Reviews

Samsung's brand spanking new HT-BD2 home theater in a box put me through some changes. It's the world's first Blu-ray HTIB, so sure, it's got picture quality to die for, and even boasts state of the art Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master Audio surround 7.1 channel processing. The HT-BD2 also looks pretty hot, the Blu-ray player/A/V receiver's curvaceous, high gloss style is drop-dead gorgeous, and the super-model thin tower speakers and chunky subwoofer are likewise designed for eye appeal.

But just that, the HT-BD2's sonic splendors are in short supply, or … Read more

The mass-market audio business is scared to death of iPods. Sales of $500 speakers are shaky, A/V receivers aren't exactly flying off the shelves, and nobody's getting rich selling $59 DVD players. Prices of flat screen TVs are still falling, and so are the profits. Meanwhile overhead and other costs go up every year.

The mainstream business model is faltering, but the two channel, high-end market is holding its own, thank you very much. THE hot speaker at the moment is Magico's Mini II ($29,600 per pair including floorstands). I was more than a little … Read more

As usual, there were many specific rumors about what Steve Jobs would be announcing at MacWorld Expo this week. Several were reasonably credible, but Apple runs a tight ship; there's really no way to be sure what will come out at any given show.

At the beginning of the year, based on the better rumors and some discounting of existing Mac products, I was pretty sure we'd see four things: new Mac Pro workstations, a refresh of the MacBook Pro line with Blu-ray optical drives and Intel 45nm processors, minor improvements for the iPhone, and a new subnotebook.… Read more

After my previous posting about the free Starter Edition of Spyware Doctor version 5, someone claiming to be a spokesperson for the vendor, PC Tools, left a long rebuttal comment. I can't verify that the writer, claiming to be Marketing Communications Manager Magida Ezzat, actually works for PC Tools because they never contacted me directly. What follows is my rebuttal to the rebuttal. Think debate team.

No Network Drives For You

OK. But having every scan of a network drive report that all is well is misleading since no scanning was done. If the product won't scan a … Read more

I've written here before about emergency locators, those gizmos that can help rescuers find you if you become lost in the wilderness.

The tragic death of CNET's own James Kim and the disappearances of Microsoft's Jim Gray and famed adventurer Steve Fossett have convinced me that anyone who travels outside populated areas ought to carry one of these devices.

Following that earlier post, I was contacted by SPOT Inc., makers of the SPOT Satellite Messenger, which began shipping through major outdoor retailers this fall. They offered me a SPOT messenger for review, and I happily accepted. It … Read more

Although it has it's annoyances, in general, I like NOD32 antivirus vesion 2, from ESET. But a new version was recently released and new software scares me. As I wrote about in November, I hold this truth to be self-evident:

All new software contains bugs and design mistakes.

I recently worked on a Windows XP computer whose copy of NOD32 version 2 had expired the day before. If it's possible to renew a copy of NOD32 v2, then finding out how eluded me. After clicking around everywhere in the user interface, and not being able to learn anything … Read more

It's like the difference in taste between a tomato you grew in your backyard or one of those plastic things at the supermarket, or frozen pizza vs. a slice fresh out of the oven in Little Italy. We're talking big differences here. And those are the sort of sensual pleasures high-end audio delivers compared to iPods and ear buds. Sure, the little buggers sound good enough, but if you really love music, don't you want to hear your tunes sound as good as they can?

I'm sitting here listening to the late British singer/songwriter Nick … Read more

Spyware Doctor is a popular commercial anti-spyware program. The product's home page is littered with accolades, though a few are for version 3.8, and others are for version 4, whereas the current version is 5. The CNET review at download.com gave it 3 stars (out of 5)* and 2,362 people at download.com rated it the same 3 stars.

PC Tools sells the full version for (approximately) $30 for one computer, $50 for two and up. That you can get a mostly functional version of the software for free, may have passed under your personal radar. … Read more

I'm a little late to the party with this unboxing of my new OLPC XO-1 laptop, but the machine arrived while I was out of town visiting my family for Christmas. In fact, there's a story there.

Before I left, I started hearing that people were receiving their XO-1's, and I realized that if mine didn't show up before I left, it would almost certainly arrive while I was gone. The OLPC people sent out no shipment notifications and didn't reply to several emails, so I had no way to delay the shipment or contact … Read more