A good choice is the Sony DVDirect VRD-MC5 next generation multi-function recorder. The MC5 transfers AVCHD quality videos to DVD discs in their native 1080i resolution. But, it can also transfer standard–definition videos, depending on your video equipment (VCR, camcorder etc) and there are many things you can do. While it’s true that Sony being Sony, they usually like to work within their own proprietary product family, with the MC5, Sony has relaxed a little and made this burner compatible with most other products.


This Sony is a little chunky and I suppose that’s because of its options and features. As far as connectors, there is a USB port, Digital Video-in port, iLINK FireWire iEEE- 1394, S-Video ports, Composite Video and RCA audio. The right side has three media card slots for SD and SDHC cards, xD cards and Compact Flash cards. Then, there are the Sony memory products including the Memory Stick and Memory Stick Duo. In front, you have the DVD/CD tray and the buttons, record and pause. There is also the 2.5 inch LCD color display for menu and previewing videos and pictures. The card reader lets you transfer photos to burn to DVD. Using JPEG you can transfer some or all and even do a slide show and add music.
For the full set features you’ll need a newer Sony video camcorder (AVCHD), but it already has so many features that any manufacturer’s camcorder/VCR will do fine. For direct transferring from camcorder to DVD there are different approaches: normal recording, full recording, incremental recording, consolidation recording, and DVD burning. The DVD burn is the simplest to use assuming you are using a Sony camcorder, but even with other products it’s not hard.
You get six hours of standard-definition video, up to 95 minutes of AVCHD video and 2,000 digital pictures can be recorded to a 4.7 GB DVD+R/+RW disc. The corresponding record media is DVD+R, DVD-R,DVDR+W and DVD-RW, DVD+r DL MC5 maintains Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound and 4.3 and 16×9 aspect ratios.

Transfers
I take out my old Sony Hi-8 camcorder, hook it up with S-Video and RCA audio wires and make a DVD. Then I wire it into my PC and watch some of the DVD. It comes out fine, but it was analog so the resolution isn’t that good. In fact, it works just fine. It’s not an editor, but I wish it was; If you want to edit video you have to do it before you transfer your video.
When you copy tapes or pictures, the recording will stop automatically when the content has finished being transferred. This means, if you don’t use the space on the recordable DVD then you don’t have to finalize it and you can then add more content. Having said this, if you do fill up the first DVD disc, the VRD-MC5 will finalize that disc before instructing you to insert the second one.
All-in-all the DVDirect VRD-MC5 works as promised. It’s a little pricey for the category. For full ease of use and functionality it needs a Sony camcorder. Also, it can’t edit, but then they didn’t promise that. Sony stretched by allowing other brands to work with the MC5. For clean copy/recording of video this unit is hard to beat, it’s a very good piece of equipment for anyone who has to burn old tapes. As a byproduct this device also doubles as a standard external DVD burner to use with your PC. I wish it was a little smaller and cheaper but hey, what do you expect, it’s a Sony!

The Westinghouse SK-26H59OD is a Digital LCD/TV DVD combo unit. This is a good thing, because when you have the DVD player combo you get a better DVD playback. The reason is that the DVD player is hard-wired into the TV/LCD. The signal doesn’t have to go from digital to analog and then back to digital, thus making the DVD image cleaner. This 26” HD/LCD has a resolution of 1366 x 768 and a response time of 8-milliseconds making it good for fast action. The contrast ratio is 800:1 with 2 Component and 2 HDMI inputs. Cheap enough, at $699 list price.

If you have a laptop, you have a laptop, right? That settled, the ATI all-in-ONE wonder USB plug can turn your laptop into an HDTV. The ATI TV Wonder 600- Hi-Speed USB can serve as a PVR recording your shows. ATI accomplishes this with its Catalyst software suite making your laptop (or desktop) into a time shifting, video streaming, DVD playing self-contained unit. This is a good alternative for the really poverty stricken student, but be advised for the PVR and Media recording functions you better have a really big Hard Drive. Really cheap at $99.

The desktop solution from ViewSonic offers an excellent picture while serving as a computer monitor. The price doesn’t hurt and not to mention it’s also a space saver. Not exactly a wall hanger, this LCD has very good response time making it an excellent choice for gamers. Both 19 and 22 inch models feature 1680×1050 resolution, which is higher than today’s HD standard; $249 and $349 respectively.

If you are lucky and have space the Vizio Maximvs is a 60” plasma and at $2999.99 can be considered a bargain. The quality is there too, with Faroudja video processing, and unlike other flat panels the speakers are built into the screen. Vizio also has a 50” for $1,899 and 42” plasma for $1,099.99. Vizio is available at Costco and one of the great things about Costco is their liberal return policy.

Norcent is about good, low price points. The low cost LCD HDTV, stand alone 16×9 HD set is featured at Wal-Mart. The 25 series is 27”, 32” and 37” and are priced at $499, $649 and $899 respectively. These sets are 1080i and work just fine.

Samsung, one of the big boys in the HD field hopes to prove the saying, “You get what you pay for.” Yes, it is quality; the materials used are highly rated. The smallest LCD set is the LN 26 LCD HDTV at $899 and is 1080i with 5000:1 contrast ratio. It has two HDMI connections and PC input. They offer a matching Home Theater in a Box system 5.1 at $399. Featuring impressive styling and impressive stats, this piano black HT system has a Progressive scan DVD player included. Be forewarned, I have yet to hear any of these Home Theater in a Box systems sound good. If you’re interested in any HT in a Box, then be sure to listen to (test drive) it before you buy.

The iWear AV920 3D glasses for DVD viewing and games, used by the Military, can be fun but be careful. In the past 3D has made me sick to my stomach. Wearing these is a cocoon approach that feels really isolating. These glasses are for the student/geek that never goes out and has no friends.

I think I have proven my point; if you want HDTV you can have it. Where there is a will, there is a way.

Still, I do take pictures with my camera phone and I have been searching for a better solution. I tried posting the photos on the phone company’s site, but that required me to have to go to their web address to view them. One day, I went to see my pictures and they were gone, timed out. Next, I tried emailing them to myself (and others) and while that worked, I was paying the phone company for the privilege of sending myself an email of pictures to store or print. Of course the photos sucked anyway, so why even bother?

Better pictures
Nowadays, the cameras in cell phones have improved and the pictures aren’t half bad. In fact, there are some of us in the technology community who think someday your phone and a good camera will be the same device. Still, getting those pictures out of your phone is a challenge.

Until now, I haven’t been happy with any solution… yes, I still use my camera phone because many times it’s the only camera I have on me. As a seeker of solutions, I was optimistic when Teleprint sent me the LG VX9900 with Verizon service. It’s one of the newer phones that house a decent two megapixel camera. Teleprint is a service that presently is only available to Verizon customers and they have a relationship with Walgreens. With the Teleprint option you can send the pictures to Walgreen and they develop/print them.

So, I’m walking around with the VX9900 and taking pictures. Now, I am ready to send them off to Teleprint. I open the menu and go to an icon that says “Get it Now”. Then, I scroll down to the Teleprint icon. The welcome screen opens and I have the choice of sending the pictures to the Walgreens nearest me, or to have them printed and sent back to me, friends or family through the mail (US postal service). The next screen has the main menu and from there you have “New Order”, address book settings and Teleprint credits. Teleprint credits costs $1.99 each and that’s the cost of sending the pictures, no matter how many. I asked Teleprint the reason for this cost and it is twofold. They charge a fee up front because they have operating charge and also to cover themselves in case the pictures aren’t picked up.

Decisions
Next choice is “Print Destination.” You can either pick up at Walgreens or have the pictures mailed. After that, I select the images I want to print and how many prints per shot. Then I pick the Walgreens location where I want to pick-up my pictures and I send them off.

Having done that, I wait the required hour and head out in the pouring rain to pick them up. They weren’t ready, but the store had received the email. I was told that they would be ready in three hours and to come back then. When I came back three hours later they were ready, so I paid .19 cents a picture plus tax and they pony up my pictures. I must admit, it has been awhile since I’ve picked pictures up from the drug store, but the prints were fine. The quality of the 4×6 prints is defined by your camera phone and what settings you use. If you take them at 1280×1024, you’ll get a print at that same resolution. Besides taking pictures on the phone there is another option, importing pictures to your phone. If you have a memory card slot then you can import any pictures to your phone and then send them to be processed.

Sounds pretty straight ahead so I’m thinking, what are the cool apps for this service? Let’s presume you’re traveling and you want to use the camera phone as your vacation camera. You can take a bunch of pictures and when your memory is full you can send them off to be developed. Once sent you can delete them and free up your phone’s memory. Then, you can have them mailed to your house or pick them up. Assuming you have a good camera in your phone this could be a very efficient way to cut down on equipment and the chargers that we take with us. At this point, this is only a snap shot solution but it could develop into a good thing.

Gregoire Gentil, the founder of Zonbu, explained the green aspect to me. It costs about $10 a month in electricity to run a computer. This is because of the moving parts like the hard drive and fan. The Zonbu has none of these parts. The cost of electricity for the Zonbu is about one-tenth of most PCs. The Zonbu runs at a scant 15 watts compared to standard computers that burn 175 watts.

So it’s $99 and small. Here’s another caveat: you need a subscription. Without the subscription the Zonbu would conceivably still work, but certainly you would not have access to the online storage or upgrades and you would be limited to the 4GB flash card, not the experience the inventor had in mind. The subscription is $12.99 per month for a minimum of 2 years. Your subscription allows for 25GB of storage capacity. Granted, music files could fill that sucker up fast, so if storage is your issue then you can subscribe for more capacity. For $14.99 per month you’re purchasing 50GB and $19.95 buys you 100GB. So, besides being green, the savings on your electric bill is a way of justifying/offsetting the monthly cost. You could conceivably hack the heck out of this thing as well and just have a $99 mini-PC, but in order to order it you need to pay the subscription fee. because you can purchase it for $249 without subscription. [FIXED]

I mentioned earlier there is no hard drive. Your data is backed-up in real-time on the Zonbu server (via Amazon’s S3 network). Another plus: using the server eliminates the annoying tedium of having to back up data, because when your data is on a server it’s impossible to lose. You can also set up access to the server from any PC. If the Zonbu computer dies in the first three years, Zonbu will replace it for free. Another benefit of using an offsite server is that 25% of all hard drives fail (according to Maxtor) in a 4 year period, so not having one might be a good thing.

Does it compute?

It’s easy enough to set up. I plugged in a mouse, keyboard, and monitor and connected to my broadband router. I started it up, logged on and I was good to go. The Zonbu was quiet, real quiet (no fan or hard drive noise). Broadband is required for the Zonbu so when I surfed the web it wasn’t bad; no speed demon for sure, but it wasn’t painfully slow. The apps were easy to find and use. The computing experience was fine. Definitely plug-and-play, the Zonbu PC works with most digital cameras, printers and USB storage devices, iPods, and MP3 players, but at this point there is no support for Wi-Fi, Web Cams, scanners or Bluetooth. It comes loaded with Firefox, Skype, OpenOffice word processor, as well as spreadsheet and presentation applications. Also, there is desktop publishing, web page design, and an iTunes alternative just to name a few of the other programs. Overall, there are twenty open source apps that come preloaded on the Zonbu. Be advised, even though the Zonbu has lots of software you can’t add more, but there are 6 USB ports to expand Zonbu’s capabilities.

Who would use this?
Given that this is a fixed device (closed box), it wouldn’t appeal to everyone. There are a couple of groups The Zonbu would be good for; straight-forward email users and internet surfers, possibly, but those who aren’t gamers or don’t edit video. It’s so light and small that it’s easy to travel with (assuming you’ll have the mouse, keyboard and monitor at your destination). Also, I see the Zonbu as the 2nd PC, for use in the den or kitchen because it’s fixed and pretty much bullet proof so it’s great for anyone who isn’t PC savvy, e.g. Grandparents or young kids. Another reason it’s good for the PC light crowd is the free tech support on-line and via phone.

The Zonbu is still in Beta, but available to the public. Are we ready for a two-year relationship and will the company be viable for two years? Their survival is necessary because promised automatic invisible updates will be critical to improving Zonbu’s performance. The odds are slim to none that this device survives the 2-year mark, but hey, even eMachines is still around. Oh, wait…

Yes it fits YOUR iPod

The Mint has five iPod docking adapters, so at this point it is ready for any iPod out there, and it even supports older versions including the mini and Nano. There is a line in-input on the main unit for other audio devices. The Mint’s top is where the iPod docking station resides along with the input selectors, volume control, mute and power button. Not only is there a docking station on the amplifier, but there is a square, wireless, remote docking station that streams music up to 100 feet away, allowing you to move the main unit to anywhere in the room even to another room while still controlling volume and playlists. I tested it at 70 feet and it worked well.

Sounds pretty good
The Mondo Mint DMS300’s sound is clean and crisp. It fills a large room nicely with a big bass, which is a testimony to the speakers’ quality, as there is no separate sub-woofer to enhance the bass. The mid-range and highs are right-on. I moved the speakers as far apart as I could (4.9 foot high quality speaker cables are included) and separation was apparent and pleasing. The Mint is a nice change from the all-in-one box units. Its components include; PurePath Digital audio technology by Texas Instruments, Peerless tweeters, AuraSound woofers and their own DI-FI wireless technology. The unit has no EQ — while it’s not a major issue, it would be nice to have the ability to tweak the sound.

When I moved my iPod from the main unit to the wireless transmitting dock there was no interference or static; it sounded the same. The only dock controls are playlists, volume and mute, but using the remote to control the iPod was a big plus, effectively turning my iPod into a remote control. The wireless dock still requires a power source which infringes on its movement, but it does keep the iPod charged. The remote docking station transmits wirelessly but it has to be plugged into an outlet for power which defeats much of its portability and for me, kills about half of its WOW factor. Even so, the wireless docking station is a plus to the DMS300’s functionality.

All-In-All
The Mondo Mint DSM 300’s has a nice full sound. The speakers sound rich, especially when placed far apart. The fact that there is no EQ is a minor issue for most but because of the robust bass it might be a bother for those who are bass sensitive. Regrettably, there is no photo or video support, which would also be good thing to have. Like any standard bookshelf stereo system there are cables and wires, but the ones included are good quality The fact that there are two iPod docks (one a wireless transmitter) is way cool, but certainly not a must have. With the line-in input you aren’t married to the iPod and can have other audio players such as an MP3 player or satellite radio, and that’s a good thing. The Mondo is a bit pricey, but certainly not over the top. Overall, the Mondo Mint is high up on the iPod accessory food chain. This mint is pretty sweet.

Inside this little digital camera is one tough son-of-a gun. How tough? It’s tough enough to be dunked underwater and insulated to the point that you can leave it outside in the snow. It’s purported to work in temperatures around 14 degrees. You can even drop it five feet to the pavement and it will still work. The camera’s metal housing is so strong that it can take up to 220 pounds of pressure and not cave in, even when a big feller who has it in his back pocket sits on it.

The 770SW has some pretty impressive stats that aren’t just hype. It’s light, weighing just over 6 ounces and it’s small at 3.6×3.3×0.8 inches. There is a 3x optical zoom with 7.1 Megapixels.

A step-up from its predecessor, (the 720SW) the 770SW has increased the 2.5 inch LCD pixel count from 115,000 to 230,000 making the display more viewable in bright light. The picture quality has also improved, but still it isn’t as sharp (not bad either) as other digital cameras in its price range. Regarding noise, the 770 deals with it well up to ISO 400. Once you get to 400 ISO you notice a very slight decrease in sharpness. When you get to ISO 800 the loss of sharpness increases and the shadow detail also suffers. It 800 ISO I also noticed some slight color changes.

I find colors to be correct, but slightly understated. There are no manual exposure controls but you can adjust the white balance and sensitivity. It features 27 shooting modes, including four underwater modes. One thing I don’t like is that, whatever your mode settings are, the camera, on start-up, doesn’t revert to the last settings used. So, every time the camera starts up you have to navigate to the settings you previously had. That is a pain-in-the-butt because you have to press the button twice before you get to pick the scene mode. Another bad navigation choice is that the movie mode is inside the scene mode and is the last selection.

Quick start
It starts up quickly, about a second and the time between the shots is just over two seconds. With the flash, figure three seconds and the shutter lag is under one second. Very important and necessary is the image-stabilization feature.

Jumping in
First thing I did was throw it into a swimming pool. I waited a half a minute, took a swig of beer and dove in after it. When I came up, I took a picture of my girlfriend, not bad (my girlfriend), and the camera still worked. The camera is waterproof to a depth of 33 feet.

The Olympus 770SW is good looking and tough, just like me, but also like me it has a few issues. I don’t love the fact that it doesn’t revert to last settings used on start-up. Having to go though the menu to get to the appropriate mode is annoying. I will say that the menu is intuitive and easy to use. The buttons are small, but then so is the camera. I can see the buttons being a problem with underwater use or in the winter when you’re wearing gloves.

Having got these complaints off my chest, I have to say this is one rugged, good looking camera. It’s tough and versatile enough to be considered a great action camera that you can take anywhere. I’m willing to make allowances for the fact that you can’t be all things to all people and that the main thrust of the 770SW is it’s being rugged. The Olympus 770SW will take a licking and keep on shooting.

The methods by which we receive audio content just keep on expanding. In fact, there are so many ways to get free music and Podcasts it’s hard to keep up. And, if you think about it, it’s a wonder that any service that charges for content will be able to keep its head above water.

One of the free categories bubbling up is internet radio which gives you incredible flexibility and some interesting tools. Let’s say, you’re going on a trip to Poland, like my editor Biggs. You can tune in and listen to the local radio, find out about the weather, traffic and even political issues. You can receive all the information that any local resident can get, and that makes the world a smaller place. Yes I know, this is already available to anyone with a computer, but that isn’t too convenient or very portable. I think that’s a significant reason why it’s been overlooked by many.

It Does what?
The Phoenix, a WiFi, AC/DC portable internet radio runs on four AA rechargeable batteries (included) or with the switching power supply (240-110W AC input). Embedded 802.11 b/g WiFi, the Phoenix streams music from non-subscription Web-Radio sites. Content can be streamed in WMA, AAC, Real, WAV and AIFF formats. You can also play your MP3 content using a USB stick or via WiFi and just use the Phoenix as a player.

This wireless digital content stereo player comes preloaded with 300 URLs, but that’s just a start. Users can go to Com One’s Web site to get URLs of about 7,000 more radio stations for the Phoenix. Additionally, you can use the Com One site to add stations not in Com One’s database by keying in a station’s URL.

One of the reasons this works is the embedded software that makes for an easy connection to Com One’s internet-based service distribution platform. You can get firmware upgrades over the air either by hitting the update button, or they will come seamlessly at two week intervals all via WiFi.

What’s it got?
The Phoenix has an alarm clock, eight preset radio station buttons and a charger. The unit has two stereo speakers (4 cm each), a 2 x 2 watt amplifier and weighs less than two pounds. They improved the digital sound quality with Bass Boost and spatialization enhancer technology. You also have the ability to plug into any stereo system via the 1/8” (3.5mm) stereo headphone jack. If you want, you can have Bluetooth connectivity with an adapter offered through Com One. There are cool features, like the ability to bookmark your favorite songs or stations for quick access.

The Phoenix is based on the Intel PXA270 processor, clocked at 300MHz. It boots Linux for 8MB of flash, and has 32 MB of RAM. Com One choose Linux because of its “open environment” and its many available open-source libraries. This enabled Com One to build the Phoenix without outside assistance. It has a USB host port supporting USB devices and USB Bluetooth transceivers. White back-lit graphics display with 6 lines (128 x 64) pixel monochromatic LCD screen. Battery life is about 4 hours; short I know, but WiFi sucks…err requires a lot of power.

Plug it in already
I install the rechargeable batteries and plug it in. I know I have a good WiFi hotspot in my apartment, so I try to activate the radio. I put it on search and try to lock on to a WiFi signal. First attempt failed, it locked into the search mode. So I do a hard reboot (took out the batteries) and on the next attempt I get the list of WiFi spots and it connects to my router. Then, I select the automatic connection mode. (DHCP), and when it’s searching there is a blinking blue light, when it locks-on the blue light is steady. There is a WiFi signal bar on the LCD much like a cellphone and my signal varies between two and three bars. Now, I’m connected, and by pushing the music icon I get a list of radio stations. First station is an open source Reggae station which is broadcasting at 32kb/s. It sounds ok, not great, but then I put on another station at 128kb/s and the sound quality is much better. The whole process took about two minutes. The next day when I push the number one preset button the radio is playing music in less than 10 seconds.

I go to the website to update the radio. I sign up, log on and go to the station page; once there I see various different categories (country, city, genre, etc). I choose new stations and within moments those stations show up on my radio. The site isn’t as user-friendly as I’d like, but it is still in Beta. I’m listening now and it sounds pretty good, but the speakers are small so for a bigger sound I hook it up to my stereo. Now we’re talking, the sound is clean and robust.

Even though the Phoenix is still in Beta, I think the portable aspect is the right ingredient for success. Also, seamless firmware upgrades will keep this product improving. Of course, we will see hardware upgrades as new units come out. I suspect in the future there will be more ways to get content on the player. The sound on the Phoenix is what you’d expect from two small speakers; not bad, but certainly not audiophile quality. I congratulate Com One, and I like their thinking. This might just work out.

Finally, summer is here and it’s your chance to bolt for vacation. You’ve rented a summer place and it’s a beautiful thing. We could talk about video game systems and air conditioners, but screw that! You’re off the leash and you know what? This is your life, and you’re going to have fun playing outdoors all summer long. Since summer rentals only last about 3 months, you are certainly not going to make any capital improvements on someone else’s house.

You’ll want to keep things as simple and portable as possible, but at the same time you want to personalize this place with your gear. Decisions, decisions… what toys and gadgets do you need in and out of the house. Whenever possible I’ll recommend toys that play well with other gadgets: Here are my suggestions;

Direct TV Sat-Go

Hopefully, if you are lucky, you are far away from civilization, so cable TV is out. Here is something that will keep on giving, long after the summer is gone. Direct TV Sat-Go is the first portable satellite–TV system. Easy to transport, the combined LCD screen and satellite receiver is in one 27-pound case. The flat lid on the case is the antenna and it has a compass to find Direct TV satellites in the southern skies. It’s a 4:3 screen, but I’m told it is HD capable (720P). For power you can plug it into a wall socket or cigarette lighter jack.

Delphi’s Skyfi3

When you’re out in the boonies you need music, so cuddle up with an XM satellite radio. You’ll get your news, sports, talk radio, comedy and music. The Skyfi3 is an excellent choice for the rental because it’s so versatile.

It can be docked in a boom box, or can transmit signal to any FM radio, or it can be wired into any stereo receiver. It’s portable, so you can take it hiking and a huge benefit is that the Skyfi3 can record content, so if you’re inside without signal you can still listen to recorded XM satellite radio.

Brookstone Wireless Speaker

The perfect companion for the Skyfi3 is Brookstone’s wireless speaker, which lets you listen to music indoors and out. The water-resistant wireless speaker tunes itself automatically with phase-loop circuitry that transmits on a 900MHz frequency sending a signal up to 150 feet. Another option is just to connect the Skyfi3 or MP3 player through the AUX input. Sporting a 5-inch woofer and a 1-inch tweeter, this plastic wonder has full range multi-directional sound. At night this speaker illuminates with a cool blue light.

Hammock Time

OK, you’ve been playing all day and now it’s time for a siesta. This hammock has a portable backpack that lets you take it anywhere. Not your father’s hammock, this one has an AM/FM radio (works with Skyfi3) that is housed in a water-resistant pillow. It has a beverage holder and pocket for your cigars. Big enough for most at 8 feet, it supports up to 250 pounds (the whole hammock weighs only 22 pounds). It sets up fast and has a strong stainless steel frame with a nylon surface.

Coleman air mattress with speakers

Either for guests or as your main bed, the Coleman inflatable bed measures 74×54 inches and is 9-inches thick and inflates quickly with a built-in battery pump that really blows. Coleman uses an “airtight system that is guaranteed not to leak, with a double-lock valve that locks in air two ways.”

It also has an input for the Skyfi3, iPod, MP3 or CD player and built-in amplifier and speaker to romance your sweetie at night. Of course it comes with a travel bag, so you can drag it out under the stars.

Toshiba TDP-FF1 projector

This truly portable projector is just 5-inches wide and weighs 1.7 pounds, making it perfect for temporary vacation duty. For power, you can plug it in or the projector has a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. Rated at a 1,500:1 contrast ratio with a resolution of 800×600 pixels, it provides an acceptable picture. The TDP-FF1 comes with a nifty 22.5-inch collapsible screen (which works well when there is too much light), but you can also use it to project outdoors on any flat surface (garage door, side of a building, etc). Later, you can take it inside and project adult movies (my favorite) on the ceiling.

Oppo up-converting DVD/CD player

I hope that it’s sunny every single day this summer so that you’re always outdoors playing. But, even with my best wishes, it is inevitable that into every life some rain will fall. For those rainy days (or evenings) I recommend the Oppo OPN DV971H DVD player. It’s a small, lightweight DVD player that will up-convert from 480i to 720p/1080i, and it really works well. It plays both NTSC and PAL with a menu-driven setup screen for adjusting lip-sync and general tweaking. It’s DivX certified, has DCDi by Faroudja DVD-Audio playback and conveniently has DVI-HDMI output with the cable included.

Viosport Adventure Cam III

This rugged video camera has a separate wired lens the can be strapped to your handlebars or even to your head. Great for extreme sports the Viosport video camera and recorder can truly capture your action moments. The camera records hours of video using four, AA batteries. Rain is no problem and you can take it under water down to 1 meter. Shock resistant and dust proof, this bad boy records on flash memory (SD cards). A really great feature is it’s loop-mode recording capabilities (loop-mode saves up to 30 minutes before the tag point) so you can record constantly and tag the important stuff for easy retrieval. How do I know it’s rugged? The military is using this camera to record patrols and combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

WaveRunner

If you’re serious about water activities, then I have a hot tip. Yamaha has just announced the VX series. The Cruiser is the most affordable of the group, with a 4 stroke, 110 hp marine engine. Comfortable, for both you and your passenger, the Cruiser offers one of the longest seats in the industry. Touted as the least expensive WaveRunner, it also delivers the best fuel economy of any other water craft. The Yamaha personal water craft’s are so much fun you won’t come out of the water till it’s dark. It has more than enough power to tow water skiers or wakeboards. It has neat features, such as a remote controlled security system that locks the ignition from up to 30 feet away. Think of the great action stuff you can shoot with the V.O.I video camera strapped to handle of the Cruise.

Sumo Tube w/rope handle

If you have the WaveRunner then you’ve got to get the Sumo tube. You wear the tube, steer it, and heck you can even roll it or jump it. The fastest bodysurfing you’ll ever get and you can roll it 360 degrees from left to right. You just slide into the suit and grab the handle with its attached 60 feet of rope and let the WaveRunner tow you. One chamber makes for fast inflation. I strongly recommend you keep your mouth closed when skimming across the water…sick huh?

Trek Lime

The new Lime bike from Trek provides a comfortable ride and that certainly is a different approach to bicycling. Unlike a mountain bike or a racer, with the Lime you ride in upright riding position. The three speed AUTOMATIC transmission is really cool. A sensor detects the Lime’s speed and sends a message to the on-board computer telling it to shift up or down. The computer requires no batteries; the spinning of the front wheel generates all the energy needed to run it. The correct gear selection is determined by the on-board computer which calculates the bike’s speed. When you stop, it automatically returns to first gear. The braking system is a coaster brake (pedal back) which is making a reemergence after years of hand brakes. These Trek bikes come in two styles, Lime and Lime light.

While writing this article was fun and I could go on and on with products for the summer rental, but sorry folks, summer is here and I have to get outside and start playing with all this cool stuff…lucky me.

When new car models come out later this year, the tech in cars will really start to percolate. Some new models will have Microsoft’s Auto operating system. This voice activated system will enable you to control your MP3 player and iPod with voice commands. Then, by next year you can use this application to download your emails and have them read to you. But what does this have to do with summer driving?

Ensuring that you and your passengers get from point A to point B while stopping off to see the largest ball of twine in Idaho is hard work. Here are some gadgets to make that process considerably more comfortable.

Autonet Car Router

Soon, (this summer) you can install a rolling hot spot by Autonet Mobile to keep everyone in touch, even the kids in the back seat. This router at $399 plus $50 per month will be better than a wireless card because it’s a connection that everyone in the car (and anyone in a nearby car) can share. The Autonet router will create an 802.11g network automatically and should be available in Avis rental cars this year as well. Just don’t type and drive.

Garmin c580 GPS

Ok, with all the GPS’s out there why the c580? The first very compelling reason is to help you find the cheapest gas, wherever you are. The Garmin c580 has MSN direct (1st year free) with all its live concierge features making it one of the most advanced point-of- interest (POI) programs. With the MSN direct service, you can even find movie start times based on your location as well as real time traffic and weather. The c580 GPS has a really bright, viewable 3.5 inch screen (even in bright sunlight). Of course, the c580 has the entire GPS mapping and direction application and is intuitive, fast and very easy to use. It also has Bluetooth, so it can serve as a speaker phone and phone book. The c580 features an SD slot for MP3 files or use the slot for extra maps and optional software like travel guides. Then there is Garmin lock, an anti-theft feature that locks the system.

Roadmaster VR3 Wireless Back Up Camera

My Dad always said, “When backing up, watch out for the kids and their toys”. The Roadmaster Wireless VR3 backup camera is just the thing to prevent your kids and their toys from getting run over. The VR3 installs quickly and easily without much fuss. The 2.5 inch color LCD screen mounts on either your dash or visor with the camera lens fitting alongside the rear license plate. There are two options: either leave it on all the time or turn it off (they told me this) — it’s not smart enough to tell when you’re backing up. Over 2,400 kids are injured in back up accidents each year, so maybe it’s best to just leave it on.

TeleNav GPS

One of the annoying things about portable after-market GPS systems is that it isn’t safe to leave them in your car. Another aspect is that you bought the display so it is what it is. Yes, I know you can update the maps but at some point down the road it’s going to be outdated. So a really smart and portable option is to have the GPS on your cell phone. A really good service, TeleNav, has full 3D maps, voice commands, traffic alerts and one-click rerouting. It also has a WiFi hotspot finder and it will find you the lowest gas prices. One of the coolest aspects of TeleNav is that the company keeps adding functions and features but you’re not married to the hardware. You can take it with you to your new phone. It’s all good till you lose your cell signal.

Scrolling License Plate Frame

Disco Stu doesn’t advertise

Want something nutty to embarrass the kids? Roadmaster also has these really tacky Scrolling Digital license plate frames that let you personalize your own message in the back window or on your license plate. It comes with 99 pre-set words and phrases including my fave, “Help Me!” You can also program five interchangeable messages up to 120 characters each including “back off” or “car for sale” with your phone number. Messages can be repeated or combined and you can adjust the speed and brightness via the wireless remote. Certainly, this is not for everyone.

In-Car DVD/CD Player

I remember back when I had my first DVD player installed in my car. I immediately drove down to the DVD rental store and rented a bunch of movies. Two days later, when I got back home my wife was pissed off, but me? I had fun. Anyway both the wife and that DVD player are long gone so when Dual showed me the XDVD8285 in Dash DVD player I knew I could once again disappear in my car. Up front, the 8285 has a 6.5 inch motorized touch-screen that gives you access to a variety of entertainment and communication options. Compatible with most Bluetooth phones the 8285 has a built-in microphone for hands-free calls. It’s got one-touch phone book dialing and caller ID so now when my new girl friend calls me during a movie I can totally blow her off. The 8285 has Multi-zone A/V and 5.1 outputs for a full-blown rear-seat cinema system. Other features include iPod integration and MP3 compatibility. In-car DVD players, you’ve come a long way Baby.

ViewBase Dash Board Gear

To deal with the clutter on your dashboard the ViewBase provides a solution for mounting your electronics without any adhesives or drilling. They use some kind of anti-skid technology; the ViewBase stays attached in any type of driving condition, off road, rapid braking, serious bumps, even accidents. I like the concept because it moves my GPS closer, but it is also good for mounting your cellphone to make use of its speakerphone feature.

Clearing the Air

Does the interior of your car stink? The auto AirTamer by Filterstream will clean up that air for you. The AirTamer is not just for smokers, but for all of you stinkers. It makes the air healthier while you drive. It works like this: advanced electrostatic purification technology creates cleaner air by producing healthy negative ions that force airborne pollutants away form your breathing space. No filters and quiet too, the AirTamer has an attachment for your car’s air vent utilizing the fan’s power and increasing the ion dispersion and cleaning functions. Clean air is everyone’s job…hold it in.

FM Transmitter

The Roadmaster FM modulator VRFM9 has a USB, SD card slot with Song Name read-outs of each song. An elegant solution, there are dual function buttons for Shuffle/Random, play, stop, volume, track selection, last song played, last FM channel and you can see all your pre-set FM channels. It can also play MP3’s and WMA from a USB memory stick or SD cards and plugs into your cigarette lighter.

iPod Gear

‘All thumbs’ is an expression I’ve been hearing all my life but now it has a positive meaning. DLO (the iPod silly accessory provider) makes the TransDock Deluxe. It broadcasts your iPod’s music through your car’s stereo system and your iPod videos can be shown on the in-car video screen (DVD player). The DLO steering-wheel remote is the safest way to go because you never take your hands off the wheel. With the remote you have all functions, pause, play, volume adjust and skip songs. Another benefit is that the cradle also is a charger so your iPod is always charged. It will only power up when you dock your iPod and turn off when you remove it, saving your car’s battery.

Solar Charger

By accident or just bad luck, at some point your car’s battery is going to die. The Sunsei Solar Charger 135 by ICP Solar will keep your battery topped off with the power of the sun. The panel is designed to work inside the car, so just lay it on the dash and you will always be charged up and raring to go. Note this is more maintenance than a charger because you’re only getting “trickle down” power. It works with any 12 volt vehicle, even boats.

Don’t forget, before you go on any trip to tune-up your car and summer-proof it. Have fun and don’t be like me and lose your wife/girlfriend because of technology.

I admit it: I’m a Crackberry addict, er, guy. There’s a reason why the BlackBerry has sold so many units. The BlackBerry device by Research in Motion (RIM) is a great portable email device. Initially, the BlackBerry’s popularity started with government and finance communities, but over the years its spread to the more casual email addicts.

The earlier Blackberry (RIM 957) was a stodgy looking unit with email functions only. After a few years RIM combined phone service with the BlackBerry. That BlackBerry looked like a frozen waffle. The waffles weren’t good phones. But, even the lousy phone didn’t stop the RIM’s growth. Then, last year, things changed, RIM came out with the BlackBerry Pearl and the Pearl has some very cool features. The Pearl has a camera, media player, MP3/video, microSD card slot for extra memory, voice dialing and GPS ready map.

This is, though.

Track ball and keys
With the Pearl, RIM moved past the scroll wheel and went to the track ball. After they released the Pearl for T-Mobile they put out similar models for the other carriers. The Pearl and that ilk are a resounding success but, RIM was hearing complaints about the double letter keys. It had only16 keys and each key had two letters (WQ or ER etc). In spite of that, the Pearl keyboard worked well. They listened to the complaints and came roaring back with a 35 key backlit QWERTY keyboard. One of the first models was the 8800 but there was still a need for improvement. The keys were too close together and there were complaints about the slippery keys.

All this brings us to the Curve 8300(where do they get these names, its not curved) which is the closest thing to a perfect Blackberry yet. It features the smallest full keyboard and a nice small form (4.4×2.6.x .5 inches); it’s the lightest (3.9 oz.) and the thinnest BlackBerry. It fits nicely in my hand. With the Curve, a Blackberry with a full QWERTY keyboard, RIM corrected the 8800 keyboard problem by spacing out the keys. Also new to BlackBerry Curve is a spell checker for emails and memos.

Nice Screen
The screen is 2.5 inches, 65,000 colors with 320×240 pixel resolution. It is backlit and there are also LEDs behind the keyboard which automatically adjust to the ambient light.

Packed with features
The Curve is has an improved two megapixel camera, with 5X zoom. Still I’ve had better two megapixel cameras. Good media features (using the Roxio Easy Media Creator software suite) abound with support for MP3,AAC, MIDI and WAV music files and AVI, MP4, MOV and 3GP video formats with 64MB of on board flash memory. The media player will display album art, title and artist. There is also shuffle and repeat songs. I played music through the Curve’s speaker and surprisingly, it wasn’t bad for a cellphone. The music will stop when a call comes in and resume when the call is finished. The media player is for music, pictures and video (it can play video but not shoot it). Not to be overlooked is Bluetooth stereo audio. It also has a microSD slot and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Web-browsing using EDGE is fast and good, so no complaints there.

No WiFi
Be advised: there is no Wi-Fi or3G support which is definably a drawback. There is a new audio technology that automatically adjusts (increases) the call’s volume in noisy environments. Additionally, it’s supposed to block background noise and echoes, but it was barely noticeable. It did automatically raise in-coming volume when I called a car service to take a very drunk Vinny home from his favorite loud bar. Still the voice (call) quality is OK not great; at times it sounded a tad hollow, no complaints about the speaker phone. Like the Pearl, there is voice activated dialing for your convenience/aggravation.

There is no GPS radio but with a separate GPS receiver connected via Bluetooth you can get the full GPS experience. There is the Blackberry maps application, maps of the US with text based driving directions. There are other applications which you can download. Being a BlackBerry, there is calendar, task list, memo pad, alarm and a calculator. Rated for 17 days standby with a minimum of 4 hours talk time.

Travels well
This is a quad-band world phone (locked of course). GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz EDGE and GSM/GPRS.

This is the One
The Curve is the best Blackberry to date and it is pretty damm good. It is more for the average Crackberry addict than the hardcore government/business customer. If you’re not an AT&T Cingular customer, fret not, other carriers will soon have similar models (with slightly different model numbers). If you were thinking about getting a BlackBerry, but weren’t sure what model to get, or if you should wait, then wait no more. The Curve is the one. The cost is reasonable ($199 suggested with mail in rebates) with a two year contact.

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The Epson R380 is an Ultra Hi-Definition photo printer that relies on some of the same technologies used by professional photo printers. The R380s is the mid-range in Epson’s HD photo printer line with the R260 on the lower end and the RX580 at the top of the line.

Slightly less than 16 pounds, the R380 is approximately 18 inches wide, 21 inches deep and just over 11 inches high and has the foot print of a bulkier scanner /rinter. In fact, it looks like an all-in-one printer/scanner/copier. It uses 6-color cartridges that are accessible from the top and it has a bright LCD and a 5-in-1 card reader. These features may account for the bulky design. There is only one paper feed input and that is on top. The paper feed tray holds about 120 sheets of regular paper or 20 sheets of photo paper.

Out of the box the R380 is easy to set up. Just run the software and drivers and when that’s done, connect the USB print cable (not included) load the paper and you are good to go. Very straightforward, right?

Standalone
One of the important features is the memory slots for PC free printing — very cool and convenient. There are two memory slots and between them they will accommodate SD, xD, CF and MS pro cards. Then, there is an excellent 3.5 inch LCD to view /preview your pictures. These two features make the R380 truly a special stand alone photo printer.

Picture quality
The Epson Claria ink, especially for pictures promotes print longevity and is resistant to fading. The proprietary print heads are called MicroPiezo. The MicroPiezo print heads adjust the size of the ink droplet based on what the image requires. The result is smoother gradations and more accurate skin tones. There are five droplet sizes and that combined with six different ink colors creates accuracy.

Printing from a media card
After inserting the media card you will see the images on the LCD. For simple selection just click on the pictures you want and indicate the number of copies. If you have a lot of pictures there is a “zoom out” feature that can show 20 thumbnails at once on the LCD. For a reference you can print out the thumbnail sheet. From the LCD you can change options such as type, paper size, border and crop as well as brightness adjustments, contrast and sharpness. You can also add a date. Other options let you print directly from Bluetooth enabled devices using a adapter or you can use an external CD, Zip or flash memory drive

Video
Printing pictures from video which is way cool, but be advised that the quality of video pictures tends to be lower. If the video you are shooting is the highest quality you will get somewhat satisfactory prints.

Labels
Yes, you can print DVD and CD labels. Verbatim and Memorex and a few other companies make inkjet CDs and DVDs. It’s recommended that you burn on your data before the label process. There is a specific sleeve to hold the disc and there are arrows to line it up. The jewel case inserts you use letter size paper. Paying attention to detail, the insert even has reference marks so it folds neatly into the jewel case.

No photo printer is fast and the R380 is no exception. Printing a 4×6 in the draft mode will print in 13 seconds; better quality is around 30 seconds in the default mode. Simple text documents can run 15 to 30 copies a minute.

The Epson R380 is a retail photo developer’s nightmare but a photo hobbyist’s dream. It delivers great pictures and the interface is good. With photo developing shops in trouble they are either changing the thrust of their businesses or going out of business. I think this is a result of the digital camera boom and the high quality of the photo printers now on the market.

The cost of the R380 is under $200 and that in itself is almost unbelievable. The prices of printers in general are incredibly low. You wonder why that is until you run out of ink and you get nailed on the high cost of refills. Apparently, that is the business model for this industry. I’m willing to bet that when its all said and done you’re going to wind up spending more on ink than you do on the printer.

Set-up
Out of the box the iLoad has some size, approximately 3 ½ inches high 7 inches long and 8 inches wide. After connecting my iPod to the iLoad, the iLoad asks to be introduced to my iPod, which is cute-speak for installing a program onto my iPod. It only took 7 minutes. Upon completion, I discovered that the software changed my iPod’s artist menu. Now it’s in alphabetical order by the first letter, not the artist. So, the group ‘’The Knack’’ is not under K anymore The Knack is listed under T for the…Hmmmm.

Transfer
The iLoad comes to me a good time, because I have a bunch of unopened CDs lying around. Taking out Moby’s Hotel I stick it in the iLoad, press GO and it takes care of business. The copying speed of Moby’s CD is similar to PC transfer about 5 times the normal CD playback speed. Nice and clean, iLoad transferred the music, album and track particulars but with one drawback; iLoad is noisy. For a moment I actually thought something was wrong with the iLoad but no, it’s just the way it is…one noisy machine

There is an Ethernet connection for downloading album art, track title and artist particulars for those occasions when the CD that’s being copied doesn’t possess that information. iLoad updates (firmware) are available via the Ethernet connection for registered users. It is my understanding that DVD-to-iPod and video downloads are slated for the future.

Backup
I backed up the contents of my iPod using an external hard drive. This is good because remember, with iLoad you’re not using a computer. If you lose or damage your iPod, then all its content, music, pictures and video is safe on the external hard drive. There is also the option of using a flash disk for back-up. The use of external backup is always a good idea, iLoad or no iLoad. Any computer’s hard drive can die or get a virus. Also, if you have a lot of content, then consider all the space you are freeing up on your computer.

Other options
Using iLoad you can delete music from your iPod by title or even category. A category such as least listened to or oldest added. The iLoad’s LCD screen has intuitive right and left arrow buttons to control everything including erasing tracks from your iPod. Transfer from one iPod to another iPod is also possible. The actual iLoad unit can be used as a player using the audio output jack. iLoad works with all iPod products manufactured since 2002 which include the shuffle, Nano Video iPod and the iPod phone

Is there an audience?
The quick answer is yes, but this product isn’t for everyone. The iLoad addresses the issue of loading music and backing up all your music. The real market for this product is the iPod owner who doesn’t want to use their computer. This begs the question how many people would that be? And then there is the price; at $299 it’s an expensive solution.

Borderline at best, I ask; Is this a solution to a problem or solution in search of a problem. The thing works, but because of price, noise and what I see as limited appeal, the iLoad is a sub-average iPod accessory in an already flooded market.

The very unique, detachable faceplate that is also a rechargeable remote control powered by a Lithium-ion battery. The George uses RF (radio frequencies require no line of sight) communication for a distance up to 25 feet. The remote has an LCD screen that shows information from your iPod’s screen. George’s remote has a scrollwheel, essentially a big rubbery knob, and is surrounded by four buttons (menu, play/stop, beginning and end) and eight assignable soft keys. You can scroll though your iPod by artist, title or album, even your playlists. Some, but not all of your iPod’s functions are available. One caveat: you can’t sync your iPod while it’s docked in George.

Wake Up
The alarm clock can be set on the remote allowing you to keep it on the nightstand and function as the alarm clock; this gives you the freedom of having the main unit on the other side of the room. The alarm has five different settings — two repeating alarms and a one-time alarm with sleep and nap. The remote also controls the functions of the AM/FM radio including changing channels.

How’d It Sound?
George seems to be aiming for accuracy with clean music reproduction. The sound was better (or worse) depending on the unit’s location. Up close it lost details but at a distance of 10 feet it was crisp. That’s probably one reason why the remote has its own docking/charging station. The charging dock is optional at $50.00. The George can be placed in the best acoustic spot in the room and the remote can be anywhere else.

The sound doesn’t have a wide, big stage feel. It sounds good, but there is no sound separation. It is as if the sound is coming from one speaker. Not punchy, without energy, but very clean and accurate. George has good high and midrange frequencies, but the bass or lower frequencies are not as robust. But make no mistake, it plays loudly.

You can hook up a CD or other players via the auxiliary input, but unlike the iPod, you can’t control these devices. There is a pre-out if you want to plug the George into your home’s audio system and there is a headphone jack.

George does have a good array of features, but they are not as intuitive as they could be. Much of the functionality of George is software that could conceivably get better over time. There is a USB port for firmware updates and a few have already happened.

Switching songs from the iPod is slow; sometimes it took up to 10 seconds. The placement of the subwoofer control on the rear panel (awkward) and not on the remote is a negative. George is expensive at $550 and $50 for the optional docking station/charger. The price might not sting as much if it had a CD player. The remote is a little too big for even my hand and I wish the George had a video output so I could watch my iPod videos. But George, like all good butlers, costs some money.

All grown up, the SkyFi3 multi-tasks by moving from the car to home to boom box to portable satellite radio, There is a new feature: an expansion microSD slot to add your own MP3 tunes. The size of a big MP3 player (4.4×2.25×0.7 inches) the SkyFi3 is surprisingly light and has a 2.8 inch monochrome screenThe screen can be shown either vertically or horizontally with the press of a button.

There is a 30 minute buffer for live radio. What that means is you can record the full song even if you missed the beginning. The buffer also allows you to pause, rewind and fast forward though XM programming.

You can record and store 10 hours of XM content in the internal memory. This is a nice feature, when you have no signal (on an airplane). Then, using the MP3 music you previously stored on the micro SD card you can combine both sources creating a playlist. The Artist and TuneSelect feature locates favorite artists and songs on the XM network. There is a USB port for transferring your music, which I also used to charge the SkyFi3, but it’s inconsistent and Delphi doesn’t recommend it.

Everything costs extra.
The SkyFi3 costs $229 with a $30 mail-in rebate and it comes with a vehicle kit and mail-in offer for the live wearable kit. For the home you can purchase the optional home kit. The portable radio kit includes a set of earphones with a built-in antenna, a larger-capacity rechargeable battery and an armband. XM monthly is $12.95 or, if you purchase the service annually, they give you one month free so it works out to be $11.87 a month.

Let’s talk car dock.
There are different options to get the SkyFi3’s content into your car’s stereo system. If the stereo has a direct connection input option, then that is the easiest, and you can connect the SkyFi3 that way. If not, there is the cassette adapter (if your car has a cassette player) or an FM transmitter to beam the signal to an open FM station on the car’s radio. If none of these solutions are doable then an effective innovation is the SureConnect. It’s a small sleeve that wraps around the bottom of your car’s antenna and sends music straight to the antenna while reducing interference. Delphi doesn’t want a single SkyFi3 unit to be returned because of a failure to connect so they have a glass adapter for those customers who don’t have an antenna. For the best connection there is an optional FM Direct adapter that plugs in-line between your antenna and the back of your car stereo. This requires car surgery in the sense that you take out the car’s stereo to access the plug in back of the stereo and (for most of us) that isn’t easy. The FM Direct ($20) turns the XM on and off and changes the FM signal from the antenna and substitutes the XM signal. The dock has aux input which is a good way to connect your MP3/iPod into the car’s stereo system.

Setup
Good thing I’m not a neat freak because when I set up the SkyFi3 in my car there was a tangle of wires on the dash. I turned it on and the big-screen powered up. I switched to live XM and the easy-to-read display showed a long list of channels. Finding content was easy; you can search by artist, category, or channel. I liked the SkyFi3 buttons, but there are no preset buttons. I use SkyFi3’s built-in FM modular which broadcasts the XM signal to my car’s stereo. I notice the FM transmitter worked much better when the charger is plugged into the SkyFi3.

Boom box
The Premium Sound System by Delphi has four docking connectors so it will work with the MyFi, Roady XT, Audiovox and SkyFi3. Plug it in or it can run on 8C batteries. It looks good and sounds good.

The SkyFi3 is well built and easy to use. The all-around functionality makes it a keeper. I wish it had a built-in antenna so I could use my good earphones in the portable mode. Not having preset buttons takes away from the final score. Still, a really good XM receiver that I bestow with an 9/10.

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Smaller, lighter, better, is the mantra for the new category of ultra portable multi-function GPS devices. While portable GPS systems aren’t new, manufacturers are expanding the category by cramming in new features. Fujitsu Siemens Pocket LOOX N100 certainly fits that bill, if only somewhat. The difficulty is providing a feature-set that appeals to a broad audience and a user interface that works well.

The small PDA-like devices (3.5 x 2 x 0.6 inches) and weighs 3.9 ounces and looks and feels more appropriate for the hand than mounted on the car’s window. It has an excellent screen, with deep colors and a resolution of 320 x 240. The touchscreen is 2.8 inches. You have 27 different screen display options e.g. compass, remaining distance, speed and more. Because the screen is small there is a very necessary stylus which (unless your have very small fingers) is mandatory for every operation. Certainly, that could be a menace when driving but I guess Fujitsu’s assumes that you would enter addresses or POI before you start moving.

Media center

Then there is a media player which plays MP3, AAC and WMA. There are shuttle and repeat buttons but no equalizer — just bass and treble adjustments. There are no volume buttons on the LOOX — they are on the touchscreen (not the best design). Strangely, the N100 did not interrupt the song to give a voice prompt, making both indistinguishable. You can view pictures in JPG, GIF or BMP formats and the device plays back WMV video files. All the software for the media players, games (there’s a weird Pac Man clone on here), travel utilities, and navigation is stored in the system memory. There is a 3.5mm headset jack, 2 LEDs, a mini USB port and a miniSD card slot and a small speaker in back.

Maps of US and Canada come preloaded on the included miniSD card. The N100 is powered by a SiRFstarlll GPS chip and uses Navigon’s MobileNavigator 6 software. Enter an address or point of interest and the N100 will calculate your route by one of four different ways; fastest, optimum, shortest or scenic. Another common option is to avoid (or not) highways and toll roads. One of the very cool features is the bike or walking route options and this is where the LOOX shines. Of course, you have multi-stop trips, speed alerts and the feature I use the most, route recalculation.

Hitting the road

You have four options on the main page: Navigator, Multimedia, Utilities and settings.

I tap the Navigation icon and that takes almost a minute to launch. I have four choices from the main menu: my destination; new destination; take me home and voice command. Using voice command you name a destination and then in the future you can tap voice command and say the saved name of that destination, e.g. home. You can use voice commands to zoom in or out but be advised that you’ll have to save the destination with a name before using this feature.

Setting the destination the map shows a straight line route to that destination. After it calculates the route it shows a summary of the route. It took almost a full minute to load and initialize and then another minute to locate a satellite. The Maps are excellent and attractive; transmission is smooth with views in 2D and 3D with day or night colors. You can choose portrait or landscape screen mode. Icons are good on the first level but once you get past the first level things get a little hazy. Some of the graphics were tinted or shaded which gave me the (false) impression that they weren’t available.

Now I’m driving and the screen shows the current road and the name of the next road (most helpful). I am getting text and voice-guided turn by turn directions. Important to note the LOOX does not have text to speech functionality but it does announce major highways. In the lower left of the screen is a screen preview arrow and distance to the next turn. If you have 2 quick turns a second icon will appear to show that. The prompts were announced at appropriate distances. I went off route and it recalculated but that too was slow for my tastes.

I arrive at my destination and now, walking I’m carry the N100 and it feels solid and comfortable in my hand. This a better experience.

All-in-all

The Loox is attractive with extra face plates, nice looking maps and graphics. The interface is slow and slightly quirky. The Media functions are just OK. For music, the speaker is small but with earphone that gets better. Video seems rough and at times out of sync. Battery life is decent, about 5 hours. The screen, while being small, is really good and the maps and graphic’s are excellent. I found the N100 interface slow to the point that I sometimes hit it again because I thought it didn’t register my first command. I give the N100 C+ for the car and B+ for biking or walking. Priced at $499, overall I give the LOOX a B-

War creates all kinds of new weapons but this isn’t one of them — it’s just the scariest lawn care product I’ve ever seen. The MOW-AERATOR is a manly thing of beauty, strong 1/8 inch cold rolled steel made into sets of 1.5-inch spikes. It attaches to the rear tires of your lawn mover for great traction and aeration. Makes sense to me, I see how it would work but I wonder about liability. Just putting these spikes on your lawnmower tires seems tricky and dangerous. Now get out of my way and tie up the dog. I got mowing to do.

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The SmartShopper SS-101 helps you create a shopping list that’s completely error proof. In the simplest terms, the SmartShopper is a device to organize your shopping list. It records your voice, puts together your shopping list and prints it out.

Why?
Maybe it’s a guy thing:whenever I go grocery shopping, I always forget something. Heavens knows, I’ve tried using post-its on the refrigerator and that didn’t work. They’d fall and wind up lost under the fridge. Then I started using the voice memo on my cellphone but, that (for the obvious reason that you can’t modify the voice memo) also proved unworkable. Then, suddenly shopping got serious… my girlfriend moved in.

I turned to SmartShopper to make our shopping more efficient. It comes preloaded with a 2,500 word master-list of grocery items. Another useful feature is that you can edit your shopping list before you print it out by highlighting the item and deleting it. A neat money saving feature is you can flag items you have coupons for. You can even tell it quantities like a dozen beers… err a dozen roses.

The SmartShopper comes with pretty strong magnet so you can stick it on most refrigerators, wall mount it, or just leave it on the counter as a handheld device. It’s quite small (71/2’’ x 4’’ and 1 ¼ thick) and it runs on four double AA batteries (not included). The LCD has a 9 point font size which is easy enough to read. The voice recognition technology is Nuance’s VoCon 3200 which needs no training and works for everyone in the house. The box comes two rolls of common thermal paper making it easy enough to re-supply.

List time
The SmartShopper was pretty easy to set up. I took it out of the box, put in the batteries, and dropped it on the counter. As breakfast rolled around, I realized I was out of a few stables, Wheaties, water, and beer. I pressed the record button, started talking, and gave it my short shopping list. I adjusted the recording level and found that five or six inches is the best distance to talk to it. It displays my list in alphabetic order. Now I step back and let my girlfriend take over and she rattles off about 13 items while designating quantities. We check the list on the LCD screen and everything is in alphabetical order, grouped by categories — sweet.

On a roll
She’s getting into it, adding custom items like brand names so when I’m sent to the store I can’t come back with the wrong brand. Customizing is accomplished by going to the main menu and highlighting “library selection.” Up pops an alphabetic keyboard of sorts and you can type in custom items. This process is slow but not terrible when you consider that you only have to do it once. In that section, I found you can get creative and add errands, or other types of lists. She pushes the print button and the SmartShopper’s thermal printer, prints out the list. Organized and grouped by categories. Unluckily, for me the errand list is the first category to print so there is no missing it and I’m stuck picking up her dry cleaning, shoe repair and anything else she desires.

I (we) like the SmartShopper; it’s intuitive and easy to use. Before I would either buy on impulse (never go food shopping while hungry) or as I mentioned earlier I’d forget something. We have it on the fridge but we’re considering putting it on the counter top. I took it with me to see what that experience would be like if I couldn’t print (if I temporally ran out of paper). While using the screen it worked it just fine but was a tad too bulky to fit in my pocket. Additionally, the SmartShopper is not cheap at $150 but, when you think of the technology that’s involved (voice recognition, printing) the costs seems fair.

I hope the SmartShopper USA doesn’t turn me into a girly man who likes to shop, but my girlfriend said, and I quote, “When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping.” Words to live by.

Epson, one of the big boys in the projector business, loaned me the PowerLite Home Cinema 1080 for a test drive. The Home Cinema is the first 1080p, three-LCD projector priced less than $3,000 ($2,999). That price, in itself is a big deal considering that just three years ago you would be paying more than $30,000 for a 1080p projector. Besides the price, Epson didn’t cut any corners on the PowerLite Cinema.

The introduction of the PowerLite Home Cinema 1080 follows on the heels of the more expensive PowerLite Pro Cinema 1080 ($4,999). These are similar projectors with pretty much the same specs. The Pro model is sold and installed by ISF-certified installers. It comes packaged with a replacement bulb and ceiling mount and a three-year warranty. Also, there is a $300 mail-in-rebate that can be applied to the purchase of a screen that costs more than $300. Then there is the body color; Pro is black and Home is pearly white, but the bodies are very much the same and unlike the Pro, the home comes with only a two-year warranty.

Why a projector?
Truth be told, the best high-definition picture that you can see is from a home-theater projector using front projection. Not plasma, nor LCD, not even rear projection — front projection wins best picture every time, hands down. That fact seems obvious once you see the big picture.

What’s new in HD technology?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock you probably know that 1080p (progressive) is where high definition is at. Necessary to get the most from Blu-ray and HD DVD which are encoded in 1080p, the Home Cinema 1080 accomplishes true high-def 1080p without compression. It uses three LCD chips with 1,920×1,080 pixels on each chip and that’s a beautiful thing.

Well-connected
Epson is first again by offering HDMI 1.3 connectivity (1.3 is the newest HDMI standard) with “Deep Color” support. The back panel only has one HDMI port, component video, one 15-pin VGA for analog RGB, one composite, one S-video, one RS-232c, and D4/SCART.

Check it out
The PowerLite Home Cinema isn’t big — the footprint is 16-inches wide, 12-inches deep and 5-inches high. I plug in a HDMI cable (not included). All set now, I pick up the remote and power up. I access the menu and it is easy and intuitive with an advanced section for bias, hue and saturation adjustments. Pointing the projector at the screen on my wall I move the picture to the center of my screen using the two wheels on top of the projector. The lens shift capability (96-degree vertical, and 47-degree horizontal) means I can fit and project at almost any angle, but for the best picture results try to place the projector as close to the center of the screen as possible. Then, I focus the picture by moving the lens in much the same way you would with a SLR camera.

Watching a movie on a HD DVD player is outstanding. The brightness is very good with a contrast ratio 12,000:1 with dynamic iris, but note that this as an auto iris so the contrast number will change from scene to scene. For the lens, Epson uses its exclusive AccuCinema lens system that has 14 lenses, with two aspherical lenses that makes the picture uniform across the viewing area. For standard DVD, I use the Oppo DV-981HD DVD player which up converts to 720p and the picture also looks great.

I notice that there is some fan noise (slight whirring sound) in the quiet scenes. I have the setting in the high mode but when I switch the settings to the low mode, the noise drops significantly. Another advantage of the low setting is it extends the lamp life from 1,700 hours (at high mode) to 3,000 hours. Replacement bulbs cost $349, which is pretty standard. Keep in mind that this is on my table, so it’s pretty close (about three feet from me). For permanent installations you’ll want to use a shelf or ceiling mount. That should create enough distance to eliminate any sound issues.

The fan exhausts air out of the front but it’s on the side that is away from the light path. Good design, which also insures that there won’t be a problem with heat buildup if the PowerLite is mounted near a back wall. The only design aspect that I quibble with is both the air filter and lamp housing are accessed from the bottom of the projector. That’s definitely awkward if you have to clean the filter or replace the lamp, especially if the projector is mounted on the ceiling.

Epson’s Home Cinema can project a 10-foot wide picture with stunning clarity. The color, image quality, sharpness and detail in its high-def picture is excellent.

Every once in a while there is a product that’s a keeper and this is one. If you’ve been waiting for a really good 1080p projector at $3,000 then wait no more. Its going to be a while before someone else comes up with better quality at this price. In terms of value and picture quality the Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 1080 gets a solid A.

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