I live in the Northeast, and as I’m typing this it’s
snowing like crazy. The weatherman is forecasting 6 to 10 inches of snow, can you
believe that? I don’t know about you,
but for me when it gets like this, the indoor toys come out and it’s time to
play!
Sony just announced two new Walkmans, the NW-A829 (16 GB) and the NW-A828 (8 GB). And you’re probably like, “Yeah, another mp3
player, so what?” The “so what” is the
Bluetooth connectivity. There’s still no
price availability info, but here are the specs:
MP3,
WMA, ATRAC, Sony PCM and AAC/High Efficiency AACMPEG-4/H.2642.4-inch
(320 x 240) LCD display9.3mm
wide59g
(just under 2 ounces) 36-hour
battery life for tunes, or a 10-hour
life span for video
Now that the digital video format wars are over
and BluRay came out on top, there are a lot of emotions running wild. On the up
side you got BluRay fans saying, “I been tryin’ to tell you, BluRay is the ish!”
On the downside you got HD-DVD heads saying, “What
the f*** am I gonna do wit this bulls*** I bought?”
Well, I like watching movies in pretty high def
too, but I’m not dropping $600 on a DVD player. That’s where the upconverting
DVD player comes in. They play standard DVD’s but bump the resolution up to
720p or 1080p depending on the model. And best of all, you can usually find
them for under $100. Here are a couple of options:
JVC XV-N650B
($84.99)
Plays DVD, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, CD,
CD-R, CD-RW, VCD, SVCD, MP3, WMA and DivX formatsHD JPEG playback allows you to view
high-megapixel images in enhanced resolutions for stunning slideshowsDolby Digital and DTS digital surround sound
outputs let you send multichannel audio to a compatible A/V receiver to
create a cinema-quality soundscapeZoom feature lets you select an area of the
picture and magnify it or increase the viewable screen area for letterbox
filmsBookmark search and resume playback functionsOutputs: HDMI, component video, S-video, video,
coaxial digital audio, optical digital audio, audio
LG DN798
($90.99) – has pretty much the same features as the JVC the addition of a
couple:
USB media host lets you connect your digital
devices to access images and music filesParent lock controls prevent your children from
being exposed to undesirable material
The last thing I want to show you in this week’s
installment of Tech Talk is a service rather than a gadget. It’s a home phone
service from T-mobile called Talk Forever Home Phone.
Several months back they rolled out a service called Hot
Spot @Home, where if you had one of a few phones, you could pay $10 per month
and get unlimited mobile calling over your Wi-Fi network. Well, now for that
same $10, you can add home phone service and keep your existing number. Here’s what you get:
Domestic
long distance Call
forwarding 3-way
conference calling Voicemail
Call
Holding Call
WaitingTroy Gayle is the Founder of Gadget-T.com
