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Sunday, June 26, 2005
INOi Lasonic MP670 Media Center with DVD I suppose all that's left is to add direct HD recording/transcoding to a player like this, and we'd all be pretty happy. But for under $300 with a 250GB removable hard drive, I wouldn't complain too much.Component outputs, all the normal video formats and such, it would certainly simplify my setup, maybe yours too. I'll look around for an easy way to record, especially out of the FireWire on my cable box. I'm sure there are more of these kinds of devices, and I saw a wireless networked one at Fry's the other day, but after my DSM-320 fiasco I'd rather not. | ||
Up to 500GB with the Sarotech AivX DVP-355Without a drive it's about $200, so pretty soon one of these is going to replace my Xbox Media Center and it's fan noise behind my head. | ||
Saturday, June 25, 2005
Gmail Invites if Everyone Doesn't Have OneI've got some Gmail invites I haven't used, if you need one leave your email address in the comments and I'll send you one. No more than 20, though. | ||
Thursday, June 23, 2005
All Media Centers, All Day -- LaCie SilverScreen I've had a few too many posts about these 2.5 inch media player enclosures, and now that Walmart even has this I'll concentrate on players that stand out somehow. This LaCie SilverScreen looks rather nice, and is around $270 shipped with an 80GB drive in it.However, it's not just looks that differentiate this beast, look at these specs (especially the selection of outputs: Video: MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (AVI, VOB, ISO), MPEG-4 (AVI, DivX, XviD) Audio: WAV, MP3, MPEG-4 (AAC), WMA, AC3 Photo: JPEG (up to 8 Megapixel) Video Outputs: standard TV compatible NTSC/PAL composite and S-Video, SCART / Péritel, component video (yPbPr – progressive or interlaced, scalable up to 1920x1080i or 1280x720p) and VGA A/V (scalable up to 1024x768) Audio Outputs: dual stereo analog audio, coaxial and optical SPDIF digital audio (supports compressed Dolby Digital® 5.1 and DTS® pass through) File System Formats: supports Windows® and Macintosh formats (FAT 32, NTFS, HFS+) There's a nice review here, you can compare prices on it here, or you can read the datasheet and specs here. The only downside I can see is the current maximum 80GB capacity, but rest assured our next post will rectify the problem... | ||
Another Media Center, the Cintre MediaStore, Under $150 In the spirit of showcasing real-life gadgets instead of gadget announcements, here's another good-looking portable media center, the Cintre MediaStore PMPEG4. The 30GB version is under $150 shipped right now, it's already starting to get pretty cheap for these devices.For those that don't see the point, it is essentially an external 2.5 inch USB drive enclosure that also incluldes some kind of media player onboard, and A/V outputs for audio or video files on the drive. As with the AivX, this one looks to have a nice GUI, and is also USB powered. An 80GB version would make a great companion for video at home and in the car. It includes S-Video and component outputs, and a USB2.0 input and power port.  Here is a picture of the GUI, nothing extravagant, but I'm a little jealous when I think back on how much work I put in on my Xbox Media Center for essentially the same functionality.It supports MPEG 1, 2, 4 (MPG, MPEG, AVI, M2V, DAT, VOB, etc.) DivX, XviD Video (except GMX, Qpel option applied format), MP3, OGG Vorbis, WMA Music, and .JPG Photos. Whew. | ||
So I Was Wrong... A Gallery of Bad DecisionsThis is a new feature that will grow with time, and based on my office, I'll have plenty of entries in here.As a kind of gadget fan, I tend toward buying things imagining all the use I'll get out of them, but then soon realize my life's revolution is yet to come. Oh please, let it come. So as a gallery of bad purchases, some may find this sad, amusing, or familiar.  The Oregon Scientific Echo PDA293It was 2001, Palm Pilots were all the rage, and I just wanted to believe I had contacts to keep track of. So naturally I wanted to do it smaller and better and cheaper than everyone else. Which led me towards a REX, a credit card sized PDA that for whatever reason I ended up ruling out. If I remember correctly there were two versions, and the newer better ones were too expensive for me. Unfortunately, the Echo PDA from Oregon Scientific was where I ended up. I gave it the ol' college try, adding contacts and notes to myself through the awful Win3.1-ish interface, but it was only a week or two before it was at the bottom of another pile of junk. I just wasn't made for those crazy times. I cranked it up as I wrote this, it's pretty solid with a metal frame, and amazingly the time was right on. Unfortunately I was also treated to a little todo list that I of course had never completed, along with the terrifying memories of the phone numbers in it. As a snapshot of both my life and my judgment, it was just sad. | ||
Like a Bluetooth Audio Streaming Adapter Only $13 Well, it's like a Bluetooth audio adapter, in that you can get audio from your computer to your home stereo system. Except it's not Bluetooth, and it's not more than $100. It uses an ancient and arcane technology called frequency modulation that can even pass through walls! I don't know how it works without Bluetooth, but reportedly it does!I don't understand the whole Bluetooth audio transmission thing at all actually, because unless those things have got some truly great fidelity, it's just not worth it. This regular FM radio contraption is as ugly as can be, it's designed to look like it might be a little TV on the box(it's not), and it's $13 SHIPPED. Based on the feedback, I think it'll get the job done, somehow even without Bluetooth technology. How, I'll never know. | ||
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Cheap Computer for Composing on the Road I've always liked this form-factor, and while it's old, slow and non-upgradable, if you want something to type with on the road, you can't go wrong spending around $120 for an HP Jornada 680e.I personally would love to be able to do some coding on the road without all the hassle of larger computers, and it looks like that might be possible soon using JLime, a Linux for the HP 6XX series. Right now it looks like kind of a hassle to set up, but with a tiny Linux and some kind of WiFi/CompactFlash storage card, I would really love this thing. In the meantime, if you do a lot of writing away from your desk, or would like to, the keyboard is a 76% of full-size, pretty amazing and definitely usable. | ||
Friday, June 10, 2005
Lube for Your Mouse Feet $12 Delivered I might consider using this if I hadn't already decided to ditch my mouse altogether for a TrackPoint keyboard, because I fly into a rage whenever my mouse gets sticky and doesn't move smoothly.If only I'd found it earlier. | ||
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Just a Favor to Ask Could everyone please get one of these and set it up to say "Keep Right Except to Pass"? Because if something doesn't change out on these Oregon freeways soon, I'm just not going to make it. That takes care of that problem... | ||
One More Use for Old Memory Cards, Only $30 Again, not necessarily my thing as I lose every card I ever buy, but if you don't live like a pig this wouldn't be a bad way to use any spare or out of rotation cards you've got around. It's $30 shipped.It takes SD/MMC cards and uses a single AAA battery. | ||
Weird Combination of Camera & TV: MPM-101 It's not for me, but if you need to record video, take a few pictures, and then go incognito watching (or recording, apparently) a VHF broadcast, this MPM-101 is your machine. I haven't seen it cheaper either, it's under $170 shipped. Dynamism still has it for $379 if you feel cool shopping there, though.It really is pretty cool, but I think the SD card is limited to 256MB, and the screen is only 2.5". | ||
Lyra: Cheap, Looks Nice and a USB Drive The one thing I wish my hard drive player had is just the simple USB drive connection ability. Especially on 20GB and higher players, I would use this more often to transfer things around. Instead I'm reduced to wearing a thumb drive on a lanyard like some kind of freak.If you haven't already got a larger capacity player and you'd like to use it as a drive too, I like the looks of this Lyra. I think the ability to transfer files easily back and forth from players is going to get less common as manufacturers work with DRM issues so I don't think this would be a bad buy. Besides that, it's under $170 shipped, has FM and FM recording, and comes with a lot of accessories for the car. The display looks pretty nice in the manual as well. UPDATE: It's dropped $20 now to under $150 shipped. | ||
Friday, June 03, 2005
The Cardster PDA Here's my contribution to the whole GTD card craze, I'm just not a huge fan of the 3x5 size. It's just big enough that it bugs me. I do understand the convenience and writing area issues, but for me I prefer a smaller form-factor "device".I use 2x3.5 inch business card stock for my cards. My writing is fairly clear, so I don't have a hard time with less space, and they're still readable at a glance. Besides the obvious size difference, there are a number of other advantages: 1. They're cheap to buy, and even cheaper to steal. Well, not steal really, I can't think of many businesses that would mind more people picking up their business cards. Most card backs are blank and give you all the functionality you need. So if you run out of cards, run in to a hotel or something similar, and you're back on track. If you don't feel too guilty, you can grab a pen in most places as well. 2. They work well when stacked with IDs and bank cards. If they're clipped on top of your license and a few more cards below, you've got a decent writing surface at all times. Just put something smooth like a license just below your business cards and it works great. 3. If you want to integrate your collection with a system on your computer, there are numerous business card scanners that make it much simpler than a flatbed, and a lot of them are USB powered so you can keep them easily on the road. I use the $50 Visioneer CardReader 100. Just feed them in and recycle. So it's smaller than the Hipster, and cheaper than the Cheapster. Isn't that enough? I've included a PDF that should work for printing on most pre-perforated card stock, or you can cut it yourself. Thanks to Spot Cost, a pretty good price comparison site, for hosting the PDF for me. | ||
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Logitech Digital Pen under $50 So I'm writing this post entirely with my new Logitech io digital pen. It's not exactly the newest thing, but now that you can get them for less than $50, I thought I'd give it a shot.I'm extremely impressed with how well this works, although the pen I got (1st generation) is huge, I don't mind the size. Certainly I'll take on oversized pen over 3 or 4 pounds of computer. The newer, smaller pens are closer to $200, and you do need to buy the Anoto paper to make the system work, but I think we'Il see a lot more technology like this. The bundled software, MyScript Notes, also works with tablets and other input devices. | ||
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Gadgetize: June 2005