Yes, more speakers!

6 months since I last covered computer speakers. My Yamaha’s at work are flaking out again so finally replaced them. The goal was to find something decent under $50. I checked Best Buy, but they only had a pair of Logitech Z320‘s available for demo (awful). I’ve yet to find a decent pair of Logitechs. I checked Fry’s and they had the Altec Lansing VS260, which highly rated on NewEgg. Brought them home and just finished trying them out. For $25, these speakers are excellent. I don’t care for the looks, but they sound fairly good. The power control is knob, rather than a button. I can’t possibly fathom why they chose to do that. I wish there were speparate controls for bass and treble, but that’s rare. Anyway, I’m pleased to find a decent pair of speakers for $25!

The Tablet Trail

After the netbook craze started a few years ago, I began looking for one. After thinking about what I would actually use it for, I came to realize that what I really wanted was a slate PC. I wouldn’t be typing. I would spend 90% of my time web  surfing and watching videos. The problem is that slate PC’s were well over $1000, which was unacceptable. I settled on the Eee PC 1000HE (original post).

As netbooks go, it was extremely good. There were 3 main drawbacks. The native resolution was 1024×600. 600 is too small. It’s possible to change it to 768, but you have to scroll. Canon’s DPP software also requires 768. Second, it was on the slow side. And finally, it was too bulk to be truly portable (3.2 pounds, 1.5 inches).

When the iPad was announced, I debated getting one. I held off because I wanted an Android tablet and I wanted support for a compact flash card reader and USB storage. In retrospect, this was a bad idea. It would be another year before decent Android tablets arrived and they are still version 1.0. Another problem is the lack of native tablet apps. Both these issues will be fixed within a year. In fact, the Asus Transformer about to be released is very close to what I want. I very much miss not having an ultraportable device over the past year.

When the iPad 2 was released, the iPad 1 went on sale. I tried a couple of times to get one, but waited too long.

I tried the Motorola Xoom at Best Buy. With it in one hand and the iPad 2 in the other, there is a noticeable weight difference between them, with iPad of course being lighter. All the upcoming Android tablets were too heavy, except the Samsung Galaxy, and I wasn’t willing to wait. Weight, in fact, became my deciding factor and when I saw that Best Buy was scheduled to have a shipment, I went that Sunday at opening.

If you read the comments in the link you’ll see that I, and everyone else in the country, discovered that there was not ONE iPad 2 in stock at any Best Buy. I also drove by the Apple store in the Domain, and at least 20 people were waiting in line. Amazing.

Since I was at Best Buy, I went ahead and reserved one, figuring it would be at least 2-3 weeks. Thankfully, I was proved wrong. I received a call the next day saying their shipment had arrived. I think what happened is their shipment arrived one day later than expected, rather than them trying to trick everyone. Their weekly ads are printed well in advance of the publication date.

So iPad 2 in had, I really enjoy it. The netbook has been relegated to the closet. It does have a fair amount of backlight bleeding, which really surprised me, but it’s not noticeable in daily use. I do highly recommend the Atomic web browser to replace Safari. The form factor is great, but not perfect. It needs to be lighter. I would prefer a narrower body, as the current one is too difficult for me to do thumb-typing. The Xoom was perfect for this. The glossy screen has got to go. Way too much reflection. The screen is very bright; so bright, that I keep it at the minimum almost all the time. One speaker? Come on. And of course, iTunes sucks. Aside from their mobile devices, Apple software is actually pretty bad from user interface standpoint, if you judge by iTunes and Quicktime.

With only 10 GB currently free, this will not do as an all-in-one device. There’s simply not enough room to backup vacation photos on a major trip. However it’s perfect for shorter trips. I will revisit this in a few months because I will need *something* for our next vacation.

New PC Speakers

I’ve had a pair of Creative Gigaworks T20 speakers for awhile now. At the time when I bought them, I researched speakers extensively, even taking my MP3 player to the stores and testing out the different models. The only other decent option was the Bose Companion 2. I found the Bose to be a bit too tinny. When the Gigaworks went on sale, I picked them up. They are by far and wide the best computer speakers I’ve ever owned.

After about a year, the right speaker started going out at work. I took them home and they worked fine for another year or two. A couple of weeks ago, the right one died and wouldn’t come back. I couldn’t bring myself to fork out ~$90 for a new pair if they are going to die again so soon. Part of the problem is that the volume and power knob are combined into one, which we think decreases the life.

I settled on the Creative Inspire T10. I checked out some Logitech speakers at Fry’s priced about the same and twice and as much, and both did not sound good. The T10′s are pretty good for $50 (half the price of the updated T20′s). While there is no comparison to the T20′s, most people would not notice. I think I will keep them as I rarely use my home speakers anyway. But if you’re not concerned with price, go for the T20′s. I’m not familiar with the T40′s.

At work I use my old Yamaha’s, which are no longer made. While they don’t hold a candle to the T20′s, they are excellent for the price I paid (<$50) eons ago.

Tripp Lite PV150 Power Inverter

Tripp Lite PV150 (Image from Tripp Lite's site)

I completely forgot to post this. Before the Colorado trip I wanted a power inverter to power my phone so I could use it as a GPS without running down the battery. I also wanted it to have enough power to run my netbook, if necessary. I settled on the Tripp Lite PV150 for the following reasons:

• 150 Watts is more than enough to power a netbook
• Good reviews
• Cigarettle adapter was connected via a cable, not directly to the inverter. This makes it easy to connect to the poorly placed lighter in my car’s arm console.
• Under $30
• Very compact
• Switch to turn it on and off
• And very importantly for me, no fan!

I ended up only using it to power my phone and didn’t have any problems. Highly recommended.

HDMI cables

While I know not to spend more than a few dollars on an HDMI, I did not know this info from Consumer Reports:

“…the HDMI organization, which prohibited manufacturers from marketing cables by the HDMI version (HDMI 1.3, HDMI 1.4, etc).”

Just a helpful hint. Don’t buy your cables in stores. If you’re spending more than $10, you’re probably spending too much unless it’s a long cable. Order from most any online retailer instead.

Another interesting piece of news is the possible demise of HDMI. An alliance of companies is developing HDbaseT, which would use an an ethernet cable. The real excitement here is being able to use a much longer cable and provide power to devices. Considering the companies behind this, it looks like a real possibility.