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Episode 12: Camcorders and Shooting
Want to know what to look for in a new camcorder? Want to improve your shots to look like the pros? Charlie and Stephen have the answers in this week's show. They also talk iPods, new computers, and blast away with their unique Rapid-Fire Roundup® of cool products. Stephen and Charlie discuss editing applications to edit your home videos and reasons why you should (or shouldn't) edit. They also talk monster workstations, and answer a question or two about digital photography.
Articles You Need to Read
HP xw9300: Dual Core Dual Opteron 280s Inside
by Charlie White
Description: As AMD raises the bar on its Opteron line of dual core processors, bumping the speed up to 2.4 GHz, HP sent us its latest xw9300 workstation packing a pair of the new chips inside. This is brand new technology -- the Opteron 280 processors were released toward the end of September, 2005. Keeping in mind that the fastest machine we've ever tested here at the Midwest Test Facility was equipped with dual core Opteron 275 chips, let's take a look at this newest generation of the Opteron, wrapped inside HP's industrial-strength package.
RealViz Stitcher 5
by Stephen Schleicher
Description: If you have ever wanted to take those large dramatic panoramic landscape shots, but have had nothing but problems aligning the images in other applications, then Stitcher 5 is the program for you. If you have ever needed to quickly create a QuickTime VR movie for your real estate or tour website, then Stitcher 5 is the program for you. Here’s why.
Rapid-Fire Roundup® of Cool Products
A New iPod Book
Here's a well-written and beautifully illustrated love letter to the iPod community by Wired magazine writer Leander Kahney. The book is called The Cult of iPod, and its author enthusiastically tells us an entertaining story about the iPod, its history, its present and its future. Its 144 pages are liberally sprinkled with delightful cartoons, photographs, info boxes and callouts. It’s easy and fun reading especially for us iPod lovers, that title again is The Cult of iPod -- definitely worth a look.
Ten Day Lantern
12 bright LED bulbs and four D batteries result in the longest lasting lantern available today. With the increase in the number of natural disasters, and the loss of power, the 10 day lantern will keep your living area bright and happy. Take it camping or use it on your deck.
Apple iPod Lanyard Headphones
Here’s a well-made albeit expensive accessory for your iPod nano –the ipod nano lanyard headphones, $40 (ouch), let you get rid of all those wires and let you hang that gorgeous, scratched-up ipod nano around you neck like a piece of jewelry. I got one last week and I think it’s excellent, but not really worth $40. The wires are hidden inside the necklace, it looks great, and the earphones are the same as those which come with the nano – they’re ok, good enough.
Bose SoundDock
Bring the full rich sound of the Bose Stereo system to your iPod. Simply connect your iPod to the Sound dock, turn it own and you’ll have all the natural tonal balance and clarity that you would expect from a high-end system.
Dell 24 Inch LCD Monitor
The Dell UltraSharp 2405FPW 24-inch Wide Aspect Flat Panel LCD Monitor ($959.20) with its 12 millisecond response time is great for gamers, and it’s sharp, oh so sharp -- the sharpest I’ve seen yet. 4 USB 2.0 ports, 2 located on the side, Integrated 9-in-1 flash card reader, it also supports advanced features such as PIP (picture in picture) and PBP (picture by picture). What else could you ask for in a monitor, and big, oh so big!
Roomba
I love this little robot that scurries around the house cleaning up the floor. No one likes to vacuum, but the Roomba makes it fun. It doesn’t replace a deep vacuum cleaning, but for the day to day or week to week touch up, the roomba makes you feel like you are living in the future. And keep your eyes open for the new roomba that not only sweeps, but mops too!
Even Bigger Flash Drive
Transcend announced an 8GB flash drive – that’s the new high-end product in its Jetflash series. This thing dwarfs the capacity of our 512MB Store ‘n’ Go drive we give away each week (sorry Verbatim) but it’s about the same physical size -- this baby is not much bigger than your thumb and packs 8 Gigs in there. Only drawback? It costs about $770. But expect that price to drop before too long.
Life Size Robbie the Robot
He made his debut in the fantastic movie Forbidden Planet – now you can own your own lifesize version of the beloved robot. 7 feet tall, preprogrammed with dialog from the movie, lighup neon tubes, planetary gyro stabilizers, and made of sturdy fiberglass, this is one of those toys for the rich and famous – retail price $50,000.
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Coolness Roundup ©2005 Charlie White and Stephen Schleicher
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