Click here to return to home page

Home of the
world-famous
Newstips Bulletin

< Click logo to return to home page

2010-06A

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

(c) Copyright 2007 Martin Winston and TwandaCorp - all rights reserved.

[Home] [For Press] [For Vendors] [Bulletins] [Back Issues] [PD Profile] [Contact Us] [Privacy]