Home Theater Shopping Tips
Ready to put together a home theater of your own? Here are recommendations for displays, DVD players, and speakers.
Go with HD: Choose a wide-screen high-definition TV in the size most appropriate for your room. Only if you're on a very tight budget or have a very small room should you consider anything else.
Choose an appropriate screen size: Bigger is usually better, up to a point. Your own eyes are your best guide on this, but a good (though rough) rule of thumb is that the diagonal screen size should not be larger than about half your seating distance. With a 42-inch TV, for example, you probably should not watch from closer than about 7 feet.
Look for HDMI or component-video inputs on the TV: These inputs will allow you to connect high-definition and progressive-scan sources and will produce the best possible picture quality. The set should also have composite-video and S-Video inputs for sources such as VCRs. And a set of A/V inputs on the set's front or side will make it easier to hook up a camcorder for viewing home videos.
Opt for progressive scan: It's hard to find a current DVD player that doesn't include progressive scan, which produces a sharper, flicker-free picture. However, the TV you use will need to have component inputs that support the progressive-scan signal as well. A high-definition Blu-ray Disc or HD DVD player will provide an even better picture; it also will require a component input--or, better, an HDMI input. Some regular DVD players will upconvert their outputs to pseudo-high-definition resolution, but since this does not actually increase the amount of detail in the picture and duplicates a function built into most TVs that can accept a high-definition input, it is seldom a genuinely useful feature.
Consider a multiple-disc setup: A five-disc carousel DVD player allows you keep a movie or two and several CDs in the player at once, so you don't have to get up to change discs.
Start with three speakers: If you can't afford the full surround-sound setup, start with the center, left, and right speakers. You can always add the subwoofer later if you miss the extra bass, and you can buy the satellite surround speakers if you want a full surround-sound effect.
Use 100 watts as a guideline: A receiver than can produce 100 watts per channel will be more than adequate for most home theater systems.
Look for Dolby Digital support: Make sure the receiver you buy includes Dolby Digital decoding. Dolby Pro Logic II is highly desirable as well, to provide surround sound from videotapes and from ordinary stereo music sources such as CDs.
Look for a good return policy: Some speakers may sound great in the store but not in your living room. Make sure that you can return them if the way they sound in your home disappoints you.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
How to Drive Down Electricity Costs
The most dreaded utility bill in my household is the electric bill, and the highest one usually comes in January after the holidays. What can you expect, really, after powering a house full of electronics and Christmas decorations for an entire month non-stop? It would be great if we could monitor our energy use all year, but until we all have smart meters installed to check our energy use online, we'll just have to search for alternatives.
One of these available alternatives is called The Energy Detective or TED, an energy monitor that allows you to see electricity usage in real time. The best part is that it tells you exactly how much you're spending on electricity in dollar amounts and kilowatts, so there are no surprises at the end of the month. According to the site, TED is extremely accurate and can be set up in less than 15 minutes by a qualified homeowner or electrician. It has many features, and you can even set up parameters to tell you when the cost-per-hour amount exceeds a specified amount within your budget. You can purchase one online for $140, but I'm sure this gizmo will save you a lot of money and pay for itself in less than a year. Saving energy during the holidays is one incentive for buying a gadget like TED, but people who work from home could seriously benefit from it all year long.
Another way to conserve energy is to look for Energy Star products when shopping for office equipment and home electronics. These products usually use about half the electricity of standard equipment. The U.S. Department of Energy offers a few other energy-saving tips such as buying a laptop because they use less energy than desktop computers, turning off monitors instead of using screen savers to reduce energy, and plugging a computer into a power strip that can be switched off easily.
One reason you should completely unplug certain electronics when they're not in use is because some of them consume power even when they're on stand-by mode. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 75 percent of the electricity used to power home electronics in the average home is consumed while the products are turned off. These vampire electronics or phantom loads are racking up a bill even when you think they're not, so you need devices that can help you identify them in order to save money.
A more affordable device that can help you do this is called the Kill-A-Watt EZ. The Gadgeteer has an extensive hands-on review of the device here, along with some interesting tests she conducted. The Kill-A-Watt EZ estimates she'll spend $35 to $40 a year to power her iMac. That's good to know, because now she can unplug those devices she doesn't use on weekends and holidays to save the extra cash. Overall, she said this was an easy to use tool that can save money and can easily be found online for about $60 or less.
These are just a couple of devices you can use. To reduce your energy bill, you could always go solar, so I'll have more on that in my next post. In the meantime, let me know if you have other ideas that could help us drive down electricity costs.
One of these available alternatives is called The Energy Detective or TED, an energy monitor that allows you to see electricity usage in real time. The best part is that it tells you exactly how much you're spending on electricity in dollar amounts and kilowatts, so there are no surprises at the end of the month. According to the site, TED is extremely accurate and can be set up in less than 15 minutes by a qualified homeowner or electrician. It has many features, and you can even set up parameters to tell you when the cost-per-hour amount exceeds a specified amount within your budget. You can purchase one online for $140, but I'm sure this gizmo will save you a lot of money and pay for itself in less than a year. Saving energy during the holidays is one incentive for buying a gadget like TED, but people who work from home could seriously benefit from it all year long.
Another way to conserve energy is to look for Energy Star products when shopping for office equipment and home electronics. These products usually use about half the electricity of standard equipment. The U.S. Department of Energy offers a few other energy-saving tips such as buying a laptop because they use less energy than desktop computers, turning off monitors instead of using screen savers to reduce energy, and plugging a computer into a power strip that can be switched off easily.
One reason you should completely unplug certain electronics when they're not in use is because some of them consume power even when they're on stand-by mode. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 75 percent of the electricity used to power home electronics in the average home is consumed while the products are turned off. These vampire electronics or phantom loads are racking up a bill even when you think they're not, so you need devices that can help you identify them in order to save money.
A more affordable device that can help you do this is called the Kill-A-Watt EZ. The Gadgeteer has an extensive hands-on review of the device here, along with some interesting tests she conducted. The Kill-A-Watt EZ estimates she'll spend $35 to $40 a year to power her iMac. That's good to know, because now she can unplug those devices she doesn't use on weekends and holidays to save the extra cash. Overall, she said this was an easy to use tool that can save money and can easily be found online for about $60 or less.
These are just a couple of devices you can use. To reduce your energy bill, you could always go solar, so I'll have more on that in my next post. In the meantime, let me know if you have other ideas that could help us drive down electricity costs.
Blu-ray, HD DVD Camps Wooing Warners
Here's a scenario that "Survivor" fans know well: two equally matched voting blocks stuck in a stalemate, with a single, undecided player suddenly the key to the game. Both sides wine and dine the holdout, hoping to break the tie. The two tribes are Blu-ray and HD DVD. The holdout? Warner Brothers, the last major movie studio still making HD discs in both formats. And according to BusinessWeek, the wooing has reached a fever pitch.
The news magazine reports that representative from both camps are reaching out—way out—to Warner Brothers, with Toshiba HD DVD business lead Yoshihide Fujii making three trips to the United States in recent months, while Sony CEO and Blu-ray proponent Sir Howard Stringer has been personally making his case to top execs at Time Warner, the parent company of Warner Brothers.
The stakes are high for the warring HD camps. Blu-ray has exclusive deals with Disney, Sony (natch, given Sony's massive stake in Blu-ray), Fox, and MGM, while HD DVD has Universal, Paramount, and DreamWorks. The HD DVD group lured Paramount and DreamsWorks (which had previously supported both formats) earlier this year, and Sony clearly hopes to strike back by getting Warners to go Blu-ray-only.
The BusinessWeek story argues that Blu-ray may have the edge in the wooing, for a couple of reasons: It has a base of 2.7 million players (including Blu-ray-equipped PlayStation 3 consoles) in the United States, compared to 750,000 for HD DVD (including Xbox 360 add-on HD drives), and Blu-ray discs have been outselling HD DVD at a two-to-one ratio in recent weeks. All true...although cheaper HD DVD stand-alone players easily won the Black Friday sales way with a 62 percent market share, compared to just 37 percent for Blu-ray.
So, let's say Warners did jump to one camp or the other come next month, when the curtain rises on CES in Vegas. Would such a move be a knockout blow for the loser? I doubt it. Both camps have serious backing—Toshiba, Unversal, and Microsoft all have stakes in HD DVD, with Sony the big muscle on the Blu-ray side—and each side still has studio exclusives locked in (Paramount, which distributes hits like "Transformers," is signed with HD DVD until about 2009, and Disney, with franchises like "Pirates of the Caribbean," is cozy with Blu-ray). I think this war has a good 12 months (or more) to go, regardless of what Warners does.
That said, if Warner Brothers does go ahead and choose a side, it'll be a blow for those of us who already have HD players of one format for another (Warners has some big movies in its catalog...you've heard of "The Matrix" and "Batman," right?), although it'll make pricey but slowly-getting-cheaper dual-format HD decks that much more attractive.
What do you think? Will Warners choose a side? Would that matter to you if you're shopping for an HD disc player?
The news magazine reports that representative from both camps are reaching out—way out—to Warner Brothers, with Toshiba HD DVD business lead Yoshihide Fujii making three trips to the United States in recent months, while Sony CEO and Blu-ray proponent Sir Howard Stringer has been personally making his case to top execs at Time Warner, the parent company of Warner Brothers.
The stakes are high for the warring HD camps. Blu-ray has exclusive deals with Disney, Sony (natch, given Sony's massive stake in Blu-ray), Fox, and MGM, while HD DVD has Universal, Paramount, and DreamWorks. The HD DVD group lured Paramount and DreamsWorks (which had previously supported both formats) earlier this year, and Sony clearly hopes to strike back by getting Warners to go Blu-ray-only.
The BusinessWeek story argues that Blu-ray may have the edge in the wooing, for a couple of reasons: It has a base of 2.7 million players (including Blu-ray-equipped PlayStation 3 consoles) in the United States, compared to 750,000 for HD DVD (including Xbox 360 add-on HD drives), and Blu-ray discs have been outselling HD DVD at a two-to-one ratio in recent weeks. All true...although cheaper HD DVD stand-alone players easily won the Black Friday sales way with a 62 percent market share, compared to just 37 percent for Blu-ray.
So, let's say Warners did jump to one camp or the other come next month, when the curtain rises on CES in Vegas. Would such a move be a knockout blow for the loser? I doubt it. Both camps have serious backing—Toshiba, Unversal, and Microsoft all have stakes in HD DVD, with Sony the big muscle on the Blu-ray side—and each side still has studio exclusives locked in (Paramount, which distributes hits like "Transformers," is signed with HD DVD until about 2009, and Disney, with franchises like "Pirates of the Caribbean," is cozy with Blu-ray). I think this war has a good 12 months (or more) to go, regardless of what Warners does.
That said, if Warner Brothers does go ahead and choose a side, it'll be a blow for those of us who already have HD players of one format for another (Warners has some big movies in its catalog...you've heard of "The Matrix" and "Batman," right?), although it'll make pricey but slowly-getting-cheaper dual-format HD decks that much more attractive.
What do you think? Will Warners choose a side? Would that matter to you if you're shopping for an HD disc player?
Sneak Preview: TV Tech at CES 2008
Bigger sets? Sure, we'll have those in spades at CES come January, with another record-breaker undoubtedly being unveiled on day one. But more excitement is actually churning in the realm of core technologies. Here's a sneak peek at what to expect from TV tech.
LCD and Plasma - It's funny to think it, but LCD and plasma are now the old guard of TV tech, with both focusing on getting bigger, brighter, lighter, cheaper, and more energy efficient. For a couple of years, plasma has been the choice for very large screens, and LCD the choice for smaller sets... but as LCD continues to grow and grow, that distinction is vanishing. We're at the point where some are now wondering how much time plasma has left. Don't count plasma out just yet: Pioneer's KURO line, for example, promises exceptionally deep blacks and superb colors (a longtime weakness of flat panels); some say they're the best-looking plasmas ever. I'll be reporting from the show with word on how all these technologies look in person... and how big they've gotten.
Laser TV - Last year there was a minor hubbub about so-called laser television, but it was ultimately a no-show (though it may have been presented behind closed doors), with some people calling the whole technology an outright scam. But it does, however, seem to exist in some form now. Laser TV is a projector TV technology that uses lasers instead of incandescent lamps to create light. Proponents say it uses less power and allows for lighter sets than even LCDs offer, with "bulbs" that never burn out. True? We'll see soon; Mitsubishi has sent fancy invitations to a big unveiling of the technology at the show already, and I've got one in my hot little hands. Stay tuned.
OLED TV - The sketchiest TV technology of them all, OLEDs, or organic LEDs, have found only minimal adoption in the industry so far, and primarily in tiny applications like MP3 player and camera displays. OLEDs are attractive because they don't require a backlight, unlike all other display technologies, which means they are very energy friendly and (eventually) affordable. Last year, a 27-inch prototype was on display by Sony, and the company launched the set commercially in Japan a month ago. Are bigger sets on tap? No one's saying... yet.
SED TV - Another long-suffering TV technology, SED (Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display) is an LCD competitor with a similar design, but this one has been in the works for about 20 years with little to show. Prototypes were shown in 2006, then none in 2007. A few announcements have emerged in recent months, but nothing concrete. Whether or not SED appears at all this year is a mystery.
LCD and Plasma - It's funny to think it, but LCD and plasma are now the old guard of TV tech, with both focusing on getting bigger, brighter, lighter, cheaper, and more energy efficient. For a couple of years, plasma has been the choice for very large screens, and LCD the choice for smaller sets... but as LCD continues to grow and grow, that distinction is vanishing. We're at the point where some are now wondering how much time plasma has left. Don't count plasma out just yet: Pioneer's KURO line, for example, promises exceptionally deep blacks and superb colors (a longtime weakness of flat panels); some say they're the best-looking plasmas ever. I'll be reporting from the show with word on how all these technologies look in person... and how big they've gotten.
Laser TV - Last year there was a minor hubbub about so-called laser television, but it was ultimately a no-show (though it may have been presented behind closed doors), with some people calling the whole technology an outright scam. But it does, however, seem to exist in some form now. Laser TV is a projector TV technology that uses lasers instead of incandescent lamps to create light. Proponents say it uses less power and allows for lighter sets than even LCDs offer, with "bulbs" that never burn out. True? We'll see soon; Mitsubishi has sent fancy invitations to a big unveiling of the technology at the show already, and I've got one in my hot little hands. Stay tuned.
OLED TV - The sketchiest TV technology of them all, OLEDs, or organic LEDs, have found only minimal adoption in the industry so far, and primarily in tiny applications like MP3 player and camera displays. OLEDs are attractive because they don't require a backlight, unlike all other display technologies, which means they are very energy friendly and (eventually) affordable. Last year, a 27-inch prototype was on display by Sony, and the company launched the set commercially in Japan a month ago. Are bigger sets on tap? No one's saying... yet.
SED TV - Another long-suffering TV technology, SED (Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display) is an LCD competitor with a similar design, but this one has been in the works for about 20 years with little to show. Prototypes were shown in 2006, then none in 2007. A few announcements have emerged in recent months, but nothing concrete. Whether or not SED appears at all this year is a mystery.
HDTVs Growing to Epic Size This Season
If you went shopping this weekend, you might have noticed that deep discounts were comparably lacking on new flat-panel TVs, at least compared to 2006. Instead, they've simply gotten bigger, part of manufacturers' strategies to avoid getting sucked into the huge discounts that siphoned away virtually all profits for the sets during last year's cost-obsessed holiday season.
Jumbo sets are flooding the market this year. Sony has 20 models measuring 40 inches or larger in LCD alone, now making up 68 percent of the company's TV lineup, according to the Wall Street Journal. And Sony, like everyone else, is hoping you'll go big: At $1,273, the average 40-inch TV offers substantially better profit margin than a $763 32-inch set (in part because there is less competition in bigger sets from budget brands like Olevia and Westinghouse). The goal is obviously that you'll get sucked into jumping up a size or two when you see the difference in the stores.
Still, prices are dropping, just not as much: 12 percent on average this year for LCD sets. As well, technology continues to improve, with focus on deeper blacks, faster response times, and even lighter and thinner screens. Interestingly, Sharp says it can now fit a 42-inch screen into its old 40-inch frame because there's less wasted space around the edges.
So... are you TV shopping this season? If so, what's the magic number (in inches, I mean) that's tickling your fancy?
Jumbo sets are flooding the market this year. Sony has 20 models measuring 40 inches or larger in LCD alone, now making up 68 percent of the company's TV lineup, according to the Wall Street Journal. And Sony, like everyone else, is hoping you'll go big: At $1,273, the average 40-inch TV offers substantially better profit margin than a $763 32-inch set (in part because there is less competition in bigger sets from budget brands like Olevia and Westinghouse). The goal is obviously that you'll get sucked into jumping up a size or two when you see the difference in the stores.
Still, prices are dropping, just not as much: 12 percent on average this year for LCD sets. As well, technology continues to improve, with focus on deeper blacks, faster response times, and even lighter and thinner screens. Interestingly, Sharp says it can now fit a 42-inch screen into its old 40-inch frame because there's less wasted space around the edges.
So... are you TV shopping this season? If so, what's the magic number (in inches, I mean) that's tickling your fancy?
WindowsXP SP3 Boosts Performance 10 Percent
On the heels of last week's news that Windows Vista's first service pack would do nothing to improve performance comes some good news for those who wisely chose not to upgrade the new OS: XP's upcoming Service Pack 3 (now in limited beta) does improve performance, in the range of 10 percent, a substantial boost.
Exo.blog has the benchmarks again.
The results are initially somewhat surprising, as Exo notes, since SP3 is largely meant as a bug fix rollup for a mature OS and shouldn't carry with it any architectural changes serious enough to shave that much slowness off of the OS's operation. But on further reflection, it's important to remember how small changes can have major impacts on OS performance. Tweaking the way and the frequency with which memory is paged to the hard disk, for example, can have major ramifications for computer speed. The hope is that none of this has any negative effect on system stability. (And so far, things are looking up in that department too.)
Want to see something really scary? Check out how slow Vista is compared to XP on the same tasks now. (Vista is the leftmost two bars on the graph above.)
Latest word on XP SP3 is that it is still planned for release in the first half of 2008. If you want a (legal) preview of what SP3 will look like when it comes out, you might check out TheHotfix.net, which offers a "preview pack" release that's likely to emulate what SP3 is like.
Exo.blog has the benchmarks again.
The results are initially somewhat surprising, as Exo notes, since SP3 is largely meant as a bug fix rollup for a mature OS and shouldn't carry with it any architectural changes serious enough to shave that much slowness off of the OS's operation. But on further reflection, it's important to remember how small changes can have major impacts on OS performance. Tweaking the way and the frequency with which memory is paged to the hard disk, for example, can have major ramifications for computer speed. The hope is that none of this has any negative effect on system stability. (And so far, things are looking up in that department too.)
Want to see something really scary? Check out how slow Vista is compared to XP on the same tasks now. (Vista is the leftmost two bars on the graph above.)
Latest word on XP SP3 is that it is still planned for release in the first half of 2008. If you want a (legal) preview of what SP3 will look like when it comes out, you might check out TheHotfix.net, which offers a "preview pack" release that's likely to emulate what SP3 is like.
Verizon's LG Voyager, iPhone Killer?
Amid all the rhetoric about whose network is the most "open," some cool hardware is getting shuffled under the rug. And that's a shame, because the new LG Voyager is probably the best handset that Verizon's ever offered.
If it's not targeted squarely at the iPhone, I don't know what is. At first glance, the two handsets look a lot alike. You'll find a big (2.8 inches diagonally), touch-sensitive LCD front and center, complete with a "touch here" unlocking mechanism, not unlike the iPhone. A single hardware button is used, again, as a "home" function, though you'll find send and end buttons on the Voyager as well. All the rest of the phone functions are accessed via the touchscreen.
But the Voyager has a secret weapon: It flips open, clamshell style, to reveal a spacious (and excellent) QWERTY keyboard and a landscape display, also 2.8 inches diagonally. The interior keyboard isn't touch-sensitive, but it would be difficult to use it with a fingertip anyway, as it's set back and at an angle, not unlike the AT&T Tilt. You can do anything you want on either screen (a fingertip keypad pops up on the exterior display when you need it), and you can swap between them on the fly.
What can you do with the Voyager? What can't you do? It's got a fairly good web browser that's plenty fast; unlike the iPhone, the Voyager has a 3G radio inside, so it's as zippy as it gets on a cell phone. No, you don't always get picture-perfect pages like you do with the iPhone, but the rendering is way better, at least, than Mobile IE. There's room for improvement: Scrolling around a busy screen really bogs down the handset, for example.
There's a 2-megapixel webcam and email, of course, but there's also integrated GPS (subscription fees are extra), complete with voice-assisted instructions. Plus, you get all of Verizon's usual VCast music and TV features. Video quality is impressive... and don't miss the cute, retractable antenna! A microSD card slot lets you add as many tunes as you want. iPhone can't touch Voyager on these features.
For a 3G phone, battery life isn't bad: 4 hours, 40 minutes of talk time in my tests. And call quality is outstanding, as good as any cell phone I've tested.
What's missing? The Voyager lacks the absolute stunning looks of the iPhone, but it's still handsome. Imagine LG's prior clamshell phones like the enV but on a diet. There's oddly no Wi-Fi on the Voyager, either, though the faster cell network at least makes up for some of that.
All this will set you back $300, or $100 less than the iPhone, with the same two-year contract (though you can add data or not, your choice). Whether it's all worth it is up to you, but I'll say that if I was shopping for a new Verizon handset today, this is definitely the one I'd snag. No question.
If it's not targeted squarely at the iPhone, I don't know what is. At first glance, the two handsets look a lot alike. You'll find a big (2.8 inches diagonally), touch-sensitive LCD front and center, complete with a "touch here" unlocking mechanism, not unlike the iPhone. A single hardware button is used, again, as a "home" function, though you'll find send and end buttons on the Voyager as well. All the rest of the phone functions are accessed via the touchscreen.
But the Voyager has a secret weapon: It flips open, clamshell style, to reveal a spacious (and excellent) QWERTY keyboard and a landscape display, also 2.8 inches diagonally. The interior keyboard isn't touch-sensitive, but it would be difficult to use it with a fingertip anyway, as it's set back and at an angle, not unlike the AT&T Tilt. You can do anything you want on either screen (a fingertip keypad pops up on the exterior display when you need it), and you can swap between them on the fly.
What can you do with the Voyager? What can't you do? It's got a fairly good web browser that's plenty fast; unlike the iPhone, the Voyager has a 3G radio inside, so it's as zippy as it gets on a cell phone. No, you don't always get picture-perfect pages like you do with the iPhone, but the rendering is way better, at least, than Mobile IE. There's room for improvement: Scrolling around a busy screen really bogs down the handset, for example.
There's a 2-megapixel webcam and email, of course, but there's also integrated GPS (subscription fees are extra), complete with voice-assisted instructions. Plus, you get all of Verizon's usual VCast music and TV features. Video quality is impressive... and don't miss the cute, retractable antenna! A microSD card slot lets you add as many tunes as you want. iPhone can't touch Voyager on these features.
For a 3G phone, battery life isn't bad: 4 hours, 40 minutes of talk time in my tests. And call quality is outstanding, as good as any cell phone I've tested.
What's missing? The Voyager lacks the absolute stunning looks of the iPhone, but it's still handsome. Imagine LG's prior clamshell phones like the enV but on a diet. There's oddly no Wi-Fi on the Voyager, either, though the faster cell network at least makes up for some of that.
All this will set you back $300, or $100 less than the iPhone, with the same two-year contract (though you can add data or not, your choice). Whether it's all worth it is up to you, but I'll say that if I was shopping for a new Verizon handset today, this is definitely the one I'd snag. No question.
When Good Electronics Go Bad
I don't often get my tech advice from Real Simple magazine, but there are times when its straight-ahead, let's-just-deal-with-this approach to technology makes lots of sense. The September issue had a simple a story about when to pull the plug on your various pieces of aging electronics. Plus, it gave tips about how to extend the life of various gadgets so that they don't die an early death.
Some simple wisdom:
Flat-screen TV: Keeping your fingers off the screen and keeping the unit well ventilated will help prevent damage, but if your flat screen is more than five years old, you're probably better off replacing it than paying the hefty labor and parts charges for repair.
DVD player: Keep the unit cool and try not to jolt things. A DVD cleaning kit can sometimes revive a player that skips. But if you've tried cleaning the player and the disks, but your disks won't play, it's less expensive to buy new than repair. DVD players have gone way down in price. (Even Blu-ray and HD DVD players — the new high-definition contenders — have come down in price significantly in the past few months.)
Cell phones: The best advice is to let your battery drain fully once a week, say the editors. Try keeping your cell phone away from extreme temperatures, too. The most common fix is trying a new battery (which you should purchase from a reputable dealer). If you have an inexpensive phone, just recycle it. (Information for recycling can be found at your carrier's web site.) If it's fallen into the drink, take it apart and dry it out for a day or two. It may come back to life. Finally, get an estimate on repairs, but if the repair cost is more than half the price of the phone, buy new.
Some simple wisdom:
Flat-screen TV: Keeping your fingers off the screen and keeping the unit well ventilated will help prevent damage, but if your flat screen is more than five years old, you're probably better off replacing it than paying the hefty labor and parts charges for repair.
DVD player: Keep the unit cool and try not to jolt things. A DVD cleaning kit can sometimes revive a player that skips. But if you've tried cleaning the player and the disks, but your disks won't play, it's less expensive to buy new than repair. DVD players have gone way down in price. (Even Blu-ray and HD DVD players — the new high-definition contenders — have come down in price significantly in the past few months.)
Cell phones: The best advice is to let your battery drain fully once a week, say the editors. Try keeping your cell phone away from extreme temperatures, too. The most common fix is trying a new battery (which you should purchase from a reputable dealer). If you have an inexpensive phone, just recycle it. (Information for recycling can be found at your carrier's web site.) If it's fallen into the drink, take it apart and dry it out for a day or two. It may come back to life. Finally, get an estimate on repairs, but if the repair cost is more than half the price of the phone, buy new.
Big TV = Big Electric Bill
Are you sizing up your home in the hopes of filling it with a brand-new big HDTV screen this holiday? Not so fast. Following in the tradition of SUVs, the bigger the package, the bigger the guzzler. SUVs guzzle gas; large-screen TVs guzzle electricity.
But it's not just the size of the screen that affects energy usage; it's the technology used inside. One sobering chart comes from CNET.
The chart looks at the energy consumed by 80 different HDTVs. While there are many differences from brand to brand, one size to another, and the technology used, a few trends become really obvious.
Sort the list by the technology being used—LCD, plasma, or rear-screen projection—and you'll see LCD having a distinct advantage in requiring less power, although part of the reason for this is that LCD sets tend to be small to medium sizes, with a few exceptions. But if you sort it by cost per square inch, there's no question that rear projection is the energy-efficient winner.
It's no surprise that when you sort the list by the size of the screen, the bigger screens generally consume more power. But I was surprised to see how efficient rear-screen projections are. If you're energy-conscious but thinking big, you should be thinking rear projection.
Plasma generally consumes twice as much power as rear projection at a given size, and in the larger sizes, that often works out to over $100 per year more to operate a plasma set. (The chart is based on 10.4 cents per kilowatt-hour, which was the national average in 2006, according to the Energy Information Administration. Here in NYC, we pay a lot more than that, so the difference between plasma and the rest is even more per year.)
One of the worst performers was the Panasonic TH-58PZ700U, using 609.53 watts per hour in "on" mode, costing a user almost $200 annually, assuming eight hours of on time per day. Come down a bit in size and the Vizio, a 42-inch plasma, only uses 190 watts per hour.
The most random category in the table was the standby power. Standby ranged from 0.3 watts on the Panasonic TH-58PZ700U to 76 watts for the Sharp LC-65D90U. In between were TVs of all sizes and technology, in no obvious order. Most units were under 5 watts in standby, but there were about a dozen above 5 watts. It's one thing to consume a few hundred watts while you or your family is being entertained. It's quite another when you're sleeping and so is your TV, chewing up 76 watts all night long.
NOVEC, a not-for-profit distributor of energy in Virginia, posts this chart showing the average watts used by screens of the same size, just different technology.
Average Television Power Consumption Rate
* Plasma: 328 watts
* Rear-projection: 208 watts
* LCD: 193 watts
* CRT: 146 watts
Bad enough when your own monthly bill takes a hike, but as more and more people buy larger and larger screens, the impact will be felt. According the National Research Defense Council as told to The Christian Science Monitor, by 2009, when half of all new TV sales are expected to be extended- or high-definition digital sets with big screens, TV energy use will reach about 70 billion kilowatt-hours per year nationwide—about 50 percent higher than at present.
But it's not just the size of the screen that affects energy usage; it's the technology used inside. One sobering chart comes from CNET.
The chart looks at the energy consumed by 80 different HDTVs. While there are many differences from brand to brand, one size to another, and the technology used, a few trends become really obvious.
Sort the list by the technology being used—LCD, plasma, or rear-screen projection—and you'll see LCD having a distinct advantage in requiring less power, although part of the reason for this is that LCD sets tend to be small to medium sizes, with a few exceptions. But if you sort it by cost per square inch, there's no question that rear projection is the energy-efficient winner.
It's no surprise that when you sort the list by the size of the screen, the bigger screens generally consume more power. But I was surprised to see how efficient rear-screen projections are. If you're energy-conscious but thinking big, you should be thinking rear projection.
Plasma generally consumes twice as much power as rear projection at a given size, and in the larger sizes, that often works out to over $100 per year more to operate a plasma set. (The chart is based on 10.4 cents per kilowatt-hour, which was the national average in 2006, according to the Energy Information Administration. Here in NYC, we pay a lot more than that, so the difference between plasma and the rest is even more per year.)
One of the worst performers was the Panasonic TH-58PZ700U, using 609.53 watts per hour in "on" mode, costing a user almost $200 annually, assuming eight hours of on time per day. Come down a bit in size and the Vizio, a 42-inch plasma, only uses 190 watts per hour.
The most random category in the table was the standby power. Standby ranged from 0.3 watts on the Panasonic TH-58PZ700U to 76 watts for the Sharp LC-65D90U. In between were TVs of all sizes and technology, in no obvious order. Most units were under 5 watts in standby, but there were about a dozen above 5 watts. It's one thing to consume a few hundred watts while you or your family is being entertained. It's quite another when you're sleeping and so is your TV, chewing up 76 watts all night long.
NOVEC, a not-for-profit distributor of energy in Virginia, posts this chart showing the average watts used by screens of the same size, just different technology.
Average Television Power Consumption Rate
* Plasma: 328 watts
* Rear-projection: 208 watts
* LCD: 193 watts
* CRT: 146 watts
Bad enough when your own monthly bill takes a hike, but as more and more people buy larger and larger screens, the impact will be felt. According the National Research Defense Council as told to The Christian Science Monitor, by 2009, when half of all new TV sales are expected to be extended- or high-definition digital sets with big screens, TV energy use will reach about 70 billion kilowatt-hours per year nationwide—about 50 percent higher than at present.
Will the Last Gadget Standing Have Wires?
Didn't I tell you that we would need your help? Time for you to voice your opinion on the Last Gadget Standing at the CES event. Ready to begin?
One of the biggest trends we're likely to see at the show is the growing sophistication of the wireless world. Wireless technologies such as Bluetooth and 802.11 spawn new types of gadgets from smart phones to printers and cameras that can bypass the PC.
Here's a look at a few of the wireless products that will take the wireless connection to the next level. Drop me a short answer and let me know which one of these really moves you.
Plantronics' Calisto: Handles VoIP, Landline, and Cellular Calls
The Plantronics Calisto is like buying three phones in one. It combines a wireless Bluetooth headset for VoIP and cellular calls with a DECT 6.0 phone for landline calls ($280).
Eye-Fi: Turn Any Camera Into a Wireless Wonder
This product launched just about a month ago. The Eye-Fi Card is the world's first wireless SD memory card for digital cameras. The Card uses your home Wi-Fi network to create an effortless and convenient way for users to send photographs directly from digital cameras to PCs, Macs, and online photo and social networking sites ($99).
ANYCOM Solar Car-Kit SCK-1: Bluetooth Plus Green Design
ANYCOM's Solar Car-Kit is a Bluetooth car-kit with an added solar panel. Don't chuck your batteries just yet, though. With sufficient sunlight, three hours of charging will provide 30 minutes of talk time, according to the company. Still, it's a start.
IOGEAR's Powerline Audio System lets you listen to music wirelessly throughout your home—even in hard-to-get-to places like outdoors or out in your shed. You'll be able to distribute music from up to three different sources throughout a home by simply plugging the IOGEAR unit into your electric outlet. By using the pre-existing electric lines in your home instead of wireless or radio frequencies, the IOGEAR Powerline Audio System can handle loseless audio without interference from architectural barriers or from other devices. The unit consists of a docking station that allows you to connect iPods, CD players, MP3 players, cell phones, and other audio devices to the dock and transmit sound via the powerlines. Each adapter is plugged directly into a power outlet and then to a pair of external speakers (purchased separately: $329.95).
One of the biggest trends we're likely to see at the show is the growing sophistication of the wireless world. Wireless technologies such as Bluetooth and 802.11 spawn new types of gadgets from smart phones to printers and cameras that can bypass the PC.
Here's a look at a few of the wireless products that will take the wireless connection to the next level. Drop me a short answer and let me know which one of these really moves you.
Plantronics' Calisto: Handles VoIP, Landline, and Cellular Calls
The Plantronics Calisto is like buying three phones in one. It combines a wireless Bluetooth headset for VoIP and cellular calls with a DECT 6.0 phone for landline calls ($280).
Eye-Fi: Turn Any Camera Into a Wireless Wonder
This product launched just about a month ago. The Eye-Fi Card is the world's first wireless SD memory card for digital cameras. The Card uses your home Wi-Fi network to create an effortless and convenient way for users to send photographs directly from digital cameras to PCs, Macs, and online photo and social networking sites ($99).
ANYCOM Solar Car-Kit SCK-1: Bluetooth Plus Green Design
ANYCOM's Solar Car-Kit is a Bluetooth car-kit with an added solar panel. Don't chuck your batteries just yet, though. With sufficient sunlight, three hours of charging will provide 30 minutes of talk time, according to the company. Still, it's a start.
IOGEAR's Powerline Audio System lets you listen to music wirelessly throughout your home—even in hard-to-get-to places like outdoors or out in your shed. You'll be able to distribute music from up to three different sources throughout a home by simply plugging the IOGEAR unit into your electric outlet. By using the pre-existing electric lines in your home instead of wireless or radio frequencies, the IOGEAR Powerline Audio System can handle loseless audio without interference from architectural barriers or from other devices. The unit consists of a docking station that allows you to connect iPods, CD players, MP3 players, cell phones, and other audio devices to the dock and transmit sound via the powerlines. Each adapter is plugged directly into a power outlet and then to a pair of external speakers (purchased separately: $329.95).
Friday, October 12, 2007
Why Google GPhone Won't Kill Apple iPhone
*
Why Google GPhone Won't Kill Apple iPhone
John Cox, Network World
Google is putting the final touches on a mobile-phone project, but unlike Apple's iPhone the so-called GPhone is all about software for mobile carriers and mobile advertisers.
Google's goal is to extend its dominance in online advertising to the emerging mobile advertising market, which is small today but expected to grow dramatically in the years ahead, according to a news report in the International Herald Tribune.
The report says Google is expected to unveil details later this year, and handsets with the software could appear in 2008. But about 30 prototype phones are reported to be 'in the wild' as Network World Microsoft Subnet blogger Alex Lewis discovered firsthand last week.
Apple's iPhone revolutionized user expectations about how mobile handsets should look, feel and behave. (You can find our extensive iPhone coverage by starting on our search page). The iPhone's success has sent manufacturers scrambling to not merely match but surpass its features.
But Google's GPhone is an open source phone operating system. There has been a growing interest and sophistication in Linux-based software and development tools for mobile devices.
The Herald Tribune article, citing both unnamed "industry source familiar with the project" and industry executives, outlines two possible directions for Google's ambition. One is to develop and deploy a vastly cheaper alternative to Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system. The second is to loosen the grip that carriers have on the software, devices and services that can run on their closed cellular nets.
As the report makes clear, either direction -- or even both together -- create powerful rivals for the online search-engine giant.
AT&T have spent billions of dollars upgrading their networks, establishing relationships with customers, subsidizing phones and creating their own mobile Internet portals," the Herald Tribune reports. "Now they want to make sure those investments pay off, in part, through mobile advertising, and they see Google and other search engines as competitors."
Instead, those carriers are turning to new companies, such as JumpTap and Medio Systems, whose products can be relabeled as the carrier's own brand.
The GPhone project has ignited intense speculation on the Web. A search on Google's own Web site turns up over 2.7 million references to "GPhone." One of them is a Wikipedia entry, which sifts an array of news accounts for details and clues.
Google seems to be banking on the growing popularity and appeal of a Linux-based mobile platform. The Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum released its first specification last June. More sophisticated, full-blown mobile Linux operating systems are emerging from new companies, such as a la Mobile. Big handset makers, such as Motorola, are betting heavily on Linux for the future.
But the mobile Linux market remains fragmented, and that may give Google the opening it needs to leverage its name-recognition and search-engine expertise in a new, still-forming market.
Why Google GPhone Won't Kill Apple iPhone
John Cox, Network World
Google is putting the final touches on a mobile-phone project, but unlike Apple's iPhone the so-called GPhone is all about software for mobile carriers and mobile advertisers.
Google's goal is to extend its dominance in online advertising to the emerging mobile advertising market, which is small today but expected to grow dramatically in the years ahead, according to a news report in the International Herald Tribune.
The report says Google is expected to unveil details later this year, and handsets with the software could appear in 2008. But about 30 prototype phones are reported to be 'in the wild' as Network World Microsoft Subnet blogger Alex Lewis discovered firsthand last week.
Apple's iPhone revolutionized user expectations about how mobile handsets should look, feel and behave. (You can find our extensive iPhone coverage by starting on our search page). The iPhone's success has sent manufacturers scrambling to not merely match but surpass its features.
But Google's GPhone is an open source phone operating system. There has been a growing interest and sophistication in Linux-based software and development tools for mobile devices.
The Herald Tribune article, citing both unnamed "industry source familiar with the project" and industry executives, outlines two possible directions for Google's ambition. One is to develop and deploy a vastly cheaper alternative to Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system. The second is to loosen the grip that carriers have on the software, devices and services that can run on their closed cellular nets.
As the report makes clear, either direction -- or even both together -- create powerful rivals for the online search-engine giant.
AT&T have spent billions of dollars upgrading their networks, establishing relationships with customers, subsidizing phones and creating their own mobile Internet portals," the Herald Tribune reports. "Now they want to make sure those investments pay off, in part, through mobile advertising, and they see Google and other search engines as competitors."
Instead, those carriers are turning to new companies, such as JumpTap and Medio Systems, whose products can be relabeled as the carrier's own brand.
The GPhone project has ignited intense speculation on the Web. A search on Google's own Web site turns up over 2.7 million references to "GPhone." One of them is a Wikipedia entry, which sifts an array of news accounts for details and clues.
Google seems to be banking on the growing popularity and appeal of a Linux-based mobile platform. The Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum released its first specification last June. More sophisticated, full-blown mobile Linux operating systems are emerging from new companies, such as a la Mobile. Big handset makers, such as Motorola, are betting heavily on Linux for the future.
But the mobile Linux market remains fragmented, and that may give Google the opening it needs to leverage its name-recognition and search-engine expertise in a new, still-forming market.
Hacker's Claim to Revive "Bricked" iPhones
Hackers Claim to Revive 'Bricked' iPhones
It's unclear, however, how permanent any "unbrick" fix will be, or whether changes to the hacks that allow modifications will survive the next Apple iPhone update.
Gregg Keizer, Computerworld
Hackers have come up with at least one way to "unbrick" iPhones disabled by a firmware update Apple Inc. issued two weeks ago, developers of both paid and free unlock software said Thursday.
The iPhoneSIMFree, a commercial venture that was the first to publish a point-and-click unlock hack last month, has announced Version 1.6 of its software, and claimed that it could bring any bricked iPhone back to life. The iPhoneSIMFree hack is sold through a network of online resellers for between US$60 and $99. "SimFree v1.6 release is now capable of completely restoring/repairing software unlocked 'bricked' iPhone[s]," promised the site run by an unknown number of unnamed hackers.
However, another unlock hacking group, the iPhone Dev Team, urged owners of bricked iPhones to sit tight. "Free unlock of 1.1.1 is coming soon," said someone identified as netkas on the Hackint0sh message forum this morning. Hackint0sh is where the Dev Team posts official and unofficial updates to users of its free open-source unlock hack. "Don't know right now about bricked iPhones, but I guess we can reflash them now and back to working state. So, wait a bit and don't use ipsf [iPhoneSIMFree]," netkas added.
The iPhone Dev Team and iPhoneSIMFree have been working feverishly since Sept. 27, when Apple released the 1.1.1 firmware update, to restore bricked iPhones to working condition. Dev Team has also been trying to recover the ability to modify the device with third-party applications.
It's unclear, however, how permanent any "unbrick" fix will be, or whether changes to the hacks that allow modifications will survive the next iPhone update from Apple.
It's unclear, however, how permanent any "unbrick" fix will be, or whether changes to the hacks that allow modifications will survive the next Apple iPhone update.
Gregg Keizer, Computerworld
Hackers have come up with at least one way to "unbrick" iPhones disabled by a firmware update Apple Inc. issued two weeks ago, developers of both paid and free unlock software said Thursday.
The iPhoneSIMFree, a commercial venture that was the first to publish a point-and-click unlock hack last month, has announced Version 1.6 of its software, and claimed that it could bring any bricked iPhone back to life. The iPhoneSIMFree hack is sold through a network of online resellers for between US$60 and $99. "SimFree v1.6 release is now capable of completely restoring/repairing software unlocked 'bricked' iPhone[s]," promised the site run by an unknown number of unnamed hackers.
However, another unlock hacking group, the iPhone Dev Team, urged owners of bricked iPhones to sit tight. "Free unlock of 1.1.1 is coming soon," said someone identified as netkas on the Hackint0sh message forum this morning. Hackint0sh is where the Dev Team posts official and unofficial updates to users of its free open-source unlock hack. "Don't know right now about bricked iPhones, but I guess we can reflash them now and back to working state. So, wait a bit and don't use ipsf [iPhoneSIMFree]," netkas added.
The iPhone Dev Team and iPhoneSIMFree have been working feverishly since Sept. 27, when Apple released the 1.1.1 firmware update, to restore bricked iPhones to working condition. Dev Team has also been trying to recover the ability to modify the device with third-party applications.
It's unclear, however, how permanent any "unbrick" fix will be, or whether changes to the hacks that allow modifications will survive the next iPhone update from Apple.
DLP Color Processing
Texas Instruments Boosts DLP Color Processing
New mainstream DLP chip sets will incorporate BrilliantColor technology formerly reserved for high-end projectors and DLP TVs.
Melissa J. Perenson, PC World
Anaheim, CA -- Texas Instruments' BrilliantColor technology, a formerly high-end color processing technology for DLP-based projectors and displays, will be available in mainstream projectors by the end of the year, the company announced Tuesday at the InfoComm conference and trade show here. (DLP stands for Digital Light Processing, also invented by the company.) Six projector models with BrilliantColor were announced at the show--including units from Mitsubishi and Optoma--with more than 70 projectors expected to ship with the technology by December 2007.
According to Texas Instruments, its new BrilliantColor-equipped DDP2230 chip set can produce a wider color palette by blending up to six different colors instead of three. The chip set uses a six-segment color wheel to reproduce images, with cyan, magenta, and yellow segments in addition to the standard red, green, and blue.
Texas Instruments first introduced BrilliantColor two years ago; the color processing technology later debuted in DLP televisions and in expensive home theater projectors. Now the algorithms are being incorporated across chip sets aimed at mainstream use.
"We're constantly improving our capability to produce the chips," says Peter F. van Kessel, Texas Instruments' general manager for DLP products. "We're taking advantage of the latest chip-making technologies to take the complex BrilliantColor algorithms and cram them into a very cost-effective chip. This allows us to increase capability without increasing cost. And it allows BrilliantColor to be used in value projection products. It's going to show up everywhere, from the value $699 projector all the way up to the most capable high-performance, high-brightness single-chip models."
In addition to improving the color processing algorithms behind BrilliantColor, Texas Instruments has improved color quality in other ways as well. "We've worked with the lamp manufacturers to develop variable illumination. This lamp pulsing technology allows us to apply boost to the lamp power, and in particular, boost colors. For example, we can boost the yellows or reds, to make those colors more vivid," explains van Kessel. "The six colors allow you to make much more effective use of lamp spectrum, and the lamp pulsing technique allows us to recover some of the brightness we normally would give up. We can get a brighter color and achieve a better color performance without sacrificing the brightness."
A version of the new chip will be able to produce native WXGA, 1280-by-800-pixel-resolution images. Wide-screen imaging technology is slowly starting to trickle down into data projectors, a category that's been slow to follow notebook manufacturers' lead in the progression to wide screens.
Format War Redux
The market for front projector technologies is about evenly split between Texas Instruments' DLP approach and the rival 3LCD technology. The improved BrilliantColor technology could give DLP projectors an edge over similarly configured 3LCD models. Texas Instruments and 3LCD are continually trying to one-up each other in an effort to gain market dominance; among their proponents, discussions of the two technologies often verge on the religious.
If you want to buy a projector with BrilliantColor, do your research: Not all DLP projectors will integrate the new Texas Instruments chip set just yet. Ultimately, says van Kessel, "Our goal is to have BrilliantColor capability for all of our chip sets. That's not the situation today. But within the next year, that's something that should be reachable."
New mainstream DLP chip sets will incorporate BrilliantColor technology formerly reserved for high-end projectors and DLP TVs.
Melissa J. Perenson, PC World
Anaheim, CA -- Texas Instruments' BrilliantColor technology, a formerly high-end color processing technology for DLP-based projectors and displays, will be available in mainstream projectors by the end of the year, the company announced Tuesday at the InfoComm conference and trade show here. (DLP stands for Digital Light Processing, also invented by the company.) Six projector models with BrilliantColor were announced at the show--including units from Mitsubishi and Optoma--with more than 70 projectors expected to ship with the technology by December 2007.
According to Texas Instruments, its new BrilliantColor-equipped DDP2230 chip set can produce a wider color palette by blending up to six different colors instead of three. The chip set uses a six-segment color wheel to reproduce images, with cyan, magenta, and yellow segments in addition to the standard red, green, and blue.
Texas Instruments first introduced BrilliantColor two years ago; the color processing technology later debuted in DLP televisions and in expensive home theater projectors. Now the algorithms are being incorporated across chip sets aimed at mainstream use.
"We're constantly improving our capability to produce the chips," says Peter F. van Kessel, Texas Instruments' general manager for DLP products. "We're taking advantage of the latest chip-making technologies to take the complex BrilliantColor algorithms and cram them into a very cost-effective chip. This allows us to increase capability without increasing cost. And it allows BrilliantColor to be used in value projection products. It's going to show up everywhere, from the value $699 projector all the way up to the most capable high-performance, high-brightness single-chip models."
In addition to improving the color processing algorithms behind BrilliantColor, Texas Instruments has improved color quality in other ways as well. "We've worked with the lamp manufacturers to develop variable illumination. This lamp pulsing technology allows us to apply boost to the lamp power, and in particular, boost colors. For example, we can boost the yellows or reds, to make those colors more vivid," explains van Kessel. "The six colors allow you to make much more effective use of lamp spectrum, and the lamp pulsing technique allows us to recover some of the brightness we normally would give up. We can get a brighter color and achieve a better color performance without sacrificing the brightness."
A version of the new chip will be able to produce native WXGA, 1280-by-800-pixel-resolution images. Wide-screen imaging technology is slowly starting to trickle down into data projectors, a category that's been slow to follow notebook manufacturers' lead in the progression to wide screens.
Format War Redux
The market for front projector technologies is about evenly split between Texas Instruments' DLP approach and the rival 3LCD technology. The improved BrilliantColor technology could give DLP projectors an edge over similarly configured 3LCD models. Texas Instruments and 3LCD are continually trying to one-up each other in an effort to gain market dominance; among their proponents, discussions of the two technologies often verge on the religious.
If you want to buy a projector with BrilliantColor, do your research: Not all DLP projectors will integrate the new Texas Instruments chip set just yet. Ultimately, says van Kessel, "Our goal is to have BrilliantColor capability for all of our chip sets. That's not the situation today. But within the next year, that's something that should be reachable."
Palm Centro
First Look: Palm Centro
Palm's Centro is a big step forward in a small package.
Yardena Arar, PC World
If, like me, you own an aging and increasingly bulky-looking Palm Treo but are reluctant to abandon the Palm OS, the Centro may be the interim smart phone you've been waiting for.
I say "interim" because the shipping unit I received today still lacks features that are routinely available on competing Windows Mobile and BlackBerry devices--most notably Wi-Fi and GPS support. But to get a Palm-like package equipped with those amenities, we'll probably have to wait for the Linux-based successor to the Palm OS, which isn't expected to appear before 2008.
And given what the Centro does deliver--Palm OS in its most contemporary and petite package yet, plus good mobile broadband support via Sprint's EvDO network--it's very attractively priced, at least for new users who sign up for a two-year Sprint contract and an all-you-can-eat data plan. The rebates associated with those contracts bring the device's nominal $400 price down to a palatable $100.
Slimmed-Down Hardware
The Centro is significantly tinier (4.2 by 2.1 by 0.7 inches) and lighter (4.2 ounces) than its Treo kinfolk, and its smooth plastic case feels comfortable in the hand.
But it's definitely made of cheaper stuff than the Treo. I found the removable battery cover a bit fragile and somewhat difficult to remove and replace. As I struggled to snap it into place, I worried that the cover might break. Similarly, the skinny black plastic stylus feels as though it might snap in two if you looked at it cross-eyed.
I was confused by the small plastic door on the side labeled 'Micro SD': You can pull out the door with a fingernail, but the only way to insert the card is after you've first opened the battery cover. It would have made more sense if Palm had designed the door not to open at all unless the user removes the battery cover. As matters stand, the door is one more thing that might break if handled roughly.
Because the device is so small, its keyboard keys are proportionately diminutive, and I feared that typing would be an unpleasant experience. But Palm has done a good job here. The keys are coated in a squishy plastic that keeps your fingertips from slipping, and the keyboard's smaller size didn't slow me down much.
The transflective 2.4-inch 320-by-320 color touch screen looks good, though it's smallish. The navigation controls--an oval pad; buttons for the phone interface, the main Palm OS menu, the calendar, and e-mail; a red on/off button; and a green Send button--were responsive and easy to use.
A Decent Phone, Too
To test the Centro's performance as a cell phone, I made several phone calls--with excellent results. The people at the other end sounded as good as on a landline, and they reported that I sounded great, too.
The phone supports Bluetooth, but I didn't have a chance to try it out with a Bluetooth headset (none was included in the package we received for testing).
Web browsing with the Blazer browser over Sprint's EvDO network was a sheer delight, especially since I'm used to the rather pokey speeds of AT&T Wireless's EDGE network on the Treo. Pages seemed to leap onto the screen, especially from sites that have been optimized for mobile browsers. Even nonoptimized sites appeared quickly.
E-mail setup went smoothly, but to use the Centro with my Windows Vista PC, I had to install new Palm desktop software that doesn't support e-mail sync over the USB sync cable.
One plus is that the Centro supports concurrent instant messaging sessions with the three supported IM services (AOL, MSN and Yahoo--a welcome development for anyone who has friends on more than one of these services.
Palm's Centro is a big step forward in a small package.
Yardena Arar, PC World
If, like me, you own an aging and increasingly bulky-looking Palm Treo but are reluctant to abandon the Palm OS, the Centro may be the interim smart phone you've been waiting for.
I say "interim" because the shipping unit I received today still lacks features that are routinely available on competing Windows Mobile and BlackBerry devices--most notably Wi-Fi and GPS support. But to get a Palm-like package equipped with those amenities, we'll probably have to wait for the Linux-based successor to the Palm OS, which isn't expected to appear before 2008.
And given what the Centro does deliver--Palm OS in its most contemporary and petite package yet, plus good mobile broadband support via Sprint's EvDO network--it's very attractively priced, at least for new users who sign up for a two-year Sprint contract and an all-you-can-eat data plan. The rebates associated with those contracts bring the device's nominal $400 price down to a palatable $100.
Slimmed-Down Hardware
The Centro is significantly tinier (4.2 by 2.1 by 0.7 inches) and lighter (4.2 ounces) than its Treo kinfolk, and its smooth plastic case feels comfortable in the hand.
But it's definitely made of cheaper stuff than the Treo. I found the removable battery cover a bit fragile and somewhat difficult to remove and replace. As I struggled to snap it into place, I worried that the cover might break. Similarly, the skinny black plastic stylus feels as though it might snap in two if you looked at it cross-eyed.
I was confused by the small plastic door on the side labeled 'Micro SD': You can pull out the door with a fingernail, but the only way to insert the card is after you've first opened the battery cover. It would have made more sense if Palm had designed the door not to open at all unless the user removes the battery cover. As matters stand, the door is one more thing that might break if handled roughly.
Because the device is so small, its keyboard keys are proportionately diminutive, and I feared that typing would be an unpleasant experience. But Palm has done a good job here. The keys are coated in a squishy plastic that keeps your fingertips from slipping, and the keyboard's smaller size didn't slow me down much.
The transflective 2.4-inch 320-by-320 color touch screen looks good, though it's smallish. The navigation controls--an oval pad; buttons for the phone interface, the main Palm OS menu, the calendar, and e-mail; a red on/off button; and a green Send button--were responsive and easy to use.
A Decent Phone, Too
To test the Centro's performance as a cell phone, I made several phone calls--with excellent results. The people at the other end sounded as good as on a landline, and they reported that I sounded great, too.
The phone supports Bluetooth, but I didn't have a chance to try it out with a Bluetooth headset (none was included in the package we received for testing).
Web browsing with the Blazer browser over Sprint's EvDO network was a sheer delight, especially since I'm used to the rather pokey speeds of AT&T Wireless's EDGE network on the Treo. Pages seemed to leap onto the screen, especially from sites that have been optimized for mobile browsers. Even nonoptimized sites appeared quickly.
E-mail setup went smoothly, but to use the Centro with my Windows Vista PC, I had to install new Palm desktop software that doesn't support e-mail sync over the USB sync cable.
One plus is that the Centro supports concurrent instant messaging sessions with the three supported IM services (AOL, MSN and Yahoo--a welcome development for anyone who has friends on more than one of these services.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Apple Macbook
Apple MacBook Pro Review
reviewed by crazyguy....................
The MacBook Pro is Apple's latest notebook and their first with Intel's new attempt at notebook dominance, the Core Duo. It represents the near peak of current notebook technology in terms of power, making only a few compromises for the sake of a slim profile and a better battery life. I am a college student who has been lusting over notebooks for the past two years, but with so many choices and every promising notebook seemingly always lacking in an essential area I was paralyzed by indecision (and a lack of funds). I will be attending Law School next fall and the time has finally come when owning a notebook is no longer an option. Luckily, notebook technology is better than ever, and I finally had some notebooks to choose from that represent nearly everything I have wanted since I first got the idea in my head that I needed one. I have simple needs: gaming capable graphics card, near desktop power, low weight, bright screen, decent battery life, and sweet looks (you know, the basics).
Once I saw the Core Duo I knew the day had arrived and that any laptop I bought was going to have it. I have to have a laptop before August so that took out waiting for the 64bit Core Duo sequel that is coming out sometime later this year or early next year (Merom).
The notebooks I considered getting were the W3J, the Acer 8204, and the new MacBook Pro from Apple, all top of the line machines which had the Radeon X1600 and the new Core Duo. The Apple wasn't really an option because the Law School I am attending requires a Windows machine. The Acer just had too many complaints of a poor screen and other problems, although I know people who are enjoying the machine just fine. I actually ordered the W3J last week but was dismayed to discover that my preorder wasn't made quite soon enough and I was going to have to wait even longer if I wanted that option. My preorder was cancelled about 4 days after the announcement of Boot Camp, which was not just a hack, but the promise of an (in the future) officially supported dual boot program. I'm no fool, and I wasn't going to spit the notebook gods in the face. I had been given a sign, and 24 hours later I picked up my (educationally discounted at $2,299) brand new MacBook Pro. This is my first Apple ever, but with the safety net of Boot Camp, I figured the time to dive in was now.
Specifications of the MacBook Pro reviewed
* 2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo
* 667MHz frontside bus and main memory
* PCI Express architecture
* 100GB 5400 Serial ATA hard drive
* ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with 256MB memory on 16-lane PCI Express
* ExpressCard/34 slot
* Dual-link DVI, VGA adapter included
* One FireWire 400 port, two USB 2.0 ports
* Optical digital and analogue audio I/O, built-in microphone and stereo speakers
* Slot-loading SuperDrive
* Illuminated keyboard, scrolling TrackPad
* Built-in AirPort Extreme (802.11g), Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, and Gigabit Ethernet
* Mac OS X Tiger with iLife '06, featuring iWeb
Design and Build
The design and build of the MacBook Pro is top notch. For someone who has used and handled (although admittedly never owned) several Dells, HPs, and Compaqs (dang their University contracts) the step up in quality was very much appreciated.
Several compromises were made to slim the MacBook Pro into a 1" package. The first was to ditch the dual layer 8x dvd burner in favor of a (3mm slimmer) 4x single layer burner. A bummer, but I do must of my burning on my PC, and I haven't burned a DL disc in my life.
The thin but strong aluminum chassis inspires confidence and there are extra features for the paranoid like the motion sensor, which is used to lock up the hard drive in the event of any sudden movement detected. Someone even made a program called iAlert, which you can use to protect your computer from theft. When alarmed (with the included remote used for Front Row), the laptop will start screeching and flash the screen if someone were to pick it up. It is quite funny and yet, amazingly useful for someone like me who might be tempted to leave my notebook at a table in the school library to take a quick leak. As for the screen, it has very minimal flex when torque is applied to it. Overall, you get the feeling that this laptop is the refinement of previous versions in many ways (much like the current iPod compared to the then amazing 1st Gen iPod).
Benchmarks (All run in Windows XP using Boot Camp Beta with default drivers provided by Apple)
The effort put in by the MacBook Pro shows that that it is not as fast as one might expect from a 2.0GHz Core Duo, but it is amazing that you can even run it under Windows without a hiccup. Given that the CPU is identical to the one found in the Dell Inspiron, which posts a score 8 seconds lower, it is clear that Apple has some room to optimize. The score obviously smokes the Pentium M.
Notebook Time to Calculate Pi to 2 Million Digits:
Notebook Time to Calculate Pi to 2 Million Digits
Apple MacBook Pro (2.0GHz Core Duo) 1m 24s
Samsung X60 (1.66GHz Core Duo) 1m 29s
Dell Inspiron e1505 (2.0GHz Core Duo) 1m 16s
HP dv8000z (1.8 GHz Turion-64 ML-32) 2m 12s
Dell Inspiron 6000D (1.6 GHz Alviso Pentium M) 1m 52s
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo) 1m 18s
Sony VAIO S360 (1.7 GHz Dothan Pentium M) 1m 57s
Dell Inspiron 600m (1.6 GHz Pentium M) 2m 10s
Sony VAIO S380 (1.83 GHz Alviso Pentium M) 1m 42s
I ran both '05 and '06 versions of 3DMark. Below are the results I got and how they compare to other notebookst:
3DMark05 Results:
Notebook 3DMark 05 Results
Apple MacBook Pro (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 128MB 2866 3D Marks
Lenovo ThinkPad Z60m (2.0GHz Pentium M, ATI X600 128MB) 1659 3DMarks
ThinkPad T43 (1.86GHz, ATI X300 64MB graphics) 727 3DMarks
Asus V6Va (2.13 GHz Pentium M, ATI Radeon Mobility x700 128 MB) 2530 3D Marks
Fujitsu n6410 (1.66 GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB) 2,273 3DMarks
HP dv4000 (1.86GHz Pentium M, ATI X700 128MB) 2536 3D Marks
Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 256MB) 4157 3DMarks
3DMark06 Results:
Notebook 3DMark 06 Results
Apple MacBook Pro (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 128MB 1,528 3D Marks
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400) 794 3DMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60 Nvidia GeForce Go7800GTX) 4,085 3DMarks
Asus A6J (1.83GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 128MB) 1,819 3D Marks
Sadly, I found out about the underclocked X1600 after I bought the MacBook. A similarly specced Acer 8204 gets about 3,900 (of course people can coax even more out of them) in 3DMark05. The MacBook's X1600 is clocked at 310/300 core/memory, which is about 30% less than the 425/425 that other X1600s are set at. I had no problems upping the core past 400, but anything over 315 on the memory caused an instant lockup of windows. I know others have had better luck with upping memory, but the core is more important in this situation anyway. With 400/310 I got a score of 3313 in 3DMark05. The laptop seemed stable at this setting. I didn't bother trying to go any higher than this.
Some Thoughts About Performance
My main reason for gaming on a laptop was a little piece of crack I like to call World of Warcraft. I was a little saddened by the reduced clock of the X1600, but this baby plays WoW like a fiddle. With plenty of system and video memory, even torturous Ironforge (or Orgrimmar) visits are doable with everything turned up to maximum. Gameplay is about the same as the X800 PRO on my desktop and so it wasn't hard to make the switch. I haven't yet purchased Oblivion, so I can't tell you how that runs, but Half-Life 2 plays smoothly.
Having never been an Apple user, I can't tell you if it is that much faster than a PowerPC Apple. From what I can tell, everything seems lightening fast. I was a little worried when it took ten seconds to launch Firefox for the first time, but the very next day they released a patch that sped that up to about two seconds. Navigating the web on a fast connection is quick and snappy. I'm writing this review on the 30 day Microsoft Word:Mac trial that comes preinstalled and so far things are smooth with that as well. Extracting a 700MB divx file seemed quicker than on my AMD 3000XP+ desktop. All in all I am pleased with the performance of the MacBook and I feel like it is plenty adequate for my power hungry needs.
Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard is very nice with great travel for the keys and very useful function keys along the top for changing the volume and brightness. It also includes keys for Apple's famous backlit keyboard, which is set by default to use the ambient light sensor to come on when it gets dark. The trackpad is enormous and nice, although as a windows user I lament the loss of a right click (ctrl-click is slowly becoming habit). One cool feature is the two-finger scroll. As soon as you put too fingers on the trackpad any movement you do will scroll up and down or side to side. It is actually very natural and way better than using that little strip on the side of your trackpad like other laptops have. I also miss dedicated home and end keys, which are integrated into the four-way directional keys in the lower right. Considering that smaller notebooks have managed that (like the W3J), I'm a little disappointed. I'll get used to it I imagine.
Ports
I don't know why S-Video had to go, but Apple is more than willing to sell you a DVI to S-Video cable if you want one.
Left side view of ports: Power cable, USB, Audio in, and Audio Out (both optical), and a ExpressCard Slot
Right side: DVI, Ethernet, 400 FireWire, and USB
Back view: One massive vent runs along the back
Front view: The power button and the 4X DVD-R slot load adorn the front
The battery has a cool feature that lets you check your battery life without turning the MacBook on.
Screen
The Apple engineers made a tough choice to shave 60 precious vertical pixels off an already widescreen aspect in order to integrate the high quality iSight cam. It still isn't as wide as the 16:9 movies I like to watch so it doesn't bother me at all that this was done. I'm one of those crazies who actually uses the web cam so I consider it a fair trade. The resolution is way better than the one found on the W3J, which was one of the things that bummed me about that notebook (1440x900 vs 1280x768)
The horizontal viewing angle on this thing is insane. It's practically 180 degrees, although it is kind of hard to see anything on the screen at that point. The vertical angle is not quite as good. It has about a 15 degree sweet spot with the picture losing brightness and inverting white and black too far beyond that.
I took a look at this screen in my school's computer store before I bought this notebook and it is definitely one of the things I really liked about this laptop. With claims of being 67% brighter than the already bright PowerBook it replaces, this screen is a testament that you don't have to go and fight glossy to get colors that sing and contrast that pops. As far as I am concerned this is the best notebook screen I have ever seen. There is absolutely no ghosting in any game I have tried and HD encoded trailers from Apple's own website look amazing. Solid colors on the screen do have a kind of textured look that some people have commented on, but I actually kind of like it. It is not very noticeable and it kind of gives everything an "organic" look. Try before you buy, but I give it a 9.5 out of 10 (gotta leave room for improvement).
It's pencil art me! (Taken with one of iSight's art effects) (view larger image)
Battery Life
Battery life is good but not great. I get about 3 hours and 15 min with half brightness (more than adequate) when I am using my laptop to type stuff up and browse the web. I haven't tried to play WoW on the battery, but I never plan to so I am pretty pleased with it. It is pretty good juice for such a slim notebook.
Wireless
Wireless works great and has decent range as far as I know. My apartment is pretty small so the "Airport Extreme" has no problems dropping out of strong signal strength. It does seem to have better pickup than my wife's IBM T40. I do appreciate that in OS X it automatically connects to the strongest available wireless network.
Sound
The speakers dominate the left and right side of the keyboard. Bass is obviously not great, but it is pretty decent sound for a laptop if you ask me. The placement of the speakers helps to project the audio so you don't have to worry about your belly blocking the sound (like front mounted speakers found on the HP line). Volume is fine for the movies (divx) I've seen and the audio output with headphones is great.
Heat and Noise
The notebook is surprisingly cool when it runs off the battery. Everything throttles down to extend battery life and things are only slightly warm. When the notebook is plugged in and everything throttles up this sucker gets very hot. The aluminum chassis acts like a big heatsink soaking up the heat and radiating it out. The strip along the back on the bottom gets especially hot. On top, the back of the left speaker grill gets very hot as well, which is understandable as this is right where the X1600 sits. It is no wonder they clocked the graphics back. Oddly enough, it doesn't seem to get any hotter when I have an intense gaming session going. I'm not sure if that is because it is not throttling back at all when no gaming is going on or what, but I am going to investigate this some more. This is the price you have to pay for putting top of the line components inside a 5.5 pound, 1" thick case. In any case (haha), I wouldn't put the MacBook on your laptop when it is plugged in unless you are wearing jeans, or are not planning on having any children in the future.
Noise is another story altogether. Perhaps related to the heat issue, this thing is completely silent. In a totally silent room, with my ear hovering above the keyboard, I can hear the faint sound of what I assume is the X1600 fan going. Any more sound in the room, like my own breathing, and I cannot hear anything. The DVD drive likes to makes some noise, especially when you install something, but it is not too bad.
Boot Camp
Boot Camp -- what will it be, OS X or Windows?
We've already seen what this puppy can do with some Windows based gaming and benchmarks, but I feel I should tell you some other stuff about it as well. A smooth dual boot experience is an absolute must for me, as I have to have a Windows machine for Law School. I am pleased to report that for all intents and purposes, it works great. There are some niggles in Windows XP that I'm sure will be worked out with subsequent releases. These include:
* No function keys...the "F" keys work the way they do in windows which means they don't change the volume, the screen brightness, etc...
* The audio isn't muted when you plug the headphones in...
* The iSight camera does not work
As you can see, these are hardware related and will just require some better drivers from Apple to fix. The "Windows" key is mapped to the "Apple" key and the eject button on the laptop still works.
Other than these little things, I had absolutely no problems running any Windows software that I tried. Things will only get smoother from here.
Random Thoughts and Conclusion
This laptop is extremely cool. For someone like me that means warm fuzzies and no buyers remorse. It is kind of crazy that last week I was a lifelong user and builder of PC computers and now I own my first notebook and also my first Mac. So far, I have no regrets. I will always own a PC, but OS X has impressed me a lot. My first pang of "uh oh" hit when I ran 3DMark05, but I still feel like the computer has enough juice to play games for the next couple of years. More importantly, it's smaller and quieter than the other options I looked at which I feel more than makes up for it. Perhaps this notebook is more expensive than other options out there, but none of them are quite this small, quite this cool, and still pack quite this much punch. In my opinion, the Acer 8204 is the only thing that comes close (right now anyway) and it is priced very similarly. Considering how much the first Apple Titanium's cost, this thing is practically a basement bargain. I'm always sad to see money go, but in this case, I wouldn't ask for it back. In the end, isn't that all that matters?
Pros:
* Very well built
* Great overall performance
* Smaller dimensions and weighs less than other laptops in its class (1lb less than the Acer 8204 for example)
* Can run Windows XP or OS X (and potentially Linux)
* Very quiet
* Amazingly bright non-glare type screen
* High quality web cam
* Decent battery life
* Plays WoW like a champ
* Comes with a remote for media and powerpoint
Cons:
* Somewhat hot when plugged in
* Boot Camp not quite ready for the masses
* Underclocked GPU
reviewed by crazyguy....................
The MacBook Pro is Apple's latest notebook and their first with Intel's new attempt at notebook dominance, the Core Duo. It represents the near peak of current notebook technology in terms of power, making only a few compromises for the sake of a slim profile and a better battery life. I am a college student who has been lusting over notebooks for the past two years, but with so many choices and every promising notebook seemingly always lacking in an essential area I was paralyzed by indecision (and a lack of funds). I will be attending Law School next fall and the time has finally come when owning a notebook is no longer an option. Luckily, notebook technology is better than ever, and I finally had some notebooks to choose from that represent nearly everything I have wanted since I first got the idea in my head that I needed one. I have simple needs: gaming capable graphics card, near desktop power, low weight, bright screen, decent battery life, and sweet looks (you know, the basics).
Once I saw the Core Duo I knew the day had arrived and that any laptop I bought was going to have it. I have to have a laptop before August so that took out waiting for the 64bit Core Duo sequel that is coming out sometime later this year or early next year (Merom).
The notebooks I considered getting were the W3J, the Acer 8204, and the new MacBook Pro from Apple, all top of the line machines which had the Radeon X1600 and the new Core Duo. The Apple wasn't really an option because the Law School I am attending requires a Windows machine. The Acer just had too many complaints of a poor screen and other problems, although I know people who are enjoying the machine just fine. I actually ordered the W3J last week but was dismayed to discover that my preorder wasn't made quite soon enough and I was going to have to wait even longer if I wanted that option. My preorder was cancelled about 4 days after the announcement of Boot Camp, which was not just a hack, but the promise of an (in the future) officially supported dual boot program. I'm no fool, and I wasn't going to spit the notebook gods in the face. I had been given a sign, and 24 hours later I picked up my (educationally discounted at $2,299) brand new MacBook Pro. This is my first Apple ever, but with the safety net of Boot Camp, I figured the time to dive in was now.
Specifications of the MacBook Pro reviewed
* 2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo
* 667MHz frontside bus and main memory
* PCI Express architecture
* 100GB 5400 Serial ATA hard drive
* ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with 256MB memory on 16-lane PCI Express
* ExpressCard/34 slot
* Dual-link DVI, VGA adapter included
* One FireWire 400 port, two USB 2.0 ports
* Optical digital and analogue audio I/O, built-in microphone and stereo speakers
* Slot-loading SuperDrive
* Illuminated keyboard, scrolling TrackPad
* Built-in AirPort Extreme (802.11g), Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, and Gigabit Ethernet
* Mac OS X Tiger with iLife '06, featuring iWeb
Design and Build
The design and build of the MacBook Pro is top notch. For someone who has used and handled (although admittedly never owned) several Dells, HPs, and Compaqs (dang their University contracts) the step up in quality was very much appreciated.
Several compromises were made to slim the MacBook Pro into a 1" package. The first was to ditch the dual layer 8x dvd burner in favor of a (3mm slimmer) 4x single layer burner. A bummer, but I do must of my burning on my PC, and I haven't burned a DL disc in my life.
The thin but strong aluminum chassis inspires confidence and there are extra features for the paranoid like the motion sensor, which is used to lock up the hard drive in the event of any sudden movement detected. Someone even made a program called iAlert, which you can use to protect your computer from theft. When alarmed (with the included remote used for Front Row), the laptop will start screeching and flash the screen if someone were to pick it up. It is quite funny and yet, amazingly useful for someone like me who might be tempted to leave my notebook at a table in the school library to take a quick leak. As for the screen, it has very minimal flex when torque is applied to it. Overall, you get the feeling that this laptop is the refinement of previous versions in many ways (much like the current iPod compared to the then amazing 1st Gen iPod).
Benchmarks (All run in Windows XP using Boot Camp Beta with default drivers provided by Apple)
The effort put in by the MacBook Pro shows that that it is not as fast as one might expect from a 2.0GHz Core Duo, but it is amazing that you can even run it under Windows without a hiccup. Given that the CPU is identical to the one found in the Dell Inspiron, which posts a score 8 seconds lower, it is clear that Apple has some room to optimize. The score obviously smokes the Pentium M.
Notebook Time to Calculate Pi to 2 Million Digits:
Notebook Time to Calculate Pi to 2 Million Digits
Apple MacBook Pro (2.0GHz Core Duo) 1m 24s
Samsung X60 (1.66GHz Core Duo) 1m 29s
Dell Inspiron e1505 (2.0GHz Core Duo) 1m 16s
HP dv8000z (1.8 GHz Turion-64 ML-32) 2m 12s
Dell Inspiron 6000D (1.6 GHz Alviso Pentium M) 1m 52s
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo) 1m 18s
Sony VAIO S360 (1.7 GHz Dothan Pentium M) 1m 57s
Dell Inspiron 600m (1.6 GHz Pentium M) 2m 10s
Sony VAIO S380 (1.83 GHz Alviso Pentium M) 1m 42s
I ran both '05 and '06 versions of 3DMark. Below are the results I got and how they compare to other notebookst:
3DMark05 Results:
Notebook 3DMark 05 Results
Apple MacBook Pro (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 128MB 2866 3D Marks
Lenovo ThinkPad Z60m (2.0GHz Pentium M, ATI X600 128MB) 1659 3DMarks
ThinkPad T43 (1.86GHz, ATI X300 64MB graphics) 727 3DMarks
Asus V6Va (2.13 GHz Pentium M, ATI Radeon Mobility x700 128 MB) 2530 3D Marks
Fujitsu n6410 (1.66 GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB) 2,273 3DMarks
HP dv4000 (1.86GHz Pentium M, ATI X700 128MB) 2536 3D Marks
Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 256MB) 4157 3DMarks
3DMark06 Results:
Notebook 3DMark 06 Results
Apple MacBook Pro (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 128MB 1,528 3D Marks
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400) 794 3DMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60 Nvidia GeForce Go7800GTX) 4,085 3DMarks
Asus A6J (1.83GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 128MB) 1,819 3D Marks
Sadly, I found out about the underclocked X1600 after I bought the MacBook. A similarly specced Acer 8204 gets about 3,900 (of course people can coax even more out of them) in 3DMark05. The MacBook's X1600 is clocked at 310/300 core/memory, which is about 30% less than the 425/425 that other X1600s are set at. I had no problems upping the core past 400, but anything over 315 on the memory caused an instant lockup of windows. I know others have had better luck with upping memory, but the core is more important in this situation anyway. With 400/310 I got a score of 3313 in 3DMark05. The laptop seemed stable at this setting. I didn't bother trying to go any higher than this.
Some Thoughts About Performance
My main reason for gaming on a laptop was a little piece of crack I like to call World of Warcraft. I was a little saddened by the reduced clock of the X1600, but this baby plays WoW like a fiddle. With plenty of system and video memory, even torturous Ironforge (or Orgrimmar) visits are doable with everything turned up to maximum. Gameplay is about the same as the X800 PRO on my desktop and so it wasn't hard to make the switch. I haven't yet purchased Oblivion, so I can't tell you how that runs, but Half-Life 2 plays smoothly.
Having never been an Apple user, I can't tell you if it is that much faster than a PowerPC Apple. From what I can tell, everything seems lightening fast. I was a little worried when it took ten seconds to launch Firefox for the first time, but the very next day they released a patch that sped that up to about two seconds. Navigating the web on a fast connection is quick and snappy. I'm writing this review on the 30 day Microsoft Word:Mac trial that comes preinstalled and so far things are smooth with that as well. Extracting a 700MB divx file seemed quicker than on my AMD 3000XP+ desktop. All in all I am pleased with the performance of the MacBook and I feel like it is plenty adequate for my power hungry needs.
Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard is very nice with great travel for the keys and very useful function keys along the top for changing the volume and brightness. It also includes keys for Apple's famous backlit keyboard, which is set by default to use the ambient light sensor to come on when it gets dark. The trackpad is enormous and nice, although as a windows user I lament the loss of a right click (ctrl-click is slowly becoming habit). One cool feature is the two-finger scroll. As soon as you put too fingers on the trackpad any movement you do will scroll up and down or side to side. It is actually very natural and way better than using that little strip on the side of your trackpad like other laptops have. I also miss dedicated home and end keys, which are integrated into the four-way directional keys in the lower right. Considering that smaller notebooks have managed that (like the W3J), I'm a little disappointed. I'll get used to it I imagine.
Ports
I don't know why S-Video had to go, but Apple is more than willing to sell you a DVI to S-Video cable if you want one.
Left side view of ports: Power cable, USB, Audio in, and Audio Out (both optical), and a ExpressCard Slot
Right side: DVI, Ethernet, 400 FireWire, and USB
Back view: One massive vent runs along the back
Front view: The power button and the 4X DVD-R slot load adorn the front
The battery has a cool feature that lets you check your battery life without turning the MacBook on.
Screen
The Apple engineers made a tough choice to shave 60 precious vertical pixels off an already widescreen aspect in order to integrate the high quality iSight cam. It still isn't as wide as the 16:9 movies I like to watch so it doesn't bother me at all that this was done. I'm one of those crazies who actually uses the web cam so I consider it a fair trade. The resolution is way better than the one found on the W3J, which was one of the things that bummed me about that notebook (1440x900 vs 1280x768)
The horizontal viewing angle on this thing is insane. It's practically 180 degrees, although it is kind of hard to see anything on the screen at that point. The vertical angle is not quite as good. It has about a 15 degree sweet spot with the picture losing brightness and inverting white and black too far beyond that.
I took a look at this screen in my school's computer store before I bought this notebook and it is definitely one of the things I really liked about this laptop. With claims of being 67% brighter than the already bright PowerBook it replaces, this screen is a testament that you don't have to go and fight glossy to get colors that sing and contrast that pops. As far as I am concerned this is the best notebook screen I have ever seen. There is absolutely no ghosting in any game I have tried and HD encoded trailers from Apple's own website look amazing. Solid colors on the screen do have a kind of textured look that some people have commented on, but I actually kind of like it. It is not very noticeable and it kind of gives everything an "organic" look. Try before you buy, but I give it a 9.5 out of 10 (gotta leave room for improvement).
It's pencil art me! (Taken with one of iSight's art effects) (view larger image)
Battery Life
Battery life is good but not great. I get about 3 hours and 15 min with half brightness (more than adequate) when I am using my laptop to type stuff up and browse the web. I haven't tried to play WoW on the battery, but I never plan to so I am pretty pleased with it. It is pretty good juice for such a slim notebook.
Wireless
Wireless works great and has decent range as far as I know. My apartment is pretty small so the "Airport Extreme" has no problems dropping out of strong signal strength. It does seem to have better pickup than my wife's IBM T40. I do appreciate that in OS X it automatically connects to the strongest available wireless network.
Sound
The speakers dominate the left and right side of the keyboard. Bass is obviously not great, but it is pretty decent sound for a laptop if you ask me. The placement of the speakers helps to project the audio so you don't have to worry about your belly blocking the sound (like front mounted speakers found on the HP line). Volume is fine for the movies (divx) I've seen and the audio output with headphones is great.
Heat and Noise
The notebook is surprisingly cool when it runs off the battery. Everything throttles down to extend battery life and things are only slightly warm. When the notebook is plugged in and everything throttles up this sucker gets very hot. The aluminum chassis acts like a big heatsink soaking up the heat and radiating it out. The strip along the back on the bottom gets especially hot. On top, the back of the left speaker grill gets very hot as well, which is understandable as this is right where the X1600 sits. It is no wonder they clocked the graphics back. Oddly enough, it doesn't seem to get any hotter when I have an intense gaming session going. I'm not sure if that is because it is not throttling back at all when no gaming is going on or what, but I am going to investigate this some more. This is the price you have to pay for putting top of the line components inside a 5.5 pound, 1" thick case. In any case (haha), I wouldn't put the MacBook on your laptop when it is plugged in unless you are wearing jeans, or are not planning on having any children in the future.
Noise is another story altogether. Perhaps related to the heat issue, this thing is completely silent. In a totally silent room, with my ear hovering above the keyboard, I can hear the faint sound of what I assume is the X1600 fan going. Any more sound in the room, like my own breathing, and I cannot hear anything. The DVD drive likes to makes some noise, especially when you install something, but it is not too bad.
Boot Camp
Boot Camp -- what will it be, OS X or Windows?
We've already seen what this puppy can do with some Windows based gaming and benchmarks, but I feel I should tell you some other stuff about it as well. A smooth dual boot experience is an absolute must for me, as I have to have a Windows machine for Law School. I am pleased to report that for all intents and purposes, it works great. There are some niggles in Windows XP that I'm sure will be worked out with subsequent releases. These include:
* No function keys...the "F" keys work the way they do in windows which means they don't change the volume, the screen brightness, etc...
* The audio isn't muted when you plug the headphones in...
* The iSight camera does not work
As you can see, these are hardware related and will just require some better drivers from Apple to fix. The "Windows" key is mapped to the "Apple" key and the eject button on the laptop still works.
Other than these little things, I had absolutely no problems running any Windows software that I tried. Things will only get smoother from here.
Random Thoughts and Conclusion
This laptop is extremely cool. For someone like me that means warm fuzzies and no buyers remorse. It is kind of crazy that last week I was a lifelong user and builder of PC computers and now I own my first notebook and also my first Mac. So far, I have no regrets. I will always own a PC, but OS X has impressed me a lot. My first pang of "uh oh" hit when I ran 3DMark05, but I still feel like the computer has enough juice to play games for the next couple of years. More importantly, it's smaller and quieter than the other options I looked at which I feel more than makes up for it. Perhaps this notebook is more expensive than other options out there, but none of them are quite this small, quite this cool, and still pack quite this much punch. In my opinion, the Acer 8204 is the only thing that comes close (right now anyway) and it is priced very similarly. Considering how much the first Apple Titanium's cost, this thing is practically a basement bargain. I'm always sad to see money go, but in this case, I wouldn't ask for it back. In the end, isn't that all that matters?
Pros:
* Very well built
* Great overall performance
* Smaller dimensions and weighs less than other laptops in its class (1lb less than the Acer 8204 for example)
* Can run Windows XP or OS X (and potentially Linux)
* Very quiet
* Amazingly bright non-glare type screen
* High quality web cam
* Decent battery life
* Plays WoW like a champ
* Comes with a remote for media and powerpoint
Cons:
* Somewhat hot when plugged in
* Boot Camp not quite ready for the masses
* Underclocked GPU
NINTENDO Wii
NINTENDO Wii
Features and Design
A few misconceptions we should get out of the way up-front.
Despite being tagged as a "next-generation" console, the device's custom IBM-designed, PowerPC-based "Broadway" processor and ATI "Hollywood" GPU won't go toe-to-toe with PS3 or even last year's Xbox 360. Roughly twice as powerful as a GameCube, the Wii doesn't wow so much for its performance or polygon-pushing power. (Although games like the sweeping fantasy landscape- and otherworldly dungeon-sporting The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess or reflective water- and real-time terrain deformation-boasting Excite Truck still look a tangible order of magnitude sharper than less-sophisticated predecessors, even if they won't make veteran joystick jabbers' jaws drop.) Frankly, with graphical output capped at 480p widescreen displays, it's not the type of machine you'd buy to, say, show off a shiny new plasma or LCD HDTV.
On a positive note though, despite what you may have heard, the gizmo isn't just for kids either. A 62 title-strong launch lineup of new releases (including Trauma Center: Second Opinion, Red Steel and Rayman: Raving Rabbids) and classic favorites (e.g. downloadable, software-emulated editions of Ice Hockey and Super Mario 64) offers something for nearly everyone. And while you only get one game in the box – physical gesture-powered athletics outing Wii Sports, featuring baseball, boxing, bowling, golf and tennis challenges played by mimicking actual racquet swings or strike-scoring scooping motions – it's enough to quickly demonstrate the gadget's nigh-universal appeal.
Meaning that if the basic underlying idea (being able to immerse oneself to a greater degree in medieval dungeon crawls by wielding the TV remote-style controller like a sword or employ it gently in medical simulations as if you were controlling a surgeon's scalpel) sounds even remotely appealing, there should be no question. Nearly $50 cheaper than its next closest competitor and unlike anything currently released to retailers to date, it's worth standing in line – if not necessarily camping out – on November 19 to plunk $250 down for your own personal model.
Wondering what that not inconsiderable sum buys you, given that the standard package is sold as a system bundle? (Or worse, $699 mandatory minimum investment including added accessories and games, as certain gouge-happy retailers are all-too happy to offer.) Opening the box reveals the following contents: The Wii itself, a system stand for vertical positioning, one remote control, a "nunchuk" thumb-stick add-on, an AC adaptor, a composite video cable (sorry, component cable sold separately), sensor bar, sensor bar stand and two AA batteries used to power the Bluetooth-enabled gamepad. (Up to four controllers can function wirelessly from up to 30 feet away, and act as pointing devices at distances as much as 15 feet from the sensor.)
Slim and trim, the sleek, all-white unit (available now in iPod-type coloring only, upon which stains and markings will sadly show up clearly, though differently-shaded alternatives are surely coming) measures just 8.5" x 6" x 2", or approximately the size of three stacked DVD cases as advertised. Not only does it run quietly and coolly, as opposed to the noisy, nigh nuclear meltdown-inducing beast that is an Xbox 360. It can also be positioned horizontally or vertically as desired, with the mounting stand offering additional stability for those of us who can't resist the latter, sharper-looking option. Backwards-compatible with GameCube titles, both outings like Resident Evil 4 or Super Smash Bros. Melee and new, Wii-exclusive discs are inserted into a slit-like opening on the unit's front, which – while opening the possibility of scratching or kids accidentally damaging models by trying to force-feed the unit.
Reset, power and eject buttons can also be found on the machine's face, with sensor bar, AC and A/V cable connectors hidden around back. Two USB 2.0 ports also adorn the machine's rear, presenting the possibility of upcoming add-ons such as keyboards or additional storage solutions. Games are currently saved to 512MB of internal flash memory, with SD cards – there's a reader on the front for archiving files or pulling pictures off digital camera – and GameCube memory cards (two ports to insert them into rest on the side) also providing extra room. Side-mounted slots for four GameCube controllers are further offered, although all openings can be covered with flaps which handily disguise them. Interestingly, the Wii has some heft to it as well, and feels surprisingly damage-resistant for such a small system. (A blessing, no doubt, for toddler-packing parents…)
Features and Design
A few misconceptions we should get out of the way up-front.
Despite being tagged as a "next-generation" console, the device's custom IBM-designed, PowerPC-based "Broadway" processor and ATI "Hollywood" GPU won't go toe-to-toe with PS3 or even last year's Xbox 360. Roughly twice as powerful as a GameCube, the Wii doesn't wow so much for its performance or polygon-pushing power. (Although games like the sweeping fantasy landscape- and otherworldly dungeon-sporting The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess or reflective water- and real-time terrain deformation-boasting Excite Truck still look a tangible order of magnitude sharper than less-sophisticated predecessors, even if they won't make veteran joystick jabbers' jaws drop.) Frankly, with graphical output capped at 480p widescreen displays, it's not the type of machine you'd buy to, say, show off a shiny new plasma or LCD HDTV.
On a positive note though, despite what you may have heard, the gizmo isn't just for kids either. A 62 title-strong launch lineup of new releases (including Trauma Center: Second Opinion, Red Steel and Rayman: Raving Rabbids) and classic favorites (e.g. downloadable, software-emulated editions of Ice Hockey and Super Mario 64) offers something for nearly everyone. And while you only get one game in the box – physical gesture-powered athletics outing Wii Sports, featuring baseball, boxing, bowling, golf and tennis challenges played by mimicking actual racquet swings or strike-scoring scooping motions – it's enough to quickly demonstrate the gadget's nigh-universal appeal.
Meaning that if the basic underlying idea (being able to immerse oneself to a greater degree in medieval dungeon crawls by wielding the TV remote-style controller like a sword or employ it gently in medical simulations as if you were controlling a surgeon's scalpel) sounds even remotely appealing, there should be no question. Nearly $50 cheaper than its next closest competitor and unlike anything currently released to retailers to date, it's worth standing in line – if not necessarily camping out – on November 19 to plunk $250 down for your own personal model.
Wondering what that not inconsiderable sum buys you, given that the standard package is sold as a system bundle? (Or worse, $699 mandatory minimum investment including added accessories and games, as certain gouge-happy retailers are all-too happy to offer.) Opening the box reveals the following contents: The Wii itself, a system stand for vertical positioning, one remote control, a "nunchuk" thumb-stick add-on, an AC adaptor, a composite video cable (sorry, component cable sold separately), sensor bar, sensor bar stand and two AA batteries used to power the Bluetooth-enabled gamepad. (Up to four controllers can function wirelessly from up to 30 feet away, and act as pointing devices at distances as much as 15 feet from the sensor.)
Slim and trim, the sleek, all-white unit (available now in iPod-type coloring only, upon which stains and markings will sadly show up clearly, though differently-shaded alternatives are surely coming) measures just 8.5" x 6" x 2", or approximately the size of three stacked DVD cases as advertised. Not only does it run quietly and coolly, as opposed to the noisy, nigh nuclear meltdown-inducing beast that is an Xbox 360. It can also be positioned horizontally or vertically as desired, with the mounting stand offering additional stability for those of us who can't resist the latter, sharper-looking option. Backwards-compatible with GameCube titles, both outings like Resident Evil 4 or Super Smash Bros. Melee and new, Wii-exclusive discs are inserted into a slit-like opening on the unit's front, which – while opening the possibility of scratching or kids accidentally damaging models by trying to force-feed the unit.
Reset, power and eject buttons can also be found on the machine's face, with sensor bar, AC and A/V cable connectors hidden around back. Two USB 2.0 ports also adorn the machine's rear, presenting the possibility of upcoming add-ons such as keyboards or additional storage solutions. Games are currently saved to 512MB of internal flash memory, with SD cards – there's a reader on the front for archiving files or pulling pictures off digital camera – and GameCube memory cards (two ports to insert them into rest on the side) also providing extra room. Side-mounted slots for four GameCube controllers are further offered, although all openings can be covered with flaps which handily disguise them. Interestingly, the Wii has some heft to it as well, and feels surprisingly damage-resistant for such a small system. (A blessing, no doubt, for toddler-packing parents…)
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Sony Unveils Latest Reader Digital Book
Sony Unveils Latest Reader Digital Book
Sony's paperback-sized Reader, available this month, can hold up to 160 books.
While it may not pack the sales bang of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the latest edition of Sony Electronics Inc.'s Reader Digital Book could turn some heads among gadget lovers when it is released this month.
Sony announced the latest edition of the Reader, model PRS-505, on Tuesday, and said it will be available in the U.S. this month at Sony Style stores and on the Sony Style Web site as well as at Borders Inc. book stores. For US$300, people will get a paperback book-sized Reader in either silver or dark blue, which can hold up to 160 books.
A Sony spokesman was unable to provide a specific date for the launch of the new Reader.
To get people started on their new Reader, Sony is offering credit for 100 classic books, including the works of Shakespeare and Jane Austen, on Connect, an eBooks store set up by Sony. The site includes 20,000 eBooks, including the latest editions of many top authors and much of the New York Times Bestsellers' list. It doesn't include any books in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series.
Improvements to the reader include nearly twice the storage space, a battery that will last around 7,500 page views, new controls that are redesigned to mimic page-turning and allow quicker navigation, and a USB (Universal Serial Bus) port allowing the transfer of data from a PC. The new Reader also includes slots for Memory Stick Duo and SD memory cards to increase storage capacity.
An auto-sync feature with the new edition allows users to create a folder for books and documents on their computer with which they can automatically synchronise the Reader.
Sony's paperback-sized Reader, available this month, can hold up to 160 books.
While it may not pack the sales bang of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the latest edition of Sony Electronics Inc.'s Reader Digital Book could turn some heads among gadget lovers when it is released this month.
Sony announced the latest edition of the Reader, model PRS-505, on Tuesday, and said it will be available in the U.S. this month at Sony Style stores and on the Sony Style Web site as well as at Borders Inc. book stores. For US$300, people will get a paperback book-sized Reader in either silver or dark blue, which can hold up to 160 books.
A Sony spokesman was unable to provide a specific date for the launch of the new Reader.
To get people started on their new Reader, Sony is offering credit for 100 classic books, including the works of Shakespeare and Jane Austen, on Connect, an eBooks store set up by Sony. The site includes 20,000 eBooks, including the latest editions of many top authors and much of the New York Times Bestsellers' list. It doesn't include any books in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series.
Improvements to the reader include nearly twice the storage space, a battery that will last around 7,500 page views, new controls that are redesigned to mimic page-turning and allow quicker navigation, and a USB (Universal Serial Bus) port allowing the transfer of data from a PC. The new Reader also includes slots for Memory Stick Duo and SD memory cards to increase storage capacity.
An auto-sync feature with the new edition allows users to create a folder for books and documents on their computer with which they can automatically synchronise the Reader.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Bose Lifestyle
Lifestyle 48 home entertainment system
Our finest Lifestyle® DVD home theater system digitally stores and organizes up to 340 hours of music. Enjoy movies with a progressive scan DVD/CD player. Jewel Cube® speaker arrays and Acoustimass® module deliver thrilling 5.1 surround sound. ADAPTiQ® system customizes sound to your room's acoustics.
Overview Features Photos Specifications Accessories Expand It
Lifestyle 48 home entertainment system
Learn more about Bose ADAPTiQ audio calibration system
Learn how proprietary
ADAPTiQ technology customizes sound to your room's unique characteristics.
Learn more about Bose uMusic intelligent playback system
Learn how Bose
uMusic intelligent playback system digitally stores and organizes your CDs.
Learn how you can expand your Lifestyle system and enjoy music throughout your home. View demo
The Bose® Lifestyle® 48 DVD home entertainment system will change the way you think about movies, music ... even your CD collection. Digitally store and organize up to 340 hours of music in the media center, featuring a progressive scan DVD/CD player. The ADAPTiQ® audio calibration system analyzes your room and adjusts your Lifestyle® home theater audio system's sound for great performance. Tiny, award-winning Jewel Cube® speaker arrays and a horizontal center-channel speaker fill your room with thrilling 5.1 surround sound. The VS-2 video enhancer simplifies your system's integration with other sources, including those with HDMI. And there's more. Bose® link allows you to connect your Lifestyle® 48 DVD home theater system to compatible Bose products in as many as 14 additional rooms.
Your room is unique. So is this home theater system.
The hidden beauty of the Lifestyle® 48 DVD system lies in the Bose technologies that make enjoying music and movies intuitively simple. Start with your main room—the size, shape, textures and other elements that affect the sound you hear. The ADAPTiQ system, found only in Lifestyle® DVD systems, was developed to analyze your room and then adjust the Lifestyle® system for a consistent, high-quality performance each time you listen.
No need to move furniture, speakers or anything else to get the best possible sound in your room. Just sit in up to five of your preferred listening spots, and allow the ADAPTiQ system to automatically make the necessary adjustments.
Meet your digital DJ
Consider the hassle of managing your treasured, but unwieldy, CD collection. The Lifestyle® 48 DVD home theater audio system changes all that with unique Bose technology that stores up to 340 hours of music. The uMusic® intelligent playback system actually listens to your music and learns your preferences, then makes selections based on what you like. No more searching for CDs or deciding which tracks to listen to. Whatever mood you're in, the uMusic system is ready with just the songs you want to hear.
And you can hear them almost anywhere. Bose® link enables quality sound in as many as 14 additional rooms, even outdoors. Just add compatible Bose products, and you can have independent volume control in each room, as well as access to two different audio streams from the same Lifestyle® system.
Fill your room with sound, not equipment
The Lifestyle® 48 DVD system features award-winning Jewel Cube® speaker arrays—measuring only 4½" high—for dramatically lifelike sound. These are our smallest and most powerful speaker arrays, yet they deliver sound you'd expect from speakers many times their size. And a sleek horizontal center-channel speaker locks dialogue on screen while making a nice match with flat-panel televisions.
The proprietary Acoustimass® module produces resounding low notes that bring action sequences to life and add fullness to music. Place it out of sight, and all the sound seems to come from the smaller speakers.
Simplicity for your video sources
Simplify the integration of a Lifestyle® DVD home theater system with your video sources—including those with HDMI—and get the best picture possible. The new VS-2 video enhancer automatically synchronizes the audio and video you want at the touch of a button. You'll receive the highest video resolution your TV can accept, all the way up to 1080p over HDMI. And you'll reduce the wiring to the back of the television to just one connection.
The Lifestyle® 48 DVD system puts it all together with innovative approaches that let you easily customize your listening experience. All with the performance, elegance and simplicity you expect from Bose.
Key Features
Bose Jewel Cube speakers
Jewel Cube® speakers Just 4½" high, our smallest Direct/Reflecting® speakers contain over 40 different innovations and breakthrough technologies. You enjoy the highest level of Lifestyle® system performance from speakers that fit effortlessly into your room.
Bose Acoustimass module
Acoustimass® module Hear the clarity of pure, low-frequency reproduction, even at the loudest levels. This Bose breakthrough works in concert with the small speakers to deliver the full range of sound. When the module is placed behind a curtain or chair, all of the sound seems to come directly from the small cube speakers.
Bose horizontal center-channel speaker
Horizontal center-channel speaker Enables acoustic and aesthetic synchronization with your TV. Keeps dialogue focused on the screen, and complements the dimensions of flat-panel displays.
Bose Lifestyle media center
Lifestyle® media center Enjoy today's most popular audio and video content with this elegant control center, featuring a built-in progressive scan DVD/CD player and AM/FM tuner. You'll have high-quality playback for the latest media formats, including: DVD, DVD-R, CD, CD-R/RW, VCD, PCM, digital 5.1, MP3 files and MPEG-2.
Bose VS-2 video enhancer
VS-2 video enhancer Simplifies the integration of a Lifestyle® system with other video sources, including those with HDMI. Connect just one wire from the VS-2 video enhancer to the back of your TV, and receive the correct audio and video with the press of one button.
Our finest Lifestyle® DVD home theater system digitally stores and organizes up to 340 hours of music. Enjoy movies with a progressive scan DVD/CD player. Jewel Cube® speaker arrays and Acoustimass® module deliver thrilling 5.1 surround sound. ADAPTiQ® system customizes sound to your room's acoustics.
Overview Features Photos Specifications Accessories Expand It
Lifestyle 48 home entertainment system
Learn more about Bose ADAPTiQ audio calibration system
Learn how proprietary
ADAPTiQ technology customizes sound to your room's unique characteristics.
Learn more about Bose uMusic intelligent playback system
Learn how Bose
uMusic intelligent playback system digitally stores and organizes your CDs.
Learn how you can expand your Lifestyle system and enjoy music throughout your home. View demo
The Bose® Lifestyle® 48 DVD home entertainment system will change the way you think about movies, music ... even your CD collection. Digitally store and organize up to 340 hours of music in the media center, featuring a progressive scan DVD/CD player. The ADAPTiQ® audio calibration system analyzes your room and adjusts your Lifestyle® home theater audio system's sound for great performance. Tiny, award-winning Jewel Cube® speaker arrays and a horizontal center-channel speaker fill your room with thrilling 5.1 surround sound. The VS-2 video enhancer simplifies your system's integration with other sources, including those with HDMI. And there's more. Bose® link allows you to connect your Lifestyle® 48 DVD home theater system to compatible Bose products in as many as 14 additional rooms.
Your room is unique. So is this home theater system.
The hidden beauty of the Lifestyle® 48 DVD system lies in the Bose technologies that make enjoying music and movies intuitively simple. Start with your main room—the size, shape, textures and other elements that affect the sound you hear. The ADAPTiQ system, found only in Lifestyle® DVD systems, was developed to analyze your room and then adjust the Lifestyle® system for a consistent, high-quality performance each time you listen.
No need to move furniture, speakers or anything else to get the best possible sound in your room. Just sit in up to five of your preferred listening spots, and allow the ADAPTiQ system to automatically make the necessary adjustments.
Meet your digital DJ
Consider the hassle of managing your treasured, but unwieldy, CD collection. The Lifestyle® 48 DVD home theater audio system changes all that with unique Bose technology that stores up to 340 hours of music. The uMusic® intelligent playback system actually listens to your music and learns your preferences, then makes selections based on what you like. No more searching for CDs or deciding which tracks to listen to. Whatever mood you're in, the uMusic system is ready with just the songs you want to hear.
And you can hear them almost anywhere. Bose® link enables quality sound in as many as 14 additional rooms, even outdoors. Just add compatible Bose products, and you can have independent volume control in each room, as well as access to two different audio streams from the same Lifestyle® system.
Fill your room with sound, not equipment
The Lifestyle® 48 DVD system features award-winning Jewel Cube® speaker arrays—measuring only 4½" high—for dramatically lifelike sound. These are our smallest and most powerful speaker arrays, yet they deliver sound you'd expect from speakers many times their size. And a sleek horizontal center-channel speaker locks dialogue on screen while making a nice match with flat-panel televisions.
The proprietary Acoustimass® module produces resounding low notes that bring action sequences to life and add fullness to music. Place it out of sight, and all the sound seems to come from the smaller speakers.
Simplicity for your video sources
Simplify the integration of a Lifestyle® DVD home theater system with your video sources—including those with HDMI—and get the best picture possible. The new VS-2 video enhancer automatically synchronizes the audio and video you want at the touch of a button. You'll receive the highest video resolution your TV can accept, all the way up to 1080p over HDMI. And you'll reduce the wiring to the back of the television to just one connection.
The Lifestyle® 48 DVD system puts it all together with innovative approaches that let you easily customize your listening experience. All with the performance, elegance and simplicity you expect from Bose.
Key Features
Bose Jewel Cube speakers
Jewel Cube® speakers Just 4½" high, our smallest Direct/Reflecting® speakers contain over 40 different innovations and breakthrough technologies. You enjoy the highest level of Lifestyle® system performance from speakers that fit effortlessly into your room.
Bose Acoustimass module
Acoustimass® module Hear the clarity of pure, low-frequency reproduction, even at the loudest levels. This Bose breakthrough works in concert with the small speakers to deliver the full range of sound. When the module is placed behind a curtain or chair, all of the sound seems to come directly from the small cube speakers.
Bose horizontal center-channel speaker
Horizontal center-channel speaker Enables acoustic and aesthetic synchronization with your TV. Keeps dialogue focused on the screen, and complements the dimensions of flat-panel displays.
Bose Lifestyle media center
Lifestyle® media center Enjoy today's most popular audio and video content with this elegant control center, featuring a built-in progressive scan DVD/CD player and AM/FM tuner. You'll have high-quality playback for the latest media formats, including: DVD, DVD-R, CD, CD-R/RW, VCD, PCM, digital 5.1, MP3 files and MPEG-2.
Bose VS-2 video enhancer
VS-2 video enhancer Simplifies the integration of a Lifestyle® system with other video sources, including those with HDMI. Connect just one wire from the VS-2 video enhancer to the back of your TV, and receive the correct audio and video with the press of one button.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Windows tweaks and problem solving
General Windows Tweaks & Problem Solving
These tweaks don't specifically speed up anything in Windows, but they're likely to solve annoying little issues you've lived with for years.
Determine if you need more RAM. There are people who say, "You can't have too much RAM." These people must also say, "You can't have too much money," and have cartloads of it lying around for every PC in the house. The rest of us must find a balance between money and RAM, and that usually means only buying the amount we need. An easy way to find out how much RAM you really need is to use your system normally without restarting for at least a day. At the end of the day, open the Task Manager (pressing CTRL- ALT-DELETE opens it, for example) and click the Performance tab. Compare the value for "Commit Charge - Peak" to the amount of RAM you have. If the value is higher then your RAM, then you'll see a benefit to installing more memory. If it's less, then you're probably doing just fine, RAM-wise. To be sure, check this value over the course of several days. Note that if you've manually changed the size of the Paging File, you'll need to adjust it again after adding RAM. If you've told Windows to manage the size of the Paging File automatically, it will still do so after adding RAM.
Disable auto-reboot to help solve problems. When you encounter a significant crash and get a BSOD, WinXP normally displays it for a moment and then reboots the machine. This is probably the right action for an unattended server, but it makes diagnosing the error on a normal workstation/gaming PC rather troublesome. There's not enough time to write down the error, and if the crash occurred while you were away, you might not even realize there was a crash (and restart) to begin with. (Honestly, how often do you really check your error logs?) 60 April 2007 / www.computerpoweruser.com spotlight To keep the BSOD open indefinitely, open System from the Control Panel and click the Advanced tab. Then click the Settings button under Startup and Recovery Settings and uncheck Automatically Restart in the System Failure section. This will take effect after a restart.
Boost Internet Explorer 7
Love it or leave it, IE is the world's mostpopular browser, and version 7 introduces new wrinkles that need attention.
Change the default search provider. If you want to change your search provider from, say, MSN to Google, click the down arrow icon next to the magnifying glass in the search field and choose Change Search Defaults. Choose your preferred search engine, click the Set Default button, and then OK.
Add or remove toolbars. IE7's sparse interface, complete with its lack of conventional toolbars, has frustrated a lot of experienced users. Right-clicking any empty area next to the tabs lets you add or remove toolbars, including a conventional menu bar (File, Edit, etc.). Be sure to unlock the toolbars (click View, point to Toolbars, and uncheck Lock The Toolbars) before you try to drag them to your desired locations.
Return to Internet Explorer 6. If you've hung with IE7 for as long as you can and you just don't like it (or if you frequent Web sites that don't play nice with IE7), you can go back to IE6. Just open Add or Remove Programs from the Control Panel and choose Internet Explorer 7. Windows will warn you that this may break certain security patches that you've downloaded after installing IE7, but most of those patches relate to IE7 itself. The process takes longer than you'd think (as does the first reboot afterwards) but in the end, you'll be greeted with the familiar IE6 you've come to know and, um, love.
Boost FireFox 2.0
With all of its extensions and themes, entire books have been written about getting the most from Mozilla Firefox. As such, we'll limit ourselves to just two.
Backup your Firefox "everything." You have probably accumulated a large Internet Explorer 7 might be the future of Web browsing for Microsoft, but it's far from perfect for everyone. Rolling back to IE 6, that trusty old mare, is fortunately not a difficult task. collection of themes, extensions, bookmarks, and passwords for Firefox. All of these things are gathered together into Mozilla Profiles, which are sometimes susceptible to corruption. A freeware tool, MozBackup (mozbackup.jasnapaka.com), can backup and restore your profiles with just a few clicks and makes the task of moving a Firefox installation from one computer to another a breeze. If you use Thunderbird for email, it also backs up and restores your mailstore.
Speed up browsing. This next set of modifications exemplifies what's possible Firefox has a host of configuration options to boost your browsing experience. Just type about:config in its Address Bar to access the goodies. CPU / April 2007 61 spotlight with Firefox, but it can be controversial. You can set Firefox to use multiple connections to a Web server to retrieve multiple files instead of just one. Some consider this approach as inconsiderate to Webmasters, because their servers must spend more effort serving you a page than someone else. That said, this can boost performance considerably and illustrates how to modify technical settings in Firefox. First, open Firefox and type about:config in the Address Bar and press ENTER, which displays the equivalent of Firefox's Registry. Next, type HTTP into the Filter field, which displays only those entries that have "http" within them. Then, do the following:
1. Change network.http.pipelining to true by double-clicking it;
2. Change network.http.pipelining. maxrequests to 8 by double-clicking it and entering 8 in the pop-up window;
3. Change network.http.max-persistant connections-per-server to 8;
4. Change network.http.max connections to 48;
5. Change network.http.proxy. pipelining to true;
6. Change network.http.max-persistant connections-per-proxy to 8; and
7. Right-click anywhere in this screen, and choose New Integer from the popup menu. Enter the Preference Name as nglayout.initialpaint.delay, and its Value as 0. Restart Firefox to enable the changes.
Boost iTunes & iPod
It stands to reason that if the iPod is the world's most popular MP3 player, then iTunes must be pretty darn popular, too. As an Apple product, it doesn't require a ton of internal tweaking, but various third-party utilities add a lot of functionality that Apple either forgot to add or didn't want to. Combined with just a few internal tweaks, iTunes can be almost anything you want it to be.
Import to MP3 for portability. If you have another device capable of playing MP3s, such as a DVD player, car stereo, or another MP3 player, you can have iTunes rip music into MP3 files directly instead of AAC files. Click Preferences from the Edit menu. Then, click the Advanced tab and the Importing subtab. Change the Import Using drop-down menu to MP3 Encoder and set the bit rate to whatever you prefer. Within the Importing subtab, you can also alter the way iTunes names your MP3 files. The raw MP3 files are stored in the iTunes music folder.
Hierarchical playlists. ITunes 7 can organize hundreds of playlists by arrang- ing them into collapsible folders—much the same way the Explorer lists directories—along the left pane. To create one, click File and New Folder. A new folder, named "Untitled Folder" appears, and iTunes selects it by default. Rename it and either drag existing playlists into it or leave the folder selected and click the Create A Playlist button to create a new playlist within that folder. Unfortunately, these folders don't appear within your iPod: All nested playlists appear the same as top-level playlists.
Add album art en masse. Although iTunes does a fair job of adding album art to the songs already in your library, a free utility called TuneSleeve (tunesleeve .googlepages.com) does it much better, allowing you to drag-and-drop graphics directly from Web pages into every song in an album at once. If given enough time, it also searches for art on the Internet by itself, assigning artwork to all songs in a playlist or your entire library. It is also able to find alternative artwork or multiple versions of the same album and lets you replace artwork iTunes has already found.
Use Your iPod without iTunes. YamiPod (www.yamipod.com) is a free- ware iPod manager and media player that's available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux—just copy the executables to your iPod and plug it into whatever com- puter you have. Yamipod will do the rest of the work for you. With it, you can play music, create playlists, add or extract songs directly from the iPod to your computer, remove duplicate tracks, find "lost" music files, import and export playlists in M3U format, and a lot more. In short, YamiPod lets you use your iPod the way you want to, rather than the way Apple does
Posted by Jonathan at 8:33 AM 0 comments
Friday, September 14, 2007
10 Things You Need to Know about Deploying Windows Vista
You've deployed Windows XP in the past, and now you're thinking ahead to Windows Vista. Whether you'll be deploying to 10, 100, or 100,000 computers, just knowing how the process has changed from Windows XP will make the deployment run much more smoothly.
So here are 10 deployment differences between Windows® XP and Windows Vista™ that you'll be glad you discovered when it's time to make the move.
1. Windows Vista Images Are Bigger
With Windows XP and Windows 2000, it was possible to create images that would fit easily on a single CD (less than 700MB). Even organizations that added applications, drivers, and utilities to their image typically ended up with an operating system image in the 1GB to 3GB range.
With Windows Vista, image size begins at about 2GB—compressed. Once this image is deployed, the size is often around 5GB or more, and there's no way to reduce it. If you add additional applications, drivers, or other files, this image obviously grows even larger.
So how will you deploy the image? Does your network have the necessary capacity? (10MB networks or non-switched networks are not sufficient.) If you want to use CDs, how many can you deal with? You'll need three or four. DVDs (with a capacity of 4.7GB each) are now easy to create, so you can deploy using DVD drives if you have them. (If not, consider adding DVD drives when buying the next round of PCs.)
With USB memory keys growing in size (as large as 4GB or more) and shrinking in price, it would be quite easy to use one for deploying Windows Vista, since you can make a bootable key as long as the computer's BIOS supports it.
Finally (though this doesn't relate to image size), take note that there is no longer an I386 directory. Instead, all components, whether installed or not, reside in the Windows directory (although not in the standard SYSTEM32 directory). When installing a new component, the necessary files will be pulled from this location.
2. Security Is Enhanced
A number of Windows Vista security enhancements will impact deployment. For example, configuring Windows Vista to support "low rights" users, where the logged-on user does not have administrator rights, is easier. Some applications failed to work on Windows XP when users did not have administrator access because they assumed they would have full access to the C: drive and all parts of the registry. With Windows Vista, applications that attempt to write to restricted areas will have those writes transparently redirected to other locations in the user's profile.
The second big change here is that non-administrators can load drivers. This lets users attach new devices without needing to call the help desk in tears.
The third difference you'll find is that Internet Explorer® can automatically install ActiveX® controls using elevated rights. A new service can perform these installations on the user's behalf (if, of course, the IT administrator allows this via Group Policy).
Some of you may currently be using Power User rights on Windows XP, but this really does not offer many benefits (in terms of restricting user rights) over simply granting full Administrator privileges. Because of this, the Power Users group in Windows Vista has been removed, although it can be put back if required using a separate security template that can be applied to an installation of Windows Vista.
Sometimes you will need administrator rights, but this doesn't mean you want to run with admin rights all the time. So Windows Vista adds User Access Control (UAC), which causes most user applications—even for Administrators—to run with restricted rights. For applications that require additional rights, UAC will prompt for permission, asking either for permission to run with elevated privileges or for other user credentials that can replace the logged-on users.
There are also enhancements to the firewall built into Windows Vista. The new firewall can now control both inbound and outbound traffic, while still being fully configurable via Group Policy.
Finally, BitLocker™ full-volume encryption, which is included with Windows Vista Enterprise and Ultimate, allows the entire operating system volume to be encrypted. The volume can then be read only from within Windows Vista and only when the right keys are provided, either from the computer's built-in Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2 chip, a USB key, or typed into the keyboard. (Note that only TPM 1.2 or later is supported
3. Windows Vista Is Componentized
One of the biggest architectural changes in Windows Vista is that it is now a completely componentized operating system. This affects deployment in the following ways.
Configuring which Windows Vista features should be installed requires configuring the components to be enabled. New tools, like the Windows System Image Manager, shown in Figure 1, assist with this.
Security updates, language packs, and service packs are simply components. Tools such as Package Manager (PKGMGR) can be used to apply these to Windows Vista.
Figure 1 Windows System Image Manager (Click the image for a smaller view)
Figure 1 Windows System Image Manager
In addition, all servicing can be performed offline or online. You can even apply changes to Windows Vista or a Windows Vista image when Windows Vista is not currently running. This is ideal for deployments: the operating system can be patched before it boots onto your network for the first time.
Drivers are also treated as components, so they can be added and removed easily—even offline. This means you can add drivers to existing images, even just-in-time (as the machine boots for the first time) during the deployment process. And this applies to mass-storage drivers as well; no longer do you need to create a new image just to add a new mass storage driver.
Windows Vista exposes more settings, with most components providing configurable options, so it's easier to set installation defaults that can be managed on an ongoing basis using Group policy. For a rundown of new tools in Windows Vista, see the sidebar
"Tools You Need; Tools to Forget."
Here’s a rundown of the tools you’ll be using when you roll out Windows Vista, followed by a list of the tools you can retire for good once Windows Vista arrives.
USE THESE:
*
SYSPREP This is the updated version, modified for Windows Vista.
*
SETUP A new installation tool for Windows Vista, replaces WINNT and WINNT32.
*
IMAGEX The new command-line tool for creating WIM images.
Windows System Image Manager A tool for creating and modifying unattend.xml files.
*
PEIMG The tool for customizing Windows PE 2.0 images.
Windows Deployment Services The new version of RIS, which adds the ability to deploy Windows Vista and Windows XP images, as well as Windows PE 2.0 boot images.
*
PNPUTIL This is the new tool for adding and removing drivers from the Windows Vista driver store.
*
PKGMGR Also new, this Windows Vista tool is used for servicing the operating system.
*
OCSETUP This replaces SYSOCMGR and is used for installing Windows components.
*
BCDEDIT A new Windows Vista tool for editing boot configuration data.
Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0 This updated tool lets you assess whether your applications are compatible with Windows Vista.
User State Migration Tool 3.0 An updated tool for capturing and restoring user state, supports Windows XP and Windows Vista, as well as all versions of Office including 2007.
BitLocker The full-volume drive encryption capability included in Windows Vista Enterprise and Ultimate editions.
FORGET THESE:
* Remote Installation Services RIS has been replaced by Windows Deployment Services (WDS) but still offers legacy support on Windows Server 2003; RIPREP and RISETUP are not possible with Windows Vista.
* Setup Manager/Notepad Use Windows System Image Manager instead for editing unattended setup configuration files.
* WINNT.EXE and WINNT32.EXE Use SETUP instead.
* SYSOCMGR Replaced by OCSETUP, PKGMGR.
* MS-DOS Boot Floppies Forget them. Use Windows PE!
4. Text-Mode Installation Is Gone
The basic process used to install Windows XP has been unchanged since the earliest days of Windows NT®. This time-consuming procedure involved an initial text-mode installation step in which every operating system file was decompressed and installed, all registry entries were created, and all security was applied. Now with Windows Vista, this text-mode installation phase is completely gone. Instead, a new setup program performs the installation, applying a Windows Vista image to a computer.
Once this image is applied, it needs to be customized for the computer. This customization takes the place of what was called mini-setup in Windows XP and Windows 2000. The purpose is the same: the operating system picks the necessary settings and personality for the specific computer it was deployed to.
The image preparation process has also changed. With Windows XP, you would "Sysprep" a machine to prepare the reference operating system for deployment. With Windows Vista, you'll still run Sysprep.exe (installed by default in C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep), which will "generalize" the machine for duplication.
Windows Vista (any version) is provided on the DVD as an already-installed, generalized (Sysprepped) image, ready to deploy to any machine. Some customers may choose to deploy this image as-is (possibly injecting fixes or drivers using the servicing capabilities described earlier).
5. Boot.ini Is History
That's right, the Boot.ini file is not used in Windows Vista or in the new Windows PE 2.0. Instead, a new boot loader, bootmgr, reads boot configuration data from a special file named BCD. A brand new tool called bcdedit.exe (or a separate Windows Management Instrumentation or WMI provider) is used to maintain the contents of the BCD. A Windows PE 2.0 boot image can be configured in BCD too, making it easy to boot into either Windows Vista or Windows PE without making any other changes to the machine. This flexibility can be useful in recovery or maintenance scenarios.
6. Settings Are Configured in XML
With Windows XP (and previous versions of Windows PE) configuration information was stored in various text files. These text files have been replaced with an XML file.
* Sysprep.inf, which was used to configure how a Windows XP image is customized when deployed to a machine using a mini-setup.
* Wimbom.ini, which was used to configure Windows PE.
* Cmdlines.txt, which was used to specify a list of commands to execute during mini-setup.
Unattend.txt, which was used to configure how Windows XP is installed, has been replaced by unattend.xml. Unattend.xml also replaces three other files:
An example of unattend.xml can be downloaded from TechNet Magazine at microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/code06.aspx.
You may still use separate files if you want, though. You don't need to put all configuration items in a single unattend.xml file. The high-level schema of the new XML configuration file is well defined, with each phase of the deployment process represented. The actual configuration items are specified on the appropriate operating system components and these items are dynamically discovered from the components themselves.
With Windows XP, most IT professionals used Notepad to edit the various configuration files. You can still do that, but the Windows System Image Manager tool I discussed earlier can be used to inspect the Windows Vista image, determine what settings are available, and allow you to configure each one.
Another tool to aid deployment is the User State Migration Tool (USMT) 3.0, which is expected to be released at the same time as Windows Vista. It will also use XML configuration files in place of the .inf files that were used in previous versions. See "Migrating to Windows Vista Through the User State Migration Tool" for more information.
7. No More HAL Complications
With Windows XP, technical restrictions prevented the creation of a single image that could be deployed to all computers. Different hardware abstraction layers (HALs) meant you had to maintain multiple images. (For more on this see the Knowledge Base article "HAL options after Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 Setup") Most organizations needed two or three images per platform (x86 and x64) and some chose to have even more—though each image brings added costs and complexity.
In Windows Vista, those technical restrictions are gone; the operating system is able to detect which HAL is required and automatically install it.
8. Windows PE Rules
Windows PE 2.0, the new version that will be released with Windows Vista, is a key part of the deployment process. Even the standard DVD-based installation of Windows Vista uses Windows PE 2.0, and most organizations will be using it (often customized for the organization's specific needs) as part of their deployment processes.
Compared to MS-DOS®-based deployment, Windows PE 2.0 brings numerous benefits, including less time spent trying to find 16-bit real-mode drivers. (It's not even possible to find these any more for some newer network cards and mass storage adapters.) Better performance from 32-bit and 64-bit networking stacks and tools, as well as large memory support are also advantages. And don't forget support for tools such as Windows Scripting Host, VBScript, and hypertext applications.
Windows PE has been available for a few years (the latest version, Windows PE 2005, was released at the same time as Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 SP1), but not all organizations could use it; it required that you have Software Assurance on your Windows desktop operating system licenses. With Windows PE 2.0, that's no longer the case. All organizations will be able to download Windows PE 2.0 from microsoft.com and use it freely for the purposes of deploying licensed copies of Windows Vista.
Like Windows Vista itself, Windows PE 2.0 is provided as an image that is componentized and can be serviced both online and off. As with Windows PE 2005, several optional components can be added, although Windows PE 2.0 includes some new ones: MSXML 3.0, Windows Recovery Environment, language packs, font packs, and so on. New tools like peimg.exe are provided for servicing Windows PE 2.0. Peimg.exe can also be used for adding drivers—including mass storage devices, which no longer require any special handling.
For more information on Windows PE 2.0, see Wes Miller's article in this issue of TechNet Magazine.
9. It's All about Images
With Windows XP, some companies used the image creation capabilities of the Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 OS Deployment Feature Pack or third-party image creation tools. There was no generic image creation tool available from Microsoft. That's changed with Windows Vista: new tools have been created to support the Windows Imaging (WIM) file format. Unlike many other image formats, WIM images are file-based, enabling them to be applied to an existing partition non-destructively. This has great advantages in deployment processes, since user state can be saved locally instead of on a network server, eliminating what is frequently the largest source of network traffic during a deployment.
Because WIM files are file-based images, they (obviously) are not sector-based, so there are no issues around different-sized disks or partitions. A WIM image contains only the contents of a single disk volume or partition, so if you have multiple partitions to capture, you create a separate image for each one. But each of these images can be stored in the same WIM file, since the WIM file format supports multiple images per file.
The WIM file format also supports single-instance storage, so duplicate files (even from different images) are automatically removed. Between this and the advanced compression techniques employed, WIM images are typically smaller than images created by other tools. However, because of the extra processing, they do take longer to create. This size versus performance trade-off is fair enough; since you typically capture the image only once and then deploy it many times, the network traffic savings can be substantial.
The IMAGEX command-line tool interfaces with the lower-level WIMGAPI API (which is fully documented for use in custom tools too), and is used to create and manipulate WIM images. It also provides a mechanism for mounting a WIM image as a file system. Once mounted, the image can be read and modified using standard Windows tools since it looks like a normal removable media drive. This facility opens up whole new servicing opportunities.
10. Deployment Is Language-Neutral
Windows XP supported different languages in two ways. You could either deploy localized versions of Windows XP, requiring a different image for each language, or you could deploy an English Multilanguage User Interface (MUI) version with added language packs. There were advantages and disadvantages to each approach, but in most cases organizations that needed to support multiple languages took the MUI route, dealing with the limitations of running with an operating system that was effectively English at its core. Organizations that worked only with one language typically chose to use only the localized versions.
Now with Windows Vista, the entire operating system is language-neutral. One or more language packs are added to this language-neutral core to create the image that is deployed (although only some versions of Windows Vista support multiple languages).
Servicing of Windows Vista is also language-neutral, so in many cases only one security update is needed for all languages. And configuration is language-neutral, so one unattend.xml can be used for all languages.Help Is Available
The changes I've described mean that the image creation and deployment processes you've been using for Windows XP will need to be updated. In some cases, these updates might be minor; in others (such as an MS-DOS-based process using cmdlines.txt), significant changes may be required. To help, Microsoft has created new tools, guidance, and step-by-step procedures. These are included in the Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007.
BDD 2007 breaks down the deployment process into more manageable pieces, with different teams managing each component. Guidance, checklists, and tools are provided for each team to help with the tasks they need to perform (see Figure 2).
Figure 2 BDD 2007 Breaks the Deployment Process into More Manageable Tasks (Click the image for a smaller view)
Figure 2 BDD 2007 Breaks the Deployment Process into More Manageable Tasks
BDD 2007 is currently available for download from connect.microsoft.com after you sign up for the open beta program. Contained in the download are all the required Windows Vista deployment tools, including Windows PE 2.0, ImageX, Windows System Image Manager, and USMT 3.0, along with documentation explaining how to use them in an end-to-end process. The final version of BDD 2007 will be released at about the same time as Windows Vista. For a look at BDDWorkbench, see Figure 3.
Figure 3 BDDWorkbench Helps You Manage Multiple Deployment Scenarios (Click the image for a smaller view)
Figure 3 BDDWorkbench Helps You Manage Multiple Deployment Scenarios
The goal of BDD 2007 is simplification. Even if you don't have an existing image creation and deployment process, you should be able to use BDD to set one up quickly. Two deployment methods are provided:
* Lite Touch, which was completely rewritten, requires user interaction to start deployment. It doesn't require any special infrastructure although it can utilize Windows Deployment Services, the next version of Remote Installation Service (RIS).
* Zero Touch, which requires no user intervention, is layered on top of the SMS 2003 OS Deployment Feature Pack.
The new features in BDD 2007 include driver repository and injection, full computer backup processing, integration of all the Windows Vista deployment tools, and more. BDD 2007 will include all the source code for all of its automation tools, so you can modify it to meet your specific needs or copy and paste it into your own solutions. The source code is provided without restriction.
For more information on BDD 2007, see the TechNet Desktop Deployment center.
Posted by Jonathan at 4:38 PM 0 comments
Friday, September 7, 2007
How to download YouTube video?
How to Download YouTube Video? Orbit Downloader is a free YouTube video downloader which can help you to download FLV video from YouTube easily with great speed. Also Orbit Downloader can download and manage FLV videos from almost all of video-sharing websites like YouTube, Dailymotion, Myspace, Google, Yahoo, Metacafe, iFilm
You can download orbit dowloader here http://www.orbitdownloader.com/
Here's a sample on how to use the orbit downloader:
(1) Hover your mouse on the YouTube Video, making 'NBA Finals Lebron Etch A Sketch' for example, you will see a small button appeared near your mouse, like this:
(2) Click the button, Orbit Downloader will pop up a dialog to fetch the YouTube Video URL. It will need about 2 seconds.
(3) Soon, the "Create new download" dialog pop up. Click "OK",then the YouTube Video is being downloaded.
Posted by Jonathan at 5:20 PM 1 comments
Thursday, September 6, 2007
New Credit Card Scam
New Credit Card Scam ... Snopes.Com says this is true. See this site- http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/creditcard.aspThis one is pretty slick since they provide YOU with all theinformation, except the one piece they want.Note, the callers do not ask for your card number; they already have it. This information is worth reading. By understanding how the VISA&MasterCard Telephone Credit Card Scam works, you'll be better preparedto protect yourself.One of our employees was called on Wednesday from "VISA", and I was called on Thursday from "Master Card".The scam works like this: Person calling says, "This is (name), and I'mcalling from the Security and Fraud Department at VISA. My Badge numberis 12460. Your card has been flagged for an unusual purchase pattern, and I'm calling to verify. This would be on your VISA card which wasissued by (name of bank). Did you purchase an Anti-Telemarketing Devicefor $497.99 from a Marketing company based in Arizona ?" When you say "No", the caller continues with, "Then we will be issuing a credit toyour account. This is a company we have been watching and the chargesrange from $297 to $497, just under the $500 purchase pattern that flags most cards. Before your next statement, the credit will be sent to(gives you your address), is that correct?"You say "yes". The caller continues - "I will be starting a Fraudinvestigation. If you have any questions, you should call the 1- 800 number listed on the back of your card (1-800-VISA) and ask forSecurity.You will need to refer to this Control Number. The caller then givesyou a 6 digit number. "Do you need me to read it again?" Here's the IMPORTANT part on how the scam works. The caller then says,"I need to verify you are in possession of your card". He'll ask you to"turn your card over and look for some numbers". There are 7 numbers; the first 4 are part of your card number, the next 3 are the securityNumbers' that verify you are the possessor of the card. These are thenumbers you sometimes use to make Internet purchases to prove you have the card. The caller will ask you to read the 3 numbers to him. Afteryou tell the caller the 3 numbers, he'll say, "That is correct, I justneeded to verify that the card has not been lost or stolen, and that you still have your card. Do you have any other questions?" After you sayNo, the caller then thanks you and states, "Don't hesitate to call backif you do", and hangs up.You actually say very little, and they never ask for or tell you the Card number. But after we were called on Wednesday, we called backwithin 20 minutes to ask a question. Are we glad we did! The REAL VISASecurity Department told us it was a scam and in the last 15 minutes a new purchase of $497.99 was charged to our card.Long story - short - we made a real fraud report and closed the VISAaccount. VISA is reissuing us a new number. What the scammers want isthe 3-digit PIN number on the back of the card. Don't give it to them. Instead, tell them you'll call VISA or Master card directly forverification of their conversation. The real VISA told us that theywill never ask for anything on the card as they already know theinformation since they issued the card! If you give the scammers your 3 Digit PIN Number, you think you're receiving a credit. However, by thetime you get your statement you'll see charges for purchases you didn'tmake, and by then it's almost too late and/or more difficult to actually file a fraud report.What makes this more remarkable is that on Thursday, I got a call from a"Jason Richardson of Master Card" with a word-for-word repeat of theVISA scam. This time I didn't let him finish. I hung up! We filed a police report, as instructed by VISA. The police said they are takingseveral of these reports daily! They also urged us to tell everybody weknow that this scam is happening.Please pass this on to all your family and friends. By informing each other, we protect each other.Aide SanchezOCTFCUFraud Investigator714.258.4000 x8160714.258.4229 fax
These tweaks don't specifically speed up anything in Windows, but they're likely to solve annoying little issues you've lived with for years.
Determine if you need more RAM. There are people who say, "You can't have too much RAM." These people must also say, "You can't have too much money," and have cartloads of it lying around for every PC in the house. The rest of us must find a balance between money and RAM, and that usually means only buying the amount we need. An easy way to find out how much RAM you really need is to use your system normally without restarting for at least a day. At the end of the day, open the Task Manager (pressing CTRL- ALT-DELETE opens it, for example) and click the Performance tab. Compare the value for "Commit Charge - Peak" to the amount of RAM you have. If the value is higher then your RAM, then you'll see a benefit to installing more memory. If it's less, then you're probably doing just fine, RAM-wise. To be sure, check this value over the course of several days. Note that if you've manually changed the size of the Paging File, you'll need to adjust it again after adding RAM. If you've told Windows to manage the size of the Paging File automatically, it will still do so after adding RAM.
Disable auto-reboot to help solve problems. When you encounter a significant crash and get a BSOD, WinXP normally displays it for a moment and then reboots the machine. This is probably the right action for an unattended server, but it makes diagnosing the error on a normal workstation/gaming PC rather troublesome. There's not enough time to write down the error, and if the crash occurred while you were away, you might not even realize there was a crash (and restart) to begin with. (Honestly, how often do you really check your error logs?) 60 April 2007 / www.computerpoweruser.com spotlight To keep the BSOD open indefinitely, open System from the Control Panel and click the Advanced tab. Then click the Settings button under Startup and Recovery Settings and uncheck Automatically Restart in the System Failure section. This will take effect after a restart.
Boost Internet Explorer 7
Love it or leave it, IE is the world's mostpopular browser, and version 7 introduces new wrinkles that need attention.
Change the default search provider. If you want to change your search provider from, say, MSN to Google, click the down arrow icon next to the magnifying glass in the search field and choose Change Search Defaults. Choose your preferred search engine, click the Set Default button, and then OK.
Add or remove toolbars. IE7's sparse interface, complete with its lack of conventional toolbars, has frustrated a lot of experienced users. Right-clicking any empty area next to the tabs lets you add or remove toolbars, including a conventional menu bar (File, Edit, etc.). Be sure to unlock the toolbars (click View, point to Toolbars, and uncheck Lock The Toolbars) before you try to drag them to your desired locations.
Return to Internet Explorer 6. If you've hung with IE7 for as long as you can and you just don't like it (or if you frequent Web sites that don't play nice with IE7), you can go back to IE6. Just open Add or Remove Programs from the Control Panel and choose Internet Explorer 7. Windows will warn you that this may break certain security patches that you've downloaded after installing IE7, but most of those patches relate to IE7 itself. The process takes longer than you'd think (as does the first reboot afterwards) but in the end, you'll be greeted with the familiar IE6 you've come to know and, um, love.
Boost FireFox 2.0
With all of its extensions and themes, entire books have been written about getting the most from Mozilla Firefox. As such, we'll limit ourselves to just two.
Backup your Firefox "everything." You have probably accumulated a large Internet Explorer 7 might be the future of Web browsing for Microsoft, but it's far from perfect for everyone. Rolling back to IE 6, that trusty old mare, is fortunately not a difficult task. collection of themes, extensions, bookmarks, and passwords for Firefox. All of these things are gathered together into Mozilla Profiles, which are sometimes susceptible to corruption. A freeware tool, MozBackup (mozbackup.jasnapaka.com), can backup and restore your profiles with just a few clicks and makes the task of moving a Firefox installation from one computer to another a breeze. If you use Thunderbird for email, it also backs up and restores your mailstore.
Speed up browsing. This next set of modifications exemplifies what's possible Firefox has a host of configuration options to boost your browsing experience. Just type about:config in its Address Bar to access the goodies. CPU / April 2007 61 spotlight with Firefox, but it can be controversial. You can set Firefox to use multiple connections to a Web server to retrieve multiple files instead of just one. Some consider this approach as inconsiderate to Webmasters, because their servers must spend more effort serving you a page than someone else. That said, this can boost performance considerably and illustrates how to modify technical settings in Firefox. First, open Firefox and type about:config in the Address Bar and press ENTER, which displays the equivalent of Firefox's Registry. Next, type HTTP into the Filter field, which displays only those entries that have "http" within them. Then, do the following:
1. Change network.http.pipelining to true by double-clicking it;
2. Change network.http.pipelining. maxrequests to 8 by double-clicking it and entering 8 in the pop-up window;
3. Change network.http.max-persistant connections-per-server to 8;
4. Change network.http.max connections to 48;
5. Change network.http.proxy. pipelining to true;
6. Change network.http.max-persistant connections-per-proxy to 8; and
7. Right-click anywhere in this screen, and choose New Integer from the popup menu. Enter the Preference Name as nglayout.initialpaint.delay, and its Value as 0. Restart Firefox to enable the changes.
Boost iTunes & iPod
It stands to reason that if the iPod is the world's most popular MP3 player, then iTunes must be pretty darn popular, too. As an Apple product, it doesn't require a ton of internal tweaking, but various third-party utilities add a lot of functionality that Apple either forgot to add or didn't want to. Combined with just a few internal tweaks, iTunes can be almost anything you want it to be.
Import to MP3 for portability. If you have another device capable of playing MP3s, such as a DVD player, car stereo, or another MP3 player, you can have iTunes rip music into MP3 files directly instead of AAC files. Click Preferences from the Edit menu. Then, click the Advanced tab and the Importing subtab. Change the Import Using drop-down menu to MP3 Encoder and set the bit rate to whatever you prefer. Within the Importing subtab, you can also alter the way iTunes names your MP3 files. The raw MP3 files are stored in the iTunes music folder.
Hierarchical playlists. ITunes 7 can organize hundreds of playlists by arrang- ing them into collapsible folders—much the same way the Explorer lists directories—along the left pane. To create one, click File and New Folder. A new folder, named "Untitled Folder" appears, and iTunes selects it by default. Rename it and either drag existing playlists into it or leave the folder selected and click the Create A Playlist button to create a new playlist within that folder. Unfortunately, these folders don't appear within your iPod: All nested playlists appear the same as top-level playlists.
Add album art en masse. Although iTunes does a fair job of adding album art to the songs already in your library, a free utility called TuneSleeve (tunesleeve .googlepages.com) does it much better, allowing you to drag-and-drop graphics directly from Web pages into every song in an album at once. If given enough time, it also searches for art on the Internet by itself, assigning artwork to all songs in a playlist or your entire library. It is also able to find alternative artwork or multiple versions of the same album and lets you replace artwork iTunes has already found.
Use Your iPod without iTunes. YamiPod (www.yamipod.com) is a free- ware iPod manager and media player that's available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux—just copy the executables to your iPod and plug it into whatever com- puter you have. Yamipod will do the rest of the work for you. With it, you can play music, create playlists, add or extract songs directly from the iPod to your computer, remove duplicate tracks, find "lost" music files, import and export playlists in M3U format, and a lot more. In short, YamiPod lets you use your iPod the way you want to, rather than the way Apple does
Posted by Jonathan at 8:33 AM 0 comments
Friday, September 14, 2007
10 Things You Need to Know about Deploying Windows Vista
You've deployed Windows XP in the past, and now you're thinking ahead to Windows Vista. Whether you'll be deploying to 10, 100, or 100,000 computers, just knowing how the process has changed from Windows XP will make the deployment run much more smoothly.
So here are 10 deployment differences between Windows® XP and Windows Vista™ that you'll be glad you discovered when it's time to make the move.
1. Windows Vista Images Are Bigger
With Windows XP and Windows 2000, it was possible to create images that would fit easily on a single CD (less than 700MB). Even organizations that added applications, drivers, and utilities to their image typically ended up with an operating system image in the 1GB to 3GB range.
With Windows Vista, image size begins at about 2GB—compressed. Once this image is deployed, the size is often around 5GB or more, and there's no way to reduce it. If you add additional applications, drivers, or other files, this image obviously grows even larger.
So how will you deploy the image? Does your network have the necessary capacity? (10MB networks or non-switched networks are not sufficient.) If you want to use CDs, how many can you deal with? You'll need three or four. DVDs (with a capacity of 4.7GB each) are now easy to create, so you can deploy using DVD drives if you have them. (If not, consider adding DVD drives when buying the next round of PCs.)
With USB memory keys growing in size (as large as 4GB or more) and shrinking in price, it would be quite easy to use one for deploying Windows Vista, since you can make a bootable key as long as the computer's BIOS supports it.
Finally (though this doesn't relate to image size), take note that there is no longer an I386 directory. Instead, all components, whether installed or not, reside in the Windows directory (although not in the standard SYSTEM32 directory). When installing a new component, the necessary files will be pulled from this location.
2. Security Is Enhanced
A number of Windows Vista security enhancements will impact deployment. For example, configuring Windows Vista to support "low rights" users, where the logged-on user does not have administrator rights, is easier. Some applications failed to work on Windows XP when users did not have administrator access because they assumed they would have full access to the C: drive and all parts of the registry. With Windows Vista, applications that attempt to write to restricted areas will have those writes transparently redirected to other locations in the user's profile.
The second big change here is that non-administrators can load drivers. This lets users attach new devices without needing to call the help desk in tears.
The third difference you'll find is that Internet Explorer® can automatically install ActiveX® controls using elevated rights. A new service can perform these installations on the user's behalf (if, of course, the IT administrator allows this via Group Policy).
Some of you may currently be using Power User rights on Windows XP, but this really does not offer many benefits (in terms of restricting user rights) over simply granting full Administrator privileges. Because of this, the Power Users group in Windows Vista has been removed, although it can be put back if required using a separate security template that can be applied to an installation of Windows Vista.
Sometimes you will need administrator rights, but this doesn't mean you want to run with admin rights all the time. So Windows Vista adds User Access Control (UAC), which causes most user applications—even for Administrators—to run with restricted rights. For applications that require additional rights, UAC will prompt for permission, asking either for permission to run with elevated privileges or for other user credentials that can replace the logged-on users.
There are also enhancements to the firewall built into Windows Vista. The new firewall can now control both inbound and outbound traffic, while still being fully configurable via Group Policy.
Finally, BitLocker™ full-volume encryption, which is included with Windows Vista Enterprise and Ultimate, allows the entire operating system volume to be encrypted. The volume can then be read only from within Windows Vista and only when the right keys are provided, either from the computer's built-in Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2 chip, a USB key, or typed into the keyboard. (Note that only TPM 1.2 or later is supported
3. Windows Vista Is Componentized
One of the biggest architectural changes in Windows Vista is that it is now a completely componentized operating system. This affects deployment in the following ways.
Configuring which Windows Vista features should be installed requires configuring the components to be enabled. New tools, like the Windows System Image Manager, shown in Figure 1, assist with this.
Security updates, language packs, and service packs are simply components. Tools such as Package Manager (PKGMGR) can be used to apply these to Windows Vista.
Figure 1 Windows System Image Manager (Click the image for a smaller view)
Figure 1 Windows System Image Manager
In addition, all servicing can be performed offline or online. You can even apply changes to Windows Vista or a Windows Vista image when Windows Vista is not currently running. This is ideal for deployments: the operating system can be patched before it boots onto your network for the first time.
Drivers are also treated as components, so they can be added and removed easily—even offline. This means you can add drivers to existing images, even just-in-time (as the machine boots for the first time) during the deployment process. And this applies to mass-storage drivers as well; no longer do you need to create a new image just to add a new mass storage driver.
Windows Vista exposes more settings, with most components providing configurable options, so it's easier to set installation defaults that can be managed on an ongoing basis using Group policy. For a rundown of new tools in Windows Vista, see the sidebar
"Tools You Need; Tools to Forget."
Here’s a rundown of the tools you’ll be using when you roll out Windows Vista, followed by a list of the tools you can retire for good once Windows Vista arrives.
USE THESE:
*
SYSPREP This is the updated version, modified for Windows Vista.
*
SETUP A new installation tool for Windows Vista, replaces WINNT and WINNT32.
*
IMAGEX The new command-line tool for creating WIM images.
Windows System Image Manager A tool for creating and modifying unattend.xml files.
*
PEIMG The tool for customizing Windows PE 2.0 images.
Windows Deployment Services The new version of RIS, which adds the ability to deploy Windows Vista and Windows XP images, as well as Windows PE 2.0 boot images.
*
PNPUTIL This is the new tool for adding and removing drivers from the Windows Vista driver store.
*
PKGMGR Also new, this Windows Vista tool is used for servicing the operating system.
*
OCSETUP This replaces SYSOCMGR and is used for installing Windows components.
*
BCDEDIT A new Windows Vista tool for editing boot configuration data.
Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0 This updated tool lets you assess whether your applications are compatible with Windows Vista.
User State Migration Tool 3.0 An updated tool for capturing and restoring user state, supports Windows XP and Windows Vista, as well as all versions of Office including 2007.
BitLocker The full-volume drive encryption capability included in Windows Vista Enterprise and Ultimate editions.
FORGET THESE:
* Remote Installation Services RIS has been replaced by Windows Deployment Services (WDS) but still offers legacy support on Windows Server 2003; RIPREP and RISETUP are not possible with Windows Vista.
* Setup Manager/Notepad Use Windows System Image Manager instead for editing unattended setup configuration files.
* WINNT.EXE and WINNT32.EXE Use SETUP instead.
* SYSOCMGR Replaced by OCSETUP, PKGMGR.
* MS-DOS Boot Floppies Forget them. Use Windows PE!
4. Text-Mode Installation Is Gone
The basic process used to install Windows XP has been unchanged since the earliest days of Windows NT®. This time-consuming procedure involved an initial text-mode installation step in which every operating system file was decompressed and installed, all registry entries were created, and all security was applied. Now with Windows Vista, this text-mode installation phase is completely gone. Instead, a new setup program performs the installation, applying a Windows Vista image to a computer.
Once this image is applied, it needs to be customized for the computer. This customization takes the place of what was called mini-setup in Windows XP and Windows 2000. The purpose is the same: the operating system picks the necessary settings and personality for the specific computer it was deployed to.
The image preparation process has also changed. With Windows XP, you would "Sysprep" a machine to prepare the reference operating system for deployment. With Windows Vista, you'll still run Sysprep.exe (installed by default in C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep), which will "generalize" the machine for duplication.
Windows Vista (any version) is provided on the DVD as an already-installed, generalized (Sysprepped) image, ready to deploy to any machine. Some customers may choose to deploy this image as-is (possibly injecting fixes or drivers using the servicing capabilities described earlier).
5. Boot.ini Is History
That's right, the Boot.ini file is not used in Windows Vista or in the new Windows PE 2.0. Instead, a new boot loader, bootmgr, reads boot configuration data from a special file named BCD. A brand new tool called bcdedit.exe (or a separate Windows Management Instrumentation or WMI provider) is used to maintain the contents of the BCD. A Windows PE 2.0 boot image can be configured in BCD too, making it easy to boot into either Windows Vista or Windows PE without making any other changes to the machine. This flexibility can be useful in recovery or maintenance scenarios.
6. Settings Are Configured in XML
With Windows XP (and previous versions of Windows PE) configuration information was stored in various text files. These text files have been replaced with an XML file.
* Sysprep.inf, which was used to configure how a Windows XP image is customized when deployed to a machine using a mini-setup.
* Wimbom.ini, which was used to configure Windows PE.
* Cmdlines.txt, which was used to specify a list of commands to execute during mini-setup.
Unattend.txt, which was used to configure how Windows XP is installed, has been replaced by unattend.xml. Unattend.xml also replaces three other files:
An example of unattend.xml can be downloaded from TechNet Magazine at microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/code06.aspx.
You may still use separate files if you want, though. You don't need to put all configuration items in a single unattend.xml file. The high-level schema of the new XML configuration file is well defined, with each phase of the deployment process represented. The actual configuration items are specified on the appropriate operating system components and these items are dynamically discovered from the components themselves.
With Windows XP, most IT professionals used Notepad to edit the various configuration files. You can still do that, but the Windows System Image Manager tool I discussed earlier can be used to inspect the Windows Vista image, determine what settings are available, and allow you to configure each one.
Another tool to aid deployment is the User State Migration Tool (USMT) 3.0, which is expected to be released at the same time as Windows Vista. It will also use XML configuration files in place of the .inf files that were used in previous versions. See "Migrating to Windows Vista Through the User State Migration Tool" for more information.
7. No More HAL Complications
With Windows XP, technical restrictions prevented the creation of a single image that could be deployed to all computers. Different hardware abstraction layers (HALs) meant you had to maintain multiple images. (For more on this see the Knowledge Base article "HAL options after Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 Setup") Most organizations needed two or three images per platform (x86 and x64) and some chose to have even more—though each image brings added costs and complexity.
In Windows Vista, those technical restrictions are gone; the operating system is able to detect which HAL is required and automatically install it.
8. Windows PE Rules
Windows PE 2.0, the new version that will be released with Windows Vista, is a key part of the deployment process. Even the standard DVD-based installation of Windows Vista uses Windows PE 2.0, and most organizations will be using it (often customized for the organization's specific needs) as part of their deployment processes.
Compared to MS-DOS®-based deployment, Windows PE 2.0 brings numerous benefits, including less time spent trying to find 16-bit real-mode drivers. (It's not even possible to find these any more for some newer network cards and mass storage adapters.) Better performance from 32-bit and 64-bit networking stacks and tools, as well as large memory support are also advantages. And don't forget support for tools such as Windows Scripting Host, VBScript, and hypertext applications.
Windows PE has been available for a few years (the latest version, Windows PE 2005, was released at the same time as Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 SP1), but not all organizations could use it; it required that you have Software Assurance on your Windows desktop operating system licenses. With Windows PE 2.0, that's no longer the case. All organizations will be able to download Windows PE 2.0 from microsoft.com and use it freely for the purposes of deploying licensed copies of Windows Vista.
Like Windows Vista itself, Windows PE 2.0 is provided as an image that is componentized and can be serviced both online and off. As with Windows PE 2005, several optional components can be added, although Windows PE 2.0 includes some new ones: MSXML 3.0, Windows Recovery Environment, language packs, font packs, and so on. New tools like peimg.exe are provided for servicing Windows PE 2.0. Peimg.exe can also be used for adding drivers—including mass storage devices, which no longer require any special handling.
For more information on Windows PE 2.0, see Wes Miller's article in this issue of TechNet Magazine.
9. It's All about Images
With Windows XP, some companies used the image creation capabilities of the Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 OS Deployment Feature Pack or third-party image creation tools. There was no generic image creation tool available from Microsoft. That's changed with Windows Vista: new tools have been created to support the Windows Imaging (WIM) file format. Unlike many other image formats, WIM images are file-based, enabling them to be applied to an existing partition non-destructively. This has great advantages in deployment processes, since user state can be saved locally instead of on a network server, eliminating what is frequently the largest source of network traffic during a deployment.
Because WIM files are file-based images, they (obviously) are not sector-based, so there are no issues around different-sized disks or partitions. A WIM image contains only the contents of a single disk volume or partition, so if you have multiple partitions to capture, you create a separate image for each one. But each of these images can be stored in the same WIM file, since the WIM file format supports multiple images per file.
The WIM file format also supports single-instance storage, so duplicate files (even from different images) are automatically removed. Between this and the advanced compression techniques employed, WIM images are typically smaller than images created by other tools. However, because of the extra processing, they do take longer to create. This size versus performance trade-off is fair enough; since you typically capture the image only once and then deploy it many times, the network traffic savings can be substantial.
The IMAGEX command-line tool interfaces with the lower-level WIMGAPI API (which is fully documented for use in custom tools too), and is used to create and manipulate WIM images. It also provides a mechanism for mounting a WIM image as a file system. Once mounted, the image can be read and modified using standard Windows tools since it looks like a normal removable media drive. This facility opens up whole new servicing opportunities.
10. Deployment Is Language-Neutral
Windows XP supported different languages in two ways. You could either deploy localized versions of Windows XP, requiring a different image for each language, or you could deploy an English Multilanguage User Interface (MUI) version with added language packs. There were advantages and disadvantages to each approach, but in most cases organizations that needed to support multiple languages took the MUI route, dealing with the limitations of running with an operating system that was effectively English at its core. Organizations that worked only with one language typically chose to use only the localized versions.
Now with Windows Vista, the entire operating system is language-neutral. One or more language packs are added to this language-neutral core to create the image that is deployed (although only some versions of Windows Vista support multiple languages).
Servicing of Windows Vista is also language-neutral, so in many cases only one security update is needed for all languages. And configuration is language-neutral, so one unattend.xml can be used for all languages.Help Is Available
The changes I've described mean that the image creation and deployment processes you've been using for Windows XP will need to be updated. In some cases, these updates might be minor; in others (such as an MS-DOS-based process using cmdlines.txt), significant changes may be required. To help, Microsoft has created new tools, guidance, and step-by-step procedures. These are included in the Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007.
BDD 2007 breaks down the deployment process into more manageable pieces, with different teams managing each component. Guidance, checklists, and tools are provided for each team to help with the tasks they need to perform (see Figure 2).
Figure 2 BDD 2007 Breaks the Deployment Process into More Manageable Tasks (Click the image for a smaller view)
Figure 2 BDD 2007 Breaks the Deployment Process into More Manageable Tasks
BDD 2007 is currently available for download from connect.microsoft.com after you sign up for the open beta program. Contained in the download are all the required Windows Vista deployment tools, including Windows PE 2.0, ImageX, Windows System Image Manager, and USMT 3.0, along with documentation explaining how to use them in an end-to-end process. The final version of BDD 2007 will be released at about the same time as Windows Vista. For a look at BDDWorkbench, see Figure 3.
Figure 3 BDDWorkbench Helps You Manage Multiple Deployment Scenarios (Click the image for a smaller view)
Figure 3 BDDWorkbench Helps You Manage Multiple Deployment Scenarios
The goal of BDD 2007 is simplification. Even if you don't have an existing image creation and deployment process, you should be able to use BDD to set one up quickly. Two deployment methods are provided:
* Lite Touch, which was completely rewritten, requires user interaction to start deployment. It doesn't require any special infrastructure although it can utilize Windows Deployment Services, the next version of Remote Installation Service (RIS).
* Zero Touch, which requires no user intervention, is layered on top of the SMS 2003 OS Deployment Feature Pack.
The new features in BDD 2007 include driver repository and injection, full computer backup processing, integration of all the Windows Vista deployment tools, and more. BDD 2007 will include all the source code for all of its automation tools, so you can modify it to meet your specific needs or copy and paste it into your own solutions. The source code is provided without restriction.
For more information on BDD 2007, see the TechNet Desktop Deployment center.
Posted by Jonathan at 4:38 PM 0 comments
Friday, September 7, 2007
How to download YouTube video?
How to Download YouTube Video? Orbit Downloader is a free YouTube video downloader which can help you to download FLV video from YouTube easily with great speed. Also Orbit Downloader can download and manage FLV videos from almost all of video-sharing websites like YouTube, Dailymotion, Myspace, Google, Yahoo, Metacafe, iFilm
You can download orbit dowloader here http://www.orbitdownloader.com/
Here's a sample on how to use the orbit downloader:
(1) Hover your mouse on the YouTube Video, making 'NBA Finals Lebron Etch A Sketch' for example, you will see a small button appeared near your mouse, like this:
(2) Click the button, Orbit Downloader will pop up a dialog to fetch the YouTube Video URL. It will need about 2 seconds.
(3) Soon, the "Create new download" dialog pop up. Click "OK",then the YouTube Video is being downloaded.
Posted by Jonathan at 5:20 PM 1 comments
Thursday, September 6, 2007
New Credit Card Scam
New Credit Card Scam ... Snopes.Com says this is true. See this site- http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/creditcard.aspThis one is pretty slick since they provide YOU with all theinformation, except the one piece they want.Note, the callers do not ask for your card number; they already have it. This information is worth reading. By understanding how the VISA&MasterCard Telephone Credit Card Scam works, you'll be better preparedto protect yourself.One of our employees was called on Wednesday from "VISA", and I was called on Thursday from "Master Card".The scam works like this: Person calling says, "This is (name), and I'mcalling from the Security and Fraud Department at VISA. My Badge numberis 12460. Your card has been flagged for an unusual purchase pattern, and I'm calling to verify. This would be on your VISA card which wasissued by (name of bank). Did you purchase an Anti-Telemarketing Devicefor $497.99 from a Marketing company based in Arizona ?" When you say "No", the caller continues with, "Then we will be issuing a credit toyour account. This is a company we have been watching and the chargesrange from $297 to $497, just under the $500 purchase pattern that flags most cards. Before your next statement, the credit will be sent to(gives you your address), is that correct?"You say "yes". The caller continues - "I will be starting a Fraudinvestigation. If you have any questions, you should call the 1- 800 number listed on the back of your card (1-800-VISA) and ask forSecurity.You will need to refer to this Control Number. The caller then givesyou a 6 digit number. "Do you need me to read it again?" Here's the IMPORTANT part on how the scam works. The caller then says,"I need to verify you are in possession of your card". He'll ask you to"turn your card over and look for some numbers". There are 7 numbers; the first 4 are part of your card number, the next 3 are the securityNumbers' that verify you are the possessor of the card. These are thenumbers you sometimes use to make Internet purchases to prove you have the card. The caller will ask you to read the 3 numbers to him. Afteryou tell the caller the 3 numbers, he'll say, "That is correct, I justneeded to verify that the card has not been lost or stolen, and that you still have your card. Do you have any other questions?" After you sayNo, the caller then thanks you and states, "Don't hesitate to call backif you do", and hangs up.You actually say very little, and they never ask for or tell you the Card number. But after we were called on Wednesday, we called backwithin 20 minutes to ask a question. Are we glad we did! The REAL VISASecurity Department told us it was a scam and in the last 15 minutes a new purchase of $497.99 was charged to our card.Long story - short - we made a real fraud report and closed the VISAaccount. VISA is reissuing us a new number. What the scammers want isthe 3-digit PIN number on the back of the card. Don't give it to them. Instead, tell them you'll call VISA or Master card directly forverification of their conversation. The real VISA told us that theywill never ask for anything on the card as they already know theinformation since they issued the card! If you give the scammers your 3 Digit PIN Number, you think you're receiving a credit. However, by thetime you get your statement you'll see charges for purchases you didn'tmake, and by then it's almost too late and/or more difficult to actually file a fraud report.What makes this more remarkable is that on Thursday, I got a call from a"Jason Richardson of Master Card" with a word-for-word repeat of theVISA scam. This time I didn't let him finish. I hung up! We filed a police report, as instructed by VISA. The police said they are takingseveral of these reports daily! They also urged us to tell everybody weknow that this scam is happening.Please pass this on to all your family and friends. By informing each other, we protect each other.Aide SanchezOCTFCUFraud Investigator714.258.4000 x8160714.258.4229 fax
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