professional

Designed by L. Paul Hales to produce concert-level sound in the home, speakers from Professional Home Cinema dare to go where no audiophile manufacturer would: PHC speakers play loud enough to duplicate live concert volume levels. For real, no kidding.

Take the SCR-12 ($4,000 each), it's a medium format "Screen Channel" loudspeaker capable of reproducing the awesome dynamics and unrestricted volume levels of a commercial cinema or concert PA system in your home theater. It uses digital signal processing (DSP), high-resolution frequency response shaping, and time-alignment to produce a maximum output exceeding 130 decibels. That's really, really loud! … Read more

Photo enthusiasts take note. This morning Lexar announced that its Professional UDMA 300x CompactFlash Card will be available in late September in a 16GB version for $349.99 MSRP. By comparison, B&H has the 8GB card for $154.95 with an $80 mail-in rebate, which means buying two of those would be the better deal at this point. Of course, you can expect the 16GB card to street for less than its list price.

Here's what Lexar's marketing team has to say in its press release:

Designed for professional photographers and photo enthusiasts, this lightning-fast card … Read more

Bottom line: Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 isn't perfect, but it's the best dictation software available. We don't find this upgrade necessary for the most basic dictation, although new features may benefit heavily accented English speakers and those who rely heavily on voice commands.

Who wants to risk or aggravate carpal tunnel syndrome at a keyboard? People who suffer repetitive stress injuries, type slowly, or dictate long documents for work are among the best candidates for Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10, which types as you talk. While not perfect, it's the best consumer tool available for digital dictation and can … Read more

It just got a little easier to get into Ray Ozzie's cloud.

Microsoft has opened up its Live Mesh service to anyone who has (or signs up for) a Windows Live ID. The service, announced in April, lets people share data among multiple Windows computers, as well as over the Web.

The vision for Live Mesh is broader--envisioning people sharing data among Macs, PCs, and various devices, as well as opening up the possibility for desktop applications to add online components, and Web apps to add offline components. For now, though, it's largely about file sync.

Microsoft … Read more

There are two things that have distinguished Mobiado among the many luxury phone makers of the world: First, it's from Canada; second, its handsets have avoided the type of excessive bling that others have so readily succumbed to in the desperate quest to draw attention to themselves.

But no one is immune to the pressures of competition, and Mobiado is taking some steps along this gilded path as well. The rather clinically named Professional 105 GCB features 24k-gold plating--right down to the screws and buttons, according to Unwired View--while its "Executive Model" is adding phones encased in … Read more

CARLSBAD, Calif.--Tuesday's quick Windows 7 demo at the D6 conference here was nice, although developers who really want to get a feel for the new operating system will probably need to wait until October.

Windows 7 and its multitouch interface will be a key topic at the Professional Developers Conference, which is set for October in Los Angeles. The PDC hasn't been held since 2005 when Vista was still in development. Microsoft also plans use the conference to show where it's headed in mobile, which probably means a look at Windows Mobile 7, although the company … Read more

Putting together a quality multifunction printer is no easy task, and we've seen a fair share of them that drop the ball, but HP's newest challenger, the Officejet J6480, restored our faith in All-in-One printers.

The HP Officejet J6480 spoils users with many features that aren't normally found altogether in one unit: a very reasonable $200 lands you a wireless photo printer with autoduplexing, scanner with optical character recognition technology, a fax

machine, and even a built in autodocument feeder for printing on various types of paper.

We often are asked the question, "what's the … Read more

As far as mobile printers go, Hewlett-Packard's recent Officejet H470 left us with a sour taste in our mouths. We know that there are folks out there begging for a mobile printer that can do it all: portability, quality, and unique connectivity features bundled into a stylish package, but so far, we've seen a stronger push toward photo-specific kiosk printers instead of professional units. Fortunately, Canon looks as if it's poised and ready to take the mantle with its newest Pixma iP100, just announced today.

Let's take a closer look at the specs:

1. Maximum 9,… Read more

Back when I was a neuroscientist, I participated in all sorts of "Women in Science and Technology" events and outreach programs. I have been thinking a lot lately about another kind of "woman in tech," namely those who are able create new jobs for themselves thanks to online connectivity and business tools.

This comes about in many ways. As a writer, for example, blogging has clearly revolutionized grassroots journalism. But beyond that, digital technologies have transformed all parts of the publishing world, creating new opportunities for product development, printing, distribution, and publicity outreach.

I got in touch with author/entrepreneurs Sarah Headrick and Sarah Rivera after coming across their site Custom Made for Kids, which has the quality design of a site you would expect from a large company, but operates from a Yahoo Store platform. I was taken by the concept and illustrations for their personalized children's storybook, The First Adventures of Incredible You, and decided to find out more about the partners behind this new venture, suspecting the the internet was the key ingredient powering every level of their startup company.

Headrick and Rivera confirm that this is the case:… Read more