My JVC DV camera has officially been retired to The Shures archives. Instead of buying a new replacement battery, I picked up the brand new PlaySport from Kodak. Best Buy had them in stock locally for $149.95.

While my JVC with its 3 CCD and advanced optics is a nice camera, this new PlaySport’s video blows it away. So far, the 720P at 60fps looks stunning. I also like the small size (about the same as my old Treo) and ease of use. No more FireWire capturing required.

Now I can make some new videos.

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Acer eMachine e525-2200

After all the salt air exposure on the island, my netbook’s power / charging system bit the dust so I replaced it with an Acer eMachine e525-2200 from Best Buy for a smoking good deal of $279.99 plus tax. For this price, I think this model is one of the best values currently out.

While not the fastest new laptop available, it’s working great for my day to day computing tasks. It’s plenty powerful enough for developer or office applications, the Internet, movie watching (including HD), and even some 3-D gaming.

Here’s its specifications:
WXGA 1366X768 high-brightness widescreen display
Intel Celeron 900 2.2GHz Processor
3GB DDR2 RAM
250GB Harddrive
DVD±RW/CD-RW drive
10/100 Ethernet
802.11b/g Wireless
5-n-1 Digital Media Card Reader
Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit

The only thing lacking is the sound. Even turned all the way up, it’s not quite loud enough for comfortably watching Hulu or some YouTube videos. For other stuff, it’s just fine. Allmost all laptops suffer somewhat from this. Using headphones is an easy fix.

It also only has 2 USB ports. This is usually enough for me as I generally only regularly use an external mouse. But occasionally, I do need to plug in my mobile phone and external storage. In those cases, I just temporarily revert to the built in touchpad.

The stock 250GB is a fair amount of storage. But I replaced the hard drive with a 500GB 7200 RPM. It was an upgrade I had purchased for my netbook. This replacement bumps the file system performance up a notch and allows me to carry internally more of my multimedia files.

I have traditionally not been a fan of budget computers, but I think this is good deal. It’s a decent new laptop for an excellent price. I recommend it over spending 2, 3, or even 4X or more for a laptop that is really only a little better in performance or capabilities.

Save you $$ and get this.

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I went out and bought a new PC. Dude, I got anouther Dell. I also picked up a new Hannspree HF289H flat panel display to go along with it. So far, I’ve been blown away by everything that I have thrown at this new rig. I also digg the color scheme of the black/gun metal grey PC case and piano black display.

Here’s the PC’s Specs:
Processor – Intel Core i7 920 @ 2.67GHz 8MB L3 Cache
Memory – 6GB Tri-Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz
Hard Drive – 750GB 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
Optical Drive – 16x DVD+/-RW dbl layer
Video – ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
Sound – 7.1 Channel Audio
OS – Windows Vista 64bit
Warranty – 1 Year

Here’s the Display’s Specs:
Viewable Size – 27.5″
Aspect Ratio – 16:10
Resolution – 1900 x 1200
Response Time – 3ms
Dot Pitch – 0.309mm
Inputs – 2 HDMI, 1 DB15 VGA, 1 Component Video, 3.5mm Stereo, RCA Jacks
Warranty – 3 Year

Total spent to be back in business: 1.5 Large

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Today I retired my old Treo 700p. It’s been an OK phone for the 2 years I’ve used it, but for the last 6 months the reception was going downhill. The cutting in and out and dropped calls from lost signal was quite annoying and becoming steadily worse.

I got my new HTP Touch Diamond cell phone today. The Sprint plan pricing I am on is still phenomenal so I renewed. I liked it when the store guy said Oh… you’re on a SERO plan… I’m not sure with that. He was able to renew it.

It’s the only phone I use so I wanted to get a good one.

Sprint Plan – $43.00 a month including the taxes for:

500 Anytime Minutes
Nationwide Long Distance & Roaming
Unlimited Sprint & Nextel In Network Calls
Unlimited Texting
Unlimited High-Speed Internet Access
Free Nights 7:00pm to 7:00am /Free Weekends
Caller ID
Call Waiting
3-Way Calling
Voicemail
Full Replacement Warranty

$200.00 HTC Touch Diamond includes:

Processor – Qualcomm® MSM7201A™ 528 MHz
Operating System – Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional
Memory ROM – 256 MB
RAM – 192 MB DDR SDRAM
Internal storage – 4 GB
Dimensions – 102 mm (L) X 51 mm (W) X 11.35 mm (T)
Weight – 110 g (with battery)
Display – 2.8-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen
Resolution – 640×480
Main Camera – 3.2 megapixels
2nd Camera – VGA CMOS color camera
Network – HSDPA/WCDMA:
Up to 384 kbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds

Device Control – TouchFLO™ 3D Touch-sensitive
Navigation – GPS
Connectivity – Bluetooth® 2.0 with EDR
Wi-Fi – IEEE 802.11 b/g

Audio – Built-in microphone, speaker and FM radio with RDS
Supported formats:
MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, WAV, and AMR-NB

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It’s Mini-Me!

My daughter received a cute new little netbook for Christmas. It has surprising performance for an inexpensive price. It’s the perfect size for her. Plus for those bussines trips when I’m flying, Dad gets to borrow it. Here it is sitting on my mammoth 17″ 1920×1200 honker.

The Specs:
1.6GHz Processor Intel® Atom™ N270
2GB Memory DDR2 667MHz
120GB SATA Hard Drive
10.1” 1024×600 LCD
HD Audio w/ Stereo Speakers
10/100 LAN
802.11b/g Wireless
Built-in 1.3 Megapixel Webcam
SD/MMC/MS/MS Pro Memory Card Reader
USB2.0 Port X 3
2.8 lbs. 10.2″ X 7.1″ and 0.7″ thin

Voted one of the 10 hottest tech products of 2008, these are selling like crazy. The stores sold out for Christmas.

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Sure anyone these days can have a Wi-Fi hotspot in their house, I like the long hauls; the farther the better. Watching packets fly miles through the air at broadband speeds is such a rush. I also like climbing on roofs, towers, and buildings with no safety net. But I’m getting a little too old for that.

Pictures of past wireless networking projects have been published in the photo gallery.

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