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2008-01B

Newstips Electronic Editorial Bulletin       Issue # 2008-01b

     This news just in while we're out in Las Vegas

NEW COLORS FOR JVC GUMY EARBUDS
 As if their hotly popular Gumy earbuds don't already fly off
 store shelves quickly enough! This month the JVC Gumy line picks
 up 3 new color choices: raspberry red, mint blue & melon green.
 Ask Chelsea to get you any combination for your coverage.
 Contact: Chelsea Vander Groef, JVC COMPANY OF AMERICA (Wayne, NJ)
 973-317-5000x5312 mailto:cvandergroef@jvc.com http://jvc.com

AT CES: WI-EX FLEXES CELL BAR MUSCLES
 The cell phone carriers could squeeze Wi-Ex out of business any
 time they want to really, truly deliver more signal to more
 places; as anybody at CES can tell from the eager crowds at the
 Wi-Ex booth, the carriers left plenty of room for improvement.
 The growing catalog of Wi-Ex solutions now includes the zBoost
 dual-band ($400) & single-band (PCS or CEL, $300) boosters, the
 in-car ($300) booster, the smaller-bubble personal boosters ($99
 & $169) & a very cool new handheld cellular signal strength
 reader. If you're still in LV, come by & see; or after the show,
 just let them know which of these interests you in doing a
 review. 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

WON'T POWER WILL POWER NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS
 We told you weeks ago about Won't Power (http://wont-power.com),
 the small aromatic ($15) that can defer hunger pangs 10-20
 minutes. The news now is that it's out of prototype & into
 production with a few improvements in packaging. The biggest
 change is a plastic inner cap with pepper-shaker-like holes; it
 both moderates the amount of aroma you're likely to inhale &
 helps seal the outer screw cap to prevent the aroma from leaking
 when its tiny vial jar isn't open. Dan would be delighted to have
 you try it; just ask. Contact: Dan Llewellyn, LDP LLC (Carlstadt
 NJ) 201-882-0344 mailto:dan@maxmax.com Http://MaxMax.com

AC/DC COMFY SPECIES
 With winter upon us, we especially worry about our smaller pets,
 like cats, small dogs, ferrets or rabbits, especially when they
 have to be on a porch or in a car; we have similar concerns about
 heat in the summer. The clever Komfort Pets small animal carrier
 ($300; medium & large sizes arrive in 2008) uses solid state
 technology to thermostatically maintain a consistently
 comfortable temperature within the carrier. We should also
 mention that it comes with everything you need to power it from
 DC in a car (through a lighter socket) or AC in a house (using an
 adapter that plugs into a standard AC wall socket to provide
 12VDC to its own lighter socket). Ask Bob. Contact: Bob Inello,
 KOMFORT PETS (Revere, MA) 781-485-0077
 mailto:rinello@komfortpets.com http://KomfortPets.com

SAMSON PENCIL CONDENSER MIKES: NAKED OR KIT
 Sensitive condenser mikes pick up a lot of nuances & are an
 essential tool for quality recording, so they're a favorite with
 acoustic musical instruments, but they also make a lot of sense
 with a camcorder or a field audio recorder (like a Zoom H4). The
 amazingly economical Samson C-02 Pencil Condenser Microphone
 matched pair (street $120) use small condenser elements in highly
 focused cardioid pattern (not quite shotgun but great for getting
 stereo from in front of you while rejecting surrounding noise).
 They each measure 0.8" diameter & 5.9" long & come complete with
 shock-mount clips & gold-plated XLR connectors. The Samson CL2
 Pencil Condenser Microphone stereo pair kit (street $300) include
 exchangeable omni & cardioid capsules, pop filters, wind screens,
 mike clips & shock mounts. Can mikes like these really make a
 difference? When you're ready for a review, ask Mark which to get
 to you. Contact: Mark Wilder, SAMSON TECHNOLOGIES (Hauppauge, NY)
 631-784-2200x142 mailto:mwilder@samsontech.com
 http://SamsonTech.com

TIFFEN AT CES NOW, PMA LATER WITH GREAT GEAR
 Beyond the new HT filters, Steadicam Flyer, Steadicam Merlin arm
 & vest & Dfx software, Attaras & Magnum Grounder tripods & other
 goodies they're showcasing at CES, there's a spate of new
 products being readied for the pro crowd at PMA at the other end
 of January. We'll tell you what we can as soon as we can; in the
 meantime, if you can find him at CES, ask Hilary. Contact: Hilary
 Araujo, TIFFEN COMPANY (Hauppauge, NY) 631-273-2500x1216
 mailto:haraujo@tiffen.com http:/.tiffen.com

DRIVES LIKE A VAULT THRIVE WHERE OTHERS FAULT
 Apricorn Aegis Vault drives look like many other paperback-size
 portable USB hard drives but they do a much more thorough job of
 making sure there's no unintentional sharing of their contents,
 thanks to 128-bit AES hardware encryption. The drive stores an
 administrator's password & as many as 3 unique user logins; this
 level of protection endures even if the 2.5" drive inside is
 removed from its shock mounting & case. For convenience or as a
 masquerade, it also supports both encrypted & unencrypted
 partitions. For even more protection, you can also upgrade to an
 Apricorn Aegis BIO drive with its integrated fingerprint scanner.
 Ask 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

TORNADO OR ITORNADO: WHICH TO CHOOSE?
 For the past year, people with a Tornado have pulled it out
 whenever they had to move files among pairs of Windows PCs
 because the whole operation is one step & as effortless as the
 task has ever become. Later this year, the new iTornado will have
 exactly the same functionality but will work with pairs of Macs
 or Windows PCs or one of each. So which is the right choice for
 whom? Obviously, for anybody with a Mac, the iTornado is the only
 choice; for others, it depends on whether they will only ever
 need to be plugging into a Mac or whether they work in a purely
 Windows world. Ask Clint to get you set up to try it on Windows
 now & to get you an iTornado for comparison when it's ready in
 just a couple of months. Contact: Clint Hughes, DATA DRIVE THRU
 (Dallas, TX) 972-897-7057 mailto:chughes@datadrivethru.com
 http://TheTornado.com

HOW TO SCORE A COOL PHONE & BE WITH VIRGIN
 The Wild Card is a very cool Kyocera phone available without any
 kind of a contract commitment for a penny less than a C-note from
 Virgin Mobile. It doesn't look that different from a normal
 phone, with the usual keys & LCD, until you open it up; within is
 a full QWERTY keyboard & a wide-screen color display. This is the
 first Virgin handset to handle streaming music, too & yes, it
 supports Bluetooth. You may think of Virgin Mobile as being all
 about cell service for people who can't handle high monthly
 charges or long-term contracts, but that doesn't mean that
 affordable phones have to be boring. Catch up with Corinne at
 CES. Contact: Corinne Nosal, VIRGIN MOBILE USA (Warren, NJ)
 908-607-4235 mailto:corinne.nosal@virginmobileusa.com
 http://virginmobileusa.com

ATLONA HELPS LENGTHEN HDMI RUNS
 Depending in part on your gear & in part on your cabling, there
 are limits to how long a run of HDMI cabling will let the signal
 survive without detriment (dropping, fading, color sparkles in
 the picture); nominally, it's about 15 feet, but Atlona has a
 couple of products to expand that. Their Atlona HDMI 1.3
 Equalizer ($80) can double that & sometimes more; their Atlona
 HDMI Powered Booster ($180) can support a run of up to 125 feet.
 In a world of things that can't quite connect with other things,
 Atlona products like these are a huge relief; ask Chris. Contact:
 Chris Bundy, ATLONA ELECTRONICS (San Jose, CA) 408-954-8782x113
 mailto:chris@lenexpo-electronics.com http://atlona.com

UPDATED IPHOTOMEASURE WEB SITE WORTH A LOOK
 The pixel extrapolation magic of iPhotoMeasure software is easier
 to explain in pictures than words & you'll find plenty of both at
 their updated Web site - enough to answer some of your questions
 & raise new ones. For example, why does the deluxe version add
 exporting to Excel worksheets & multiple 2D planar measurements?
 The software is easy enough to use, a bit harder to describe, but
 well worth your interest. Call Paul for a copy & answers & all.
 Contact: Paul Minor, DIGICONTRACTOR INC. (Tarzana, CA)
 818-888-3687 mailto:paul@iphotomeasure.com
 http://iPhotoMeasure.com

THE MOGO GO-GO GIRLS
 Funny, they don't look mnemonic. The small cadre of MoGo Go-Go
 Girls in the areas around CES are there to invite people (yes,
 especially press people) to the Tiger Direct contest as well as
 to the Bluetooth SIG & find out just why & how the MoGo Mouse is
 in each house. Contact: Jack Corrao, NEWTON PERIPHERALS (West
 Newton, MA) 858-792-0944 mailto:jack.corrao@newtonperipherals.com
 http://NewtonPeripherals.com

SPECIAL REPORT: RETAIL FROST WARNING
 Whenever things fall out of resonance, otherwise harmonious
 forces can become destructive elements; consider the case of the
 retailers who sell consumer electronics. Their critical selling
 season ended on Christmas Eve, leaving only the annual
 inventory-to-cash purge of clearance sales. The very newest gear
 that's actually available was on the shelf in the store by
 mid-November at the latest; of all the newer gear announced at
 CES, some will never come, some will come much later in the year
 & not much will appear at retail before March. The single biggest
 CE seller in January is the big screen TV for watching the Super
 Bowl, but don't take that out of context, either. Most CE retail
 sales in January & February will be fairly trivial consumable
 (like battery) or accessory (like cable) products. This year's
 usual spring thaw may be delayed (it most certainly will be
 reduced) by the continuing effects of the writers' strike. New
 cell phone sales cycles are largely locked into contract renewal
 cycles. New cameras will get bought again when the weather turns
 warmer, but not much before. Nor is there much to suggest a lot
 of energy in most other sectors, save one. It may prove to be a
 good season for computer-related products. Slippery footing
 increases breakage, ergo replacement purchases. Office 2007 will
 finally be coming to Mac. Power problems will fry a good number
 of power supplies, systems or drives. The homework season - ok,
 really the months spent playing the computer games that were
 presents or bought with holiday money - will churn some
 replacement sales of keyboards & mice & maybe monitors or
 speakers. It isn't a huge fiery spectacle in the context of
 retail sales, but it may be just enough heat to keep an extra
 frigid season from turning their numbers ice cold.

SPECIAL REPORT BONUS REVIEW: GENIUS G NOTE 7100
 When the power fails (way too often up here in the Blizzard
 Belt), we're often stuck working with pencils & legal pads,
 usually retyping instead of trying our automation to cope with
 reading the illegible. And we've certainly had plenty of
 opportunities to play with digitizers over the years, as well as
 with tablets & PDAs. We were attracted by the Genius G Note 7100
 because it looks like a minimal frame holding a standard legal
 pad. The pens & pad electronics both take batteries; as the pens
 write on the (actual paper) legal pad, the electronics store
 digitized page images that you can bring into your PC via USB,
 but not painlessly. Intriguingly, when plugged into a desktop
 running Vista, the tablet PC interface popped up & the G-Note
 also showed up as a removable drive. The 3 pages on it are in a
 proprietary vector format (DNT) that you have to install
 VisionObjects MyScript to see, read or translate; we find it less
 than genius that the product comes with only a 30-day trial
 version of that software, without which the hardware is pretty
 useless. We regard this as an unfinished engineering project
 forced to enter retail before it's ready; the complicated battery
 installation is not consumer friendly, there's nothing to hold
 the legal pad in place, the LCD display is barely legible & the
 software is only good for 30 days. That's too bad. This has the
 potential to be an innovatively helpful product, lighter than
 most notebook PCs & more portable & capable of significantly long
 periods of usage on a set of batteries, great for capturing
 sketches, signatures, notes, diagrams & more. Bottom line: if
 they ever get it past its shortcomings, we'd be very interested
 in this product.

SPECIAL REPORT BONUS REVIEW 2: FUJITSU LIFEBOOK S6510
 Our earlier review of the Fujitsu T2010 tablet convinced us that
 a tablet is not a best bet for us, so we went back to the well &
 worked with Fujitsu to configure a capable notebook. We ended up
 with a Fujitsu LifeBook S6510. You can look up the tech stuff
 (Core2Duo 2.4GHz, 14.1" display, DVD burner, fingerprint scanner,
 lots of networking) & it's impressive enough, but for us the keys
 to the kingdom are in usability. This one is aces & seems to
 outperform its 4lb weight. The keyboard is uncramped & has a good
 feel. The screen is big enough & legible enough to let real work
 get done. The networking is painless. Our only complaints involve
 the bundled leech-ware, like Norton, that we hate ever having
 touch a system; once purged of that stuff, it's a sweet machine.
 Bottom line: send us a bill, Fujitsu; you're not getting this one
 back.

SPECIAL REPORT BONUS REVIEW 3: CORINEX POWERLINE ETHERNET
 When we first moved into this old house, we spent a lot of
 work/money/effort making sure all the phone, cable TV & CAT 5
 wiring were in place; alas, somewhere between the basement & son
 Ian's bedroom, something got into the crawl space & bollixed that
 room's Ethernet connection. We tried boosting WiFi to cover it,
 but coverage was less than robust & we were reluctant to spend a
 whole-house wiring fee on one room that's only populated 3 months
 out of the year. We had tried some early power-line Ethernet
 solutions with disappointing results, but tech moves on, so when
 Corinex offered we decided to give their AV200 PowerLine Ethernet
 wall-mount kit a try. As Dr. Pournelle likes to remind us,
 sometimes the best thing you can say about a product is It Just
 Works. We plugged one of its two units into a basement power
 outlet & the router, then plugged the other into one of the
 bedroom's power outlets & the computer there. Abracadabra: a
 full-bodied Ethernet connection. Bottom line: Corinexcellent.

WHO'S NOT WHO AT CES
 Why do all those exhibitors think CES is so crucial? Is it the
 retailers? Is it the press? Is it the fear of somebody else
 walking away with a contract if they're not there? The answer, we
 think, is best discovered by starting at the end of the line,
 with the first name of the show, a consumer. For the most part,
 people buy things they encounter in their normal retail "orbits",
 so having a "shelf" presence at those retailers who not only sell
 the most in a category but whose aisles are most frequently
 visited is a huge plus for a product. Few of the big chains
 actually go shopping for specific products by coming to CES,
 though they do spend time there scoping out the competitive
 landscape to keep from committing to a product that might prove
 to be less than the best choice to be selling. Also note, getting
 into a big-box store is no assurance of staying there; in Marty's
 era at Radio Shack, for example, products were judged by the
 number of "turns" (restocking purchases) generated per retail
 shelf-foot. Getting onto those shelves is just one piece of the
 challenge; the challenge of creating consumer buyer demand is
 equally important. Advertising is part of that; we notice that
 Apple ads seldom talk specs, but usually try to equate the
 product with a desirable buyer attribute; if the people in a
 commercial look cool & happy when dancing with an iPod, then the
 iPod must be cool, even though dancing with one in public may not
 communicate that you're actually cool. Ads are considerably more
 expensive than PR, of course, but their message & presentation is
 completely in a buyer's control. How many results of press
 exposure can individually generate that much product interest,
 especially in a context of not getting repeated in any one
 program or publication? For a PR effort to show any measurable
 hard-dollar return on investment, it's essentially mandatory to
 reach a very large audience. Individually, exposure on the Today
 Show or the New York Times or Wall Street Journal, for example,
 can accomplish that. The emphasis on big-footprint media outlets
 is a fundamental requirement of a PR program with strong returns,
 but there are very few agencies who understand how to make that
 make sense for the press people at those outlets. That also leads
 to a ton of frustration for anybody reaching a less sizable
 audience, or for the PR programs that reach those people. The
 current fad at agencies is the myth that online media can be
 measured by the same yardstick; this, too, shall pass. There's
 also a belief in very vertical publications, but we've seen too
 many decades of the only guy in a company who can buy a
 particular product never actually reading the publications or
 pages where coverage of that product actually occurred. (We see
 stacks of those magazines still in their outer wrappers,
 unopened, that simply stay stacked for a few months until they
 migrate to the trash, or in a more caring environment, the
 recycling bin). Trade magazines suffer a lot of that same fate.
 But every one of those "readers" does actually see what's in the
 morning paper or on TV news or hear about it in drive-time radio
 coverage. About 1 in 20 of the registered press people at CES
 reaches a sizable enough audience to influence the fate of a
 product. What's perhaps the most noteworthy point of this is,
 given the current economics of most newsrooms, CES used to see
 almost twice as many big-footprint media people there in years
 past. Next time, we'll offer some suggestions on bending your own
 coverage to be even more influential. Contact: Martin Winston,
 NEWSTIPS (Novelty, OH) 440-338-8400; mailto: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.

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