The Gadgets Page

WinAmp is an MP3 player that you can download for free on the Internet. It plays your MP3s and allows you to rate them.

• Winamp.com: Media Player, Skins, Plug-ins, Videos, Songs, Riffs, Jams, Grooves

The coolest thing about WinAmp, however is the Internet radio options. When you have installed WinAmp, you can push the button marked ML (for Media Library). It will pop open a window that will show your Media Library. To the left, you should see a section called Online Services. Choose that and then choose Shoutcast Radio. From there, you can choose from a ton of Internet radio stations.

If you have been missing the radio, but hate the non-stop commercials, then try WinAmp and find an Internet radio station that you enjoy. You’ll throw out that old FM receiver without reservation.

Most patents don’t make it past the patent office, but that doesn’t stop Daniel Wright from making them fodder for humor.

• Patently Silly – The Humor of Invention – presented by Daniel Wright

Sometimes, Daniel doesn’t even need to say a word. All I need is to see the picture of the patent to find it incredibly funny. When we live in a world where patents from Apple are instantly noticed and fans start creating mockups to illustrate them, it’s nice to know that there are thousands of other patents out there that are being analyzed strictly for their humor value.

DRM (Digital Rights Management) is an acronynm that is thrown around a lot on the Internet, but the issues around it are very complicated. This is a brilliant little video that explains why DRM is not a good thing for consumers.

• A load of C.R.A.P. – At The Whiteboard – ZDNet

Sure, those songs and videos that you can download from Apple are only 99 cents, but you can’t play them on your Treo without jumping through a bunch of hoops. All those download services aren’t ready for Prime Time. Don’t waste your money on them.

Continuing our series on choosing a notebook PC, today I’ll take a look at three more major notebook features: disk drives, video cards, and memory.

While these are relatively minor considerations when you buy a desktop machine—you can always upgrade them later—notebooks are harder to upgrade, so it’s worth taking a moment to consider what you need and buy it up front if possible.

Disk Drives

The most obvious consideration when choosing a disk drive is size, and the larger the better—especially if you’ll be working with digital photos or video, or storing a library of MP3s on the machine. Today’s top models have disk sizes ranging from 40GB to 100GB. If you order online, you can usually choose the disk size, but if you buy your notebook locally you’re stuck with the stock choice. Make sure it’s something you can live with.

In general, for strictly business use—no video or music—40GB is plenty. But if your notebook will double as a desktop music or video player, get the biggest drive you can afford.

All but the largest notebooks have room for only one disk drive. While it is possible to upgrade the drive, it requires reinstalling the operating system—not always an easy task with notebooks, since you have to track down drivers for all of their components. Also, since laptop disk drives are smaller and less in demand, you usually save money by buying the drive with the notebook.

Another variable is disk drive speed. Most notebook drives are 5400 RPM, a bit slower than the 7200 RPM drives that are available on desktops. Some ultra-small notebooks will have 4200 RPM or slower drives, but since the slower drives use less battery, it might be worthwhile to live without the highest speed. Unless you’re using the machine for video editing or music production, drive speed probably won’t affect your experience.

Video

On a desktop PC, you can upgrade the video card if you need more performance. While there are some standards for notebooks to support video upgrades, almost no machines support them, so you should buy the machine with the video support you need.

For PC notebooks, there are usually two video choices. The cheapest is “Integrated video,” also known as “Intel Graphics Media Accelerator”—this is the video chipset packaged with Intel’s Centrino chipset. It usually shares the system RAM rather than having its own video memory. It works for business use and can play a DVD just fine, but isn’t very fast for anything video-intensive—games in particular.

If you plan on doing lots of gaming or video editing, look for a machine with a separate nVidia or ATI video card and dedicated video RAM. You’ll also want to read reviews and benchmarks for each model if you need lots of video performance. Some customizable laptops offer both choices, others have only one video option.

Memory

One last factor that will have a major effect on your notebook’s performance is the amount of RAM memory. For Windows, I recommend a minimum of 1 GB unless you’ll only be running the simplest software. For Mac OS X, 512 MB is workable, but 1 GB is faster.

Memory is one area where you may be able to save $100 or more by upgrading it yourself. You can add memory to most notebooks by removing a few screws and inserting a chip. If you’re buying a customized PC, check Crucial.com and compare their price for a memory upgrade to the manufacturer’s price when you buy the notebook. If the price is significantly lower, you might want to buy the (almost crippled) 256 MB model and put in a new chip. (You can buy memory at many online sources, but Crucial is a good place to start because their site can tell you which type the notebook needs.)

Most notebooks have two memory slots. If you buy a machine with 512 MB or 1 GB of RAM, be warned that the stock memory might be divided between two chips, making an upgrade difficult. For example, if a 1 GB notebook has two 512 MB chips and you buy a new 1 GB chip, the maximum memory will be 1.5 GB, since you’ll have to remove one of the existing chips to add the new one.

Almost done! In the next installment I’ll look at connectivity options for notebooks—WiFi, Bluetooth, USB, and so on.

• View our entire series of articles on choosing a notebook PC

Previously:

• Part 1: Size Matters
• Part 2: Screens
• Part 3: Processors

CNET has a video from Demo 2006, where the creators of Riya were demonstrating their web-based photo service. Riya can recognize faces and read text in photographs, which makes tagging and searching so much easier.

• Riya beta – CNET.

At one point, he had the software look for pictures of him and his son. It brought up a picture of what looked like just him, but there was a photo of his son on the wall behind him. The software only needs a facial image of 10 pixels to recognize a face, so pictures with 5 or 8 megapixels will provide far more detail than Riya needs to classify your photographs.

Additionally, it will tag items with the same date with some of the same words that it recognizes. He searched for photos with his son and the word Hawaii and it brought up a beautiful ocean scene. “How did it know that it was Hawaii?” On the same day, he had taken a picture of the Avis car rental sign that said the state, Hawaii. It correctly classified the photo as taken in Hawaii.

This web-based service is an advertising business model, so they will earn money selling advertising to companies that want their advertisements next to pictures of corresponding pictures. He used the example of pictures of the Boston Marathon and advertisements for running shoes.

I have been reluctant to use services like Flickr because I’m so greedy about the ownership of my pictures. It hasn’t really been the chore of tagging that has kept me away. I’m interested in seeing if Riya is able to catch the hearts of the photo-philes as much as Flickr has or if it’s a complicated toy that needs too much training to be useful.

Via: ::HorsePigCow:: life uncommon: CNet does a demo of Riya

While choosing a PC has never been an easy task, processors used to be easy to tell apart—a 2.0GHz processor was faster than a 1.5GHz processor, and cost more money. A Pentium 3 was more efficient than a Pentium 2. Now processor speed means less than it used to, and the manufacturers have helpfully started calling their processors things like “Core Duo T2300″ and “Turion 64 ML-40″.

Continuing our series on choosing a notebook PC, today I’m taking a look at processors for notebooks. Read on to find out how to tell them apart, and how to choose the best one for your new notebook.

Intel Processors

A bit of history: While Intel’s Pentium 4 was built for blistering clock speeds, which looked great when compared with their competition, they weren’t very efficient in processing or in power consumption. Desktop P4’s worked, but the speed didn’t get much higher than 3GHz because of manufacturing difficulty—and there was no way to squeeze one of these beasts into a laptop. So Intel went back to their Pentium 3 design, and built the Pentium M processor based on that. It ran at slower clock speeds than a P4, but was more efficient and less power-hungry, making it ideal for laptops.

As of January this year, Intel released their Core Duo chips, which are basically two Pentium Ms built into the same chip, and Core Solo, a 1-processor version of the updated chip. These are the latest Intel processors to appear in notebook PCs (including Apple’s new MacBook Pro). Intel is extending this idea to future desktop chips, which will be the next generation after Pentium 4.

Here are the Intel processors you’ll find in current notebooks:

• Core Duo: Essentially a double Pentium M. The fastest Intel processor for notebooks.
• Pentium M: The previous state of the art, and still a respectable processor.
• Core Solo: A single-processor version of a Core Duo—essentially a Pentium M, but for the new platform.
• Celeron M: A slower economy model, a stripped down Pentium M.

AMD Processors

While Intel was going back to the drawing board, their competitor AMD continued improving their processors. In particular, they’re producing 64-bit processors, while Intel’s are all still 32-bit, and their chips, like Intel’s Pentium M series, are more efficient at the same clock speed. Their Turion processors, released last year, are low-power 64-bit chips meant for notebooks. Until the Core Duo was released, AMD had a clear lead over Intel; now the two are competitive. AMD’s current notebook processors include the following:

• Turion 64: AMD’s top of the line notebook processor.
• Mobile Sempron: A lower-end mobile CPU that costs less.

(AMD also has a dual-core Athlon 64 processor, but it’s only available in a few very specialized and very large notebooks.)

Choosing a Processor

Should you choose Intel or AMD? That’s a difficult question if you’re looking for the fastest possible notebook—Intel’s Core Duo chips have two processors, but AMD’s Turion processors support 64-bit processing. Neither is a clear advantage, though:

• Two processors only give you an advantage when you’re running two or more programs at once, or using an application designed to take advantage of multiple processors.
• 64-bit chips only give you an advantage when you’re running a 64-bit operating system, like the upcoming Windows Vista.

I suspect the latest Core Duo machines, which have only been out for a month or so, will beat AMD in benchmarks, but it’s hard to find comparisons of machines as new as these. The good news: if you’re just looking for a machine that can run Photoshop or play your favorite game, one of the latest processors from either one will work just fine.

Processor Speed

One last thing to consider: processor speed. With either Intel or AMD, you will find a range of speeds, and if you order a custom notebook from HP, Sony, or Dell, you can choose the speed. How much speed you need depends on what you’re planning to do with the notebook:

• Desktop applications (Word processing, Spreadsheet, etc.)—the slowest and cheapest of the current models will work fine.
• Design and music (Photoshop, Cubase, etc.)—the faster the better.
• Games—the faster the better, but the video card might matter more—see the next installment.

If you want a reasonably fast machine at a good price, I recommend getting the second- or third-fastest processor. You always pay a very high price for the top processor. For example, as of today, when ordering a Dell Inspiron E1705 notebook, you get a 1.66GHz Core Duo by default. The next step up, 1.83 GHz, adds $100 to the price, and going up to 2 GHz costs $300. Stepping up to the newest, fastest 2.16 GHz processor costs a whopping $600—you can save $300 by choosing the second-best, and I doubt you’ll miss that .16 GHz.

(Note: Both Intel and AMD have assigned code numbers to their chips, like T2300 and M40. While you can generally assume a bigger number means a faster processor, I recommend you look at the actual speed in GHz.)

Macintosh Considerations

I’ve focused on Windows notebooks here, since they have many processor choices. If you’re considering an Apple notebook, there are less choices, but you do have one major thing to consider: Intel or G4. Apple is moving to Intel processors, and their MacBook Pro is the first Intel-based notebook. It’s undoubtedly faster than the previous machines, but there are some advantages to sticking with the tried-and-true G4 notebooks for now:

• MacBook Pro: The Intel Core Duo processors are fast, and you’ll have a machine that supports the platform Apple’s taking into the future. However, older applications aren’t optimized for Intel processors and will have to run under the Rosetta emulation system, making them potentially slower than on a G4. In particular, Photoshop isn’t available in a Core Duo build yet, and probably won’t be until they release a new version.

• iBooks and Powerbooks: The G4 processor might be the fastest choice for Photoshop right now, but you’ll be behind the curve as everything moves to the Intel platform over the next year or two.

Of course, Apple will undoubtedly release more Intel-based notebooks soon, so keep an eye on the market before you decide.

Conclusion

One thing to watch out for: some manufacturers use desktop processors in notebooks. Sometimes these are high-end models that are larger but faster, and sometimes they’re just cheap models. In either case, the processor will generate more heat and more drain on the battery than a true mobile processor, so avoid them unless you really need the speed.

Don’t forget that there are lots of factors besides the processor that will affect speed—the hard disk and video card being the biggest. In the next installment of this series on Monday, we’ll look at three more major notebook features to consider: disk drives, video, and memory.

• View our entire series of articles on choosing a notebook PC

Previously:

• Part 1: Size Matters
• Part 2: Screens

Continuing our series on choosing a notebook PC, today we’ll look at the choices you’ll need to make to choose the ideal notebook screen. There are four factors to consider: screen size, resolution, widescreen or regular, and glossy or matte.

Screen size is something you’ve already looked at if you read the first installment—it’s part of choosing a tiny notebook, a mainstream one, or a giant desktop replacement. Your basic choices range from 12″ for the smallest notebook to 19″ and beyond for the largest. The following are the other aspects of the screen you’ll want to take a closer look at.

Regular or Widescreen?

Many newer notebooks are available in a widescreen format, with a wider aspect ratio than typical desktop monitor screens—probably because these notebooks can double as DVD players. Widescreen is ideal for watching movies on your notebook, but a traditional size might be more appropriate for word processing.

You’ll probably end up choosing a widescreen display regardless, since most manufacturers are focusing on them—for example, HP only makes 15″ value models in a traditional screen ratio. All of Dell’s current models have wide screens. Apple’s iBooks and Powerbooks have traditional screens, but the new MacBook Pro has a wide screen.

Screen Resolution and DPI

While the screen choices look basic—12.1″, 14″, 15.4″, 17″, 19″—it’s actually more complicated: the same size screen can be available with different screen resolutions. The resolution is the number of pixels displayed on the screen across its width and height. The most common resolutions for mainstream notebooks are 1024 x 768 (standard XGA) and 1280 x 800 (widescreen XGA).

The resolution determines the size of each pixel on the screen. This is usually measured in DPI (dots per inch). You can calculate the DPI for a screen using a formula or, better yet, using a convenient online calculator (thanks to raydreams.com).

The DPI value is important because it determines the default size of text on your screen: a higher value means smaller text. While you can change the font size in your applications and in the operating system, you’re better off with a default value you’re comfortable with—especially on Windows, where many applications are not compatible with non-standard font sizes. You can also set the screen to a lower resolution, but if you use anything but the native resolution, the text won’t look nearly as good.

Depending on the laptop manufacturer and screen size, you might be able to choose different resolutions. For example, when you buy the 17″ HP DV8000 notebook, you can choose between two resolutions for the 17″ screen: 1440 x 900 or 1680 x 1050. With the basic 1440 x 900 screen, the DPI is 99.9. With the higher-resolution screen, the DPI is 116.5. While it’s tempting to think that more is better, unless your eyesight is great or you’re willing to customize font settings, the high-res screen will be inconvenient.

If you’ve got a desktop monitor you’re comfortable with, you can calculate its DPI and try to find a notebook screen with a similar value. I use a 19″ LCD monitor with 1280 x 1024 resolution at my desk—86 DPI—so I looked for a low DPI value notebook. My ideal notebook screen turns out to be 15.4″ and 1280 x 800 (98 DPI). I was surprised to find that this is the same resolution as Laura’s tiny 12.1″ notebook (124.7 DPI). While it might seem like a waste of space, the larger pixels make for a very comfortable screen to read, and one that is very similar to the screen I use on my desk.

Of course, the best way to choose a screen is to see it in person. Visit your local computer store and try different notebooks with a text editor, word processor, or web browser. Even if the model you’re considering isn’t available locally, there’s probably one there with the same screen size and resolution.

Glossy vs. Matte

One last thing to consider—and one of the most confusing. If you’ve walked through the notebook section of a computer store lately, you might have noticed that many of the screens have a glossy, reflective finish. It’s not hard to see why—they look great in the store. With a bit more contrast than traditional matte screens, they look great playing videos.

The trouble is, all that reflectiveness can get in the way when you’re reading text. Many people prefer matte screens for working with text, but I’ve been surprised to hear some people recommend glossy screens for the same purpose. This seems to be a matter of personal preference. I’ve personally used matte screens for years, but my new notebook has a glossy screen and I’ve found it easy to work with.

The glossy screens are known by various trademark names: BrightView (HP), XBRITE (Sony), CrystalView (Acer), TrueLife (Dell), TruBrite (Toshiba), and so on. If you’re buying your notebook at a local store, you won’t have much choice—all but a few models will have glossy screens. If you order online, however, some brands, like HP and Dell, let you choose between matte and glossy screens.

As with resolution, this is something you’ll need to see in person to determine your preference. Be sure to try looking at a word processor document or a web browser rather than the demo video running at the store, and make sure you can read despite the gloss. Keep in mind that a well-lit office might have even more glare than you see at the store. You should also look at different brands of notebook, since some are glossier than others.

Tomorrow, our series on choosing a notebook continues with a look at the confusing array of processor choices available.

• View our entire series of articles on choosing a notebook PC

Since I just purchased a new notebook PC, I’ve been taking a good look at the notebook market for the last couple of weeks. Prices are lower than ever for great notebooks, but the growing number of vastly different choices can be confusing. Starting today, this series of posts will look at some of the decisions you need to make to find the right notebook for you.

One of the first things to consider is the size of notebook. Notebook manufacturers and retailers divide them into three basic size categories:

• Mainstream: The traditional “laptop” form factor. These machines have screen sizes ranging from 14″ to 15.4″, and generally weigh 6-7 pounds. They usually have standard-sized keyboards, although there are some unusual key placements to make room for everything. They’re a good compromise between portability and usability, making them the most popular category. They’re also the cheapest, although prices vary greatly based on speed, features, and quality.
• Thin and Light: These are smaller, lighter notebooks that are much easier to carry. Screen sizes range from 10″ to 14″, and the machines weigh 3-6 pounds. While these used to be some of the most expensive machines, low-end models are now competitive with mainstream notebooks—but at this size, there’s always a compromise. The low-end models usually have slower processors and lack features, like DVD drives, that are hard to miniaturize; at the high end, all of the features are there, but the price is much higher. All ultralight notebooks have smaller keyboards, so you may find it hard to type with even the best models.
• Desktop Replacement: These are still notebook computers, and portable in theory, but they’re large and heavy, and best suited to sitting on a desk and being moved only occasionally. Screen sizes range from 17″ to 21″, and the weight is usually 8-10 pounds. These machines usually have full-sized keyboards, and some even have numeric keypads. Like the ultralight machines, these monsters used to cost a lot more than a mainstream notebook, but the price difference is small now. If you expect the notebook to be your only PC, and don’t plan on carrying it to work every day, these are nice machines.

This is probably the choice that will have the greatest effect on how much use you get from a notebook. If it’s too small, you’ll be fighting with a tiny keyboard and squinting to read the screen, and if it’s too large, you’ll leave it at home.

So which size should you choose? My recommendation would be the largest one you can conveniently carry everywhere you want to carry it. If you plan on using it at home 90% of the time, portability is less of a concern, but if you’ll be taking it to class or work every day, a pound or two can make a big difference.

One of the biggest reasons to choose a larger notebook is the screen. In tomorrow’s installment, I’ll look at the different types of notebook screens available today, and you’ll learn that more resolution isn’t always better.

There have been a bunch of products jump on the market lately appealing to the germophobe traveller. Whether the person is worried about catching a cold from someone on a plane or getting lice from a headrest, there are companies joining the “Sanatize It” bandwagon.

• USATODAY.com – Making germs a no-go

The truth is, most of these gadgets provide little if any benefit.

“Medical experts say many of these products are more effective in quelling the psychological ick factor than in preventing disease. In fact, the best protection against illness is also the simplest and least costly: frequent hand washing.”

Next time you’re tempted to buy a gadget to keep yourself safe from travel germs, remember my mantras:

“It will build my immune system.”

“Whatever doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.”

“Lather, Rinse, Repeat”

These will protect you far more than any face masks, headrest covers or disinfectant sprays.

Via: World Hum | Travel | Do We Really Need to Worry About Toothbrush Germs When We Travel?

While Mike and I were at SXSW in Austin, Texas, we stayed at the Austin Hilton Hotel right next to the conference. It’s the first time we’ve stayed at a Hilton Hotel since they have added the MP3 Player Clock Radio. I had heard about it, but I had never seen it.

It’s not like it’s a product that you can go into a store and buy, but I thought I would play with it during my stay. I wanted to see if it was easy to use. I wanted to know if the buttons really did what they said they did. I was curious about it because I had heard so much about it.

Do the buttons really do what they say they will do?

The clock radio has buttons on the top labeled classical, country, rock, jazz and MP3 respectively. I tried them all and each button actually played the genre of music that they were labeled with. I don’t know if that means that some employee had to program the radio stations for each of the buttons, but they DID work. The classical and jazz radio stations were really faint and static filled, but they played the music that the buttons advertised.

I tested the MP3 button with my Treo 650. It easily connects to any MP3 player with its headphone jack that sticks unceremoniously out the back. It doesn’t control the MP3 player, but it does amplify the music (or SXSW podcasts) loud enough to hear throughout the room. Unfortunately, you couldn’t set it to wake you up with the music on your MP3 player.

How does it sound?

If you’re an audiophile, you wouldn’t ask that question because you’d assume that it sounds like crap. So, if you want to know how it sounds, I have to give it a passing grade. It will make your music loud enough for everyone in the room (and even in the next room over) to hear. There is hardly any stereo separation. I tested it with Shellshock by New Order because I played that song so much as a teenager that I have memorized each moment in the song where it plays on one ear or the other. Unfortunately, it didn’t sound as good on this player as it does when I’m wearing headphones. It sounds better than mono, though.

The Hilton Hotel MP3 Player is a pretty cool machine. It looks like a normal clock radio, but if you want to jam out to your tunes without ear buds, it helps you out. Now, you don’t have to pack speakers in your luggage so that everyone can enjoy the music.