XMAS FRUSTRATION FOLLOWUP

Jan 4, 2005 | audio, hardware

The Linksys WMLS11B Wireless Music System has been boxed up and returned after a few more fruitless hours of testing. The replacement is the Netgear MP101 Wireless Digital Music Player. There’s no built-in speakers but powered speakers are cheap and easy to come...

HP DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT CENTER z545

Dec 7, 2004 | audio, computers, hardware, video

HP has introduced a device for the living room that comes closer to a vision of the future than anything else on the market. The HP Digital Entertainment Center z545 ($1,999) is a computer at its heart, but that’s almost incidental. It’s a 480-line...

THE GADGET EXPLOSION

Dec 2, 2004 | hardware

We’re entering the golden age of gadgets. Walking the aisles at Best Buy is an eye-opening experience – there’s already an overwhelming range of choices, innovations, and features at rapidly falling prices, and the pace is only increasing. The level...

LCD PRICES DROPPING

Dec 1, 2004 | hardware

Slowly but surely LCD prices are coming down. An example in today’s junk mail: Costco Online has a good price on some highly rated Xerox flat panel monitors – a 17″ model (Xerox XL775D) for $329.99 or a 19″ model (Xerox XL795D) for...

MULTIMEDIA

Oct 30, 2004 | audio, hardware, video

Aging baby boomers will soon be unable to recognize anything handling media in the home of an affluent 25-year-old. The convergence between the computer world and the audio/video world is happening faster than anyone can follow. There are dozens of devices hitting the...

PRICE DROPS ON MEMORY DEVICES

Sep 9, 2004 | hardware

Prices are down and capacities are up on memory cards and devices. Here’s some random examples from a sale at Buy.com tonight: – 1Gb Compact Flash card for $82. It was impossible to get a gigabyte on a memory card until very recently, and this is marked...