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Newstips Electronic Editorial Bulletin Issue # 2010-04a
Riding the muds & floods of news
In this issue:
Antec busts PSU myths... Neither Spock may need Fixmo... Franklin
cum Gutenberg... Self-breathalyzation doesn't work... Tiffen at
NAB: 3D a maybe... Special Report: Scanners versus detritus...
Reviews: Insignia BluRay player, Boogie Board, Hoover Pet Rewind,
Maxon Cinebench, Sennheiser PX 100-II... plus our commentary on
half the time, breathing sucks
Antec busts PSU myths
Antec is releasing the first of a series of PSU (PC power supply)
myth busters. This one is a little geeky, challenging the
inaccurate lore (also promoted by some competitors) that would
have users believe that single-rail (safety-off) designs are
better than multiple protected full-capacity (or better) rails.
This first installment (like those to follow) is available on a
PDF that you, too, are welcome to redistribute; ask Veronica.
Contact: Veronica Feldmeier, Antec Inc. (Fremont, CA)
510-770-2150 vfeldmeier@antec.com http://antec.com
Neither Spock may need Fixmo
Dr. Spock helps kids grow up polite & Mr. Spock displays no
emotions but the rest of us can sometimes lose our tempers in
ways that we help document & broadcast through flame messages on
our phones. There's an antidote for those oops events inside the
new Fixmo Tools BlackBerry Edition ($20 including a year of
updates). Flame Retardant lets you tell it which traits to look
for as it gives you pause before sending a flame mail reply:
unintended recipients (in 3 categories), 3+ repeated punctuation
marks, offensive words (from its stock list or your own) & groups
of words in all-caps are among the attributes that can trigger
it. You get a chance to not be a flamer & send something tamer.
Send Rick your BB PIN to get Fixmo Tools for review. Contact:
Rick Segal, Fixmo (Toronto, ON) 416-414-9726 rick@Fixmo.com
http://Fixmo.com
Franklin cum Gutenberg
In the era of the Gutenberg press, movable type & the
manufacturing-scale production of written works, a lot of the
early emphasis was on printing Bibles. In a sense, Franklin
publishes its works, only on handheld electronic devices; like
the Gutenberg era, a lot of those products are Bibles, including
several bilingual offerings. The reason is simple: demand. Ask
Aline to set you up with an exec to talk about how big that
demand is today for their digital Scriptures; she can also get
you some to review. Contact: Aline Boutin, Franklin Electronic
Publishers (Burlington, NJ) 609-386-2500x4434
aline_boutin@franklin.com http://franklin.com
Self-breathalyzation doesn't work
You go out drinking & feel pretty hammered but the breathalyzer
reading says you're not all that inebriated; is it off? Hardly
anybody can tell how drunk they are without some instrument to
measure their blood alcohol content. There are apparently some
gender differences, too, in how drunk you think you are between
how much alcohol is really in you. If that weren't the case,
Keith says, there would be no need for BACtrack products. If
you're willing to provide the drinks & a safe home environment
for consuming them, Keith's happy to get you a BACtrack
breathalyzer to help you understand & hopefully share the
difference. Contact: Keith Nothacker, KHN SOLUTIONS (San
Francisco CA) 415-693-9756x113
mailto:keith.nothacker@bactrack.com http://bactrack.com
Tiffen at NAB: 3D a maybe
We know that Tiffen is paying attention to the special
dual-camera mounting needs for shooting in 3D & that products are
in the works, we just don't know for certain whether you'll be
able to preview them at NAB. Maybe Hilary can tell you. Contact:
Hilary Araujo, Tiffen Company (Hauppauge, NY) 631-609-3216
haraujo@tiffen.com http:/.tiffen.com
Special Report: Scanners versus detritus
Let's take a disruptive approach to spring cleaning. Can you see
the top of your desk? Are little avalanches of paper all over it?
Do you need to create some enormously complicated filing system
just to have a place for it all & if you did, could you ever find
a page you need? We sit within spitting distance of simplex &
duplex sheet-fed scanners, flatbed scanners, & rod scanners, not
to forget cameras. We could probably scan all of our papers into
PDFs as fast as we could shred them, but what then? One promising
approach to spring cleaning (admittedly, one we have yet to
implement) funnels those pages through OCR to create searchable
PDF files then makes them collectively even more searchable
through a master indexing program. We know a lot of the papers on
our desk are hard copies of documentation excerpts we needed as
guidance when configuring a PC; pitching those to the recycling
bin can reduce the scanning workload, but we'd have to start that
process in order to find those pages. Once scanned, any documents
we may need in-hand later can be printed or ported to a smart
phone or an eReader. They used to say that the only paperless
office tends to be the restroom, but this approach could bring
our desktops a lot closer.
Special Report Bonus Review: Insignia BluRay player
Insignia is the "house brand" at Best Buy for private label
electronics, generally at favorable price points. We asked to
review the Insignia NS-BRDVD3 BluRay Disc Player, which supports
BD Live & Netflix streaming (using a wired Internet connection)
at 720p, 1080i or 1080p (both HDMI & component video out plus
analog, optical & coax digital audio out). It's very good at
upscaling standard DVDs, can play content attached to its USB
port & handles BluRay PIP & multiple-angle options (when on the
disc). It also switches itself to a power-saving standby mode
when left idle. Bottom line: in one simple, slender set-top
package, the Best Buy Insignia NS-BRDVD3 BluRay Disc Player more
than capably handles just about any disc you want to play
including those you fetch from Netflix online.
Special Report Bonus Review 2: Boogie Board
It's a tiny fraction of the price of an iPad & just as effective
for fanning yourself on hot days. The 5.5"x8.5" Boogie Board
active area is a single 5"x7" LCD pixel that works just like an
old Magic Slate toy. Use your finger or anything with a point (it
comes with a stylus) to write, draw or scribble on it; press a
little harder to make the line a little wider. Your notes or
doodles show up in light gray on its dark gray background. The
pressing squishes sandwiched liquid crystals out of alignment;
they stay that way until you push the top erase button to realign
them. This is a passive reflective technology, so only erasing
uses power. Bottom line: Boogie Board is a clever use of LCD tech
as a handy way to capture notes or diagrams for yourself or
others.
Special Report Bonus Review 3: Hoover Pet Rewind
After testing a lot of vacuums, it finally dawned on us that
rotating brushes are often foiled by pet hair, so we asked Hoover
to send their WindTunnel T-Series Pet Rewind model, with tools
that have rubbery paddle bars instead of bristles. This is a
bagless (dirt cup) cyclonic upright with a handle that folds for
storage in shorter spaces. One of its 2 filters is easy to
remove, tap clean & replace; the other lifts out to rinse clean;
neither needs frequent replacement. It does a good job of picking
up pet hairs; like other dirt cup vacuums we've tested, some of
those tend to (static) cling to the dirt cup. While it does a
fine job on hardwood floors & carpets, we were even happier to
see the job it was able to do in our workspace via its
repurposable hose & tools, picking up dust & debris around the
desk legs, the computers & under the storage shelves. Bottom
line: the Hoover WindTunnel T-Series Pet Rewind vacuum is a good
choice for any home or workspace, especially those where pets
make for especially hairy challenges.
Special Report Bonus Review 4: Maxon Cinebench
Does it just seem faster? We ask ourselves that every time we
upgrade a system, but this time, we found a cool way to get
credible data for both CPU & OpenGL performance. Maxon Cinebench
(free) does rendering tests to evaluate the CPU; our Core i7-980
Extreme (with 6 cores & 12 threads) scored a little higher than a
12-core/12-thread AMD Opteron 2435 & a little lower than an
8-core/16-thread Xeon X5570. It also does OpenGL tests (we were
surprised that our one GT260 scored 41.25fps, not much below a
Quadro FX 5800 or an ATI FirePro V8750). This isn't about our
scores, but about having a way we trust to get them. Bottom line:
Maxon Cinebench is a welcome addition to our performance testing
toolkit.
Special Report Bonus Review 5: Sennheiser PX 100-II
Headphones aren't just for listening to music; shooting with a
camcorder, for example, they're an important tool in hearing what
the camera hears because some of that is a lot easier to correct
when shooting than it is in post. You still have to hear the
world around you when you're shooting video; the same is true for
listening to electronic audio when you're walking or running in
this peril-fraught world. The original Sennheiser PX-100 was the
first headphone we recommended for field video because they offer
good transparency (literal fidelity) in an open, over-the-ear
design that compactly folds to tote. That's why we asked to
review its update, the PX100-II. The most visible difference is
that this one comes with a carry pouch instead of a hard case,
but there's also a difference in its transparency with a slight
(though not unacceptable) emphasis on the bass end. Bottom line:
Sennheiser PX 100-II supra-aural folding portable open stereo
headphones are a great, highly transparent choice for camcorder
monitoring as well as for listening to music & other electronic
audio sources.
Half the time, breathing sucks
We inhale for about as long as we exhale, which is only natural
for us but not generally the case for the gear around us.
Fan-less systems, whether sealed or ventilated, may radiate heat
but can't control airflow; they may feel warm (like a smart
phone), they may burn themselves into an early failure (like many
external drives) & clusters of them may even create enough local
heat to show up on your cooling costs. It may be smart to add a
fan, especially if you can to it without adding a lot of noise;
lower blade speeds & bigger blades can do that. As you think
about that, also consider that sometimes there's another reason
that half the time, breathing sucks; in this old house, small &
nearly silent air filter fans both add the air flow that helps
the gear cool down & keeps those old-house aromas from
distracting us. A fan doesn't need to be a spiffy Dyson ring to
be worth covering. 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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