June 27th, 2007

I’m always skeptical when I receive press releases with the words, “World’s Best” in the subject line, especially when you’d waste a whole paycheck for the price of that product!
ULTRASONE of America released the Edition 9 headphones, the “World’s Best Headphones”. But why do they have to cost $1,500? Probably because these headphones are limited edition, are crafted from titanium, chrome, and Ethiopian sheep leather, and they reduce electromagnetic field radiation (you know how they say your cell phone causes cancer), by up to 98%.
Ultrasone’s S-Logic technology “reduces sound pressure to the eardrums by an astonishing 40%, while delivering the listener an amazing natural surround sound effect.” Here are some of the Edition 9’s technical specs:

• Frequency range 8Hz-35.000 Hz
• 40 mm Titanium-Mylar drivers
• Impedance 30 ohm
• Weight without cord 310 g

Cathy Kelly, President of ULTRASONE of America, LLC explains that the company’s “collectors series, beginning with the Edition 7 release 2 years ago, will appeal to the true audiophile, and symbolizes our commitment to headphones. We build only headphones, and we build the best.” For $1,500, I would hope they are the best!

June 27th, 2007

Yamaha’s high-performance YST-FSW100 Advanced YSTII Subwoofer gives your bass the extra thump it needs when you’re enjoying your favorite songs or movies. How does it deliver that? For starters, the new “Half Pipe” port design smoothes out the bass and minimizes unwanted noise. The advanced YST II technology drives the speaker cone with tighter control than before, giving you a more stable and accurate low-range response and more natural, energetic bass reproduction. The attractive, stylish design matches perfectly with the newest flat-screen monitors and plasma TVs. Dimensions(WxHxD) - 15 3/4 x 14 3/4 x 6 3/16 (400 x 375 x 157 mm) Weight - 19.8 lbs. (9 kg)

Yamaha’s Advanced YST II and QD-Bass Technologies provide the slim line subwoofer an outstanding combination of Power and clarity in a small package to match slim video displays. Feature List

• Slim Design is only 157mm (6-3/16″) Deep to Match Plasma Displays and Flat TVs
• Advanced YST II (Yamaha Active Servo Technology) for deep, powerful bass
• Half Pipe port for minimizing extraneous noise
• Powerful 16cm (6.5″) multi-range driver with magnetic shielding
• 130 W dynamic power

June 27th, 2007

These headphones have good separation, the bass is extremely well balanced and the overall sound is bright and clear. I had no trouble wearing these headphones for hours on end. They’re super soft and comfortable, plus the fit is adjustable so that everyone can enjoy them.

These headphones are a great choice for those who want to be able to listen to music and movies in clean, clear, powerful surround sound.

If you’re someone who’s always avoided headphones because of their hard and uncomfortable nature, then you’re going to love the Sony RF Wireless Headphones. They’re so soft; you could wear them all day. They’re also ultra plush and provide a crisp clear sound.

I love surround sound headphones that actually perform. These have clear, bright sound with great separation and you’ll really feel like you’re in the middle of some awesome concert or something. Of course, you don’t get the bass thump in your gut because the music is all up at your head, but you still get plenty of powerful sound with these wireless headphones. Also, I was very impressed with the well balanced bass. These were much better on this level than some other Sony headphones.

With these wireless headphones you get surround sound from 5.1 channel sound sources. You know what that means, right? Home theater sound from headphones! I thought this was too good to be true but these headphones really exceeded my expectations. Good work, Sony!

I was able to really pump up the volume on these and it didn’t bother anyone. I wore them at work and at home and no one could hear a thing. At first, no one even believed I was listening to anything!

The Sony RF Wireless Headphones have amazing signal strength, as well. There was no cutting out when I had these on and the sound was crystal clear. These headphones use 2.4GHz wireless radio frequencies and I was able to move 90 feet away from the source and still get the signal, just like they said I could.

June 27th, 2007

 I was expecting some pretty good sound from this set-up but what I got was amazing. I bought it for a party that my wife and I were about to throw so that we would being able to play my music LOUD!. This system did not disappoint. I also set up the theatre sound on this system and it was just as impressive. I can’t wait to get my HD LCD to finish this package off for the theatre experience.

June 27th, 2007

I purchased this unit online through Amazon at a great price I might add (get it while supplies last). The picture is spectacular, radiant, perfect. I did notice a little too much contrast but that is adjustable. Watching a baseball game and the local news has just been elevated to being right there in the stadium or the studio. I chose Philips because of its longevity in the TV business as well as owning another standard TV by them. Both products are great. I am floored and bedazzled by my new LCD. Just love it.

June 27th, 2007

 The Hitachi P50T01U is a large 50-inch plasma screen with a great look. The P50T01U has a thin mat black surround with a stylish silver outer trim, which makes a nice change from the black gloss finish which 90% of HDTVs now feature. The 50-inch plasma screen has a claimed high contrast ratio of 10,000:1, a brightness of 1300 cd/m2 and a resolution of 1280×1080 pixels offers 720p and 1080i HD formats.

Connections consist of two HDMI inputs, component, three scarts, digital audio out, USB and SD cart slot for direct play back of photos (JPEG), CAM slot for use with the internal digital tuner. Unfortunately there is no VGA PC input, but use can use a DVI-HDMI adapter is you have DVI out on your PC.

The P50T01U has Hitachi’s Picture Master HD processing which has been customized to handle HD formats in their native forum, which enhanced fine details and colors while also reducing noise. The Hitachi P50T01U Review from TrustedReviews say, this colour management tool seems to work exceptionally well, as the P50T01U’s most obvious performance claim to fame is that it produces some of the most accurate and natural colours we’ve ever seen on a flat TV. The skin tones, for instance, shown by many LCD TVs look like poor waxwork imitations vs. those of this Hitachi.

The detail part of the Picture Master system also earns its keep, displaying high definition pictures with a sharpness and clarity that’s as good as anything we’ve seen from a plasma screen. Standard definition images, too, look crisper than is common on a TV this large. 

June 26th, 2007

iPod nano is a miracle of miniaturization. Stacked up against Apple’s original efforts at putting 1,000 songs in your pocket, the nano’s “Impossibly small.” tag-line seems insufficient. Even the svelte and now surceased iPod mini seems like a jumbo Crayola crayon next to a black cabochon Cartier fountain pen.

If you feel smaller is better–and I realize not everyone does–then there’s a lot to love about the new iPod nano: It’s equally as unnoticeable in your pocket as the iPod and the razor-sharp screen is the smallest yet on an iPod, but it manages to display one more item in menus than the iPod mini’s larger screen. It can also fits artist, album, and track name information for the playing song, plus artwork.

To accommodate the narrow body, Apple shrank not only the screen but also the ClickWheel. The donut pad is 3/8-inch wide, down from about 5/8-inch on the iPod and iPod mini. The center button remains the same size. The diminutive click wheels takes a bit of getting used to, requiring more precise thumb movements than other iPods.

Apple shaved more than just size with the iPod mini’s successor, mind you, reducing capacity (by 2GB) and battery life (by about 4 hours). Like a magician that distracts the audience with one hand while the other prepares the next trick, Apple is hoping that consumers will be dazzled by the tiny form factor and color screen and not notice these changes. Or simply not care. Most probably won’t, but folks who compare the price per ounce of different sized boxes of the same breakfast cereal have even more incentive now to go for the higher-end iPod nano than they did with the iPod mini: the 4GB nano’s 25 percent price premium over the 2GB model buys you twice as much room for music or photos.

Not that photo functionality is a very compelling reason to buy an iPod nano. Unlike the full-size iPod, the iPod nano can’t hook up to a TV to display your photos and doesn’t support Apple’s camera connector for downloading photos on the fly. That leaves you with a mobile photo viewer that sports a screen likely smaller than your digital camera or cell phone. Couple that with the multi-megabyte size today’s digital photos are and storing any quantity on the iPod nano significantly cuts down on space for songs.

Still, I find myself nitpicking to find any problems with the iPod nano. It’s a device like none other out there and once again sets Apple far ahead of the competition. The biggest shortcoming I ran into with the iPod nano is its lack of FireWire support. You can still charge the nano over FireWire, but connecting it to your computer is strictly a USB affair, despite its standard iPod dock connector. Mac owners with iBooks or iMacs more than a couple years old that can’t add USB 2.0 to their systems will find this especially annoying since transferring songs over USB 1.1 is a bit of an experience in patience, especially when that high-speed FireWire port is sitting idle.

We’ve witnessed the music player market becoming increasingly competitive since the first iPod debuted nearly four years ago. As others vie to keep up with or outpace Apple, packing features like color screens months or years ahead of Apple, the iPod nano demonstrates that not only does Apple still have it to be the market leader, it’s probably not going to lose it any time soon.

Apple simply gets that the value of a product is best not measured in gigabytes or bells and whistles but in the joy that using it brings to its owner. In that respect, iPod nano is the best to date.

June 26th, 2007

strong>first take The new “enhanced” iPod looks like a tremendous improvement over the last one, with a brighter screen and better battery life.

At Apple’s media event, Steve Jobs jumped right into introducing an updated fifth-generation iPod. Not a tremendous surprise here, as we believed the sixth-generation “true video iPod” would not be announced until later in the year or even early in 2007. But the new “enhanced” iPod looks like a tremendous improvement over the last one, which debuted last October. The iPod has many incremental improvements, including a brighter screen and better battery life, but probably the most appealing aspect is the new price points of AU$380 for the 30GB version and AU$499 for the huge 80GB version.

Let’s talk about battery life first, since the pre-enhanced iPod has been dogged for its 2-plus hours of video battery life. Now you’ll get 75 percent more battery life with both sizes — that means you’ll get up to a rated 4.5 hours of video battery life for the 30GB version and up to 6.5 hours for the 80GB. Boosting battery life will always make a product more appealing, and it looks like Apple responded to all the complaints. Basically, this brings the iPod in line with other players, such as the Creative Zen Vision:M and the Toshiba Gigabeat S, in terms of video battery life. And now you can watch a couple of movies on a plane trip, plus have some extra juice for music and photos.

The new iPod also has a brighter screen — by up to 60 percent. Not that the iPod had a dim screen in the first place, but brighter is always better, especially when it doesn’t come at the cost of battery life. Gapless playback is probably one of the most requested features in any MP3 player. Those with dance mixes can now rejoice, and the feature works with virtually all the compatible formats. While this should have been added a long time ago, we commend Apple for turning the corner (the new iTunes 7 also has gapless playback).

The iPod’s software has been enhanced as well, and these new features definitely make the iPod better. First, you can search tunes using an alphabet-style instant search. OK, we’ve seen this on Creative and other products for a while, but it’s nice that Apple has observed the market and integrated this useful feature. Another “borrowed” feature is that as you scroll through tracks, the first letter of the track section appears as a graphical button overlay. Remind you of the Toshiba Gigabeat S? Finally, Apple has added a refined games section, which includes titles such as Bejeweled, Tetris, Texas Hold ‘Em, and Pac-Man. New games will be available online.

Just about every reviewer despises the bundled headphones. So Apple responded and will be shipping better-designed headphones — we can’t vouch for their comfort level and performance at this point, but any improvement is appreciated.

So that’s it — while the 6G “true video” iPod will still be a figment of the tech world’s imagination, the enhanced 5G iPod looks more attractive than ever with its incremental updates. It looks virtually the same, but underneath the hood, you have an iPod that makes the original 5G iPod look very rusty. Nice job there, Apple. For me personally, the gapless playback and better battery life make the iPod the most attractive one to date.

June 25th, 2007

From Zone Labs
ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite protects you at every level, from the deepest layers of your operating system to the physical world. Includes award-winning Antivirus, Anti-Spyware, Identity Theft Protection, Operating System Firewall, Network and Program Firewall, IM Protection, Parental Control, Email Security, Auto-Learn, Game Mode.

Version 7.0 includes new Antivirus engine with significantly enhanced detection and removal capabilities. Auto-Learn feature allows hassle-free computer operation from the moment of installation by hiding unnecessary security alerts.

Along with its effective and easy-to-use firewall and additional security features, this new version of ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite revamps the mostly solid antispyware protection introduced in the last release.

ZoneAlarm’s wizard makes firewall configuration and maintanence incredibly easy, with a stylish interface and simple slider controls. The app boasts an ultrasecure triple-layer firewall and experts will appreciate the customizing options. The Zones feature allows you to assign different security levels for local networks and the Internet. The program was very good at automatically including our local network settings and auto-detected wireless machines. In all our tests, the firewall held strong against all threats it encountered.

The suite also includes an antivirus scanner, a cookie cleaner, ad and pop-up blockers and new antispwyare tools. Happily, the app offers both real-time protection against malware as well as a scanning engine. In our tests, spyware scans were blisteringly fast and almost always accurate, though some minor traces were left behind. The real-time module could have offered more information from directly within the program on potential threats.

Other features include Web site-specific protections, an ID Lock for personal information and a configurable site-blocking content filter. Security Suite also incorporates the company’s IMSecurity program, which protects instant-messaging programs from spam and encrypts messages (so long as the person on the other end also is using IMSecurity). Users looking for one solution to almost all their Internet-security concerns can turn to ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite.

June 25th, 2007

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This Nikon D40 Review is based on a production model. All sample images are unretouched, except where specified.

This review has been submitted to DIWA Awards [Total: 81%].

Le Marché

The Nikon D40 DSLR is an affordable Family DSLR that gives excellent image quality and provides an easy step up from point-and-shoot (P&S) digital cameras. Photographers tired of the limitations (especially low-light) of P&S digital cameras will welcome this compact and lightweight DSLR with the performance and responsiveness characteristic of much more expensive digital SLRs.

At under US $600, the Nikon D40 is excellent value for money. Nikon has not compromised at all in any respects and the D40 is solidly built and handles beautifully. It provides the standard AUTO mode, plus Scene Modes for more challenging lighting situations. For more advanced photographers, P (Program auto), S (Shutter-priority auto), A (Aperture-priority auto) and M (Manual) modes provide the fine level of control they desire.

You get a large, bright, clear optical viewfinder and a large LCD screen with enhanced text fonts and graphics display. The Nikon D40 accepts SD memory cards, including the large capacity SD HC cards (up to 4GB). The D40’s Nikon F mount maintains compatibility with the many high-quality Nikkor lenses, but autofocus is supported only with the newer AF-S and AF-I CPU lenses, which are equipped with built-in motors.

Consumers are starting to realize that more megapixels do not necessarily mean better image quality, especially in digital cameras with tiny image sensors. The Nikon D40 has a large APS-sized image sensor and the 6.1MP is more than enough for large beautiful prints. Wisely keeping the megapixels in check has allowed Nikon to equip the D40 with very good to excellent image quality: noise is low and details are preserved up to ISO 800, with a very usable ISO 1600. This is what allows the D40 to shine in low-light situations. So do not let the 6.1MP resolution fool you: the D40 image quality and low-light capability put many DSLRs with higher resolution to shame.

What I particularly like:

• Excellent image quality, though a tendency for blown highlights
• Compact, lightweight; comfortable handling
• Excellent performance and responsiveness
• Large and bright viewfinder
• Large LCD screen with enhanced text fonts
• Custom Auto ISO
• On-board flash is able to light a large room (so maybe you won’t need to buy an optional external speedlight)

Improvement Suggestions:

• Correction to prevent blown highlights
• Gridlines (horizontal and vertical framing lines)
• AEB (Automatic Exposure Bracketing), useful especially with camera’s propensity to clip highlights
• Larger viewfinder exposure read-outs (especially for those wearing glasses)
• LCD protector (or get a good case for the D40)
• Fine JPEG with RAW (currently only RAW+Basic JPEG available)

See if you fit the Nikon D40 User Profile below:

Nikon D40 User Profile