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Gadget Wisdom

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You Can Now Break the Software Locks on your Cell Phone

As CNN reports, new copyright rules announced Wednesday allow cell phone owners to break software locks in order to use them with competing carriers.

The U.S. Copyright Office determined that consumers cannot enjoy full legal use of their cell phones because of software locks added by the providers block access to the phones’ programs. Since ownership of the cell phone is technically that of the customer, restricting the software means that they are putting an artificial limit on the hardware.

For those of you choosing to stay with your provider, the advantages come with features that are locked out. For example, many providers lock out the feature allowing you to transfer ringtones or pictures taken with a camera phone to a computer using a data cable so that they can charge you for transfer over the network. Ringtones and such are big business.

Published on December 3, 2006
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High-Definition Television

Consumer Reports has a special feature on their website about HD Televisions. The reviews require a subscription, but the basic advice is rather useful, and it prompted us to address High Definition as it exists.

High definition television has more lines making up the picture(pixels for the computer monitor people there) than a standard definition television. Thus, it produces a more vivid and clear picture. It is not just the television that adds to the cost though. You need to plug some high-definition equipment into it.

Now, as we mentioned, HD-DVD or BluRay equipment is expensive and unproven in the marketplace, but a simple solution is an HD upscaling or upconverting DVD player. This will take the DVD output and scale it up to match the high-definition inputs of the screen. There are varying qualities of thi.

The simplest way to get HD is to call your television service provider and tell them you want to upgrade your service to HD. Hopefully it won’t be too much. That will at least get you the big networks to start your HD adventure on.

Published on November 30, 2006
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Nintendo for the AARP Generation

Nintendo showed up last month at the Life@50+ event, the New York Times reports, sponsored by AARP in Anaheim, California. Promoting games to generation more used to board and card games might seem like a stretch or a reach, but it is apparently working in some countries.

Nintendo in Japan has been focusing on producing products for an older generation, including a which puts players through a daily routine of number games, word puzzles, and reading exercises. They were offering the US Version of this, called Brain Age, at the AARP event.

We think the idea of designing computer games for an older generation is a good one. Marketing to them may be a bit harder, but as with many other things, if you feed an untapped market with well-designed, thought-out, and tested products, you will not only be successful financially, but you will be starting a new trend.

Published on November 30, 2006
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Presto: Because Computers Scare Old People

TechCrunch reported today on Presto, a new service for people who don’t currently have internet access. The service uses a printer which hooks to a telephone line to receive email. When someone sends you email at your presto.com email address, it prints on the printer.

The Presto printer costs $150 and the service costs $10 a month. Only approved users can send email to the account, thus reducing spam printing out. But the adding of approved users requires a computer or calling an 800 number. Emails can also be sent to others, ie a more tech capable relative, advising low paper or low ink.
Such an item is perfect for those people who want to be able to receive email but do not know how to use a computer. It would allow relatives to forward pictures, documents, and other information to them with a minimum of fuss.  It also helps their tech savvy relatives avoid being tech support for their less savvy relatives.

Published on November 28, 2006
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Gift Box of USBCells

With our continuing coverage of the USBCell product, we announce that USBCell is offering a Gift Box of 10 USBCell packs(2 AA batteries in each pack), for $180.

Remember, the USBCell is a battery with a built-in USB connector for charging. Great idea. Wish we didn’t have to send to the UK for it.

Published on November 28, 2006
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DVD Wars: HD-DVD versus Blu-Ray

The Washington Post yesterday reported on the war between the two high-definition video formats. One of these formats will quickly go the way of the Betamax, or the Laserdisc. Both HD-DVD players and Blu-Ray players can cost anywhere from $500 to $1000, and as an organization embracing frugality, we cannot endorse purchasing a product when a clear future is uncertain for both.

Most experts agree, that in a year or so, one of these formats will be gone. But this will delay a new high-definition video disc format of any type from being widely adopted by consumers for that time.

For us, we’re just annoyed that our efforts to rid ourselves of VHS cassettes in favor of DVDs are not yet done and the DVD is already being replaced by a High-Definition cousin.

Published on November 28, 2006
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Is the Zune a dud?

The Chicago Sun-Times reported earlier this week that the Microsoft Zune…its new digital music player fails to live up to expectations and will likely be gone not long after it arrives.
For all we can say about the Ipod, both good and bad, several companies have come up with alternatives worth considering. Most of these companies, Sandisk, to name one, look for ways to target features and markets Ipod does not.

If anyone had the power to disrupt Apple’s 85% market share, it was Microsoft. But it appears that their product has dropped the ball. Zune is not even compatible with the staple of Windows media experiences, the Windows Media Player. Even the touted wireless feature only allows transfers to other Zunes, not to allow transfers from your computer wirelessly.

Time for Microsoft to drop this like they dropped Microsoft Bob.

Published on November 27, 2006
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Management vs. IT Security

We follow Bruce Schneier, a guru in the field of security of all types. Recently, he commented on the issues management has in understanding IT security. Management tends to see implementing IT security measures as a low priority. Security is a preventative measure…there is no easy way to point somewhere and show the profit made by implementing good security.

Security insures against loss. Perhaps there is a way to relate a cost-savings in insurance, but besides that, security is a drain on the bottom line, be it in a corporation or with an individual.

Individuals are the same when it comes to security. The managerial side of us has to ask the justification for spending money and time protecting against loss, while our IT side speaks of viruses, spyware, malware, and environmental disasters…

Data seems too intangible to people to see it as a valuable item, like the equipment protecting it, or jewelry which must be secured. Either way, we must force ourselves to listen to our IT people, or the IT voice in our head and protect our valuables…

Published on November 26, 2006
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Ten Things Not to Do With Your Hard Drive

We’re always amused when we read of the foolish things people have done with their important information. Protecting your data, if that data is important to you, takes some foresight.

The people at Silicon.com have put together briefs of foolish things people have done to their hard drives or other data sources. The list includes:

  • Formatting your drive…ten times
  • Leaving a banana to rot on top of your hard drive
  • Mailing your drive in for repair in a pair of dirty socks
  • Dropping it
  • Spraying WD-40 into a drive to quiet it
  • Dropping it from a helicopter

Now…we can’t emphasize this enough…backup your data…protect your data…disaster may strike at any moment. And if it does…the services that specialize in data extraction cost big bucks.

Published on November 19, 2006
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Browser Wars

In the old days, the Browser Wars were when Microsoft Internet Explorer competed with Netscape Navigator for the browser market. Each would diverge farther away from each other…create HTML functions and tags unique to that browser.

It created quite a mess for the Internet. Netscape threw in the towel, but its heir, Mozilla Firefox, continues to hold a share in the market. Recently, Firefox unveiled its version 2.0, as Internet Explorer released the long-awaited IE7.

Internet Explorer 7 has a simplified interface which leaves more workspace than its previous incarnations. It implements tabbed browser, a longtime popular feature on Firefox. It implements a unified search box and RSS feed integration, long part of Firefox.

Both Firefox 2.0 and Internet Explorer 7 boast improved security features including new phishing protection to prevent visiting spoofed websites. When IE7 is used in the upcoming Vista release, it promises a protected mode that isolates it from the rest of the OS for security protection.

IE7 is a major improvement to the Internet Explorer browser. However, much of its improvements are playing catchup to the Firefox features that have proven too popular to ignore.

Firefox 2.0 has the same list of features, plus improvements to their tabbed browsing, a session restore feature allows a complete restore of a terminated Firefox session. inline spell checking, improved plugin management, as well as other improvements make Firefox the better of the two despite the higher market share Internet Explorer commands.

We don’t recommend chucking IE completely. It can still be very useful for sites that stubbornly refuse to open in Firefox. Of course, there is an extension for Firefox that allows you to open any link in an IE window embedded inside a Firefox tab, called IE Tab. Wait…perhaps you can discard IE entirely if you want…

Published on November 15, 2006
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