Manifest Tech Blog

I'll be at the Philadelphia Area Computer Society this Saturday, May 17, for another presentation on Tech Trends and Toys. I'll have lots of fun gadgets to demo, especially portable consumer electronics devices, working from the trends and products showcased in my Digital Media Galleries.

Tech Trends and Toys for 2008
    Sat. May 17, 2008, 12 noon
    Philadelphia Area Computer Society, http://pacsnet.org
    Upper Moreland Middle School, Hatboro, PA

Abstract

The Consumer Electronics Show in January displayed more than 20,000 new products - a lot of stuff! Doug Dixon will dig through the pile to highlight interesting new ideas, especially for home and personal entertainment. This will be an opportunity to understand developing trends in new technology, and to explore the latest options in fun new devices and gadgets.

Adesso specializes in input devices, including keyboards, mice, touchpads, and tablets. You don't typically think of a keyboard as a travel peripheral, but Adesso has an interesting option that allows you bring a full-size keyboard along on a trip, so you don't always need to be typing on your laptop's cramped keyboard.

The Adesso Flexible Keyboard is not just flexible -- It's made from a thin silicone material so you can literally fold or roll it up to pack on a trip. It's basically a mat with keys, plus an ellectronics pod with the USB connector so you can just plug it in and use it.

The Flexible Keyboard is available in three sizes, all for $34 -- Mini with 85 keys, Compact with 105 keys and numeric pad, and Full-Sized with 109 keys, including numeric and cursor pads. All even have LED lights for Num-Lock, Caps Lock, and Scroll Lock. The Full Sized is available in white or black, the smaller sizes in black.

The keys are spaced and sized to standard dimensions. And these are not tiny dimples -- the keys are raised, and need to be pressed down with a typing motion to make contract (although they are not firm, so there is some give to the side as you press).

The keyboards are sealed and water resistant and washable, useful in shared public places like libraries and schools, and more hostile environments like boating. They're also dust and contaminant proof, interesting for industrial or medical environments.

See my Portable Peripherals and Accessories Gallery for more fun devices, organized by company.

    Find the Adesso Flexible Keyboard on Amazon.com

USB is not just about data connections any more -- it's also becoming the standard way to power up your portable devices as well. When you plug in to your computer to sync with a MP3 player or PDA, you're also feeding power over the same cable to recharge your device. Some portable devices now even don't bother to include a wall charger in the box -- instead they include a USB cable and a USB wall adapter.

This trend makes it a lot easier to travel with multiple devices, since you don't need to bring a separate custom wall charger for each device. Instead, just pack up the USB data cables for your products that use custom interfaces (like the Apple iPod), and add a standard mini-USB cable for devices that just use the USB interface (or even micro USB for small devices like Bluetooth headsets).

Yet while you then can charge these devices from your laptop when you are on the road, this still can get clumsy when you are dealing with multiple devices -- for example, when you need to charge a mobile phone and Bluetooth headset while you are using a USB mouse and storage drive.

Again, Belkin comes to the rescue with two clever ideas to manage and power multiple USB devices (see previous post).

The Belkin Swivel USB Hub splits one USB connection into 4 ports (all high-speed USB 2.0) -- so you can access and power multiple devices at the same ($29 list, around $19 retail). It also includes a power adapter if needed for power-hungry devices.

Yes, you can find smaller hubs (but with an additional connecting cable), and larger hubs with more connectors -- but this Swivel Hub is travel sized, and has a handy two-way adjustable swivel connector. Rotate it sideways so you can still access additional USB connectors on your system, angle it up along the side of your system for easier access when you're inserting and removing devices, or fold it down to lie flat for storage.

And for powering multiple devices, the Belkin Mini Surge Protector / USB Charger provides three AC outlets, plus two powered USB outlets, all with surge protection ($25 list, around $19 retail).

The USB outlets are for power only -- they do not serve as a hub for transferring data. The product includes a mini-USB cable to charge many compatible devices, or else you can use the custom connector cable that came with other devices. The hub also has a rotating plug which locks at each 90 degree position.

See my Portable Power Accessories Gallery for other power systems, battery packs, and universal chargers that offer adapter tips for a wide variety of portable devices -- including cell phones, music players, cameras, and game machines -- so you can charge them all from USB power.

Also see my Portable Peripherals and Accessories Gallery for more fun devices, organized by company.

    Find the Belkin Swivel USB Hub and Mini Surge Protector on Amazon.com

I enjoy covering digital media -- software and home electronics and portable devices -- but it's also fun to take time out for more prosaic accessories and peripherals. So let's start with the humble computer mouse, now available in sexy and colorful designs, wired and wireless, and even airborne with gesture controls with the Logitech MX Air Cordless Laser Mouse (see previous post).

Then there's the extensive Belkin line of accessories and connectivity devices, for home theater and for more mobile devices from laptops to iPods.

For example, the Belkin Washable Mouse is water resistant, to battle the gunk that accumulates from long-term handling, especially on shared devices ($29). For the family room computer, for example, just hand-wash under a faucet to clean up the inevitable spills of sticky juice and icky peanut butter fingers.

The Washable Mouse fits smaller hands, and is tapered at the front and raised at the back. The top is enclosed with a smooth surface, with the left- and right-click buttons recessed underneath. You scroll by vertically stroking the middle scroll pad (and horizontally on Windows Vista) -- a blue light shines to acknowledge the movement. Click both buttons simultaneously for a center-click action.

Then use the Belkin Mouse Trap to carry your mouse around the house ($19). Zip it up into a half-circle to store and carry your mouse and other small items, and then unzip it into a handy circular mouse pad.

For example, use the Mouse Trap to stabilize your movements when you use your laptop on slippery or rough surfaces like a glass table or bedspread. It's also hand-washable, and comes in exotic colors -- chocolate/tourmaline, steel/burnt orange, dove/tarragon, dove/peony. Mmmm ...

See my Portable Peripherals and Accessories Gallery for more fun devices, organized by company.

    Find the Belkin Washable Mouse and Mouse Trap on Amazon.com

CyberLink has released the latest version of its well-known DVD player software, CyberLink PowerDVD 8.

As you might expect, this new release adds support for the latest buzzwords in high-def video and audio formats, including Blu-ray Disk playback -- with an online patch to support the full Blu-ray Disc Profile 2 (BD-Live), with picture-in-picture display, networking, and advanced interactivity.

Plus there's AVCHD and MPEG-2 HD video, and HD audio up to 7.1 channels with Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD.

However, the DVD player market is getting rather mature, as these applications are already well-refined for DVD and even general-purpose media playback. PowerDVD supports scads of media formats, provides fun options for video and audio enhancement, and offers helpful features including power-saving playback for notebooks, frame capture, and bookmarking for favorite scenes. What more could it do?

So the next step for CyberLink was to go beyond playback features, and instead augment PowerDVD to enhance the overall movie experience by taking advantage of your computer's storage and Internet connectivity. After all, when you pop in an audio CD on your computer, it automatically looks up the album and artist information, and helps you organize and manage your entire collection -- why not the same for movies?

So CyberLink developed the MoovieLive.com website to store and sync shared movie information with PowerDVD.

When you play a DVD, PowerDVD downloads and displays Movie Information, which you also can edit and update with your personal ratings and reviews.

As you watch DVDs, PowerDVD also updates the list of your personal Movie Collection. You can share your collection (like a playlist of favorite songs), and add other movies that you're interested in from MoovieLive.

You also can get creative with Movie Remix -- mash up scenes from a movie and then add your own creative animated graphics and subtitle text overlays, plus audio clips and voice-overs. And, of course, you can upload and share your remixes on MoovieLive, and download remixes that others have posted -- though since the remix references the movie, you can only play them for DVDs that you own.

MoovieLive is a great idea for the next step in watching DVDs -- taking advantage of the local computer and the wider Internet to enhance the movie-watching experience. However, this initial implementation in PowerDVD 8 is frustrating because the online movie database is only generated by PowerDVD users -- CyberLink did not link the site into a pre-existing DVD database to automatically load movie information. So until the population of users grows significantly, you can type in database fields yourself, or rely on partial uploads you may find from other users.

See my full article for more on these new features, and on how CyberLink has done a good job of refining the PowerDVD interface to make it very accessible for both quick playback and hands-on exploration of a disc:
    Enhanced DVD Movie Watching: CyberLink PowerDVD 8

Microsoft has announced new software features and content for the Zune online store, music community, and Zune Pass monthly subscription service.

The Zune video store is expanding to include downloads of more than 800 episodes of popular television shows that can be downloaded and synced to a Zune device.

The TV shows, from sources including Comedy Central, MTV, NBC Universal, Nickelodeon, Starz, Turner, Ultimate Fighting Championship and VH1, are priced at launch at 160 Microsoft Points per episode (approximately $1.99).

The Zune online store now offers more than 3.5 million tracks, two-thirds of which are available in pure MP3 format, 800 television shows, 4,800 music videos and 3,500 audio and video podcasts. The “Zune Social” music community Web site has had more than two million users join in its first five months, so music fans can discover new music, browse each others’ playlists, and comment on their discoveries and tastes.

Members of the Zune online music community get a free, customizable Zune Card, a playlist which automatically reflects the songs played on a Zune player or Zune PC software. Previously, this only resided on the Web, but now has become portable. Consumers with the Zune Pass subscription now have the ability to take what their friends are listening to from the Zune music community on the go via Zune Card personal playlists. The Zune Pass subscription allows access to millions of tracks for $14.99 per month.

The new updates to the Zune online music community include drag and drop syncing of Zune Cards to a Zune device -- subscribers get the full tracks on their Zune, while nonsubscribers have full album information and artwork. There are also social networking updates for sharing and searching Zune music community profiles, posting artist and albums reviews, earning reputation badges, and connecting via Windows Live. Zune Pass subscribers can set up automatic, real-time feeds of the music their friends are listening to.

The Zune software also has been updated based on customer feedback. Users now can browse their video collection by genre and series, edit track or album information quickly via multi-select and drag-and-drop, sort by genre, sync to multiple Zune players simultaneously, and enjoy gapless playback both on their Zune device and in the Zune software.

Press releases:

May 5, 2008 - Zune Expands Beyond Music to Deliver Integrated All-in-One Entertainment Experience
    New software updates bring popular television shows to online store, enhancements to online music community and subscription service.

May 5, 2008 - Zune Community Brings New Shared Experience to Music
    Spring release adds features that inspire people to explore, discover and discuss their favorite music

See my Portable Media Players Gallery for details and comparisons to other players.

    Find the Microsoft Zune 80 GB and Zune 8 GB on Amazon.com

   (with Josh Page)

It's a wired world -- or actually getting more wire-less. We're connected at broadband speeds, theoretically able to electronically access our data from the vast cloud of the Web, but yet we still need to physically carry our digital stuff around with us -- music and videos in the iPod, contacts on the cell phone, calendars and documents in the PDA.

Sneakernet is still very much alive, as we use USB flash drives to carry and share the vast digital debris of our lives. Having our personal materials right there at hand or in our pocket is often still a lot faster and more reliable than trying to set up a shared networking connection between two arbitrary devices.

In the same way, home networking was supposed to bring effortless convergence to sharing media within the house -- watching Internet video from the PC on the TV, live TV on PCs and portable devices, and accessing recorded programs from any device, from living room to bedroom to office. Yet the promise of acronyms like DLNA and UPnP is still being developed (see my Consumer Home Media Gallery), and many homeowners are not thrilled about becoming the IT and networking support staff for multiple PCs and multiple devices, much less consumer electronics devices.

Which brings us back to sneakernet, as the approach used with the SanDisk Sansa TakeTV (also www.take.tv) for transferring PC-based videos onto a TV screen. Yes, there are adapters for hooking up SanDisk and other media players for scaling up portable clips on a TV, but the TakeTV is designed specifically as a portable device for watching TV-res clips.

The TakeTV comes in three parts: a Player unit with a USB port that you plug in to your PC to copy video clips (like a USB flash drive), the TV Cradle that plugs into the TV with standard A/V connectors, and a small remote control that is stored as the cover of the Player unit.

To watch your PC clips on TV, then, just drag and drop to copy them to the Player unit, as you would with any USB flash storage device.

Then sneakernet the Player unit over to your TV and plug it in to the TV Cradle, and use the remote control to access the on-screen menu to select the clips to play.

The TakeTV works much like a media player, except that it has no manual controls or earphone jack (since you use the remote control), and is designed to store and play higher-res TV video, up to full standard-definition 720 x 480/576, NTSC and PAL.

Unlike most media players, however, it does not support a variety of common formats -- the videos must be MPEG-4, as AVI, DivX, or XVID. It's designed for watching full-screen programs or videos that you've edited, and not miscellaneous low-res Web clips.

The TakeTV components also are small and light enough to move from one TV to another as needed. The Player unit docked with the remote control is 4 5/8 x 1 1/2 x 1/2 inches, and the TV Cradle is a little longer at 5 3/8 inches -- plus the A/V cables (composite video, S-Video, stereo audio) and the power adapter. The set up time from first opening the package to watching a video on television was roughly ten minutes, making the TakeTV ideal for quick and convenient video sharing for sharing your PC videos as a big screen experience.

The SanDisk Sansa TakeTV is available with 4 GB of storage for $99, and 8 for GB $149 (for 5 to 10 hours video, based on 720 x 480 MPEG-4 video at 1.5 Mbps. with 128 Kbps audio).

See my Consumer Home Media Gallery for more on PC / TV media capture and transfer.

    Find the SanDisk Sansa TakeTV on Amazon.com

SanDisk has made a nice business expanding from its roots in flash memory with its SanDisk Sansa line of MP3 music and now video players. With lower prices for larger capacity, it's quite feasible to use memory-based players for video clips -- like the Apple iPod nano, with 4 GB for $149 and 8 GB for $199, playing 340 x 240 videos on a 2-inch screen in an amazingly thin design.

Meanwhile, SanDisk has developed a common look across the Sansa line, with clean black designs with rounded edges and blue highlights -- including a thumbwheel controller framed by a glowing blue circle. The older Sansa e200 from way back in 2006 has been joined by the larger-capacity Sansa View and the new smaller Sansa Fuze. The new players are thinner, with a simpler thumbwheel and button, and support higher-capacity microSDHC cards.

SanDisk Sansa e200 - 2 GB $99, 4 $119, 8 GB $149
    1.8" screen, QCIF+
    3.50 x 1.70 x 0.52”, 2.6 oz / 20 hours music

SanDisk Sansa Fuze - 2 GB $79, 4 GB $99, 8 GB $129
    1.9" screen, 220 x 176
    3.1 x 1.9 x 0.3 in., 2.1 oz / 24 hours music, 5 hours video

SanDisk Sansa View - 8 GB $149, 16 GB $199, 32 GB, $349
    2.4" screen, 320 x 240
    4.29 x 1.95 x 0.35", 2.9 oz / 35 hours music, 7 hours video

The View's screen has a portrait layout, great for scrolling though long menus when you have a large library of clips or lots of photo thumbnails, and with plenty of room to show song information with the album art. But when you display photos and videos the screen flips to landscape orientation so you can hold the player on its side for wide-screen images -- and the backlit button icons cleverly switch orientation to match.

These players all include a built-in microphone, FM tuner, and voice/FM recorder. And they all include a card slot for additional removable storage --1 or 2 GB microSD cards ($19 and $29), plus the newer players add 4 to 8 GB with the new microSDHC cards ($49 and $139).

The newer players directly support JPEG photos; various forms of MPEG-4 video; and MP3, WMA, secure WMA, WAV, and Audible audio; plus subscription music from sources including Rhapsody. The Sansa View also plays H.264 and WMV videos. While the older e200 used the Sansa Media Converter application to transfer photos and videos, you can transfer media to the View by simple drag and drop (if already in supported formats), or through media management software including Windows Media Player (to include album art and convert formats as needed).

See my Portable Media Players Gallery for more information on portable players, from music to video, flash memory to hard disk, tiny to widescreen.

    Find the Sansa Fuze and Sansa View on Amazon.com

I love flash drives for carrying data files, saving photos, and quick backups when travelling. But for long trips, and especially when I'm shooting video, it's definitely worth bringing along a portable hard drive for the much greater storage and faster transfer rates.

For example, check out the LaCie product line for a nice selection of colorful and fun designs, to find your preferred capacity and size, using hard drives that are only 1.3" to 1.8" to 2.5" around. Each has built-in USB connectors with short cables that also power the drive.

Starting small, the LaCie USB Key Max is shaped like a credit card, and comes in black or day-glow orange. Two years ago, LaCie used this design to offer 4 and 8 GB of hard disk storage for $99 and $149. Today the same size and weight holds up to 40 GB. (LaCie prices are list, retail are lower.)

Credit card:
    LaCie USB Key Max
30 GB $109, 40 GB $139.
1.3" drive, 3.34 x 2.16 x 0.23 in., 2.1 oz.

The LaCie Little Disk, designed by Sam Hecht, has several models that share the same clean design, black with glossy finish, with a removable end cap to access the extractable USB connector.

The smallest Little Disk 30 / 40 GB uses a 1.3" drive to provide up to 40 GB of storage in a box that you can wrap in your fist.

Match box:
    Little Disk 30 / 40 GB
30 GB $119, 40GB $149
2.64 x 1.69 x .67 in., 3 oz.

Or double the size with the LaCie Little Disk 60 GB to move up to a 1.8" drive with 60 GB, still in the same price range.

Or double the size, and weight, again (but with about the same thickness) with the LaCie Little Disk, 80 - 320 to use a 2.5" drive, offering serious capacities of 80 up to an impressive 320 GB -- starting at $80 and up to only $159. This larger size is also available with dual USB / Firewire (1394) interfaces.

Cigarette case:
    Little Disk 60 GB
60 GB $129
3.15 x 2.52 x.71 in., 4.44 oz.

Shirt pocket:
    Little Disk, 80 - 320 GB
80 GB $79, 120 GB $89, 160 GB $99, 250 GB $139, 320 GB $159
5.08 x 3.19 x.71 in., 6.88 oz.

You still can't beat flash drives for their tiny size and ruggedness. But hard drives offer significantly more capacity at similar prices, and better performance. High-performance flash drives from companies like SanDisk offer read speeds around 15 - 25 MB/sec and write speeds around 10 - 18 MB/sec. In comparison, the Little Disk hard drives spin at 3600 to 5400 rpm, with burst transfer rates up to 30 - 35 MB/sec.

See my Portable Storage Gallery for details and comparisons on flash memory cards, USB drives, and hard disk storage.

    Find the LaCie USB Key Max on Amazon.com
    and the LaCie Little Disk 30 / 40 GB, 60 GB, and 80 - 320 GB

Even non-musicians and beginning enthusiasts can collect, organize, mix and mash up, and create new music using today's inexpensive and accessible software tools, such as the Sony Creative Software tools -- ACID Music Studio for music creation and mixing, and Sound Forge Audio Studio for audio recording, editing, and encoding.

    See full article: Sony Audio / Music Studio Software

Sony ACID Music Studio 7 spans music recording, mixing, loop-based creation, and MIDI processing. It's for people creating original music using loops or recording vocals, instruments, or using MIDI -- like DJs and remix artists, home recording studios and musicians, video and multimedia producers, podcast and streaming media creators, educators, trainers, and presenters.

Sony Sound Forge Audio Studio 9 is focused on the end-to-end audio editing -- recording, editing / restoration, encoding, and mastering. It includes interactive Show Me How tutorials to help step though leaning new tasks.

Or step up to a higher-end professional high-end audio production toolset like Adobe Audition 3, through the full workflow of recording, mixing, editing, and mastering audio. Audition includes waveform editing of single clips, multi-track mixing, looping, MIDI, with extensive effects and tools for audio restoration and enhancement.

    See full article: Adobe Audition 3 - Professional Audio Editing and Mixing

    Find Sony Music Studio 7 and Audio Studio 9
    and Adobe Audition 3 on Amazon.com