This Christmas was a wild one for our family. We purchased a 50-inch Plasma HDTV from Panasonic, upgraded our home theatre system to 1000-watt Pioneer speakers, got a new TV stand, purchased a Toshiba HD DVD, bought a Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, and finally a Harmony 880 Remote. We had so many new electronic devices it would be so overwhelming to control them all with 7 or 8 remotes so we picked up an all-in-one for half the original price on Boxing Day. At Costco though, you can buy it for $170 CDN, regular price.
Utility
The look and feel of the remote is great, but the button placement could use some work. For 
example, the Play button is not in between the fast forward and rewind, rather, it's one up and to the right of the fast forward button. My misfortunes usually happen when I'm rewinding and then I choose to play without looking down and hit the fast forward button accidently. The volume and channel buttons are placed perfectly and make for easy channel surfing and quick boost to the volume. At first, when I saw the number placement for entering channel numbers, I thought it would be a pain in the neck to move my hand all the way down there and I would loose the grip on the remote. Gladly that's not the case, and entering numbers was a breeze because of the curve at the bottom making the length seem dwarf. Lastly, the LCD screen is amazing and makes changing media a walk in the park.
Ease of Use
At the very top of the remote you have the Power button (which gets used seldomly), and the Activities and Help button. The 
Activities button controls all the things you can do with the remote. To set it up, you need to connect the remote to the computer and install the software. This is all very easy to do. The hard part comes where you have to configure the actual TV with the settings such as what TV/Video setting is used for the PS3, the HD DVD, and so on. You'll have to know as well, what setting your Home Theatre is on if you use one. Once that is done, you'll see all the Activities on the remote once you pick it up. The great thing about this remote is it lights up once you pick it up, a nice touch to a sleek remote.
Once you've got everything ready to go, click the Activity you'd wish to start and it'll be up and running within 5 seconds. Then it will go to that Activity menu and it will replace the specific remotes associated with that activity. For example, with an Xbox 360, you get their remote in that one, with all the options displayed on the LCD screen. When watching TV, the remote will control the volume, switching channels, and if you are a Rogers subscriber, you'll have the "A" "B" "C" buttons on it, as well as many others. One problem I found with the remote and which made it harder to use is this. Say the remote does not start the Activity properly, like not switching on a device; you can press Devices, and switch it on manually, but then you don't have access to all those buttons that you normally do with the Activity. You can keep on switching back and forth from devices but that is quite annoying. Luckily, the remote doesn't do it often and won't do it all if you do one thing. Point the remote dead on towards the devices throughout the time the remote starts the Activity.
Look and Feel
The remote comes with a charger, thus making it rechargeable and a fast one at that. It takes approximately 3 hours to fully charge the remote from dead. The remote feels good in the hands with curves at the right places. The aesthetics of it are perfect except the LCD screen could use some work as it isn't clear.
Conclusion
Would I recommend it to someone? Yes I would. If you have more than 4 remotes then it would be a great time saver and leaves more stress behind. Setting it up is a breeze if you have a general understanding, and using it is just as easy. If you do need help though, there is a guided step by step, interactive help button located at the top of the remote. For $170CDN, I'd pick one up now before it's too late. Note to PS3 users, the Harmony 880 remote is not compatible with it due to bluetooth issues.
A little earlier I mentioned Alaska Airlines was going to be offering Internet Access on some of it's flights by 2008 but now another American airline will be offering it even sooner. JetBlue is working with Waterloo-based Research in Motion and Yahoo to provide internet access on one of its' planes today, Tuesday December 11. 2007 on one of its Airbus A320 planes. While it's only a trial, and a free one at that, the email and instant messaging service they are offering is definitely a step up from nothing. The only catch is, you have to be a Blackberry user or have a Yahoo account and it is not full internet access; they will only offer email and instant messaging obviously with only Yahoo and Blackberry services. In 2008, JetBlue says they will offer full WiFi internet access that will be built by LiveTV, a JetBlue owned subsidiary that coincidently won rights to 1MHz of the 800MHz spectrum last year. A quick note to Blackberry users getting on that lucky flight today, you have to connect through WiFi as the FCC doesn't allow mobile calls on planes.
Three other airlines including Alaska Airlines are
planning to come out with Internet Access on all of their flights by 2008. A recap of Alaska Airlines plans are: an antenna will be placed on top of the aircraft which will connect to a satellite which will be used by the in-flight system. 802.11b/g WiFi will be offered for use on laptops, phones and PDAs that will be allowed to access the internet as well as email, VPNs and stored in flight entertainment. Unlike JetBlue, Alaska Airlines wants all of their 144 planes up and running with WiFi by Spring 2008 but that still depends on how well Row 44, an airline telecom provider, can keep up with that demand. They claim they can offer downlink speeds of 81Mbps and uplink speeds of 1.6Mbps and is not limited by international borders as they use a satellite to dish out there services. They also plan to roll out in-flight entertainment services including more than 100 channels of live TV. Alaska Airlines definitely seems to be ahead of the game.
Virgin America's plans are not as elaborate as other airlines as they will offer air-to-ground internet connection for 802.11a/b/g WiFi enabled devices and they will allow "customers" to use a variety of instant messaging services including MSN Messenger, Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger, Skype, and AIM. AirCell is building the network and hopefully they can work on American Airlines as well.
American Airlines passengers will have nationwide internent access using devices that support 802.11a/b/g. Their goal is to to offer internet access at the start of 2008 but there is no mention how many airplanes will be equipped. They have already begun testing on its fleet of Boeing 727-200 aircraft in August. AirCell is building their network as well as Virgins. They own 3MHz of the 800MHz spectrum and they've already demonstrated in-flight WLAN capabilities which took place in 2005. Virgin America first announced its in-flight broadband service plan in
September, and the company hopes to have its all of its planes
connected "sometime in 2008."
By the end of 2008, Internet access will be close to a standard on commercial airlines except for the low-cost airlines like JetsGo and Air Transat. The next airline to move onto the scene should be Air Canada and possibly WestJet. Definitely, this has revolutionized the airline industry and should provide a boost to the sagging industry.
Silverthorne is Intel's first crack at making a brand new processor aimed at ultramobile PCs except for those small cell phones like the iPhone. Intel is not only working on this processor, but an update to it's upcoming Penryn family using a 45nm notebook processor, plus Montevina, a sub-notebook processor with 40% smaller components. Intel will make its integrated Wi-Fi/WiMax chip set available as an option with Montevina-based notebooks. As always, Intel is looking to shake up the industry and as usual, it will go off with a bang.
Around June 2008, Intel will release a new platform, Menlow, that will use Silverthorne and another chip set, Poulsbo. Using their new technology of a 45nm chip, which is being drooled at by other chip makers such as ATI/AMD, they will hopefully drill a new market wide open between the cell phone and notebook industries.
Currently there are more than 15 designs in Intel's arsenal with 2 in production by Christmas and 4 by the second half of 2008. The image above is the HTC Shift which will use Intel's Ultra Mobile PC chip (UMP) also in development and should be released later next year.
On Tuesday November 27, 2007, Google announced a new initiative to produce renewable energy at low costs to the consumer, but more importantly, cheaper than coal. Officially known as RE
Eliminating coal, is another step to be taken in reducing green house gases, with coal supplying more than 40% of the worlds electricity, Google is taking a huge step forward. Mentioned in their Press Release many times is "Cheaper than Coal" and that is huge, because no government will change their power structure unless it is cheaper and more reliable. China and India might be the first countries to switch.
My brother is a good friend of mine and so he tells me about all the purchases he plans out like his high performance computer, video games and now a superb GPS. The Magellen Maestro 4050 is an amazing device, and if you're in the market for one, you shouldn't at all be surprised about what I'm going to tell you. I'm going to go from obvious to cool features on this GPS.
First off there are pre-loaded US, Canada, and Puerto Rico maps all displayed on a 4.3 inch screen. It is 5. 0 (l) x 3.75 (w) x 0.88 (h) and contained in a high quality plastic case. It can run 2 hours with continuous use but isn't important because mostly you'll have it plugged into your car at all times.
My brother just bought a BMW 328xi with a load of feature including Bluetooth and an integrated feature called BMW assist. BMW Assist system offers safety, security and convenience services at the touch of a button. Using advanced technology, BMW Assist connects you with a trained response specialist, much like OnStar, to help you with almost everything, from an emergency situation to directions and traffic information. How does this relate to the Magellan Maestro 4050? If you didn't pay for some of the luxuries you can add to a car, then this GPS will provide at least some of those for a fraction of the cost. Bluetooth, hands-free calling, and Built-in AAA Travel Information, this will rival an integrated navigation system.
I haven't even got to the best part yet. Next is the included services offered by Magellan. TrafficKit can be added onto the GPS with applicable subsciption fees. Basically, TrafficKit will tell you traffic updates faster than your local radio. Finally, there is voice recognition software. There are two YouTube videos that I found to be quite good. One shows a close-up of the GPS being used with not the best function(click here) and then the other one is more of a review of the voice recognition with a demo(click here).
Compared to TomTom there are some advantages and disadvanges. For one, TomTom has mapshare which is really helpful when you find an error, you can help correct it, and therefore in turn, you'll have a more reliable map. Magellan though has the amazing Voice Command and wins my heart.
I looked at the big three in the industry, Magellan, TomTom, and Garmin and took into account their routing engine and map accuracy. There are two different mapping data providors for these 2 companies, NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas. NAVTEQ is better for North America and comes standard on Magellan units and Garmin (Garmins is several years old but soon to be updated) while TomTom uses Tele Atlas.
I'm not done yet. Here are some pros and cons about the Magellan Maestro 4050.
Pros
- Great, easy to use interface
- notifies you well in advance of turns
- 4.5million P.O.I.S that is better than larger databases on other GPS systems
- Multi-destination routing with route optimization
- QuickSpell, to speed up entering text (no real need to use it with voice commad)
- Loud speaker
- Allows you to see your current location w/ time, speed, direction, & allows you to save your current location
- Four routing methods to choose from
- Only GPS on the market that includes AAA's TourBook information
Cons
- GPS voice is hard to understand and is the worst text-to-speech of Magellan, TomTom, and Garmin
- Cannot enter a street address using the voice command
- Hard to use voice commands while driving
- Docking system is hard to use
- Map colour scheme makes it hard to read
- Sometimes wakes up without you saying "Magellan"
- Icons are transparent, making them hard to see
- Traffic Reciever is big
- P.O.I lookups don't use QuickSpell
- Bluetooth is difficult to hook up with your device
- Map Screen only uses night mode, all other screens stick to day
Retailling at $499, I think I'd pick one up for Christmas.
Pandora's Box was always a secret and when it was finally released and let out into the world, everybody except the US got to look into it. For some time though, Pandora was seen by peering Canadian eyes but last May it was shut down to Canadians. Now there is a website entitled Last.Fm and is open to Canadian residents and the rest of the world. This is a huge relief because I dearly missed Pandora and it's beautiful choices of music. There restrictions to it originally which included prohibiting you to scroll more than 5 times for a set amount of time. Last.Fm does not have many restrictions but they do get a little annoying on their website. For one, you can search up a song/artist on their website, but you can only it for 30 seconds and it doesn't allow you to play the full version on your downloaded software even though it says you can. The stations though play some unique songs like the Rolling Stones version of Into You-Fabolous.
My pet peeve of this software is you can only search for Artists and Tags where you are almost dispersuaded from searching for albums and titles. I suggest you experience becuase right now you don't have an alternative if you're a Canadian resident living in Canada. Let me know what you guys think about the alternative and comment away.
Earlier I did a review on some new websites and I told you I would do a larger review on this website, Zoho: DB & Reports. We'll my dad, who spends hours on the computer making charts, graphs, and spreadsheets, looked at the site and gave it his once over. This is what he thought of it.
Easy to learn if you've used spreadsheets/databases before
Easy import from Excel to Zoho, and it gives you some choices
Easy creation of new database from scratch
Free
Cons :
Not very sophisticated. Excel and Access have way more functionality
Imported data was done with bogus warnings, and totals dropped
Looks untidy eg. dollars show on the left rather than right
You have to enter a character every cell before getting the drop down options
No auto complete
Your data could perhaps be hacked more easily than Excel
Apart from that I came up with a couple of stuff too. It has a nice looking interface that isn't too wild but not too simple making it more pleasing on your eyes and letting you get work done more. A neat option is you can make databases public for other people to see. Also, all the information is neatly organized with Recent Items on a sidebar to the left and a list of your databases right below your options. Overall, it won't replace your Excel software but if you're working on a foreign computer or you need to transfer over databases without the need of a USB, then this is the perfect site.
All the major phone manufacturers are all abuzz about creating an iPhone killer much like the digital music industry was trying to create an iPod killer. Now Microsoft might have finally succeeded at doing that with the new generation Zune as it's currently hard to find in many US retailers. But that's not the story for today. Today I am here to report on the Blackberry 9000 which is supposed to be an iPhone killer.
A 600mhz processor is the cherry on the top for the Blackberry 9000. It will definitely sway frustrated Apple iPhone owners as they suffer from bottleneck internet speeds. The processor will give a huge boost to the speed. On top of that, instead of WiFi, the 900 will have HSDPA, a real speed demon that will do voice and data at the same time. Good thing Rogers is offering 3G speeds, and the phone positions itself well in the US market.
Another phone, only thought to be in the US and elsewhere (at least in my mind), the Motorola Razr2 V9 is now being offered by Rogers for $199 with a 3 year contract. Bell Mobility also offers it for the same price. A beautiful phone that I did consider when shopping around for a new cell phone, I simply chose not to buy it because it was a flip phone. It was on the very top of my list in the category of flip. There were many reasons why it was there including aesthetics, size, quality, and actual features.
FeaturesA good friend of mine at CutEdge let me in on a secret, or I just went to his site and read a couple articles. I enjoyed them and took him up on his offerings to join Adrive and MediaMaster.
When I first went to the site, I was impressed just like any new website that is recommended to me by my good friend at CutEdge and I was equally impressed by the services it offered. ADrive gives us internet users, the chance to own an account that will hold up to 50GB of files, with no fee whatsoever. With no hesitation I clicked the Join Now link and started to register. I entered my usual information but was surprised, yet relieved to learn that my password was not sufficient enough. My password had to be at least 8 characters long, contain a capital letter, and have at least 1 numerical key. Now some people might say this is a pain the butt, but most dually note that this is a hug security feature. The internet is a scary place and ADrive is doing the best to keep it as safe as possible. After registering and logging in, I browsed away, only to come back to this drab screen. I asked myself if a popup came up, but quickly discovered there was no pop-up and it was the website I had been eagerly awaiting, ADrive. The utility of this site though is great and because of its basic design, the ease of use is apparent. Most file uploaders only let you upload one file at a time, but this one let me upload about 150 photos at a rate of 45-65kb/s. It was a long wait but it didn't slow down my computer at all. 
I noticed a few drawbacks at first to actually playing the songs. I couldn't figure out why, when I double-clicked the track, it wouldn't play. I am a little impatient so within a couple seconds, I double-clicked another track. Little did I know that this site is streaming the music to you and it takes a little bit of time to load it. Wait approxiametelely 5sec and the music will start playing. Another quirk I noticed when you select an album, it shows you all the songs on that album, but bolds the one you uploaded. This can get a little annoying but gives you a quick reference to the albums track list. Finally, I must say that the experience is great and I'm extremely happy with the quality of the service. The music stream is constant and does not provide any interuptions and it does it all with a nice clean interface.
Going forward with technology in the automobile industry usually starts from the more expensive cars like the Ferrari Enzo, Lamborghini Gallardo, Ford GT, but in this case it starts with a household brand by the name of Volkswagen. Audi is a part of Volkswagen or the other way around (who knows these days) so I'd expect this type of product to start in a high end brand like that. Better for the averge consumer I'd say and so I'm not complaining.
With a 7-inch touchscreen in the midle of your VW Jetta, Golf, New Beetle, or any other VW, you are pimping right there. It would honestly make me look twice at a vehicle that looks good AND comes with a crazy interface. Now the twist to this story is Apple has been recently collaborating with VW and if you look closely at the zoomed in picture of the display, you'll see some coverflow.
As Autoblog describes it, the concept touchscreen monitor "controls all conceivable functions" and is meant to demonstrate how future human-machine interfaces might look and operate.
-AutoBlog
Since it is developed by Apple you would think there would be multi-touch capabilites but there is no official word yet. Obviously this would increase the possiblity you'd be more focused on scrolling, or doing whatever on Space Up! that you'd completely forget that you're driving. There are going to be later posts on removing that possibility. 
The official word on it though is it will use sensors that react to gestures infront of the screen without touching it but it will also be capable of being touched which will be perfect to some late adapters or just old-fashioned people. The touchscreen is intuitive and makes for a great alternative to a GPS, MyGig, and Sync that are being offered on other cars. The beauty of this all is we won't have to wait until 2015 or an unannounced date for this to be on our favourite VW model, VW says it will be available on all 2009 models. Some say this is what Apple has in store for us in January at MacWorld but I say they will have another completely new product to blow our mind. Bring in the new year with a new Apple.
Due to the new knowledge of a wide base of Canadian readers I decided to offer a Canadian Edition article and what better way to kick it off but with our favourite wireless, cable, and phone providor, Rogers. I don't know about you but I hate Rogers so I chose Fido as my wireless providor and I've never regretted it (I know Rogers owns Fido). Rogers does however have the best service but they don't know how to treat their customers right which is the reason I'll take any chance to cut my ties with them. I do give credit to them for bringing in 4 new phones to their dismall lineup which is the reason why I'm writing this article today.
Sony Ericsson W580i
Technically it's not a new phone but to the general public in Canada it is. Rogers is now offering 
it for a measly $300 without a contractand $100 for a 3yr contract. This versatile offers Bluetooth, Infrared, Quad-Band 850/900/1800/1900 capabilities and uses Enhanced Data rates for the EDGE technology to give you hi-speed video / picture messaging and mobile Internet access. Download videos, ring tunes, graphics and games at speeds up to three times faster than dial-up. This truly is a high-tech phone and gives all the other providors a run for their money. The main feature that has been getting alot of attention are the fitness tools such as the pedometer. These features shouldn't be getting the most attention as there are plenty of other great things on the phone. The phone is only 10cm long 5cm wide so it makes for a great size phone. The main feature I believe to be on this phone is its screen. Similar to other Sony Ericsson���s models, the W580i utilizes mirror layer that improves its readability while in the sun and allows its picture to stay crisp and visible. The display boasts enhanced image sharpness and contrast.
HTC TyTN
While at first it doesn't look as good as the HTC Touch at first 
glance, if you look further it makes a great arguement. It's an "office in your pocket" that you've been waiting for. Exclusively offered by Rogers it will limit the learning tim required to get used to the phone. With the familiarity of the Windows platform, th TyTN operates on Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Edition. You'll be able to send email, text and multimedia messages with the stylish sliding full QWERTY keyboard and navigate easily with the 2.8" screen and stylus. View, capture, send, and save pictures and video with the 2 megapixel camera. It is HSDPA enabled so you can download at home-style speed. A huge feature is wifi, enabling you to connect anywhere possible. Windows Mobile 5.0 packs a lot into a relatively small package and should help the HTC TyTN compete with the Blackberry's and stem off Apple iPhone buyers if it comes to Canada.
HTC Touch
I did a review on this phone a month ago and never expected it to hit Canada. I thought I was seeing things when I saw the Rogers commercial. I am glad it is coming here because it's an absolutely great phone for a reasonable price of $200 with a 2yr contract and $400 with a 1yr contract(not offered for prepaid). I have a full review on the phone here. Now it is also offered by Bell Mobility. On a similar note, this probably means that Rogers, let alone any other carrier, will offer the Apple iPhone in Canada because the HTC Touch is a perfect replacement to it.
LG TU720 Shine
Finally we have the LG Shine with a price tag of $100 for a 3yr term and $410 for no-term. The
LG Shine has sleek design with a mirror finish and a 2megapixel camera to capture those Kodak moments. It is also used for video calling, one of Rogers new services, and provides many colours for a great video conversation. Mobile TV is one of the preloaded services that come with the phone as well as a Music store, radio, and VOD. There is plenty of space when you first buy the phone at 512MB plus the option of expanding it. Overall, it's a flashy phone that will get old very soon, but hopefully not before Christmas. This cell phone, unlike Bell's version is capable of utilizing Roger's new high-speed network, 3G. Note: Rogers is the first to test the new 3.5G network in North America so look out for it.
Dell has finally matched Apple's feat by developing an All-in-One computer that fits into a slim, nice, looking monitor after HP and Gateway both completed copies of Apples iMac. The Apple iMac was first released on August 15, 1998 and has never seen a down moment as it's been featured in pop culture and movies and with successful marketing it seems it won't slow down.
Dell though might have a winner with different models to choose from that have somewhat unique names. On both sides are stereo speakers with media buttons down one side with a 20-inch widescreen TV down the middle. There will be four available systems that mimick an Apple name. The Essential One, the Performance One, the Music One, and the Entertainment One. All of these systems have 4 things in common; they all have an Intel Core 2 Duo running them and Windows Vista Home Premium operating them. As well a TV tuner and a remote come standard.
The Music One and Entertainmet One both have small differences to there siblings. Music One comes with wireless headphones for the music enthusiast. The Entertainment One will mimick a Home Entertainment system with all the best technology. There will be a Blu-Ray DVD burner and an ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro graphics card with 256M bytes of memory.
All these models are available on the Dell (CA)(US) website for pre-sale. Actual selling of the Dell XPS-One will take place next week.
YouTube has been well known to have crappy quality videos but it still survives will lurking under the shadows are sites such as Revver and Blip.tv produce amazing quality videos without the viewers. Now that's all about to change. Steve Chen, the co-founder of YouTube, announced November 14 2007 that a high-quality YouTube would be in the near future of their business plan. As little of you know, YouTube's goal has been to stream video to everybody with an internet connection but with high quality videos that wouldn't be possible. That's why they are testing a player that will recognize a users internet connection and decide whether or not to stream low or high quality videos.
Imagine downloading a music video or movie onto your phone and displaying it on a wall. That's not far from reality. Expected to debut in 2008 on game consoles and PCs, it will revolutionize the way we view videos. Right now, the big thing is watching TV and movie online but by the looks of it, that will all be transferred over to the mobile phone.
The first mobile phone will be projector equiped by 2009 with due help from Motorola to develop PICO projectors that were first invented by Microvision. The projectors use light scanning technology to display a colourful image all from a beam of light. If you open your cell phone and project the image from 12 feet away, the picture on the wall will be up to 120 inches which is incredible. Soon the picture will be HD and you'll have a mobile TV in your pocket. A PicoP engine will control the whole thing, the size of a mint, to control the intensity of te thousands of colours generated by the scanner. All on one phone charge, you'll be able to play "I Know Pronounce You Chuck and Larry." The estimated cost of intergrating all this onto your phone will be $150 and accessory projectors will be a higher price of $200.
An online-only version of Adobe Photoshop Express is slated to be released by the end of 2007 with an open beta. It is doing this to keep up and compete with other offerings by companies trying to get rid of software and instead use online-based applications. First announced at the beginning of the year, Adobe recently announced it would be officically releasing it.
Buying an HDTV has never been harder and now with LCD fast approaching Plasma set prices, it's getting even harder to differentiate them. That's where I come in. I'll give you the lowdown on the advantages and disadvantages of each platform and I'll help you make the better choice.
LCD would seem the hands down choice. Wrong (for now). While LCD has made significant strides in the past years, Plasma still has the edge over LCD. If you are looking for a smaller screen size then LCD may be your only choice but with fairly good picture and decent viewing angles it isn't the worst thing. One of the huge advantages of LCD is there is no burn-in produced after static images but they do suffer from retained pixel charge which basically means some pixels will stay at a certain spot. The other key advantage is LCD TVs have a higher native resolution. Basicaly what that means is a 42 inch LCD TV will have more pixels than a 42 inch Plasma TV which results in a slightly better picture. They also weigh less and are more durable so personally installing your LCD TV is possible. They don't overheat and are more energy efficient so it can be a more of an environmental choice for people that are trying to cut there energy bill.
deeper blacks. This can also help the picture for regular use and movies. They do suck up more power and suffer from burn-in but if you are pro-active, this will never be an issue because burn-in happens when you leave a static image for too long (pausing a video game or live TV). They are cheaper which is surprising because they are more expensive to ship and handle. If you are mounting it, a professional would be highly recommended and would come with a price tag. Plasmas have a wider viewing angle than LCDs which can be a factor if you have a large room.
Is Microsoft Office too expensive or are you just looking for something different to manage your data, personal life, and/or finances? We'll there are sites that will do that for you all for free. The great thing about websites is they are everchanging and updates are made very often.
moments with the rest of the world? A website is out there that will make you a fridge like page to share with friends and family. Stixy allows you to put notes, to-do lists, photos, documents and upload music with the help of their widgets. Within 10 seconds you are up and running with only your email and personal password entered. You can either start setting up your board or you can invite other people to be allowed to view and edit the board. There isn't the largest amount of space at first but you can close or hide a few toolbars to free up some space. You can create as many boards as you like which is great for people with alot of contacts. Note: to add music, drag the document widget onto the board.
If you are a fan of Mozilla or you are getting fed up of Internet Explorer, then Mozilla is updating its much respected broswer, Firefox. Entitled, Mozilla Gran Paradiso, it aims to better the graphics and text rendering and improve stability.
"Gran Paradiso Alpha 1 is being made available for testing purposes only, and is intended for web application developers and our testing community. Current users of Mozilla Firefox should not use Gran Paradiso Alpha 1."
Computer work gets tediuos and hard so here are a couple of downloads to ease the workload on you and your computer.
computers. This download though will work against time to bring back your hard drive to what it once was. CCleaner works unlike any other cleaning program as it not only tells you what to clean up within the browser, temp files, and recycling bin, but it goes further and looks at leftover files from programs like Adobe, Nero, HP, Microsoft, etc. It also comes with an uninstaller for other programs (as well as itself) and a registry scanner. Another notable is the included tag editor which enables you to check folders other than the defaults for scanning.
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Cairo is a new type of Windows Shell alternative that will be released as a free standing application. There is no word yet on when it will be released but we can all hope it will be sooner than later. Many, including me at first, don't have a clue what a Windows Shell Alternative is; but let me dumb it down for you. When you install a WSA, it replaces explorer.exe. Explorer.exe displays the icons, folders, start menu, and taskbar but Windows has made it possible to change it in numerous ways only if you are good at computers or if you've downloaded something like Cairo.
I was told about this revolutionary piece of "software" by a friend and I decided to do some of my own research. So far though, Cairo's official website is the only place with reliable information.
Even with an official website it isn't sufficient enough to write a full article so this is just an article in development. There are 9 features on Cairo that are either new or improvements on Windows' version. Some of them are:
- A start bar with easy access to all your files and applications.
- Slick and Stable, you never hear those words together
- Multi-Desktop lets you easily organize your workload by desktop
- Dynamic Desktop enables you to browse files and folders right there
- Make virtual file stacks to easily locate files with File & Application Grouping
- Launch applications that are more frequently used and hide the ones you don't with LaunchCairo
- Preview files and folders such as documents, music, and images with File Explorer
- Configure Cairo just the way you like it by adding and removing features with Cairo's unique plugin system
LCD Monitors have become more popular just this year and now the 22-inch segment is the best buy. They are much less priced than 24-inch screens and usually, less than a $100 upgrade from a 19 or 20 inch screen. HP, ViewSonic, and Samsung all offer great looking packages in this size category.
It has more of a bang for your buck coming in at a reasonable $319US. It is not offered in a physical store but you can buy it from a number of online retailers. The graphics, text, and DVD quality are all very good and it comes with analog and digital inputs. It has multiple adjustments and 5ms of repsonse time and 700:1 contrast ratio. 
ViewSonic at $330US. The surprising thing is there is a huge difference between the Canadian price and the American price. HP Canada offers the very same monitor for $450 but luckily I stumbled upon an even cheaper price offered by Office Depot at $400. The difference between the HP and Viewsonic is the text quality which goes to the ViewSonic but it makes up in contrast ratio (1000:1) and features. It looks like an HP product which is not surprsing because they are known for there aesthetics. The w2207 combines styleand practicalization with USB ports, pivoting panel, and EasyClip. Easy Clip is a feature on this monitor that will allow you to add different accessories alongside your monitor including a webcam, picture frame, and a flower vase.
Finally, Samsung has come out with the SyncMaster 2232GW. It's a name you'd think you'd hear from an infomercial. It brings it's 'A' game though with great graphics, text and DVD quality. It surpasses all the other monitors in terms of processing power with 3000:1 contrast ratio and 2ms response time but lacks in ergonomics with only tilt adjustment. It's priced a bit higher versus the ViewSonic and HP with a pricetag of $360 US from Circuit City and it is not sold in Canada unless you want to ship it from Samsung.
My first taste of online TV was Joost which is now in public beta, but it wasn't the best and so I deleted it. Now that it's in public beta, it is much better with clearer video, more TV and a more organized menu. The reason for the major update is there is much more competition now from major players like NBC and Fox who have released offerings from there own network and on other new sites. This whole chain reaction all started when NBC threw away its contract with Apple and it's one-price model. Now NBC has a deal with Amazon's UnBox to show programs from all of its networks on one cool location. UnBox now has 2600 current and past shows in its arsenal. UnBox is a creative way to offer cost-effective TV shows and movies in a fun, interactive website. It costs around 99 cents for a show like The Office and currently they are running a promotion for movies at the same price, 99 cents.
NBC still hasn't stopped there and has partnered with Fox to offer a website called Hulu (which
is in private beta). Hulu is a great attempt to increase people's attention to free online viewing of TV shows. It has great navigation, a large selection of programs that last for a full 5 weeks, and simple design that makes it easy to use. It does however lack in video quality but definitly watchable. My only warning is it is currently not available for people outside the US and the shows are only streamed.
GPS systems have slowly been making there way into cars and I have participated in that trend while I was in England and France. We had the opportunity to rent a GPS for the duration of our rental or get my mom secondary insurance. Guess what my dad chose.
Personally, storage is not an issue in my world, but over the last few years, there has been an onslaught of websites dedicated to sending larger files and storing files online. There are two major services that are currently offering online storage and now Microsoft has introduced SkyDrive which is in beta and only available to users with Microsoft accounts (Live, Hotmail, Msn). It supports 500mb of storage but there is a limit of 5mb per file. Once the beta stage finishes it will be open to everybody where it then will truly be up there with the big boys, XDrive and MediaMax. Currently, XDrive and MediaMax are the frontrunners as they both offer key advantages over SkyDrive. XDrive though allows you to stream audio files and Streamload offers automated backup and synchronization between two computers. A plus though from SkyDrive is it allows you to upload files to a private, public, or shared folder on the network. Therefore it's perfect for sending Word files, images over to someone halfway across the world, where they can always access it. Anybody can view your public folders but only your invites can access your shared folders. Go to SkyDrive to sign up yourself.
This product has been a long time coming. I personally heard about Microsoft Surface a year 6 months ago and boy have I been excited. I wouldn't buy it though until I had a family and had some sort of purpose for it. Currently there isn't a point to owning a product such as this when you can't use it to its fill potential. The Microsoft Surface has been getting the most attention thus far but it's not the only company working on a surface computer. Mitsubishi is developing a similar tabletop computer called the DiamondTouch. Both operate differently. The Microsoft Surface is capable of delivering images via a rear-projection delivered to the surface of the table from inside while at the same time, tracking your finger movements with a series of infrared cameras. DiamondTouch projects the image from atop and uses a similar technology that is used
on laptop touchpads, to track your finger movements. The drawback to the DiamondTouch's design is that it creates shadows when you touch the screen. Don't expect these PC's in your living room by the next holiday season though, but look out for the Surface in cellular stores, hotel, casino, or any other retail store that would benefit from them, all by this year. By 2010, Microsoft expects them to be in conference rooms around the globe, and by 2012 you can expect them as a stocking gift. Mitsubihi's version though is still a research product and I do believe it will be scrapped or greatly modified due to its late unveiling and outdated technology.
This is a new series starting today that will cover up to three cool downloads that will either make your life easier or just be a nice add-on.
The drawback to this add-on is you have to manually go to a site and right-click the Firefox tray icon and select Discourage Me. The add-on though provides a huge amount of stats, but mainly the timer is great and the ability to warn you if you've viewed a site for too long. .jpg)
As you can see my power use is pretty high in my opinion and so I will make changes to reduce that. Compared to other people though I believe it actually is low. The drawback is that the program actually takes control of your computer to shut down your computer when you say it should, like 45min. If you only want it to control your monitor then you can set the values to everything else to 0. Once this program is installed you can register at Local Cooling and it will keep track of your power usage and you can compare yourself to businesses and individuals who also have this utility.Computers are ever evolving pieces of machinary with new products that go inside it everyday. For example, DDR3 RAM just came out and new LED technology is helping make laptops more efficient. Well now 3 more standards are going to enter out computers. Larger hard drives, faster internet, and larger system bus.
its not big enough, you get a bottleneck, much like when the 404 turns into the DVP. Currently the standard is PCI 2.3 which offers a data transfer rate of 5.2 gigabits per second which is a lot at first glance but the next generation is called PCI 3.0. This hardware will have a data transfer rate of 8 gigabits per second. Not only will PCI 3.0 allow for higher GPU performance (A special processor dedicated to calculating the graphics in a game. A GPU allows for better looking console games and takes the load off of the CPU during gameplay), but it also allows the system bus to power graphic cards directly instead of going through a seperate power line. The downfall is, you'll need a 3.3V card to use it instead of a 5V or 3.3V. Don't worry though, as these graphic cards (PCI 3.0) will be out in 2010 with the specs debuting in 2009.
When George S. was working for Much Music, back about 6 or 7 years ago, he had to specially order a 1TB hard drive to hold all his music. Back then, that was rarity, but now companies are going to be offering 5TB hard drives.To get something this big without sacrificing space a technique called Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) and a similar technology called Thermally Assited Magnetic Recording (TAMR) uses lasers to heat the surface of the hard drive which makes it possible to pack a Terabyte into a square inch of the drives surface. This doubles the standard as a 2 inch square space could only fit 1 Terabyte. Once the laser starts heating the surface up, the driver can manipulate the surface on an extremely fine scale of about tens of nanometres. A huge benefit of these drives is the way the information is organized on it. The data will be organized into self-arranging magnetic arrays that allow the creation of a single bit of data on every grain of the drives surface. Don't expect this drive to be installed onto your computer for the next holiday season though. Its still a research project but Seagate expects to sell a 5TB HAMR hard drive by 2011
Search engines have been a hot topic lately and many new search engine sites have opened up. I've already reviewed 2, Spacetime and Hakia, but now Microsoft has released its own, Tafiti. At the time I wrote Beta Update, Spacetime was in its Beta 1 with many issues to fix, but now its very close to releasing Beta 2 with many improved features. I highly encourage you to visit SpaceTime to learn more and see more. They have a video up on the new features and the overall free product. Hakia however is in the midst of fully implementing its flagship feature, Semantic-Rank algorithm which is designed to extract meaning from your search phrases and questions. This is a massive step in bringing better search and more credible results to you. Another company that is using this type of technology is Vlingo. They offer a voice-recognition system for on the go Sprint users. It uses the Hieracrhical Language Model to recognize every single word you say and make educated predictions on what word you are going to say next based on the previous word uttered. On top of this, it will adapt, learn, and improve itself to understand new words, speech patterns and more.
The big news though is Microsofts new search engine called Tafiti. If you don't already have Silverlight*, the website will instruct you to download it. Once started, Tafiti loads surprisingly quickly and will position a search box in front of you. Once you've entered a phrase or keyword and pressed Go, the search box will slide to the left and below it, an orbit of the world, RSS, News, Images, and Halo icons will swirl around. These are just like the Google tabs of Web, Images, News, Groups, etc. After you've gone to the tab you want, you can click the result which has a larger description, or you can save that website by dragging it over to the corner which contains 5 empty slots. You can label those slots, email, or blog it (Windows Live Spaces). This is only possible if you have a Hotmail, MSN, or Live account. Not only does it display the results in such a cool way, they give you a second option to display it in a tree view which isn't the best but definitly looks cool.
Silverlight is basically another version of Adobe Flash but much better. This is why Tafiti can support such great graphics, video and animation. Sun Microsystems has already released a competitor for Silverlight days after its release called JavaFX. Currently, Silverlight is supported by the most popular broswers on Windows 2000 and up except Opera. The Mac versions are in the making and should represent a fair amount of the downloads. I won't get into the technical details of Silverlight but the jist is: it's more useable, superior graphics, animation, and video, more searchable, and doesn't need Windows Media Player, WMP Active X, or Windows Media plug-ins to be played. You can view some demos of the type of quality Silverlight provides on Fox. To learn more on Silverlight and other Beta products go to Beta Updates.