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Newstips Electronic Editorial Bulletin Issue # 2010-12b
Talking undies for TSA pat-downs & other news
In this issue:
Ruckus over Antec Rockus: stores running out... eReader
completers: Franklin handheld dictionary... Clarification:
BlackBerry DriveReply only on Storm... Brookstone set to Boogie
the year out... Tiffen for after the holidays... Zoom takes on
Comcast over Nazi-like modem policy... Special Report: How
AppStore overkill under-thrills ... Reviews: RCA Small Wonder
camcorder, Honeywell Surround Heater, Warmly Yours Under-Desk
Warmer, ECS TIGT-I motherboard, Shed Rain WalkSafe umbrella...
plus our commentary on Bad bargain
Ruckus over Antec Rockus: stores running out
We love/hate sharing this with you: some of the people eager to
buy the stunning new Antec Ruckus 2.1 audio system ($250) as
holiday gifts may find stores sold out when they get there; we're
not even sure we can snag review units until after the holidays,
but ask. Veronica can also set you up with VP Scott Richards for
a statement. Contact: Veronica Feldmeier, Antec Inc. (Fremont,
CA) 510-770-2150 vfeldmeier@antec.com http://antec.com
eReader completers: Franklin handheld dictionary
An Amazon Kindle offers a choice of default dictionaries (9 steps
to change). The Nook's built-in dictionary has been criticized
for providing limited information, knowing too few words & not
letting you look up words not on the page. The spectrum of
handheld electronic dictionary products from Franklin lets you
choose from primary school levels to unabridged. Ask Aline.
Contact: Aline Boutin, Franklin Electronic Publishers
(Burlington, NJ) 609-386-2500x4434 aline_boutin@franklin.com
http://franklin.com
Clarification: BlackBerry DriveReply only on Storm
The DriveReply app auto-responds (exceptions accepted for people
like bosses or spouses) to incoming text messages & calls while
you drive & version 2.2 is available on Windows Phone 7, Android
& (correcting ourselves here) only 2 BlackBerry models, the Storm
& Storm II on Verizon. Ask Wayne. Contact: Wayne Irving II,
Iconosys Inc. (Laguna Hills, CA) 949-335-5350 wi@iconosys.com
http://iconosys.com
Brookstone set to Boogie the year out
Brookstone confirms that the Boogie Board continues to sell well
& that they hope to have enough for the holidays. If you have yet
to review a Boogie Board, skip the mall trip & ask Kevin to get
you one. Contact: Kevin Oswald, Kent Displays (Kent, OH)
330-673-8784x161 koswald@kentdisplays.com
http://KentDisplays.com
Tiffen for after the holidays
A lot of things that can shoot photos or videos emerge from
gift-wrap over the holidays & Tiffen has a lot of ways to make
them more usable than the contents of the box can do alone. Ask
Hilary to get you info, pix or even reviewables of Dfx desktop
software or apps, of Davis & Sanford tripods & monopods, the
newest Domke bags, the new Steadicam Smoothee for Flip cameras or
the iPhone, filters for DSLRs or better camcorders & more.
Contact: Hilary Araujo, Tiffen Company (Hauppauge, NY)
631-609-3216 haraujo@tiffen.com http:/.tiffen.com
Zoom takes on Comcast over Nazi-like modem policy
When Comcast started an equipment certification program that
would block customers from attaching third-party cable modems to
their network, it was a big door-slam for a big chunk of Zoom
sales. Zoom filed a complaint with the FCC, citing among other
things that it's a betrayal of Comcast's public commitment to
abide by the FCC's Open Internet principles. Terry can get you
more info or an interview. Contact: Terry Manning, Zoom
Telephonics Inc. (Boston, MA) 617-753-0087 terrym@zoom.com
http://zoom.com
Special Report: How AppStore overkill under-thrills
Apple says their App Store currently offers more than 250,000
apps; is that a good thing? Reading through a very short
40-character description of each would expose you to 10 million
characters, roughly 2 million words. The rate at which people
skim text is around 500 words per minute, so skimming that
complete list would consume 4,000 waking hours, which is 250 days
with 16 hours spent reading & 8 hours left for everything else;
with an 8-hour day, that's about 2 years of job time for most
workers. Is there any useful outcome to having so many apps
available? Regardless of how good or how bad any given app may
be, the odds of users ever hearing about it are slim; at the
prices of these apps, there can be no expectation that any paid
promotional effort will ever self-justify its costs. Other than
the promotional impact of the claim of size, there is nothing
about this massive swarm of apps to benefit users, authors or
carriers. Competitors are chided for having smaller numbers of
apps available, but apart from the context of this quarter
million, their variety & quality tend to be overall more
laudable, more useful & more interesting.
Special Report Bonus Review: RCA Small Wonder camcorder
We've put a lot of pocket camcorders through their paces, but
none have as sleekly thin a basic body design as the RCA Small
Wonder; but for the silvery dome that houses its lens, its
dimensions are close to our BlackBerry Bold. Its still-photo mode
can be set to as high as 12Mp; our test shots showed good color
accuracy, too. You can set the video for HD, Sports (faster
response, we assume) or "WebQ" mode. Our HD tests in outdoor
lighting showed good detail, especially played through a larger
screen. As you might expect, since the camera isn't from Krypton,
it has its limitations; the video can be grainy in low-light &
close-ups at less than arm's length tend to be blurry. It stores
photos & videos on MicroSD, lets you at both (charges, too) via
USB & offers an HDMI output. Bottom line: For capturing those
must-have moments on video, an RCA Small Wonder squeezes a lot of
ability into a slender case.
Special Report Bonus Review 2: Honeywell Surround Heater
We're in the rural blizzard belt where furnaces never fail at
convenient times so we put out an editorial call for products
that can get you warm when they do. (Elsewhere, you can see these
as products that let you turn down the thermostat for everywhere
else while not denying yourself a comfortable workspace). We've
reviewed Honeywell space heaters before, so when they responded,
we asked what's so different about this one; they sent us one so
we could answer that. The Honeywell Surround Heater (about the
size of a 3lb coffee can) has an upward-facing fan that blows
across heated fins & onto a downward-pointing conical cap, which
spreads the air evenly in all horizontal directions; from there,
of course, heated air rises. You can turn it on as fan-only
(30W), slow/low-heat aka energy-saver (750W) or full (1500W). A
knob controls the main thermostat. A new tilt sensor arrangement
cuts it off if it tilts too far in any direction & it cuts off
automatically if it overheats. Our tests confirm that it's fast &
effective at warming small spaces, even in its slow mode. Bottom
line: the Honeywell Surround Heater is a cool way to fight the
cold.
Special Report Bonus Review 3: Warmly Yours Under-Desk Warmer
Same theme, different approach: the Warmly Yours Under-Desk
Warmer is a 120W heated footrest about the size of a bath mat.
Its heavy-duty AC cord has an inline on-off switch plus a
resettable interrupter in the plug. Despite its relatively low
power draw, it provides enough underfoot warmth to be effective
even with shoes on. Bottom line: the Warmly Yours Under-Desk
Warmer
Special Report Bonus Review 4: ECS TIGT-I motherboard
Can you imagine a quiet phonebook-size case on a bookshelf that's
your office Web & e-mail server? That's the second of our 3
planned Mini-ITX projects, for which we got the ECS Elite Group
TIGT-I motherboard for review. It houses a D510 dual-core
(4-thread) 64-bit Atom 1.66GHz processor that runs reliably sans
fans. Its two DDR2/800 slots can take up to 4GB total, the max
for an Atom's 32-bit memory addressing. Its 10/100 Ethernet
connection may seem slow, but unless you have a 100Mbps Internet
connection, it's no bottleneck. Bottom line: the ECS Elite Group
TIGT-I motherboard gives us almost everything we need to build a
bookshelf-size Web & e-mail server.
Special Report Bonus Review 5: Shed Rain WalkSafe umbrella
We've long loved Shed Rain umbrellas so we eagerly said yes when
they suggested sending their new Shed Rain WalkSafe 2012 compact
umbrella for review. Our editorial call was about safety in
seasonably early darkness & this umbrella features highly
reflective 3M Scotchlite at the rib-end cover points around the
42" canopy rim of the umbrella. The modestly priced umbrella is
an auto-open & auto-close design that collapses to about a foot
in length. Our tests yielded no complaints but one wish: we would
love to see it with a windproof double canopy. Bottom line: the
reflective tips that surround you when walking under a Shed Rain
WalkSafe 2012 umbrella helps keep you visible in a nighttime
rain.
Bad bargain
A grocery chain & a gas station chain here, parts of the same
corporation, offer discounts on gas based on grocery purchases or
gift card purchases at the grocer. In short, at $3/gallon, you
get about $40 worth of gas "free" after you spend $1500 at the
grocer. That might not be bad if the groceries were a decent
value, but we've seen (for example) cold cuts at $2-4/pound more
than identical products at competing chains just a very few miles
away. Variety is also limited in most categories to just one or
two real-world brands & a store brand. Customer service is poor,
sometimes even surly. What keeps them going is a bigger TV ad buy
than any competitor. Few of you write about gas or groceries, but
we all write about a buyer's best interests; any similar tales
you'd like to share? 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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