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Newstips Electronic Editorial Bulletin Issue # 2010-08d
Like a school bus abuzz with news
In this issue:
The BYO season is here; Antec is pumped... Definitive wish
list... Franklin helps cure old age... Iconosys intros Mighty
SMS... Boogie Board as a no-waste flash card... Thank the
airlines for uptick in Tiffen monopods... No WiFi or cell isn't
hell if you Zoom to a landline... Special Report: printers &
wristwatches... Reviews: Eclipse Touch Mouse, Skype Everyman HD
Webcam, V-MODA Crossfade LP headphones, Kodak Zx3 HD camcorder,
Hexbug Nano motion toys... plus our commentary on sewage
The BYO season is here; Antec is pumped
We're hitting a season that sees scads of build-your-own-PC
activity across many categories, from gamers to video guys to
people who need to handle more drives or drive more or faster
monitors. Antec has never been more ready with innovative &
handsome desktop & set-top cases, advanced power supplies,
new-generation CPU coolers & more. There's a corporate story for
the IT guys that have to assemble specialized systems; a channel
story for the VARs who do the same & the retailers seeing floor
traffic swell; a tech story around the design shifts that had to
go into the new products; a décor story behind the case design
cosmetics. Veronica can get you info & pix; units, too, if that's
part of your coverage, whether you want to actually build oir
just show & tell. Contact: Veronica Feldmeier, Antec Inc.
(Fremont, CA) 510-770-2150 vfeldmeier@antec.com
http://antec.com
Definitive wish list
We thank Definitive for their time with us here & want to leave
you with a wish list of their products you might find a place for
in your coverage. (But do check out the others, too; if you have
the ear & the gear to evaluate & review any Definitive system,
Paul can arrange a loan). Their 1.5" thin Mythos XTR-50 bends
physics for great sound as a good flat screen sidekick. Their
monitor speakers bring a better class of sound to studio or
performance venues. Marty's beloved Mythos 5 is still a thriller.
Their one-piece surround systems do better than the sound bars at
delivering bring-you-there big-screen audio. Every part of their
line rocks. Ask Paul. Contact: Paul DiComo, Definitive Technology
(Owings Mills, MD) 410-363-7148 paul.dicomo@definitivetech.com
http://DefinitiveTech.com
Franklin helps cure old age
The years take their toll on our visual acuity & no matter how
much tech we use to correct our vision, it's still tough to see
small things or read in dim light. Franklin Explorer Series
products include LED-lighted magnifiers & LED book lights; before
you dismiss the idea of covering these, ask Aline to get you
some. Contact: Aline Boutin, Franklin Electronic Publishers
(Burlington, NJ) 609-386-2500x4434 aline_boutin@franklin.com
http://franklin.com
Iconosys intros Mighty SMS
Mighty SMS (download $4) is a kit of text messaging power tools
for Windows Mobile or Windows Phone 7 handsets. It lets you text
to groups, send scheduled texts, send yourself a text note, track
your SMS messaging stats, archive and store messages and forward
text messages to another number or to an e-mail address. Bonus:
you can block both calls and texts from numbers you black-list.
Ask Wayne. Contact: Wayne Irving II, Iconosys Inc. (Laguna Hills,
CA) 949-335-5350 wi@iconosys.com http://iconosys.com
Boogie Board as a no-waste flash card
As kids get back to class, drill & practice can help them prep
for tests, hone math skills, polish spelling, etc. Our parents
made flash cards but today's parents can use & reuse a Boogie
Board ($35, Brookstone & online) without burning through index
cards & marker pens. Ask Kevin. Contact: Kevin Oswald, Kent
Displays (Kent, OH) 330-673-8784x161 koswald@kentdisplays.com
http://KentDisplays.com
Thank the airlines for uptick in Tiffen monopods
A lot of people who take their cameras when they travel &
normally tote a tripod have responded to airline baggage-related
fees by opting to take a Davis & Sanford monopod instead, like
their 1-pound Trailblazer model (list $25). Ask Hilary. Contact:
Hilary Araujo, Tiffen Company (Hauppauge, NY) 631-609-3216
haraujo@tiffen.com http:/.tiffen.com
No WiFi or cell isn't hell if you Zoom to a landline
It's not mythical, there really are parts of America where you
can't get WiFi & you can't get cell; all they have is landlines &
one thing a lot of newer computers don't have is a modem. A lot
of people who face that once swear never to deal with it again,
head to a store & are happy to see that Zoom never abandoned its
modem market roots. They have lots of choices, including a sweet,
thumb-size USB modem that tends to be the road warrior's first
choice. Ask Terry & if you'd like to try one out for review, tell
him. Contact: Terry Manning, Zoom Telephonics Inc. (Boston, MA)
617-753-0087 terrym@zoom.com http://zoom.com
Special Report: Printers & wristwatches
30 years ago, our subject might have addressed how watchmakers
had become successful printer makers (like Seiko, behind Epson).
This time, it's about how the parallel between the decline in
popularity of wearing a wristwatch to tell time & the decline of
popularity of hard copy as a primary medium for sharing
information. With so much reduction in the volume of documents or
photos appearing on paper, the value considerations (both for end
users & for printer manufacturers) shift dramatically.
High-volume, high-speed output is less of a factor; cost per page
is less of a factor, printing as a service instead of as a
peripheral (as in Kinko's) becomes more attractive & many
traditional considerations also shift. The trump card for the
printer makers is convenience; also, since this frees them to
design around slower print speeds & cartridge costs are a
somewhat less onerous factor, initial hardware pricing may play
more of a starring role. The biggest challenge for them (as us)
is in double checking tradition versus modern street smarts to
determine which of the competitive extra bells & whistles may
still have any meaningful benefit to users.
Special Report Bonus Review: Eclipse Touch Mouse
This is one of the most unexpected pointers we ever saw. The Mad
Catz/Saitek Eclipse Touch Mouse is a wireless (Bluetooth)
high-res (1600dpi) laser mouse with a topside 4-way touch control
that adds extra scrolling, forward, back & other actions. Bottom
line: while the Saitek/Mad Catz brand is best known for its gamer
gear, the sleekly stylish Eclipse Touch Mouse goes out of its way
to be extra useful for scrolling documents, applications or the
Web.
Special Report Bonus Review 2: Skype Everyman HD Webcam
If you have Skype & decent bandwidth, you can do video, even HD
video. The Skype house solution for that is the Everyman HD USB
video camera. It's auto-focus, auto white balance. Most 2-way
video calls are just talking heads & this will be fine for those,
but we know a lot of our readers work in TV & would love to find
a great field solution for getting HD back to the control room.
This doesn't have the right stuff for that (frame rate for HD
drops to 22fps, or 15fps in low light, it only delivers 8-bit
color & there's no built-in mike). That special interest aside,
the quality is good for a $50-class Webcam that works without
installing software or drivers. Bottom line: the Skype Everyman
HD Webcam is a plug-&-chug-easy way to get Skype video calls
going among friends & family members.
Special Report Bonus Review 3: V-MODA Crossfade LP headphones
From a distance, the V-MODA Crossfade LP headphones looked very
appealing with a handsome, chiseled design, a very functional
carrying case with protective sides & an internal web to hold
cords & adapters & some good early reviews. If you are among
those early reviewers, we apologize for strongly disagreeing.
These do not exhibit the degree of audio transparency that anyone
would regard as fidelity; there is way too much emphasis on bass
& low-midrange tones with a muddy, boomy effect. These are
$250-class circumaural (cups the ears) headphones that isolate
the listener from real-world sounds & become (because they're not
effectively vented) uncomfortably hot after just a few minutes of
wear. Bottom line: if you don't care about audio quality or
comfort & just want to look cool wearing them, V-MODA Crossfade
LP headphones may be perfect for you.
Special Report Bonus Review 4: Kodak Zx3 HD camcorder
The Kodak Zx3 Play-Sport HD camcorder features 1080p video
recording, an HDMI output, 5Mp stills & water resistance to 10
feet in a pocket-size package. Its video images can be quite
crisp, but we did notice that its autofocus, autoexposure & white
balance corrections can take up to half a second. There's no
optical zoom & close-up focusing is difficult. That said, for
most of the occasions where people just want a quick & easy way
to shoot video, they'll be very happy with the results of this
camera & few people will have to read the manual to know how to
use it. Bottom line: the spirit that simplified photography to
the Brownie level endures in a second-generation pocket video
product with the Kodak Zx3 Play-Sport HD camcorder.
Special Report Bonus Review 5: Hexbug Nano motion toys
In the early 60s (maybe earlier), many of us had toy football
games where the field was on fiber board with a buzzer underneath
& the players were little plastic men with slats under their feet
so they would go into motion when you turned on the buzzer.
Hexbug Nano toys look like a cross between an old EPROM IC & a
cockroach; a coin cell & tiny buzzer set them skittering off in
often unpredictable directions; the weight balance tends to let
them right themselves if they should skim a rim & end up on their
backs. They're out there one at a time, in sets & a "habitat" to
help keep them corralled is also available. Bottom line: Hexbug
Nano toys are fun.
Sewage
Few of you will even remotely care about this, but it's an issue
for country-dwellers. A house's septic system collects sewage in
a tank where solids settle out & liquids (often with some
post-processing) end up being distributed into the soil of a
large leach field. Over time, that activity degrades those soils
& makes their further use a health risk. In older communities
with smaller lots & fully depleted soils, the only alternative
has been sewers, which are always expensive & often bring
undesired consequential side effects. Brainstorming with local
engineers & our county's water resources department, Marty came
up with a hybrid approach that retains low-tech septic tanks to
collect solids, mandated pump-out schedules & directs liquid
effluents to a membrane bioreactor (a small-footprint,
low-capacity, relatively economical sewer plant that does well
with liquids but can't handle solids). Marty's political life
this year started neck-deep in trash & is moving into the sewers;
please get him talking geek-speak again. 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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