• Topeak Mini 6 on CoolTools: "This incredibly compact, bike-oriented multi-tool has five different sizes of Allen wrench plus a Phillips screwdriver head, all of which folds up into a little pod about the size of a walnut. Sometimes I'll carry it in my pocket or toss it in shoulder bag; mostly I keep it in the under-seat pouch of my bike. It really comes in handy for quick adjustments...."
• Tapping Your TiVo's Hidden Talents on The Mossberg Solution in the WSJ: "... like any old friend -- or spouse -- who has been around for a while, TiVo has a few tricks up its sleeve that might surprise longtime users and new owners alike. This column includes just a handful of those tricks and highlights some features that may make TiVo more useful. These tips are for everyday users, not serious hackers, and many others exist."
• 1Password. It’s All I Need…And This Remote. on Apple Phone Show: "If there is anything I love more than software that works, it’s software that helps me save time and having to type on my iPhone’s keyboard. This is especially significant when having to type my uber-strong passwords into a login password field. I’ve been using 1Password since Macworld, and I really find it helpful...."

• iPhone SDK, Apple's Touch Platform, and The Next Two Decades on 37signals Signal versus Noise: "What we saw today {at the iPhone Software Roadmap Event} was the spark. The explosion will continue for twenty years. We will all feel the warmth."

  "What we saw today was the beginning of two-decades of mobile domination by Apple. What Microsoft and Windows was to the desktop, Apple and Touch will be to mobile...."



• Behind the scenes of the old school HBO intro, a video on YouTube noted on 37signals Signal versus Noise: If you have time to watch any of this 11-minute video produced by HBO about the filming of an introductory film clip that HBO used as a lead in to a feature film presentation, you will be amazed at the amount of time put into building scale models of a city, town, and countryside. Yes this was state-of-the art technology in 1982. But think of how differently it would be done today.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I expected to be wowed by Steve Jobs' 2008 MacWorld Expo Keynote a lot more than I actually was. However, I was doing other things while the event was going on (real work), and the products that I was most interested in (mainstream Mac laptops) didn't get addressed in this keynote at all.

Bummer for me. I could have bought my MacBook Pro two weeks ago if I had known that the Penryn upgrade wasn't immediately forthcoming.

Here are my comments on the other aspects of the keynote:

• iTunes Movie Rentals / AppleTV Take 2: Clearly the announcement with the most business disruption potential. I agree with one of the commentators on MacBreak Weekly who suggested that Apple is making a play to be the digital media hub in the house, usurping services like Netflix, as well as Television services providers such as Comcast and Verizon FiOS.
• MacBook Air: This is a machine aimed at people who travel a lot or who want a portable machine that is a shadow of their desktop Mac. I could see some very well off Mac users owning the big iMac and a MacBook Air. The MacBook Air is incredibly thin. It's hard to believe a machine with a laptop-like display and keyboard could be any thinner than this and still be usable.

• Time Capsule: This is an interesting extension to the AirPort wireless base station line. Time Capsule is an AirPort Extreme with a 500G or 1T hard disk in it, functioning as Network Attached Storage (NAS).

  My first reaction was, "Bummer. Kathleen just bought me the AirPort Extreme." But then I realized that I would prefer NAS that used RAID 1 or RAID 5 storage anyway. It also costs more than we want to spend on network appliances at this point.



• iPhone 1.1.3 Update: There's some good stuff here. I loaded it on my iPhone already. The cell tower triangulation in the Maps application works pretty well. That feature makes the iPhone version of RinkAtlas viable. Expect an announcement from me on that front soon.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)

At The Home Office, the week of gadget craziness continued. On Sunday night my son Jimmy wanted to watch Teletubbies on FiOS Video On Demand before he went to bed. (Kathleen suggested it and Jimmy got excited about the idea, so that was the plan.) Anyway, we brought up the FiOS VOD subsystem on the television in the living room, and a message says that On Demand isn't available at this time. Try back in a few minutes.

Kathleen said that this happened a couple of days ago, and I should put a call in this time. I called Verizon and was walked completely through a testing process and a set top box reboot by an automated voice response system. It said that my set top box would reacquire the program guide and all would be well again in a few minutes. But, if for any reason the problem wasn't resolved, my call and the details of what was done would be noted in my account to expedite the process of speaking with a live support person.

"This is progress," I said to Kathleen.

Thirty minutes later, the program guide and our DVR functions hadn't reappeared. Jimmy was watching a DVD instead. Kathleen wanted me to call Verizon back and get the problem straightened out.

When I made the call, the computer estimated that I would be on hold for 41 minutes. The alternative offered was for the system to call me back in 41 minutes when a support person became available. That would have been too late for me, so I hung up.

The set top box didn't reacquire the guide all day on Monday, so I called support at about 9:00pm. The wait was much more reasonable. It turned out to be under five minutes, although the computer's initial estimate was longer.

I went through a guided reboot of my router and my set top box. Eventually the set top box reacquired the guide, so I ended up being happy that the problem was solved.

A new problem developed with our Local Area Network. Apparently the process Verizon used to reset my router and set top box blew away my router's configuration, including its password. I had to troubleshoot my LAN to determine that the LAN's IP address range changed, then I realized that the password on my router changed. Eventually I realized that the router had just been reset to the default settings. So I reconfigured it to the way the network was before the problems occurred, and now I hope that everything is working once again. (I know that the Internet is working, otherwise I wouldn't be writing this article right now.)

The lessons I learned from this process are:

• Don't use FiOS' automated voice response system to troubleshoot your TV while someone is watching it. You will probably temporarily lose additional services for at least as long as an automated system test takes.
• Document your LAN configuration in case Verizon decides to reset your router to its initial state.
• Keep that LAN configuration at your fingertips when calling Verizon FiOS support even if the call is about TV or telephone.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

• Apple Releases a New "Get a Mac" Ad Co-starring a Football Referee on Apple.com: Pretty good attention to detail. The referee is wearing a white hat and a uniform that is very close to that worn in many college football leagues. What I would add to this is the referee turning on his microphone and speaking over the public address system. [ Seen on TV over the weekend. ]

• Andrea Jung Joins Apple Board of Directors on MacRumors.com: "Apple has announced that Andrea Jung has been elected to Apple's board. Andrea also serves as Chairman and CEO of Avon Products, board member of General Electric, and member of the New York Presbyterian Hospital board of trustees and the Catalyst board of directors."

  Why the CEO of Avon and why now? Speculation is that her board seat at GE will make her helpful in brokering an agreement with NBC Universal to bring them back into the iTunes fold.



• Break a Soda Habit with Better Water on Lifehacker: "Have a serious soda habit? Part of the lure of the stuff is the convenience and fizzy texture, not just the sugar content you can get from lots of other places. How-to blog TipNut details one writer's cheap, simple fix—giving water more appeal." My habit is Caffeine Free Diet Coke, so I don't have the caffeine or the sugar but I still have the soda fix. I just drink way too much of it.


• Chalet Doll House on BabyGadget.com: "...this Chalet Doll House from Plan Toys is like a breath of fresh air with its openness and lack of minuscule plastic parts. With movable staircases and skylights, this doll house comes completely furnished - sans family...." Nice looking, substantial, and modern.


• Philips Blu-ray Player BDP7200 on Ubergizmo: "The BDP7200 is Philips’ first Full Profile 1 compliant BD player that features Dolby® TrueHD and DTS® HD High Resolution Audio, multi-channel audio decoding and digital audio optical outputs. The BDP7200 supports 1080p at native 24 frames per second...." On display at CES.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

An article called What This Gadget Can Do Is Up to You really caught my eye today when it appeared on The New York Times website. This article describes the Neuros OSD Media Center, a sleek looking video recorder that looks like it could have quite a few immediate applications. What makes it most unique is the fact that its software is built on a number Open Source applications and the MPEG4 video standard. The article begins as follows:

“HACKERS, welcome! Here are detailed circuit diagrams of our products — modify them as you wish.”

That’s not an announcement you’ll find on the Web sites of most consumer electronics manufacturers, who tend to keep information on the innards of their machines as private as possible.

The Neuros OSD reminds me in some respects of the Nokia N800 and N810 Internet Tablets. These are all devices built on Open Source foundations that take a defiantly different approach to meeting customer needs in their space.

I've started talking about hacking the N800 here on Operation Gadget, and honestly hacking is the big attraction of these devices. I'd probably prefer Apple devices for day-to-day use, but I'd learn more from owning and trying to use a Nokia Internet Tablet and the Neuros video recorder.

Just like my friend Lionel is considering using a Nokia N800 as an alternative e-book reader to an Amazon Kindle, I think some people will be looking hard at a Neuros OSD Media Center as an alternative to an AppleTV.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

PVRblog pointed out that Steve Garfield is blogging about the Comcast deployment of TiVo software on their existing Motorola DVR set-top boxes. I found an article on Steve's site that includes a Ustream video tour of the Comcast / TiVo user interface. Overall, the experience looks similar to the TiVo Series I and Series II experiences that I've had in the past, although Steve is complaining in the video about speed and navigation issues.

I'm sure that there are more good articles on Steve's blog (offonatangent.blogspot.com) that talk about other aspects of the Comcast / TiVo experience. I haven't had time to read them yet.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

PVRblog pointed out that NBC has decided to pull its programming out of iTunes and move it to Amazon.com Unbox, a fairly new service from Amazon.com that competes with iTunes for video download sales. I think this is a mistake on NBC Universal's part, and it has little to do with the fact that I own an iPhone.

One of the things that entertainment companies should realize is that the device choices that early adopters make will have a big impact on entertainment companies' download sales in the short term. I know that I am a lot more likely to buy video content from iTunes now than I was before I got my iPhone. There are hundreds of thousands of people who bought an iPhone since June 29 who probably feel the same way.

What compelling device will drive new customers to Amazon.com to purchase videos from Unbox?

The list of portable devices that are compatible with Amazon.com Unbox is uninspiring. The most compelling device that's compatible with Unbox is not portable. It's TiVo.

I am a big TiVo fan and a long time user, and I buy a lot of stuff from Amazon.com, but I don't have the capability to play Unbox videos on my unit. (It's a DirecTV-based TiVo, so it doesn't have the Internet networking features of the pure TiVo units that make Unbox available.) Since most of U.S. households don't have TiVo units compatible with Unbox either, I think NBC has limited significantly reduced its potential audience for video download sales.

In a broader sense, I don't see how the Unbox service creates sales momentum for itself based on exclusive content deals alone.

It's possible that NBC's strategic error will become more apparent after Apple announces its new line of iPods this afternoon.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Taking a look at all of the recent articles on hacking AppleTV that are appearing on technology-related blogs and forums:

• Streaming from URLs on Apple TV
• Apple's not fighting back against Apple TV hacks
• We just got xvid working on the Apple TV

(to name a few)... I'm starting to wonder if there's hope for the same kind of laissez-faire attitude from Apple toward hacking the iPhone.

I've never really believed that the iPhone will be as much of a walled garden as Steve Jobs indicated in his post-keynote comments. I think the process of getting third party apps on to the first generation iPhone will be convoluted, but it will be possible in some form or fashion. Someone will get ssh running on it. Someone will get a third-party Dashboard widget to load on it.

When this happens, the vanguard of the iPhone users will go to the trouble of learning how to do it, and that will be the way that people make their iPhones unique.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I got back to thinking about AppleTV this morning after I read A week with AppleTV: A Review on PVRblog.com. This cool little set-top box is designed to stream video content from your iTunes account to your HD television. It supports 720p resolution out-of-the-box, but most of the video content available on iTunes is only available in 480p. The question on my mind, and on the minds of most other gadget bloggers lately is: Why isn't iTunes hosting movies and videos in 720p yet?

The rub seems to be the file sizes of 720p content. According to 43 Folders' latest article about this issue, a two-hour movie in 720p format weighs in at about four Gigabytes. This file would take up over 10 percent of the usable space of the current AppleTV model, and take a non-trivial amount of time to download. (Do the math using the effective throughput of your own broadband connection.)

The comments attached to the 43 Folders article are just about as good as the article itself. They raise a number of questions about whether residential DSL services will be adequate for the amount of downloading that people may want to do once iTunes starts providing lots of 720p content. Throughput aside, some residential DSL plans place monthly caps on downloads. If you have a 40-Gigabyte download cap, that would mean you could only grab about 20 hours of 720p content per month before your provider would start complaining to you.

The other thought that came up on 43 Folders was that AppleTV would create a boom in video podcasts available in the 720p format. I can see services like NHL Network and Cycling.tv being beneficiaries of devices like AppleTV and the PlayStation 3 video download capabilities.

I also wonder how long it will be before iTunes and other similar services are extended to provide live or nearly-live video on demand?

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There was a very interesting article about the Olevia brand of High Definition Televisions in yesterday's New York Times. The company behind the brand, Syntax-Brillan Corporation sold almost $250 million dollars worth of HDTVs in the fourth quarter of 2006 alone.

One of the key reasons that the Olevia brand is successful in the U.S. consumer electronics market is because they capitalize on the huge number of LCD display panels available at the wholesale level. The number of factories in Asia that were built to manufacture these displays was far in excess of anticipated demand several years ago. Although the demand for HDTVs has soared in the last 12 to 24 months, most people looking at the industry still see an LCD display panel glut on which companies like Syntax-Brillan can capitalize:

{Vincent F. Sollitto Jr., Syntax-Brillan's CEO} is essentially taking a ride on the falling prices of flat panels, the main component in the TVs, and the drop has steepened because of a glut. It owns no factories, but buys the panels and has contracts with four manufacturers to assemble the televisions. This keeps costs down but is risky because the company does not control the supply of parts.

It appears from this article that Syntax-Brillan is using this period of rapidly declining prices to attempt to establish Olevia as a name brand for HDTVs in the United States. This would allow them to compete more on features than on price in the future, if the availability of LCD panels is easy as it is now.

The Olevia brand is also greatly helped by the selection of its Olevia 542i 42-inch model as a Consumer Reports Best Buy in the 40-inch and larger LCD HDTV category. [ Free registration required to read most articles in The New York Times. Paid subscription required to read most articles in Consumer Reports. ]

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I was impressed with Walter Mossberg and Katherine Boehret's comparison between the LP-to-CD Recorder Stereo System made by Teac America and the Ion iTTUSB Turntable that was published in today's Wall Street Journal. According to the article, they decided to do this comparison in response to a steady stream of questions from baby boomers who want to convert tracks from their 45s and LPs to digital audio.

They preferred the TEAC LP-to-CD Recorder Stereo System (also known as the TEAC GF-350 Turntable / CD-Recorder) to the iTTUSB Turntable, which seems like an unusual choice at first glance. The TEAC GF-350 won't rip tracks from records directly to MP3s, you first have to burn the tracks onto CD using the built-in CD burner. Their reason for making the recommendation is their impression that the Audacity software provided with the iTTUSB Turntable is not appropriate for non-technical users:

Audacity opened and worked -- but only after we followed the manual's exhausting instructions and got help from the company's tech support. One step had us searching a list of confusing terms to select our computer's sound card, a task that would rightfully baffle any mainstream user. We listened to tracks through our computer's speakers as we copied music onto our computer.

But Audacity's most glaring problem is its inability out of the box to convert your imported vinyl tracks into MP3s -- the main purpose of the product. To do this, you must leave the software program, go to Audacity's Web site, find the URL link for a third party's Web site, download an MP3 conversion plug-in and run it within Audacity. The software never explicitly tells you how to do this.

The biggest issue that I have with their explanation of the Audacity software is that Mossberg and Boehert never point out that Audacity is an Open Source Software project. As such, Audacity will probably never provide an MP3 codec as part of the project, due to the patents that have been issued on the MP3 encoding scheme.

I think that the biggest issue with the Ion iTTUSB is Ion's lack of focus on providing good PC software to date. There's no reason I can think of that Ion couldn't include clearer directions on the use of Audacity to produce MP3s. They could probably even include the MP3 plugin for Audacity on the CD they ship with the iTTUSB without violating Audacity's GPL license.

Instead ION has apparently decided to say very little about software to drive the iTTUSB, other than the fact that it's working on new software for a Spring 2007 launch. The Wall Street Journal says, "Next April, Ion Audio plans to introduce its own software program that will come bundled with the iTTUSB. Ion says this will have its own built-in MP3 conversion program, as well as the ability to automatically detect the start of new tracks."

I agree with the conclusion of this comparison: anybody who want to rip old vinyl to MP3s at this point is better off using a two step process: convert the tracks from vinyl to CD using the Teac stereo unit, then rip the CDs to MP3s on a PC or Macintosh. I'm going to update past Operation Gadget articles that refer to the iTTUSB to reflect this recommendation.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Verne Gay of Newsday.com wrote a column called How iTunes saved 'The Office' that I've been meaning to point out. Kathleen has fallen in love with The Office in the past few months, but if there's truth to what Verne Gay is saying, the program wouldn't have lasted on NBC's schedule without strong sell-through on iTunes.

The column quotes Angela Bromstead, President of NBC Universal Television Studio as saying:

I'm not sure that we'd still have the show on the air. The network had only ordered so many episodes, but when it went on iTunes and really started taking off, that gave us another way to see the true potential other than just Nielsen. It just kind of happened at a great time.

The article goes on to point out that expected iTunes success is probably going to save 30 Rock for oblivion.

I guess this indicates that the most effective way to support a niche show that you love is to get an iPod and buy episodes, not to write letters to network management.

Technorati Tags: The Office, 30 Rock, NBC, iTunes

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Martin O'Donnell pointed out that Brier Dudley of The Seattle Times didn't like The Sony PlayStation 3 as much as he would have if it had been less expensive. Dudley wrote:

Don't get me wrong. The PS3 is an amazing machine. I'd love to have one sitting beneath my TV. But not for $500 or $600. That's just too expensive for a game console, even one that incorporates a bleeding-edge Blu-ray disc player.

He goes on to point out that he doesn't think that the PS3 will necessarily make a better downloaded movie player than either the XBox or Apple iTV, the forthcoming set-top box from Apple. Is he going out on a limb by making such a prediction about a product that's only been seen in a Steve Jobs demo?

Technorati Tags: PS3, Xbox, Apple iTV

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Earlier today, Jason Fried of the web application service provider 37 Signals reported that he had noticed an improvement in the responsiveness of the Comcast DVR thanks to the most recent software update pushed by Comcast. According to Fried:

I have a Comcast DVR. It recorded on time, the menus and interface were decent (I prefer TiVo’s UI, but Comcast’s is fine), and it was reliable.

But it was slow. Click fast forward and it felt like there was a 1-2 second delay. Hit stop and wait another 1-2 seconds. Sometimes more. The waiting killed the convenience....

... I just noticed that Comcast updated the software..... Now menus selections are sharp, button clicking is crisp, and things happen when you ask them to happen. The experience is finally satisfying.

I agree with Jason when he says that it's rare that products with significant software components get faster as they mature, even as more features are added. Apparently this is one case where a set-top box has actually improved rather than degraded. And, believe it or not, Comcast is the company responsible for this improvement. Will miracles ever cease?

Posted by Dave Aiello at 4:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Last night Kathleen and I watched the latest episode of The Apprentice that we had recorded on our TiVo. The program originally aired on Monday, but we just freed up enough time to watch it.

During this program, GE aired one of its ads in its One Second Theater series. These ads are designed to get Digital Video Recorder users to stop and study the ads closely. What GE did was to embed 5 to 10 screens of information in an otherwise typical 30-second ad for their Ecomagination initiative.

I saw that there was something different about this ad from the first couple of frames that appeared. I started watching the ad at standard speed and saw a series of flashes. I rewound the ad and watched in slow motion, eventually dropping down to frame-by-frame viewing. At that point, Kathleen said I was a "tool of the media," which is a term I use to describe myself, so I wasn't offended.

I think this type of creativity is going to get TiVo users attention, at least in the short term. I'll certainly be looking for more of these ads during programs that we record from NBC.

Technorati Tags: One Second Theater, The Apprentice, TiVo, GE, NBC.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My wife Kathleen spent yesterday afternoon at our friend Jen Colangelo's house watching The Chronicles of Narnia on Jen's big, new plasma television. When she got home, Kathleen said the movie (which was played on a progressive-scan DVD player) looked "amazing" compared to movies on our old, analog, 480i TV.

All a progressive-scan DVD player does is transmit images in 480p, the so-called EDTV format, instead of 480i. This is a huge advance in picture quality, which becomes more obvious as the size of the monitor increases. That's why DVDs look so good on HDTV sets.

A new generation of DVD players with higher resolution than 480p is on its way. There are actually two competing standards: HD DVD and Blu-Ray. Both will offer the ability to project images to an HDTV at 720p or 1080i depending on the format that the producers chose for the movie. The questions for many home theater fans is, at what point do I upgrade to a more advanced DVD player, and which format should I choose?

Martin O'Donnell pointed out a syndicated article from The Los Angeles Times by David Colker where he reviewed the first HD DVD players from Toshiba and came away less impressed than he expected. Colker said, "unless you already have a high-definition television at least 40 inches in size, you won't notice much of a difference."

His recommendation to people who have not yet bought the HDTV set of their dreams is to invest the $500 that a first-generation HD DVD unit would cost in a bigger HDTV monitor. "In the time it takes to save up another $500, the price of HD disc players will probably drop and a pending format war may well be decided."

The article includes some surprising revelations:

• HDTV sets without HDMI component interfaces may not be able to display HD DVD movies at anything above 480i resolution.
• Smaller HDTV sets with HDMI don't benefit from HD DVD as much as you'd expect because the difference in resolution is a lot less obvious on small monitors.

The article barely mentions the fact that HD DVD and Blu-Ray movies are virtually impossible to get at the moment. Thankfully, HD DVD and Blu-Ray players are backward-compatible with standard DVDs, so if you did decide to spring for the new technology, you could replace the standard DVD player in the component stack.

Technorati Tags: home theater, HD DVD, Blu-Ray, HDTV, EDTV.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Alan Lofft of Axiom Home Theaters wrote a great piece for eCoustics.com that offers do's and don'ts for setting up your first home theater surround system. The tips I particularly liked were:

• "Don't turn the levels of your surround speakers up too high because you can't "hear" them. You aren't supposed to hear them in the conventional sense; that is, if they're set at the correct levels, the surrounds should not call attention to themselves...." [ Don't you wish that movie theaters would try this also? ]
• "Don't run your new HDTV (rear- or front-projection), plasma, or LCD panel at its brightest setting and shorten the life of the set (or the projector bulb). In the A/V business, that's called "torching" the set. The brighter you run them, the shorter the longevity of the plasma panel or the DLP/LCD projector bulb...." [ This always concerns me about plasma sets. ]

[ via LifeHacker ]

Technorati Tags: home theater.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Kathleen and I had lunch with our friend Jennifer Colangelo over the weekend. She is is the proud owner of a huge, new plasma HDTV set that she mainly uses to watch DVDs and play games on her Xbox 360. As we discussed her new TV, I found out that she receives no HDTV channels using it. I asked why, and she told me that she couldn't figure out a way to get HD channels from Comcast without paying at least $70 per month.

Jen said that she would consider paying that much for cable during the NFL season because she thinks HD adds alot to the experience of watching the game, but even then the price is more than she wants to pay.

Jen has a viewpoint that I hadn't considered before. She's very technically sophisticated, and knowingly spent several thousand dollars on a beautiful HDTV receiver without planning to receive HD channels at all. DVDs and video games in high definition were enough for her.

My question to her was: Why not get an antenna to receive HD channels over-the-air?

Back in January 2005, I helped a friend install a home theater with DirecTV and over-the-air HDTV, so I knew this was possible. The difference is that Jen lives in an apartment, so I needed to find an antenna that could be discretely mounted inside or on a small exterior wall that's available to her.

The antennas I found that look promising are:

• Terk TV-55 HDTV Indoor/Outdoor Amplified Antenna
• TERK HDTVLP Indoor / Outdoor HDTV Antenna

I like the clean design of the Terk TV55, but the Terk HDTVLP is a more recent model. LAaudioFile.com has a great review of the Terk TV55 that was published about three years ago. They say, "The TV55 has an operational bandwidth of 54MHz to 806MHz and covers the full spectrum of the conventional antennas found on roofs decades ago. An inline amplifier has a gain of 10dB for weak signals and a bypass mode for the stronger signals."

Other comments about these products indicate that:

• these antennas are very directional, so you need to align them properly with the location of the transmitter you are trying to receive. AntennaWeb's over-the-air transmitter locator allows you to enter your address and learn the orientation and distance of each nearby TV transmitter. Choose "Show Digital Stations Only" for HD transmitters.
• these antennas require the proper cabling. Use RG-6 cable for the antenna lead-in to the receiver, not the cheaper RG-59.

Technorati Tags: HDTV, over the air, antenna, home theater.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Martin O'Donnell recently visited Costco Warehouse #1 in Seattle, where he saw the following sign:

All Digital TVs at Costco are displaying High Definition content. In order to view the same picture quality at home, you must upgrade to HD programming.

Martin added, "It goes on to explain how a standard definition signal displayed on an HDTV may be 'disappointing'. I'm guessing that the number of returns by 'disappointed' consumers has hit a fairly high level."

This story may have more legs than readers of Operation Gadget realize. According to an article on HomeTechNews.com, a recent survey of HDTV owners commissioned by Scientific Atlanta indicated that 49 percent of HDTV owners aren't taking advantage of the HD features of their sets. This means that they don't receive HD programming because they lack "an HD set-top box, a CableCARD, and/or an {over-the-air HD} antenna".

The article goes on to point out:

• "... 28% of HDTV owners reported that they did not get any special equipment from their service provider to watch HDTV channels because the picture quality was already improved with the purchase of an HDTV."
• "23% of HDTV owners did not invest in special equipment to watch HDTV channels because a message at the beginning of the programs they watch tells them that those programs are being broadcast in HD."
• "... 18% reported that they believed the HD television would give them high-definition channels without additional equipment."

If a relative or friend who isn't technically-oriented suddenly announces that he or she is buying an HDTV set, try to assess their understanding of the technology and equipment and service requirements. If they don't seem to know what they need to know in order to take best advantage of the technology, consider recommending a how to book such as HDTV for Dummies or The Home Electronics Survival Guide.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Amazon.com just put the Mission M-Cube 5.1 Home Theater Speaker System on sale, bringing the price of the package below $1,000 for the first time.

The M-Cube 5.1 is one of the few home theater systems that uses NXT speaker technology but doesn't emphasize flat cabinetry. NXT technology was designed to radiate sound uniformly throughout the room by vibrating large panels rather than magnetic cones. A lot of audio designers fell in love with the ability to produce flat speakers, despite the fact that cubic NXT speakers sound significantly better. So many flat NXT speakers were produced that the technology itself has been mischaracterized as flat-sounding and tinny.

The M-Cube 5.1 has gotten a number of excellent reviews. A review of the M-Cube in The Daily Mirror said:

Performance-wise the M-Cube really is something of a marvel. The way sound disperses throughout a room when using the system really needs to be heard to be believed. The wide-range of the panels used in the satellites means there really isn't a best-seat in the house as the sound feels balanced throughout the whole room.

Designtechnica's review of the M-Cube said:

The M-Cube system, which comes with five satellite speakers and a powerful 250-watt subwoofer, was engineered using distributed mode loudspeaker (DML) flat-panel technology, which combines wide-ranging acoustics with freedom in aesthetic design.... Mission had the flexibility to team with British designers Seymour Powell to create a compelling cube-shaped housing that measure 3.5 inches in each direction.

The Mission M-Cube 5.1 Speaker System is available with midnight black or ivory cabinetry.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The ViewSonic VX2025 won a 20-inch Widescreen Monitor Group Test published yesterday at Bit-Tech.net. The VX2025 was judged the best value for the money against the following competitors:

• BenQ FP202W
• NEC MultiSync 20WGX, apparently not available in the U.S. but the closest model is the NEC MultiSync 20WMGX2-BK
• Acer AL2032WA

On performance alone, Wil Harris liked the NEC, but it was 25 percent more expensive than the ViewSonic. Unless you need the highest possible LCD response for gaming, you'll probably find the ViewSonic to be the best buy.

Technorati Tags: ViewSonic VX2025, BenQ FP202W, NEC MultiSync 20WGX, Acer AL2032WA, widescreen LCD monitors

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The other day Cool Tools pointed out a product called the PowerSquid Outlet Multiplier and I'm planning to pick one up over the weekend for my server area in my basement. Down there I have a DSL router, a firewall appliance, a WiFi access point, and two VoIP ATAs plugged into a power strip which feeds into an uninterruptible power supply. (See VoIP Service Stayed Up for Three Hours During Power Failure Thanks to a Good UPS if you want more configuration details.) The AC adapters for those five devices are relatively big. They each cover part of the electric outlet next to the one they are plugged into in the power strip.

A device like the PowerSquid would make it possible for me to use all of the outlets that are attached to it. I think the design of the PowerSquid is very simple and logical, and the price seems to be quite reasonable. I could use one of these around my desk in the Home Office and behind the television in the living room as well.

Technorati Tags: PowerSquid, outlet multiplier

Posted by Dave Aiello at 2:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A page one article in today's Wall Street Journal discusses the technological threats that are developing to the television industry's business model. One example given in the article is that Major League Baseball's MLB.tv video streaming service collected $265 million from 1.3 million subscribers last year, but still blocked subscribers from watching coverage of their own local teams over the Internet. The reason they did this is because any decrease in the likely audience for a game broadcast over a local cable or over-the-air channel reduces the amount that these affiliates are willing to pay for transmission rights.

The article goes on to point out that The Slingbox (a device that allows you to stream content from your television to your PC and other devices via the Internet) and the Video iPod are considered important new threats to the television industry's business model because of the ability they give owners to place-shift their viewing. Place-shifting is potentially a bigger threat to the television industry than time-shifting because place-shifting seems to reduce the viewer's reliance on a local television station. So, if you choose to buy episodes of Lost from the iTunes Music Store, the local ABC affiliate in your city would probably say that you've decreased the value of that episode to them and their local advertisers.

A lot of people think of themselves as the broadcaster's customer when they watch a television program, but this isn't the case. Access to viewers is a service that broadcasters deliver to their advertising customers.

A year and a half ago, Operation Gadget reported on the battle between the National Football League and TiVo over TiVo-to-Go. Back then, TiVo-to-Go was considered a potential piracy threat because the service was designed to allow up to 10 "affiliated devices" to receive stored content from the TiVo DVR. The thought was that the affiliated devices might not all be owned by people in the same family.

That debate took place before Apple shipped iPods with the ability to play back good-quality video. Now that the TV industry is sensitized to the notion of place-shifting, the loss of program value to the local affiliate would probably considered a bigger issue. [ Subscription required to read many articles in The Wall Street Journal. ]

Technorati Tags: Slingbox, MLB.tv, Lost, Video iPod, iTunes Music Store, TiVo

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Even though I live and work in Bucks County, PA, I still listen to New York City radio stations whenever I can. Most of them are flat out more entertaining than stations of the same format broadcasting from Philadelphia. One drawback of listening to New York radio stations as much as I do, however is that there are some significant gaps in the format map:

• New York has no country station on AM or FM, since Y-107 changed formats in 2003
• New York has no oldies station on AM or FM, since WCBS-FM switched to Jack FM in June 2005

This situation is changing now that several of the major radio station networks are rolling out high definition radio broadcasting, also known as HD Radio. According to an article in yesterday's New York Daily News, HD radio is bringing back the classic formats on the HD2 channels of many big New York stations. Oldies are coming back on WCBS-FM's HD2 channel. Country is back on WKTU's HD2. Modern rock returns to WFNY's HD2 after just recently being displaced by talk on the primary FM channel.

HD Radio differs from Satellite Radio in two respects:

1. HD Radio broadcasts from traditional radio transmitters already utilized for AM and FM
2. HD Radio uses the broadcast economic model: advertising-supported, as opposed to the Satellite Radio subscription model

You need an HD Radio receiver to start listening to these HD2 channels. The hottest selling HD Radio sold through Amazon.com at the moment is the Boston Acoustics Recepter Radio HD High Definition AM/FM Clock Radio. This is the HD version of the Recepter AM/FM Clock Radio. You pay a $350 premium for HD radio circuitry right now-- talk about an Early Adopter Surcharge. I hope this price gap decreases as the number of HD receivers produced increases.

There's no question that my next tabletop radio for the Home Office will have HD Radio circuitry. The questions are: when will I buy it and what will it cost? I still want to try Satellite Radio for a while, and I may buy a subscription to it before I try HD Radio.

Technorati Tags: HD Radio, Boston Acoustics Recepter

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

While researching my article on the White Screen of Death problem my Treo is having, I ran across a recent piece by Stewart Alsop where he asks "Do the vendors choose the color of the death screen intentionally?" He says that the screens of death for his favorite gadgets are:

• Blue for many flavors of Microsoft Windows
• Green for TiVo and DirecTiVo
• White for Treo 650Treo 650 handsets that work on the Cingular, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon mobile networks

Stewart and I both have each of these products. I feel fortunate to be able to say that I've only seen two of the three screens of death that Stewart has seen. (I own two TiVos, but I've never seen the Green Screen of Death.)

I told my friend Chris Nolan about Stewart's story. She laughed out loud when she heard it because she knows Stewart pretty well. Small world. Chris has a TiVo, but hasn't experienced the Green Screen of Death either. She has made other platform choices for her computer and her phone, so those two other colored screens don't apply to her.

Do you know of any screens of death that are notorious because of their telltale color? Let me know by posting a comment and I'll add them to the story.

Technorati Tags: Treo 650, TiVo, DirecTiVo, Microsoft Windows, BSOD, WSOD, GSOD

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Associated Press reports that Howard Stern bid his terrestrial audience fairwell today and encouraged them to tune in to him on Sirius Satellite