Digital Home Thoughts.com

RAM Heaven: Where My Old RAM Goes

Jason Dunn — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 12:47:00 GMT

I've been mucking about with one of my computers this weekend, performing a couple of upgrades to it (details on Monday) and since one of those upgrades was a RAM upgrade, I retired the old RAM. I have a small plastic container that I use to store the old RAM, but I've never organized it into any logical fashion so if I need something I have to squint at tiny labels to figure it all out. Today I took a few minutes and sorted and labelled the RAM groups I have. It's quite funny to see all that RAM together in one place, ranging from the lowly 256 MB PC133 RAM up to the more modern 1 GB PC6400 chips. It's amazing how cheap RAM has become as well - yesterday I picked up 2 x 2 GB sticks of PC26400 RAM for $64.99 CAD. 4 GB of RAM for $65...it's amazing how things have changed. I don't tend to keep too many old part lying around, but RAM is so small it's easy to keep a collection for the occasion when you run across an old computer that could use a boost. What do you do with your old RAM or old PC parts?

New LED LCDs from Sharp

Chris Gohlke — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 03:00:00 GMT

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105...l?tag=mncol;txt

"The LE700 series features a "full array of LEDs" behind the screen, but doesn't have local dimming, a technology that allows different areas of the screen to brighten and dim separately. Past TVs we've reviewed with local dimming exhibited superb black levels, but we haven't tested any LED-equipped sets without local dimming aside from Samsung's edge-lit models, which didn't perform as well as the local dimming displays. Also, while Sharp is touting the LE700's native 120Hz refresh rate, a number of its LED competitors are already pushing 240Hz sets. Other than its energy-saving capabilities, it's not entirely clear how this kind of LED backlight offers much of an improvement over standard LCDs, so we'll have to look into it when we get our hands on the LE700 series."

Although quite a bit more than non-LED Aquios sets, the starting prices for these are pretty competitive with other LED sets. But, without local dimming, I'm curious if these sets will have the bang to go with the buck.

Gizmodo Reviews RealPlayer SP

Jason Dunn — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:30:00 GMT

http://gizmodo.com/5301855/realplay...-internet-video

"Real's new RealPlayer SP software, currently in beta, adds functionality to rip YouTube and other streaming videos from the Internet and get them onto whatever handheld you choose. It works well enough, but it's also crammed full of unnecessary features. RealPlayer SP is the evolution of the long-running RealPlayer software, which has become a multi-limbed beast of a program: It's a media manager and player, along with a packaged web browser, a subscription and a la carte music store (Rhapsody), a gaming store (Real Arcade), an audio recorder, and now a streaming video ripper/converter with ties-in to social networking sites."

The long and the short of it is that if you're using a device like a Zune or a phone that can play h.264 video, this is a decent way to grab content from YouTube and other social video sites and get it onto your device, with conversion if necessary. It does a lot more than that, but the question is whether or not you need that fucntionality...

A Brief History of Software

Chris Gohlke — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:00:00 GMT

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fe...C-R3A917316679=

"Last month, we took you on a tour of computing's most venerated classic PCs. In our classic PC hardware retrospective, we highlighted the computers that deployed the innovations we take for granted today. But just as a car without gas is just roadblock, computer hardware without software is essentially paperweight. And while it’s true that the hardware is the visually sexier component of a system, the software is equally important and often more challenging to create. Today, we take a look at the history of early computer software, from the first character-based interfaces to the last pre-32-bit OSes (yes, Mac OS included). We also spotlight the notable programs that ran on these various platforms, including the first productivity and design applications. And because we're avid gamers, we couldn't neglect video gaming's contribution to the software world -- we included the firsts of each gaming genre."

From OS's to applications and games, this article will be educational for our younger readers and a walk down memory lane for the not so young readers. Some of my fond memories of older software from each category include PFS Write, OS2, The Wrath of Nickedemous, and Microsoft Flight Simulator (pictured above). What were some of your favorite pieces of older software.

Olympus PEN E-P1 Makes DSLR Quality Portable

Hooch Tan — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:00:00 GMT

http://www.digicamreview.com/olympu...dslr_review.htm

"The camera features a 12 megapixel live view anti-shake sensor, a 3" screen, 16:9 Aspect Ratio: 1280 × 720 HD 30fps video recording with stereo sound, art filters, multiple exposures, shadow adjustment, a metal body and is available with a 14-42mm kit lens or 17mm pancake lens. The Olympus PEN E-P1 is available for around £699 with the 14-42mm kit lens as tested here. The camera is enclosed in a metal body and is available in silver or white. The camera measures approx. 120.5 x 70 x 35 mm (excluding protrusions), and weighs approx. 335g. excluding lens, battery and memory card."

DigiCam Review has decided to take the curious EP-1 and see if its new and "innovative" design could really stand up against proper DLSRs. After putting the quasi-DSLR through the gauntlet, the EP-1 emerges victorious, meeting all the hopes and dreams of photographers everywhere! Well, maybe it isn't groundbreaking, but the EP-1 definitely is a step forward since DSLRs have traditionally been large, bulky affairs. Granted, the smaller camera body is only slightly helpful, since since over time, you will find you have a collection of lenses and other toys that just had to be bought, but a lighter load, especially while taking pictures, is appreciated, especially when you do not have to sacrifice image quality or features. The EP-1 is likely going to be one of those cameras that marks a shift in the industry. It probably will never completely replace the DSLR with its design, but it will definitely make the market more accessible and palatable to photo bugs!

Canon Announces Two New PIXMA Printers: The MP560 & MP490

Jason Dunn — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:01:00 GMT

http://www.canon.ca/english/index-p...n&gid=2&sgid=20

"For the consumer who wants and needs to have a printer that can print, copy and scan, the new Canon PIXMA Photo AIO Printers provide all this and more. The new PIXMA MP560 Wireless2 Photo AIO Printer is the most compact Canon inkjet printer to have both wireless capabilities and built-in Auto Duplex Printing. This new AIO Printer, the successor to the popular PIXMA MP620 Wireless Photo AIO Printer, also is the first Canon PIXMA Printer to have the ability to print out pictures directly from a USB Flash Memory device3. With a new sleek design, the PIXMA MP560 Photo AIO Printer features five individual ink tanks with the ChromaLife100+ ink system providing more vibrant and longer-lasting photos. The PIXMA MP560 printer can print out a photo-lab quality borderless 4"x 6" in approximately 39 seconds6. The 5.1-centimetre LCD screen and integrated Easy-Scroll Wheel allow for easy navigation through menus and viewing images. Under the new ISO print speed standard, the PIXMA MP560 AIO Photo Printer will deliver output at approximately 9.2 ipm for black-and-white documents and approximately 6.0 ipm for colour4. The estimated retail price of the PIXMA MP560 Photo AIO Printer is $169.995."

First the printer: looks nice. Canon printers have always been nice and fast, and produce high-quality prints. The fact that you get built-in auto-duplex printing and wireless connectivity for $169 CAD is impressive. If you need a good all-around printer, one of these two new printers look like a safe bet. Now for a tangent: Canon has a problem.

The problem is that Canon has too many products that are similar, and it's difficult to tell them apart. Looking at their product page, I count 18 inkjet printers - oh wait, that's just their inkjet multifunction printers. Once you add in the 12 photo printers, you end up with an astonishing 30 different inkjet printers. Why on earth would a company need to offer 30 different printers to customers? Can the printer market possibly have that many segments? Epson is no better, offering a dizzying 27 different printers, and I imagine HP is about the same. Do printer companies really think that having a different printer for every $20 bill they have in their pocket? I wrote about this issue back in 2008 in an article entitled Too Many Minds, and everything I said there applies here.

Windows 7 Family Pack Pricing Leaked?

Jason Dunn — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:00:00 GMT

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=1156&tag=nl.e539

"My colleague Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is reflexively skeptical about my report of a Windows 7 Family Pack. In fact, he says, his "OEM contacts" are unaware of any such product and one "source that has been reliable in the past" tells him the language referring to that product has been pulled from the license agreement. Fortunately, some of Adrian's commenters have better sources than he does. One points to a product code, GFC-00236, that produces some very interesting search results. Like a set of product listings from Expercom that includes a WINDOWS 7 FAMILY PACK/ HOME PREMIUM UPGRADE (GFC-00236) with a listed price of $136.95."

There's not much more to say here - this price point seems to make sense. MSRP is probably $149 USD, and street price will be a bit less than that. It lines up nicely with the $50/copy of Windows 7 that's going on right now

Of course you can't please everyone - check out this comment over on Ed Bott's post:

"The most silly thing about the family pack is that it allows 3 upgrades. Our family of 4 has 7 computers (2 netbooks, 3 notebooks and 2 desktops) with 3 of them also running virtual machines from time to time for web security. How many families have only 3 computers? If MS wants to keep my business they have to do better. If I need to upgrade, Linux will look too attractive to ignore."

This comment made me chuckle - this guy is complainging about getting a new operating system for $50 per computer? That's a dramatic reduction from Windows Vista, and in my books a hell of a deal. This guy needs TEN copies of Windows 7 (if you count the three virtual machines) and he expects that for, what, $99 or something? Come back to planet earth buddy...

Let BestInClass.com Pick Your Digital Camera

Hooch Tan — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:30:00 GMT

http://www.bestinclass.com/

"BestInClass.com is a product recommendation service based on unbiased expert opinions. We want to provide the fastest and easiest way to get a good answer to the question, “What product is right for me?” We do that by finding qualified hobbyists and professionals and matching their product recommendations to consumer preferences using a fancy algorithm which took two years to develop."

If you're looking for a new digital camera and don't know what to get, BestInClass.com is the site for you. You tell the site what is most important to you and your budget, and BestInClass presents you with a list of choices that have been rated by several experts. The service is more complex than what the screenshot above would suggest. Once you see the recommendations, you can also filter for a lot of other options, such as colour, type of camera and extra features. You can also browse or search their database if you're looking for what reviews a specific camera has. I found the site really easy and intuitive to use but I think that as you go deeper into your search, reading reviews and recommendations, I felt that it could keep track and present your search results in a better way, since I ended up having to either open up multiple tabs, or use the back button quite a bit. I also found that the comparison tool could be a bit more flexible. Aside from those minor quips, it is a great way to sift through a large number of cameras to find the perfect one you need!

Win 1 of 3 iZel Device Holders

Jason Dunn — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:00:00 GMT

Remember the iZel review that I published a few weeks back? Well, the makers of the iZel have offered us three to give away to lucky Thoughts Media readers! This contest is open to anyone in the US or Canada (sorry rest-of-world). Entering the contest is really easy: all you have to do is post a message in this discussion thread telling me what kind of device(s) you'd want to use with the iZel. That's it! I'll randomly select three entries and each person will win an iZel. Nice and easy! The contest is open until the 16th of July, at 12pm (GMT -7). Enter now!

UPDATE: Only one entry per person, and if it's your first post, please allow up to 48 hours for it to show up.

Microsoft Wants to Help You Save Energy with Hohm

Chris Gohlke — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:00:00 GMT

http://www.microsoft-hohm.com/default.aspx

"Bringing people together to save energy and money Sign Up and start saving. It's free! Sign up with Hohm and we'll provide you with a home energy report and energy-saving recommendations tailored to your home. How can you get a personalized energy report for your home?"

Hohm (home and ohm, get it) became available for sign-up on Monday. I've gone through most of the questions (and there are quite a few) and it looks like they will be able to give some pretty detailed recommendations, especially for the energy efficiency novices. But, it looks like some of the best benefits will be for those who's utility meters are accessible by the service. My city recently installed smart meters, unfortunately, other than a digital readout, there is currently no benefit for the consumer, although the promise there will be later.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB Hard Drive Reviewed

Jason Dunn — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:00:00 GMT

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/re...MC-R3A917316679

"It was a big month for storage. Not only did Western Digital bring to the market the first 2TB consumer hard drive, but Seagate came to the game with another milestone: a two-platter 1TB drive. Both offerings contain 500GB platters, the highest platter density yet achieved. The Barracuda 7200.12 1TB is the first drive we've tested from the 12th generation of Seagate's 7,200rpm Barracuda line, and it's Seagate's best chance for a fresh start following the firmware issues that plagued its 7200.11 line."

High-density platters mean high-performance, and this new drive from Seagate doesn't dissapoint: the read and write speeds of the Barracuda 7200.12 drive get within striking distace of the very fast Western Digital Velociraptor. Sustained write speeds are 99.3 MB/s, and sustained read speeds break the 100 MB/s barrier. This is one fast drive - and when you consider that Amazon.com is selling them for $89.99 USD [Affiliate], it's a no-brainer if you're in need of a bigger hard drive. Or, even if you don't need more storage space but are using an older hard drive, you'd see a significant speed boost by upgrading to this drive. I've been guilty of holding onto "perfectly good" hard drives that have enough capacity for my needs, but are three or four generations behind in terms of technology - and that drags down performance. I think I might pick one of these up...

Adobe Premiere Elements 7 Reviewed

Jason Dunn — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:00:00 GMT

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/[p...MC-R3A917316679

"Our biggest problem with Premiere Elements is that it suffers a host of problems (both minor and major). The first glitch occurred when we were trying to capture HDV footage via FireWire from a Canon HV10. The app's preview screen would simply stop showing the preview footage. The content would capture, but we could not watch it as it was captured. OK, not a show stopper. More serious was our inability to burn more than one hour of HD footage to a Blu-ray disc. The app would either hang or reboot Windows Vista 64-bit. And it's not like we didn't bring enough firepower. We tested using this month's Gateway FX6800 (page 76), which was equipped with a 2.93GHz Core i7-940, Radeon HD 4870 X2, and 6GB of RAM."

Reading this review, I could only nod along with their findings - Premiere Elements 7 has a lot going for it, but it's ultimately plagued by bugs, strage behaviours, and limitations around codecs and file formats. I recieved a copy for review months ago, but my review notes read like a product-bashing session because I found more wrong with it than right. Believe it or not though, I'm still using it to produce the videos you see here - that's largely because I've set up templates in it and having to re-create those templates in another program would be a pain. Ultimately, Premiere Elements 7 as a program has a lot of potential, but it doesn't live up to it.

Internet Radio Finally Can Let The Music Play!

Hooch Tan — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:00:00 GMT

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/08/t...ner=rss&emc=rss

"On Tuesday, after a two-year battle, record labels and online radio stations agreed on new royalty rates that cover music streaming. Many of the music sites had argued that the old rates were so high that they were being forced out of business. That could have come back to haunt the record labels, since for many people the sites are becoming a useful way to discover music. “This is definitely the agreement that we’ve been waiting for,” said Tim Westergren, the founder of Pandora, one of the most popular Internet radio sites with 30 million registered users."

It has been a long road, and while the results may not please everyone, an agreement has been inked between web radio stations and music labels. Music streaming has existed on the Internet for years, even in the era of dial-up, but music labels, through an organization called SoundExchange, started noticing the growing popularity of Internet radio and wanted to bill these stations for playing their music. At first, the rates were high, going up to 0.19 cent per song, though finally, after two years of negotiations, they have worked out a deal that seems to have satisfied most of the parties involved. The rates are still much higher than what is paid by radio stations, though to be fair, Internet radio stations do offer a far greater degree of flexibility and interactivity than traditional broadcasting mediums. There are lots of other details I could question. Will musicians, especially the smaller ones, ever see any money generated by this agreement? What constitutes an Internet radio station that must pay these fees? I am mostly just relieved that a deal has been reached that companies like Pandora (which still does NOT serve Canada! Grrrr!) have an agreement that they believe they can work with.

Google Announces Chrome OS

Jason Dunn — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:26:00 GMT

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009...MC-R3A917316679

"Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve."

The Web is buzzing with the news this morning: Google's long-awaited "Google OS", something that people have been talking about for several years, is finally becoming a reality. Dubbed Google Chrome OS, this is a Linux-based operating system that will run on x86 and ARM processors. It won't be a reality in the consumer market until the second half of 2010, so don't get too excited yet. Will this be compelling enough to win consumers over to Linux? Most people want Windows on their netbooks, because while the browser is important, apps are still important to many people. It will be interesting to see how Google does in this market, and more importantly, how they're going to make money. Check out the Google blog post for more details.

Microsoft, Yahoo, RealNetworks Sued Over Music Copyrights

Adam Krebs — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 22:46:00 GMT

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13526_3-10276724-27.html

"The suit appears to have been initiated by Music Copyright Solutions (MCS), which claims to administer copyrights for more than 45,000 compositions. MCS is named as the lead plaintiff, along with a number of songwriters including Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad fame. These folks allege that Microsoft, Yahoo, and RealNetworks improperly licensed the rights to more than 200 compositions that they offered as on-demand streams or limited downloads via the Zune Marketplace, Yahoo Music, and Rhapsody. Surely these companies paid somebody for the rights to offer these songs. But there's a catch, which TechDirt pointed out earlier Tuesday: these companies may have licensed the rights to the recordings, but that doesn't mean they licensed the rights to the compositions (also known as publishing rights)."

Credit: ars technica

Chalk this one up to another ridiculous abuse of broken music copyright system. The plaintiffs are demanding $150,000 for each violation (for each recorded song - the six Greatest Hits versions of Conway Twitty's "Fifteen Years Ago" would consitute $900,000 in damages alone) or the amount the companies earned from streaming these songs, whichevever is more. This sets a disturbing precident in downloadable music, where none of these companies can afford to lose the case. If all damages are awarded, the 200 violations could end up costing somewhere in the range of billions of dollars, which is why a settlement for far less money is likely to occur. But this case, and the similar trial against Jammie Thomas-Rasset (where the defendant was ordered to pay $80,000 in damages per song) raises the point: if the penalties are so outrageously high that they aren't going to be enforced, why bother having them on the lawbooks in the first place? Everyone deserves to be paid for their work, but today's broken copyright system clearly misses the point in many ways. It's time to get with the 21st century and abandon the sheet music-based system of years past.

Win a Mobile Internet Device from MIDStories.com

Jason Dunn — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:13:00 GMT

http://www.midstories.com/giveaway/

"We want to hear how you've used your MID stories and are offering up some great prizes in exchange for your articles, photos and videos. Share your story on what you've done with your MID in real life for your chance to win a new MID of your choice or some great accessories. To enter the Real Life MID Stories Giveaway, visit MidStories.com/giveaway/ and tell us how you use your MID. Where are you using your MID and how has it improved your digital lifestyle? What are your favorite applications and services that make you more mobile? Upload photos of you and your MID in action to illustrate your story. You can really make it stand out by recording a video and including a link to it in your submission. Entries must be at least 300 words long."

Everybody loves contests, so I'm happy to tell you about this grand-opening contest over at MIDstories.com, a new site I posted about last week. There are five prizes in total, with the first place price being a $599 USD credit from Dynamism toward an Intel Atom-powered MID. Check it out!

Microsoft to offer Family Pack for Windows 7 Home Premium?

Jason Dunn — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:00:00 GMT

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=1145&tag=nl.e539

"Thanks to a tip from Kristan Kenney, I took a close look at the agreements embedded in the License folder of the latest leaked builds of Windows 7. This is no longer a beta license agreement and is presumably very close to the final agreement that customers will accept. The agreements for retail copies of Windows 7 Home Premium contain this eye-opening clause..."

This news is a few days old, but I thought it was worth sharing for those who hadn't heard about it yet: it looks like Microsoft is gearing up to offer a three-pack license of Windows 7 for home users. If this news is accurate, and pricing is reasonable ($199 or less) this is a significant moment for Microsoft. I've been harping on this issue of family pack licensing for years, and I've never seen a glimmer that Microsoft actually understood why this was important. The millions of "newish" computers out there still running Windows XP instead of Vista is a testament to not only the bad public perception, but also the sheer cost of upgrading multiple computers in a household. Especially now that Vista-era machines can easily run Windows 7, the issue of whether or not people will upgrade becomes a criticial one. Microsoft needs to make this work.

AMD Phenom II 955 BE Overclocked to 7.0GHz

Jason Dunn — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:39:00 GMT

http://news.softpedia.com/news/AMD-...Hz-115985.shtml

"Sunnyvale-based Advanced Micro Devices wants to show the world that its processors are capable of breaking the world records when it comes to their overclocking capabilities. As such, the company sponsored an overclocking event in Finland, where its AMD Phenom II 955 Black Edition processor was pushed up to the impressive speed of 7.0GHz, a figure that might become a new world record in case the results are validated."

7 Ghz? Sweet mother of motherboards! That's...insane. I drool at the thought of encoding h.264 video at 7 Ghz. So the question is, if this new chip is capable of insane speeds like that, why don't we see chips in the more "mundane" range of 4 Ghz or 5 Ghz? Power consumption? Stability? Longevity of chips? I'd happily accept a 5 Ghz chip that only lasted 36 months if I knew it would be stable during that period.

Archos 9 Tablet Coming to US

Chris Gohlke — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 03:00:00 GMT

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/ne...tablet_comes_us

"On the hardware front, the Archos 9 boasts a full touch-sensitive 9-inch screen, an Intel Atom Z515 processor (1.2GHz, 512KB cache, 400MHz frontside bus), 1GB of RAM, up to 120GB of storage, 1.3MP webcam, and an optical track-point mouse. On the software side of things, the new tablet will come pre-loaded with Microsoft's upcoming Windows 7 OS. It will also include Microsoft Office and a host of other apps, such as "Web TV & Radio, video conference, antivirus, parental control, photos and movies edition applications, and more.""

Small, inexpensive tablets will probably be the successors to the netbook market. But, I think pricing will be key and I'm betting that this will come in at significantly more than $399. Also, after using an iPod touch for about 6-months now, I think a 9 inch screen is a bit on the large side. With the right browser, I think something in the 5 to 6 inch range would be just about right.

Short URLs Are Great but Clickers Beware!

Hooch Tan — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:30:00 GMT

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109...g=2547-1_3-0-20

"Until a remote future arrives when Twitter and the telecommunications industry decide 140-character messages are too short, though, URL-shortening services aren't going to go away. Fortunately, their potential problems can mitigated through careful use, and newer services such as Bit.ly are being designed expressly to avoid the pitfalls. "

I remember when TinyURL came out. At the time, I thought it was a nice idea, but of limited utility. Now, with twitter and input constrained devices exploding in popularity, TinyURL and related services have become much more useful, but something inside my stomach churns when I think about them. http://tinyurl.com/c2elgp just seems to be too cryptic to me. I do not know where it goes and the security angel on my shoulder tells me that blindly going to a site is a bad idea. Fortunately, many services are providing lots of tools and features to their shorteners that help address issues like search engine results, final destination, etc. but those all require extra hassles. That extra layer, especially one that passes through a single company, is enough to make me not click on that link. The one thing I do find interesting though, is that with all these services, as a business, real-time trending becomes possible. Too bad I am not in a business that can take advantage of that.