We just bought an RCA RTD217 home theater for our living room. It was kind of unexpected, but I thought I would blog about it because it was such a good deal. I’m no audiophile by any means, and I’m pretty geeky when it comes to computers and gadgets – and I do have a flat screen LCD hanging on the living room wall. But for some reason we just never got any kind of surround sound or home theater system. Probably because I spent the money on an external hard drive or something else.
So I’m in the store and we see they have some display models on clearance – and I took a look. They had 2 DVD players and one was HDMI output that was pretty cool. But then I saw this RCA surround sound system for half off the retail. It was 250 watts (50 per speaker), a 5 disc DVD changer, AM/FM radio, but the thing that sold me was the fact that it would play CD and DVD data disks, Windows Media, DivX, PhotoCD’s – just about anything. The selling feature was the fact that it had a USB port on the front that said it would accept both USB flash drives or external hard drives!
So at half off we couldn’t resist – we snatched it up and took it home. I hooked it up to the 5 prong component cable to our flat screen, wired up the speakers, and fired it up! It has 4 levels of subwoofer, both surround and stereo modes, DVD’s were awesome (progressive scan), and we sent audio from the TV back to it so the cable could play through it on the AUX channel.
Then we brought in the external hard drive, and that’s when the surprise came in. We plugged in a 300GB Western Digital Mybook and brought up the menu on the TV. MP3′s played fine, pictures were great, but we couldn’t get it to play any video at all. Not Windows Media, DivX, MPG, anything! Arghh! We went back and read the manual and found out that the USB port only plays AUDIO!! Crap! All is not lost because we can still play data discs, but that means burning one every time. I guess we just have to get some rewritables. I still say that at half off it was a good deal. Let this be a lesson to you if you go shopping for a home theater with a USB input jack!
I am however, going to start searching for a stereo system that you can hook up external drives too and play video!! I’ve heard you can “hack” the menus of some DVD players too (through the firmware) and this is something that we’re certainly going to look into.
Would you like to access the Internet 100 times faster than you do now? According to Roland’s Emerging Tech blog that reality isn’t too far off. I’ve been using the Internet the very beginning of dial-up and the 1200 baud modem. That’s probably 100 times slower than the broadband we have today. What if I told you that a new way to transfer data for the Internet has been developed and it’s 100 times faster than what we have now?
In Australia at the University of Sydney they created an optical chip based on plain glass that could transfer up to 640Gbps – yes “gigabytes per second”. That’s about a dozen and a half full DVD’s (per second). They say it could be up to 100 faster than what we have “at no additional cost to the consumer”. Well, that’s university people saying that – you sure can bet, even if it doesn’t cost your provider any more – because it’s 100 times faster they’ll jack up the price to who knows what. When I read this article the thing I wonder is if they can make computer parts based on this new glass switching technology and lessen the reliance on silicon. Exiting things are definitely to come.
My HPTouchSmart PC Review shows you how you can buy the PC of tomorrow – today!
You’re probably going to catch some ads on TV about this in the coming weeks (as I did today), but the HP TouchSmart PC is just all over the place now. It’s so sleek and cool, and when you see it you just can’t help want one. What am I talking about?
Here’s something you may not have seen – it’s the “Eye-Fi Wireless SD Card”. Most of us have SD cards lying around because that’s what we store all our precious pictures on in our digital cameras. How many times have you taken pictures, and then waited days (or weeks, or months) before uploading them to your PC or laptop? I can’t count the number of times that I have gotten out the camera and realized that it was full of pictures from a month back. Even worse, that meant fewer pictures I could take – because I couldn’t delete anything off the card yet.
Enter the “Eye-Fi”. Inside this flash memory card are some tiny electronics that will astound you. This SD memory card can connect to your WiFi network, without cables, or cradles – or anything! It can automatically upload all your pics to any PC on your network OR even upload them to Flickr, Fotki, Shutterfly, Webshots, Photobucket, Kodak Gallery, Sharpcast, Wal-mart, Snapfish, Phanfare, Picase Web Albums, TypePad, VOX, Smugmug, or Facebook! It can even resize photos before submission if you wish! What an unbelievably handy gadget to have!
This could possibly be one of the coolest gift ideas for just about anyone! Imagine giving this to Mom or Grandma – or anyone that hates having to get the cable or usb adapter out just to transfer the pictures every time!
Eye-Fi Wireless 2GB Secure Digital Memory Card SD
Price: $99.99
Photos should not be trapped in your camera. Set them free effortlessly and wirelessly. The Eye-Fi Card is a wireless SD memory card for your digital camera. It stores pictures like a standard SD memory card, but also uses your home Wi-Fi network to automatically transfer images from inside your camera to your PC or Mac and to your favorite photo or social networking website for sharing or printing. No cables, no cradles, no fuss.
You might be able to find a really good new or used eye-fi in one of these auctions as well:
The Socket Sense Expandable Surge Protector Strip is something I wish I had a long time ago! It always seems like I have some kind of big bulky adapter to plug in that spans more than one outlet. This nifty little gadget just slides out at any outlet to expand and give enough room for big adapters where needed. I think all surge protectors should do this. I can use one of these in my living room entertainment center, and also at just about every computer in the house, in addition to carrying one in my musicians gig bag for the stage (where I have all kinds of adapters for effects)! Where could you use an expandable socket surge strip? click here to check prices for the “Socket Surge”.
A short while ago I reviewed the Asus Eee PC, which is an incredible sub-compact laptop that runs on Linux and you can buy brand new for only $300-$500. Some say it was inspired by the OLPC or One Laptop Per Child initiative. In a way the things that have derailed and plagued the OLPC front are now starting to creep into the computer industry as a whole – and it’s not really surprising.
Let me explain…in my basement I have a 6 or 7 year old Gateway box. When I got it (used) it had 128MB of RAM and a 20GB HDD. The processor I think is Pentium III, maybe 500-600Mhz?? I upgraded the Ram to 256MB and installed Redhat Linux. Over the years it has had many different versions of Linux, but for the last 3 years or so it’s been Ubuntu. Now that box has 512MB of Ram, a 100GB and 120GB hard drive, and a 128MB graphics card and an LCD dispay. It’s funny, the only thing I never upgraded was the USB 1.1 to 2.0. This box works great as an Internet / email workhorse. I can get any web work done on it, edit graphics, manage digital pics, or mp3′s. I converted video on this box for many years (and still can). My whole point here is that you don’t need a lot of horsepower or the latest hardware to have a solid affordable working home computer for many years (anymore). I know tons of geeks that recycle hardware and do the exact same thing.
Now that technology has evolved a bit, the same “sect” of geeks that recycle hardware wouldn’t mind using that same tech on a portable device they could take with them. There are lots of linux laptops now available, but many geeks have been installing linux on their windows laptops for years. It was inevitable that the Asus Eee Linux PC would be a hit in the geek community. Asus got a taste of success and predicted 2 million Asus Eee PC’s sold this year, and you can just hear somebody in marketing say “if we sold that many Linux Eee’s, just imagine how many we could sell if it had Windows on it!”.
Well, that time has come, and now Asus has come forward to release versions (4G and 12G) Windows XP Home installed. A lot of geeks are pissed off and screaming “sellout”, but Asus isn’t exactly a non-profit company. If the oil companies can make windfall profits the year of the largest hurricane in U.S. history – is it any surprise Asus released a windows version of the Eee PC? I think not.
So now that anyone can enjoy the sub-compact genius of the Eee PC – how well does Windows run on it? It comes with Windows XP, 12GB of storage, 900Mhz Celeron CPU, and 1GB of DDR memory. It has a new 8.9 inch display which can run at 1,024 x 600 pixels, which makes it much closer to a standard (non-wide) desktop. It even supports multi-gesture inputs, like the iPod touch and iPhone, something (that currently) no other PC made today can claim. You don’t get Skype and Open Office installed, but you certainly can install them yourself easily.
Some reviews say the Windows version of the Asus Eee PC aren’t as good as Linux, mainly because the storage is only 12GB instead of 20. The storage had to be sacrificed to pay for the Windows license. The speakers may suck, but they do on the Linux version too. At least the screen is increased to a decent (and still compact) size, and the camera is now a respectable 1.3 megapixels. It’s all give and take I guess.
I had read a lot of reviews on Amazon and eBay where some had purchased the Linux version of the Eee PC and just couldn’t do it. They had all kinds of problems, and probably no “geek” to turn to for help. So they either tried to return them or sell them on eBay. The Windows version is for the masses, and will make it much easier to just “plug and play” devices. Although “most things” work in Linux, there are still of lot of printers, cameras, and other devices that either don’t work, or take a bit of “tweaking” to get running. Let’s face it, none of us may ever drop anything off to the “Geek Squad” to be fixed, but there’s a reason they have customers.
When I wrote my “Network Storage Review“, one of the first things in that article was the “Buffalo Drivestation”. I was thinking about the Drivestation this week because I had a family member who had a hard drive crash and lost all of her family photos and mp3′s she’d purchased, in addition to saved tax returns, and many other valuable documents.
I think sometimes people forget what kinds of “digital treasures” are stored on your PC or laptop, and what kind of chaos could ensue if it suddenly disappeared tomorrow. The Drivestation came to mind because it comes in so many different sizes (from 320GB to many Terabytes), and because it’s so easy to use. Just plug it in, push the button, and you’re backed up! They make models big enough for most small to medium sized businesses, and the versions with “RAID” have 2 hard drives inside for dual mirroring. That means if one hard drive fails, there’s another as a backup. The disks are even encrypted, so if anyone takes the unit, they can’t access any of your data.
It’s like insurance for your computer in a way. You have insurance for your car and home don’t you? If you have an accident or a fire your insurance company will replace what you have lost. Not only is there no insurance for your computer, but the personal documents and data you lose there likely can’t be replaced at all. If you have pics of your daughter’s wedding on your computer’s hard drive, for example, if they were lost no amount of money could compensate you for that.
I recommended the Buffalo Drivestation to my family member that lost her data, and I recommend it to you because of it’s ease of use, multiple connections (firewire and USB), and because it works with both Macs and PC’s. The price is reasonable for the value you get, and even your Grandma or the most tech-clueless office manager or secretary could set one up.
You can nearly always find Drivestations on eBay, or Amazon (below).
Can Holographic Storage, a technology 20 years in the making, be the future BluRay killer?
Robin Harris wrote an article on his blog the other day about holographic storage shipping next month. The technology was in the works for decades before becoming a reality. Every now and then I read about something and go “wow – that’s the future!”. I remember when I was a kid in the 80′s and my day telling me about computer storage and memory doubling nearly every six months. He also told me “someday you’ll be able to carry your 30 albums or your entire record collection on a small postage stamp sized chip in your pocket.” It seemed like something out of the movies back then, and yet my 4GB SD Flash card for my digital camera can hold about 1,000 songs which I guess is about 75-80 CD’s (and it’s about the size of a postage stamp).
We’ve all seen a holograph in a sci-fi movie. A holograph is a projected image that, if you moved around it, would actually have perspective form different angles. A holograph is a true “3D image”. So, how do you turn a holograph into storage? Technically a holograph IS storage, because it stores information about the image to be projected. A hologram uses 2 laser beams. A reference and illumination beam create an interference pattern on photo sensitive media. Shine a laser on that reference pattern and get an image in 3D – simple as that. Robin Harris brings up to good points in that article, the first being that a small fraction of the reference data can reconstruct the entire 3D images (you just can’t move as far around it). This means that unlike a CD or DVD, if the photo sensitive media is scratched it doesn’t (completely) destroy the data. Imagine data that can “reconstruct itself” from the remaining bits. His other point was that the amount of storage is just about limitless. By changing the reference point and illumination of the beams different holographs can be produced – so hundreds (or more) could be stored in the exact same space on the media.
Oh – did I mention the fact that photographic media has a lifespan of over 100 years, so holographic storage has the longest lifespan of any media to date. The company that created this holographic storage technology is “InPhase” and the first units will be shipped for $18,000 next month. One disk costs $180 and stores 300GB.
Why do we care? For the same reason that both CD and DVD players were thousands when they first came out. This is the future of technology. Movie studios with long term storage needs will gladly pay $18,000 for this device, but as the prices drop I think that this kind of technology will be something that consumers need. You can buy a half-terabyte drive at your local Wal-Mart now for $100. I think it’s great to be able to back up all of our digital pictures and music on an external drive for our home network. But as time goes on I will need multiple ones, and eventually some will fail – and eventually I’ll lose some really cherished memories. I think that’s why a lot of people I know print out so many digital pictures on photo paper – they know that if somehow the digital copy is lost, the printed version should last a lifetime. If InPhase eventually created a consumer version holographic storage drive, wouldn’t you buy one? I mean come on, you could store you family digital photos knowing that the media would be good up to 100 years. I know of no other storage technology other than printed photos themselves that could give you that kind of piece of mind.
Think about the industry uses this could bring. Movie theaters could ship out their blockbusters to the theaters on these disks knowing the quality wouldn’t diminish no matter how many times they were rented out. Web hosts could practically offer “uncorruptable backups”. You may not know this, but your local cable company usually has movies “downloaded” on their local server for the video “on demand” services you can watch. With holographic storage they could store tens of thousands of movies for you to watch, and not just hundreds. Unbelievable amounts of data could be stored in black boxes of planes, trains, and automobiles. You could possibly take your entire entertainment system from your living room to your car on one disk. Entire textbooks could begin to be stored on disk cartridges to be read in standard readers and books in schools and universities would not only be cheaper, but the quality of the content would never diminish (just the hardware readers to view them).
So that’s why I think holographic storage is a future BluRay killer. How many years will that be? I don’t know. It took 20 years for holographic storage to become a real piece of hardware you could buy. I don’t think that it will be 20 more years before what I envision comes true, but it’s certainly possible within the next 5-10. But you never know, something might just come along that’s even better than this!
I’ve found a secret cache of cool computer gadgets I’ll be posting over the next few months. For the first installment I want to highlight something really cool that I wish I had about a thousand times. This is an “IDE to USB Converter Cable”, and you can take an internal hard drive, hook it up, and plug it in your USB port just like it was a flash drive. This isn’t a SATA converter cable (but they have those too), but I have to say I still have a half dozen old ATA IDE hard drives lying around from 6GB to 200GB. If I have to transfer buku files from my laptop to my pc – this is exactly what I need! External hard drive full? Flash drive too small? This converter cable will save your butt! If you get fired from your job and need to get some files off your PC at work, just slip this cable and an old hard drive in your briefcase or bag and you’re good to go!
Now you can access or test an internal ATA/ATAPI (IDE) drive without the hassle of connecting it to a motherboard. Just attach the Easy IDE converter and you’ll have fast USB 2.0 access to hard drives, CD burners, DVD drives and more. Great for technicians. Includes 3-foot USB cable, AC adapter and 40- to 44-pin adapter for 2.5 drives. The IDE to USB converter would make a great gift for any geek on Father’s day, Christmas, birthday, or any time! You don’t have to be a computer tech to get use out of this thing, I think that we all have some used hard drives sitting around somewhere that we could easily temporarily use for data transfers with this cable.
You might even find a great deal on a “IDE to USB converter Cable” on eBay right now:
Asus Eee – Linux Finally Beating the Piss out of Windows?
The sale of new PC’s with windows is declining! The average person watching TV would think that Mac is winning this war, with all the “Mac vs PC” and the new Mac Airbook. Just read Windows caught between Mac and Linux. It reveals that Mac’s operating system share went from 9% to 14% from 2007 to 2008. That’s only 5% – but it’s significant. PC’s grew 9 percent in shipped units, but Mac’s saw 60% growth. In 2007 Wal-Mart sold out of their Everex Green PC’s (gPC) with Linux installed – but they sold out online. The retail versions were pulled from store shelves. I guess this only shows that geeks purchase online, but the popularity of the $199 Wal-Mart Linux PC’s should have been a great indicator to how well these Eee PC’s would do for Asus.
Although no one is really tracking Linux PC sales (linux sold on a brand new PC) – the Asus Eee PC 4G Surf is all over the Amazon top selling “Computers and Hardware” list taking 8 out of the top 25 spots, including #4 and #4 beating ALL the apple models. The “Asus Eee PC” takes up 9 of the top 25 spots for Amazon’s Best Selling Notebooks category, here taking #2 and #3 spots beaten only by the Sony VAIO – and again beating all Mac’s. Maybe that’s why Asustek’s chairman predicts they will be selling 2 million Linux PC’s in 2008.
Why is the Asus Eee PC so popular?
So why is the “Asus Eee PC” a sleeping giant? Let see what Wikipedia has to say about the Asus Eee PC. It’s a “subnotebook” (or “minibook” in the UK) and the three EEE’s stand for “Easy to Learn, Easy to Work, Easy to Play”. They came out and sold 300,000 units in 2007. Some say it’s a response to the OLPC or One Laptop Per Child initiative. You get a lot of bang for the buck with the EEE PC models ranging in price from $300-$500. The 7″ display (800×480) doesn’t take up all the space within the lid because the remaining room is left for optional speakers, microphone, and camera (0.3 megapixel 30fps) in the top. The Eee PC’s use solid state drives or “SSD” instead of traditional spinning disk, which means it’s less prone to damage from shock if it’s dropped. The SSD drive’s are soldered to the motherboard to reduce costs, so you won’t be upgrading that. You also get an MMC / SD memory card slot, 3 USB 2.0 ports, headphone jack, VGA out, and Kensington lock slot. You get Wireless b/g and 10/100 wired ethernet connections. The wireless connection is supplied by the installed card in the PCIe mini-card slot, a second PCIe slot is empty. Some models have DDR2 So-Dimm ram that can be expanded, it’s one socket expandable up to 2GB. I did read that currently the Xandros kernel supplied only uses up to 1GB of RAM anyway. I read that earlier models were “slotted” RAM, but there was no access door to reach it so buyer beware on that too.
The Eee PC’s reported boot in about 20-22 seconds, and Xandros Linux is preinstalled (which of course is a version of Debian). Most versions come with Firefox, Open Office, Skype, Tux Paint, E-mail and Internet radio apps, google Docs, and a Wikipedia lookup tool. The 4 cell Lithium-Ion batter has about 2 hrs 45 minutes of life, and the entire unit (Eee PC) weighs about 2 lbs. Processor in most of these models is 900 Mhz Intel Celeron. The measurements are 8.9 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches and you get a one year warranty on parts and labor.
The bottom line is, these things are sleek, fast-booting, open source gadgets that are cool looking (available in 9-odd pastel colors), purportedly long lasting (SSD drives), and cheaper (and a helluva lot more functional) than both an iPod Touch or iPhone. And – they’re only 2 lbs! I think every geek should have one.
I think the proof is the reviews of actual users. In Amazon reviews of the Eee 4G Surf (the 800 Mhz, 512MB Ram, 4GB HD black version) the score is 4.5 out of 5 stars and 167 reviews. I think that’s pretty damn respectable. The reviews I read said “the Eee PC made a great media player” and another guy said “make a great little Windows computer”. Apparantely the Eee PC ships with very simple instructions to replace Xandros Linux with a licensed copy of Windows XP. Some people use a 4GB SD card for additional storage. One guy writes “very user friendly” despite the fact that he was “never a huge Linux fan”. Also “highly recommended for adults and kids, recommended for all ages”. That’s probably because with this small form factor the keyboard and touchpad are noticably smaller. One reviewer said “beware for people with large hands”. I would imagine that means this small device is a boon for kids with small fingers and hands.
Other reviewers write “perfect traveling laptop”, “cheaper than iphone”, “outstanding”, and “great for personal use”. There are of course comments from not so happy people compaining about the lack of software choices, small keyboard, small amount of storage, and connecting to certain digital devices (cell phones and PDA’s). Many of these reviewers admit they were not familiar enough with Linux – to the Eee PC’s may remain a bit slanted to the “geek” crowd for now. But selling 2 million of these in 2008 means that there are a lot more geeks nowadays!
Here are 2 video reviews on YouTube, one is for the Linux version of the Eee PC, and the second is for Windows XP installed on the Eee PC:
Where can I get the best deal on a “Asus Eee PC“?
The Asus Eee’s are best sellers on Amazon (17 different models currently listed in various colors), but you can also find lots of them on eBay now as well (500+). I’m going to give you links below to the various models available and you can look for the best deal. The little Linux powerhouses are definitely worth the money!
My name is John Pratt and I like all kinds of geeky, gadget tech stuff. I maintain web sites, write a little code, fool around with Wordpress, Ubuntu, play lead guitar in a band, and have a general fondness for computers electronic 'thingies'!
A short while ago I reviewed the 
), but you can also find lots of them on eBay now as well (500+). I’m going to give you links below to the various models available and you can look for the best deal. The little Linux powerhouses are definitely worth the money!