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Category Archives: LD Approved

Laptop Case Review #5: incase Slingpack

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I think back to the mid 90’s, when 90210 was as hot to the totts as MTV’s Laguna Beach. Teens were trendy, and high school was life. I did notice what was ‘cool’, and how far from it I appeared to be. I tried to mimic the hip by slinging my beige Jansport backpack over one shoulder, while pretending casual, calm, and comfortable.

Backpacks weren’t designed to be worn with one strap in use, and the other strap dangling in the wind. With ½ of the bag’s straps carrying 100% of the load, it is easy to calculate that the stresses on that single strap are double that which it was designed to accommodate. This in tern doubles the amount of pressure applied to your cool and hip single shoulder.

I’ve been called a ‘pansy’ once in a while throughout various events of my life. People like me [read: weaklings] don’t enjoy enduring pain, especially if we don’t have to. So we kept both straps on and covered our heads when the jocks in the school walked by.

The people at incase must have been in the same situation as us back in the uncomfortable or uncool late 90’s. Because today, they present us with the sling pack, a form fit solution to your Apple notebook transporting needs. Incase caters to Apple products exclusively for those who have their heads stuck in the PC world.

The incase slingpack came to me and said, 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 →

Laptop Case Review #3: DC|incase, Skatepack

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“DC Shoes, the leader in performance skateboard footwear, has teamed up with incase, creators of premium carrying solutions, to develop the Skatebag, a multi-functional backpack designed to house and protect your PowerBook and iPod, as well as your board and other gear. The DC/incase collaborative represents the union of lifestyle, music and technology, available exclusively through Apple. Enjoy.”

If you were wondering where this dual company backpack came from, there’s your answer –written on the inside of the DC|incase Skatepack. DC is a well known Skateboard company with a focus on footwear. incase is a case manufacturer that caters to Apple products, also rather well known. Get these two together, and what do you have? The DC|incase Skatepack, a laptop/skateboard carrying case that fits you and your paraphernalia like a glove (or better yet, a shoe).

I hesitated to open the box that this backpack laptop case came in. Three cubic feet of white and grey camouflaged cardboard house the pack. Opening the cardboard door reveals a window to the actual bag with tech specs. I pulled the bag out.
The designers took pride in this joint DC|incase venture for sure. Attention to detail is apparent everywhere you look. The zippers are all rubber with a DC|incase impression, the padding on the shoulder straps is firm and extra thick, and the label was plastic and 3D instead of being cloth and too small to read. I’m also a fan of the DC|incase plasic emblem that sits on the back of the bag, they did a good job on this one I can tell. Continue reading →

Belkin External Drive Enclosure: Reviewed

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Introduction
I am most definitely the “digital packrat” when it comes to computer hardware. I am never able to part with a piece of hardware, which still works, with the justification of “Hey, you never know.” A case in point: I keep an entire computer system around just to house one optical drive. The drive is Plextor’s famous 12 x 10 x 32 CD rewriter (the 1st one with buffer underrun technology). I am still attached to this drive (perhaps the $250 price tag has something to do with it), as more than once in the past, when other drives failed; the Plextor came through for me. Unfortunately, I do not have room for it in any of my more “modern” systems. So it sits installed in a 1997 Compaq Presario taking up precious space. Honestly, I haven’t had to power up the Compaq in at least two years (maybe more), but that is beside the point, hey you never know when you’ll need it ready to go. 

The Belkin External Drive Enclosure is designed for folks with just this type of need. With it, you can convert an internal optical drive, or a hard drive to work across a USB 2.0 or Firewire connection. This should enable me to put my older system curbside, while retaining the functionality of the Plextor CD rewritable drive. I have a collection of optical drives and hard drives that would be great to be able to access, yet currently have no room for them in my current systems. Let’s see if Belkin’s External Drive Enclosure can come to the rescue.

What’s In The Box Continue reading →

SanDisk Sansa e130: The Micro Version of the iPod Mini

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This week’s contest post is here! Leave a comment at the end of this post for a chance to win one of the new Slappa Shockshell iPod Mini cases! Tell us what you think of the review or how you’d use the SanDisk Sansa MP3 player.

Introduction
sansadisplay800Today, we’ll be looking at the latest entry from SanDisk, a leading memory card manufacturer. SanDisk’s last MP3 player was at one point the #1 selling non-Apple player, yet had only a single digit percentage of the market share. The new Sansa is currently available in both a 512 MB version as the e130, and a 1 GB version, sold as the e140. SanDisk’s Sansa is a far better than Apple’s iPod Shuffle, as a flash mp3 player. We’ll discover what distinguishes this player from its competitors, and why it should be on your shopping list. This is not the first player we’re reviewing here at Live Digitally. You can read here about our standard methods of testing used for music players. Sandisk’s player was tested with firmware 1.0.000 as it was recently introduced only last month. Testing was undertaken with both Duracell disposable alkaline batteries and Energizer NIMH rechargeable cells.

What’s In The Box

  • sansaboxcontents800SanDisk Sansa unit, 512 MB
  • ear bud headphones with small, medium, and large earbuds
  • clear plastic carrying case
  • arm band
  • USB adapter
  • software on mini CD
  • quick start guide
  • AAA battery, alkaline

Features & Performance Continue reading →

A Tale of Two USB 2.0 Flash Drives

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Introduction


With today’s busy, digital lifestyle USB flash drives are a necessity. I find myself constantly shuttling information between home and work. At each location, my data is transferred from one computer to the next. To be sure, there are more elegant, sophisticated solutions: Bluetooth, Ethernet, and WiFi networks come readily to mind. But for quick and easy, with no setup involved, it’s hard to beat the good ol’ “sneakernet.” This term was originally used for moving files from one machine to another using floppy discs (and Nike’s). USB flash drives have pretty much replaced floppy discs as well as the larger Zip discs for almost all users, due to their larger capacity, diminutive size, and affordable cost. In fact, 7.6 million of these units were sold in 2004, and even more growth is expected over the next few years. See where USB flash drives fit into the world of flash memory here.

Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go 512 MB

With that background in mind, let’s first look at the Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go USB 2.0 flash drive – 512 MB. Included in the package was the following:
-the USB flash drive
-lanyard
-miniCD with drivers, and password program
-stickers for labeling the drive
-instructions
This package can be yours for a mere $59 retail! Look around, these drives are often sold for less after rebate. The Verbatim flash drive is typical of the standard USB 2.0 flash drives out there today.

The drive itself is a red translucent color, with a clear plastic loop Continue reading →

LiteOn 1693S: Does Their Latest Drive Have “The Right Stuff?”

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Introduction

LiteOn is known in the optical drive community for their lineup of outstanding CD-RW drives that are sold at ridiculously low prices (and I agree, as I own two 52x burners, bought in 2002, and 2003, and still going strong). When LiteOn started making DVD writers they were members of the DVD Alliance, more popularly known as “The Plus Camp,” as they were compatible with DVD+R and DVD+RW media. While they now make writers capable of both “plus” and “minus” writing, they have been generally stronger at the “plus” standard. The LiteOn 1693S is an upgrade to the LiteOn 1673S, and adds support for dual layer DVD-R discs, as well as featuring 16x reading and writing of DVD discs. These DVD-R dual layer discs are the latest discs available and feature two layers superimposed on top of each other; the laser adjusts its strength to write to the near or far layer. These discs are much more expensive to produce, and more difficult to write, but feature double the capacity of single layer discs. Most DVD Videos that you rent at Blockbuster are dual layer discs (although pressed, not created with a laser). The drive is also capable of handling CDs as well, so it can replace a CD writer in your system.

While LiteOn drives are popular worldwide, in the US they are often rebranded by Sony, for example, this LiteOn 1693S drive is also sold as the Sony DRU-800A. By purchasing the LiteOn, the astute shopper saves money, and owns the same hardware as the Sony version. Let’s take a close look at this drive’s many features. Continue reading →

Kensington Pocket Mouse Micro Optical Wireless Model 72237

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Kensington 72237The Kensington Pocket Mouse fits in between the other two mice: in size, features, and price. The mouse itself features a sharp black and metallic silver design. It reminds me of the interior of an Audi TT. The mouse is symmetrical allowing for left handed use. The mouse glides with minimum effort, and clicks satisfyingly. The scroll wheel is rubberized and works well. Included in the package is the mouse, the transceiver, a manual, and 2 Duracell AAA batteries, but no carrying case. The manual states that there is software to be downloaded off the company website, however the mouse worked just fine natively in Windows XP Home without any additional software.

Kensington 72237The wide body allows the transceiver to be housed in the body of the mouse. With this slick design, pressing a button on top of the mouse pops out the transceiver, which can only go in right side up. The transceiver is small enough that even with closely spaced USB ports, it does not block the other ports. The space in the mouse gets covered by a pop up door to cover the opening which keeps dust out and maintains the sharp lines.

Kensington 72237Power is supplied by 2 AAA batteries. The battery compartment is accessed by pressing the black top in the center. There is no published battery life estimate. They lasted over 10 days of testing with no problems. The battery power indicator is the translucent scroll wheel, allowing the red LED to shine through. This is a very neat feature, which looks especially dramatic at night. Popping out the transceiver turns the mouse on and replacing the transceiver turns it off.

Kensington 72237The Kensington Pocket Mouse uses a Quick RF technology (30% faster according to the package). I’m honestly not sure what this is supposed to mean, but it does work very effectively. It has a working range that matches the Logitech product, with a generous 12+ feet measured. I believe it uses the 27 MHz frequency. There was no interference with cordless phones or my WiFi network during testing.

Kensington 72237The optical engine uses Diamond Eye technology. This is an 800 dpi sensor. It tracked accurately on every surface tested, except the very difficult glass window that fools most mice. It never hesitated or lost communication on a variety of surfaces including carpeting, formica, and my pants leg!

Overall, this was a strong entry. The Kensington Pocket Mouse also is LD Approved. While it retails for $49, the street price is less. One downside is that for users who like to keep their notebooks permanently set up with the transceiver in the USB port, there is no way to turn the mouse off without removing the battery cover. This may not be a big issue though, as the mouse goes into a sleep mode after five minutes to conserve battery power.

Notebook Mouse Roundup

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With each passing year, notebook computers constitute a greater percentage of overall computer sales. Soon, for many folks, their only computer will be their notebook computer. One of the disadvantages of a notebook compared to a desktop is their inferior interface. Keyboards are cramped and have limited key travel. They never have a mouse. To control the cursor, they have either a pointing stick or a touchpad interface (or in a few cases, both). Personally, I greatly prefer the touchpad, but both options have their proponents.

Notebook miceMany newer touchpads have a scrolling function built in. Homebodies and road warriors alike use their notebooks ever increasingly and they seek both comfort and ergonomics, not to mention trying to avoid RSI (repetitive stress injury). This is why users need a portable mouse. These tend to be smaller than a standard mouse in order to make them convenient to carry around. I chose to focus on wireless mice because they are the newer products with the latest technology. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first attempt to compare these products against each other in such a fashion. As usual, here at LIVEdigitally.com we set the bar just a little higher.

Just a note of caution: None of these wireless mice (or any other wireless anything) should be used on an airplane. You probably don’t have enough room for a mouse anyway with those cramped tray tables. If you did, than you would need a wired mouse to comply with airline regulations. In other words, don’t blame me when the Flight Attendant is reporting you the Sky Marshall for mousing at 40,000 feet.
Continue reading →

dmp3 CD ripping services review

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From the latest we’ve heard, there are about a billion iPods on the market today. Alright, we are exaggerating, but it is a safe statement that music fans around the world are somewhere on their journey from physical media, such as CDs, to file-based media, such as MP3s. From the late 1990s, when Diamond (formerly S3, then SonicBlue, now DNNA) shipped their first Rio MP3 player (32 megs of RAM, very limited user interface) to today with Apple shipping the new iPod Shuffle (lots more RAM, no user interface), there is tremendous energy behind this shift. By the way, our billion user statement may be outlandish now, but In-Stat predicts almost 2 billion handheld a/v players sold by the end of 2006!While it’s gotten a lot easier to transition MP3s (for the rest of this article, we’ll use the term ‘MP3’ to represent a compressed music file, regardless of specific file format) from computers onto portable music players, the process of getting a music collection into a computer in the first place has not gotten easier. And I’ve got bad news for you: there’s no technology out there that is going to make it better. But two guys named Dan are here, not only to ease the pain, but make it quite a pleasure. They run a new type of music services company, called dmp3, and they are here to help you “rediscover your music.”

What do they do, in 10 words or less? Dmp3 converts your CD library into a perfectly organized MP3 library.

And they do it very, very well.


Our good friend Ron has a vast CD collection. He’s got Dylan and Hancock, Radiohead and Jane’s Addiction. The Police, Radiohead, Morcheeba. Nat King Cole, Miles Davis. Beastie Boys. In previous articles I’ve mocked Ron a bit, but in all honesty, he’s got much better taste in music than me. Not that that will stop future mocking.

Ron owns an iPod, has a couple of laptops, is a big iTunes and Rhapsody fan. He’s a digital media fan. That said, in two years, he’d ripped a grand total of 20 CDs. Ron says his biggest deterrents to ripping his own CDs are that it takes a long time and maintenance, especially including the problem that he typically has to fix up the metadata (artist name, album title, etc) after he’s done. In fact, when asked how long he thinks it would take him to rip his favorite 200 CDs of his collection, Ron said, “At present rates, I’m ripping about 10 CDs a year. If you calculate that out, my 200 CDs would take 20 years!”

So we called in dmp3 to help out.

Daniel Robins, the Bay Area representative of dmp3 (the founder of the company, Dan McMinn is setting up a new office in the Midwest), coordinated with Ron via phone and email to arrange for “the pickup”. One key differentiator for dmp3 is that they offer full service options to those who are interested. If you live in a different part of the country, or are on a tight budget, you can do all interaction by mail, however if you are able to get the personal touch, as you’ll read below, it’s definitely worth it. dmp3 collected just under 200 of Ron’s favorite CDs, to rip, properly tag and identify, and deliver when done.

In order to most effectively test out the services, we asked Ron to place a few ‘traps’ in his CD collection. He included a few CD cases with no discs, a few cases with the incorrect discs inside, a few custom CD mixes, and some scratched CDs. We, of course, gave dmp3 no warning.

Daniel took the CDs, and within 24 hours sent a follow-up email to Ron. In this email, Daniel clearly identified the various genres of music that comprised Ron’s collection (and even gave Ron the opportunity to make changes, in case Ron preferred to use different or more specific genres than the standard said, such as “Acid Jazz” and “Fusion Jazz” instead of just “Jazz”). He also outlined the next few steps of the process, and asked Ron to have a few things prepped before his return.

Meanwhile, the dmp3 team began the ripping process. They combine some very exciting technology with their own personal interests and passion of music to create compelling results. Using their system, dmp3 was able to rip Ron’s entire CD collection quite rapidly, with no errors.

I’ve personally ripped quite a number of CDs, and the number of error-free rips I’ve done is fairly unimpressive, so I’ll say it again. dmp3 ripped all 200 of Ron’s CDs with absolutely no errors. You don’t have to be an audiophile to appreciate listening to your music without glitches.

Next step involved going CD by CD, inspecting every metadata tag for accuracy. There are a few services for this, but thankfully they use Gracenote as their primary source. However, they take the process a little further, and pay special attention to situations such as compilation albums or multi-CD sets. For those of you who use some of the ‘default’ metadata services, such as MusicMatch or Windows Media Player, there is a huge difference between dmp3’s outputs and what the typical consumer is dealing with.

The next day, Daniel returned to Ron’s apartment, with a couple of big boxes…
First, Daniel connected his USB external hard drive to Ron’s laptop to move the MP3 files onto Ron’s computer. This took a little while, as the collection was quite large. During this time, Daniel pulled out a folder with the detailed notes and files. Daniel proceeded to educate Ron about his own music collection. The documents outlined all of the CDs, by artist and by genre. Details on number of converted tracks, file sizes, duplicates, and more.

Daniel’s files clearly indicated all of Ron’s attempts to trick the system had failed.

After the file transfer was completed we started to get a glimpse into how valuable the dmp3 service really is. Ron’s iTunes library was clean and perfect. No messy metadata tags. No need to sort or move files around. It was just… done. And done right.

I asked Ron how valuable he thought the service was, and here’s his response: “Once you have your entire collection perfectly digitized, organized and loaded you can’t go back. I even have backups that I can put in a Safety Deposit Box should my hard-drive crash.” The backups he’s referring to are the DVDs dmp3 provided with all of Ron’s mp3s. All, of course, in alphabetical order.

I don’t know if they can sort autobiographically, but it wouldn’t surprise me (the book or the movie).


There are tons of things out there that are easy to do, but rarely worth the effort. Ask anyone who owns a bread machine or ice cream maker how often they use the gadget versus buying a loaf of bread or pint of Ben and Jerry’s (Phish Food, in case you were wondering). Cleaning the toilet is easy, yet many people hire housekeepers. Even making clothes is pretty simple to do, but I don’t know too many people who like wearing home-brand jeans.

Anyone can rip a CD. dmp3 just makes it easier, faster, and better. And it might even be cheaper. Here’s my math:

If it takes you, say 20 minutes to rip a CD, you can do 3 per hour.Say you earn $60,000 per year. This works out to the approximate equivalent of being paid $30 per hour.

This means, using that new math, the cost of your time to rip a CD is about $10.

At the time of writing, dmp3’s fee is $1.25 per CD. Or a savings of $8.75 per CD!

Even if you don’t like my math, or you can rip CDs faster, or you just like to argue, you have to admit there is something very nice about someone else providing you a clean library of your music, with no hassle. Check out dmp3 at www.dmp3music.com, and rediscover your music.

Or you can go back to cleaning the toilet yourself.