To summarize the results, the best media is manufactured by Pioneer, Mitsubishi, Taiyo Yuden, Hitachi Maxwell, Sony, and TDK. Our advice, consult the guide, and take the advice, and don’t buy something that is likely to fail.
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Blank Media Quality Guide
Sometimes the best deal is not the best option you can have. After years of trying to save money on blank CDs and DVDs and having an annoying failure rate on many of the discs, we found this guide to the quality of media.
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Backup Your Windows Notebook Now or Face Dire Consequences!
We like the title of this article from the Mobility Guru a great deal. Backup is something we save for the last minute too often…and ultimately forget, dooming us in an emergency. It is not a matter of IF you need to back up your data, it is WHEN.
For the frugal individual, try an old hard drive. For a minimal fee, you can convert it to USB operation and use it as backup. There is also the CD/DVD option, which will definitely work for some data. For the average person remember…your media files will not change, and thus can be backed up on a few DVDs rather efficient. For frequently updated information, such as application data, a copy of your registry, and your documents, you can use the old hard drive, supplemented with regular optical disc backups to back that drive up.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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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…