Results tagged “electronics” from Rated Best

It was a toss-up between Microsoft's Zune HD and Apple's iPod Touch. And for a pure, stand-alone music/media player, I would probably go with the Zune. But why settle for that when you can get a really nice media player in the iPod Touch, that also doubles as a portable computer? You can check your email, browse the web, play games, and even stream music from services like Pandora and Last.FM. Granted, you have to be connected to wifi to do many of these things, but wifi is widely available.

Or, get a Novatel MiFi modem, and for a monthly service fee, you can have internet access anywhere cell phone service is available.

Get an iPod Touch from Amazon

I'm getting rid of my satellite TV service. I've had DirecTV for nearly 10 years now, and I'm tired of paying $64/month for a service I use so infrequently. Now with so many TV shows and movies available on the internet (such as Hulu and Amazon's Video on Demand service), there's a lot less need for TV subscriptions.

However, one may want TV for things like local news and breaking news. For that I'm going back to over-the-air service. But gone are the rabbit ears and fuzzy reception from last century. I'm upgrading to the digital age, and the Winegard MS-2002 is the ideal antenna for the job.

From all of my research, I chose this antenna for several reasons:

• It's omni-directional, making installation easy. There's no need to aim it for best reception.
• It's amplified, so it will pull in weaker signals with ease.
• It's mounted outdoors, which means a bit more work on installation, but a better signal overall.
  
• It's inexpensive. At only $67 shipped, it's about the same price as one month of my current TV service.

They sell a version of the antenna with 50' of coaxial cable, if you don't already have one. (I simply used one of the cables from the satellite dish on my roof; it works perfectly.) However, the difference in price is over $40, and you can get 50' (or even 100') of cable for a lot less than that.

Coupled with my government-subsidized digital TV converter box, this makes a fine backup for internet TV. And the beauty is, once I finally get an HDTV, this antenna will work perfectly with it as well.

Get a Winegard MS-2002 from Amazon

On February 17, 2009, all over-the-air TV broadcasts will cease transmission in the analog format and switch exclusively to digital. While this doesn't affect those who have cable or satellite TV, it does for everyone else. And as someone who is looking for a way to drop the $60+ monthly bill from DirecTV, it seems like a perfect opportunity to do so.

The US government is helping people out with the switch by providing $40 coupons towards the purchase of a converter box. Granted, these are pretty bare-bones options in this program, but you can't beat the final price of $10-$40. So your first order of business is to request those coupons on their site: https://www.dtv2009.gov

After you wait the 4-6 weeks for the coupon to show up, you're ready to buy your converter box. I consider an S-video output to be an essential feature; Most modern TVs have an S-video input, and it gives a much sharper and richer picture than a coax RF or RCA connection. So that leaves us with just two options: The Apex D250 and the ChannelMaster CM-7000.

From the customer reviews tab on BestBuy.com, it looks like there are serious quality issues with the Apex. The CM-7000 reviews while fewer in number have a more reassuring tenor than Apex. So for me the choice is clear. The cheapest I could find it online is from SolidSignal.com.

Get a CM-7000 from Solid Signal

I recently replaced our aging 5.8GHz cordless phone with this one. It garnered a "Best Buy" from Consumer Reports in their latest cordless phone test, and was rated best cordless phone with answering machine by Consumer Search.

Despite upgrading from 2.4Ghz to 5.8, we had horrible static/interference problems from day 1 with our old phone. In comparison, my new Panasonic is so quiet it sounds like a land line to me. (With DECT 6! Not that any consumer knows or cares what that means. And don't get me started on these consumer unfriendly product names. KX-TG1032S? C'mon.)

The only downside so far is that you can't see the number of messages left on the machine from across the room. All of the UI is done via the LCD display on the handset.

I bought the two-handset package. The base station supports up to six. If you need more handsets, consider the three or four handset packages.

Get a Panasonic KX-TG1032S from Amazon

There's little reason to use disposable batteries anymore. Rechargeable technology has gotten to the point where you can get almost as much power out of them as disposables. And it turns out that the charging process has a pretty big impact on the performance of the batteries.

Most chargers are dumb circuits that simply jam a current through the battery, no matter its current state of charge. This can ruin a perfectly good battery. Enter the BC-900. It not only monitors the charge on the battery, it can do a discharge + recharge cycle, or even a full refresh where the battery is discharged and recharged several times in a row. This can bring back a battery that was rendered unusable via a bad charger.

This unit also has selectable charge rates, so you can choose to charge more quickly at the cost of reducing the lifespan of the battery. It comes with 8 batteries (4 AA and 4 AAA) and 4 C and D cell adapters, so you get a nice start all in one package.

Get a La Crosse BC-900 from Amazon

These days it's practically essential to have a cell phone (mobile phone if you're outside the US). I'm a relative laggard in this area. I didn't get my first cell phone until 1999 with a bare-bones $10/month plan and 25¢/minute. And that was the plan I kept for 9 years, until a month ago when I got an iPhone.

The iPhone is great because it's basically a mobile computer with a phone built in. It enables a number of mobile scenarios that -- now that I'm used to -- would be difficult for me to live without. For example, it does a great job approximating my current location when doing a map search, making it really useful for finding nearby stores, restaurants, gas stations, etc. when I'm out & about. It also shows live traffic data on the map, which is critical when making route decisions.

I've stopped carrying a separate music player; the built-in iPod app works great. I love the phone integration. When I receive a call, the audio pauses; when the call ends, the audio starts again. It has a built-in camera too. The quality is mediocre, but it works well enough, and it's always with me. No need to lug around a point & shoot every day for serendipitous picture taking.

The email, SMS, and web browser are useful too but on the AT&T Edge network, things can be a bit to slow to be of much use. But there are times you really want to look something up, and the ability to do it -- albeit slowly -- is nice.

Finally -- and I cannot emphasize this enough -- the iPhone is easy to use. You are not going to find a phone out there with a better interface than this one. As an interface designer, I'm acutely sensitive to design details, and Apple has once again nailed it with this device.

I have the first generation iPhone, and that's the one I'd recommend. The newer one does have a built-in GPS and can access AT&T's faster 3G network. However, I've heard that the faster network is only rarely available, and using it really burns out the battery. Plus the GPS isn't really necessary., given the great triangulation feature in the maps.

Get an Apple iPhone

Apple makes the best laptops out there. period. They are beautifully-designed, high-quality, and a great value (price/performance). While I have a MacBook Pro, most people don't need the extras that the Pro incudes (larger screen, bigger hard drive, more graphics memory) at the cost of nearly doubling the price. However I do recommend that you don't buy the cheapest MacBook. The DVD writer, extra memory, and extra hard drive space will all be things you'll grow into and be glad you got after a few years.

Of course one of the main selling points of the Mac is that it runs Mac OS X -- widely considered to be friendlier and easier to use than Windows. The visual design is lighter, simpler, and polished to a high shine. For basic Internet use, music, photos and other basic consumer tasks, the Mac shines. And as an amatuer musician, GarageBand is a fantastic application. There is nothing like it on the PC at any price.

However if you need to run Windows, your MacBook can do it. You can boot directly into Windows using the free Boot Camp utility provided by Apple. Or you can get virtual machine (VM) software—Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion—and run Windows as a separate application within Mac OS X. I've done both, but lately I prefer the latter as I only need Windows occasionally. Ironically, PC World reported in October 2007 that the MacBook Pro was the fastest Windows laptop that they tested. On the down side, there is no dedicated second mouse button or forward delete key, but you can work around these with a two-finger touch pad + click and fn+delete respectively.

Get at MacBookt fromt Amazon

I've been an amateur musician since I was a teenager, and I've owned my fair share of headphones. For a long time, it was the Sony MDR-V6, and they are a really nice pair of headphones. But I really think Sennheiser's sound better. The fine folks over at Headphone.com agree, saying:

These headphones sound terrific for sealed-earcup, full-size cans priced under $100... They are efficient enough to be well-driven by most portable audio players and laptop computers... The HD-280 Pro has also become the headphone choice of audio, film, and field recording/mixing professionals due to its clear tonal presentation, very effective ambient noise attenuation properties, and durable build quality. A true workhorse of a sealed-earcup headphone at a really hard-to-beat price.

Now I'm a bit of a headphone fanatic. I've own over 30 pairs of headphones in my life. Any while there are certainly different types of headphones I'd recommend for specialized scenarios (VOIP, exercise, airplane flights, etc.). But if I had to pick only one pair of headphones to use for the rest of my life, these would be it.

Get Sennheiser HD-280 Pro headphones from Amazon

If you're going to get a video game system for you, for your family, or as a gift, go with the Nintendo Wii. In a word, it is simply fun, and after all that's what a game system should be.

Get a Wii from Amazon