Nov/090
Rocketfish WirelessHD Adapter
When Belkin killed its FlyWire, it also put a serious hurtin’ on the hopes of wireless HDTV ever truly taking off in the near term. Granted, the device was horrifically overpriced, but it was easily the most well-known product in the fledgling sector. Now, however, it seems that a few other players are sneaking into the limelight, with Philips recently introducing its sub-$1,000 Wireless HDTV Link and Sony pricing its DMX-WL1 for the everyman. Today, Best Buy’s own Rocketfish has introduced its WirelessHD Adapter, a two-piece set that enables a single HDMI device to be connected to an HDMI-enabled HDTV sans cabling. You simply plug your source into one box and your HDTV into another; so long as the two are within 33 feet of one another, 1080p content can be slung without wires. It’s up for order right now at $599.99, which — amazingly enough — is actually more expensive than that 30-foot Monster HDMI cable you were secretly eying.
Nov/090
ThumbsUp USB Voice Recorder Is Simple, Yet Versatile
For most people, the image of a portable voice recorder is typically associated with the idea of journalism, but also with those old, large-size cassette recorders that have been around for a very long period of time. However, as the audio cassette became obsolete, even voice recorders went digital, modern-age miniaturization rendering even these things extremely tiny.
In any case, the device you’ll read about as follows represents a very good example of the fact that, nowadays, voice recorders come in all shapes and sizes, since, at a first glance, the USB Voice Recorder presented by the brits over at ThumbsUp looks very similar to a USB flash drive, and a low-cost one, for that matter.
The device packs 2GB of flash memory, which, apparently, are enough for holding up to 40 hours of audio recording. And since we’re on this issue, we’ll also have to mention that the recording format is the pretty widespread WAV, the recording bit rate being set at 128KBPS, the audio sampling rate at 32Khz, while the frequency range is set between 20HZ—20KHZ.
The recording process is also a very simple one, since all the users have to do is just switch it on, and the device will immediately start recording audio to its internal memory. When one wants to play back the audio recordings, he/she will have to plug it into a USB port on a computer to copy and save the files and then play them like they’d play some music.
Also worth noting is the fact that, while connected to the USB port, the device also gets recharged, the built-in 100 mAh / 3.7V Lithium internal rechargeable battery providing around four hours of functioning life after a full charge.
The suggested retail price for the USB Voice Recorder from ThumbsUp has been set at around 30 pounds sterling (USD50), which is more or less OK, especially if you’re looking for a very simple-to-use device to employ occasionally for taking self-notes, mostly. If you’re a journalist, however, you might want to look for something a little more evolved.