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February 27 2006
Pictureal - Your Memories on Demand
Today I FedExed four Mini DV tapes to Pictureal. Their PR states “Pictureal lets you take complete control of your home video.” Since these are from two recent trips with my daughters to Italy and Egypt I have to say I am suffering separation anxiety already. I did make AVI copies of all the tapes to my hard drive so am not completely lost.
FYI, Pictureal copy these tapes, create chapters, and place those chapters on the internet. I can then view them. decide what I want to keep, set up transitions, add music, make titles and add a style. Sort of remote editing. They have some professional editors who will, no doubt, have a better eye than I as to what works and what does not. They will sent me a DVD and I can send short clips to friends.
I will keep you informed as to progress and final outcome of this experiment.
February 26, 2006
CX300 Silver Perfect Ear Canal Fit by Sennheiser
 Looking for Stereo earphones with little buds that fit inside your ears is like buying shoes. Everyone’s ears and feet are different. I have much experience buying shoes (often the wrong fit) and, recently, have had the same experience with stereo earphones. My ears seem to be like no other pair on the planet. Sennheiser sent me this set to try out after visiting them at Lunch@perios during CES. They have great sound reproduction with fine bass. But the ear canal buds will not stay in my ears. I tried all three sizes of the adaptors and they all fell out. I was unable to test the ambient noise reduction due to my difficulty keeping them in long enough.
I can’t blame Sennheiser. Six months ago it took me five trips to five different stores to find a replacement for the earphones that came with my Creative Movo media player. I finally found one at CVS for $1.99. They fit in my ears. Not the best sound but, since I listen to audio books on it, that is not an issue.
So if you want great sound reproduction Sennheiser has it. If you have had difficulties with fitting YOUR ears to this type of ear canal headphone product I suggest you try before you buy or go with their other products like the Neckband PMS60 or the PX100 folding head phone unit.
February 21, 2006
ProShow Gold Version 2.6 by PHOTODEX
This product is a stand out in the group of Slide show creation packages I have reviewed and used over the last several years. At $79.95 in a box ($69.95 downloadable) it is priced higher than many similar products but well worth the extra bucks.
I nstallation was a snap. The screen layout is easy to understand with icons on a menu bar that help you to find needed functions, a file directory area, thumbnail box showing photos in the current directory A large show viewing area and, across the bottom, a build-the-show area with lines for slides, special effects, and soundtrack.
SEE THE ENTIRE ProShow Gold ARTICLE
February 10, 2006
Handset Manager Version 90.2
The people at Mobile Action send me their latest version of Handset Manager, a mobile phone management tool. It came in a plastic retail package with two items: a CD and a USB cable. Their website mentioned that they had millions of copies sold all over the world. This had to be an easy install that would give me hundreds of ring tones and a connection between my PC and my cell phone that would sync my phone data with data on my computer. In addition the phone would be charged through the USB connection. A great idea!
Not so.
I inserted the CD and followed the install instructions. The install of the drivers for my phone failed. I repeated the install several times and it seemed to work. My phone was charging so I thought the USB cable was working. I started the software and it could not find the phone. After several reinstalls and jiggling the connector
Nice people but this product did not work in my case.
Note:
I am testing a Verizon phone with Verizon’s new Vcast music/video offering and find that works very well with the Verizon Vcast software and drivers provided with their test phone. More on that in another posting.
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