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SanDisk's Latest MP3 Player

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The iPod Nano may not be the only 4 GB flash player for long. Building on their previous experience, they are introducing the m200 player, which tops out at 4 GB of storage, for a competitive $199. So much for everyone claiming they can’t compete with Apple’s sweet deal with Samsung on flash memory.

“It is SanDisk’s guiding principle to always provide superior value to its customers,” said Eric Bone, director of retail product marketing at SanDisk. “One of the ways we have done this with the Sansa m200 line is to feature support for music subscription services and capacities that include a 4-gigabyte (GB) model for $199.99, made possible with our new 70-nanometer NAND/MLC 8-gigabit chip. When you combine these key features with a compact yet robust industrial design and an easy-to-use interface, we believe the Sansa m200 line will be very compelling for anyone who appreciates music.”

No More Free Shipping

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The free shipping era at dell is coming to an end. Next month Dell is going to start charging to get a computer purchase shipped to your house. This penny pinching manuever is supposed to save the company money. There will be a new “pick up at the post office” option to debut soon. This will appeal to consumers who work during the day and don’t want their new purchases sitting on the stoop to get taken.

Dell Inc. will stop its practice of sending low-end computers to customers homes without charge in order to cut costs, the company said on Thursday.

Starting on October 10, Dell’s free shipping offer on basic models will apply only to people willing to pick up their computers at the post office, said Jennifer Davis, spokeswoman for Dell’s U.S. consumer business. Customers will have to pay extra for home delivery.

I personally have not been a big fan of Dell. I’d rather purchase a computer “hands on,” eager to see how it looks up close, and try the keyboard out for comfort. Obviously, many folks buy from Dell, we’ll have to see if it hurts their sales or not.
See over here for more info.

$100 Notebook

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Now, I don’t normally get too excited about bargain basement hardware, but it is nice to see innovation in this price range.

Nicholas Negroponte, chairman and founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Labs, has been outlining designs for a sub-$100 PC.
The laptop will be tough and foldable in different ways, with a hand crank for when there is no power supply.

Professor Negroponte came up with the idea for a cheap computer for all after visiting a Cambodian village.

While the hand crank and rubberized case are unique, the notebook is planned to have a 500 MHz processor, WiFi, flash based storage, and USB ports x4. For $100, I might buy one! Actually, they will not be available for purchase by individuals, and you can read more details here.

Ilo DVDR05 DVD Recorder: Inexpensive DVD Recording After Some Hassle

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Introduction

My Panasonic VCR died a few months back, and I went to the store to replace it. After going up and down the aisles in more than one electronics giant, I came to the conclusion that the VCR was rapidly headed for extinction. The last remaining VCR’s were being sold for cheap in a corner. Soon the VCR will join the ranks of 8 tracks, records, and cassettes. In our new digital world, the analog VCR just doesn’t cut it anymore.

Truthfully, I liked the VCR very much. It was affordable, and the tapes were as well. Each tape could be used probably 100 times, more than I seem to get out of my rewritable optical media. My VCR was a 4 head model with HiFi stereo sound. On my 20” TV, through a stereo system, I could hardly tell that a DVD movie was any better than a prerecorded VCR tape.

But alas, while I lament my dead VCR, it was time to move on. My “wish list” for the new digital recorder included a large hard drive, fast DVD burner which is compatible with every disc, and a built in TV Guide (with no monthly fee). While such machines are coming on the market now, their caviar (over $500) price tag simply didn’t fit with my Cheeto’s ($100) budget. Also, I hesitated to spend “the big bucks” when the new HDTV standard is planned to replace our current TV signals in March 2006, and am unsure of future compatibility of all these devices. However, the new fall season of shows is imminent, with the need for time shifting, so I decided to take the digital plunge. The allure of being able to record to a disc that I could watch on a DVD player, or with the DVD drive of my computer was very strong. Continue reading →

Logitech Z-2300 Speaker System: Affordable High End Audio

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Introduction

Our computers have increasingly become the digital media centers of our households. Many users play more audio through their computers than their stereos. DVD’s get watched through computers via their DVD drives as well. Internet radio satisfies every taste imaginable, and a few more. The latest computer games have soundtracks and sound effects to rival any Hollywood blockbuster.

The speakers included in most desktop systems are barely adequate for most sound reproduction duties. Most included speakers are quite underpowered, two speaker setups. The speakers built into most notebooks are at least a notch worse than even the most inexpensive desktop solutions. They have virtually no bass whatsoever. Even so called “media center notebooks” can’t produce anything close to room filling sound.

Fret not, as there are many aftermarket solutions to provide the audio worthy of the rest of your computer setup. Logitech manufactures a whole line up of speaker solutions. Today, we’ll be looking at the Logitech Z-2300 speaker system, one of their premium audio solutions.

The Z-2300 is a 2.1 speaker setup. While I’ve used 4.1 speaker systems before, I find that more speakers and more wires, leads to more tangle, exponentially. This quickly turns into a cluttered mess. Even though the rear speakers are intended to go behind you for a surround sound experience, unless you plan on taking over a room with wires, the placement can be a challenge. I think a three piece setup is preferable for many users. Let’s just refresh ourselves as to the various speaker setups:


From the chart, we can see that a 2.1 speaker setup is ideally suited for audio reproduction. As such, we’ll focus the testing on audio tasks. I’ll connect the speakers to both a notebook to test integrated audio, and our Shuttle desktop which has a dedicated chip on the motherboard. I’ll also hook them up directly to a CD player, and an MP3 player (SanDisk’s Sansa, our current best sounding, LD Approved player). I’ll listen to a variety of music of several styles, in both compressed and uncompressed (direct from CD) formats. Some DVD’s will be played as well. While speaker tests are subjective, we at Live Digitally strive to be impartial and objective, and I’ll do my utmost to uphold that. The audio will be compared in back to back tests with earbuds, other computer speakers, and a dedicated stereo system (Proton satellites, Altec-Lansing subwoofer). 

What’s In The Box

Be prepared for the UPS guy to not be thrilled with this delivery. The rather large and heavy box includes the following items.
-left and right satellite speakers
-subwoofer
-wired remote
-manual
-game adaptor Continue reading →

The Essential Notebook Accessory Guide

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Introduction

In order to get the most productivity on the road, it’s important to bring along your notebook and its accessories. There are miles of aisles of accessories in every electronics store and mass merchandiser, and gigabytes of gadgets at online retailers. However, even the most Herculean among us can carry only so much weight, and even the largest notebook bag has just so much space.

Of course, I always get behind the guy at the airport with the largest notebook bag at the airport. The laptop bag is larger than my checked Samsonite pilot case, and is busting at the seams. It takes him forever to clear security as they have to run it through the scanner three times and open everything up to ID everything Believe me, if there was a bomb in there, this guy would never even be able to get to it among all the other stuff. And also, he puts it above me filling up the entire overhead compartment over our heads on the Boeing 767. To him, please read this article, and figure out what you can leave home! Both myself, and his spine, will be grateful.

With the back to school season upon us, it is even more relevant to look at notebook accessories. Most college students have a notebook rather than a desktop. They tote their computers from class to dorm to library to back home- you get the idea. While these accessories would also apply to any mobile professional, it was written with maximizing productivity for college students.

This article is a mix Continue reading →

Creative WebCam Live! Ultra For Notebooks

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Introduction


The first webcam, developed in 1991, was born out of necessity. A computer graduate student was avoiding having to walk down several flights of stairs to find an empty coffee pot. So he and his fellow sleep deprived, coffee craving students pieced together the first webcam. Now, they could devote a corner of their desktop screen real estate to the important status of the caffeine-giving java pot. And with that, the webcam was born.

I had my first webcam about five years ago. I found the camera difficult to use. The camera had a low frame rate, and I was never centered in the frame. The software was clunky to use, and I couldn’t even easily capture a still picture with the camera. Quite honestly, I never was able to video conference with another user, and lost interest.

However, the allure was still great. I grew up watching “The Jetsons,” and the technology for easy videoconferencing has always been just “a few years away” (just like speech recognition). Has the webcam hardware caught up with today’s powerful computers? Can I harness the transmission power of broadband to finally make my video call? I am ready to give it another try.

Creative makes a variety of computer electronic products centered on audio sound cards, MP3 players, speakers, and webcams. Today, we’ll be looking at the Creative WebCam Live! Ultra for Notebooks. This is a complete solution that is designed for the mobile notebook user looking to video conference, as well as some other applications. Read on to see if video conferencing has arrived, and if this is the right hardware solution.

What’s In The Box Continue reading →

Plextor 740A DVDRW Drive: Reviewed

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Introduction 

The Plextor name is synonymous with high quality, and innovative, optical drives. They have produced some excellent drives over the years including the first Burn-Proof (buffer underrun protection) drives, the first drive to use the serial ATA interface, and manufacturer sanctioned overspeeding (writing media faster than rated) drives.

The high price of Plextor’s 716A “flagship” DVD writer has been holding back sales. With the introduction of the 740A model, Plextor is attempting to offer a more affordable product for the consumer marketplace. The 740A is based on the Benq/Phillips chipset; previous Plextor models have been based on the Sanyo chipset. Another drive based on this chipset is the Benq 1640 which has fared well in its reviews, so this is an excellent starting point. Plextor engineers have written their own firmware for this drive making it part of the Plextor family. This drive is intended to augment the lineup, but not replace the 716A drive. The 716A is intended to be the more premium product, while the 740A is the more affordable. Even high priced BMW designs the affordable Mini, so let’s take a look at how affordability does in our testing.

What’s In The Box

The retail package includes the following:

-Plextor 740A drive
-quick installation guide
-4 mounting screws
-emergency eject tool (My paperclips are now safe!)
-extra jumper
-80 pin IDE cable
-Nero Burning ROM Suite version 6.6 (latest version)

Plextor’s 740A was shipped with firmware 1.00. It was updated to version 1.01 for all tests (available from the Plextor website). As it is a new drive, I would expect more firmware releases over the next several months. In general, you should use the manufacturer’s latest firmware on your drive, unless you have extensive expertise in this area, and you are willing to cancel your warranty, or risk destroying your drive. The media was all burned with bundled Nero Burning ROM, version 6.608. All discs were scanned using a LiteOn 852S drive and Nero’s CD Speed version 3.80. While this is a notebook drive, it served aptly in this task, and allowed me to complete the testing away from my desktop. Recorded DVD movie discs were further compatibility tested in 2 stand-alone DVD players: a Sharp DV-S1U (designed to play “minus” discs, but is quite tolerant), and a Sony DVP-NS315 (designed to work with “plus” discs, and tends to be picky). Continue reading →

Mario To Turn 20!

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I remember spending more than a few hours with Nintendo’s Mario, and his brother Luigi. Their 20th birthday is coming up, and Nintendo plans on celebrating- with a new product launch.

RUMOURS ARE running rife that Nintendo is to release their Game Boy Micro in Japan on the 20th birthday of their iconic poster boy Mario, September 13th. Nintendo has thus far denied all the rumours though we wouldn’t put it past them.

Sick of Your Keyboard?

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Most of us use a standard keyboard and mouse on our computer. Bill O’Brien has done an excellent job of cataloguing alternative input devices of many different varieties. If your wrist hurts, and you’ve got some bucks to spend, check it out.

Some input devices aren’t easily categorized — like the touch screen. IBM tried to introduce a touch-screen system about two decades ago. It was a clunky and unreliable. Sometimes you got what you touched, sometimes you didn’t, and sometimes you had to reboot the system. Hardly ready for prime time. Today they’re much more accurate and much better protected against moisture, dust, and the general grime and oil that collects on our fingertips.

Touch-screens also don’t need to be complete monitors. There are touch-screen overlays available for existing displays and notebooks. Of course, you’ll still need mouse-driven application software to interpret the screen touching. (In case you hadn’t noticed, your PDA uses a touch screen, as do many smart phones.)

The Lexar LDP-200: The No Frills Music Player

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Introduction

Apple’s iPod Shuffle is heavily criticized for its lack of a screen. While gadget junkies did not fall in love with its very basic feature set, it did have sales for one simple reason- cost. In this era of ever faster product cycles, and the planned obsolescence of our disposable society, who can argue with a $100 player with half a gig of storage. After all, there are many folks out there with less than 100 MP3’s, and this capacity player will more than serve their needs.

Lexar has taken the old adage, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” to heart. They have built a very basic MP3 player, but at least it has a screen to display the name of the song playing unlike iPod’s Shuffle. Sure, some folks will want a more full featured player. And Lexar will be happy to sell them their more featured players including the LDP-400, LDP-600, or the upcoming LDP-800 player. For their LDP-200 player they cut the feature set to the bone, and left off the FM radio, and a microphone. There is no included software. The unit is powered by a standard AAA battery to save the cost of a rechargeable cell. You can even buy the unit with no memory card included. The LDP-200 stores it songs on an SD card. This is another example how SD cards are dominating in this market segment. The unit can be purchased with no card included, or with included card capacities of 256 MB, 512 MB, or 1 GB. If you already have SD cards in your collection, the no card version becomes an affordable alternative at $49!

Let’s take a look at the LDP-200 and decide if it’s “no frills” feature set gets the job done. I am curious to see if the device performs more on the side of frugal, or if it slips towards just plain cheap.

What’s In the Box

• Lexar Digital Music Player LDP-200
Red for no included SD card and 256 MB sizes
Blue for 512 MB and 1 GB sizes
• User Guide
• Quick Start Manual
• Earbud headphones
• Lanyard
• USB extension cable
• Energizer AAA battery

Features Continue reading →