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Newstips Electronic Editorial Bulletin Issue # 2010-05a
Polish musician tries to play pickle loaf & other news
In this issue:
Warning: Dragon DoS... Antec debuts cooler notebook coolers...
Fixmo Tools 1.1 adds improvements... Franklin: When all other
test prep fails, they still have a prayer... BACtrack doesn't
cure alcoholics... NAB gets Steadicam sneak peeks... Special
Report: shooting 3D video ... Reviews: Toshiba Satellite T135,
Monster Cable 500HD HDMI cable, Kordz Pro HDMI cables, Gluvi,
Express Scribe... plus our commentary fon resurgence
Warning: Dragon Denial of Service attack with Office 2010
We installed (review runs next issue) the full release version of
Office 2010 & separately began reviewing Dragon Naturally
Speaking 10 Preferred. When following its suggestions for
enhancing accuracy, we identified a few hundred Word documents
for it & clicked OK. Its method of getting content from those
Word documents involves opening & closing them, but does not deal
with the dialog that asks about saving the template (dotm) file.
The result was 2 to 3 open dialog windows for every document it
tried to examine, which quickly ate up all of the 12GB of
available memory, overwrote the user interface (2 screens
flashing black then white & no Ctrl-Alt-Del response) &
ultimately requiring a hard reboot. Nuance responded that they
don't specify compatibility with Office 2010. Caveat emptor.
Antec debuts cooler notebook coolers
Just in time for the sunshine, Antec debuts 3 new notebook
coolers: Basic ($25), Mini ($30) & Designer ($40). Basic (for
screens up to 14") is passive but pretty, looking a bit like it
was inspired by a trendy music stand. Mini is a smaller,
half-of-home-plate design with a built-in fan & a fit for screens
up to 17". Designer sports an hourglass figure & a fit for up to
15" screens. Victoria can get you your choice for review.
Contact: Veronica Feldmeier, Antec Inc. (Fremont, CA)
510-770-2150 vfeldmeier@antec.com http://antec.com
Fixmo Tools 1.1 adds improvements
Beyond the jump from 6 applications to 10, new Fixmo Tools
BlackBerry Edition version 1.1 ($20 with a year of updates) adds
other improvements. It now automatically downloads new
applications as they arrive, supports multiple calendars in
Silencer & Undelete, improves the Flame Retardant user
experience, quickens its start-up time & keeps an even closer eye
on memory leaks. Ask Rick to get you a copy now. Contact: Rick
Segal, Fixmo (Toronto, ON) 416-414-9726 rick@Fixmo.com
http://Fixmo.com
When all other test prep fails, they still have a prayer
Franklin offers tons of handheld devices that can help students
improve language literacy, math skills, foreign languages & test
prep, but some students seek a different kind of help. For them,
2 Franklin handheld Bibles - the KJV570 King James & the NIV570
New International version - are each now under $50. Contact:
Aline Boutin, Franklin Electronic Publishers (Burlington, NJ)
609-386-2500x4434 aline_boutin@franklin.com http://franklin.com
BACtrack doesn't cure alcoholics
Alcohol dependency is not yet something that any single device
can control, though BACtrack blood alcohol content monitoring can
be a significant asset in monitoring adherence to the progress of
therapy. The greater role for BACtrack is among people who are
neither addicted nor dependent, but who occasionally drink & want
to be responsible about what they do next. Ask Keith. Contact:
Keith Nothacker, KHN SOLUTIONS (San Francisco CA)
415-693-9756x113 mailto:keith.nothacker@bactrack.com
http://bactrack.com
NAB got Steadicam sneak peeks
Imagine a lateral arm on a Steadicam that lets a small HD camera
swing down to a floor or up to a ceiling without compromising
that trademark smooth motion & you're halfway to meeting the new
Steadicam Tango, previewed at NAB & due to release later this
year. NAB also saw the debut of the new Steadicam Zephyr & its
vest assembly, created for bigger rigs up into the 20-30lb range
(which also describes the weight of more modest cameras mounted
in tandem for 3D). Hilary can get you details. Contact: Hilary
Araujo, Tiffen Company (Hauppauge, NY) 631-609-3216
haraujo@tiffen.com http:/.tiffen.com
Special Report: shooting 3D video
Let's ignore everything new about shooting 3D video & revisit all
the old-school wisdom about shooting & what 3D does to that. The
shooting has to happen with 2 adjacent optical paths (like twin
cameras or a 3D twin-lens camera) so in most cases, lighting
can't be on the camera (because from the separate eyes'
perspectives, the asymmetry will become a disturbing visual
element). On-camera miking also creates asymmetry challenges.
Lens choices can get crazy, too; consider the look of a single
very wide angle (not quite fisheye) lens on a close-up; do you
intuitively understand how to get an acceptable effect for the
same shot in 3D? If 3D is here to stay (we're not yet convinced),
its shooting requirements may collide with the requirement to
also present a good product in 2D. We accept that when it comes
to shooting & presenting in 3D, the technology is here, but we're
a bit less confident in the skill sets.
Special Report Bonus Review: Toshiba Satellite T135
Our first notebooks were a Toshiba 1000 & a Toshiba 1200, so we
took them up on their offer to review the Toshiba Satellite
T135D. It's a dual-core AMD Turion Neo X2 1600MHz CPU is running
Windows 7 Home Premium at 64 bits with 4GB of RAM. It has a
Webcam with facial recognition in the lid. Its ATI Radeon HD3200
GPU drives its 1366x768x32bit widescreen 13.3" display or to
displays plugged-into its side-mounted VGA or HDMI ports. As
delivered, 90% of its 300GB hard drive is free space. We found it
to be good for about 7 hours of runtime. It weighs in at 3lbs
12oz but feels heavier. The display cover glass reflects more
than we like, making it very hard to read outdoors or when
anything bright is being reflected. Online pricing is in the
mid-$500 range. Bottom line: the Toshiba Satellite T135 may be a
good choice for home or school usage, capably handling
applications from Office to Web browsing, photo viewing, video
viewing & video chats.
Special Report Bonus Review 2: Monster Cable 500HD HDMI cable
The Monster Cable 500HD-series HDMI cables, while far from the
top of their line, are rated for almost 5Gbps, which is healthy
for 1080 HD video with 8-bit color depth. We asked to review a
2-meter run as a signal patch between set-top boxes & could find
no flaw with its performance. As in other Monster products, the
plug housing is longer & more durable than most & includes a
molded Z-form strain relief. Bottom line: the 2-meter Monster
Cable 500HD HDMI cable we tested lived up to our expectations for
this well-engineered cable brand.
Special Report Bonus Review 3: Kordz Pro HDMI cables
Kordz is an Australian brand for Chinese-made cables that
CEDIA-level installers build into home theater set-ups, so we
asked their Rhode Island-based PR agency to have their
Sunnyvale-based US office send a 3-meter HDMI cable for review &
felt very global doing it. It's rated as High Speed under the
HDMI standard. While the plug shell is adequately robust & the
plug body does a good job of making firm electrical contact, we
were a bit disappointed to see no strain relief extension to the
plug body & no mating molding; a twist of the cable while holding
the plug in place continues into the plug body, so we would
suggest limiting use of these cables to install-once scenarios.
Bottom line: Kordz Pro Series HDMI cables provide a new
alternative for 8-bit HDMI installations.
Special Report Bonus Review 4: Gluvi
The back feels elastic, like stretch socks, while the front is a
thin, flexible plastic. The thing is called Gluvi, designed to
slip over a hotel room TV remote to keep you from getting its
cooties onto your hands & transferring them to your eyes or
mouth. You can probably get one for home if you tend to eat or
drink around a remote & spills are a way of life. There isn't
much else to say about it. Bottom line: Gluvi slides over a
remote like a sock over a foot & isolates your hand from contact
with any life forms that may lurk within.
Special Report Bonus Review 5: Express Scribe
While we were hunting up phone-related audio loggers, we came
across an interesting freebie from NCH Software: Express Scribe.
You can use a foot pedal or hot keys to start, stop, fast forward
or rewind the playback & speed up or slow down the playback
speed. You can e-mail yourself dictation in attachments & it can
automate workflows that can hook into the Microsoft Speech
Recognizer for Windows. Bottom line: anybody who ever has to
transcribe recordings into text will be delighted to have Express
Scribe on hand to help that happen.
Phone slam follow-up
Our phone slam last issue helped us find some excellent gear but
left way too many dangling wires under the desk. We attacked that
by building 4 of our own design phone line audio interfaces
inside the 4-line switch box. After drilling the holes for 3.5mm
audio jacks, here's what we cobbled together (4 times): we
connected an MOV (spike protector) across the red/green phone
line pair, connected a 600 Ohm isolation transformer primary to
one leg of that directly & to the other via a .015 microfarad
high Voltage capacitor (passes signal but blocks DC). We shunted
the transformer secondary with a parallel pair of 1N914 signal
diodes in opposite polarities (creates an 0.7V clipper/limiter)
then fed those leads through a pair of 0.1 microfarad 25V
capacitors (blocking any DX that might be on the USB audio
interface), one side to the jack tip/ring (combined), the other
to the sleeve. Parts cost less than $25, the tangle of dangle is
gone & audio quality tests as exactly what it needs to be for
audio logging.
Resurgence
You may have noticed that the pace of new products is picking up
again after a long lull. Sure, there are some "Pet Rock" market
blips (we won't be surprised if history shows the iPad & 3D TV to
be among them) but like popcorn kernels finally getting enough
heat, the rhythm of hot new ideas hitting the market is
accelerating. Summer & autumn promise to be interesting; the
holidays this year may prove amazing & next year's CES is one we
should all plan on hitting. What signs are you seeing? Contact:
Martin Winston, Newstips (Novelty, OH) 440-338-8400;
marty@Newstips.com http://Newstips.com
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Newstips Bulletin [Novelty, OH] +1.440.338.8400 http://Newstips.com
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