A couple of weeks ago, I purchased a Griffin Powerpod, a car charger for my iPod 4th generation, 20GB. (It came in 3 days, by the way.)
I’ve been using it to power my iPod on the go, and listen to it while it is powering. It powers my iPod about 1/4th to 1/2 of the way on my 15 minute drive, enough to listen to at work for about 4 hours. It was really easy to setup and use, and I’m very glad I purchased it.
Overall, for price and ease of use, I’d rate it a 10/10.
I purchased a Viewsonic VA902b 19inch Flat Panel LCD Monitor on March 13, 2006. Here is my review.
Introduction
Let me preface this review by saying I’ve never owned an LCD, nor have I ever owned a 19″ display. I went after this display for a couple of reasons:
Thus far it has surpassed my expectations for being a “cheap” display.
I set my resolution at 1280×1024 @ 60Hz, which is the native resolution.
Technical Specifications
19″ color TFT active matrix SXGA LCD
Display Area: 14.8″ horizontal x 11.9″ vertical; 19.0″ diagonal
Native Resolution: 1280×1024
Contrast Ratio: 550:1 (typ)
Viewing Angle: 160° horizontal, 160° vertical @ contrast ratio > 5:1
Response Time: 8ms (typ)
Brightness: 270 cd/m2 (typ)
Light Source: Long life, 50,000 hrs. (typ)
Panel Surface: Anti-glare
Analog RGB Analog (75 ohms, 0.7p)
Frequency Fh: 30~82kHz, Fv: 50~85Hz
Sync H/V Separated (TTL)
VGA up to 1280×1024 non-interlaced
Dimensions 414mm x 407mm x 219mm (16.3″ x 16.0″ x 8.6″)
Three-year limited warranty on parts, labor and backlight
Gaming
School has been busy, but I was able to test a couple games on this display.
Warcraft 3:
This game performed perfectly, with seemingly less eye strain than on my previous 17″ Viewsonic CRT. Of course, that could be from my new glasses…
Battlefield 2:
Played by my friend, all I could extract from him was “it looks good.”
Of course, I plan to test this more as time allows…
My Personal Thoughts and Opinions
Even though I’ve never owned an LCD, or even a CRT over 17″, I’ve used many. At my work I have a 4×19″ LCD system setup, Kessa uses a 19″ CRT, and Robin uses a 15″ LCD… and of course my 12″ laptop LCD.
The idea was to move to LCDs in order to reduce heat and electricity usage. Since the power outages we had at New Years, I’ve been looking for moderately priced (good quality) LCDs to do this. The first one was located 
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Pictures:
How could I have a review with pictures? Click on each for a larger image, or see the album.
 That’s one big display, dog. |
 Quite stylish. |
 Wow, that’s THIN! And so is the display… . Nice expression, too.
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 Welcome to your new home, VA902b. |
 “it looks good”. |
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Overall I would rate this screen a 10/10. I’ve yet to see a flaw, and quite a buy!
Introduction:
I recently received the Antec Notebook Cooler from CompUSA for $10 after rebate. It was tested with my Dell Inspiron 700m 12″ Laptop.
While the 12″ laptop is comprised of a Centrino processor, it will still heat up for long use or cpu intensive activities; i.e. gaming or compiling.
If you’re a man using a notebook, and you wish to someday have kids, it’s very important that the lap is kept cooled. I won’t go into more detail, but you can google why if you wish 
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Technical Specifications:
Heat is drawn away from the laptop with the fans and the aluminum surface of the notebook cooler, than exhausted out of the sides of the cooler.
My Impressions:
Pros: The first thing I noticed about the cooler was the design. It looks sleek, styling and blends in almost perfectly with my notebook. It’s lightweight, easy to use and very comfortable. It didn’t come with a manual, but it really did not need it. It took me about 1 minute to find the power cable (in a small compartment on the device), once it was found it was literally plug and play.
The extended corners would appear to fit any notebooks from 9″ to 19″ displays. I have a 12″ which is on the lowest end of the current spectrum, and it doesn’t feel like the cooler is too big for the notebook.
Cons: The cooler comes with a very short usb power cable to connect to the notebook. The power connector is on the side. This looks to be somewhat poor planning to me. If the notebook has only usb ports on the opposite side, it looks like the cooler would be be fully functional when rotated 180 degrees. However, what if the notebook has no side usb ports, only on the back? This was the case with my last laptop. I guess one would just get an usb extension cable?
There is a blue LED that shines rather brightly out of the side of the unit. I would think this is cool if it didn’t shine directly into the eyes of the person next to me.
The Test:
I setup the system to play Warcraft 3 for 1 hour. After the hour was completed, my lap was still as cool as room temperature. The laptop had done it’s job; it reverted the heat from the lap to elsewhere. This device proposes to cool down the notebook, which is something I don’t care about as much as keeping me cool while I use the notebook. As far as I am concerned, it thoroughly succeeded.
Conclusions:
There are a few minor issues with the cooler, but overall it does a great job and looks great doing it. It looks to be very versatile as far what is supported, and extremely easy to install and use. The price was great for me, and I am very glad that I have this product.
Overall: 9.5/10
See my pictures of the Antec Notebook Cooler.
I received my Sennheiser 202 Headphones from Amazon today. It took them over a week to get to me, because of their Free Super Saver Shipping. Newegg should really teach Amazon a lesson about quick shipping; I usually received their free shipments in ~3 days.
Anyway, I’ve only been using them for a little bit, but I like them much better than my previous (no headphones). The things that appealed to me most were
I hope these hold up. I took a couple of pictures.
Edit 8/8:
Wow, I’ve never heard bass in headphones before these!
Time Warner cable tv guide is the parent company of not only time warner dvr channels, but you can also watch Disney Channel online free, HBO, New Line Cinema, Cartoon Network and many other directv hd channels.
Introduction:
I ordered a Dell 700m Laptop in mid May, 2005. I was first attracted to its sleek looking wide-screen 12″ LCD and light 4.1lb weight, but liked the idea that it was also capable of having plenty of processing power.
Technical Specifications
I ordered my 700m when Dell was having one of its now popular $750 off of $1500 sales. My goal was to go for the fastest processor, best battery and a great warranty. With those in mind, I purchased the following:
Intel Pentium M Processor 755 – 2GHz/400MHz FSB
12.1″ WXGA
256MB RAM
40GB HDD
24X DVD/CD-RW combo
Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 for 802.11b/g
65WHr 8-cell Lithium Ion Battery
3 year Economy Plan Warranty
I paid $1177 after the $750 off. Some people would say that it is foolish to order only 256MB of RAM with a system. However, look at the prices that Dell charges for RAM. They conventiently allow you to upgrade to 2GB for only an extra $925 (or $25/month). I then ordered 2 of the 1GB RAM sticks for just over $200 from newegg, putting my total paid amount up to roughly $1400. Installing the RAM was a sinch, it took me two small tools and about a half hour.
Gaming
Simply put, do not expect to use the Dell 700m laptop for gaming. While my configuration has a 2GHz processor (fastest available at this time) and 2GB of RAM (most available at this time), it will still not handle many games appropriately. The reason that it performs poorly on games is because it has a “Intel 855 GM Graphics Controller”, which is very substandard for gaming. There are some things that can be done to make it play games.
Before you do anything, find your driver version. The one that is currently available from Dell.com is 6.14.10.3889, which is considered “alpha” by Intel. Intel offers the latest driver (currently 6.14.10.4308) on their official 855GM chipset page.
I have tested three games with the latest driver on my test system as seen above. I tested Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne Dota-Allstars multiplayer mod, Guild Wars, and Black & White. None of the three are on the 855GM game compatibility list, so they could potentially work or not, neither Intel nor the game vendors have an opinion.
Warcraft 3:
The game performed at almost optimal performance. There was a slight (~100ms) latency issue, but it could have either been caused by the poor performing graphics card, or the wireless connection. However, because this game came out in 2002, and due to the fact that it has a performance cap, I somewhat expected the 855GM to perform optimally, but that wasn’t the case.
Guild Wars:
Guild Wars is a popular MMORPG that came out earlier in 2005. This game has very limited functionality on the 4308 driver and the 855GM chipset. System crashing (blue screen) occurred as well as many graphical errors. One of the major graphical errors was that items would appear incorrectly or would appear at incorrect places.
Black & White:
Black & White is a simulation type game that was released in 2001. I experienced no problems whatsoever with this game. It performed very fast and was error free.
Overall, I wouldn’t expect any game made after 2002 to fully work on this laptop or any with a similar Intel graphics chipset.
My Personal Thoughts and Opinions
While IBM boasts the best battery life on their Centrino laptops, I can’t get past the fact that they don’t have the Windows key and are horribly overpriced. I have used many different kinds of laptops in the past. I’d be lying if I said that this was the best looking laptop I’ve ever had, but it does rate among the best I’ve seen. Frankly I’ve become tired of the expanding size of displays of laptops (17″ is rediculous), and find it refreshing to find a nice small and compact display. I think that 12″ is a perfect size for what I do on this laptop. I keep the display at 1280×800 and the display is very clear and crisp.
I actually did not know that it had a build-in SD/MMC card reader on it, but I have found it VERY useful. Prior to getting this laptop, I was considering buying a USB2 memory card reader, because transferring is very slow with the USB1 connecters for my digital camera or PocketPC.
My major complaint about this laptop would be its awkward keyboard layout. The “,”, “.” and “/” keys share the width of 2 regular keys, so it’s very difficult to get used to moving over a few millimeters to hit the correct key. Also, the “Ctrl” key is to the left of the “Fn” key, which is swapped from my last laptop, so that takes awhile to get used to as well.
My last comment would be a very positive one for the battery. My last laptop was a desktop replacement. Even with two installed batteries, the unit would last MAYBE 1 hour on battery while doing anything intensive. I paid quite a bit for the upgrade to the 8 cell, 65WHr battery, and am very pleased with it. The first day I used the laptop, it lasted over 5 hours on battery. Playing games it lasted about 3 hours, which is very impressive. Others have said it has lasted through two entire DVDs (4 hours), which would also be very impressive.
Pictures
I have taken some pictures of my Dell 700m. Click on each to see the larger picture, or view the whole album.
 Crisp, glossy display. |
 Picture of entire unit. |
 Picture of keyboard. |
 Bottom of unit. |
 Closed unit, picture from back. |
 Closed unit, picture from front. |
 Closed unit, picture from top. |
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Overall I would rate this laptop a 9/10.
Edit 8/8:
I found some resources for the Dell Inspiron 700m.
Also, there is a newer driver than 4308 for the Intel chipset; just check the chipset page for the latest.
Edit 7/8/05:
I see that Dell has decreased the RAM prices from $925 for 2 1GB sticks to $675.
