Tag Archives: products

Thoughts

People's obsession with new things

There I was, at a stop sign, when a truck carrying new cars passed by me, and it hit me (an idea, that is)! Not only did those cars have plastic foil on the body of the cars, but they had it on the wheels as well! You know, you’ve seen the white plastic wrap that new cars have on them – it’s there to protect them from scratches during transport. Now, they’ve got plastic wrap on the alloy wheels as well. I guess nitpicky people complained that wheels on new cars had scratches, and didn’t want to buy them anymore…

The point is, people everywhere are obsessed with things being brand new when they get them. They won’t even buy a toaster if the box has been opened. Forget buying a cereal box if it’s open. Jars of jam and bottles of milk even have warnings on them, that say we shouldn’t get them or consume them if the seal’s been broken.

Overall, our incessant desire for new, fresh, unopened products is good. It’s led to cleaner, more hygienic development standards in the food industry and as applicable, in all other industries. But I wonder, why don’t we all share that same desire for something new, fresh and unopened when it comes to the most important thing in our lives – our spouses? We blissfully accept used goods there, don’t we? Do we even question our spouses or sexual partners about their past history? Most people don’t. While they wouldn’t think twice about drinking an opened bottle of milk, they’ll gladly swap bodily fluids and subject themselves to diseases of all kinds, all for the sake a few frenzied, passing seconds.

Shouldn’t we have better standards than this? Shouldn’t we demand, of ourselves and of others (all of us), that we present ourselves at our (first) marriages as “fresh and unopened” as possible? Isn’t that the perfect gift we could give our spouses? After all, we’re not talking about a toaster or a VCR, that we’ll use for a few years then throw away, we’re talking about a lifetime of precious togetherness. Shouldn’t we come to the table with all our assets intact, not with some of them labeled “used goods” or “biological hazard”?

We’re so concerned about a scratch on a car, but we tend to forget about psychological scars and traumatic experiences that leave lasting marks on the minds of those who bear them. A shiny wheel is nowadays more important than a shiny, beautiful life, and being able to peel off the plastic wrap from a new car carries more bragging rights than being able to say you kept yourself whole for your marriage.

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Reviews

Camcorder review: JVC Everio GZ-MG21

JVC Everio GZ-MG21 Camcorder

Friends of ours bought the JVC Everio GZ-MG21 camcorder a little more than a month ago, and aren’t too happy. Granted, it’s a 1st generation hard-drive based camcorder, so it’s bound to have certain downsides. So, with that in mind, here they are:

  • Start-up time is long, which means bye-bye to catching those candid moments on tape um, hard-drive.
  • Video quality is ho-hum. It’s better than VHS tape, but definitely not as good as Hi-8 or miniDV tapes.
  • Still quality is horrible, and that’s to be expected, since the max and only res for stills is 640×480.
  • No image stabilization + small camcorder = shaky video. This means the 32x optical zoom, while normally a great thing, is useless without a tripod.
  • Every time you press the record button, a new video file is created. Which means that when you do scene-by-scene shots, you end up with a whole bunch of little video files that you have to stitch together in your video app if you want to view them on a computer. My friend thought it’d be better if video kept getting appended to a single file. I can understand the logic of why JVC has a file by file approach, but I have to agree with my friend that a simpler method needs to be found. Yes, creating different movie files for each scene is an easy way to differentiate between the different scenes, and also saves battery time and minimizes lag since you don’t have to seek an existing large video file to find the end point and append to it. But, it is annoying.
  • Battery time is less than advertised.

Now for the good points:

  • Very small, easy to carry.
  • Convenient.
  • No tapes to worry about.

JVC Everio GZ-MG21It’d be interesting to compare my friends’ Everio model to the newer ones that have come out since, like the GZ-MG505, which is supposed to have 3, yes three, 4.5-inch CCD sensors, and shoot 5 megapixel stills. It also has a larger filter, and a larger LCD monitor.

But, it also consumes 75% more power and weighs 25% more. However, the video quality has to be better, and the stills would probably look stunning compared to the MG21.

I still have to assume, unless I’m presented with evidence to the contrary, that multiple video files are created, and that’s an annoyance. Plus, battery time has to be less than the MG21. And, I’d expect a little more than 30GB in drive space, especially given how cheap hard drives are these days. I mean, c’mon, an iPod has more drive space!

Here is the Everio Specs PDF.

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Events

Want to see Ligia and I on TV?

A few months ago, both Ligia and I got taped for a new show on HGTV called “I Want That! Tech Toys“, the kid brother, so to speak, of “I Want That!”, which is a wildly popular show. By the look of it, this new show is going to make it big as well.

At any rate, Ligia got invited to demo a portable keyboard called the Yamano Hand-Roll Piano (a bit of a misnomer, since it’s not a piano, it’s a keyboard). At any rate, what makes it an interesting product is that it’s truly portable: it rolls up into a tight little package, which you can carry virtually anywhere. It’s also powered by batteries. The keys are made of rubber with touch sensors underneath, so if you spill something on it, you don’t have to worry. It’s even got a MIDI-out port, in case you’re interested in that sort of a thing. The only thing that’s missing is the tactile feel of a real keyboard, which, I have to say, is a fairly important thing for the more serious piano or keyboard players. But this keyboard is great for beginners. So… to make a long story short, Ligia and one of her students, Peter, got taped for the show, and the episode just aired on HGTV. I uploaded the particular segment of the show where Ligia is featured to YouTube, and you can view it below.

What about me? Well, I got invited to demo a cool product called the Nabaztag Smart Bunny for the show a month after Ligia got taped. I demoed it, and also wrote a nice lengthy review here at ComeAcross for your enjoyment. The show in which I appeared aired after Ligia, and it’s still on the air, as a matter of fact. The segment where I talk about the bunny is also uploaded to YouTube, and you can view it below.

Hope you enjoy them! I know we enjoyed getting taped, it was a fun little experience, and we are grateful for the opportunity! You wouldn’t believe it, but just to get that 1:25 minutes of live TV, it took over three hours for each of us. It’s the setups for the different shots and the re-takes that take so long. You’ve got to make sure the lighting’s just right, that the angles are correct, that stray objects aren’t in the shot, so on and so forth. Hey, and did you know that one of those Beta video cameras they use to film you for TV costs over $60,000? Better not drop them!

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Thoughts

Apple's WWDC 2006 Keynote Address

Yes, I know the keynote address was given a few days ago, and this post is late, but something’s bothered me ever since I watched it. There were two things, actually, and both had to do with Steve Jobs:

  • He seemed thinner than unusual, and tired. His face was pale, and slightly haggard. Was it just the usual overnight prep for the presentation, or is it something else? Is the big guy alright, health-wise?
  • He shared the stage with three other presenters (all Apple guys). Did you catch that? Let me repeat it: he SHARED the stage. More than that, he had this game of tag going on with one of them (Scot Forstall, VP of Platform Experience), that went on throughout the presentation. Was he trying to send a message – as in, hey, at some point I’ll step down, and these are three of the people I’m thinking about, or did it have to do with his health (see first bullet above)?

As much as I dislike the guy for some of the decisions he’s made over the years, Apple wouldn’t be Apple without him. Plus, he looks like my dad (if my dad were to let his facial hair grow for a week), so I’ve got an extra soft spot for him.

Oh yeah, one more thing… Whatever happened to that? I don’t think I was the only one surprised by the lack of extra product announcements. Did Steve want to make sure people focused on the Power Mac, Leopard and WWDC, and not get distracted with extra cool stuff? After all, Intel’s releasing their Merom line (Core 2 Duo processors for laptops) at the end of August. Apple’s got to make an announcement about putting those chips in the Macbook Pro laptops at some point until 8/31, right? Plus, I’m still waiting for the new iPods, in whatever flavor they come: Nano, widescreen, with phone, etc.

Methinks we’ll have an Apple News Event before the end of this month.

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Reviews

Two great bargains: HP Pavilion dv2000 and dv6000 series laptops

As detailed in my last post, I’ve been scouring the market looking for laptop deals, and I found two that were really good. After I compared the specs for these two laptops with similarly equipped laptops, I found them to be hundreds below comparable models, and on top of that, well-made – at least when it came to their exterior.

The HP Pavilion dv2000 and dv6000 series laptops are part of HP’s re-design of its Pavilion laptop line. They feature upgraded hardware and beautiful exteriors. I can’t speak about their reliability, since I only got the chance to use them for a few minutes at a computer store, but when it comes to looks and features, they’ve got it! From the moment I touched the keyboard and used the trackpad, I could tell HP invested serious attention to detail when they made these laptops. If you’ve ever used a Dell laptop, then you know what I’m talking about. The keys are so thin, that your fingers sometimes get pinched inbetween them. Not on these two HP laptops! The keys are thicker, smoother, and have better action. The trackpad is responsive, and the left and right mouse buttons are soft to the touch. I thought the travel could be shortened a bit, but other than that, it’s a very good experience. The lines are well defined, the color tones are well chosen, the overall thickness is kept to a minimum (around 1″ height for either one) – what can I say, they look good!

A well-equipped dv2000 series laptop features Windows XP Pro, a dual core Intel 2.0 GHz processor, a 14.1″ BrightView wide screen, integrated 802.11 a/b/g and Bluetooth, an integrated webcam with dual noise-cancelling microphones, a 120GB SATA hard drive, a 128MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) Go 7200 video card, 2GB of RAM, a LightScribe Super Multi 8X DVD +/- RW with Double Layer drive, a 12-cell battery that lasts up to 8 hours, a 2-year HP Accidental Damage with Express Repair extended service plan, a credit-card sized remote control for the InstantOn feature that lets you play DVDs and CDs without turning on the laptop, an HP Silver Messenger Bag, HP Mobile Noise Cancelling headphones, a retractable phone, ethernet and USB cord kit, and a FREE printer. The price for the whole set is $2,051.93 ($1801.93 without the extended service plan). Try matching these specs with another laptop (Lenovo, Sony, Dell, Acer, Asus) and see if it’s still that low. Go ahead, I’ve done it, and it isn’t.

How about the dv6000 series? A well-equipped dv6000 includes the following: Windows XP Pro, a dual core AMD 1.8 GHz processor, a 15.4″ wide screen, a 256MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) Go 7200 video card, integrated 802.11 a/b/g and Bluetooth, an integrated webcam with dual noise-cancelling microphones, a 120GB SATA hard drive, 2GB of RAM, a LightScribe Super Multi 8X DVD +/- RW with Double Layer drive, a 12-cell battery that lasts up to 8 hours, a 2-year HP Accidental Damage with Express Repair extended service plan, a credit-card sized remote control for the InstantOn feature that lets you play DVDs and CDs without turning on the laptop, an HP Silver Messenger Bag, HP Mobile Noise Cancelling headphones, a retractable phone, ethernet and USB cord kit, and a FREE printer. The price for the set is just $2.111.94 ($1,861.95 without the extended service plan). Again, I dare you to match these specs and see if you can get a similar price.

I have only two bad things to say. I haven’t heard good things about HP reliability from my friends and contacts. I also know from personal experience that once HP decides to discontinue a product, their interest in supporting it goes downhill, and it’s basically forgotten. Perhaps that’s changed now that they’ve re-designed their laptops, but still, I’d recommend getting the extended support plan. The one I mentioned above includes two years (there are 1 and 3 year options as well) of Accidental Damage (in case you drop it or spill something on it) and Extended Repair (when your hardware just plain fails). I would actually recommend getting an extended support plan for any laptop or desktop you purchase, because you don’t want to be left stranded when you’re in a bind.

The second thing is more like a wish, and that is for the dv6000 line to include dual core Intel processors. It currently doesn’t. Although AMD may beat out Intel with its recent line-up of dual core processors, the Core Duo 2 line of processors, code-named Merom, that Intel will come out with in August, are already beating AMD’s line-up. Plus, they’re readily interchangeable with the current dual core Intel chips. That means you can get a laptop now, and upgrade your processor to a screaming fast Merom chip when the price for those goes down.

At any rate, I can’t find a better deal for the specs and looks that these two laptops, so if you’re in the market for a Windows laptop, get your hands on one of these!

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