, a Lightscribe ready burner and specially formatted blank media capable of accepting burned images on their surface. Jason Dunn of Digital Media Thoughts recently reviewed the HP Lightscribe ready dvd640, which is the first retail shipping drive from HP with support for Lightscribe burning. While Jason points out a few minor shortcomings with the drive, he's impressed overall and gives the technology a recommend. Make sure you check out one of the video reviews at Digital Media Thoughts for a full visual account of Jason's Lightscribe experience.
As someone who spent a childhood playing Han Solo and Luke Skywalker in their quest to save the galaxy from Darth Vader and The Empire, having a fan around came in handy to mimic Vader's voice. Who knew someone would one day invent a $30 toy destined to eliminate the need for imaginative alternatives to the harmonic distortion provided by a spinning plastic blade encased in a metal grate. Of course, you also couldn't easily wear a fan attached to your head. At that time, the Lucas licensing engine was content to collect money for comic books, action figures, lunch boxes, trading cards, bedding and apparel, not having ventured into the realm of custom Potato Heads and certainly not ready to release the secret voice-changing machine for a world wide audience in the form of a magical Darth Vader head. The head and chest plate combination provides all the pitch bending and distortion required to make your voice sound like a lord of the Sith, as well as providing mechanically powered breathing noises and popular Darth Vader lines (in case you don't have them memorized already). 3 AA batteries is all it takes to join the dark side and embrace the vocal quirks of everybody's favorite sci-fi villain.
Transferring data between two USB devices almost always requires a computer in the middle. This isn't convenient when you filled up your camera's Compact Flash card while you're on an outing and you want to take more photos without deleting any of the memories you already captured. Or if you need to share a file on a keychain drive, but don't want to transfer it to a PC first. When you don't want to deal with transferring files across a computer, Syncbox II will do the job for most file transfer needs. To transfer a file, connect two USB devices to the Syncbox, select individual files for transfer and move the files between devices. File browsing is performed on a monochrome screen, which is more than functional for a quick transfer between a camera and a keychain drive or transferring songs between two USB connected portable music players. The Syncbox II could act as a transfer agent between two USB hard drives, although you might drain the three AAA batteries quickly. At 4 ounces and 2.3x3.4x0.9 inches Syncbox II easily fits in a pocket, purse or camera bag waiting for the moment when data transfer becomes necessary. If you don't need the screen and just want to do a mass transfer of files, there's the original 
I've already got well over a terabyte of storage in my house, spread across six hard drives, not counting numerous DVD and CD blanks. The downside to having so many different drives all running in my office is I've got more noise from more fans and drives spinning, throwing off more heat and requiring more power. I need all the space to store the raw video footage I refuse to render down to a smaller file format because I don't want to lose any of the original quality of the DV files. Sure, I've got the original footage stored on DV tape too, but that requires another real time transfer if I ever want to access it again. I point to LaCie's 1TB Bigger Disk because they've got a newer 2TB version on the way, which means prices for the 1TB model should be coming down in the near future. It's currently priced around $0.80-0.90 per GB, which makes this a pricey unit. I'm hoping to see it drop below the $0.75 per GB range, at which point it starts looking attractive to anyone who insists on archiving the entire season of CSI in HD on their hard drive for all of eternity.
Lighting is a crucial component of photography and video. With stills, too much light washes out the image, while too little results in wasted time in Photoshop attempting to salvage an otherwise great photo. With video, not enough light probably means you'll be overwriting the footage because there's nothing to see. Sometimes a flash will solve problems with still images. Nothing short of a lighting rig will fix the problems inherent in shooting video in low light. CameraBright takes an interesting stab at this problem, offering an LED-based solution for projecting more light on the photo subject. The lights definitely brighten up the image, but I'd be surprised if they don't leave any persons in the path feeling like a deer in headlights. I've had the misfortune of looking into bright LED lights and the past, resulting in spots dancing in front of me for much longer than other light sources. Still, these are a far better solution than the typical on DV cam solutions and with 3,000 and 6,000 Kelvin lighting temperatures, the resulting photos should come out looking reasonably natural. Three styles, the X1-R 6000 Kelvin, 36 candela original model, the X1-ER with 72 candelas and the X1-W 3000 Kelvin, 25 candela units offer versatility across most on-the-go lighting scenarios. These might also make a neat alternative to low room light when using a Webcam. The best thing about LED is it won't drain batteries with the vigor of some other lighting solutions. A mounting screw threads into the standard mount at the base of most camera units. Small enough to fit in your pocket, you get extra light without the inconvenience of a ton of extra weight.
There's this new human mutation I see everywhere I go. You know, the people with the white earpieces and a white cord disappearing somewhere inside their clothing? Steve Jobs is certainly doing his best to assimilate the masses and make us all look like were part of some freak army of aurally isolated individuals. Sony is in on the game too, packaging white headphones with the otherwise black and metallic PSP. Personally, I'd rather be identified with having headphones that actually sound outstanding, rather than looking like I fit in with a trend. In general, I'm inclined to contend that the over-the-ear cup style headphones still produce a far better sound than ear buds, except for one particular variety. Etymotic Research, a company with a solid background in audiology and hearing aid technologies designed these amazing sounding in-ear headphones that are on par with listening to music in a studio mastering room. The headphones actually sit in your ear like an ear plug, which eliminates outside sound and keeps them from falling out the way most ear buds do. The sound quality is unbelievable even on their lowest end model. Dollar-for-dollar you cannot find another headphone with the same audio quality. I don't currently own a set of Etymotic headphones yet, because I simply haven't gotten around to buying them, but I've tested them on multiple occasions with several different portable devices from Apple, Creative, Rio and iRiver. Each time, I'm blown away by the distinct difference in audio quality compared to any other headphones I've tried. They also capably eliminate noise by 34-36 dB without tricky engineering to create sound canceling tones. While it's not really fair to compare headphones in the pro-sumer listening level to headphones that ship with consumer electronics, if you really want great sounding audio from any music source, you owe it to yourself to at least listen to the difference between Etymotic headphones and everything else on the planet. They're far cheaper than those overpriced noise canceling units Bose flogs in airports and the sound quality is unparalleled. Oh, and they do come in white for the fashion conscious.
Panasonic remains the one digital video camera manufacturer producing 3CCD cameras at prices most people can afford. I snapped up a PV-GS70 when they originally started offering 3CCD cameras in the under $700 price range and remain happy with the quality of the output. They continue to offer what I consider the only option for consumer digital video with new additions to the line of 3-chip cameras. Panasonic is using 3 small chips in place of the 1 small chip typically found in consumer grade DV cams. This makes a big difference in the color quality of recorded video because each chip is picking up a separate portion of the color space instead of interpreting two other colors based on the image information gathered by 1 chip. For more on this, see my article on 
Designed with gamers in mind, this little LCD add-on is meant to be a tool to keep you in touch with the real world while you're screen is busy taking you off to other galaxies. Get song info from Winamp, Windows Media Player or iTunes. Avoid IM contacts by watching their messages stream across this little LCD as you slay orcs in World of Warcraft. Track stocks, weather info, memos, system vitals and keep tabs on the latest price wars on personal enhancements and illegal prescription deals (I know I'd sure hate to miss my junk mail). This is perfect for that Outlook 2003 feature where it pops up a message preview each time new mail is delivered to the inbox; I find those notices simultaneously cool and annoying. A hook-and-latch system secures the LCD to any surface. Backlighting keeps text visible even when you turn down the lights for total immersion in a gaming or movie theater environment. This probably crosses into the realm of if you need it, you spend too much time at your PC. Thanks to 
I'm not certain anything solar powered is a great idea in mostly cloudy Seattle, but for many other parts of the world, using the Voltaic Backpack to generate backup power as you cruise through your day on foot makes walking seem more attractive. With more exercise and the assurance you'll never run out of juice while waiting for a delayed flight this is sure to be an excellent replacement for your current backpack. Solar panels generate up to four watts of power and the battery pack inside stores 2200mAh of reserve power, which is enough to give your cell phone, iPod, Pocket PC, digital camera or GPS some extra juice at a critical moment. Two versions of the bag covert stored power to 5V, 6V and 7.2V or 3.7V, 5V and 6V respectively. This still won't solve issues with a laptop that burns through juice but the rest of your digital world will stay online. Be sure to consult your product manuals to determine which voltage is required to make sure you don't fry the internals. Beyond providing extra power, the Voltaic Backpack also includes a useful assortment of pockets to keep gadgets neatly organized and cables under control.
I'm still searching for the perfect pocket sized replacement to my Canon S110. I'm slowly wading through my list of options and revising my running list of contenders. Sony seems to be creeping onto the list with several compact offerings. The DSC-P200 fits some of my criteria with 7.2 megapixels, 3x optical zoom and weighing just over 5 ounces. The width of the camera is 0.5 inches longer than I'd like and the depth of the camera body is 0.1 inches thicker, but taken as a complete package, it still fits nicely in a pocket without getting in the way. I'm also not personally a fan of Memory Stick, because it's a Sony only format. More importantly, the camera takes great pictures and offers one of the lowest shutter lags of any camera in this class of products. I'm potentially willing to put up with another storage format, if the tradeoff is faster timing when trying to snap several photos. This camera represents an upgrade to the P150, which was one of the better low-light small form factor models. The P200 adds some features not regularly found in point-and-shoot cameras. New to this model are manual white balance and spot auto focus, which are features frequently reserved for cameras with much larger bodies.
Whether you plan to build your own home theater PC or buy something preconfigured, the one area you don't want to skimp is the TV tuner card. You can easily find a good-enough solution for under $50, but the result looks like you routed the picture to VHS tape before sending it to the screen. If you want great looking video you need to spend a few extra bucks on the capture card. Until recently, a few extra bucks meant spending well into the hundreds, which certainly wasn't in my budget. ATI recently released the TV Wonder Elite, which promises hardware MPEG-2 compression, 3D comb filtering and advanced noise reduction in a strategy to entice those of us who want great looking TV to upgrade our cards. By delivering hardware MPEG-2 compression, instead of the more typical software compression used to keep the cost down on cards, you get the advantage of playing back other videos or performing other computing tasks, without overloading your CPU (you still need as much memory as you can afford). The TV Wonder Elite uses the 
Creative Labs wants its Zen Micro player to be the PlaysForSure compatible alternative to the iPod Mini. The Zen Micro comes in numerous color choices, it's smaller than the iPod Mini, the battery offers 12 hours of playback and easily swaps out with a spare. Built-in microphone and FM radio features mean no pricey upgrades to add to the cost of the unit. With 4GB, 5GB and 6GB sizes all priced competitively with the iPod Mini, it would seem the Zen Micro is a better alternative. After living with my Zen Micro since November, progressing through 3 firmware updates to the one released just after the Super Bowl, I've got some strong opinions about the good and bad points of owning a Zen Micro.
With a replacement for Bluetooth finally on the horizon in the form of wireless USB, I shouldn't be so excited about the Bluetooth in my 
I've been completely enamored with my portable Compact Flash recording 
The various Atari game-in-a-joystick releases definitely have a retro nostalgia thing going for them, but I quickly lost interest in most of the games. While I grew up wasting time at friend's houses playing ColecoVision, Intellivision, and Atari classics, I never grew attached to any of the games. C64 games are a completely different story. For the first time in my gaming experience, games had graphics capable of visual detail and sounds with more depth than tinny blips; I was hooked on Commodore games. Finally someone brings the C64 experience to a joystick that plugs into your TV. Impossible Mission, Summer and Winter Games are all games that stole hours from my youth. For $20, you can relive all the C64 classics, which to me seems like a bargain.
I'm currently search for a good set of compact speakers for playback from a table when the radio show hits the tradeshow circuit this year. The speakers need to be durable enough to travel and small enough to not add substantial size to the already full bag of audio hardware that accompanies me everywhere. While I'm sure this bag isn't the solution I'm looking for, the spacious case and built-in speakers certainly could function as a tool for projecting the voiceover of a PowerPoint dog-and-pony road show. Built in pre-amp with microphone input, 2 5-Watts speakers and an 8-watts sub-woofer make this as good as many PC speaker setups with the convenience of a built-in carrying case. The $275 price tag makes it a little steep, but if you're looking for portable audio convenience for board room presentations, the quirkiness of the selling-from-a-suitcase presentation just might baffle a few buffoons into buying what you're selling.
Portable video is one of hottest trends in handheld gadgets. Two things currently hold the market back for massive adoption of hard disk based portable video players: price and screen size. Prices aren't going to come down much until we see larger numbers of people buying portable video players, but comparing them against the largest iPod and iRiver players, the price is right in line. I'm perfectly willing to live with the 3.8-inch screen on my Creative Zen Portable Media Center, but many people complain about the screen size when compared to portable DVD players currently on the market at lower prices. Enter the DVX-POD, with a 6.5" viewable surface capable of storing 20GB of video in DivX, WMV or QuickTime MP4. A purported 12 hour battery life, MPEG-4 video recording and A/V outputs makes the DVX-POD seem like the ideal solution for portable video. Jason Dunn weighs in with his hands-on take.
USB remains one of the cleanest signal pathways for getting audio from an external source to your PC. Analog connections to the sound card on your PC are often polluted with noise from the case fan, processor fan, or electronic signal spillage. Like many of the onboard sound solutions, USB solutions frequently lack balanced connections for keeping a clean, low-noise signal path, unless you spend a few dollars. I've recommended a few headset microphones that connect directly via USB specifically for this reason. When high-performance studio microphone manufacturer Blue announced a new USB microphone, based on their Ball design, I was elated. Here's a company with a track record for making outstanding microphones releasing something specifically geared toward the PC market. The spring thaw will occur before the Snowball hits stores, but you can rest assured it will change the way people look at PC microphones forever. Instead of needing an outboard USB sound card to connect a microphone to your PC, you can connect the microphone directly and still get great sound.
On a discussion list I actively participate in several debates erupted over the potential hazards of HD video cameras reaching a price point where consumers might seriously consider replacing there home movie camera with a high definition unit. The attractiveness of your relatives being inversely proportional to the level of detail presented by the camera means we will all be examining flaws with a Lilliputian eye. In other words, no more hiding those blemishes behind a little cover-up; the cosmetic coating will stand out loud and clear. On the other hand, budget pricing could turn every kid on the block into a wannabe Discovery channel adventurer with the ability to capture mating grasshoppers at a level reserved for corporate equipment buyers. Sony is rapidly bringing prices down into the enthusiast range. The HDR-FX1 isn't priced for home users, but it may mean seeing the Bride walking down the aisle at 1080i before too much longer. The camera offers true 16x9 aspect ratio at 1080i and does it with 3CCDs, unlike most of the "budget-priced" HD cams which only have 1CCD. Digital Media Thoughts offers an excellent in depth look at this great new Sony HD cam.
One of the things that turned me off about Skype as a voice over IP solution is lack of selection in phone styles. Currently, you're either chained to a computer or you're chained to an seriously ugly handset that keeps you in close proximity to a PC. Actiontec has me re-considering Skype as a serious VoIP alternative offering a box that connects any traditional landline phone to a Skype enabled PC giving new life to that cheap 900mHz cordless model that just won't die. Echo cancelling features purport to put an end to the delay common to many VoIP connections. The device also connects to a traditional landline and can switch between the two, making the process virtually seamless.
Normally the excitement surrounding a new flash memory card is inversely proportional to the increase in size over the prior release. The only thing delivering a smaller thrill quotient might be news of a 1-gig floppy. Without increasing the capacity or reducing the price, San Disk managed to get my attention at CES with the introduction of a new SD card. Their latest postage stamp sized gem looks like a normal flash card with a convenient hinge revealing a convenient USB connector. No need to worry whether or not you have access to a card reader - just expose the connector and insert in any USB slot for access to all the data. No word on pricing yet (announcement expected in February), but this transforming form factor will remain competitive with other SD media at sizes up to 1GB.
While I'm not what you would call extremely sporty, having one of these extreme sports cams would be a cool addition to a home video arsenal. Designed to provide first-person point-of-view in situations ranging from cycling, to snowboarding, to motorcycling or snowmobiling, there are many other situations where having a mountable camera might come in handy. Duck tape one of these cams to your car bumper for a road test, mount the cam in your hat for man-on-the-street interviews, or connect it to a pets collar for a dog's-eye-view. 72.5 degree field of view, 811x508 pixel resolution, and a 1/3" Sony Ex-view CCD (compared to the standard 1/6" CCD in a standard 1-chip digital video camera) make this a serious tool for both consumer and prosumer applications. Filters are available for blocking various types of light. A wide assortment of mounting devices and extension cables are also available at reasonable prices. This is the perfect lens for low-budget guerilla video of all types. A recording device is also required for capturing footage.
Solar power probably won't save my batteries in the cloud-covered skies of Seattle, but you just never know when a little solar juice may come in handy. I've got two iSun units, which, linked together, offer enough solar power to recharge an iPod or individually power a cell phone. These little solar cells ship with numerous adapters to accommodate virtually any powered product and supply approximately 2 watts of power via the solar cells. This is a useful tool to take backpacking in case of emergency or when you happen to be away from electrical outlets for an extended period of time. Link enough of them together and you could probably light a room. 
An Jedi worth his lightsaber shouldn't need a universal remote to control such mundane devices as those found in the average home theater system, but just in case you're house is stuck in a distortion field, this replica of Luke's weapon of choice should help you maintain your mastery over cable television and your music collection. Auto search for TV and VCR codes makes it seem like the force is with you as long as the 4-AA batteries have juice. A memory retention feature should keep the saber from resetting, even when the batteries are being changed. And for some crazy reason, the sites offering this gadget seem to think that a "Special consumer Toll Free Hotline for technical support" is an important feature. If you're a Star Wars junky looking for an early holiday gift for yourself or an understanding spouse with a hard to shop for Wookie, this might be the perfect stocking stuffer. Make sure you do some online price comparison - I found prices that varied as much as $30 when seeking this thing out online.
This camera doodad is only available to residents of the UK, unless some enterprising individual were to list them on ebay (so far, I can't find it there). In theory, it increases the zoom on any camera by a factor of 12. The mini tripod mounting is included and it automatically adjusts to function with the onboard camera zoom. While I'm certain this zoom won't take pictures on par with pro lenses for SLR cameras, it just may be good enough for the hobbyist looking to shoot photos of animals across the yard, or to capture images better grabbed from a safe distance. If any of you happen to live in the UK and have tried out this add-on, I'd love to post some sample images.
I finally got a chance to test drive the iRiver H320. It's just as capable as the iPod photo, it costs less, comes in the lovely shade of black and can play video on its postage stamp screen, if you can find the Korean firmware update to enable the movie mode. The H320 is by far the best looking large hard drive player in the Windows Media compatible space, both in form factor and navigation. The color screen improves menu readability over every device I've tried by a factor I can't begin to count. I'm considering making the H320 the replacement for my Rio Karma, which is a great device but doesn't support Audible audio and isn't Plays For Sure compliant. 20GB of storage, 16 hours of battery life, 6.9 ounce weight, and dimensions of 2.4 x 0.9 x 4.0 inches round out the vitals. A built-in FM tuner and voice recorder make the price difference between the H320 and an iPod photo look even more significant. Like most of the devices that almost kick iPod chrome, the H320 has one fatal flaw- the button to launch the track browsing process is a royal blue little rectangle with the letters NAVI on its face. Granted, many other players commit far more irritating offenses and I can only assume NAVI is short for navigate, but what were they thinking? Two extra letters to create the word 'SEARCH' might have some meaning, but who do they think NAVI resonates with? These are the dumb mistakes hardware vendors could eliminate by simply engaging users in the design process. Still, I like the form factor, the buttons are easy to use once you unlock the acronym riddle, and the feature set makes the H320 a no-brainer.
Sometimes gadgets can be just plain silly. Protecting a room for intruders is one thing, but pelting them with foam disks might be going a little far. Intended for the kid who wants to maintain privacy in his or her personal space, the Room Defender acts as a silent sentry, standing guard until it detects motion. It comes to life dealing an barrage of ammo. I must admit to finding this slightly clever, with more than a slight nod to Aliens. It might be a harmless tool for deterring pets from eating house plants or just as a curiosity to surprise guests at an evening dinner party (after all, nothing improves a trip to the bathroom like being bombarded with little disks. A tripod mount makes it easy to put this gadget almost anywhere in the house.
Pretty colors aren't my motivation for buying any gadget. If the features rock, I'll buy a gadget in almost any shade. I'm admittedly disinclined to own anything in a shade of pink, no matter how cool its features are, but for the right gadget, I might make an exception. The Creative Zen Micro is taking a very obvious aim at the same crowd who might purchase an iPod Mini. Looking beyond the exterior, the Zen Micro is a great little gadget. 5GB of storage gives it 25% more storage capacity than iPod Mini. It weighs a mere 3.8 ounces. Beyond the very functional navigation of songs, the Zen Micro also includes an FM tuner, 8 preset equalizer configurations, a clock radio, and 10 hours of recording via the built-in microphone. The buttons are backlit with a blue glow for easy navigation in the dark and sized for easy navigation for people of all finger sizes. At 2x0.7x3.3 the Zen Micro is 0.2 inches thicker than the iPod Mini and 0.3 inches shorter. If you want to make a fashion statement with your portable player and have a wide range of music store options, the Creative Zen Micro is currently your best bet.
XM Radio anywhere, that's the Delphi MyFi in a nutshell. With Satellite antenna, portable receiver, and 5 hours of storage space crammed into a player the size of your average portable media device this could easily become the distance runner's best friend. Battery life is a solid 5 hours, which isn't bad for something with a digital antenna. A car kit includes both FM transmitter and tape adapter, although you get better sound quality if your car stereo has an auxiliary-in port. A home kit provides all the gear you need to connect to a home theater system, including a remote control. In addition to displaying info about one of the 130+ stations, the LCD screen also provides sports scores and a stock ticker. The only negative is a slightly high price point. Knock $100 off and I'd order the MyFi in a heartbeat.
As someone who considers compact size an important quality in a cell phone, I've steered clear of the SmartPhone offerings. I like the idea of an all-in-one device to act as a potential replacement for my Pocket PC, cell phone, and portable music player, but the reality has been that most of the previous SmartPhone offerings were larger than I wanted to live with. With the release of the SMT5600 from Audiovox, SmartPhone starts to look very compelling. I'm an Outlook user, so syncing my contacts to my phone makes sense. The miniSD expansion slot is poorly positioned behind the battery, but at least a 512MB card is big enough to store plenty of music for an afternoon jog or a trip to the gym. The Mobile version of Windows Media Player 10 is the best looking player to hit the small screen in ages, providing better visual queues and the ability to download subscription content from either MSN Music Store or Napster right on the device. The onboard camera does both 640x480 stills and video with audio; from my limited testing, I'm more impressed with the video capabilities so far. Internet browsing is built-in too, with plenty of pre-populated links to SmartPhone optimized content. Battery life is better than many of the phones I've owned and the charging port is the same USB connection found on most portable audio players, which means no more proprietary cables. I can't see myself ever wanting to use the built-in MSN Messenger client, but I suppose it's a viable option for communication in a pinch. The phone is incredibly light, yet seemingly durable, which should make it an excellent alternative to carrying several devices. If you don't want AT&T Wireless Service, a non-Audiovox branded version is available to accept SIMs from other phone providers.
You may recall my recent 
I'm patiently waiting for the Portable Media Center version of this player to come out, because I want the convenience of being able to sync recorded TV with a portable video player, without needing any software other than the PVR and Windows Media Player. The form factor and button layout seem to be better than either the Samsung or Creative PMC models. On the other hand, the PMP-120 is wide open in terms of its ability to work with movie content, thanks to onboard support for DivX. Video Bit Rates top out at 1.5Mbps for DivX putting the video quality above the standard available on PMC devices. DivX currently offers a more user-friendly solution for porting DVD content to portable devices, which should be considered fair use, but probably isn't. An FM tuner brings in radio broadcasts. Just like the PMC spec, video is 320x240, which is fine on the device screen, but looks worse than over-the-air television signal when using the composite out connection. According to iRiver, the device is not compatible with most music download services, which makes little sense, considering wide support for other iRiver device. Onboard support for music recording makes this a decent storage platform for recording music in the wild. If you can't wait for the PMC version of this player to find its way into stores, this is a reasonable alternative, with the advantage of content playable by Linux and Mac users.
User experience counts for only part of the reason to buy a portable music player. Apple's iPod will always win the war of the devices when it comes to the image conscious buyer. The thrifty shopper will take a serious look at the 40GB capacity of the RCA Lyra and quickly respect it's ability to store all the music and audio books you need for weeks to come. Not only does the package include a hard drive big enough for virtually any music library, it also bundles a USB cable for transfer, an AC adapter in the outlet friendly horizontal box style, car adapters for both power and cassette deck, and RCA cables for connecting to a home stereo. The player supports both MP3 and WMA files, with a solid 10-hour battery life. Track navigation is reasonable, although the controls aren't quite on the same level as the iPod, Rio Karma, or Creative Zen Touch. The price is almost impossible to beat.
Atari games are available everywhere. You can download emulators from gaming enthusiast sites. For $20, you can get several games in a battery powered controller. Now, Atari is doing a proper retro-fitting, with a collection of 85 games for Xbox and PS2 gamers. Get the Realsports series, Haunted House, Missle Command, and dozens of other games, including 5 so-called bonus games: Off the Wall, Blackjack, Steeplechase, Desert Falcon, and Sprintmaster. Chances are, this is more gaming than you had with the original 2600 console. I honestly don't remember many of these games. The ESRB warns about simulated gambling on the packaging; careful you don't get addicted. For $20, this is a cheap trip down memory lane.
PC monitors are capable of playing back HD content out of the box. Unfortunately, the hardware manufacturers don't do a very good job of promoting this feature. You still need an HD decoder, which until recently meant an expensive add-on card that often didn't work reliably. With the release of ATI's HDTV Wonder card, HD is finally priced affordably and offers the same level of reliability delivered by standard definition TV decoders. The number of stations available depends entirely on the broadcasts available in your area. Major metropolitan areas typically offer considerably more HD content than smaller cities (for instance, Des Moines only offers 2 channels broadcast in HD). If you want the image quality of HD, without investing $1000 or more in a new television, the ATI HDTV Wonder is an obvious alternative.
If you are anything like me, you want all the advantages of a killer high-end sound system to complement your HDTV, but your wallet doesn't really support the $4000 price tag a home theater receiver fitting that description might cost. While I won't pretend the internals of the Onkyo TX-SR502 are on par with its flagship counterparts; it's an awesome sounding receiver far superior to what the more affordable price tag might suggest. 6.1 surround sound handles both Dolby Digital ES and DTS-ES, which means outstanding sound from all sides, including the rear. Pro Logic IIx will convert any 5.1 or stereo signal to simulate 6.1 surround. 75 watts per channel is more than enough power to drive speakers in most price points beyond the threshold of human hearing tolerance. Multi-channel analog input provides support for DVD-Audio or SACD and two sets of video component inputs allow you to pass a switchable signal to the TV, so you only need one component video output. Unless you are a true audio snob, the TX-SR502 will deliver all the audio processing you need for several years to come. It's even available in either black or silver finish to match your lifestyle.
On one of the computer's in my house, my visual interface is still a CRT. You know, the big clunky beige monitors that like the ugly step sister to your television. I desperately want to dump that boat anchor in favor a slim crystal-clear LCD display, but continue to hold off praying for large screens to drop in price. The current screen isn't used very often, but I notice a distinct difference in picture quality every time I spend more than a few seconds looking at the screen. I'm incredibly happy with the 17-inch Samsung unit I purchased last year and will probably add a second Samsung monitor to the family as soon as the price is right. If money were no object, it would definitely be the 21-inch Samsung SyncMaster 213T pictured at the right. The in-depth analysis from 
With 16MB drives available as the toy surprise in cereal boxes (okay, maybe I'm stretching, but they are definitely logo adorned freebies from ego-inflated marketers), it's a wonder everyone doesn't use them. I received a free USB drive at a conference in April and now I can't live without it. For some reason, I find dumping files to a portable drive considerably more efficient than network browsing. Imation brings the spirit of 3M innovation to their line of USB Swivel drives, building in a cover to protect the very important USB interface. I have no idea where the cover for my drive disappeared to (it's made by Lexar). Nothing kills a USB port faster than pocket lint. The Imation form factor is a stroke of inventive genius. Sizes range from 128MB to 1GB. Imation offers factory-direct pricing beating competing retail outlets.
Borrowing heavily from the winning PS2 design, Nyko's Air Flo controller offers 13 configurable buttons in a configuration any Sony gamer will immediate feel at home using. What makes the Air Flo unique is a built-in fan and venting system designed to keep sweaty palms cool as you defeat alien hordes or drive the lane in a basketball showdown. While the fans seem like a silly gimmick, I can attest to their functionality. High and low fan settings provide the comfort you need, with an option to turn the fans off if you aren't sweating. I haven't been this excited about a gaming add-on since the introduction of force feedback headphones at Comdex 2000. Air Flo controllers for Xbox and PS2 are also available, as well as a mouse with built-in hand-drying fan.
Scanners don't generate much excitement these days. Innovations come quite slowly, with scan resolutions remaining fairly stagnant. Most of us are content with sub-$100 models from Canon and HP best suited for scanning old 4x6 photos. With a list price of $495, what makes this 600dpi scanner from Fujitsu so great? 15 pages-per-minute double-sided scanning in full color is probably the most compelling feature. Auto-detection of blank pages simplifies the process of feeding a combination of 1-sided and 2-sided documents in the same batch. Automatic straightening and aligning of text corrects mis-fed pages, saving the hassle of rescanning documents. All of these features combine to create on-the-fly PDF documents suitable for elimination of paper filing and putting the fax machine out to pasture. The scanner ships with Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Standard and CardMinder V2.0, which account for half of the product price. With the $100 rebate good until September 30, this package makes electronic document processing affordable.
