Ultra Cool Gadgets

The multimedia powerhouse HP Pavilion Elite m9040n desktop PC is powered by Intel’s newest processor–the Viiv-enabled 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600–which delivers four complete execution cores within a single processor for unprecedented performance and responsiveness in multi-threaded and multi-tasking business/home environments. You can also go wireless and clutter-free with wireless keyboard, mouse, and remote control, and it includes a built-in wireless antenna for 54g Wi-Fi networking (802.11b/g).
You can watch, record, and pause live TV programming as well as schedule the PC to record upcoming episodes or entire series. The built-in TV tuner (providing both standard NTSC and high-def ATSC transmission) and personal video recorder (PVR) let you watch, pause, rewind, and record live television–up to 395 hours on the dual 320 GB hard drives (for 640 GB of total built-in storage). An online Electronic Program Guide (EPG) lets you review the TV schedule and select individual episodes or entire series, so you can watch your favorite shows on your own time, at your own convenience. And you can easily burn TV shows and home video to DVD for friends and family with the dual-layer, multi-format LightScribe DVD/CD burner (16x for DVD±R), which enables you to store up to 8.5 GB of data on a DL disc. LightScribe technology burns custom, silkscreen-quality labels and artwork directly onto LightScribe-enabled discs, right inside the drive.

Product features:

* Top-of-the-line multimedia desktop featuring 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 with four lightning fast execution cores
* TV tuner (NTSC/ATSC), PVR functionality, programming guide, and 16x dual-layer LightScribe DVD drive
* Dual 320 GB hard drives (640 GB total), 3 GB RAM (8 GB max), Nvidia GeForce 8400 GS graphics (1535 MB of available memory)
* 54g Wi-Fi LAN (802.11b/g), Gigabit Ethernet, six USB 2.0, two Firewire, drive bays available for HP Pocket & Personal Media Drives (up to 660 GB optional storage)
* Pre-installed with Windows Vista Home Premium (with Media Center capabilities)

Customer feedback:

1. I got this computer about two weeks ago. This baby is lightning fast. How good is it, you wonder? Windows Vista has a utility built-in that ranks the hardware its running on. The scale is 1 to 5, 5 being the most optimum hardware for the operating system. This one scored higher than a 5! I have compared this computer’s configurations to Dell and Gateway, both costing atleast $400 more for a similar product. The only drawback so far appears to be the TV-out feature. It does not work! Problems with TV-out are common place with the Vista O/S. There’s postings all over the Internet about NVidia having this problem on the Vista O/S. Hopefully they’ll fix it soon. For now, if you absolutely need TV-out, stick to XP or get another machine that doesn’t have NVidia.
2. I purchased the HP m9040n from a big box retailer. It has worked well from the time it came out of the box. I was previously working on an older Presario desktop with a single processor. That computer couldn’t handle the task of editing HD Video. This new unit made it possible for me to edit native HD video (Sony AVCHD format on Studio 11 software). The HD editing had fewer crashes on the m9040n than the older Presario had editing SD video. The HD editing playback is a little herky jerky still, and I was hoping that upgrading the RAM from the standard 3MB out of the box to 6 MB would help, but upon the suggestion comment below, I’ll be happy with what I have.
Playback of the HD video downloaded from my Sony HDV camcorder using Sony’s HD video player is smoother than playback during editing. Again, for comparison, on the older Presario (with a 2.4ghz single processor and 1.5mb of RAM) playing HD video on Sony’s player was a worse herky jerky playback experience than playing HD during video editing on the m9040n.

Just when you thought all webcams were created equal, along comes the Creative Live! Cam Optia AF–the first webcam to offer an autofocus lens and a ceiling-busting 2-megapixel resolution. But that’s just the start of the technical enhancements, which also include dual microphones with noise cancellation capability, a wide range of visual and audio effects (which you can also create), parental controls, and still image capture up to an interpolated 8 megapixels.
The Optia AF offers easy plug-and-play operability on either a Windows PC or a Mac–just slide in the USB 2.0 plug, select the camera from your chosen video chatting program (it works seamlessly with Skype, Yahoo!, Windows Live, SightSpeed, and iChat), and you’re good to go. The Optia’s autofocus feature gets engaged whenever you make movements more pronounced than just moving your head from side to side–the picture mildly blurring for about a second before it adjusts to a crisper focus.

Product features:

* Smooth, full motion 30fps digital video streams and top quality images with High Speed USB 2.0 throughput
* Fits easily to almost anything – notebook displays, CRT monitors and flat panel displays
* Spice up your chats with fun audio and video effects including Live! Cam FX Creative and Live! Cam Doodling
* Edit and organize your photos easily & create fun photo calendars with Creative Live! Cam Suite
* Certified for Windows Vista

Customer feedback:

1. I was wary of a driver-less cam because it was one of those holy grail items. However, what the heck, I gave it a try. And what do you know, you plug it in and that’s it. It is recognized and you’re off to the races. I’ve used it on Windows 2003R2 Server along with Camtasia, on XPPro for flash video testing and on TabletPC2005. Every one detected and ran it. However some DirectX software lost the camera connection when I tried to iterate the extended properties of the camera device, I figure that’s the tradeoff of driver-free.
2. Since the Optia AF has not only a video camera, but also a built-in microphone, I decided to give it a try. I was more than impressed with the ease of use of setting it up: just plug it in a USB port, start up Skype, tell it to use the USB video camera and the USB audio device and everything works perfectly. No need to install any software, it worked out-of-the-box. The camera works great with iChat and PhotoBooth applications too, again without installing additional software.
Autofocus is fairly fast in a well lit room, and if you don’t move suddenly in front of the camera. As you start moving the camera tends to hunt the focus a little bit, but that’s something I’d expect from such cameras. Colors are fairly saturated and the image has good contrast. I like the colors a lot better than those generated by the tiny cameras embedded within the latest generation of iBooks, when used in similar light conditions. The Optia AF is also much better in low light than those cameras, with less grain and better colors.

A new class of desktop speakers made for the discerning listener who knows good audio. The Creative GigaWorks T20 is a powerful speaker system that’s made for desktop performance like no other. Featuring quality components such as cloth dome tweeters, stylized woven glass fibre cone drivers and BasXPort technology, the GigaWorks T20 is set to deliver unparalleled performance that will change your perception of desktop speakers. Enjoy its polished looks and Creative’s world-renowned quality audio playback.
The high-performance driver delivers natural and accurate lower frequency response; ideal for listening to music of any genre. Ingeniously designed for enhanced bass without the need for a subwoofer, the tweeter and mid-range driver layout help deliver balanced and natural audio. Easy access to all important controls – Bass, Treble, Volume and the On/Off switch. The Headphone-out and Auxiliary-In makes connecting to your headphones or other external devices, such as your Creative MP3 players, more convenient than ever. The included TV adapter lets you connect to your TV, VCR/DVD and even your favorite gaming console for an exhilarating experience.

Product Details:

* Woven Glass Fiber Cone Driver
* Cloth Dome Tweeter
* BasXPort
* Convenient Front Access
* TV adapter

Customer Feedback:

1. These little speakers can put out an awesome amount of clear accurate sound, and they look great and feel very sturdy. Treble in particular is excellent, and the alleged Bass Xport technology must have something to it, as bass is more than adequate. The separate bass and treble knobs may or may not appeal; to some, they offer more control, to others the added circuitry distorts the signal and gives an added area of complexity in the design that may fail. The portability is excellent. The only real problem is that Creative is so secretive about the wattage and driver size, out of unnecessary concern that buyers may avoid getting these because of a few watts or a half inch. These sound great, look good, and the size to sound ratio is impressive.
2. I bought these to use with my laptop while at home and I’ve been very impressed with them. They are capable of great and powerful sound for a 2 piece system. They plug into my laptop’s headphone outlet and can be plugged into a TV or other device as well. If you give them a few days to break in and use an equalizer (like with Windows Media Player or Winamp for example) they really work great. The few negatives about them are that the cord connecting the left speaker with the right speaker is not too long and the blue light indicating that the speakers are on is too bright. Other than that, no complaints!

The Samsung 226BW 22-Inch Digital/Analog Widescreen LCD Monitor offers razor-sharp, widescreen image clarity and a host of innovative features. The image quality of the 22-inch widescreen offers wide viewing angles with bright colors for a very favorable viewing experience. With a wider viewing angle (160-degree vertical and horizontal viewing angle) Samsung makes sure you can see objects on your screen even when you’re leaning over to grab a snack.
With 16.7 million colors bombarding your rods and cones, you’ll be impressed with the clearer, brighter imagery that this wide spectrum monitor has to offer. Another impressive feature of the 206BW is the pixel pitch, or the distance between pixels. This specification is usually measured in millimeters, and the smaller the pitch the sharper the image. Samsung offers a remarkable 0.282-millimeter pixel pitch for outstanding image clarity. The most talked about spec associated with LCD monitors is the measure of the difference of brightness levels between the brightest white and the darkest dark–the contrast ratio. With a contrast ration of 3000:1, this monitor assures crisp, easy-to-view images. Lastly, Samsung has designed this monitor with MagicColor to improve hue and saturation of colors. This function also adjusts mid-level colors to shades that the human eye accepts as natural. By enhancing the contrast ratio with MagicColor, fresh images with exceptional clarity spring to life, even on a darker screen.

Product Details:

* 22-inch widescreen monitor offers a 160-degree vertical and horizontal viewing angle
* Samsung MagicColor and 16.7 million colors deliver a clearer, brighter image
* 3000:1 contrast ratio and 0.282-millimeter pixel pitch produce crisp, easy-to-view images
* Samsung MagicBright3 and MagicTune functions create an optimum viewing environment
* Dual interface (analog/digital) design also includes D-Sub 15-pin and DVI-D connections

Customer Feedback:

1. I’ve just replaced my ViewSonic VX924 gaming LCD with the Samsung 226BW. Wow, what an amazing display! It’s 1000×1 contrast ratio is stellar. Blacks are extremely black and there is virtually no backlight bleed. (Backlight bleed tends to make black or dark colors look gray and it’s common with LCDs.) The colors are amazingly bright and vivid. In fact its default settings are almost too bright. Fortunately the 226BW comes preprogrammed with multiple screen modes such as Games, Internet, Movies, Sports, Custom, Default, etc. I prefer the Internet setting as the backlight is turned down to about 75% and it’s a lot easier on my eyes in a darkly lit room. The default settings would work best if you are in a brightly lit room, or if you plan on using the display at a distance.
The screen has an amazingly fast response time. Samsung claims 2ms gray to gray. I have no way to verify this, but I haven’t seen any motion blur when I play video games. Viewing angles are also superior with this screen. I can be quite a ways off center and colors are still vivid and crisp. My old display would look washed out and gray at almost any angle other than directly in front.
2. I love this new monitor. It makes everything easier to view & read. It is also great for watching videos and movies. It was a great choice.