Technology
Cad é mar a tá tú? (How are you?) Yes, it is that time of year again! We are just nearing St. Patrick's day as we hand out our March 2008 edition of the much-loved Sal's Realm Newspaper!
First of all, I would like to congratulate myself for being chosen as the technology section's new section head. For this issue, we will get back to business as we will once again bring out our customary News in Brief written by Say Topdog and Web Watch written by Definition. To add to that, we have Apple Movie Rental Downloads by Doomcreator0, In-Car iPods by dawesbr, and Disc Repair by R Anderson.
I hope that you enjoy this edition of the newspaper! Until next month, technology section head Say Topdog
News In Brief - By: Say Topdog
Toshiba planning on ending HD-DVD
As Sony's Blu-Ray technology is rolling out successfully in recent memory, Toshiba is quite certain that their HD-DVD business might just as well end. This action would get Sony's business pumping and may just as well upset the one million people from around the world that have an HD-DVD player.
In other news, Warner Brothers Home Entertainment is going to make their high definition DVD's exclusively on Blu-Ray disc.
HD Radio
High Definition Radio is the new form of digital broadcasting that is availble in the United States. High Definition Radio is practically a duplicate of general FM and AM Radio. However, High Definiton Radio has the ability to multicast.
Also, High Definiton Radio has the ability to be static-free.
Razer Keyboard
Razer has released a new gaming keyboard that holds several uniquely interesting features. There is a rubber coating on the keyboard that makes it a comfortable touch. Also, you can go through three backlighting options via a touchpad. However, it only has one USB Input.
You can purchase this keyboard for $80.
Macbook Air
Apple has recently released their Macbook Air. The Macbook Air, the world's thinnest notebook, weighs at only 3 pounds and is 0.76 inches thick at its thickest. The Air's screen is 13.3 inches and it has 1200x800 resolution.
The Air holds a 1.6GHz (Or a 1.8GHz) Intel Core Duo processor.
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Web Watch - By: Definition
Old Version
We've all been there. You've just updated an old program, only to find it doesn't work. Luckily there are sites to help us get back to older programs that just worked well as it was. OldVersion.com is one of them. Most of the commonly used programs are probably there. Their slogan being “Because newer is not always better.” shows the website’s main purpose; easing the burden of those certain new programs.
CNET
Without a doubt, this is the biggest technological resource website on the internet. CNET offers a wide range of respected reviews for the latest gadgets by professional reviewers and consumers. They also offer TV shows for various needs, and several kinds of downloads, whether music, software or gaming, and the news on anything related to technology.
WordPress
Blogging is basically a diary that has been published on the internet, and this has become very popular amongst the users. WordPress is the world's leader in blog software, but WordPress.com is it's host. There are other hosts like Blogger, that are very popular too, but if you want to get into options, then WordPress is your best option.
These links are to external sites, which Sal's Realm Newspaper has no control over.
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Apple Movie Rental Downloads - By: Doomcreator0
Some of you may have noticed that companies such as Apple have recently launched a movie rental service within their programs such as iTunes. Now Apple has joined the trend in movie rentals like Napster and Rhapsody have already done. Due to the original Apple TV not going as they had planned, they now allow it to directly download and rent movies online as well as many other things such as streaming YouTube videos, listening to Podcasts, etc.
Some people are confused as to how this works and why they are suddenly allowing rentals. First off, to rent the song or movie, one would go into whatever music downloading software they use and just rent the movie.
They pay whatever price is asked and they have the movie downloaded onto their computer. They have complete access to the movie within the alloted amount of time (which is usually 30 days.)
This whole process creates a great amount of revenue for the company that allows it, especially for well known companies such as Apple and their iTunes. Consumers can rent the movie for a set price for a set period of time (Apple usually prices rentals anywhere from $2.99 to $3.99, and after watching the movie, will usually rent more or even be opted to buy it. It's also much less of a hassle than running to somewhere like Blockbuster and renting it there, plus they own it for a longer period of time while paying less.
While we're on the topic of digital renting, we can include Netflix. Netflix allows one to directly download movies to their PC or have it shipped to them for a set price every month which is currently $4.99 and $16.99.
At the price of $4.99, the user is allowed to rent one movie at a time as many times as they want during that month. They rent the DVD and it comes in the mail usually within one business day. After they finish watching it, they send it back and can request another movie be sent to them. They can repeat the process as many times as they want within that month.
At the price of $16.99 per month, the user is allowed to download the movies directly to their computer and watch it with no time restriction as well as being able to have 3 movies delivered to their home at once. This is the more popular choice for subscribers.
As the technology advances further and further, there will eventually be no need to have to go to the video store to rent movies. Why make things difficult when you can do it easily this way?
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In-Car iPods - By: dawebsr
The iPod has become a must-have item for most people around the globe now, but since the very release it’s incompatibilities for multiple people to listen at once have been evident. This was solved by plug-in speakers that coupled as chargers as well. However, it still remains an unsolved problem for most people of how to listen to iPods while driving a car.
The first option is to use your existing speakers, say those plugged into your computer. The only item needed to be bought in this case (unless you need to buy some speakers) is a DC to AC power converter, or in other words a converter between a car charger and a mains plug socket, the same as would be used in your house. These can be bought from between £15-£20, or around $30. Then plug in the converter to the cigarette lighter socket, then plug the speakers into the plug socket on the DC/AC power converter. Then, taking a cable that runs from speaker to iPod, which should be either found in the house or can be bought online or at a hardware store, plug your iPod into the speakers, and play your tracks. The advantages of this are that you can use the radio at the same time, so you can hear the news in the front while rocking out in the back, and that there is no interference. A variation is to plug your iPod speakers for out of the car into the plug socket and use those, but this is more expensive.
Another item that will help is a transmitter that plugs into the cigarette lighter. These can be bought for around £15 or $30. I tested out two models from Belkin and Cygnett. The Cygnett “GrooveTour” provided transmission to FM from between 87.5 and 108.0, and worked easily, while the Belkin worked in exactly the same way as the Cygnett but only transmitted from 88.0. Both received interference, but the lower frequency Cygnett helped as there was no radio transmitting that low.
The final option is getting a car with an iPod socket. Certain cars have special sockets which you plug your iPod into and the car plays the tracks you choose, just as if it was a CD, and it has no interference. However, the trouble with this method is that you have to buy an entire car to get this socket, so unless you are going to buy a car anyway and want a way to listen to your iPod while driving, choose another option.
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Disc Repair - By: R Anderson
Scratched Disc?
Everybody knows how frustrating it is to get a brand new piece of software only to have the disc get scratched. Well there are tons of products out there that say they can get rid of the scratch. Here are a few of your options.
Cleaners for the average person
The Skip Dr. Motorized Scratch Repair System is one of the options. This is priced at $50, which well not inexpensive could be cheap compared to throwing away scratched discs. For the $50 this product will not clean medium or deep scratches on a disc it will work fine on the small scratches and smudges but falls short on the large stuff. It works by spraying on a cleaning fluid inserting it into a CD slot and a motorized wheel spins around and cleans the disc. A minor problem is that it creates a weird pattern on the back of the disk which while it does not affect the data on the CD/DVD it does just look weird.
The second disc cleaner is another one that could fit with a fairly small budget. The Aleratec DVD/CD Disc Repair Plus costs only $40. Again like the Skip Dr. this works very well on smudges, and light scratches but could not handle medium or deep scratches. This disc cleaner is operated by putting three drops of repair of cleaning solvent on three repair wheels closing the lid and hitting the repair button. Again this disc cleaner leaves weird patterns on the back of the disc but it has polishing wheels to get rid of the pattern. The biggest complaint about this product is that the directions that come with are horrible so if you have problems reading bad directions you might want to consider another cleaner.
So if you're looking for something to repair a CD or DVD that skips every once in a while or computer game that works sporadically both of these options will work fine. If you think that these are too expensive there aren’t that many good options less expensive than these two. So a soft cloth and Windex is your next best option.
Heavy duty cleaners
The VenMill Skip-Away does more than just stop DVD’s from skipping it can fix almost any problem you will realistically run into. However at $250 the Skip-Away is not within the budget of most people. The Skip-Away cleans the disc in a similar way to ironing a shirt. It uses heat to warm up the disc and then applies gentle pressure to flatten out a scratch. The impressive thing about the Skip-Away is that unlike other disc cleaners you don’t have to apply any cleaning fluid to either the disc or the machine meaning that you will never have to get a refill of cleaning fluid either. So the Skip-Away is a very good option for library’s and other places that have lot’s of discs that need to be fixed but it’s not very practical for the average person.
The final disc cleaner is the Disc-Go-Pod. This beast of a cleaner costs a huge $350 but it will repair almost anything. You can take a knife and carve a little shape on the CD and the Disc-Go-Pod will fix it. This machine works by drowning the CD in a crack filling polish. While this method works very well it is a nightmare to clean up (you must clean it after every use) and it uses an extreme amount of polish which means you must refill your bottles of polish fairly frequently. Also it takes a very long time to clean even 1 disc. If you don’t think that’s enough you can upgrade to Disc-Go-Pod Plus which will cost you $495 but is easier to operate. The Disc-Go-Pod is a powerful tool but when you combine the cost with the time it takes to clean one disc and the difficulty of cleaning the machine it’s really not worth it for anyone except those who want to start a business cleaning discs.
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