Coolink Silentator

We’re always suspicious of cooling devices that promote their silent functionality. Quiet devices tend to use less-powerful fans or run normal fans at painfully slow speeds. And while this can do wonders for one’s hearing and general peace of mind, our reasonably noisy stock AMD cooler performs much better than the quieter devices we’ve tested.

So when a cooler comes in with the word “silent” right in its name, you can understand our skepticism regarding the product’s potential for heat removal. But Coolink’s Silentator CPU cooler survived a thorough round of Maximum PC heat testing. Better still, it outperformed our low expectations to establish itself as a solid cooling option. The Zalman CNPS9700 still retains its title as our cooling champion, but we wouldn’t mind strapping the Silentator into one of our rigs as a second option.

Installing the Silentator isn’t the most challenging process, though it is rather involved. We had to remove the cooler’s fan just to mount the cooler onto our FX-60, which isn’t a huge problem, but it definitely adds time to the process. You can, however, adjust the cooler’s direction so that air flows either horizontally or vertically, a nice touch.

We were more willing to stomach the installation after seeing the Silentator’s performance. In fact, we even reran the benchmarks to ensure that there wasn’t anything funny going on with the test rig. But the Silentator’s score held true; the Zalman is still The Hulk of cooling power, but we’d let the Silentator into our secret superhero club any day. It cools nicely, with the added bonus of being far, far quieter than the “Rock You Like a Hurricane” Zalman cooler.

The Silentator will never be as awesome as its noisy neighbors, but it balances cacophony and cooling quite nicely.

The Silentator is big, but less bulky than the bigger-than-your-head models we're used to seeing.

Coolink Silentator
www.coolink-europe.com

Dave's Secret Superhero Club

Excellent performance. Quiet too!

No Homers Club

Not quite the cooling power of louder models.

Benchmarks
	Stock Cooler	Coolink Silentator	Zalman CNPS9700
Idle (C)	46.5	36.5	31.0
100% Load (C)	63.0	49.5	42.0
Best scores are bolded. Idle temperatures were measured after 30 minutes of inactivit, and full-load temps were measured after running CPU Burn-in for one hour.

HP Blackbird 002

Label us Luddites for resisting Windows Vista, but there’s no arguing the point that the new OS currently offers very little you can’t get faster with Windows XP. That goes double for games, which is why we’re baffled by HP’s decision to run Vista Ultimate on the groundbreaking Blackbird 002 gaming rig it sent us.

We’re equally surprised that HP sent us a machine it knew would blue-screen when going into suspend mode (and then leave it to us to discover this). Those two decisions are unfortunate because nearly every other facet of the Blackbird is utterly brilliant. Here’s proof that HP’s acquisition of VoodooPC was much more than an opportunistic move (by a company that many gamers dismiss as stodgily conservative and more appropriate for middle-aged newbs) to glom on to the cachet of a high-profile boutique PC vendor.

Actually, we’d argue that HP shed its old-fogey image months ago when it shipped the superbly designed TouchSmart IQ770 (reviewed April ’07). Although that desktop system is also limited to Vista, the embedded 17-inch touch-screen LCD justifies the decision (and you wouldn’t play games on it anyway).

The Blackbird is a different story. Although HP tells us consumers will be able to order machines with either XP or Vista, we review rigs as they are sent to us. As for the blue-screen issue, HP says it’ll have it fixed before you read this review.
Those issues aside, HP and Voodoo deserve high praise for building an exciting and innovative personal computer while using industry-standard parts for every key component. One glance at the all-aluminum case reveals that it’s highly customized; nonetheless, it will accommodate any ATX motherboard and any standard power supply.

Swinging open the side access panel, which easily lifts off its smooth-as-silk hinges, reveals an Asus Striker Extreme motherboard. In a ballsy move, HP adjusted Nvidia’s nForce 680i SLI BIOS to allow a pair of ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT cards to run in CrossFire mode—tweaking the noses of AMD and Nvidia in the process.

Removing the Blackbird's access panel reveals beauty that's more than skin deep.

Each of the Radeons is outfitted with 1GB of DDR4 RAM and cooled by an Asetek LCLC liquid-cooling system. The LCLC also wicks heat away from the 3GHz Intel QX6850 (Core 2 Extreme quad core), which HP overclocked to 3.76GHz. You can order a Blackbird with an X-Fi soundcard and an Ageia PhysX card, but our unit had neither (relying on Analog Devices’s Integrated Digital SoundMax HD Audio for sound, installed on a riser card to escape electrical noise on the mobo).

The Topower Computer TOP-1100W DVT power supply is rated to deliver 1,100 watts (the 2900 XTs, you’ll recall, are insatiable power hogs). The PSU is mounted at the bottom of the case, which is elevated by a large aluminum foot to allow cool air to enter the case from the bottom as well as the sides. Cable management is simplified by modular power plugs, but there’s more to it than that. The SATA cables for the hard drives, for example, are routed to a set of sockets mounted on an internal backplane. The drives are mounted on trays that slide into a rack and plug into this backplane.

Two vertically mounted slot-fed DVD burners are hidden inside the case’s heatsink-like grill, with only LED-lit eject buttons revealing their presence. The case can accommodate a third (tray type) optical drive next to the other two. An equally well-disguised pop-up module on top of the case harbors a 15-in-1 media-card reader, jacks for a headphone and mic, two USB ports, and a FireWire port.

Close this swing-out panel and its spring-steel strips will push installed PCI Express cards firmly into their slots.

We’re excited about many of the Blackbird’s innovations, but HP’s decision to send us a Vista PC severely undermined the machine’s gaming benchmark numbers (including a Quake 4 performance that was slower than our aging zero-point rig’s). “What about DX10?” you ask. “Pretty much irrelevant for now,” we say. And while we applaud the company’s decision to enable CrossFire on an nForce motherboard, our experience has been that Nvidia’s GeForce 8800 GTX and 8800 Ultra are both faster than the Radeon HD 2900 XT (although the GTX’s edge evaporates when running Vista).

Buy this machine and you won’t care which camp wins the next skirmish in the GPU wars because you’ll be covered either way—as rightly you should be. That’s just one of the features that endow the Blackbird 002 with such potential for greatness. Yes, this PC deserves so much better than Vista.

The Blackbird has the best access panel we've ever seen on a PC, with a chrome-plated latch, slick hinges, and a foam-rubber gasket that dampens all vibration-induced noise.

HP Blackbird 002
www.hp.com

Raven

Awesome design using standard components; CrossFire running on nForce.

Craven

Videocard driver crash bug; unimpressive gaming performance (due to Vista).

SPECS
	HP Blackbird 002
CPU	Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 quad core (3GHz overclocked to 3.67GHz)
MOBO	ASUS Striker Extreme (Nvidia nForce 680i SLI)
RAM	2GB Corsair Dominator XMS2 DDR2 (800MHz overclocked to 1,0066MHz)
LAN	Dual Gigabit LAN (Nvidia)
HARD DRIVES	Two 160GB WD Raptors (10,000rpm SATA) in RAID-0, one 750GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10
OPTICAL	Two TSST TS-T632L DVD burners
VIDEOCARD	Two Ati Radeon HD 2900 XTs with 1GB GDDR4 memory in CrossFire
SOUNDCARD	Analog Devices Integrated Digital SoundMax HD Audio
CASE	HP Blackbird

BENCHMARKS
	HP Blackbird 002
SYSmark2004 SE	WNR
Premiere Pro 2.0	1,380 sec
Photoshop CS2	131 sec
Recode H.264	WNR
FEAR 1.07	130 fps
Quake 4	105.3 fps
Our current desktop test bed is a Windows XP SP2 machine, using a dual-core 2.6GHz Athlon 64 FX-60, 2GB of Corsair DDR400 RAM on an Asus A8N32-SLI motherboard, two GeForce 7900 GTX videocards in SLI mode, a Western Digital 4000KD hard drive, a Sound Blaster X-Fi soundcard, and a PC Power and Cooling Turbo Cool 850 PSU.

Daily News Brief: 8800GT Sneak Peek!

nVidia 8800GT Numbers Leaked

Always take leaked, pre-released benchmarks with a grain, nay, a bushel of salt, but for the anxiously impatient, numbers have started floating around the web hinting at the upcoming 8800GT's performance. If the leaked results hold true, expect the 8800GT to outperform both the 8800GTS and AMD/ATI's HD 2900XT, while also nipping at the 8800GTX's heels. The 65nm G92 based videocard is expected to start shipping in about a week.

Virtual Machine Additions for Linux

Who says mortal enemies can't co-exist peacefully? Microsoft today released Virtual Machine Additions for Linux, compatible with Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1. The new release brings support for SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, with several qualified distributions. Look for improvements with guest and host time synchronization, coordinated shutdown operations, improved mouse driver, display driver, and SCSI disk emulation.

Online Fans Call the Soccer Shots

Upset over Argentina's playmaking decisions in the World Cup, super fan Moshe Hogeg had enough of playing armchair coach. Instead, he went and teamed up with an online gaming company to buy his own team for $500,000, and he's letting the fans call the shots. By going to Web2Sport.com, soccer fans can vote on the starting line-up and even give instructions to the coach. If the venture turns out successful, maybe Steinbrenner can enlist the help of saddened Yankee fans now that Torre's been ousted (go Sox!).

Hackers Eye Up World Series

In other sports related tech news, the Colorado Rockies found their computer systems the target of a recent attack, which ultimately had to be shut down, halting the sale of online World Series tickets. They've been working to get a backup in place and resume selling the 18,000 available tickets for games 3 and 4 in Denver. No details were given on the on the origin or motive.

Hitachi Bids Adieu to PC Business

You may not have been aware Hitachi carries a line of PCs, and it's that lack of recognition combined with sluggish sales that has them pulling the plug. Ranking 8th in Japan's PC market, Hitachi manufactured the Prius brand, but had no new models for this holiday shopping season and plans to stop making PCs altogether.

Video Game Designers Leave Mark on Nissan

Fans of the Gran Turismo series have been waiting for the 2009 Nissan GT-R to show its face, and that wait is over. Gamers hoping to buy the real-deal will need to start saving their allowance, as the GT-R is expected to sell for $80K in the US. Playstation fans will be geeked to see the inclusion of a multi-function display, co-developed with none other than Gran Turismo developer Polyphony Digital.

Mac Commercials Working

With the exception of the 'Cancel or Allow' commercial touting Macs, most PC users are able to recognize the skits as simply 'creative' marketing, but are consumers taking note? Apparently so, as Apple managed to sell a record 2.16 million last quarter, representing a 34 percent hike from this time last year. Apple can now make claim to an 8 percent market share. So whether or not your buy the commercials, Apple looks to be having little trouble finding buyers.

Cooler Master Cosmos

Consider this month’s batch of case reviews to be a second chance of sorts, as both companies highlighted this month have previously built total clunkers. Cooler Master threw down the iTower 930 in February, which was the functional equivalent of bringing a wiffle bat to a gunfight. And NZXT troubled us with the Adamas—which sported a relatively mediocre design when stacked up against its competitors.

We tipped our reviewing hand when we chose this case to house last month’s Dream Machine. But that’s just how sweet the Cosmos is. This case looks as good as it functions, and there’s nary a blemish in either area. More important, the case retains enough of a unique look and feel to distance itself from the bevy of generic models we frequently see.

You don’t need to grab a screwdriver to make major changes to any parts in the Cosmos case (aside from the motherboard). The five front 5.25-inch bays use an awesome push-button locking mechanism that, to date, is the best we’ve come across. Tiny thumbscrews hold the six hard-drive trays in place—an elegant improvement over standard drive bays.

The Cosmos caters to the water-cooling crowd with its ready-for-a-radiator ceiling grills, but lovers of the air won’t be left out. A detachable 12cm fan bunker pulls in air from the bottom of the case, and a plastic bar running horizontally across the case draws cool air right into the videocard area. Strangely, there’s no airflow across the hard drives in this case, one of the very few oversights we were able to find with the Cosmos.

A lack of functioning drive-activity lights on the case’s front panel is another stinger, but it’s not enough to destroy the taste of this sweet, sweet chassis.

The Cosmos's smooth, foam-backed side panel is awesome, but we wish Cooler Master had included a side window as well.

11 Games That Will Punish Your PC

Never has there been a better time to be a PC gamer. This year’s crop of games delivers all the pulse-pounding action we’ve come to crave beneath a candy shell of glorious graphics—the likes of which we’ve never seen before. Leading the graphics charge is a bevy of DirectX 10 titles that will stress a system to its limits, and the promises long made by proponents of the Games for Windows initiative are finally starting to show fruit.

What’s more, even DirectX 9–level titles are taking advantage of the prodigious power available in today’s high-end graphics cards to deliver experiences that look better than we ever thought DirectX 9 capable of.

So, to all console ever-lovin’ folk who are claiming for the nth time that PC gaming is dead, we say, “Shut your pie holes!” We can’t wait to kick back in our office chair, embrace our mouse and keyboard, and get our game on!

Bioshock

Subaquatic steampunk!

Brilliant game graphics aren’t only about technology, they’re also about artful design. Bioshock serves up a bucketful of both. This first-person role-playing game puts you in the middle of a disaster in an undersea utopia run by—who else?—an out-of-control megalomaniac.

In addition to traditional FPS-style weapons, you’ll also gain the use of special powers, which let you manipulate the elements to freeze or ignite objects (or people), alter the environment in other ways, and even set elaborate Rube Goldberg–style traps.

But the game would be just a fancy sandbox without its cohesive steampunk set design and profoundly disturbing story line. When you factor in support for DirectX 10, Bioshock becomes a must-have title.

World In Conflict

Let's take it nuclear!

Imagine that the Cold War never ended—instead it actually caught fire. That’s the scenario facing you in World in Conflict. Russian tanks are rolling across Europe, and it’s your job to stop them in their tracks.

Instead of utilizing the traditional two-phase combat system—build your base, then attack the bad guys—World in Conflict does away with the first part of the equation and has you jumping straight into blowing up Commies. Unlike most real-time strategy titles, World in Conflict includes some super-high-end graphical effects, including volumetric fog that swirls around your vehicles, destructible buildings and environments, and real-time lighting.

You won’t want to play World in Conflict from a satellite-high perspective, lest you miss any of the game’s glorious detail.

Flagship’s first game is the spiritual successor and follow-up to Blizzard’s seminal Diablo series. It’s not Diablo III, but it’s made by the same folks that made Diablo. Hellgate pits you against demons in near-future London, a setting that won’t just challenge your skills, but also dazzle your eyes.

The game plays very differently depending on the faction you choose. The Cabalist and Templar fill the standard RPG ranged and melee archetypes. But when you play as a Hunter, you’ll play the game from the first person perspective with traditional RPG elements—and utilize your twitch skills.

Naturally, Hellgate will turn on the eye candy too. We know that the game will support DirectX 10, but the graphical wizards at Flagship haven’t announced what they’ll be using it for, yet.

Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway

Now with bazookas!

Welcome to Operation Market Garden, gentlemen. Our favorite tactical World War II shooter returns with a trip to Monty’s folly powered by a spiffy new version of the Unreal Engine and a cargo plane full of new features.

Hell’s Highway implements a much more realistic cover system. You duck behind an object, pop out to shoot, then duck back down before Jerry draws a bead on you. The only problem with this approach is that the game has a real materials engine, and much of the cover will get chewed up under a constant barrage of fire. Destructible cover sounds like fun, but it’s a double-edged sword—you can tear up the Germans’ cover, but they can do the same to you!

Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat

We were tired of killing Nazis too

Let’s face it, by now most gamers have been fighting World War II longer than the war actually lasted. We’ve killed more virtual Nazis than ever existed. So Infinity Ward’s decision to move beyond WWII is a welcome respite.

Call of Duty 4 is set in a hypothetical conflict in the former Soviet bloc. You can expect a heaping helping of small-squad action across a wide variety of terrain types—we’ve seen missions in burnt-out towns, grassy savannahs, and even forested hillsides.

The amazing thing is that Call of Duty 4 is a DirectX 9 game, eschewing support for DirectX 10’s bells and whistles for higher frame rates and still-unbelievable graphics in the legacy API.

Assassin's Creed

Crowd surfer

You take a contract, find your target, and kill him. It’s that simple. Except it’s not. Instead of another modern-day version of Hitman, Ubisoft: Montreal has created a medieval Agent 47 who makes his way through the sandbox that is Crusades-era Jerusalem.

The catch is that you’re a free-running assassin, and your biggest problem isn’t the mark firing arrows at you or the town constabulary, but rather the thronging crowd filled with beggars, merchants, and other townsfolk. How do you catch your target without drawing too much attention to yourself? Simple, you get off the streets and instead climb walls, swing from scaffolds, and dance across rooftops. Unlike Prince of Persia, in which your wall-walking is limited to specific areas, in Assassin’s Creed, if you can see it, you can climb it.

Vista Activation Strikes Again - Time to Fight Back

Vista Hardware Activation Fears Realized - Big Time

People have been concerned about how Windows Vista would cope with new hardware for a long time now. Our own Will Smith wrote about it a year ago. Although Microsoft quickly adjusted its licensing terms before releasing Windows Vista in its final form to help assuage concerns from hardware experimenters (that's us, folks!) worried about being locked out of our Windows Vista installations - it's happening anyway.

Device Driver Changes Look Like Hardware Changes to Vista

Tuesday, Vista user James Bannan, writing for Australia's APCmag.com website, confirmed any hardware maven's worst fears: not only would Microsoft Vista deactivate after giving only three days notice, but device driver changes could trigger deactivation!

Before you suspect Bannan of going on an update spree that left nothing but the chassis, consider this: the last hardware change he'd made was swapping his DirectX 9 graphics card for a DX10 card. So, what triggered the three days to RFM mode (which leaves you with a web browser that works for a half-hour)? A driver change!

Although Windows Vista believed that Bannan had changed his disk controller, which, when added to the graphics card change, was significant enough in Microsoft's mind to trigger deactivation, he hadn't. He'd updated the Intel Matrix Storage Manager program, which is used on Intel motherboards that feature RAID-compatible I/O controller hub (South Bridge) chips. Essentially, the driver change was mistaken for a hardware change.

A Happy Ending - But Only for Some

Bannan was able to reactivate his copy of Vista, but had to use the telephone to do it. Of the over 90 replies to this story, others had much unhappier outcomes:

• - a deaf user had to ask a friend to come over and make the telephone call to reactivate Vista
• - another user performed a BIOS upgrade after upgrading the video card, and hasn't been able to reactivate Vista
• - other users complained of being forced to reactivate Vista after changing SATA settings in the BIOS, connecting a couple of different USB drives to the system, or working with third-party full-volume encryption programs!

To learn how to avoid these problems, keep reading.

Vista Activation is Broken - So How Can You Avoid Breaking Your Copy of Vista?

Clearly, Microsoft's Vista Activation feature is broken. That's all there is to it. Being unable to distinguish driver updates, BIOS updates, or BIOS setting changes from hardware updates is absolutely unacceptable. It's one of the biggest barriers to Windows Vista acceptance - and it doesn't even work to stop piracy. There are plenty of sources for pirated Vista copies, and some users, fearful of being locked out of their systems, have even purchased legal copies but installed pirated versions that don't have activation issues.

Here are some better ideas that won't get you in trouble at home or at the office:

• 1. If you're installing Vista on an existing system, do your upgrades first. Upgrade the BIOS (only if you need to), the video card, the RAM, etc. - then upgrade to Windows Vista. Use the Microsoft Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor to find out if you need driver updates or hardware updates to run your preferred flavor of Windows Vista, and download those drivers before you install Windows Vista. You can run the Vista upgrade advisor from the Windows Vista DVD or download it from the Microsoft website.

• 2. Don't get in a hurry to activate Windows Vista after installation, especially if you still have upgrades to perform. You have 30 days after installation before you need to activate it. Use that time wisely to make sure you have: installed the best drivers for your hardware - configured your system BIOS in the most suitable manner - performed a BIOS upgrade - if it's really needed. Remember, once you activate Windows Vista, you've 'locked in' your system configuration. And, if you change it enough, you might need to reactivate it.

• 3. When you see the reactivation notification, don't mess around: do it now! It's easy to blow off a "3 days to reactivate" message, but if you keep doing it, you'll eventually wind up with nothing but a web browser (the so-called RFM 'reduced functionality mode') until you contact Microsoft to reactivate. If you take action during the countdown period, you can usually use the Internet to reactivate, but if you wait until the reminder period ends, you're stuck using the telephone.

• 4. If you like to experiment with different operating systems, use a different hard disk for each one instead of nuking your only drive and reactivating Vista each time you install it. You can grab 250GB or larger desktop ATA or SATA hard disks for less than $80 each, and if you leave the side of your case off (or use a case with a quick-change drive cage), it's easy to swap drives in and out.

• 5. As an alternative to reinstallation if you have only one hard disk, create a disk image after you activate Windows Vista. Restore the image when you need to, using a program like Norton Ghost, Acronis TrueImage, and so forth. You can store the image to an external USB hard disk or a hidden ("secure") hard disk partition (as discussed in this Microsoft forum thread).

• 6. Decide which way you prefer to get driver updates: via Windows Update or from the vendor - and stick with it. James Bannan suggests that replacing a driver updated through Windows Update with a vendor-supplied driver might increase the chances of triggering the need to reactivate Windows. If you prefer vendor-supplied drivers because they often provide more features, make sure you configure Windows Update to check for updates, rather than installing them automatically. When Windows Update lists a driver update, note the driver being offered, hide the update, and go to the vendor's website instead for the drivers you need.

• 7. Complain to Microsoft every time you have a problem with reactivation. The Microsoft Windows Vista Validation Issues forum is a good place to start. Remind Microsoft that you paid good money for Vista and you don't like this kind of treatment.

Users to Microsoft: "We're Not Criminals!"

Microsoft needs to stop treating users who have paid hundreds of dollars for Windows Vista upgrades - and hundreds or thousands of dollars for new computers with Vista - like criminals. Right now Windows Vista activation is punishing legitimate computer users who like to experiment and upgrade their systems while doing nothing to stop piracy.

Microsoft needs to understand that it could sell a lot more copies of Windows Vista if it didn't jerk users around like this. Let's hope - and work hard to help - Redmond get the message.

The 15 Best Web Apps You've Never Heard Of

If popularity were a reliable indicator of a product’s greatness, the Big Mac would be the world’s best burger, Coca-Cola would be nutritious, and Microsoft wouldn’t have to spend billions to convince you to buy its software. Savvy computer users know that sometimes the best program is the one you haven’t yet used. So when we set out to find the ultimate online apps, we skipped the big sites that everyone already knows.

Sure, you can track your schedule with Google Calendar, watch videos on YouTube, and share pictures with friends on Flickr, but while these popular web apps certainly serve up great features, none of them is perfect. Meanwhile, the Internet is brimming with underdogs that are dreaming up some kick-ass new concepts—and putting them into action right now.

The rise of easier-to-use web development tools like Python and Ruby on Rails has caused an explosion of cool new web services that do everything from organizing your thoughts to tracking airfares across multiple travel sites to replacing your entire Office suite—and almost everything is free. Even as you read this, the world of web apps is expanding with cool new sites that take the features of your favorite old standbys and give them new, innovative twists. Some are terrible, but many are just plain brilliant, and we’ve narrowed down the field to 15 apps that will fundamentally change the way you use the web.

Wayfaring

On the road of life, it's best not to go it alone.

If all you want is directions to the nearest diner or coffee joint, MapQuest and Google Maps have you covered. But if you really want to explore your world, Wayfaring’s social mapping is a better way to go. The service is based on Google Maps but enhances the basic direction-finding service with a social networking interface that lets you create custom maps and share them with friends. Visiting a new town? Before you shell out for a guidebook, log on to Wayfaring and check out customized maps created by people who’ve actually been there. From dining options to museums to obscure attractions, you can pinpoint just about anything on Wayfaring.

Free, www.wayfaring.com

Zooomr

Three O's, unlimited uploads

Whether you’re fed up with daily upload and bandwidth limits or you’re just tired of letting Yahoo control your online life, Zooomr’s online photo-sharing features are bound to be greeted as liberators. The site’s biggest draw is its Infinite Upload interface, which lets you select every last bandwidth-hogging image on your hard drive and toss it onto Zooomr in one massive batch. You also get the usual array of captioning, organizing, geotagging, and sharing tools. At press time, Zooomr had just launched a paid Pro service, which adds video support and eliminates ads.

Free for basic account/$20 per year for pro account,
www.zooomr.com

Backpack

Simple organization for chaotic minds

Anyone with a Google account can track their calendars and to-do lists, but what if your needs are a little more unconventional? Backpack’s simple, customizable pages make it easy to organize your thoughts, no matter what you’re working on. Create lists and reminders; add notes, links, and versatile write boards; and share your pages with collaborators—or make them public. You can then link to them from other pages or email new entries to your pages from any device. The free service limits you to five custom pages, but the premium service enables up to 1,000 pages, a calendar, 500MB of file storage, and SSL encryption.

Free for basic accounts/$5–$14 per month for
premium accounts, www.backpackit.com

SoonR

Get to your PC from any phone or browser

When you need remote access to your files but don’t want to lug a laptop along, you need Soonr. This lightweight desktop utility syncs your files and Outlook email to SoonR’s website while you’re working and then serves them up via a clean web interface. The mobile-optimized service worked like a charm on every phone we tried it with, letting us grab and view images, Word docs, and spreadsheets easily. It also sports an organizer interface for Outlook calendars and lets you call your Skype contacts from your cell phone.

Free, www.soonr.com

Blinkx

12 million hours of video. No stupid self-submissions

Some people love whiling away the hours sifting through idiotic home-video footage on YouTube. If you don’t, try Blinkx. Built on a powerful search engine, Blinkx scours the web for videos, then analyzes and tags them for retrieval. So when you search for “White Stripes,” you’ll find the band’s videos, not a bunch of homemade vids of teenyboppers lip-synching to “Icky Thump.” Blinkx grabs videos from across the entire web, so it’s got everything YouTube, iFilm, Veoh, and the rest have, only more organized and with full-motion thumbnails. It includes a Safe Search control to filter out the dirty stuff—or not—and clicking a video’s title will take you straight to its source, so you can see it in its original context.

Nvidia Announces the GeForce 8800 GT

AMD made no apologies when it announced the ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT last May: Their new GPU wouldn’t compete with Nvidia’s best, and that was fine with them. “Nvidia can have the high end,” they seemed to say. “We want to build the most powerful videocard that the masses can afford.” The 2900 XT was indeed faster than the Nvidia’s 8800 GTS, but it was leagues behind the 8800 GTX and even farther behind the 8800 Ultra.

Nvidia, meanwhile, gave their engineers new marching orders: Come up with a GPU that’s faster than AMD’s best—one that we can sell for less than the 8800 GTS. The chip that emerged is the result of a die shrink and a 65nm manufacturing process (previous GPUs in 8800-series are 90nm parts), and it’s a major breakthrough in terms of price/performance ratio.

This 754-million transistor monster not only delivers better performance than the 2900 XT, it also offloads the entire HD-video decode process from the host CPU (you must step down to AMD’s 2600 XT to get that feature). It also provides HDCP decryption on both DVI links, so it’s capable of displaying Blu-ray and HD DVD movies at the native resolution of a 30-inch panel. The GPU is compliant with PCI Express 2.0, but it doesn’t offer support for DirectX 10.1 and Shader Model 4.1 (although I don’t think any of those three facts amount to a pile of dead pixels right now).

Nvidia’s 8800 GT reference design packs 112 stream processors, 512MB of GDDR3 memory, and a 256-bit memory interface into a GPU that requires a single-slot cooler. The core runs at 600MHz while the shader processors hum along at 1.5GHz; memory is clocked at 900MHz. Third-party vendors such as Asus, BFG, EVGA, and XFX quickly announced products with retail prices starting at $250. Nvidia expects third-party vendors to also offer 256MB versions cards that will sell in the $200 range.

We’ve only just started to probe the 8800 GT’s capabilities, but we’re very impressed with what we’ve seen so far. There’s no other way to say it: Nvidia’s new GPU poops all over AMD’s current best effort, delivering more performance and crucially important features at a price point that’s hundreds of dollars lower. The 8800 GT is faster than both models of the 8800 GTS, too, despite having a narrower memory interface than both it and the 2900 XT (the 2900 XT has a 512-bit interface to either 512MB or 1GB of memory; the 8800 GTS has a 320-bit interface to either 320- or 640MB of RAM).

Now the big question is can AMD’s upcoming RV670 manage to outdo the 8800 GT? I’ll be able to provide the answer in the next couple of weeks; in the meantime, I think Nvidia is going to sell a boatload of 8800 GTs.

SINGLE-CARD BENCHMARKS

	RADEON 2900 XT (512MB)	GEFORCE 8800 GT (512MB)
3DMARK06 GAME 1 (FPS)	22.6	26.4
3DMARK06 GAME 2 (FPS)	21.0	20.3
QUAKE (FPS)	85.6	83.7
FEAR (FPS)	66.0	71.0
SUPREME COMMANDER (FPS)	27.9	29.1

DUAL-CARD BENCHMARKS

	RADEON 2900 XT (512MB)	GEFORCE 8800 GT (512MB)
3DMARK06 GAME 1 (FPS)	44.1	47.0
3DMARK06 GAME 2 (FPS)	42.3	37.2
QUAKE (FPS)	145.7	101.3
FEAR (FPS)	113.0	120.0
SUPREME COMMANDER (FPS)	44.7	33.4

Best scores are bolded. AMD-based cards tested with an Intel D975BX2 motherboard; Nvidia-based cards tested with an EVGA 680i SLI motherboard. Intel 2.93GHz Core 2 Extreme X6800 CPUs and 2GB of Corsair DD2 RAM used in both scenarios.

Daily News Brief: Bamboozled at BestBuy?

Bamboozled at BestBuy

Taking advantage of BestBuy's in-store pick up option, one online shopper was expecting a full terabyte of data when he purchased Western Digital's 1TB hard drive. But when he tore open the box, he allegedly uncovered a few bathroom tiles instead. BestBuy wouldn't accept the return, advising the customer to take it up with Western Digital. Stay tuned, as we intend to follow this story as legal action unfolds.

Carmack's Firery Finish

Competing in Google's Lunar X-Prize competition in which participants vie for $30 million in prizes, John Carmack from iD fame was met with a major setback when his craft went up in flames. The Level 1 challenge that Carmack's team was competing in carries a $350K purse.

Liar on MySpace

It's not exactly news to expose a misleading profile on MySpace, unless it's one of the founders. But lest we make a mountain out of a mole hill, co-founder Tom Anderson merely fibbed about his age, listing himself as 27 when he first wrote his profile instead of 32 (his correct age at the time) in attempt to appeal to a younger crowd. Tom automatically shows up as a friend when new members sign up, which carries a bit of irony given the plethora of misleading profiles one is likely to encounter soon after. No word yet on whether Tom truly does enjoy long walks on the beach.

Robots Race for Pentagon

As part of a congressional mandate requiring a third of military vehicles to operate unmanned by 2015, the Pentagon began sponsoring a race in 2004 comprised of robot controlled vehicles. This year will see corporate sponsoners enter the fray, with a NASCAR-like flair. The final event will take place November 3, and you can watch it live online starting at 6am PST.

Google Phone Coming

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google's expected to announce the advent of Google-powered phones in the market place by mid-2008. Google's not making the actual phone(s), but providing the software and services for third parties to run with. Look for Google-powered phones to sport Google Maps, YouTube, Gmail, and other G-apps. They're also making a concerted effort to keep the OS open source, which could prove to be a boon to developers.

OLPC Gets XP?

The OLPC project, which promised a $100 laptop for developing countries, continues to increase in price, recently breaching the $200 mark. But while the price has gone up, so too might the value if Micrsoft is able to adapt the XP operating system onto the notebook. Microsoft's hesitant to guarantee they'll pull it off, but they have dedicated a "nontrivial amount of money" towards that goal.

Best PS3 Media Server Program?

Inside you'll find our final choice for the best PS3 media server application as well as a guide on how to install it. If you're ready for more, read on inside.

Play On Strong

It took me almost a week and more than 80 man-hours of labor to setup my home theater server and media center, but it was worth it. Before my media server, I thought the same thing you’re probably thinking right now reading this article, “what could I possibly be missing out on?” Well, you can get a taste of what you’re missing by re-purposing your PS3 into a make-shift media server. How do you do that? Let’s take a look:

First, you’ll need a few things

Playstation 3 System – it goes without saying that you’ll need a PS3 for the PS3 media server to work

A computer running XP or Vista – right now, Windows 7 isn’t entirely supported yet

Software from Play-On

And then you’ll install everything to your PC

1. Download Play-On via the link above, there’s a 14 day trial for you to determine whether or not you like the program and want to buy it

2. After you’ve downloaded the program, run it and install it, just run through the prompts and install it to your program files. Make sure to make a shortcut to the program on your desktop

3. Once you have the program installed, it’s time to run it – double click on the shortcut on your desktop and run the program

4. Now, head over to your PS3 and boot it up

5. Once the PS3 is fully turned on and you can manipulate the Media bar, navigate over to the videos section

6. If you set up the program correctly, you should see the Play-On Media Server as a source under the videos tab

7. Click on the Play-On Media server and you should have multiple categories that you can check out, including Hulu, Netflix and the like

8. To watch your local media, just configure the Play-On software on your PC to allow it to check for the folders that have your media

9. Now when you go onto the Play-On Server on your PS3, it’ll be ready to play all your media files as well as the online sources that Play-On comes pre-installed with

The server application is very simple to use, just follow these steps above and you’ll have your media server up and running in no time. If you find that you want to get more customization and options out of your media center, come back and read our MPEG4 h.264 player media server article for more information on the software necessary to build your own home theater PC set-up

How to Create a Blu-ray Movie with Imgburn

A step-by-step guide on how to burn a Blu-ray recordable disc with the free software Imgburn; the article also includes a link on where to download the software. This guide is simple even for beginning users, all you need to do is follow instructions. This article does not include how to rip a Blu-r

Since Blu-ray recordable discs are becoming more and more popular, not only as movies are released for rental on Blu-ray discs (usually as a special post-release of the original DVD) but also to store family movies for your own collection. Hence, you might find this article interesting if you don’t have a clue on how to burn a Blu-Ray Disc Recordable (BD-R); it is an extremely easy process and can be done with some freely available software.

In this article we will look at how to burn a BD-R by using Imgburn, which is available for download here. You can use any other available software as the process is somewhat similar, such as Nero for instance (which you need to buy).

Please refer to this article for how to rip a blu-ray movie:

Brighthub: How to rip a Blu-ray movie

Burning a Blue-Ray disc with Imgburn

Remember that copying rented Blu-Ray discs is illegal; you can however create a backup of the original disc you bought for storage purposes. In this guide we will be using the “folder-rip” method; this essentially means that you will have ripped your disc to a folder on your computer already. Again, you can refer to the above article if you don’t know how to do this.

First insert the blank disc into your Blu-Ray burner. Open “Imgburn” and go to the “Mode” menu at the top; select “Build” for this purpose. The program will show any available information in the right-side window.

Now you can select your previously ripped folder in order to start the burning process. Look at the image below for where to do this. After you’ve selected your BDMV folder Imgburn will show any relevant information, such as size and number of files, in the right-side window.

The program will show some warnings in case you haven’t selected some disc-compatibility options, such as UDF file system, and also prompt you to write a name for the volume you are about to create. Click yes when the warnings appear and type a Volume name should you wish to do so. Click “OK” at the last information window displaying all size and sector information.

Start the burning process by clicking on the big “Build” icon at the bottom. The process will take anything from 30 minutes to an hour, depending on processor and computer speed. You can verify if the disc is readable and you should be ready to go.

That is all it takes. You can now test your disc into a home-player or on your computer’s blu-ray player. Happy viewing.

Geometric Trilateration: Learn the Basics and its Applications

Wondering what geometric trilateration is? Sure you are! In simple terms, to get the proper estimation of a landmark, the process of geometric trilateration is used. Want to know more? Great! Let us study the basics of trilateration, and see some of its common applications.

Basics of Trilateration

Basically, when mapping the area of a landmark, it is assumed that no error will be associated with the process. Working as mobile beacons, the job can be completed with help of a number of robots for the precise determination of the position. But, in this procedure, some uncertainty may definitely arise. By the use of a multivariate Gaussian distribution, a person can measure the uncertainty in position of a particular landmark.

In the trilateration process, the angular measurements are taken by the process of triangulation, while the actual position of an object is measured by range measurements. Both these procedures have been used for a long period of time, mainly for maritime navigation and geodesy.

Where is the principle of Geometric Trilateration Applied?

The basic principles used in the trilateration process are also used in modern navigation systems. Things can become clear by considering the example of aircraft and GPS receivers.

Radio beacons are used for applying triangulation on aircraft. In case of GPS receivers, the position of a particular object can be measured by applying the principle of geometric trilateration to satellites. To get the angles and ranges of a particular landmark, the mobile robots use a number of sensors.

After that, the principles of triangulation and trilateration are used in the estimation process. There are a number of instruments present where the use of sensor power varies. For example, the rate of angle measurement is very high in comparison to the other instruments such as sonar. But some of the measuring instruments today, such as stereo-cameras, are capable of finding angle as well as range simultaneously. A suitable environment is provided to a robot to perform its work, and the actual size of the robot often limits the number of sensors used.

Applications

There are number of applications of geometric trilateration. Keeping the research for the robotic world aside, the research for geometric trilateration is one of the main subjects for current days. GDOP (or the Geometric Dilution of Precision) is a dimensionless number that is capable of capturing the errors, while performing estimation of the actual position of an object. Nowadays, dynamic scenarios are successfully created because of improvement over angle measurements as well as estimation of position.

GPS navigation is the biggest field that relies on trilateration to satellites at known positions. Chaffee and Abel and McKay and Pachter have been known to carry out certain experimental studies that have been material in investigating the error metrics for GPS trilateration, though the results are still elementary.

Conclusion

Geometric Trilateration is one of the relatively unknown fields. Not too much of concrete info is available on the subject even online, and it is one of the hot topics for the researchers throughout the world. The analysis of trilateration discussed here, is expected to be used in development of an algorithm, which will be able to control the motion of the AUVs.

This will in turn help in optimizing the trilateration geometry in real-time applications, and it will definitely be a great boom in the GPS field.

Source: Paper on Minimizing Trilateration Errors in the Presence of Uncertain Landmark Positions, by Alexander Bahr John J. Leonard, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

Tomtom vs. Nuvi: Which Should I Buy?

In the market for a GPS and having having trouble deciding between a TomTom GPS and a Nuvi GPS? We found that price is not the only issue. Follow along as we line the devices up feature-by-feature and try to pick a winner.

If you are in the market for a new (or a first) car based GPS system then you may find yourself in the middle of a debate. Should you get a TomTom GPS or a Nuvi? It may seem like it is an arbitrary choice, or one that you should make based solely on price. It is not, it is a decision you should base on well thought out research. Luckily for you, there is no need to spend hours scouring the web for that data. We have done somel of the basic leg work for you, with a head to head comparison of two of the basic models.

Why These Models?

The models that were chosen are a TomTom One and a Nuvi 1200. Granted, this is not a top of the line model for either of these brands. That choice was deliberate, since very few people are going to invest in a top of the line model for their first GPS. Not to mention that top of the line models can cost up to and over 500 dollars.

Screen Size

Screen size will be a factor for anyone who is worried about having vision problems. If you are vision impaired or simply nearsighted then you may want to make this a major factor. In this case however, both have a 3.5 inch screen.

Emergency Help

Your GPS should be able to help you get out of a jam. If it does not have some kind of emergency help, you should put it back on the shelf. Luckily, both the TomTom and the Nuvi model have a built in help feature. For the Nuvi model this is called, “Where am I” and it can help you to find hospitals, police stations or gas stations close to you. TomTom’s version is know as Emergency Menu and can help you find these facilities or get roadside assistance.

Compatability Issues

One factor that sips most people’s attention is compatibility with your computers operating systems. This may seem trivial, but if you want to be able to update your maps or use software compatibility. Luckily for you both the TomTom and the Garmin Nuvi are compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista and any Mac OS 10.4 or above.

Route Calcualtions

Both models allow you to select a route by either shortest time or shortest distance, which is good to know. It is also good to know what is unique. The Nuvi has "eco route," which allows you to get the most fuel efficient route. The TomTom model has a feature know as, “Beat the traffic” which helps you to find alternate routes when you encounter a sea of brake lights.

So Which Should I Pick?

With so many useful (and similar features for both models, you may have a hard time choosing. That is why we will look at some differences. The Nuvi weighs less then the Tom Tom, and is slightly smaller. That means a space conscious user should choose the Nuvi. The advertised battery length is the same for both models. Since the Nuvi also allows for MSN Direct support and lets you make custom map changes, it may just be the way to go for everyone.

Now you can make an informed decision about which GPS model to buy. Go with what you feel would be best based on that information and anything else you feel is relevant.

Accuracy of GPS Navigation Receivers

GPS navigation systems are invaluable in travel, helping us find specific addresses and locations in unfamiliar areas. These systems need to be very accurate in order to do their job, but just how accurate are they?

Introduction

When commercial GPS receivers were first released, they were much less accurate than today's units. Typically, an early generation GPS receiver could only locate your position within 100 meters. That kind of accuracy might be OK if you're looking for a large building or landmark, or need to know what part of town you're in, but you can forget looking for, say, a specific car in a parking lot.

The thing is, this 100 meter accuracy wasn't a limitation of the GPS network, it was an intentional obfuscation set up by the government called Selective Availability. No, this isn't a conspiracy theory: in the early days of GPS, the military didn't want unfriendly nations to be able to have the same advantage as the US when it came to GPS, so they programmed the satellites not to give the most accurate positioning data to non-military GPS units.

Accuracy Improvements

A system called Differential GPS was eventually developed to improve the accuracy of GPS units to around 10 meters. DGPS used a network of reference stations to more accurately calculate the GPS receiver's position. This made the system much more suitable for precise navigation. After the year 2000, the government disabled Selective Availability for commercial GPS units, and the accuracy was once more improved to about 5 meters.

However, while plenty accurate for most users, this still wasn't good enough for the FAA's standards of aircraft navigation, and a new system, called the Wide Area Augmentation System, was developed. The WAAS works similarly to DGPS, but can offer GPS precision within 1 meter. WAAS has some disadvantages, however, such as only being available in North America.

Conclusion

Today's GPS navigation receivers are much more accurate than early models, and with systems like Differential GPS, can typically offer precision within 10 meters. This level of accuracy is great for vehicular navigation, even when trying to find specific addresses. It also makes activities like Geocaching possible with commercial GPS receivers.

GPS systems will likely continue to become more and more accurate, with other continents developing systems like the North American WAAS, which makes <1>

Will Films be Released straight to Blu-Ray?

Here is an article which looks at whether movies will be released to Blu-Ray rather than DVD format, essentially replacing the DVD for home-movie watchers. We also briefly look at things like the pricing difference between a DVD and BD (Blu-Ray disc) and the differences in the technology

The Blu-Ray disc was first available commercially in 2003, having been first shown at various conventions in previous years. The disc allows for more data (video or other) to be stored due to a shorter wavelength laser (blue-violet) in comparison to the DVD technology. This allows for higher quality particularly when viewing movies.

The BD’s popularity has already soared since 2007 (source the daily telegraph) and many movie rental companies such as Blockbuster, Lovefilm or Netflix have made blu-ray releases available for rental. However, seeing as one needs to buy specific equipment in order to play these discs the price is still largely uncompetitive compared to a standard DVD.

So will films eventually only be released to the BD High definition format? Will it eventually replace the DVD? Or perhaps it is just transitional to eventually allow room for HD movie streaming on the net? Read on as this article looks at the newest tech-fad and attempts to answer some of these questions.

Movie Studios Support

Almost all of the major production houses have shown full support for the Blu-Ray HD format, as shown from the list on the Blu-Ray.com site. Some studios, such as Twentieth Century Fox have stated they prefer the BD format over High-Definition DVD’s but the new releases to DVD still seem to surpass the newly introduced format.

Most new films, such as “Slumdog Millionaire”, “The curious case of Benjamin button” or “Milk”, have both DVD and Blu-Ray releases but the number of re-mastered and old titles (such as “Lost Horizon” or “Arsenic and old lace” for example) released to DVD are still far more in number.

Does High-Definition only matter when new releases are involved (i.e. “The Matrix” or “Ironman”)? Would it really make a difference watching Hitchcock in HD or standard DVD format? Perhaps it wouldn’t or it is something to consider when upgrading your collection.

Cost Issues

Blu-Ray players prices start at $150 upwards, but to fully enjoy the High-Definition format you will also need a TV set which is HD ready. There are also Blu-Ray writers which are quite expensive starting at $300; it isn’t quite as accessible as a DVD writer which you can pick up for $50 and less second-hand.

As far as the actual discs are concerned, particularly speaking of new releases and not collections, there isn’t such a big difference in pricing: you would end up paying approximately $10 more for a newly released BD compared to a DVD.

Moreover, someone who has a large DVD collection will be unlikely to upgrade to BD simply because it isn’t feasible to do so. Despite new releases in the format and the fact that BD HD is way more popular than the HD DVD format, standard DVD's are still more convenient particularly for existing collections and due to more choice being offered.

In Summary

Yes, films are already being released to Blu-Ray but in conjunction with, or after, DVD releases. This means that the majority of collectors and movie-watchers will be likely to buy or rent the DVD, despite the difference in quality; the cost of upgrading is considerable and the HD format is really only suited to films with stunning visuals.

It is difficult to determine, as with any new technology introduced in the market, whether BD will replace DVD’s completely. It certainly won’t happen very soon unless prices in hardware drop dramatically.

This has been seen in many previous instances, such as VHS over BETAMAX or mp3’s/ITunes over CD’s. CD’s are still widely consumed by music lovers in spite of the Ipod and music downloads; hence it is unlikely we will see DVD’s disappearing off the shelves anytime soon.

Blu-ray Decryption Explained

As Blu-ray becomes more popular, the security measures used by movie studios has increased. To give you the most control over your movies, read about current Blu-ray encryption methods and what exactly is involved with decrypting,

Decryption Explained

Ever since the creation of video cassette recorders (VCR) movie studios have been utilizing various encryption methods for protecting their content. Encryption means there is a layer of technology on the content media which is intended to thwart copying of the movie. With content as valuable as the Blu-ray format, studios have continued to try to make it very difficult to copy discs for personal use, layering Blu-ray discs with an ever changing encryption scheme attempting to prevent you from creating a copy of a movie you rightfully purchased.

Decrypt means reading the disc and removing the copy protection. This allows you to copy the movie to an alternative storage location such as another disc, a hard drive, or a flash drive. Once the movie is decrypted, it is unprotected and you can do with it what you wish. With the decrypted movie on your hard drive, you can then put it on your laptop or server, and play it anywhere you wish by using compatible Blu-ray software. Arcsoft Total Media Theater, for example, allows you to play a Blu-ray movie stored on your hard drive.

In addition to the commonly known reason for decrypting to copy to a hard drive there are other benefits such as being able to play on a non-HDCP-supported display. If you have an older display or television that is not HDCP-compliant, then the Blu-ray player software will prevent you from being able to watch. Being able to decrypt the movie allows you to watch it anywhere, and on any device.

Unfortunately, there is presently no sponsored software provided by the movie studios which allows you to decrypt a movie for your own personal use. Fortunately, a small company by the name of Slysoft offers a program called AnyDVD HD which allows the decryption of a blu-ray disc (or DVD for that matter) for playback as well as for copying to your hard drive. The program will decrypt movies on the fly in the background, or can be used to copy the movie to a hard drive. As I mentioned, the movie studios do continue to update their copy-protection scheme, so Slysoft does their best (and they are quite fast) at releasing updates to AnyDVD to allow for decrypting of the latest movies.

See How to Back-up a Blu-ray Movie for details on how to use AnyDVD to your advantage.

Top 4 Home Theater PC’s

If you are thinking of purchasing a Home Theater PC have a look at this article for brief information on some of the most popular systems. We also explain what a Home Theater PC is, how it differs from a standard desktop PC and why you would need it specifically

Do I Need a Home Theater PC?

If you are into your films and TV shows then it would be good for you to invest in an epic home theater package. An integral part of that package will be a unit specifically designed to handle films, DVD burning, TV recording and other related services. A Home Theater PC (HTPC) doesn’t look like a standard desktop or gaming PC you would buy, but appears more like a home DVD-player or set-top box. HTPC provides all kinds of services connected with Media and Audio, such as recording DVD’s, TV shows and tuning or playing games. They also offer normal PC services like e-mail, surfing and other standard PC services. In short it is a greatly powerful unit and as a result, not sold cheaply.

Here are some of the most popular HTPC systems, each with different specifications suited to your needs. There are options such as large or small hard-drive storage, video editing and an integrated Microsoft Operating System such as Vista Home Premium.

Four of the Best HTPC’s

Sony's VAIO XL3 – The Sony runs a dual-core Intel Processor (2.13 Ghz) and has about half a terabyte of memory split in two 250 GB drives. You can edit your recorded material, from TV or DVD, and access the Vaio Living Browser for surfing the web and checking your mail. The unit is priced at around $3,000 and for media uses it is particularly ideal because it has lots of hard drive space. However it has been criticised as a PC, with no mouse and a much inferior GeForce 7600GTL considering the price tag of the unit.

Dell XPS 420 – The XPS is less expensive than the Sony at around $1,300 and looks more like a standard PC, with a tower unit, a mouse and a standard keyboard. The unit features a hardware video transcoder speeding up your recording, a slideshow (which isn’t much use), TV tuner and bundled Roxio software. It also has a small display on the top of the tower with other not very useful features such as a solitaire game, picture viewer and media player. Although the unit comes equipped with a GeForce 8800 GTX video card, it isn’t recommended if you wish to have a media and gaming solution in one, but it’s certainly a powerful media-centre at this price.

Toshiba Qosmio G35-AV600 – This is basically a laptop configured and optimised for media usages, such as burning and recording your TV onto PC. It has two 80 GB drives and about 1 GB of RAM. The strength of this unit is of course its portability since it isn’t very powerful, but you can’t expect much more for around $700.

Alienware Hangar 18 HD – A stylish power-unit, similar sized to some of the larger satellite or cable boxes. The unit features a Windows Vista Premium O/S, allows you to record TV shows much like TiVo and supports multiple TV tuners. You can download and store content from the web, such as music or high quality videos. If you need more space you can upgrade up to 2 terabytes of hard drive storage for content (remember you can upgrade any HTPC unit). The Hangar 18 features all the 5.1 surround connections and includes a subwoofer. It is an ideal unit if you need lots of video content stored in one place. The price is around $2,000.

Five of the Best Outdoor Sub-Woofer Speakers

In case you are planning on movie-watching outside in your garden, or setting up a home-theatre in an open space, you would have considered a sub-woofer speaker. These enhance the cinematic experience (combined with a good surround set-up) and can bring you one step closer to a real movie theater.

Why do You Need a Subwoofer?

A sub-woofer speaker is a type that specialises in low frequencies, or ones that fall below the 100 Hz range in the frequency spectrum. In relation to movies, these can encompass anything from a huge explosion, flood or effect in a disaster movie to actual music which is used in the film (such as Drum and Bass which typically uses a sub-bass falling in the 40-50 Hz range).

Setting up an Outdoor Theater

In case you are planning to set up your home-theatre outside for the summer, or are just planning to have a special evening of movie watching with friends, it is a good idea to invest in a sub-woofer speaker which will capture all the low-frequency sounds to make your movie-watching rock (and possibly the seating).

Whilst you can’t hope to get anything close to a sub-woofer in a theatre (in theory you could but it would be pointless having such a thing on its own) some commercial sub-woofer speakers do a good job of enhancing your whole experience.

In the following paragraph we will look at popular makes of speakers so you can make your preferred choice when you go shopping for one.

Five of the Best

As with any category of speaker, sub-woofers fall into “active” or “passive.” Simply put an active speaker has an in-built amplifier whilst a passive one doesn’t and needs it separately. Most speaker systems for home entertainment are active, so you don’t need to worry.

Polk Audio PSW10 – The PSW 10 ranges in price and can be a good solution for budgeting: prices fall between 100 to 200 dollars. The unit is compact (about 14 x 14 x 15, height, width, depth) and delivers a quality punch for action movies and in general. It has a 10-inch woofer and a 50w power amp which should provide you with enough sound for a relatively small area.

Sony SA-W2500 – This speaker goes as low as $70 so it is a bargain and the price doesn’t compromise its quality. It has a 10-inch cone and a powerful 100W amplifier delivering good sound-power in the surrounding area. The frequency response is between 20 to 200 Hz. The SA is definitely good value for money.

Yamaha YST-SW216BL – Another 100W budget unit, in the same price range as the Sony, featuring low-noise performance and other features. Again, If you are looking for decent budget units you can go for the Yamaha, although some have complained of poor design and general bulkiness.

Definitive Technology SuperCube III – A known brand, Definitive Technology offers superior power to the above at around $700. If you are planning to set up in a large outdoor space this cube would be ideal, packing 650W power and a 12.5 inch cone comprising of one main woofer and two ultra-low bass radiators. Although slightly expensive you will notice the difference.

RBH 1010-SEN/R – A pretty big unit about 15 inch high; if you are serious about your audio and you are planning on setting-up in a large outdoor area the RBH is recommended. This is the only example of a passive amplifier in this list, and hence you will need a separate amplifier which will cost you more. The price for the speaker (and only the speaker) starts from $3000, but if indeed you decide to splash-out you won’t need another sub-woofer in the future (particularly for a home-theatre set-up).

Where to Find the Cheapest Blu-Ray DIsc Players

This time we'll be taking a look at your top 3 cheap solutions to playing Blu-Ray. The price, as well as the player specs will surprise you - this and more, inside.

Searching High and Low

Blu-Ray is a rich man’s game. Or is it? What if I were to tell you that out there in the wild, there were blu-ray players that cost you just a little over $100? Think it’s lunacy? Think again. I present you the official Bright Hub list of the cheapest Blu-Ray players ever conceived by man. These magnificent machines will play your Blu-Ray Discs without breaking the bank, but are they worth it?

Memorex MVBD2510

Memorex MVBD2510

The Memorex MVBD5210 won’t be winning any prizes for best looking disc player anytime soon. This bulky, ugly little piece of tech isn’t exactly what you want underneath your shiny, new HDTV, but it does get the job done in a great way. It up-converts to 1080p, displays at 1080p, and includes HDMI connection. The reliability of the disc reading though, might be a problem.

You see, Blu-ray discs require expensive hardware because the internal processor has to be much faster than that of a conventional DVD, therefore the price goes up. This Memorex unit doesn’t have too much processing ability underneath its shell. This could cause some hiccups in film viewing among other things, not to mention problems when using the BD-Live Feature.

Samsung BD-P1500

Samsung BD-P1500

The BD-P1500 is more up my alley. Unlike the Memorex above, for about $25 more, you’re getting an elegant Blu-Ray player that is packing much more in its processor.

The BD-P1500 is an excellent budget Blu-ray player because of its great features in a single package. Not only is the BD-P1500 sleek, it also comes equipped ready to handle BD 2.0 features as well as support legacy features in older discs.

For $25 more than the Memorex, it’s worth it for a device that might be sitting under your television for the foreseeable future. Until the technology advances significantly, it looks like Blu-Ray is going to be the go-to technology for high-definition film viewing and the BD-P1500 is your ticket in.

Sharp BD-HP21U

Sharp BD-HP21U

For $20 more than the BD-P1500 will cost you, you could upgrade to the HP21U. This player has all the exact same features that the P1500 has, but it also includes the ability to wire your surround sound directly to the player, by-passing a costly high-definition receiver.

This is a bit odd, because if you have a home theater setup you’re looking to upgrade, this will be worth absolutely nothing. However, if you haven’t jumped into the home theater game, then this would be a great way to already get everything in one package.

The Sharp is a little less, if you’ll pardon the pun, “sharp” than the Samsung. Both players look nice, but the BD-P1500 has the next-gen look to it, whereas the Memorex and Sharp models still look like DVD players that are trying too hard.

If you’re strapped for cash, the P1500 is clearly the best option out of these three, but don’t take my word for it – get out there and continue researching the players. There are more budget players out there that may be more suitable to your needs than either of these three.

What Makes an Outdoor Portable GPS Superior?

With so many GPS products on the market designed for outdoor enthusiasts, what makes one unit better than another? This handy guide divulges the criteria and features found in the best units, then the second article in this series lists the top five brands and models based upon careful analysis.

The term portable GPS device encompasses a vast number of categories, functionalities, brands, and models. Navigating through the consumer jungle may become confusing and time-consuming if you’re not exactly sure which one will best suit you for the activities you will be using it for. This two part article series sifts through all those products which score the highest in portable GPS ratings by both consumers and experts.

Here we are reviewing the GPS devices geared specifically for use in the great outdoors. Although many of the GPS units that work in the car and are excellent for vehicular navigation, these models don’t possess the functions, features, and wherewithal to serve the outdoor enthusiast, and should, therefore, stay in the car. Whether you’re hiking, geocaching, fishing, backpacking, climbing, hunting, kayaking, or anything else you do on this big blue world while exposed to the elements, one of these GPS units will serve you well. So let’s get right into what those qualities are that contribute to making the best outdoor portable handheld GPS units on the market.

What You’ll Find in the Best GPS Handhelds

• Waterproof and durable to withstand the elements, and rugged use.

• Small and lightweight so you can carry it easily in a pocket, pack, or clipped to clothing, and can be operated with just one hand.

• 12 channels to lock on to the satellites; older models with less are too slow and not accurate enough.

• WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) enabled – this means your GPS unit will give you up to five times the accuracy because you're linked in with a system of satellites that ensures position accuracy within 10 feet (3 meters) for about 95% of your searching endeavors. Many Garmin models have this technology.

• Plenty of waypoint storage capacity. Waypoints mark where the cache is. You can also input them as you go, to easily retrace your steps back. Expandable memory means detailed routes and points of interest for all your far flung travels in the backcountry are right at your finger tips.

• Removable SD Card for any additional maps you want on it.

• You want to be able to read the screen easily in direct sun, under heavy clouds, with your shades on, and at night.

• Long battery life. Easily replaceable and/or rechargeable.

• Preferably a USB cord compatibility to hook into your computer for downloading data such as maps and cache coordinates from software or online.

• A built-in compass that works when you’re not moving.

• Altimeter to know your elevation and to further assist you in acclimating to your surroundings.

• Mapping capabilities with terrain features included which either come with the unit, or the unit has the capability and storage room to download them off the Web or from software.

• A powerful external antenna certainly comes in handy when you're under a thick patch of cedars or deep in the canyons walled by either steep rock faces or skyscrapers. It keeps you from losing your lock on those eyes in the distant sky, the GPS satellite systems.

• A rocker key pad (operates with a wheel similar to an IPod) or touch-screen.

All of the top five share a great deal of these traits as you will see in the next article in this series which concisely reviews the top five. Incidentally, the best models for fishing, hunting, and geocaching are also highlighted in articles on our site.

Top Five Portable GPS for Outdoor Activities

In this two part series, we'll explore the design, functions, and features which comprise the make up of the best portable GPS units available for outdoor sports and hobbies and then go on to review the top five on the market.

How to Pack the Perfect Geocaching Backpack

A lot of geocachers out there just have a tendency to throw a bunch of things into a backpack and go - if they bring anything with them at all. This article provides a basic guide to packing a geocaching backpack to make sure you have everything you need.

The Backpack

Of course, before you start packing for your geocaching trek, you need a backpack that fits your needs. You don't need one of those hefty mountaineering sacks, just something around the size of a school backpack.

You'll want something that will hold together: whether you're geocaching in urban or rural environments, there are any number of sharp structures and obstacles that can tear at your bag, from loose wires on fences, to thorns on primrose bushes. Water resistance is a nice touch too, especially if you'll be bringing along things like a cellphone, papers, and other things that are water-sensitive. Failing that, you can either purchase a waterproof bag cover or just use a plastic grocery bag to protect the contents.

Lots of pockets are generally a plus, especially for all those odds and ends that are frequently accessed - and frequently end up at the bottom of the pack, getting scratched at and pressed, by all those other bits and pieces. Of course, having at least one large main compartment for jackets and the like is also useful.

Getting There

Printing out the directions or hints to where you need to be going is A+. Slipping them into a plastic cover will keep them readable, especially in case of rain or severe wrinklage. If you're traveling in a group, multiple copies are probably a good idea.

If you're feeling really organized, storing them in some sort of notebook or binder will keep everything in good order. You probably don't want to lug that around with you when you go to the actual site, though - maybe just leave it in the car if you're planning on visiting multiple sites.

And don't forget the actual GPS! If you've got some sort of case for it, all the better - you won't be holding on to it at all times, and losing it in the great outdoors or the mess of abandoned urban sites can be disastrous.

The Weather

While some people might prefer to dash inside at the nearest hint of rain, others might be feeling a bit more adventurous and figure they could do with a little dampness for a 'true' geocaching expedition anyway. Just in case, it might be a good idea to check the forecast before you go, to see if you should be concerned about rain or other adverse weather conditions. Depending on your location, there may be risk of flooding or landslides, or to a lesser degree blizzards, strong winds and/or showers. Something as minor as wallowing in mud may not be the most attractive day out either.

Rain and snow are your cue to pack a bit differently. Rain jackets will keep the water off of you, but not off of your equipment—like that GPS you're supposed to be using. Screens are a bit of a pain to read when they're covered in droplets, so having a small pocket umbrella might be a good idea as well. Rain and snow aren't your only concern, however. Extremes in temperature can provide every bit as much impetus to pack differently. Use your head before heading out: if it's sunny, bring sun tan lotion and a wide brimmed hat.

No matter the weather, appropriate footware is a must. Flipflops or high heels are probably not the best idea, even in the mildest of circumstances. While you probably won't need full-on hiking boots, sturdy footware and thick socks will make walking a little less prone to foot/ankle/knee trouble. Having a walking stick might also help for hopping those streams.

Supplies

Depending on the distance of the geocache away from your hub, you may want to pack a little something extra for your group members.

If you're going to be out for more than few hours, bringing enough water can be important, especially in hot climates. Frequent geocachers might want to invest in plastic or metal water bottles, just to cut down on their trash.

Don't be afraid to make a day of it: bringing a snack might be nice and all, but it's hard to beat a full-on picnic if the geocache is in a pretty location. This also means you can be out for a longer period of time, hitting up multiple caches, before heading back home from the hunt.

Of course, you need to attend to the geocache itself. Making a trip to the dollar store before heading out can provide you with some cheap, cute trade items for the cache. Make sure they'll fit, though - check the size of the cache before purchasing items. It's hard to fit an “I Love New York” coffee mug into a microcache, after all.

If you're not too keen on dealing with brambles or broken glass, or even a bit of dirt, a pair of gardening gloves can go a long way as well. Bandaids, Ibuprofen, alcohol wipes, tweezers, and some other basic health supplies might also come in handy. You never know when someone might step in a bee's nest or get a sliver!

Other

There are other odds and ends you might want to include. If you're on some sort of medication, will you be out when you're due to take it? If the batteries are looking low, either for your GPS or cell phone, why not bring the charger in the car?

All in all, lot of this is common sense, but whether you are an experience geocacher or not, think carefully about the individual needs of the cache, and of you.