|
Newstips Electronic Editorial Bulletin Issue # 2010-06a
News to excuse you from weeding
In this issue:
Dark Fleet soon to dock at Antec dealers... Definitive sound bars
add spousal approval to fidelity... Flashy Fixmo feature flags
friendlies... Doubly light summer reading a la Franklin... Kent
says take that, iPad: battery lasts years... Tiffen presents
Image Makers... Special Report: camcorder slump... Reviews: Sun
UV Station, 5 Barz, Ipswitch IMail Express, NCH WavePad audio
editor, Verbatim Tuff-'n'-Tiny drive... plus our commentary on
one for iPad.
Dark Fleet soon to dock at Antec dealers
It's one thing to build a great computer case & another to bring
advanced BYO features to a stunning new series with killer good
looks. The Antec Dark Fleet series of cases arrives soon at
computer stores; see them there or ask Veronica for a gallery or
hands-on. Contact: Veronica Feldmeier, Antec Inc. (Fremont, CA)
510-770-2150 vfeldmeier@antec.com http://antec.com
Definitive sound bars add spousal approval to fidelity
The factor that most often stymies better home theater audio is
spousal approval, which is least likely when there are the most
wires & speakers. The Mythos SSA-50 ($1099) or SSA-42 ($799)
5-discrete-channel single-housing surround solutions use
meticulous acoustic design with drivers, chambers & baffles that
separate the channels & direct them for full surround listening
without discrete rear speakers. Contact: Paul DiComo, Definitive
Technology (Owings Mills, MD) 410-363-7148
paul.dicomo@definitivetech.com http://DefinitiveTech.com
Flashy Fixmo feature flags friendlies
Just added in the latest update to Fixmo Tools BlackBerry Edition
($20 with a year of updates), Call Indicator lets you assign
distinctive LED blink colors that let you differentiate calls
from people you set up in the feature. It graduates from fun to
useful when your handset is set to silent mode. It's no trick to
get Rick to set you up for a review. Contact: Rick Segal, Fixmo
(Toronto, ON) 416-414-9726 rick@Fixmo.com http://Fixmo.com
Doubly light summer reading a la Franklin
You don't have to commit to a review to ask Aline to send you the
very cool new Franklin Discover DBL-2002 twin-LED Firefly Book
Light (online $9-12). It's split down the middle so the left half
clips to what you're reading & the right half (with twin
reflector LED heads) swivels to put the light where you want it.
Note: for summer reading outdoors, some online references suggest
that LED lights may attract fewer insects. Ask for one & try for
yourself. Contact: Aline Boutin, Franklin Electronic Publishers
(Burlington, NJ) 609-386-2500x4434 aline_boutin@franklin.com
http://franklin.com
Kent says take that, iPad: battery lasts years
With all due respect to Apple, not even the amazing iPad matches
the battery life of the fun little Boogie Board ($35). Sure, the
iPad can do a lot more, but the Boogie Board costs a lot less &
uses passive LCD technology, so it only taps its tiny battery
when you tap the button to clear its screen. Let Kevin put one in
your hands - whether or not it's for a side-by-side review.
Contact: Kevin Oswald, Kent Displays (Kent, OH) 330-673-8784x161
koswald@kentdisplays.com http://KentDisplays.com
Tiffen presents Image Makers
Not only is "Image Makers" the name of a new video series at
their Web site where pros show their tricks, it's also the name
of a new series of filter kits for emerging & pro videographers.
They have 5 such kits so far: fundamental, contrast, people, grad
& diffusion. Contact: Hilary Araujo, Tiffen Company (Hauppauge,
NY) 631-609-3216 haraujo@tiffen.com http:/.tiffen.com
Special Report: Camcorders slump
Years ago, as digital camcorders emerged & YouTube blossomed, the
camcorder category boomed; end users bought a third to a half
more of them than in previous years. Shooting videos remains
popular, though a camcorder is no longer everyone's first choice.
Camera accessory companies see the video modes in DSLRs making
the difference; retail chains say Flip-style pocket camcorders
get the credit; mobile moguls think their handsets are why. The
camcorder-faithful don't see alternatives offering quality,
long-throw zoom lenses at anything near the price range.
Everybody's a little bit right, but rather than focus on specific
hardware categories, we think the more telling story is that more
people than ever are shooting more hours of video than ever &
doing more with it than ever. The camcorder category may well be
slumping, but video as a consumer activity absolutely isn't.
Special Report Bonus Review: Sun UV Station
We came across Http://SolarMeter.com while researching
pseudo-vitamin (really hormone) D3; they have a $200 D3 meter
that's quite reliable, weighing lots of factors, but is
ultimately too fringy for most people. We did find a very
effective ultraviolet index (UVI) meter in their Sun UV Station,
a casserole-size clock face device that shows you the UVI
numerically, as green through violet color codes & with text
labeling. It comes with a removable foot stand, a strap for pole
mounting & a keyhole for nail head or hook mounting. The
top-mounted crystalline sensor responds to solar UV (not intended
for indoors) & we were unable to fool it. Bottom line: the Sun UV
Station is a remarkable, simple, accurate & outdoor
décor-friendly to know how intense a danger the sun presents,
moment by moment, with a true UVI reading.
Special Report Bonus Review 2: 5 Barz
We've had the 5 Barz Road Warrior around here for a few months,
waiting for a chance to give it a fair chance at working (which
meant waiting for better weather in case we had to fiddle
outside, then waiting for our handset to come back). Given our
past disappointments, we were in no hurry to believe that this
little signal booster could possibly work better. So naturally,
when we finally did break it out of its box, we gave it the worst
possible test, on the desktop of our basement "bunker" office,
where we usually get either a tentative one bar or a big X. So we
plugged it in, turned it on & saw our handset quickly pop up to 5
bars & EDGE - not quite 3G, but one heck of a lot better than
we've had before. The bad news is that the big boost in bars
comes from the handset holder in the package; at 6", it drops
from 5 bars to 3; at 12" it has almost no effect. We'll probably
compensate with a wired or BT headset. Bottom line: the
deceptively simple 5 Barz Road Warrior really does provide
significant cell signal boosts under almost impossible
circumstances & we're both surprised & grateful.
Special Report Bonus Review 3: Ipswitch IMail Express
During our Project Yippie coverage, we mentioned our selection of
Ipswitch IMail Express (a free version, appropriate only because
of our small user count; normally it's a huge budget-cutter for
SMB installations who tire of funding MS Exchange). It's a
well-crafted mail server that we use for POP3 & SMTP (it can also
support IMAP4 & LDAP) that made it easy to set up mail service on
several domains, define our users & their aliases (a trick we use
to trigger Outlook rules) & then just work. We reach it via a
Gigabit switch, so our desktop spends a lot less time on mail
tasks, even after we dropped the fetch interval to just 1 minute.
Our favorite part is not waiting for an ISP ticket process to
make changes; we can do just about anything in seconds. Bottom
line: Ipswitch IMail Express is a deft, adroit, easy & capable
mail server.
Special Report Bonus Review 4: NCH WavePad audio editor
We didn't want to open up our broadcast-level apps for the simple
audio editing chores that result from our phone call logging (for
which we use the NCH VRS Recording System) so we went back to NCH
for their WavePad Sound Editor Software. It readily handles
cut-paste-trim level chores but also offers a ton of audio
effects, including the ability to disguise a voice. Despite its
name, it handles dozens of audio file formats & can do batch
conversions. The downside of this & other NCH products is their
practice of incorporating menu items that end up downloading
additional software & generally costing more money; we consider
that "ambush selling"; that said, their products all work very
well. Bottom line: for utility audio file editing & then some,
NCH WavePad Master's Edition Sound Editor Software is a great
choice.
Special Report Bonus Review 5: Verbatim Tuff-'n'-Tiny drive
The dimensions tell the story for the new Verbatim Tuff-'n'-Tiny
USB flash drive: 2mm thick by an inch by half an inch (about the
size of a zipper pull; almost exactly half the size of an SD
card), less than an ounce & holding 2, 4, 8 or 16GB. There are no
moving parts; its black back is the insulated underside of its
printed circuit board, exposing the connection fingers it needs
to make contact with a USB A jack. Bottom line: the Verbatim
Tuff-'n'-Tiny USB flash drive is a nearly weightless way to carry
sizable chunks of data
One for iPad
We never formally reviewed the iPad, but a recent breakfast with
a friend who owns one has softened our stance on it. He's an
instrument-rated pilot (his "day job" is as a TV weatherman) who
got it as a cockpit alternative to the fat books of per-airport
instrument landing settings. That certainly validates his choice
to buy it, but the demo that softened our stance was of its eBook
reader, in landscape mode, displaying 2 book pages side by side
(something we haven't yet seen the dedicated eReaders doing
well). So that's one for Apple, and no sour grapes. Contact:
Martin Winston, Newstips (Novelty, OH) 440-338-8400;
marty@Newstips.com http://Newstips.com
# # #
Newstips Bulletin [Novelty, OH] +1.440.338.8400 http://Newstips.com
|
