Monday, June 13, 2005
Interesting AV receiver
Check this AV receiver out:
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=DCP501&cpc=SCH&srm=0
It looks like your standard run of the mill surround sound receiver, but with some notable “features”:
- It’s made by Motorola (!) Never knew they were into this kind of consumer electronics, or at least, they were at one point.
- It has a built-in DVD player, but has a full-size form factor. A lot of the all-in-one surround setups have a DVD player built in, but usually the connection options are quite limited. This one seems to have a good complement of AV jacks.
- It has built-in digital cable TV tuner. This is really unusual. If this works with your local Comcast system, it could at the very least remove one box from your setup. At best, it might be a way to get digital cable for cheap or less…
The only thing I think it’s missing may be an auxiliary set of component inputs. It’s also not entirely clear to me if it support component outs, actually. Anyways, for $159, seems like it’s a solid deal, especially if the digital cable TV tuner works…
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Not really a picture of a gadget, but of a great new software tool, Picasa 2. It's made by Google and is probably one of the best picture management apps I've seen. Best part: it's free! This is a sample of a cool Collage tool it can generate on the fly.
Thursday, January 13, 2005
New Apple Products
A lot of people have been talking about the two Apple products announced yesterday: the iPod shuffle and the iMac mini.
The iMac mini has a really cool form factor and the price of the machine is nice on the surface, but are you really getting a lot of computing power for the money? Probably not when you factor in you get no keyboard, mouse, monitor, or other accessories to speak of, but it is a perfect 2nd computer or a machine for people who are Mac-interested. Many PC folks are building SFF (small form factor) machines on their own using the Mini-ITX standard motherboard/case config, especially for Media Center type PCs. Love the design of the iMac mini, but not quite prepared to add a Mac to the household.
The iPod shuffle is really minimalist. It’s like the original Creative MuVo or Rio Fuse, but with support for less file formats. If you absolutely need to have an all white plug-in player, I probably would go with the Jens of Sweden players instead. I was a little underwhelmed with this device actually.
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Sid Meier's Pirates
Great price for a great game: $29.90 today only!
http://www.gogamer.com/cgi-bin/GoGamer.storefront/SESSIONID/Product/View/001SIDP
Sunday, January 02, 2005
Cool HTPC Case
...but there is a very good alternative for you DIY-ers. You can purchase the case and even the mounted touchscreen from a US company. The base case is not cheap at $395, at that price, you can easily build a Media Center PC build for under a grand that looks hot and runs cool.
More info:
http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/entry/460/build_your_own
http://www.atechfabrication.com/atech_5000_order_form.htm
Saturday, December 18, 2004
Cheap File Server?
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Sushi USB Drives!
OK. This ranks up there as some of the strangest gadgets I’ve encountered this year. That being said, I’ll take a spicy tuna and an unagi roll, please!
http://www.dynamism.com/sushidisk/index.shtml
