MP3 Players? What MP3 Players?

Because Macworld Expo usually conflicts (and, occasionally, overshadows) the Consumer Electronics Show, CES is an event I don't often attend. It's been three years since I last marched the Las Vegas Convention Center's endless halls. With Expo moved to February, I returned. And, in doing so, took the opportunity to compare this year's show to CES 2007. From my perspective the two most important differences were that in 2010 I didn't get food poisoning and, in 2007, you couldn't walk five steps without tripping over another MP3 player.

Moving beyond issues of my digestive tract, MP3 players just weren't a big deal at CES 2010. Oh sure, among the trillions of booths there were still those that featured cheap knick-knacky players that doubled as cigarette lighters, pocket tattoo kits, and martini toothpicks, but no one seemed to be mounting a campaign to unseat the iPod.

And this was the case even among the major players. At Pepcom's Digital Experience press event, Creative Technology devoted the space it had to its new Vado HD pocket camcorder rather than its line of Zen MP3 players. At that same event, SanDisk did display a line-up of its Sansa music players, but these players depart from traditional MP3 players by allowing you to plug pre-loaded music cards into them, thus returning to the days when player and media were more separated than they have been recently. And at the iRiver booth there wasn't a media player to be seen--it was all about the company's e-book reader, the Story.

In fact, the only big-name company that drew serious attention to its portable media player was Microsoft. The Zune HD had its own area in Microsoft's massive booth and folks on hand to talk about it.

I happened to speak to a PR representative (who shall remain nameless) about the state of media players and, in essence, this person replied, "We're still making them, but honestly, who can compete with the iPod?"

Personal opinion or not, it was an opinion that was underscored by a show floor devoid of any new exciting portable players. And if that means anything for the future of portable media players, I think we can safely banish the phrase "iPod Killer" once and for all.

The game's over. The iPod won.

HP W2558hc 25.5-Inch Widescreen LCD Monitor

The HP W2558hc 25.5-inch widescreen LCD offers impressive image quality, a host of extra features, and a pleasant design. What's not to like? You have to be willing to pay $549 to get it.

The W2558hc performed well in our image-quality tests, presenting sharp, readable text on black and white backgrounds alike. Text was quite easy to read even at 6 points; we didn't have to strain to see the lettering.

Colors looked bright, particularly in a portrait. Skin tones appeared realistic, with even shading and the proper amount of contrast to give the image a pleasing feel. The display also handled our motion tests well, showing smooth video with no visible fluttering.

The unit's 25.5-inch size is unusual, but that allows it to have a 1920 by 1200 native resolution.

As for extras, the W2558hc has them in spades. A built-in Webcam resides at the center of the top bezel. On the left side of the display sits a card reader that accommodates all types of media cards. Two USB ports are also on the left. On the back, the W2558hc has two HDMI ports, DVI and VGA ports, USB-in and -out ports, and an audio-in jack.

Four inset buttons on the bottom-right lip of the bezel control the easy-to-navigate on-screen menus. Two additional buttons control the W2558hc's other unique feature: a built-in task light that shines from under the monitor down onto any papers or items you might have placed on the table. The W2558hc also doubles as a digital picture frame, as it can show photos stored on memory cards placed in the card reader.

All of those extra features are integrated well into the monitor's clean design, which sports HP's signature piano-black finish. The display is height-adjustable, too; a built-in lever allows you to make the adjustments. Though the W2558hc can tilt, it does not swivel.

Given the HP W2558hc's wealth of extras, its excellent image quality, and its distinctive design, $549 might be a good deal for this well-rounded monitor after all.
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What is the Best TV to Buy?

It sits in the corner of your living room, it talks to you, it comforts you, and sometimes it curses at you. We're talking of course, about your television. It is the centre of most homes, whereas in previous years that role was taken by the radio. The television was first introduced in the 1950's, and since then it has evolved from the standard black and white television, to the color picture tube. Nowadays there are three basic types of television that you will need to consider when you are looking for a new television. Let's go over them one by one.

Plasma: When someone talked about getting a 'flat screen' television in the old days, chances are they were talking about a plasma screen. These are great televisions for viewing shows, but they do have a few drawbacks. They have a glass screen, meaning they tend to reflect too much ambient light. They also have a problem with burn-in when you are playing a video game. That being the case, these televisions might be best for people who only use it to watch television. On that note, they do display a resolution of 1024x1024.

LCD: LCD Panels are almost the universally preferred choice when it comes to televisions. One thing that people really tend to like is the fact that the material the screen is made from does not reflect a glare. On some of the lower end televisions you might get somewhat of a glare, but it will be nowhere near the effect you get from a plasma television or a standard cathode ray tube.

LED: Right here we have the major competitor for the TV market. These are still very expensive but so far they do produce the greatest results. One of the most definitive factors when it comes to the LED television is the fact that it is very thin. The TV is actually quite flexible and can be put literally anywhere. This one also produces the best picture, eliminating the infamous black issue that LCD televisions seem to have.

These are the major players in the television arena. The question however, is which TV is the best one for you and your purposes? It's difficult to give definitive advice here, but if you are a gamer, then the plasma television would not be the best choice. For that, the LCD TV would be the best. Naturally the LED TV is the best of all of them, but it is still incredibly expensive. If you cannot afford to pay the high price, then you should definitely think about going for the LCD TV.

The television is taking some amazing twists. After years of the Cathode Ray Tube setup, we now have at least three different television variants on the market. Where it will settle is anyone's guess, but right now the important thing is buying the one that fits your needs. So try out each one, see what you can afford, and see what you like. Eventually you will find a TV that fits your tastes perfectly.

Benefits of Modern Gadgets

Gadgets are not just meant for entertainment they even improve our lives a lot. Well most of us think of gadgets as the iPods and mp3 players that provide wholesome entertainment all the time any where in the world. The word gadget is more than we could think of. It has solved a lot of problems for the physically challenged people. If you were amazed by the mp3 players and the GPS then these will definitely make you wondering. Most of these are designed for the blind people.

One such example is the electronic eyes. They could tell the blind about the white stripes of the pedestrian cross walk and ensures safety to cross the road. It just like wearing a pair of electronic eyes. Another one is the braille PDA`s which help the blind people to use standard computers and PDA devices.I have also heard about the devices which are created for deaf people. They improve the lives of the physically challenged people to a great extent. The house wares are the list of accessories that gives you a comfortable life.

The list includes stuff like portable air conditioners, fans, heaters, humidifiers, dehumidifiers, washers, dryers, sewing and garment care machines, air purifiers, etc. The air purifiers are one of those simple equipments that help in purifying the contaminated air. It does so by freeing the air from harmful and unnecessary pollutants. The air is one of the essential element to live and if this air is contaminated then what is the meaning of such a life.

Steve Ballmer spotted autographing Apple’s MacBook

Confronted with a public request that came out of the blue, Microsoft’s CEO agreed to sign a student’s MacBook rather than stomp on it or slam the notebook brand that he otherwise enjoys to criticize for being overpriced. Yes, we have a video to prove it.

While Steve Ballmer was attending a technology council meeting at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, Tennessee earlier this week, a student approached him and asked outright if he would sign his MacBook. The inquiry generated laughs from other students, including the CEO, while a student quickly added, “It’s got Windows on it. I promise.” Ballmer wholeheartedly laughed at this remark, pulling a marker and putting his signature on the MacBook’s back. The autograph, posted online, came with a witty note: “Need a new one?”

Luckily, someone was clever enough to capture this unique moment and post it on YouTube, for the whole world to see. As you can see from the video, Ballmer evidently enjoyed the inquiry and seemed pretty relaxed signing a MacBook. Who knows, maybe the signature and the autographed MacBook prove valuable enough on eBay to earn this student a scholarship for the next semester.

While some folks in tech circles appreciate Steve Ballmer’s outrageous persona, others dislike his overly enthusiastic but otherwise electrifying stage action at corporate events. The billionaire CEO has angered loyal Apple fans quite a bit thus far, most notably when he laughed off the iPhone and deemed it too expensive right after Steve Jobs unveiled the handset in January of 2007.

Furthermore, Ballmer recently played down the iPhone momentum, provoked by Apple’s adverts that slammed Windows 7 ahead of the October 2009 launch. Ballmer also made the news last September by pretending to stomp on an employee’s iPhone at a corporate event, allegedly provoked by the fact that a guy dared snapping the CEO’s stage entrance with an iPhone. Some folks, however, have dismissed this incident as a PR stunt.

A recent story bordering an urban legend alleged that Ballmer fired an employee for not saying “Bing” with enough enthusiasm, even though nobody has confirmed this incident yet. For better or for worse, Microsoft’s CEO is as equipped to grab headlines with his jazzed-up stage action as Apple CEO’s charisma and Hollywood-styled presentations keep fans glued to their seats while he’s unleashing a reality-distortion field.

If the amount of reporting is any indication, the MacBook autographing will score Ballmer a few respect points with the Mac people. Here’s some food for thought: Do you think Steve Jobs would react the same in a similar situation and put his signature on an HP notebook or a Windows Vista box? Chime in with your comments below.

Verizon Wireless Omnia II

The Omnia II serves as a nice bridge for first-time smartphone users. Samsung’s TouchWiz user interface makes customizing the home screen easy, but it feels too sluggish and shouldn’t be placed on a smartphone. For $199, the Omnia II has a rich feature set, but you’d be better served by a number of other devices in Verizon Wireless’ portfolio.

The Omnia II measures 4.7 x 2.3 x .5 inches and weighs 4.7 ounces. That’s a bit larger than the original Omnia which measured 4.4 x 2.2 x 0.5 inches but a bit taller and narrower than the 4.6 x 2.4 x 0.5 inches Motorola Droid, Verizon Wireless’ current top-of-the-line handset


In the hand, the Omnia II looks and feels like a premium smart phone. It’s light and feels comfortable when held up to the face for talking on the phone. Its front face is relatively simple. There’s a large and beautiful resistive 3.7-inch 800×480 resolution AMOLED display. Despite Samsung’s claims that the display offers better resistive feedback, I found that it still had to be calibrated out of the box and that I still prefer capacitive screens for their ease of use. Below the screen there are Send/End keys and a central faceted gemstone looking button for accessing the phone’s main menu. Volume keys, an ‘OK’ button, and a 3.5mm headphone jack are on the left side of the phone, there’s a stylus on the top right, and the camera quick launch key, microUSB charging port, and screen-lock button are on the right side of the Omnia II. The black back cover has a unique and stylish red design that makes the rear of the phone look like it’s glowing. There are also two speakers and a 5MP camera with a single LED flash.


The Omnia II is Samsung’s first phone to run its new TouchWiz 2.0 user interface that covers about 90-percent of the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system. TouchWiz 2.0 provides three different home screens to customize with widgets, that can be stored on a left sidebar tray and bought from Samsung’s new widget marketplace. (All widgets, for now, are free and the selection is minimal). TouchWiz 2.0 makes the phone feel like a feature phone; menus are colorful and text is large. Also, there’s less digging to get to what you need; simply click the center button to view all of your applications. Unlike Windows Mobile 6.5, you can actually customize where the icons sit, so that your most used ones are on the first screen. The ease of use is a good thing for first-comers to the smartphone game, but Windows Mobile old timers may prefer the standard Windows Mobile 6.5 user interface.

On the bottom of the home screen there are four touch sensitive buttons to quickly access your incoming SMS/MMS messages, e-mails, missed calls, and Verizon Wireless’ Visual Voicemail service. Samsung added an excellent addition to the top-right taskbar on the homesceen; when you click it, a small menu with larger versions of the signal strength, battery life, and messages, pops up so that it’s easier to tap one with a finger instead of trying to poke it deliberately.
My biggest gripe with the user interface is that it’s still slow despite the phone’s 800Mhz processor. I frequently saw the colorful spin-wheel that told us the phone was still processing a request. Also, when I flicked through the various home screens that were loaded with widgets, I noticed that it took a second or two for all of them to load, which is a problem we don’t often see on Android devices. To eliminate a bit of the sluggishness, Samsung did include a handy Task Switcher inside the main menu, which makes closing programs a breeze.


The Omnia II has a unique keyboard that uses Swype technology, and it’s the first phone in the United States to offer it. While you can tap-type on both of the fairly good landscape and horizontal keyboards, I actually found myself typing faster using Swype. Here’s how it works: simply slide your finger from one letter to the next to spell out a word, then lift your hand, and start swyping out the next word. The software automatically puts a space in every time you lift your finger, which is useful, but a pain when you’re trying to type out web addresses. It learns, too: as you type out words that you use frequently, it will begin to use them as a default. If Swype doesn’t understand a word, you can choose from a host of words that it does recognize instead.

As a Windows Mobile 6.5 phone at its heart, the Omnia II has native support for full Microsoft Exchange which lets you sync with your work e-mail, calendar entries, and contacts. If you aren’t an Exchange user, you can setup your own IMAP/POP accounts using the e-mail setup wizard. I setup a work account in about five minutes, and if you use GMail, Yahoo, or dozens of other popular accounts, it will automatically pull the correct settings in for you so you don’t have to fumble with server addresses.

E-mail attachment support is rather robust thanks to the preinstalled MS Word Mobile, MS Excel Mobile, MS Power Point Mobile, and Adobe Reader LE applications. The Microsoft Excel and Word apps let you edit and create new documents.

Mobile IM support is rather upsetting for a smart phone. AIM, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo can be accessed through Verizon Wireless’ Mobile IM client, but it’s more of a feature phone experience than a true smartphone one. I suggest downloading BeeJive IM or Palringo for a more robust chat experience that can also combine multiple accounts into one buddy list.

Opera Mobile 9.5 is the default web browser on the Omnia II, and I prefer it over Internet Explorer Mobile because it renders web sites better and has an easier menu system to navigate. You can zoom in one handed by holding your finger down and moving it up (to zoom in) or back (to zoom out), and I found this feature to be useful when I wanted to quickly pan around and view articles on large HTML pages without having to use two hands. Multi-touch pinching and pulling, however, is a speedier and better form of zooming. Panning around the page was fluid and there wasn’t much lag or reloading. The Omnia II also supports 802.11b/g Wi-Fi networks.

The Omnia II is a powerful multimedia device with DLNA support for outputting video wirelessly to TVs, DiVX movie playback support, and fairly good speakers. I played Pearl Jam’s Daughter and found the audio to be clear and fluid but noticed that it was hard to hear Eddie Vedder’s vocals. Samsung created a special divot on the back of the phone to help amplify the music when it’s placed with the speakers facing down on a desk. I noticed this helped improve the audio quality a bit. Also, Samsung included an etiquette feature that automatically turns off the music when you place the phone face down. A hip-hop video streamed from YouTube by Drake looked awful when blown to full screen, but audio came through crystal clear. The image library looked excellent, however, and home movies were top notch.

The Omnia II comes with a handful of applications and widgets, including Bing, Facebook, Microsoft My Phone, a podcast player, and an RSS reader. However, there are a few hundred more available in Microsoft’s Marketplace. That’s not much considering there are thousands available for BlackBerry and Android phones and over 100,000 available for the iPhone.

I found the Omnia II’s 5 megapixel camera to be satisfactory. Shots taken outdoors were crisp and colors were represented well. But indoors, the flash flooded some images with too much white balance, so I found that I had to often retake shots. The video camera’s quality was more than YouTube worthy but when I played the clips back on the computer I noticed some noise in the image. Also I thought it odd that the flash remained on while shooting video, so be sure to have a charger nearby for longer clips.


During the testing period in New York City, I was surprised to see the reception drop to just two bars in a lot of areas. Most of the Verizon Wireless devices I test report a full signal around New York City, for the most part. However, I didn’t notice any drops in call quality during testing and all calls came through loud and clear. Also, despite the fact that the phone was reporting just 3 bars, the 3G speeds averaged 1021kbps, which is quick.

The Omnia II got about a day of battery life under heavy usage where I checked my e-mail at least once an hour, browsed the web, and placed phone calls.

The Omnia II isn’t a bad phone, but its Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system feels a bit stale. Windows Mobile fans will appreciate its innovative Swype text input, which is a fun and accurate way to enter in text on the phone. Its camera is decent, but not amazing, and at the end of the day it placed great phone calls and had solid data speeds. A multi-touch screen, zippier browser, and an improved TouchWiz user interface that’s closer in design to HTC’s Sense would make this a much more improved device. For $199 on Verizon Wireless, I suggest you check out the Motorola Droid or HTC Touch Pro 2, which both offer a gamut of customization options that will better suit your needs

HP ProBook 5310m laptop

HP first introduced the ProBook 5310m as the “world’s thinnest full-performance notebook PC” which is a notable claim for the ProBook line, whose defining characteristic tends to be its price-consciousness. While almost every laptop is “the world’s something-or-other” with the 5310m HP delivered a legitimately thin offering to their ProBook series and something significantly different from the other 13.3-inch ProBook, the 4310s.

A quick note on HP’s naming–the letter at the end of each model name says a lot about the system. The 5310m’s “m” stands for business mobility, while a “b” means entry-level enterprise and an “s” is for small business. HP’s EliteBooks are the company’s enterprise offerings. As with any other product though, there is a lot of crossover from one line to another though.

At 0.9-inches thick and 3.7 pounds the 5310m is on of the slicker 13.3-inch notebooks that I’ve seen lately. The 5310m not only makes the ProBook design thinner but adds premium features, like a brushed aluminum lid (carried over from the EliteBooks) and soft-touch coating on the palmrests and bottom of the chassis. And we see ProBook features well, including the isolated keyboard design and metal power button with white LED.

The design, interestingly, is based on that of the 5101 netbook, not that of the other ProBooks or the EliteBooks.

As noted above the 5310m uses a standard power notebook processor, not a wimpy low-voltage model (though this is an option on the entry-level $699 model). Other changes were made so the laptop could be thinner and lighter though. The most important one is that the system does not have an optical drive. This will not matter to many people, but it will be a dealbreaker for others, so it’s worth keeping in mind. The other change is a different battery design than the one typically found on a sub-$1000 notebook. The 5310m’s battery is a slim, slice-style battery, not a standard design. The slice slides into the bottom of the chassis and is super thin, rather than using a design that plugs into the back and is the same height as the bottom half of the computer. It’s a great move for HP, and it matches the change we recently saw with Lenovo’s move from the ThinkPad T400 to the T400s.

The 5310m features what might be the nicest hardware in the small business section. Consider it a step up from the standard ProBooks, ThinkPad SLs and Vostros, thanks to the slim profile and the extra perks. The all black design is handsome and tends to look clean, though the aluminum lid did pick up a few aesthetic scratches in my travels. The magnesium chassis shouldn’t have any problems holding up to wear-and-tear. The aluminum on the lid might not offer a ton of extra protection, but it can’t hurt.

The system might be slim, but users will still get a full selection of ports. The Probook has three USB slots, a combo headphone/microphone jack, a card reader, lock slot, ethernet, and DisplayPort. Noticeably missing are a modem jack and VGA out. Neither of these will be missed by the majority of users, but if you are doing a lot of presentations in other people’s offices you might want something with VGA. Also missing is a hardware volume adjustment. There is a hardware radio on/off button, but it’s on the inside of the system, next to the delete key, not on the side or front as is typical with a business system.

I’m quite happy with the hardware on the 5310m. The island-style keyboard is great to use, the bits of aluminum give the system a great feeling, and the touchpad supports gestures (though they are turned off by default). While the touchpad is a nice size HP again used a glossy surface which I don’t like, but it wasn’t a serious problem. The display and sound are not the computers strongest points, but both are adequate given HP’s goals with the computer and its size/weight. One design flaw is that the system’s muted LEDs mean that is card be hard to notice if the 5310m is charging or not. More than once I had to check the plug to make sure what the powered-down computer was up to.

The 5310m supports HP’s QuickLook (instant-on Outlook) and QuickWeb (instant-on internet) software tools as well as the small business-friendly Protect Tools security suite. There is also a 2MP webcam designed for video conferencing.


Performance surprisingly is a selling point for the 5310m. This isn’t generally the case with thin-and-lights, but this one comes with a standard voltage processor in the $899 build, giving it a leg up over many systems in its weight class. Also on the performance front, the system comes standard with a 7200RPM disk and DDR3 RAM. HP notes that the full performance processor should offer about 2x the performance of the CULV processor, which in turn offers 2x performance of Intel’s Atom netbook processor.

The quoted difference in battery life from the 5310m’s CULV (Intel SU2300) processor to its standard power one is just half an hour–from 6.5 hours to 7. Battery testing put the life of the 5310m with the Intel P9300 processor at about 6 hours for standard mobile working conditions.

Overall, the ProBook 5310m is sort of a big deal. HP totally hit the mark with the hardware and they did it for $899, a reasonable price for a system that performs as well as this one and still manages 6+ hours of battery life. If you don’t need an optical drive or discrete graphics this is a computer to keep your eye on, whether you need it for business or not. The biggest problem is that it’s crammed in the stack of ProBooks, which tend to be pretty average, so not many buyers will probably ever happen upon it.