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Newstips Electronic Editorial Bulletin Issue # 2010-09a
Our last pre-Labor Day news this year
In this issue:
Antec gets down to cases with IP-delivered HDTV... Franklin Bill
Reader back... Gridding those Iconosys apps per handset... Newest
Brookstone order puts Kent near cap... Video shooters grow into
Tiffen's Domke bags... IP-delivered HDTV & a ZDTV debate...
Special Report: Literacy shifts... Reviews: Logitech HD Pro
Webcam C910, StudentBackup.com, Griffin Motif iPhone case,
Sungale LED desk lamp & display, Eclipse Wireless Lite Touch...
plus our commentary on power warbles
Antec gets down to cases with IP-delivered HDTV
Last week's avalanche of coverage about various schemes for
delivering HDTV & HD video content over IP connections to home
theater systems was also a signal to us that a lot of eager users
will soon be tooling their own set-top boxes to give that a shot.
Some new & some upcoming mini-ITX boards seem to have been born
for this kind of duty, needing only memory, a drive, an O/S & a
case. Check out the understated Antec ISK series of cases for
mini-ITX gear, not to mention their several lines of upscale
multimedia cases with advanced front panel features. If you're up
for your own project, it's all reviewable now. Contact: Veronica
Feldmeier, Antec Inc. (Fremont, CA) 510-770-2150
vfeldmeier@antec.com http://antec.com
Franklin Bill Reader back
The very cool Franklin Bill Reader ($300) was briefly unavailable
but new production units just cured that. When a visually
challenged person points it at currency ($1-$100) & pushes a
button it speaks the denomination aloud; demand for that outpaced
projections so there was a temporary shortfall. We should mention
it's cool to review in any medium but really nice for TV or
radio; ask Aline. Contact: Aline Boutin, Franklin Electronic
Publishers (Burlington, NJ) 609-386-2500x4434
aline_boutin@franklin.com http://franklin.com
Gridding those Iconosys apps per handset
Their developers (Wayne, too) often seem to work 24/7 to expand
more apps to more platforms, so we'll slice it up in a different
direction to help you target your interests. On Android: Battery
Alert, SMS Replier & DriveReply... On Windows Mobile & Windows
Phone 7: MightySMS, SMS Replier & DriveReply. Ask Wayne when
these may appear for BlackBerry or other platforms & when One
Stop ProTextion will appear. Contact: Wayne Irving II, Iconosys
Inc. (Laguna Hills, CA) 949-335-5350 wi@iconosys.com
http://iconosys.com
Newest Brookstone order puts Kent near cap
A top priority at Kent Displays right now is finding some way to
increase their Boogie Board ($35, Brookstone & online) production
capacity. Yet another Brookstone order arrived (170,000 pieces
total - a big swing from their initial 7500-piece pre-Father's
Day promo buy), they've filled more than 10,000 online orders &
orders from stores elsewhere in the world are hammering them.
Kevin sequestered a few for review. Contact: Kevin Oswald, Kent
Displays (Kent, OH) 330-673-8784x161 koswald@kentdisplays.com
http://KentDisplays.com
Video shooters grow into Tiffen's Domke bags
Like other padded, compartmentalized, almost mothering Domke
bags, their Pro V1 & Pro V2 Video bags are built to handle
full-size pro video field gear, but other shooters are also using
them once their collection of video gear (including lights, mikes
& much more) get big enough. Ask Hilary. Contact: Hilary Araujo,
Tiffen Company (Hauppauge, NY) 631-609-3216 haraujo@tiffen.com
http:/.tiffen.com
IP-delivered HDTV & a ZDTV debate
There may only be a couple million people right now who have a
Windows 7 PC hooked up to a big-screen TV, but last week's swarms
of stories about HDTV over IP rekindled a debate about the new
ZDTV long-range wireless keyboard (street $70-75). Terry believes
that because it was designed for that environment, those are the
only people who will want to know about it. Marty thinks a
lightweight, squarish cordless keyboard with a track pad & a
65-foot range will interest a much broader population. Ask Terry
to send you one & see whether or not you think it's cool enough
to merit your coverage. Contact: Terry Manning, Zoom Telephonics
Inc. (Boston, MA) 617-753-0087 terrym@zoom.com http://zoom.com
Special Report: Literacy shifts
Modern discussions of literacy often focus on the ability to
read, but we see erosion at broader shores. It is difficult to
find recent college graduates able to write in grammatical
sentences let alone paragraphs; the ability to build arguments or
flow thoughts across multiple paragraphs or even whole pages is a
skill set for an even smaller slice of that population. The
experience of words on paper is declining in favor of Web pages,
e-mail messages & social media chatter; how would your own
English teachers have graded the writing on any of those? Reading
vintage classics is not the same as reading modern classics;
Ludlum & Conan-Doyle offer very different reading experiences;
each has enjoyed good sales & the favor of the marketplace but
one might argue that a less literate reader is less likely to get
drudged down by Ludlum. With so much of our writing (including
this) committed to electronics, will our shorthand terms become
part of the mainstay of language (per the old debate as to
whether a dictionary reflects or defines usage)? At deadline,
neither Merriam-Webster nor Amazon had responded to our requests
for data to support or dissipate these fears; if they do, we'll
report them here.
Special Report Bonus Review: Logitech HD Pro Webcam C910
Unlike its lipstick-style competitors, the Logitech HD Pro Webcam
C910 has a flat face (about the size of 2 sections of a Kit-Kat
bar) that integrates a parentheses-shaped blue LED tally light &
a stereo pair of microphones & a Zeiss autofocus lens in front of
its 1080p sensor. The video is crisp & professional; we haven't
scoped it but it appears to be broadcast-compatible. We set it to
find & follow faces; during Skype calls, for example (we should
mention that Skype recommends this camera for broadcasters). Its
Follow My Face, Auto-focus & Right Sound features all performed
well (per the guy on the other end of the video call) but the
picture seemed less crisp when we turned on Right Light. Bottom
line: the Logitech HD Pro Webcam C910 is our new first choice in
HD Webcams.
Special Report Bonus Review 2: StudentBackup.com
The premise of StudentBackup.com is interesting but the execution
invokes wariness. The idea is that it will automatically make an
online backup of a student's critical document files & afford
some options for lost or stolen computers (PC or Mac). It backs
up Office-type files (not just MS Office) but not photos, videos
or music; it only backs them up if they're in the default folder
(Documents or My Documents or Users, depending on the O/S
platform). If a PC is stolen & online, the service may be able to
ID an IP address for it, snap a photo or video or recording (if
it has connected peripherals to allow that) or remotely delete
files. We don't like that installation instructions say to
connect to the Internet with all firewalls & antivirus disabled.
Bottom line: compared to the scant protection & rarity of backups
among student PCs, StudentBackup.com may be an alternative worth
considering.
Special Report Bonus Review 3: Griffin Motif iPhone case
The Griffin Motif case for iPhone 4 mates well with that handset
aesthetically & its material is less flexible than many rubbery
skins, but these factors both come with gotchas. Its smooth back
can become difficult to grip & after just a week's use, the top
started gapping. On the plus side, it's among the least expensive
among recent Griffin case products. Bottom line: the Griffin
Motif case for iPhone 4 looks great & can prevent a lot of
scratching or marring.
Special Report Bonus Review 4: Sungale LED desk lamp & display
The Sungale Desk Lamp with Digital Photo Frame has a light bar
array of 18 LEDs on a gooseneck; full-on the brightness is best
termed as adequate for desktop reading or writing tasks & uses
just 5 Watts. The base has a flip-up 3.5" 320x240 LCD that can
display still photos as a slide show or play audio (stereo
speakers built in) or video or you can use it as a digital or
analog clock (with alarm); a rear slot accepts a memory card &
there's a USB connector. The combination is useful enough, but
our overall impression of the product is in the genre of stuff
you get from a bank when you open an account. Bottom line: The
Sungale Desk Lamp with Digital Photo Frame is an adequate &
energy-conscious task light with extra photo, audio & video
features that some users will find interesting.
Special Report Bonus Review 5: Eclipse Wireless Lite Touch
The Eclipse Wireless Lite Touch Illuminated Keyboard is one of
the coolest keyboards we've seen from this house of great gamer
gadgets (you don't have to be a gamer to like this keyboard).
It's cordless, slender, low profile, white-LED backlighted (on
dimmer), builds in a small trackball with mouse buttons & has a
backlit LCD touch screen that changes from numeric keypad to
media control functions to a utility mode you get to customize.
The scissor switches behind the keys offer a very responsive feel
& the arrangement of position keys (arrows, home, end &N page
up/down) while nonstandard, is reasonable learnable. The internal
battery charges with a USB mini-5 connector while the wireless
dongle plugs into any available USB A port (including that unused
internal port in some systems). Bottom line: the Eclipse Wireless
Lite Touch Illuminated Keyboard is sleek, sexy, versatile, nimble
& fun.
Power warbles
It rained & a pole pig transformer caught itself & its pole on
fire, leading to a power outage. When power came back, it was
unsteady with lots of Voltage warbles on the line. One of our APC
backup units had a nervous breakdown, cycling through online,
offline & overload modes. The monitors (not the computers) plug
into that & whatever happened zapped back up the cable to the
graphics card; now about 4% of one of our 2 monitor screens is a
rectangle that just passes through the blue undertone the monitor
delivers when it doesn't get a signal. We'll probably take a
divide & conquer approach, using a larger number of smaller
backup units - but this time with a focus on AVR. 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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