Sunday Tech Ads September 20th

CompUSA

Hitachi 200 GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache Hard Drive $79.99
Panasonic 50” Widescreen LCD Projection TV w/Free DVD Recorder $2999.99


Circuit City

JVC 30” Widescreen Flat TV $599.99
Sony 50” Widescreen LCD HD Projection TV $3299.99



Office Depot

Uniden 5.8 GHz Dual Handset Cordless Phone system $54.99
KonicaMinolta Magiccolor Laser Printer $399.85


Good Guys

Samsung 50” Microdisplay HDTV w/HD3 DLP $3499.99
Pioneer Elite 110 Watts x7 channel multiroom A/V receiver $999.99 ($500 price from last week)


Best Buy

Zenith 44” LCD Projection HDTV Monitor $1999.99
Samsung 30” Widescreen Flat Tube HDTV $999.99 + $50 Gift card

Fry’s

Star Wars Battlefront Playstation/Xbox2 $36.99 (Released 9/21)
Sony Vaio 3.0GHz PC 512 MB RAM, DVD +/- Burner, 128 MB AGP Video Card and TV tuner $999.95

8x Dual +/- Dual DVD writer $59.99

Dell

Dimension 2400 Desktop 2.8 GHz 256MB RAM 80-GB Hard drive $513

Sears

Sony 32” FD Trinitron WEGA TV $599.99
Panasonic 50” LCD projection HDTV monitor $2999.99


This week the Sunday paper had many ads but not a lot to get excited about. Aside from the $500 price drop of the Pioneer receiver at Good Guys retailers don’t look like their competing for dollar. If you’re looking for electronics deals this week, I’d suggest sticking with established retailers on the internet.

Sunday Tech Ads September 13th

CompUSA

HP iPod 20 GB $299.99
40 GB $399.99

Circuit City

Panasonic 32” HD Flat Screen TV Monitor $799.99
Hitachi LCD HDTV Ultravision Digital Television $3099.99 16.5” deep



Staples

Maxtor 160 GB 7200 RPM internal hard drive$79.94


Office Depot

APC Biopod Password Manager with Fingerprint reader and software USB $34.99
Office Depot brand DVD media 100-pack $49.97
Maxtor OneTouch External Hard Drive $159.97
HP Color LaserJet Printer $698.48


Good Guys

LG 52” DLP Read Projection HDTV $3299.99
/Free HD up converting DVD player w/HDTV purchase

Pioneer Elite 50” Integrated HDTV $8999.99 after mail in rebate of $1000
Sony 60” Grand WEGA XBR Integrated LCD rear projection HDTV $5499.99
Pioneer Elite 110 Watts x7 channel multiroom A/V receiver $1499.99
Pioneer DVD Recorder w/ 80 GB hard drive $599.99

Best Buy

Epson PictureMate Personal Photo Lab $199.99
802.11 G Wireless Media Player $199.99
Infocus Mobile DLP Projector X1A $899.99
Scan Disk Digital Photo Viewer $29.99 after rebates
Yamaha 7.1 Channel 980-Watt receiver $799.99
RCA 27” Flat Tube TV $299.99
GE CRT Projection TV HD ready $999.99

Bytes of News

-September 21st, will be a double whammy day for Star Wars fans. Fans will be treated to the first ever release of the Star Wars Trilogy on DVD. Yeap, that’s right folks, the man who said he would never release the first three Star Wars films to DVD has finally broken down. I guess that means George is finally giving the DVD format the nod of approval.

Also on the Star Wars front, the highly anticipated release of Star Wars Battlefront comes to gaming stores on the same day. This newest addition to the plethora of Star Wars games on the market is the first time gamers will be able to experience the battles from any of the five films from the perspective of the troops. Choose from one of 20 soldier types from four factions (Rebel Alliance, Imperial Army, Clone Army or the Droid Army) in the game, as you battle in 15 environments on 10 different planets. 15 vehicles, of both the ground and air variety, will be included as well. Online games will support up to 16 players on the Internet or 32 via a LAN for console owners, and 32 on the Internet or 64 on a LAN for PC owners. A single player campaign will be featured in the game as well.


-Entering the MMORPG arena is Star Trek. Perpetual Entertainment, a San Francisco based company has announced they’ve acquired the license for an online multiplayer game set in the Star Trek universe. Tentatively, the company has said a launch is set for early 2007. For fans of the Trek universe, don’t get your hopes up to high. With the recent slew of online games that have stalled, entered development hell or been canceled it difficult to be sure this title will ever see the light of day.

-Making a long boring story short, Intel has announced its release schedule for the next generation Centrino brand technologies, including chip, battery, and display developments. What does this mean for the consumer? By the end of the decade, Intel hopes to have small portable devices like laptops capable of doing everything the user requires for at least eight hours. This will be quite an achievement, and a long time coming. The usefulness of a portable laptop diminishes quickly if two hours into use you’re running around looking for an outlet to plug into. Unlike the battle over media entertainment centers, this is one development that consumers will actually look forward to.

More great sites for getting the most out of your computer

Recently I’ve received a lot of request for information on the sites I use for pricing and performance on video cards. First up, is Tom’s Hardware Guide, a site devoted to providing in-depth information for IT professionals and early adopters. The best information on the site is the benchmarking tests on video cards. While the rest of the site may provide more technical information than the casual user needs, the video card section is top notch and by using graphs, it’s easy for even novice users to see where their card falls.

When buying a new video card I keep an eye on Pricewatch to see just where prices are headed for the cards I’m waiting to buy. They also keep track of a myriad of other devices from DVD burners to Heat Sinks and Processors. Occasionally I find better deals on other equipment from other sources but on video cards, I’ve had great luck with Pricewatch. Remember, this is only a service that scrolls the internet and finds the best deals at a number of online stores. Keep an eye on the company’s rankings and do your homework before you buy from a retailer you don’t know.


I’ll throw this one in just for the fun of it, and because I do get many questions that eventually lead to my suggesting Shields Up. A wonderful service that allows you to scan your system for any security holes and provides lots of information on how to correct the issue. Everyone on the Internet should be using this site, and testing their connection. Even the most security conscious people I know, who claim their computers are secure, are surprised when they run Shields Up and get a real report on how secure their system really is.

Portable Tivo devices with LCD screens to watch TV on the go.

Portable Multimedia devices have hit the market, but consumers aren’t quite sure what to make of them. Like, MP3 players these devices play music but they also come with LCD screens for viewing television, movies, and photos. Manufacturers are gambling that the never-ending quest for entertainment on demand will lead to success in this new product category. A number of new devices have hit the market, each claiming to be the first of its kind. Currently, there are 5 models to choose from:

iRiver PMP-120, 20 Gig Portable Multimedia
Archos AV320
Creative Labs Zen PMC 20 GB
Samsung YH 999 20 GB
RCA Lyra RD2780 20 GB

Each of them is remarkably similar and there is little difference in their specs. The 20 GB hard drive won’t hold as much video content as the companies claim. Touting devices that can hold up to 80 hours of video is more than a bit misleading. The only way to accomplish this is to lower the resolution and encoding to a laughable level. Still, they should be able to accomplish their goal, downloading last night’s episode of The Apprentice to watch on the subway commute into work or during a lunch break.

At this point, price is a major concern. With so many handheld devices competing for attention and a place in our lives, adding this $400-$500 video player will be a stretch for many consumers. I don’t doubt that in the near future we will have some good personal entertainment devices that can do it all. This is just the beginning for personal video players and if they catch on, we’ll see better models soon. At this point, these devices are for early adopters with money to burn, and those who want to give this thing a try and don’t already own an iPod or PDA.

Sunday Tech Ads September 5th

With the Labor Day weekend specials in the paper most deals end at the close of business on Monday. This being the case, it doesn't do anyone any good to post these deals. Some of them were good. I know of a couple that caused some of my friends to rush out and buy motherboards and video cards. Looking at how low the big box retailers went this week to grab the attention of the kids returning to school, it'll be interesting to see what the ads look like for next week.

Typically, shoppers have to wait a few weeks for the good deals to return to their lowest levels. The week after Labor Day their will be deals but generally they aren't as low as the sales of the previous week.

As always, keep an eye out for those deals, don't be a sucker and if you see something we'd be interested in, drop us a line so we can pass the savings on to everyone.

webmaster@jmarcusross.com

TGIF: A little bit of everything

-Want to play Doom 3 but your system is lagging behind. If your video card is in need of upgrading PC Club has a great deal going on this Labor Day Weekend. Buy an eVGA GeForce 6800GT video card and you’ll get a free copy of Doom 3. This is a terrific deal if you plan to upgrade your video card in the near future and can’t wait for the next round of incredible video cards to be released. PC Club typically has prices that beat the chain stores so if you’re in the market check them out this weekend.

-Playstation 2 Online users have reached the 1.4 million mark in North America and continue to grow by 50,000 a month. This translates to about 14 percent of all PS2 owners. The network adapter has quickly surpassed the critically acclaimed Xbox Live system, which has been a popular benchmark of the Xbox system. If Microsoft doesn’t do something soon they’ll be left in the dust in yet another category competing with Sony’s entertainment system. Paying for the Xbox Live system seems unreasonable in the wake of Sony not charging for their connectivity. Yet, there are areas where Xbox Live still holds more value for users than PS2 Online. The question remains on whether a majority of the users are willing to continue to pay for all the extras or if they’d be as happy with just having online play.


-Free feature rich photo organizing and sharing software, Picasa. Try it out for free. Download

Recently I checked out the claims made about how good the Picasa free photo organizer is for photo enthusiasts. The standard preinstalled software on most computers doesn’t have the functionality I’d like in a organizer. It needs to have a clean easy to use interface, be able to easily scan and find my pictures and organize them automatically, and give a suitable number of options for viewing and organizing the albums. Picasa hit the mark accomplishing all this and more. Check it out free, today.

Five Free Must Have Programs

Five Free Must Have Programs


Spybot Search and Destroy

This is the premier free spyware scanner, tracker and removal utility. Combine it with Adaware
For an added level of protection from protection from known Data-mining, aggressive advertising, Parasites, Scumware, selected traditional Trojans, Dialers, Malware, Browser hijackers, and tracking components.

The most important aspect of any security utility is to remember to update the program regularly. New improvements to their malicious and annoying programs make updates an absolute must if you want to keep out all these pesky invaders to your computing tranquility.


Google Toolbar

For the popup blocker alone this useful tool is the only toolbar you should allow on your browser.


Firefox browser

Tired of popups, popunders, and every other popannoying problem with the Internet Explorer browser, check out Firefox as an alternative browser. This is the test browser for the robust Mozilla browser. Firefox allows you to try out the newest features before they are added to the Mozilla browser without any of the annoyances of IE.

WinRar

The all around best program for making backups of programs and opening compressed files such as RAR, ZIP, and other file formats.


iTunes

Even if you don’t own an iPod or plan on download music from their online music store, iTunes is a great content manager and player for your music. It’s the best free program I’ve found to keep my catalog managed and play music easily. My advice stay away from programs like Real Networks, Real Player. It’s bad news in a number of ways. Read my article on Real Networks to learn more.

Review: Liteon DVD Recorder

Liteon DVD Recorder
Inexpensive DVD +R/RW recorder/player.

VCR’s changed the way people watched and what they watched on their televisions in the early 1980’s. Recording became standard fair and consumers looked to recording features as a requirement in purchasing VCR’s. When DVD’s took over the consumer landscape, the machines didn’t record and so it became an added home theater component along side the VCR. Now, inexpensive DVD recorders and disks are finally poised to take over the reigns, which the VCR has held tightly for nearly 25 years.

The price range for DVD recorders varies between $200-$1000 in a wide range of features and formats. Gaining popularity are recorders with hard drives. The Digital Video Recorder or DVR technology marries perfectly with DVD recording, allowing users to record their shows to hard drive for viewing and then the added functionality of recording a DVD of their favorite shows.

The Liteon DVD recorder is one of the cheapest on the market with a regular retail price of $249, there are plenty of stores offering deals as low as $200. While not a name brand everyone will recognize like Sony, Philips or JVC Liteon has made a robust simple to use set top DVD recorder. I’ve tested the LVW-5001 for the last six months making more than 100 DVD disks of my favorite shows, theatrical and home movies. Combining it with my DVR, the Liteon DVD recorder has made recording television a breeze and is much simpler than my PC’s DVD recorder.

The interface is very simple to use. The menus are intuitive and in less than a minute, it can be set up for recording. It records in four modes, 1 hour, 2 hour, 4 hour, and six hour with marked decreases quality for the last setting. Since even digital satellite doesn’t provide the highest resolutions, the two-hour and four-hour works fine and looks good on all but an HDTV. The six hour is fine for my three year olds Bob the Builder shows.

It uses standard DVD +R/RW disks so either a permanent copy can be made or you can record over and over again with the RW disks. These are perfect for weekly television shows, soap operas, or the latest football game. The only issue I’ve found is the Liteon has trouble with off brand disks, both the Compusa and Fry’s house brand won’t record on the DVD recorder. Still, it does work with almost every other name brand DVD disk which is nice compared to some of the other models on the market today.

Overall, the price of this recorder should convince more consumers to try the set top DVD recorders. It works great and I don’t see the need to spend more on a higher priced model with the same features.