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Practical Gadgetry
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Guitar Hero on the Nintendo DS just got cooler
It's no secret I am nuts about Guitar Hero. So you can imagine that I am pretty excited about the upcoming "Guitar Hero on Tour" game set to be released for the Nintendo DS handheld later this...
Posted by Shawn Morton | March 20, 2008, 12:40 PM PDT | Latest comment by sMoRTy71
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Plastic guitars and video cards at SXSW
I just got back from the South by Southwest Interactive festival in Austin, TX, this week. As with CES 2008, the big gimmick for attracting visitors to your booth was Guitar Hero III. I saw at...
Posted by Shawn Morton | March 14, 2008, 8:05 AM PDT
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Two weeks with the Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick
HDTVs have been one of the hottest consumer electronics categories for the past several years; however, you don't need to invest in an HDTV to get HDTV content. Pinnacle has created the PCTV HD...
Posted by Shawn Morton | March 14, 2008, 7:37 AM PDT | Latest comment by steve.lewinsky@...
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Fixing a defective Rock Band guitar is quick and easy
The guitar that came in our Rock Band bundle suffered from the downward strum issue that many people have reported online. Either the strum bar on the guitar doesn't recognize a downward strum at...
Posted by Shawn Morton | March 5, 2008, 1:55 PM PST
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The Apple MacBook Air tries to fill a niche that doesn't exist
The Apple MacBook Air is the current poster-child for the effective combination of design and engineering. Apple should be commended for how well the Air is built. But I still cannot figure out...
Posted by Mark Kaelin | February 29, 2008, 12:39 PM PST | Latest comment by jbergman@...
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Why Apple chose to upgrade the MacBook lineup
Yesterday, Apple announced that it was upgrading many of the components (processor, hard drive, video card, etc.) in its MacBook and MacBook Pro line of laptops. After the launch of the MacBook...
Posted by Shawn Morton | February 27, 2008, 12:33 PM PST
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Two weeks with the Eye-Fi wireless SD card
I love taking digital photos; however, I hate the process of transferring them to my PC. I am constantly searching for the cable to connect the camera to my PC. And with more than one person in...
Posted by Shawn Morton | February 20, 2008, 11:57 AM PST | Latest comment by kissellsjunk@...
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Format war officially over as Toshiba drops HD-DVD
Well, all of us who have been speculating about when HD-DVD would be a dead format have our answer -- right now. Reuters is reporting that Toshiba, HD-DVD's biggest supporter, will stop...
Posted by Shawn Morton | February 16, 2008, 12:35 PM PST | Latest comment by BrianBooher
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Two weeks with Loc8tor Lite
It's 3:00pm, do you know where your TiVo remote is? I do... thanks to the new Loc8tor Lite, a credit card size remote control that helps you find things like your keys or your cellphone or your...
Posted by Shawn Morton | February 13, 2008, 6:50 AM PST | Latest comment by Nitrous19
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Netflix kicks HD-DVD while it's down [updated]
As if you needed one more sign that points to HD-DVD being dead, here it is. Netflix announced this morning that it will phase out HD-DVD and go exclusively Blu-ray. So, for those keeping score...
Posted by Shawn Morton | February 11, 2008, 12:14 PM PST | Latest comment by NickNielsen
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The $6 million home theater
I know this blog is supposed to be about practical gadgetry; however, this one is just too amazing and ridiculous to pass up. Audio Video Interiors has a feature on Jeremy Kipnis in its February...
Posted by Shawn Morton | February 8, 2008, 8:12 AM PST | Latest comment by john@...
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Apple quietly launches 16GB iPhone and 32GB Touch
A couple of new products showed up in the Apple Store this morning: a 16GB version of the iPhone and a 32GB version of the iPod Touch. Both will set you back $499. If you've got $500 burning a...
Posted by Shawn Morton | February 5, 2008, 6:29 AM PST | Latest comment by sceato02@...
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Does the MacBook Air redefine portability?
Jason Calacanis, former CEO of Weblogs, Inc. and current CEO of Mahalo, has posted his impressions of using his new MacBook Air for a week. As expected, he runs through each of the features and...
Posted by Shawn Morton | February 4, 2008, 11:30 AM PST | Latest comment by joy_jolly@...
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VUDU adds more HD content
I was flipping through the VUDU menu after the Super Bowl last night and noticed that they have added about 30 new HD titles to the service. It appears to be a mix of new stuff, like Transformers...
Posted by Shawn Morton | February 4, 2008, 8:42 AM PST
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Pros and cons of Windows Media Center in Vista
My friend Davis Freeberg has posted a list of the pros and cons of using Windows Media Center in Vista. I am a long-time Media Center user; however, most of my experience is on XP since I have my...
Posted by Shawn Morton | February 1, 2008, 12:06 PM PST | Latest comment by mike.clarke@...
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Slacker Portable now shipping
One of the products I was most excited about from CES 2008 was the Slacker Portable. I have long used Slacker Internet Radio, so the idea of a portable, flash-based, Wi-Fi-enabled music player...
Posted by Shawn Morton | January 31, 2008, 10:06 AM PST
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Wanna rent iTunes movies? Buy a new iPod
WIRED is reporting that Apple's new movie rental service in iTunes is only compatible with newer iPods. So if you have one of those 5G iPods (also known as the *Video* iPod), you can't actually...
Posted by Shawn Morton | January 30, 2008, 1:49 PM PST
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Two weeks with the TomTom GO 920 GPS
GPS units were some of the most hyped Holiday gifts last year. Because I have about a 15-minute commute, I've always wondered what all of the fuss was about. After all, I'm a guy. I never get...
Posted by Shawn Morton | January 29, 2008, 11:31 AM PST
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Bug Labs Store is open for business (sort of)
Bug Labs, who won the CNET Best of CES award in the Emerging Technologies category, opened the doors of their online store today. In case you missed all of the excitement around the Bug platform...
Posted by Shawn Morton | January 21, 2008, 2:03 PM PST
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Use your Rock Band drums in Windows
Andrew Rudson has written an app for Windows that allows you to turn your Rock Band drum kit into a drum machine that you can use to play and record your Neil Peart-esque rhythms. I tried it out...
Posted by Shawn Morton | January 21, 2008, 1:42 PM PST | Latest comment by angelogargarello@...
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Use your Rock Band drums in Windows
Andrew Rudson has written an app for Windows that allows you to turn your Rock Band drum kit into a drum machine that you can use to play and record your Neil Peart-esque rhythms. I tried it out...
Posted by Shawn Morton | January 21, 2008, 1:42 PM PST | Latest comment by angelogargarello@...
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The DAK GLI Pro turntable system raises the bar on vinyl conversion
In a previous post here in the TechRepublic Practical Gadgetry blog I reviewed the Ion iTTUSB Turntable. I was pleasantly surprised by quality of the digital recordings I could make of my old...
Posted by Mark Kaelin | October 2, 2007, 1:34 PM PDT | Latest comment by youmixit01
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Play Frets on Fire with your XBOX 360 guitar
This post is the first in a series I am doing on Frets on Fire/Guitar Hero. Last year, Sami Kyöstilä, Tommi Inkilä and Joonas Kerttula released a free, open source app called Frets on Fire...
Posted by Shawn Morton | August 20, 2007, 8:23 AM PDT | Latest comment by sMoRTy71
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Fixing a defective Rock Band guitar is quick and easy
The guitar that came in our Rock Band bundle suffered from the downward strum issue that many people have reported online. Either the strum bar on the guitar doesn't recognize a downward strum at...
Posted by Shawn Morton | March 5, 2008, 1:55 PM PST
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Renting DVDs from Redbox is quick and easy
I've been seeing the Redbox DVD kiosks popping up all over town, mainly outside McDonald's locations. I was always a little curious about the service, but never stopped to check it out. Then,...
Posted by Shawn Morton | December 5, 2007, 7:12 AM PST | Latest comment by devGuy
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Use PC fans to keep your gear cool
Anyone who has more than a couple devices running in their living room or home theater knows that those devices can heat up very quickly. In my case, I have an XBOX 360 and a DirecTV H20 HDTV...
Posted by Shawn Morton | September 4, 2007, 12:45 PM PDT | Latest comment by MetalFR0
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Watching ABC.com video streams in your living room
There are a lot of different options out there for getting Web content streamed to your PC. In a series of posts over the next couple of weeks, I will take a look at a few of your choices and show...
Posted by Shawn Morton | August 10, 2007, 11:57 AM PDT | Latest comment by seattlenick
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iBootBar lets you reboot devices remotely
Despite sounding like an iPod accessory that you might wear on your foot, the iBootBar from Dataprobe is a serious piece of hardware geared toward IT professionals. So why am I talking about it?...
Posted by Shawn Morton | July 25, 2007, 7:23 AM PDT | Latest comment by powerwebbutton@...
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Build your own iBootBar for less than $50?
Earlier this week, I posted my review of the iBootBar from Dataprobe. It is an enterprise-grade remote power strip that allows you to cycle the power of connected devices from your LAN or from the...
Posted by Shawn Morton | July 26, 2007, 11:25 AM PDT | Latest comment by todd@...
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What's so great (and not so great) about MacBook Air?
Yesterday, Steve Jobs announced the world's thinnest laptop, the upcoming Macbook Air, during his MacWorld keynote. It has the blogosphere buzzing about how great it is going to be (and even...
Posted by Shawn Morton | January 16, 2008, 6:41 AM PST
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Two weeks with the Sonos Digital Music System
I've done a lot of things in the pursuit of multi-room audio. I've run lots of speaker wire throughout the walls of my house and bought a couple of different multi-zone A/V receivers; however,...
Posted by Shawn Morton | September 25, 2007, 11:02 AM PDT | Latest comment by tweston@...
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Two weeks with the TomTom GO 920 GPS
GPS units were some of the most hyped Holiday gifts last year. Because I have about a 15-minute commute, I've always wondered what all of the fuss was about. After all, I'm a guy. I never get...
Posted by Shawn Morton | January 29, 2008, 11:31 AM PST
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Two weeks with the Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick
HDTVs have been one of the hottest consumer electronics categories for the past several years; however, you don't need to invest in an HDTV to get HDTV content. Pinnacle has created the PCTV HD...
Posted by Shawn Morton | March 14, 2008, 7:37 AM PDT | Latest comment by steve.lewinsky@...
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Remove scratches from your iPod
With today's iPod announcement from Apple, everybody and their brother is preparing to sell their old iPods on eBay so they can pick up a new iPod Touch. Of course, one of the "features" of the 5G...
Posted by Shawn Morton | September 5, 2007, 7:06 PM PDT | Latest comment by Deejay54
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Two weeks with the Eye-Fi wireless SD card
I love taking digital photos; however, I hate the process of transferring them to my PC. I am constantly searching for the cable to connect the camera to my PC. And with more than one person in...
Posted by Shawn Morton | February 20, 2008, 11:57 AM PST | Latest comment by kissellsjunk@...
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The Verizon Juke may change your mind about the basic cell phone
I am not a big cell phone aficionado. I use my cell phone to make about four total calls a month, each lasting about a minute. The modern "fancy" phones are not my thing. However, the Samsung...
Posted by Mark Kaelin | October 31, 2007, 8:46 AM PDT | Latest comment by boop@...
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Two weeks with the Nokia N95 and iPhone
My T-Mobile Dash and I hardly talk any more. Over the past month or so, I have been seeing other cellphones. There was the meaningless fling with the Upstage from Samsung which ended badly. And...
Posted by Shawn Morton | July 18, 2007, 1:40 PM PDT | Latest comment by martin.reading@...
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Two weeks with VUDU
Over the past few years, I have been tinkering with new ways to watch movies in my manroom. I've subscribed to Netflix, Blockbuster Total Access, ripped my DVD collection to a media server and...
Posted by Shawn Morton | October 4, 2007, 7:15 AM PDT | Latest comment by sMoRTy71
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Two weeks with Loc8tor Lite
It's 3:00pm, do you know where your TiVo remote is? I do... thanks to the new Loc8tor Lite, a credit card size remote control that helps you find things like your keys or your cellphone or your...
Posted by Shawn Morton | February 13, 2008, 6:50 AM PST | Latest comment by Nitrous19
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Add flash to your iPhone camera
One of the big complaints about the iPhone is the poor image quality of its built-in 2 megapixel camera, especially in low-light situations. Here is a handy little DIY hack for adding an external...
Posted by Shawn Morton | October 2, 2007, 6:27 AM PDT | Latest comment by CharlieSpencer_Palmetto
