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Newstips Electronic Editorial Bulletin Issue # 2010-04c
News in two dimensions can still run deep
In this issue:
Antec versus the monorails... Perfect people don't need Fixmo
tools... Franklin covers words to The Word in Spanish... More
schmoozer than boozers among BACtrack users... Tiffen gear as PC
accessory accessories... Special Report: Microsoft Outlook
stumbles... Reviews: OmniPage/PaperPort, Apricorn Aegis Padlock
drive, Hoover Linx Cordless Stick Vac, Monster LightSpeed 100,
Targus Travel Power Outlets... plus our commentary on phones
Antec versus the monorails
Imagine your house having just one main power outlet with a 250
Amp circuit breaker. A zillion cube taps may power absolutely
everything, but that's asking for trouble: it's not as safe, it
creates waste heat, it lets wider power variations flow through
to everything plugged in & any one thing failing can potentially
crash it all. It's a lot like that inside a computer power supply
where brands with single-rail supplies would rather make you
believe they're somehow beefier. Antec multiple-rail designs
split higher-power among several power buses for better
reliability, better stability & cooler, quieter operation. Ask
Victoria. Contact: Veronica Feldmeier, Antec Inc. (Fremont, CA)
510-770-2150 vfeldmeier@antec.com http://antec.com
Perfect people don't need Fixmo tools
If you're perfect, you probably don't need Fixmo Tools BlackBerry
Edition ($20 with a year of updates). You probably never delete
anything by accident, never send a flame message you later
regret, never deal with a dead battery, never let a handset
interrupt a meeting, never get memory gout, never need to edit a
message you reply to or forward. Any of you not in that
never-never land are invited to send your BB PIN to Rick to get a
copy to review. Contact: Rick Segal, Fixmo (Toronto, ON)
416-414-9726 rick@Fixmo.com http://Fixmo.com
Franklin covers words to The Word in Spanish
See http://franklinespanol.com for some great products to tell
about If you write for a Spanish-speaking audience. There are
both Spanish & Spanish-English products there (including some for
kids), from dictionaries to the Bible (including Santa Biblia
Reina-Valera 1960). Ask Aline. Contact: Aline Boutin, Franklin
Electronic Publishers (Burlington, NJ) 609-386-2500x4434
aline_boutin@franklin.com http://franklin.com
More schmoozer than boozers among BACtrack users
Often, when people first hear about BACtrack personal
breathalyzer products, their first thought is that it's an
enabling "cheat" for alcoholics. We don't know that there are no
users for whom that may be true, but neither do we know of any.
We do know that it's popular as an in-person socialization focus
for young adults, ironically more popular with those who don't
overindulge. Ask Keith. Contact: Keith Nothacker, KHN SOLUTIONS
(San Francisco CA) 415-693-9756x113
mailto:keith.nothacker@bactrack.com http://bactrack.com
Tiffen gear as PC accessory accessories
When is the last time you bought a roll or reel of film or
videotape? HD video editing is for the second year the
fastest-growing Windows application category, meaning a lot of
people are shooting with HD camcorders & you know as well as we
do how electronic photography is now. So if all those cameras
have become PC accessories, then all the things Tiffen offers for
them (filters, mounts, lighting, etc.) are accessories to
accessories. Drop Hilary a note telling him which cameras you use
most to start working out which Tiffen gear makes the most sense
for you to review. Contact: Hilary Araujo, Tiffen Company
(Hauppauge, NY) 631-609-3216 haraujo@tiffen.com
http:/.tiffen.com
Special Report: Microsoft Outlook stumbles
We asked if Outlook 2010 will fix Outlook 2007 performance
issues, like lags when typing while other activities (mail
fetches, for example) are underway. A Microsoft spokesperson
replied, "Yes, performance has been addressed & improved in
Outlook 2010." That sounded promising, until: "In fact, the
Service Pack 2 for Office 2007 included improvements for Outlook
that were a result of the development of Outlook 2010." That SP2
was released in February of 2009 & is here, complete with the
lags that prompted our inquiry. We know that our huge message
stores are one reason it's sluggish (we'll need several full days
to properly groom those), but this is a 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate
system with 12GB of CAS 8 RAM on a 6-core/12-thread CPU, so if
it's still slow for us, it's not the hardware. A corporate change
from Outlook to anything else is daunting, but for individuals,
we wonder if these woes may result in user erosion to online
alternatives. We will get & evaluate Office 2010 once it's
released to see if those SP2 improvements are as far as its own
performance improvements will go.
Special Report Bonus Review: OmniPage/PaperPort
This started as we approached spring cleaning & faced up to the
avalanches of desktop paper. Paper filing has lots of overhead &
finding filed folios is far from a sure thing. Inspired by how
much easier things got when we added Xobni to Outlook, we asked
Nuance to send OmniPage 17 Professional & PaperPort 12
Professional for review. We hit a few bumps: no direct support
for our ScanSnap scanner (it wants to see TWAIN or WIA drivers) &
the scanner action buttons for our CanoScan & Lexmark scanners
aren't configurable from our Windows 7/64 Control Panel. We
dodged that by telling PaperPort to monitor the default scan-to
folder for ScanSnap, turned off Abbyy OCR within the ScanSnap
workflow & started digging at our paper piles. The cool thing
about scanning into OCR is the added PDF text layer making it all
searchable by Windows, Google desktop search (which we don't use)
or by the misnamed PaperPort "All-In-One Search" (which searches
only PaperPort-managed scans & files). We set up a clean, new
main folder then subfolders for things like payables, product
docs, shipping documents, etc. As we scanned, we could add
searchable keywords, clean & straighten the scans, file each one
in an appropriate folder & use any of those search options to
locate it by content even if we don't remember where it went.
There's a lot more depth to both products, but for now, cutting
down those paper piles is enough to please us. Bottom line: the
combo of OmniPage 17 Professional & PaperPort 12 Professional is
making reasonably quick work of bridging the gap from piles of
paper to PC-searchable files of digital doppelgangers.
Special Report Bonus Review 2: Apricorn Aegis Padlock drive
The huge storage capacities of pocket-size USB drives makes them
at once very convenient & very dangerous to tote. The danger is
in the vulnerability of anything sensitive you may have on the
drive & the ease with which a stranger can, by accident or
design, get their hands on that drive. Apricorn has a long
reputation for cleverness in dodging that danger; we still adore
their portable Aegis drive with a built-in fingerprint scanner
that means only one person can use it. That's one reason we asked
to review their new Aegis Padlock drive with a 12-button keypad
on one side. One administrator & up to 10 other users can enroll
6-12 digit PIN codes to unlock its AES-encrypted files; the one
they set up uses 256-bit AES & stores 250GB. Even out of its
protective case, extensive shock mounting guards it against up to
300G in use, 100G when parked. Like other Aegis drives, it's
self-contained with an integrated wrap & tuck USB2 cable (no
power adapter needed). Bottom line: Apricorn Aegis Padlock
accomplishes solid, secure data protection for more than one user
in a compact totable USB2 drive.
Special Report Bonus Review 3: Hoover Linx Cordless Stick Vac
Our third spring cleaning theme item from Hoover is a Linx
Cordless Stick Vac, which has both good & not so much so things
going for it. To the good, they use LiIon batteries to deliver a
very decent runtime without the power fade of NiMH. It's a fine
little vacuum for small area rugs when you have its motorized
brush engaged. It's that brush, though, that leads to some
frustrations in cleaning uncarpeted floors, especially in a place
(like ours) with pets. With only the vacuum going, not the
brushes (uncarpeted-floor mode), pet hairs get drawn into the
bristles where they snag & stay; in our first test, the dirt cup
was essentially empty while the brush looked like it was growing
a beard. We tilted the sweeper back, turned on the brush & that
swept almost all the pet hair into the dirt cup. Bottom line: the
Hoover Platinum Series Linx Cordless Stick Vac is a light &
easily totable vacuum with good run-time that's very useful for
small areas & for throw rugs, especially where there's not much
pet hair there.
Special Report Bonus Review 4: Monster LightSpeed 100
It was time to rejigger the home theater stack & bring in a new
receiver, BluRay player & Roku box. That called for one more
optical audio connection, so we asked to review the Monster
Digital Interlink LightSpeed 100 4-meter fiber optic cable. As
we've seen in many Monster products, there's solid engineering
behind its rugged & durable connector housing & jacketing. Our
big feet snagged & yanked at it (unintentionally) several times
during the retrofit with absolutely no ill effect; the sound is,
of course, terrific. Bottom line: the Monster Digital Interlink
LightSpeed 100 4-meter fiber optic cable made audio happen but
not trouble.
Special Report Bonus Review 5: Targus Travel Power Outlets
In less than 6" & less than 6oz, Targus offers an impressive new
way to carry extra outlets when you travel. The Targus Travel
Power Outlet Strip has a grounded AC plug that lights up to
confirm that an outlet is active, an 8" cord & a body with 4
3-prong outlets (one on one side, two on the other, one at the
far end) spaced to give your wall warts elbow room. Put the plug
in the far-end outlet to pack it compactly; a Velcro wrap helps
keep it all snug. At a hefty 400 Joules, surge/spike protection
kicks in & blows an internal fuse (suicide to the strip, but
better it than your gear); it also has 10A overload protection
via a resettable breaker. Bottom line: until the places we stay
add a lot more outlets for the gear we bring, Targus Travel Power
outlets are a reach-for accessory that belongs in the bag for
every trip we take.
Phones
Thanks to all of you who sent your suggestions about curing the
PC to POTS phone gap we covered several issues back. As you'll
see in a special "phone slam" review section in our next issue,
we found a great way to log incoming & outgoing call info, dial
from any app with a keystroke & more. We may also see a device
that (VOX) auto-logs incoming call audio plus data. We'll look at
several nice answers to getting good audio quality from the phone
line into the PC. We still think that a POTS phone designed to
connect to a PC to provide these features would be a better
answer, but who's likely to build one? Contact: Martin Winston,
Newstips (Novelty, OH) 440-338-8400; marty@Newstips.com
http://Newstips.com
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Newstips Bulletin [Novelty, OH] +1.440.338.8400 http://Newstips.com
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