Here’s an in-store tip. Shop around! How often have you heard that before? Seriously. Have in mind what you want, go to some place that they know their stuff, learn more about it, check out their prices, then go to a couple more places. Once you’ve found that same item in another store at a lower price, record it, and if you’d rather not get it at that store, go back to that first one and see if they will lower their price for you. Sometimes they may mark down some of your other items just so you’ll shop there with them. A sale is better than no sale to some places. Not all places will do it, but it’s worth a shot. The worst they can say is “No” after all, and then they lose your business as you walk out the door. Yes, it takes more time than just going to one place to get everything, but believe it or not, some places are less expensive than others! And we’re not just talking about a box of cereal.

Do not forget to shop online–there are some fantastic deals there as well! Some stores may have a good price in the store, but check their website also, because sometimes they have “Online Only” specials on their merchandise. Some internet-based stores are excellent places to go for your holiday shopping needs, like Amazon.com or if you like to take chances, try Craigslist.org or eBay.com.

Hope something in here sparks an interest in your holiday shopping needs. Maybe some of the best deals are happening right now AND during the intense holiday season? I do know one thing: if you get on it now, it’s better than the hassle of the shoppers traffic, and headaches, just to find out they are sold out of something.

If you wish to choose 100d6, you may.  In fact, I had to do the obligitory test of 100d100 just to see how it worked – the app did fine as my iPod Touch screen filled up with 100 sided dice.  For those curious, I rolled a 4788.

You can also set up multiple dice to roll.  Say you want to roll 2d6 and 1d4 at the same time?  No worries.

You can also roll physically impossible dice, like a 13 sided die.

The rolling is pretty nice and the app features a neat tilt/view, where if you hold your device at an angle, the dice seem to tilt appropriately.  Not bad MachWerx, not bad. You can see an example of multiple dice rolled and the tilt effect below.

The only downside, if you can consider it one, is the cost.  At $0.99 it isn’t going to break your bank (and if you think of it this way, it’s less than a cent per die) but it isn’t free.  Personally, I think it’s well worth it, if for no other reason than to support the devs who worked on this little app.  The graphics could use a bit of an update as well but all in all it’s a great app.

Technorati Tags: dice, die roller, iphone, ipod touch, mach dice, rpg, role players, reviews, software, apple, apps, app store

Frotz is a Z-machine interpreter which is needed to run Zork and other Zork like games, made popular waaaay back in the day by this little company called Infocom.

It’s a free app from the store, which comes with a bunch of games pre-loaded, and the ability to natively browse the IFDB (Interactive Fiction DataBase) for new stuff to download and play.

Game play is a little slow thanks to the iPhone keyboard but it’s still pretty much the same experience as it was back in the 80s.

Technorati Tags: frotz, iphone, apps, app store, zork, infocom, ifdc

I’ve used it as an audio converter, to move a bunch of ogg files to MP3 for use on my iPod.  The process was very smooth and fairly simple.  Just select the tracks you want to convert, choose what you want to convert them too and click the convert button.

Blaze handles video conversion as well, and was very helpful at converting my home videos into a format viewable on my iPod.  I also took some older movies I had in WMV format and converted them to AVI for easy use on my Linux box.

Lastly, I wanted to archive a few DVDs that I had laying about, as well as convert them into a format I could use on my iPod.  The DVD Ripper utility is very intuitive – allowing you to rip select portions of a DVD (either titles, or by time, say the first 45 minutes of a select title).

Other functionality includes audio editing, burning your CDs, DVDs, VCDs and SVCDs, and support for full screen playback of your media. If Blaze MP is one thing, it’s a comprehensive bunch of software that will handle all of your media.  I like having to only use one piece of software to do just about everything, including light video editing.

Here’s a complete list of what it handles:

Formats supported for audio conversion include CD, MP3, WAV, WMA, OGG, MPEG-4, AIFF, M4A, AAC, AC3, FLAC, and ALAC, and two-way conversions among MPEG-1, MPEG-2, AVI, WMV, ASF, Flash (SWF and FLV), iPod, PSP, 3GP, and MOV are available for video. MPEG options are available for VCD, SVCD, and DVD compliant output. DVD ripping, and audio compression functionality are also present. When converting from audio CD, track information can be dynamically downloaded from the CDDB and used to automatically name saved files.

Video editing is available for AVI (uncompressed), AVI (compressed using any available codec), MPEG-1, MPEG-2, WMV, and ASF. Comprehensive video editing operations are provided (delete frame, delete selection, crop, resize, rotate, mirror, flip, trim, text overlay, adjust audio volume, etc.). In addition, an extensive list of over 30 effects and color adjustment operations allow for powerful video enhancement and alternation. WAV, WMA, and MP3 audio files can be inserted into the video or extracted from the video; and BMP, GIF, JPG, PCX, PNG, RAS, PPM, TGA, and TIF are the supported image formats that can be inserted or extracted.

The only thing this app doesn’t do well, or at all, is give you different dice.  You’re stuck in parlor game, six sided limbo unfortunately.

And we were so close!

The app is free and I’d suggest you get it anyway since it’s so pretty.

Technorati Tags: iphone, ipod touch, apps, app store, motionx, dice, die rolling application

Be it 2d4 for your wizard’s magic missile or 5d8 for your uber-dwarven palladin’s war axe of d8 ravaging, Diceshaker’s got you covered. You can roll the dice by the little Roll button, or just flick your iphonepod back and forth.

There are no elegant animations of dice actually rolling though, which I still think would be a good touch to any die rolling application.  There is the sound effect of dice rolling, should you choose to use it, or Diceshaker can remain silent for you.  In addition to rolling dice, it will remember your multiples for you.  You’ll not have to go in and set the wheels for 5d8 more than once and can easily return to your preferred combos.

Diceshaker also lets you know what was rolled on each individual die.  So if you’re running a game where dice pools are used, this app is still useful for you.  I do wish it had a little more oomph to it graphically but as a straight utility piece of software it certainly gets the job done.

Best of all, it’s free.

Technorati Tags: iphone, ipod touch, apps, app store, apple, gadgets, software, role playing, diceshaker, roll the bones, die roller, 4d6

I find this trend very interesting – a while back we had cheap software that anyone could download and use and then pay the author if they liked it, or pay a small fee for some nifty software.  Now we’re seeing this trend appear again with the App Store and phones/PMPs of all things.

While it’s listed under the productivity category, Ambiance is really a relaxation tool.  It’s a wonderful little app that plays relaxing sounds and white noise so you can tune out the rest of the world and concentrate on the task at hand – even if that task is gently slumping forward onto your desk and drooling on your keyboard.

There were other white noise or relaxing sounds apps out there but Ambiance seemed to carry more bang for your buck (or 99 cents).  In this version you have 13 different sounds to choose from, ranging from good old white noise to my favorite – crickets.

The sound quality on all is good, if a little loud with some of the static noises.  I found that sitting at my desk with this app running it worked wonders for tuning out the rest of the world. In situations that are loud, such as on the train during my commute, the softer sounds like crickets or the creek were very hard to hear.

Ambiance also has a simple timer built into it.  Let your sounds run for 5 minutes or 5 hours based on how you set the timer.

Matt Coneybeare, the author, has a few updates already in the pipe with Apple that should prove to be very good for this app.  There will be a built in volume bar for Touch users to turn down the louder color noises as well as 10 new sounds:

- Cicada
- Coast
- Rain – Light
- Rain – Thunder
- Rain – Tinroof
- River
- Stream
- Subway
- Train
- Vinyl

If you’re looking for a white noise and gentle sounds app this will be $0.99 well spent.  It’s got all the hallmarks of great software.  It’s pretty, easy to use, does what it says it will and it’s cheap!

Technorati Tags: reviews, software, apple, iphone, ipod touch, app store, ambiance, white noise, crickets

First up is Koi Pond developed by The Blimp Pilots.  The premise behind this app is simple really, it’s a virtual koi pond that resides on your iPhonepod.  From the App Store:

Imagine gazing into a pond of crystal clear water.  Picture bright, playful koi swimming through its shallow depths.  So close. . . . Can you touch them?

You run your fingers across the cool  surface of the pond.  Water ripples away from your touch.  The koi, disturbed, dart away.  Only to quickly forget and swim close to you once more. . . .

Now imagine all this on your iPhone or iPod touch!

Koi Pond is really very lovely to look at.  The water is done wonderfully, reacts well to touch and has nice splooshy sound effects.  Even the plants react when brushed with your finger.  The fish act naturally and will dart around your screen if disturbed, as advertised. As you can see from the screen shots, everything is proportional and really shines on your screen.

There are several settings you can control, such as the hue of the water, the number of fish and number of plants.

The upswing is, it’s really a relaxing app to gaze at.  I’ve gotten in the habit of leaving it on and sitting next to me on my desk while I work for the relaxing visual.  This app shows off what the iPhonepod is capable of graphically.

There are just a few suggestions I’d make for the next version.  It would be nice if it wouldn’t allow the iPhonepod to autolock while it’s running.  To keep it going next to me, I have to turn autolocking off – not a huge deal but I’ve often forgotten to turn it back on again at the end of the day.  Or better yet, a timer function.

A few more effects in a newer version would also be great!  Rain, wind blowing gently over the water, the ability to feed the fish.  None of these effects are necessary though to make this a worth while app.

Koi Pond was released July 30th, and has found itself #1 at the App Store in a relatively short amount of time and with good reason.  It’s pleasing to the eye and I’ve already gotten a number of comments on it from other folks just wandering by.  If you’re looking for a beautiful way to show off your device and a great way for a little relaxing visual, go spend your buck on this rather than a candy bar and enjoy.

Technorati Tags: ipod, iphone, touch, koi pond, the blimp pilots, review, software, app store, apple

You’re really nice and try to break things off politely. You’ve done the good girl/guy approach and tried to hint at the break up because you’re discovering that the feelings are little more fragile than you’re accustomed to. They take it personally. The co-dependent, insecure service says it’ll shape up, it offers you more perks and a free month to keep you interested. Being human you give in and allow the service to extend another month.

The extension comes and goes and you’re confronted by the break up again.

Them “We’ll give you the limited service free for two months if you keep us… are you not happy with us?”

(First of all, they don’t make it very easy to find ways to cancel. You’re pretty much given a map with hieroglyphic clues and a two inch candle to see your way through the caves to make it through the maze that is Vonage.)

Me “I don’t know, I don’t really use you…  if you look at my history you’ll see I haven’t sent or received a call using your service in weeks… it’s not you… you’ve been great… I just feel closed in, I need the freedom to talk any where but next to my computer. I haven’t made the commitment to buy a cordless phone I could walk around to… well the other side of my apartment with… I prefer having my cell phone…”
Them “Yeah, but what if there’s an emergency and you can’t use your cell phone?!? Did you really think about that?”
Me “Yes… and the only emergency I can think of that would require a land line would be if the power went out- being as your service is computer reliant, it really doesn’t do me a lot of good. If my home is flooded… I’d need to make calls else where less I drown… if my home is on fire… I really would not want to sit around next to the computer or in a decent range of the phone base to call 911.”

Finally when they figured out I really did want to terminate service, they grew defensive on me and began to lie!
I read, according to the terms of the agreement to contact them before the debit date. I tried, they didn’t make it easy… I live on the West Coast, they run by EST hours and do not work past 4 PST or weekends (which is not noted in the terms of the contract).

The first time I disputed this, I was told that they charge in arrears.
Me: “If you charge in arrears, why did I receive a month free if I decided to stay on an additional month? I was told that I wouldn’t be charged. If that was the case, then why am I charged now for a month I was told would be credited?”
Them: “I dunno- they must have had it wrong. We charge you for services you already used. Period.”

I hung up because I was at work and didn’t want want to raise my voice too loudly… I couldn’t access the terms from work, so I had a friend go to the site and e-mail the one million and two pages of the agreement. It clearly stated “Dawn is correct, the idiot on the phone is wrong.”

I called back immediately to dispute, and once I mentioned the “Terms” that I had in front of me, they reversed the charges and let me finally break up once and for all.

Since the break up I’ve received several e-mails trying to get me back. I’m very thankful I never gave them my mobile number!

Here’s what caught my eye when I first used it:

1. I was really pleased to find the latest version of their DiskDefrag included in the suite. So now one doesn’t have to download it as a separate program. It’s really easy to use and is faster than the Microsoft defragmenter, which I have been using before I got Auslogics.

2. There is a feature called One-Button Checkup. Basically, it’s a fast system scan which notifies you of any problems. Fixing those problems is one-button-easy as well. So it’s good if you don’t have much time to optimize the system and if you’re not that technical and don’t know where to start. I had to spend quite a bit of time to figure out which tool to use first in the previous version.

3. Internet optimization wizard checks the connection first and applies changes only after that (which is what they all should do, but somehow some don’t). Also now it supports FireFox.

4. Tweak Manager will apply changes much faster and now it properly supports Adobe Acrobat Reader

5. Registry Cleaner now supports Symantec and Nero products.

6. The design is so much nicer. I know it doesn’t really matter, but gives a good impression.

7. Lots of customization options

On the whole, it is now a lot easier to use, gives you full system information and gets rid of errors such as junk files. Also you can undo any changes, so it’s safe to use.
A free trial version is available here. It’s valid for 15 days and then you can buy the full version for $29.95

The first two observations I made when I opened my Neuros OSD were that the unit was a lot smaller than I was expecting (about five and a half inches by five and a half inches in size) and that it looked nice. This was no flat looking boxy apparatus, nor was it a standard component. It was curved, it was sleek, black and more aerodynamic than any other DVR I’ve come across.

I liked the size and the look immediately. Not only was this thing slick looking, but I could easily grab the RCA cables and the Neuros and bring it over to a friends house to watch whatever I’d recorded.

There are a few things that are fundamentally different about this video recorder which may take a little getting used to. First, this product is open. Not open as in the wind blows through it, but open as in anyone can hack around with the firmware, making changes and if they are for the better, giving them to the community. The second change is that this recorder really doesn’t have any storage of it’s own to record to. You’ll need to provide storage in the form of one of the many popular memory cards (complete list below), a USB drive or your networked share.

Taking the Neuros out of the box another thing became apparent. This would be an easy device to set up. You plug two sets of RCA cables into it and plug them into your source (digital cable in my case) and your output (a TV set with me). I plugged the unit in, stuck a 4 GB USB flash drive into the side of it and using the handy remote I turned it on. I set the playback device as Television, the recording device to my USB drive, the quality to normal and started recording. A half hour later I had a full television show recorded on my USB drive. Every port, every slot and every plug is clearly labeled in nice, white lettering. That’s great as well.

I took the Neuros out of my living room and plugged it into the bedroom television along with my USB drive and tested the playback. The quality wasn’t amazing but it was certainly good enough. In fast panning shots I noticed a bit of degradation but on the whole it’s not noticeable if you’re watching a sitcom or just about anything other than sports. You can also select different quality levels – recording at a higher level produces larger files but better frame rate and clearer images.

With the way storage is going right now, you can easily obtain a 4 GB SD card and pop it into the Neuros for easy recording. Need more storage and want to compete with other devices, not a problem if you have an external USB drive. You’ll need to plug another device in (the drive) but it’s certainly feasible to easily attach 300GB worth of storage.

Something interesting I was able to do was transfer an DivX file from my Archos 605 and pop it onto my USB drive. From there I could play it back via the Neuros without problem. This little device handles an incredible range of formats for video, audio and even image playback. I love that it plays .ogg files – this is my first device other than my Linux computers that supports Ogg Vorbis.

The interface on the Neuros is not the slickest I’ve seen but it’s also still under development. With each new firmware release the interface changes for the better. I enjoy the IR device that when placed over the IR receiver on my cable box can change the channel for me. It’s nice to be able to set up the Neuros to record several shows on different channels and then let the box do the channel changing for me. The Neuros is very easy to use, as simple as any device out there and is a fantastic example of Open Source in action.

This product can really be as powerful as you want it to be. If you’re an average home user, you pop an SD card into it and record content for as long as your storage holds out. If you’re a little more advanced, you connect it to your network, update the firmware (or download the firmware to your local PC and put it on an external drive to connect to the Neuros), record video to play directly on your PSP and stream video over your network. If you’re an advanced user and hacker, well you can change the way the Neuros works and make the experience better for everyone.

Pros: This device will record from just about anywhere, play on just about anything and use just about every format out there. Really, you won’t find more flexibility than here. It’s also open which I like on a very basic level. The firmware is constantly changing and making this product better. You can make it as simple or as complex as you’d like it to be. Everything you need to start recording, from the Neuros to the cables to batteries for the remote is included in the box. It’s not horribly expensive and it looks like a sports car.

Cons: In terms of user interface, there is still a bit to be done. Several times my unit froze up on my and had to be power cycled to get it back. I’d love to see a nice program guide for a more TiVo like interface. Wireless would also be great. And even though it’s listed in the pros, one con is that the firmware is constantly being updated to improve the user experience. If you’re not one to have this unit connected to your network at all times (like say, my parents) then you’ll never get the newest updates unless I show up at your house and plug it in for you.

At $229.00, the Neuros OSD won’t break the bank and will give you a full feature, take anywhere, record anything on anything and play on just about everything device. You will have to spend more money on storage if you don’t have anything laying about. With the price of flash memory coming down and the capacity going up, it won’t be long until you’ll be able to pop 30GB of USB flash memory into this box for less than the price of the box itself. I’d love to see S-video out on this, as well as wireless connectivity. Another cable snaking across the floor is not something I’m anxious to have. I’m interested to know if the Eye-Fi wireless SD card would work well with this.

For me, I love fooling around with my Neuros. If you’re at all technologically inclined, you’ll love it too.

Video Standard

* Compatible with NTSC, Pal and Secam (input only) standards

Video Recording

* ISO Standard MPEG-4 SP encoding (MP4, ASF)
* QVGA (320×240) @30fps with AAC-LC/MP3/G.726 audio for smartphones, PSP™, iPod™, iPhone™ and PDA’s.
* VGA setting (640×480) @30fps for PC, TV playback.

Video Player

* MPEG-4 SP with MP3 audio, 30fps up to D1 resolution (720×480)
* Quicktime 6
* MPEG-4 AAC-LC stereo
* MP4 format at up to D1 resolution
* H.263 with MP3 audio
* FLV (for Playback of YouTube videos)
* ASF
* AVI (including Divx and Xvid)
* MP4
* WMV (up to QVGA)
* MOV
* MPG
* MPEG

You can also see a more detailed table of supported video formats for playback.

YouTube browser

* Watch YouTube videos on your TV
* Search the entire Youtube library using keywords
* build a list with all your favorite videos

Photo Viewer

* JPEG decoder (baseline up to 32M pixel)
* BMP
* GIF (nonanimated)
* Thumbnail view
* Zoom in/out (2x, 4x)

Audio Player

* Stereo MP3/WMA @ 30-320kbps (CBR & VBR)
* Ogg Vorbis
* FLAC
* WAV
* Stereo MPEG-4 AAC-LC
* G.726

Features

* Schedule (timer) recording
* Customizable slide shows
* One-click record
* IR Blaster to control your set-top box
* Run 3rd party applications

USB Host

* Record to and playback content from any USB mass storage device

Ethernet

* Connect to your network
* Save recordings to network storage
* UPnP support
* Stream Audio/Video from Internet
* Download multimedia content from Internet
* Connect to Windows Networks (Samba client support)

Complete System Includes

* Standard A/V RCA Interface Cables (European units also contain SCART adapters)
* 110-240V AC/DC Power Supply
* Stand
* IR Blaster
* Remote Control
* Abbreviated Users Manual

Dimensions and Weight

* 14 x 14 x 3.2 cm (5.5 x 5.5 x 1.25 inches)
* Weight 230g (8oz)

Upgradeability

* System updates and 3rd party applications available at www.neurostechnology.com/support/
* Automatic built-in software update

Storage Card Compatibility

* Memory Stick: Duo and Pro Duo
* Compact Flash: Type I and Type II
* Microdrives with CF type II interface
* Secure Digital (SD)
* Multi Media Card (MMC)
* USB thumbdrives
* External Hard Drives

Technorati Tags: neuros, pvr, dvr, digital video recorder, osd, linux, media player, wicked awesome

EFS

Microsoft,  since windows 2000, has provided EFS, a way to encrypt your data. Sadly, for windows 2000 and XP, you have to use the Professional version to be able to use this. With windows Vista, you have to use either Premium, Business or Ultimate to be able to get this goodie. EFS is actually a subset of the NTFS filesystem. It allows you to encrypt single files of groups of files directly on-drive. The file names are still visible when the files are accessed without the key. There are some security issues, but from what I understood, if you’re running windows XP or better, your files seems safe.

Be cautions though, you can get bit by EFS quite hard if you’re not. When windows is recommending you to backup your key, do it. It will save your precious bytes. Without that key, it is virtually impossible for now to view the content of these files. Furthermore, to rescue the content of encrypted files from Vista, I had to reinstall Vista, Windows XP seemed to be unable to read them, even when I provided it the key I made. Here you’re warned.

Bitlocker

Vista Ultimate has a new feature called Bitlocker which can encrypt the entire drive. I have no experience with it, but it seems to be a secure way to encrypt your hard-drive. To do so you will have to either have a TPM chip in your computer or a USB key with your encryption key on it. I’ll let you within the capable hands of Microsoft to continue your research about Bitlocker.

Truecrypt

Truecrypt is the solution I was using to encrypt my files on Windows XP Home Edition and during my first love with Linux. It is a cross-platform (currently Linux and Windows 2000 and better) and open-source encryption utility. It can either encrypt a virtual container, a file which will act like a drive, or a partition. Using a file as a container will probably be slower, you have to add the speed of accessing the file from its parent filesystem with the speed of truecrypt, but even then, I find this quite fast.

It has many features, some more useful than the others. There is currently a total of eight encryption algorithms, and three hash algorithms. The encryption algorithm you choose will affect the speed and the security of your data. The hash algorithm is for securing the key, it won’t affect the speed, I think.

Truecrypt has an advanced security feature, hidden volumes. Hidden volumes can act as a plausible deniability by having your actual encrypted data in another container hidden inside the first one. The user can store less important data in the first volume, the outer one, while storing critical files in the inner one. This means that if the thugs comes home and wants to see, let’s say, some files and you don’t want to show them, you can decrypt the outer volumes while keeping the inner ones safe. The thugs will probably let your kneecaps in place as there is no way to tell if there is an hidden volume.

Anyway, I’m back at using truecrypt, I don’t want to get bit again with the way Vista handles file-encryption.

And sure, there might be many more ways to encrypt your data within windows, but I’m only presenting the ones I know and have experience with. If you want to have your word, do it in the comments, as usual; I would be glad to have some feedback about this article. Have fun securing yourself, and try not to lock yourself out of your data!

Everyone likes to listen to music, to some extents. Some will just like the background noise, some will appreciate the music they hear and some, like me, want it tidied-up the best way possible. I currently use, on windows systems, musikCube to do my biddings.

What I like about it

It is a quite powerful audio player with integrated library management, quite iTunes-like. You can view and edit tags of your music from within the player. It can also work for you by either tagging your audio by the filenames or by renaming your file by the tags.

The library is maintained through a SQLite backend. It means that I can create some queries with an SQL-like syntax easily to create a Dynamic Playlist. It is possible, let’s say, to create a playlist which contains only the less-played songs from your library which are tagged 0 stars or more (-1 are disliked songs) randomized.

MusikCube has integrated crossfade feature, something Quod Libet (my favorite Linux audio player) has not and I would want. It might seem stupid, but I find it is nice.

The player also has a plugin system. Last.fm support is available through a plugin. There’s also a winamp emulation plugin; it will allow other programs that use the underlying functions of winamp to work with MusikCube.

What I don’t like

It has no integrated album art feature! This is something that I would really want. Maybe I’m blind and/or stupid and I missed something, but it doesn’t seem to exist from within the program.

Balloon tips won’t work with Vista. Well, they won’t work for me, I don’t know if it is a known behavior, but I can live without that.

It lacks some finish in some places.  As an example, there’s the place where I can see how much time I’m into a song, when I click onto it, I can see how much time is left to the song. This setting doesn’t register and I have to click on it every time the program is started.

Other than that, it could be nice to have a better skinning system, but personally, I wouldn’t use it. I want a useful music manager, not a fancy player that’ll eat all my resources!

Even with those little problems, I still haven’t found a better music player/audio management software for Windows. On Linux platforms, there’s the fabulous Quod Libet, but that’s going to be a matter for another time, I need to have something to write about later!

I received this ghic chic pocket sized (that fits perfectly in the Scottevest hoodie ) video camera on Thursday. I must say that I’m very impressed with the make, convenience and ease of use for this little camcorder.

Not only does it record up to 60 minutes of anything you feel other people would want to view; With just a little “flip” you can connect the entire camera into your USB port and upload it to your computer, send it off to e-mail or edit it on the spot.

Features:

One touch recording with 2x zoom
Instant on-camera playback and delete
High-speed video sharing from any PC or Mac
One-click emailing of videos and video greeting cards
Cusgtom editing of movie mixes, with the option to set your own music
Capture of still photos from video
Built in tri-pod mount
Convenient DVD processing option at over 9,400 one hour labs nationwide

It has a flash memory and it’s non-upgradable but with the price $179.00 for 2GB and great sound quality (it’s all you really need if you just wish to capture your video game triumph, a co-worker making a fool of themselves, or that sponaneous moment in which you always wished you had a camcorder handy to share the memory) it does the job.

My camera is white/silver, however you can get it in black, pink and orange as well.

It was SO easy to hook up to my television and pretend I was a star… I’m thinking it’s time to capture the Xbox karaoke to promote myself as the next J-Pop sensation!

I took quite a bit of footage, including my confrontation with the first big bad on Resident Evil 4, but after capturing me screaming like a boy- I decided to save the remaining shreds of my cool factor and wait until I increase my skills a little more on that game before I capture it for all eternity.

Instead of awesome game playing or karaoke… you’ll see a mini-tour of my apartment (as the sun was setting so it started to get a little dark) as I wanted to hurry and put my review on the site before the work week swallowed me whole.

I definitely deem this product ghic chic worthy as it really is attractive, convenient, SO easy to use, built in software and omg it’s small without the need to whittle your finger tips so you can use it. It’s going to become a staple for my site and my daily life. Jonathon- you’ve been warned.

Ghic Chic

What will you see today? Visit The Flip
http://www.theflip.com/

Specs:

Dimensions
Height: 4.125″
Width: 2.25″
Depth: 1.25″
Weight: 4.9 oz.
LCD Screen: 1.4″
Video storage capacity:
30-minute camcorder: 512 MB of internal flash memory
60-minute camcorder: 1 GB of internal flash memory
Lens:
Focus: Fixed-focus
Aperture: f/2.4
Focal length: 35mm equivalent
Zoom: 2x digital zoom
Viewfinder
Electronic LCD-based color viewfinder (280 × 220)
Image sensor:
¼ inch 4:3 VGA-format (640 × 480) CMOS sensor
Active area: 3.58mm (H) × 2.69mm (V)
5.6 µm square pixels
Superior low-light sensitivity (>2.0V/lux-sec)
Preprogrammed auto exposure
Automatic white balance
Automatic black level calibration
Video capture:
Resolution: Full frame VGA resolution (640 × 480), 30 frames per second (fps), progressive scan
Format: MPEG-4 Part 2, Advanced Simple Profile (ASP), saved as an AVI file
TV output:
NTSC
Audio:
Microphone: Built-in microphone (on front of camcorder)
Speaker: Built-in speaker (on back of camcorder)
Battery:
Uses two AA batteries (Standard Alkaline or Energizer® e2® Lithium
Automatic power-off if inactive for more than 90 seconds
Connection Interface:
USB 2.0 connector via flip-out arm
Software:
On-board Flip Video program
Runs from camcorder when connected to computer
View, save and organize videos
One-click video emailing
Instant online video publishing
Simple editing and movie making
Capture still photos from videos
Accessories Included:
Two AA alkaline batteries
TV connection cable (audio/video)
Wrist strap
Protective carrying pouch
Quick Start Guide

Technorati Tags: Flip Ultra Series, Pure Digital, Camcorder

The installer download is fairly small, weighing in at 9.2MB in size. Once you download the program, installation on an XP machine went without a hitch. Like all backup utilities that I’ve looked at recently, the interface itself can be a bit klunky at first. Once you’ve oriented yourself however you shouldn’t have much of a problem finding what you need.

I was immediately struck with how easy it is to set up a backup job. Backup4all has a wizard which walks you through everything from what folders and files you’ll be backing up, what type of backup you’ll be doing and where you’d like to save the files.

In my test backup, I backed up my entire C: drive to a local folder and then to a network share as well. Both tests went flawlessly and were done quickly, although there’s not a lot on my XP test machine other than the OS and a few utilities.

Restores were equally successful from both local drives and network drives, and to both the original location and to a separate location.

Backup4all comes in three versions – a lite version for home users at $19.95, a standard version for $24.95 and pro version for $44.95.

More expensive versions feature encryption schemes, email notification, multiple backup version storage, compression schemes, password protection and a number of other options.

In conclusion, this is another simple to use backup tool which would be great for the home user or small business user. It won’t replace an enterprise backup client and I wouldn’t recommend it for a large number of machines where more robust (albeit more expensive) alternatives abound.

If you’re interested in trying it out, you can download Backup4all and give it a whirl.

AFR does it’s job well. The controls are intuitive and the program is very light weight, weighing in at a mere 3.05MB fully installed. In my test case, I downloaded several small .zip files and placed them in various places on my hard drive. I then went through and deleted a file, downloaded a few more to the same directory (the Desktop) and then deleted a few more. I was able to restore all of the files following the software’s recommendation not to restore them to the same directory for fear of overwriting potentially recoverable files.

The software works by scanning a drive or folder and then noting where each file exists physically on the drive. When you delete a file, what you’re actually doing is removing pointers to that file. The data still (unless it’s already been overwritten) exists on your drive somewhere. AFR notes where this is after a scan, which allows for recovery of the file provided it hasn’t already been overwritten. This is why it’s best to recover a file sooner rather than later.

While it’s certainly no substitute for proper backups, AFR is a handy tool to have around for quick recovery of files that were deleted. I primarily use utilities like this within a day or so of deleting a file it turns out I really needed. Any longer and I rely more on backups to restore. AFR however can be a lot quicker than digging up backup media if you happen to backup to tape, CD or DVD.

You can download a demo of this software or purchase one of four packages from their site, http://www.file-recovery.net. The Standard version will run you $29.95, the Pro version (which also has a partition recovery tool) is $44.95 and the Enterprise Edition (with many other add ons as well) is $99.00

ArsGeek has a review honesty policy. We’ll never just regurgitate, we always spend time the product!

Works like a charm!

I was recently invited by SimplyfyThis to check out their offerings, an online invoce creator for small businesses.

They offer a fairly simple system that allows anyone from just about anywhere to log in and create online invoicing and payment data.

Here are some of the benefits:

Send invoices using email.

Accept payments online

Nothing to download and install

You can customize it

It’s online, so you can reach it from anywhere.

I find this useful for some one off contracting jobs I do for smaller area businesses.

At $67 per license, it’s certainly going to cost you a bit more than XP’s built in backup solution or other free solutions, however in my testing I found it to be an extremely easy to use solution with quite a bit of flexibility.

The entire product weighs in at just under 3MB in size, which made downloading it from their site easy. From initiating the download of their 30 day trial to executing my first backup took me just under 10 minutes.

On installing Backup Platinum, you’re first greeted with a wizard to create a New Item. This is the backup set you want to create. You can use the wizard to either create a new backup job, or set up files to synchronize (i.e. copy) from one machine to another.

You can choose to backup individual files, registry keys, folders or a number of other items such as Explorer Favorites, Windows Settings, Modem settings or more. In many of these options you can use Shift-Click or Alt-Click to select multiple objects. For some reason you cannot do this with registry keys, which was a minor annoyance.

You can choose to store your backup files locally, ship them off via FTP or write them to a CD or DVD. In my test, I backed up the registry and the Windows directory on a fresh XP install and burned it to DVD. I also chose to encrypt and zip the files to save space and give them some protection via Bluefish encryption.

The entire backup took about 15 minutes to complete and another 6 or so to burn to the DVD.

The restore was as simple as the backup. I inserted the DVD, and clicked on the icon named Test1 (that’s what I had called my backup job). I was automatically directed to choose whether I wanted to restore these files to their original location or choose another location. I chose to restore them to a folder on my C: drive. I then entered my password (remember, I encrypted them) and the restore began. Restoring the data took significantly longer (just about an hour) but executed flawlessly.

Conclusion: While the pros will have much more sophisticated tools at their disposal, Backup Platinum is a good choice for the SOHO user. It’s speedy, relatively inexpensive, fully featured and easy to use. If you don’t have a technical support person keeping your computer backed up on a regular basis, I can recommend you use Backup Platinum over the built in backup utility in XP.

Technorati Tags: review, product, backup, windows, xp, backup platinum