While I love my tech toys, I’ve not taken the plunge and purchased an HDTV. I can’t really justify such a purchase, as I don’t spend a ton of time in the living room watching TV. I have a 22-inch monitor in my office that I’ll play movies on and watch the occasional show on, but that’s about it. Thanks to Asus, I’ll be able to use that same monitor to enjoy HDTV if I choose. The new Asus HDTV Suite-HDMI is a standalone box that essentially turns your regular monitor into an HDTV with a resolution of 1920 x 1200. What’s interesting is that it claims to work an any screen 15-inches or bigger. (Read the full post about ‘Turn your boring monitor into an HDTV’…)
Posted Feb 19th 2008 12:04PM by Ryan BlockFiled under: Features, HDTV, Home Entertainment Finally, hd dvd users now have the empirical evidence they’ve been looking for to prove that the universe really is conspiring against them. We figured we’d make ourselves useful over here and give you a list of things you can do with your poor, obsolete HD DVD player — starting with taking it out to dinner, excusing yourself to the bathroom before the check comes… then getting the hell out of there.Gimmes eBay Doorstop Entertainment center cup-holder Destroy it. Office Space style. Oh, the humanity Mail it to the office of Howard Stringer in protest of Blu-ray’s victory. (Read the full post about ‘Top ten things to do with your now-defunct HD DVD player’…)
Grope on a Rope You can have this for ?6.99 Tags: lcd, amps, wi-fi, games (Read the full post about ‘Grope on a Rope’…)
Posted Feb 19th 2008 2:06PM by Darren MurphFiled under: Wireless, Networking We know, most of you Blue Devil fans are still reeling from that recent loss to Wake Forest, but if it’s any consolation, at least your campus is about to become home to the “world’s largest” 802.11n wireless network. Last we heard, The Ohio State University held the crown for Earth’s biggest WLAN with 1,700 access points lit, but according to Cisco, Duke’s campus will soon house 2,500 Aironet 1250 Series APs. (Read the full post about ‘Duke University: home to world’s largest 802.11n wireless network’…)
With Verizon Wireless, Sprint and Helio recently advertising unlimited calling plans AT&T must have felt left out. They have since announced their own unlimited calling plan, which will be available February 22 and cost just $99 per month. The plan will be open to both new and existing users but is going to be available for a limited selection of phones. AT&T’s unlimited plan will cover US based calls with no roaming or long distance charges. The plan will be open to standard phones only, PDA’s, smartphones and the iphone are left out. Overall it seems Helio has the closest offer to unlimited, which includes both calling and data. Of course a calling plan technically is for calling. (Read the full post about ‘AT&T joins the party, adds $99 unlimited calling plan’…)
Monster Cable is fighting back against critics of its overpriced cables, responding to a Consumerist expose of profit margins. Monster issued a long, rambling denunciation of the criticisms therein. Here’s a Valleywag-esque 100-word version: • Making a fuss over the high markups on our cables is misleading, because all brick-and-mortar stores aim for similar margins on every type of product. It’s much worse on clothing, jewelry and furniture. • So what if the retailers are ripping you off? That’s the retailers’ fault, not Monster Cable’s. • Monster makes the world’s highest quality cables. "Our customers know what they’re paying for." • The idea that digital transmissions suffer no signal loss is nonsense. (Read the full post about ‘Monster Cable Defends Overpriced Cables: The Short Form’…)
The ipod Shuffle price drop wasn’t the only Apple news today. The company also announced a new 2GB version of the tiny clip-on, and it will be $10 less than its predecessor, at $70. The 1GB, as reported, will remain on sale at the new price of $50.The new model is otherwise unchanged: same size, same color line-up and same no screen. It should be in stores “later this month”.Press release [Apple] Tags: tests, cool gear, MP3, consumer electronics (Read the full post about ‘Apple Announces 2GB iPod Shuffle’…)
Have you ever been camping and decided to go on a long hike, only to discover your walkie-talkie batteries are dead, leaving you without any means of communication? We all know cell phones are pretty much useless anywhere that’s good for hiking, so you’re stuck with a pair of walkie-talkies. Wouldn’t it be great if someone created a set that charged up via a hand crank? Don’t worry, they already have. This handy little device actually serves several purposes. It will play music from any AM/FM station, or let you listen in on the weather over the NOAA channel.. You can also use the VOX feature to communicate with any other matching Crank Radio (or any other radio tuned to the right band) within a 5-mile radius. (Read the full post about ‘Two-way Crank Radio is perfect for camping and hiking trips’…)
The Flowboard is unique as it enables you to perform all your favorite skateboard tricks as well as heel toe action that comes with other extreme sports, namely surfing, snowboarding and wakeboarding. The Flowboard will come in 32″ and 36″ sizes while featuring superior carving control on hills and skate parks. If you like the Flowboard, you can also give the Snowskate a shot - this snowboard boasts a quartet of skates for a street-like feel whenever you terrorize the mountain slopes. Pricing starts from $100 upwards, depending on the size. (Read the full post about ‘Flowboard All-Terrain Board’…)
TDK has been around long enough for the average consumer to associate it with cassette tapes and other recording media such as floppy disks, CDs, DVDs, and even Blu-ray optical media. They’ve finally jumped onto the USB flash memory bandwagon though, but don’t expect anything new other than color-coded capacities on the outside. Choose from 1GB, 2GB and 4GB models. These’ll run on USB 2.0, so they ought to be average performers all in all without breaking any performance records anytime soon. Tags: digital, video game, Ogg Vorbis, lcd (Read the full post about ‘TDK USB Flash Drive’…)
