Newstips Electronic Editorial Bulletin       Issue # 2007-12d

       News for a week of cleaning up afterwards

CHERRY PICKS
 We're putting this item up top for those of you who think we
 haven't been talking about Cherry Picks just because you never
 read all the way to the bottom, where we usually deal with it.
 Cherry Picks is at The Wynn (Lafite ballrooms; use the tour bus
 entrance, between the main entrance & The Venetian, to skip the
 long snaking walk through the lobby) from 9AM to noon. We have a
 record low number of winners this round, a record high press
 eating capacity & even better food than before; come & come
 hungry. Since the program portion will be shorter, you can have a
 little more mingle-time with the winners before lunch arrives.
 Also, to save everybody the haul, Marty decided to ship you the
 press gift bags the week after CES; make sure he has your
 shipping address.

DATA DRIVE THRU AT CES: SURPRISES
 When the new iTornado blows into Las Vegas, it may actually calm
 the storms that so often erupt when people try to move files
 between PCs & Macs. While that's the hottest new item in the Data
 Drive Thru booth, it absolutely isn't the only one. You can get a
 preview of some of the new retractable products on the Web pages
 they just updated but you'll have to hit the booth to see them
 all. Ask Clint. Contact: Clint Hughes, DATA DRIVE THRU (Dallas,
 TX) 972-897-7057 mailto:chughes@datadrivethru.com
 http://TheTornado.com

JVC AT CES: NEWS & DEBUTS
 If you can't make the annual JVC press breakfast briefing
 (Tuesday, 8-9AM at Caesar's), make an appointment for their new
 product showroom to see amazing new gear. There are some slender
 mind-benders in their new Ultraslim LCD line-up of 32/42/47"
 sets, the new paperback-slender evolution in their Everio hard
 disk camcorder line, demos of the smoothest & crispest TV
 pictures you've ever seen, new frontiers in LCoS video projectors
 & some ear gear to make your mouth water. Contact: Chelsea Vander
 Groef, JVC COMPANY OF AMERICA (Wayne, NJ) 973-317-5000x5312
 mailto:cvandergroef@jvc.com http://jvc.com

SAMSON AT CES: MIKE IT LIKE YOU LIKE IT
 There are a lot of reasons to look up Samson at CES, from their
 incredible Zoom H2 & Zoom H4 handheld audio recording studios to
 the G-Track USB condenser mike (designed for musicians but now
 the Cadillac of podcaster mikes) to their new Media One studio
 monitors. OK, that's far from all & the surprises are also worth
 stopping by to see. Ask Mark. Contact: Mark Wilder, SAMSON
 TECHNOLOGIES (Hauppauge, NY) 631-784-2200x142
 mailto:mwilder@samsontech.com http://SamsonTech.com

APRICORN MAY HELP YOUR CABLE BOX DVR HOLD MORE
 Apricorn now offers eSATA DVR Xpander drives (500GB $179, 750GB
 $279, 1TB $379) that can plug into Scientific Atlanta Explorer
 8300HD cable boxes to add significantly to their capacity
 (280-562 hours of SD content or 62-125 hours of HD content).
 Before you ask for one to review, check with your cable system to
 make sure they have that capability turned on for your box; if it
 is, tell Michelle. Contact: Michelle Fischer, APRICORN INC.
 (Poway, CA) 858-513-4480 mailto:mfischer@apricorn.com
 http://apricorn.com AGENCY CONTACT: Jennifer Olson 415-402-0230
 mailto:jennifer@atomicpr.com

NEW IPHOTOMEASURE RELEASE DOES SOME 3D TRICKS
 Like always, the new release of iPhotoMeasure starts with just a
 snapshot, then some of its newest tricks step in. In seconds &
 with only a little help from you, it superimposes a 3D grid
 complete with measurements. With this new version, you don't have
 to shoot square-on in order to get accurate measurements, you
 don't need a prepared target & it can even measure around
 circles. Get a copy. Contact: Paul Minor, DIGICONTRACTOR INC.
 (Tarzana, CA) 818-888-3687 mailto:paul@iphotomeasure.com
 http://iPhotoMeasure.com

STEADY PILOT FLYING TO CES
 This year, the list of Steadicam models ever presented to a CES
 crowd grows to include the intriguing Steadicam Pilot
 ($3000-3500, about half the price of the venerated Steadicam
 Flyer). The Pilot handled cameras in the 2-10 pound range,
 meaning most of the newer pro gear. Its (accessory) arm & vest,
 by the way, are about the same size as the similar add-on for the
 consumer-to-prosumer scale Steadicam Merlin. It is indeed small
 enough to wear under a tuxedo, Mr. Bond; let H give you a
 briefing. Contact: Hilary Araujo, TIFFEN COMPANY (Hauppauge, NY)
 631-273-2500x1216 mailto:haraujo@tiffen.com http:/.tiffen.com

WINTER WEATHER PET SAFETY GETS ELECTRONIC BOOST
 The cat or dog that has to stay in the car while you run into the
 store doesn't need long to come to harm when the weather is
 severely cold; a Komfort Pets carrier plugs into the lighter
 socket to keep your pet in a thermostatically governed comfort
 zone, thanks to solid state Peltier devices that can also cool
 your pet during extreme summer heat. Today, only a small size
 carrier is available with this new technology; medium comes out
 this winter & large this spring. Ask Robert. Contact: Bob Inello,
 KOMFORT PETS (Revere, MA) 781-485-0077
 mailto:rinello@komfortpets.com http://KomfortPets.com

PER MONTH OR PER MINUTE WITH NO GOTCHAS IN IT
 CES goers will want to stop by Virgin Mobile to check out the
 cool handsets that people can honest to gosh get without
 enlisting for a 2-year hitch. Virgin makes cell service available
 to a much broader swath of population by letting customers buy
 the phone (all under $100, some as low as free) & buy prepaid
 months or minutes. That's also true for messaging plans; for
 people who message more than talk, it's a much more flexible &
 generally less expensive way to pay for only what you use. If you
 can't wait for CES, Corinne's ready to fill you in now & yes,
 they'd love to have you review them. Contact: Corinne Nosal,
 VIRGIN MOBILE USA (Warren, NJ) 908-607-4235
 mailto:corinne.nosal@virginmobileusa.com
 http://virginmobileusa.com

BARS IN CARS & SOON MINI BUBBLES TOO
 There are still more ways Wi-Ex makes cell bars taller & some of
 them work in spaces quite smaller, but like their bigger
 siblings, each Wi-Ex repeater/amplifier product creates a bubble
 of stronger cell coverage where you need it - even in your car.
 The car model ($300) uses an external magnetic mount antenna
 (think about a trunk lid mount), an internal patch antenna (think
 ceiling), a small repeater/amplifier unit & a DC connection
 through the lighter socket. Everybody in the car with a PCS or
 CEL band carrier (just about everybody except Nextel) gets better
 signal strength, fewer drops & better data rates. There are also
 two personal-scale models coming in 2008 that can create smaller
 4-6' boosted coverage bubbles for places like dorm or hotel
 rooms, or small spaces within a home or apartment. One of these
 models ($169) is as wireless as the other zBoost products; the
 other ($99) uses a small, wire-connected patch antenna that
 sticks on the back of a phone. It's all going to be at CES; you
 know whom to call. Contact: Sharon Cuppett, WI-EX INC. (Norcross,
 GA) 770-239-5475x6380 mailto:scuppett@wi-ex.com http://wi-ex.com
 AGENCY CONTACT: Deanna Anderson 404-759-1890
 mailto:danderson705@comcast.net

BRINGING HOME THEATER TWICE TO A DUAL DISPLAY PC IN 2Q
 The chances are pretty good that your PC graphics card supports
 dual monitors & many of you are running that way; recent graphics
 cards generally have a pair of DVI connectors. Many of these
 monitors are offering 1080 or more vertical lines of resolution,
 offer both DVI & HDMI inputs (as well as others) & can double as
 HDTV monitors to take a feed from a high def cable box, disc
 drive or camcorder. Now Atlona is bringing a piece to the party
 that can save you from a ton of back-panel rewiring. Their 4x2
 HDMI matrix switch (coming 2Q08) lets you select any of 4 HDMI
 inputs for each of 2 HDMI outputs. You can connect your 2
 monitors to the outputs, your graphics card to 2 of the inputs &
 any two other high def gizmos to the other two. Then you can push
 a button to put your choice of inputs on each monitor. Of course,
 it also makes perfect sense working where it was originally
 intended, in a home theater installation. No matter which way
 your coverage interests go, talk to Chris. Contact: Chris Bundy,
 ATLONA ELECTRONICS (San Jose, CA) 408-954-8782x113
 mailto:chris@lenexpo-electronics.com http://atlona.com

SHAOLIN SLIPPERS SEND ACCUPRESSURE AFOOT
 They call these Refleslipper Shaolin Slippers ($49.95 in
 S/M/L/XL) because their design was inspired by the acupressure
 practices in many Shaolin temples in the An Fei province of South
 China. The priests wore shoes with wooden pins. This
 interpretation substitutes a more comfortable flexible rubber
 knobby "fingertips" for those pins, providing more stimulation
 for a wearer than traditional flat or padded soles. While these
 slippers are an open sandal design, the materials are
 anti-microbial, another boon to foot health. Greg can get you a
 pair to wear & review. Contact: Greg Schwartz, GADGET UNIVERSE
 (Sylmar, CA) 818-833-4860x371 mailto:gregs@gadgetuniverse.com
 http://GadgetUniverse.com

PRIVACY SOLUTION RESOLUTION
 It's that moment when old enterprise budgets get spent out & the
 new budget's funding starts spinning in; we have a related story
 suggestion you may find timely. Given that so many of us have had
 our privacy compromised by more than 200 million lost data
 records since 2005, ask those companies you cover what new
 protections they're putting into place for 2008. If we may be so
 bold, you might also think to ask whose solutions they
 considered, which one they've chosen & why. When they hedge their
 answers, you may have a different story, about their low regard
 for customer privacy & their nonchalance over the potential for
 enormous liability. For more of a briefing on these & related
 topics, ask Eric. Contact: Eric Lewis, GUARDIAN EDGE (San
 Francisco CA) 415-683-2299 mailto:elewis@guardianedge.com
 http://GuardianEdge.com

NOW CHEMICAL IR LIGHT STICKS IN TWO SIZES
 You've seen the long plastic tubes with the vial inside that you
 break then shake to get a bright glow; Cyalume (mentioned here
 only for historical background) established itself decades ago
 with bright green & now provides blue, red, orange, yellow &
 other colors. MaxMax took this chemical approach to light outside
 the visible spectrum to create its own infrared light sticks,
 which invisibly light up dark places in ways that IR-sensitive or
 night vision gear can see. They're now available in 2 lengths: a
 1.5" model that provides light for up to 3 hours (60 cents) & a
 6" model good for up to 8 hours ($1.50). Among the many
 applications: people who work a plant's night shift & run into
 trouble in the company parking lot can light one up to alert the
 security cameras & get help in a way the bad guys can't detect.
 Ask Dan. Contact: Dan Llewellyn, LDP LLC (Carlstadt NJ)
 201-882-0344 mailto:dan@maxmax.com Http://MaxMax.com

X54 MOGO MOUSE SELLS OUT FIRST RUN
 How can you tell when a tech product's a hit? It's hard to put
 your hands on it, which just happened to the X54 MoGo Mouse
 products. Retailer & OEM orders wildly outpaced production
 planning; the factory is ramping up production volumes but it
 will still be several more weeks before they'll be able to catch
 up & get past the back-orders. Jack's not crazy; he grabbed
 enough units to cover press interests & needs (after all, that's
 where a lot of the demand originates). If you haven't seen it
 yet, you can still ask now, or see it at CES (in the Bluetooth
 SIG booth or at Showstoppers or ask a MoGo Go-Go Girl where); let
 him know if you need a BT2 adapter (for gear with BT 1.x or no
 Bluetooth at all) or a USB charging adapter (if you don't have an
 X54 slot). Contact: Jack Corrao, NEWTON PERIPHERALS (West Newton,
 MA) 858-792-0944 mailto:jack.corrao@newtonperipherals.com
 http://NewtonPeripherals.com

SPECIAL REPORT: BLUE GOING BLU TOO
 Joone is the founder of Digital Playground, something of the BMOC
 in the adult entertainment industry & every bit as much a geek as
 the rest of us. We reported a year ago that the porn business is
 eagerly pursuing high-def content production & they've been eager
 to distribute it on discs in high def. Joone was the first out,
 using a Microsoft high def WMV compression to fit a
 feature-length production onto a red-laser DVD. His HD release of
 the first million-dollar porn production ("Pirates") was quickly
 released on HD-DVD; a year ago, he told us that he explored
 Blu-Ray but nobody was offering capacity to his productions. That
 barrier just fell & last week, his studio announced its first
 Blu-Ray releases. It isn't without its challenges. Blu-Ray costs
 a significant amount more to reproduce (about triple the cost per
 disc of HD-DVD); he's going ahead with it because of the
 installed base of Blue-Ray discs in Sony PS3 machines & because
 those users are demographically representative of porn consumers.
 On that topic, he's done extensive testing of all sorts of
 Blu-Ray players & finds the decks slow & clunky, taking long
 times to boot or shift gears, while a PS3 costing the same or
 less is proving a very nimble Blu-Ray player; Joone recommends
 the PS3 over the decks, even if you never intend to play games.
 There's historical significance to all this; breaking the ice on
 Blu-Ray means that the sizable population segment of adult
 content consumers can choose between HD-DVD & Blu-Ray without
 losing access to materials they wish to view, which was not the
 case when this slice of the marketplace shifted the tides away
 from Beta & into VHS. With more mainstream studio content also
 available in both formats, short of dual-standard players,
 consumers will have no clear way to choose which format has a
 future.

SPECIAL REPORT BONUS REVIEW: CS3 PROD'N PREMIUM (PRELIM)
 Long-time readers know that we've had tons of troubles in past
 efforts to install various Adobe products here. We got to the
 point where once it failed, we were less & less willing to
 indulge the long hours of technical support efforts. Adobe, still
 patient with us, provided Creative Suite 3 (CS3) Production
 Premium, almost half a bookshelf of software & documentation.
 True to our troubled past, our first effort to install it
 immediately returned an error, which we shared with them.
 Sometime later, their PR ambassador responded with a link to a
 third-party Web page that cited the error & suggested registering
 a couple of system DLLs (an action that we still believe the
 installation routines could & should take care of). We followed
 that advice &, by gosh, it did install. We also had a second
 system we had just brought up under Vista & were able to install
 it there, problem-free. Unlike previous "adventures" there was no
 suggestion to dismount, remove or uninstall other system
 components in order to finish the installation. There is a lot of
 depth here & we have only had time to skim it a bit. So far, we
 note that there is a unique argot (application of terms within
 language in a manner foreign to common usage or understanding) to
 their calling out of parts & functions; it will take some time,
 trial & error to work past that. We're on the case. Bottom line:
 yet to come.

SPECIAL REPORT BONUS REVIEW 2: COM ONE BT STEREO HEADSET
 When Bluetooth initially arrived, we were all playing Lt. Uhura,
 sticking headsets on one ear & talking to our phones (later,
 other things, too) without wires. We watched with eyebrows
 unfurled as that little idea became first smaller, then larger,
 then bejeweled, then something of a sideshow of their own. In the
 past several months, as stereo became more of a mandate (for
 Bluetooth with music players & phones that play music & other
 A2DP gear), it's been strange watching all the
 transmogriphication of devices that sought to reach the second
 ear. Our first nice surprise was the Motorola MotoROKR S9, a
 behind-the-head in-ear stereo pair that looked like a modern
 Italian sculptor had super-sized a staple. Our newest nice
 surprise is the Com One Mic Bluetooth Stereo Headset. This too
 has a flexible band that goes behind the neck, then sweeping
 curves that bring the band over the ear shell to rest its foam
 earpieces over (not in) the ear. Like any acoustic device, the
 larger diaphragm surface significantly helps the audio quality.
 The right ear has an intuitive button layout: "trigger" (on/off,
 on/off-hook & pairing) in the middle, audio plus at the top &
 minus at the bottom, shuttle forward in the front & reverse in
 the back. The Lithium Polymer batteries are rated 6.5 hours per
 3-hour charge. Bottom line: better audio, more comfort &
 hard-to-forget controls make this an appealing solution for most
 Bluetooth users.

SPECIAL REPORT BONUS REVIEW 3: 5-HOUR ENERGY
 We try to review things that can have an impact on a journalist's
 workday as well as on your coverage themes, so we asked for
 samples of 5-Hour Energy vitamin supplement energy drink in
 2-ounce "shot" bottles with no need to refrigerate. The
 literature claims energy, alertness & focus as its benefits; we
 don't entirely agree. Focus, especially, seems extraordinarily
 difficult after consuming this concoction; in our experience, 2
 generous shots of Scotch in 15 minutes leaves more mental focus
 than this did; writing while still under its influence (as we are
 now) is challenging. We won't fault it on energy, since it
 doesn't seem to sap or drain us, but there isn't the frenetic
 rush of amphetamines or (quite) the jitters of a caffeine
 overload. The manual warned of a niacin rush (skin feels hot &
 itchy) for some users; we didn't experience that. In terms of the
 energy it imparts, it's more than Red Bull or coffee but less
 than a Bawls drink. Bottom line: given the excellent portability
 of the package, 5-Hour Energy may serve well as a countermeasure
 for sleepiness. As a less portable but more satisfying
 countermeasure, see our next review, below.

SPECIAL REPORT BONUS REVIEW 4: SAECO ODEA GIRO
 Don't let your spell checker choke on this name: the Saeco
 (pronounced Sigh-Yay-Koh) Odea (Oh-Day-Yah) Orange countertop
 cappuccino/espresso/coffee maker makes one or two cups at a time,
 with just-in-time grinding & brewing. This is our favorite
 kitchen appliance of the millennium, so it merits some
 description & explanation. You load whole coffee beans on the top
 & water in a side chamber. There's a dial to set the size of the
 cup you want to fill, a button to tell it whether to brew one cup
 or two (it uses a twin spout so you can either center one cup or
 put a pair together) & a button to set the flavor & aroma to
 mild, medium or strong. Another button selects whether the spigot
 on the left will spout hot water or steam when you open its
 valve; we've used that to make hot tea a cup at a time. There's a
 power switch on the side to save energy when the system is going
 to be idle for a while. Once you select your cup count, cup size
 & strength & push the button, the internal automation is
 remarkable. (Did you make the brew too strong? Thin it out with a
 little hot water from the spout). The grinder (you can set the
 fineness of the grind any time) creates exactly enough ground
 coffee to compress into a disc for the brew quantity you selected
 & once the fresh brew comes piping hot out of the delivery
 spouts, discards the used disc into a collection chamber. Front
 panel lights warn when the coffee bean chamber or water chamber
 needs filling, when the collection chamber needs emptying, when
 the machine has warmed up, when removable pieces aren't back
 where they belong, when it's time to clean something & when
 power-on diagnostics are running. To make cappuccino, before
 starting the brewing process, use the steam port to first warm,
 then froth the milk, cream or half & half (about a finger deep;
 you can add & stir in sugar before doing this for a sweeter
 drink); we urge you to get glass cups because the sight of the
 brew topping the froth (Saeco calls it their "glamour shot") is
 thrilling. We made arrangements to include one of these in our TV
 holiday gift segment, so we had to practice with the unit over
 the weekend; now Marty has to buy one for the house. Bottom line:
 this makes the best coffee, cappuccino & espresso we have ever
 tasted from anything or anywhere. It merits a rarely awarded
 Newstips Squeal of Approval.

REMEMBERING THE 10-WORD RULE
 About a week before the first Newstips Bulletin ever (the first
 issue was called "Tips. Tidbits & Teasers" & reached more
 recipients by fax than by the only alternative at that moment,
 MCI Mail), we spent some time with then EIC Jonathan Sachs at
 InfoWorld. Marty had noticed that nothing in the news section
 ever came from press releases & no press release ever went
 anywhere except the new-products section. Marty asked Jonathan,
 "Where does news come from?" Jonathan did a spit take & answered,
 "You ought to know." Marty responded, "So should you"; Jonathan
 invited Marty to come into the offices & together, they
 investigated the frontward flow of releases & the
 backward-to-the-source flow of news-section coverage. There were
 moments of discovery & epiphany that were seminal in creating the
 Newstips Bulletin in those early days of the 1980s; among those
 was a personal pronouncement from Sachs that proved to be more
 universal than he knew. He said, "Starting with the headline, I
 give a press release 10 words to give me a reason to read the
 next 10 & if it doesn't, I won't". As much as you suffer
 violations of that in the pre-trade-show tsunami of PR spam, be
 grateful that you're never exposed to the first drafts of the
 product submissions to Cherry Picks. As for Marty, well, stress
 is his friend. Contact: Martin Winston, NEWSTIPS (Novelty, OH)
 440-338-8400; mailto:marty@newstips.com http://Newstips.com

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