FLIP OFFERS A WIRELESS WAY TO GET VIDEOS FROM PC TO TV
Roughly 3 million people use a Flip, the pocket-size camcorder from Cisco that has spawned a new category of video devices that are one-button simple. Ease of use is also the capstone of FlipShare TV, a new system that enables you to wirelessly shuffle Flip videos from computer to television, then share them with far-flung friends and family.
The US$150 FlipShare TV system has three elements: a wireless USB key that you plug into the PC that stores your videos, a receiver box that you connect to the TV, and a remote control. The FlipShare TV’s USB drive and TV base are already configured to work with each other; no setup or home network is required.
As its name implies, the FlipShare TV includes an element of social networking. Users can create “channels” to share video instantly with other FlipShare TV owners. It’s not an open platform like YouTube, however. FlipShare TV owners must first “friend” those with whom they want to share video, a la Facebook.
The FlipShare TV seems to be an easy and useful, if expensive, way for Flip aficionados to view and share their creations. But at US$150, Cisco should have tossed in an HDMI connector.
A SERVER FOR THE MOST
DEMANDING OF MUSIC LOVERS
Audiophiles know that the quality of the sound from CD recordings leaves much to be desired. To hear the gold standard of recordings, Olive has created its 4HD Hifi Music Server, a US$2,000, 2-terabyte hard drive that stores and delivers audio in studio quality, 24-bit/192 kHz oversampling format.
The drive is large enough to store 20,000 24-bit tracks, or 6,000 standard CDs. For buyers of the unit, Olive
will digitize and import 100 CDs at
no charge.
All of one’s music can be transferred from a PC, as well as CDs, into the unit’s drive, and then that music can be distributed to an existing audio system. A free iPhone app lets the user control the selection of music remotely.
The biggest challenge with the 4HD is finding 24-bit recordings. In a deal with Chesky Records, known for its high-quality recordings, the unit comes with 12 24-bit tracks already installed. The company is also in talks with the major labels to provide more 24-bit content, so you can hear that Black Eyed Peas track in all its glory.
SOME NEW iMAC DESKTOPS
ARRIVE WITH ISSUES
Apple’s reconfigured iMac desktop — a bright, shiny, wide-screen example of a home computer — works beautifully ... unless it doesn’t work at all, or arrives out of the box with a cracked display.
Some reviewers and, judging from a survey of some Mac forums, some users, are encountering issues with some new models.
The review team at Engadget, for example, found that their new Intel Core i7-based iMac would not boot up. (The 2.8-gigahertz Core i7 processor is sold as a US$200 built-to-order option, and isn’t generally offered on machines sold at Apple retail stores.)
And TechNews.AM reports that some customers who ordered the Intel Core i7 received cracked display screens, commonly with the damage near the bottom left corner, speculating that the problem might be due to inadequate shipping packaging. The defective products are being replaced by Apple.
This may give pause to some consumers who have been eyeing the iMac’s gorgeous LED-lighted display and searingly fast processor. But many people have had another problem with the latest version of the iMac — particularly the newest model with a 27-inch display. It’s so big, it’s hard to find a place in the house where it will fit.
A MUSCULAR LAPTOP THAT
DEFIES THE LIGHTWEIGHT TREND
With netbooks and ever-slimmer notebook computers attracting the most consumer attention this holiday, Dell apparently believes there’s still room for workhorse PCs, even if — at about 4kg — they defy current fashion. Enter the Precision M6500 “mobile workstation.”
Workstations are just that: monster-spec machines intended for high performance and powerhouse applications. Dell’s just-released package, priced to start at US$2,750, is structured around an advanced Intel Core i7 quad-core processor — among the first mobile PCs to use that chip — and a 17-inch LED backlighted screen, 1920 by 1200 pixels. There’s a gaudier variation, the Covet in hot copper orange (US$4,220), that makes the Apple MacBook Pro look like the Fisher-Price version.
While the base version is loaded with only 2 gigabytes of memory — not nearly enough for a computer with this potential — it will accommodate up to 16 gigs in four memory slots, a feature normally found on desktops, not on laptops.
The nine-cell battery should perform strongly, although its life
on the road depends on how the PC
is configured.
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and