|
Newstips Electronic Editorial Bulletin Issue # 2010-07a
All sizzling - steaks, sidewalks & stories
In this issue:
Antec coolers are hot to lap up... Unabashed plug for Definitive
Mythos 5... Meaty Fixmo MeetMe meets need to be less tedious;
lunch?... Amazing 16-language Franklin translator speaks
phrases... Free is going away for early Iconosys reflexed text
wares... Kent doubles order ingress from impressive press... Now
Steadicam needs just one to Tango... Special Report: Active 3D
glasses & seizures... Reviews: Amprobe TH-1, PowerMonkey
Explorer, New Expo boards, Aroma Home Cooling Eye Pillow,
AlcoHawk breath alcohol tester... plus our commentary on road
trip
Antec coolers are hot to lap up
Before the thermometer climbs one more degree, get a new Antec
notebook cooler for review. They can make your workspace slightly
more comfortable, but they can also help your laptop cope with
the heat & the components inside survive it. Ask Veronica.
Contact: Veronica Feldmeier, Antec Inc. (Fremont, CA)
510-770-2150 vfeldmeier@antec.com http://antec.com
Unabashed plug for Definitive Mythos 5
This isn't exactly a news hook, but it's a story we want to tell.
Years before Marty met Paul a happy accident brought him to the
Definitive booth at CES. Marty's background includes tons of
hours in audio recording studios, making him a stickler for
transparency, meaning whatever reproduces sound should not at all
change what you'd have heard where & when it originated. That day
at CES, Mythos 5 speakers hooked him as at a sweet spot for their
sound, where they would go & what Judie would tolerate. It took
years to make Definitive a sponsoring client & it wasn't about
the money. Contact: Paul DiComo, Definitive Technology (Owings
Mills, MD) 410-363-7148 paul.dicomo@definitivetech.com
http://DefinitiveTech.com
Meaty Fixmo MeetMe meets need to be less tedious; lunch?
The mobile life supports meetings even when most handsets make
them tough to set up, which is why MeetMe is a welcome member of
the Fixmo Tools for BlackBerry ($20 with a year of updates). It
appears on the handset's menu when you compose a mail message &
can automatically (you get to set options about that) insert
times you're available for a meeting. Also on the menu:
Meet4Lunch, which suggests full-hour slots between noon & 2. Ask
Rick. Contact: Rick Segal, Fixmo (Toronto, ON) 416-414-9726
rick@Fixmo.com http://Fixmo.com
Amazing 16-language Franklin translator speaks phrases
The 16 little flags on its key tops are a much bigger giveaway
than its size or its price: the handheld Franklin Explorer
EST4016 speaking 16-language phrase translator (street $89)
fields more than 800 phrases per language plus 60 save & recall
sentences. The battery is rechargeable, it has a built-in clock
with alarm & Aline can get one to you for review. Contact: Aline
Boutin, Franklin Electronic Publishers (Burlington, NJ)
609-386-2500x4434 aline_boutin@franklin.com http://franklin.com
Free is going away for early Iconosys reflexed text wares
The whole idea of stopping the driving distractions of texting
has been so important to Iconosys that they rushed out several
quick solutions to squelch alerts to incoming text messages &
auto-reply with more or less "I'll get back when I'm done
driving" messages. Free is now over & the product line is in
transition - for good reason. Details next time, or ask Wayne.
Contact: Wayne Irving II, Iconosys Inc. (Laguna Hills, CA)
949-322-3540 wi@iconosys.com http://iconosys.com
Kent doubles order ingress from impressive press
You guys don't often get a chance to understand how powerful your
influence really is on those people you reach, so we're sharing
some news that should make you feel mighty. You already know how
much coverage before Father's Day helped Boogie Board ($35) sales
at Brookstone (an initial 7500-piece order a month earlier turned
into more than 100,000-piece order by Dad's Day & orders for more
have arrived since), but here's one you don't know. On the day
after Father's Day, one piece ran in the online edition (only) of
a major newspaper & the orders that came in directly (don't yet
know the impact on Brookstone) more than doubled. Kevin thanks
you for helping them boogie & promises you won't be bored if you
ask to review the board. Contact: Kevin Oswald, Kent Displays
(Kent, OH) 330-673-8784x161 koswald@kentdisplays.com
http://KentDisplays.com
Now Steadicam needs just one to Tango
The first time we saw a camera crane (several decades ago) it was
the one that had been used to shoot "Wizard of Oz" & had a
footprint the size of a small fire engine. We were blown away by
the Steadicam Tango, a floor-to-ceiling all-mechanical boom arm
that can attach to a few of the Steadicam belt rigs to let a solo
camera operator on foot double as his or her own boom operator.
Get pix & info from Hilary. Contact: Hilary Araujo, Tiffen
Company (Hauppauge, NY) 631-609-3216 haraujo@tiffen.com
http:/.tiffen.com
Special Report: Active 3D glasses & seizures
Before US TV went all-digital, 30fps was the de rigueur frame
rate for every broadcast, with each frame composed of interlaced
fields sent at 60 per second. Prototype 3D with active LCD
glasses in that analog era disclosed a danger that derived from
the way they operate. Any 3D TV approach that uses active glasses
is alternately sending each eye a separate image using LCD
shutters (one big pixel per eye) to direct which eye gets which
perspective's view, all tied to a synchronizing signal to make
the alternating eyes switch at the right instant. Since each eye
only sees every other view, each eye is seeing 15 frames per
second. The attendant danger with that is that this is a blink
rate that can trigger epileptic attacks. Digital sets may offer
field rates between 30-240fps. Most sets (those without frame
rate multipliers) that deliver 720p or true 1080p (not 1080i)
frames have a 60fps rate; adapted to 3D, the effective 30fps
blink rate does not seem to deliver epileptic seizures. That
means that any combination of active glasses & display frame
rates that can still deliver an effective 15fps blink rate needs
to be redesigned to forbid that - either that or those glasses
will have to come with warning tags.
Special Report Bonus Review: Amprobe TH-1
A concern about both the innards of our gear & our bunker
workplace sent us searching for a precise way to measure them &
we were delighted to discover the Amprobe TH-1 Relative Humidity
& Temperature Probe, which we got in for review. It's a long,
flat instrument with a tapered end, showcasing 6 buttons& an LCD
along its flat front. An end cap has a swivel cover to expose or
protect its capacitive polymer film sensor. Our warm weather
concerns focus on heat versus moisture in gear; a hold button
lets us take a measurement without needing to squeeze in to see
it & a min/max button lets us keep it in place (overnight, for
example) to find how widely the temperature & humidity may vary.
We note that this makes its temperature measurements nice
adjuncts to what we get with our remote spot thermometers. Our
warm weather interests are primarily in higher relative humidity
(think: sauna), which can affect electronic components as well as
our better microphones; in the winter, low humidity can herald
electrostatic dangers. Bottom line: the Amprobe TH-1 Relative
Humidity & Temperature Probe is a very cool measuring tool for
the working environments both inside our gears & within our
personal workspace.
Special Report Bonus Review 2: PowerMonkey Explorer
The premise of the PowerMonkey Explorer sounded promising - use
the mains or a USB port or the sun to charge a little battery pod
& use it to keep your handheld gear going when its own battery no
longer can - so we asked for one to review. Some of what it does
is OK. The 2200mAH LiIon battery within is a pretty good choice
(lithium polymer would have been better) for delivering USB-level
power for a decent length of time, though the lumpy shape is not
friendly to pockets, the 700mA current cap may be a little short
for some devices, its cord is a separately losable piece &
apparently nobody explained to them that everything they want to
charge comes with a USB charging cord, so all the really ever
needed on it was a USB-A female, not the collection of tips that
comes with. The solar panels fold like a flip phone, which makes
them a little more pocket friendly & helps protect their active
surfaces. The packaging is luxuriant overkill: a molded hard
plastic case the size of a cigar box. Bottom line: for extended
travel where solar may be the only thing you can plug into, the
PowerMonkey Explorer comes with everything you need to make that
happen.
Special Report Bonus Review 3: New Expo boards
We sent out a back-to-school editorial call & one response got us
in the new Expo Neon Combo Pack & Expo Bonus Learning Board; one
look & we saw them as something kids may want to work or play
with even while school is out. The Neon combo is a (semantically,
you have to love this) a black white board that comes with bright
pink, orange & yellow dry erase markers. The Bonus Learning Board
is a plain white board on one side, a lined tablet (like those
sheets you used to learn printing & script) on the other & comes
with washable dry erase markers in 6 bright colors. OK, yes,
these are both kind of cool & fun for the office, too. Bottom
line: new Expo Neon Combo Pack & Expo Bonus Learning Board offer
fun at any age while still being very useful in promoting
literacy for kids & organization for grown-ups.
Special Report Bonus Review 4: Aroma Home Cooling Eye Pillow
For those of us not born on Krypton, the work we do often first
hits us in the eyes. We all know the trade-offs that make power
naps a valid approach, but short of that, we found another
alternative. Keep an Aroma Home Cooling Eye Pillow in the fridge
or freezer & when your eyes need a break, close them & rest them
under one of these. It looks like a sleep mask without a
headband, each eye's cushion filled with small beads & the whole
thing infused with mint & lavender oils. They block the light,
soothe your eyes & help a quick break feel like a luxuriant
respite for tired eyes. Bottom line: Aroma Home Cooling Eye
Pillows are a cool idea for keeping your work going even when
your eyes say nay.
Special Report Bonus Review 5: AlcoHawk breath alcohol tester
We were surprised that the AlcoHawk Slim Ultra Breath Alcohol
Tester it touts itself as a tester of alcohol on the breath, not
in the blood. It uses a semiconductor sensor, which can indicate
false positives for diabetics. For our tests, Marty had one
serving of The Macallan (18) & Judie had 2 Dirty Belvedere
Martinis; after half an hour, Judie measured .05 & Marty measured
.00. We also know (as you may) that breath alcohol measurement
can give high readings that are unrelated to blood alcohol, like
just after you use a mouthwash or breath spray. With this kind of
conditional accuracy & some suspicions (from our tests) of
inaccuracy, we believe that this product was designed more to
meet a price point than to provide any true indication of blood
alcohol. Bottom line: the AlcoHawk Slim Ultra Breath Alcohol
Tester is a sleekly handsome & compact product that offers an
easy way to provide some indication of alcohol on the breath.
Road trip
Son Ian is moving into a new place so Dad has to haul a truck
full of furniture to DC. It should be about a 9-10 hour drive
each way in a rented cargo van. We could geek it up with phones,
navigators & other stuff but driving is fatiguing enough without
gizmos that don't want to be neglected. The plan is one day up,
one night's sleep & one day back. If it's smooth sailing, we may
try a gadget or two, but no promises; if we do, we'll tell you
about it here. 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
|
