Manifest Tech Blog

Transferring files between machines should be easy in these days of Ethernet and wireless networking -- but it's still a pain to fuss with setting permissions, and too often network sharing just doesn't work for mysterious reasons.

In the old days we shared files by connecting two machines with a serial or parallel cable, and used software like Laplink or Symantec PC Anywhere to browse and sync files and folders. In today's networked world these tools are still going strong, now also with remote access and remote control capabilities across the Internet. Laplink also offers PC Mover for migrating to a new Windows PC, not just moving your files, but also installed programs and settings. PC Mover works across networks, USB cables, DVD/CD media, and still good old parallel cables.

But these solutions are still overkill for quickly transferring data between two machines -- you still need to worry about installing and configuring software that you really only intend to use one time.

Which brings us to The Tornado from Data Drive Thru -- a pocket-sized all-in-one file transfer device designed for quick and easy use.

The basic Tornado is palm-sized (4.8 oz), and contains two retractable USB cables that extend to a total length of over 4 feet. Just press the button to zip the cords back into the unit.

But that's just the physical connection -- what about the software?

The real utility of The Tornado is that the software is built in to the unit. There's no separate disc, no installation -- The software simply auto-runs, displaying full-screen browser windows on both systems. You can browse between both systems, and then just drag and drop to copy files and folders, cut and paste to move data, and delete files and folders as well. The transfer is bi-directional -- you can use either system to move files in either direction. (You can also set the local system as read-only to avoid accidents.)

When you plug The Tornado in to a USB port on a PC, Windows mounts it as a removable drive that happens to contain some software. The program, straightforwardly named The Tornado File Transfer Tool, then auto-runs from the device. The software starts very quickly, with no loading delay, and then establishes the connection within a couple of seconds. The File Transfer Tool displays a simple file browsing interface, with expandable folders on the left and file icons or details on the right. Transfers then run quickly over the fast USB 2.0 interface, although it would be nice if the status window displayed some indication of progress towards completion.

The Tornado is available for around $49 for Windows 98SE, ME, 2000, XP, and Vista. A new version, the iTornado, is due out around March for around $79 and will work with both Macs and Windows systems.

The Tornado also is available bundled with PC Eraser software, also from Data Drive Thru, which wipes files from hard drives using U.S. Dept. of Defense standards ($59 bundle, $29 software only).

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

    Find The Tornado on Amazon.com

I've been retrofitting some older PCs, and facing the once-common problem of partitioning the hard drives. The issue now is to remove the old partitions in order to consolidate the space back to one large C: drive -- but without destroying the installed Windows and application software.

Partitioning was once a recommended practice for performance and organizational reasons to help out poor Windows 98 and its successors. These days, we need all the available disk space to make room for ever-larger applications and their associated data.

At the time, PowerQuest Partition Magic was the popular solution for messing with partitions, since it -- unlike Windows -- could resize and reorganize partitions without destroying the data stored on them. But Partition Magic was bought by Symantec, and what is now Norton PartitionMagic 8 apparently has not been updated since 2004.

Which is why I'm glad to have discovered Paragon Partition Manager, which I've now used successfully to consolidate the partitions on two older machines.

Partition Manager 9.0 Personal was released in January 2008 for $39.95

Partition Manager can perform both basic and advanced operations, from creating and deleting partitions to resizing, merging, and copying. Plus, you can explore your disk volumes and change partition properties.

Version 9 adds improved Windows Vista compatibility, boot manager support for running multiple operating systems, the Recovery CD, and backup of critical partitioning information in the event of a power failure or other catastrophic system failure.

Partition Manager has a nice clean interface with wizards for task-based options. You don't even need to install it -- you can run it directly from the CD (but not for some advanced operations) -- plus the product CD is bootable, so it can serve as a Recovery CD in the event of a catastrophic failure.

The Paragon Software Group is based in Russia, Germany, Japan, and San Jose, and sells disk tools including Hard Disk Manager, Drive Backup, and Partition Manager, with Personal, Professional, and Enterprise versions.

See my full article on Paragon Partition Manager 9

The NAB 2008 Conference (National Association of Broadcasters) wrapped up last week in Las Vegas.

The NAB show spans acquisition, production, distribution, and delivery. Its historical core is high-end professional broadcast equipment, from high-end HD cameras to remote trucks with huge satellite dishes, but there's also plenty of interest for independents, especially in cameras, storage, and production software.

This year's event was dampened a bit by the absence of both Apple and Avid, but added strong emphasis on emerging technologies including mobile video and IPTV. Attendance was down a notch to 105K, from 111K last year, although international attendance set a new record of over 28K people.

Some highlight trends included:

- High-definition cameras - More options, more affordable
- DTV Transition - Countdown to the analog sunset
- Digital Delivery - Cable and IPTV
- Mobile TV - Broadcast to cell phones
- Realizing the potential of Blu-ray - Authoring beyond studio releases
- Digital formats: Encoding and compliance
- Online Video: Internet clips and interactivity

See my full article - NAB 2008 Summary - for copious links on Trends, Products, and further Information and media coverage.

   (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

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

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

The Cricket Laptop Stand from Innovative Office Products is a clever portable and adjustable way to get your laptop (or tablet PC) up off the desk for a more comfortable viewing height.

It collapses and folds up to 8 x 2 x 1 inches. Press the hinge button to swing it open. Lay it almost flat to raise the level of the keyboard (and get some airflow underneath to cool your system). Or lift it up to tilt the base of the computer from 11 to 60 degrees to share the screen display.

The Cricket supports laptops up to 12 pounds, and pretty much any size. The front legs spread apart and extend from 6 to 9+ inches, with flip-down rubber feet to hold the base securely.

You also can add a mouse and a portable keyboard (like the Adesso Flexible Keyboard) for a much more comfortable setup for working on the road.

The Cricket Laptop Stand is available from Innovative Office Products for $39.95, in Charcoal black, Mac White, and Eco Green.

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

I've been doing some cleaning up, but even in this wireless age I've got a mess of wires running around my office. Yes, I could wrap or tie them, but then I'll need to pull one wire out and have to mess them all up again. And cable troughs really don't work with reconfigurable offices or a home office.

Monster Cable, best known for its performance cables for audio/video and computers, has an interesting alternative: the Monster Cable-It Cable Management Kit that wraps up cables, yet is easy to reconfigure.

The plastic sleeve wraps around cables using a separate Zipper tool accessory. To clean up a tangle of cables, just snap open the Zipper tool to lay in the group of cables, insert the pointed end of the Zipper into the Cable-It sleeve, and then pull the Zipper along the sleeve to lay in the run of cables.

So far so good, but here's the bonus -- you don't have to disassemble the whole set if you just need to remove one of the cables. Instead, you can just pull the one cable out of the sleeve along the zipper, while still leaving it wrapped around the remaining cables. This means that you can wrap a group of cables for a long run, and then split out one or more individual cables as needed at each end.

The Cable-It cables are available in three sizes, Small for 3 to 5 cables (starting at $16), Medium for 5 to 8 cables (starting at $19), and Large for 8 to12 cables (starting at $29), each in 8 and 16 foot lengths plus a 50 foot spool. Just cut them with scissors to fit a custom length.

And put an end to the offense of messy cable clutter.

See my Portable Peripherals and Accessories Gallery for more on fun accessories.

    Find the Monster Cable-It on Amazon.com

When I'm working in my home office at the back of the house I'm really out of touch with what's happening out front on the street. I'd like to know when a visitor has pulled up before the doorbell rings. And sometimes it's rather urgent to see when the FedEx truck pulls up, especially if I need to go down to sign for a package.

You can monitor video out a window with a webcam, and send digital video around the house with an Internet camera, but the Logitech WiLife Video Security System does so much more ...

The WiLife software monitors up to eight cameras at a time. The cameras use HomePlug power line networking through your existing electrical wires, so there's no messy network setup. And the software actively monitors your video watch for motion in designated areas, to record the associated video clip and generate alerts (via e-mail and mobile phone, if desired).

You start with a Starter Kit ($299 and up) with an Indoor, Outdoor (weather resistant), or Spy camera (disguised as a working digital clock). Then add more cameras ($229 and up). There's also a Platinum software upgrade ($80/year) with more flexible alerts, security, and online storage and access to recorded clips.

I mounted the WiLife Indoor camera on a window with the included suction cup to watch the front of the house. And I experimented with optional wide-angle lens (120 degrees) and NightVision IR lens (which includes an IR illuminator designed for indoor spaces).

The system and software worked cleanly out of the box, quickly finding the camera over the existing electrical lines, although it did need to be reset occasionally after long use. The motion detection worked fine with cars and trucks, but also alerted on the movement of strong shadows from trees blowing in the wind. Cranking down the sensitivity helped with the shadows, but then missed the motion of many pedestrians on the sidewalk. (This is a hard problem in video analysis, so don't expect miracles when an outdoor environment is in motion from wind, rain, lighting changes, and the like.)

The IR lens was quite useful, making fun false-color scenes during the day and showing detail under trees at night. But the wide-angle lens worked even better for my needs, showing almost twice as much footage along the street, and even showing some detail at night under the streetlight.

See more details and pictures with the different lenses in my full article -- Logitech WiLife Video Security System

See more on webcams in my Home Media Gallery

    Find the Logitech WiLife Video Security System on Amazon.com

After 11 major versions of WinZip, you'd think there would not be much more to do in file compression.

And you'd especially expect that at least photo compression was a solved problem -- since JPEG files are already aggressively compressed, using a lossy process that throws away information (detail that's hopefully not visually important), as opposed to ZIP, which needs to be lossless compression that can reconstruct the exact original file.

However, the recently-released WinZip 12 (now owned by Corel) confounds these expectations with new support for compressing JPEG image files and managing archives with collections of photos, plus improved performance and compatibility, and enhanced security options.

The JPEG file compression shrinks already-compressed images up to 20 to 25%. And you can browse photos directly in WinZip Explorer, to view thumbnails, and drag and drop into folders.

In the Pro version, use the new Photo viewer to view photos and slide shows, and rotate, resize, and delete photos. And the new Zip from Camera Wizard transfers and compresses photos directly from a digital camera.

The WinZip 12 Standard version is $29.95, and Pro is $49.95. The Standard version includes the new LZMA and JPEG compression for smaller archives, plus interface improvements. The Pro version adds the Zip from Camera Wizard, photo viewer, export via FTP and disc burning, administrative options, and job automation.

Just be aware that the snazzy new compression formats are not compatible with older versions of WinZip, so you'll need to be upgraded on any other systems where you want to use the archives.

See full article -- Corel WinZip 12.0 with Photo Compression -- for more on the product versions and features.

    Find the previous Corel WinZip 11
    and new Corel WinZip 12 on Amazon.com