Technology for Mortals

Note: Just trying out the video review format for the first time using my Canon Kiss X4 (Rebel T2i or 550D).  Maintaining focus and handling the product and talking at the same time presents its challenges, but I hope I can get used to it.  The depth of field is very shallow but at least you can see everything clearly with the exception of the darkened on/off switch.  I’m not sure if there’s any benefit to using 1080P for this video, but at least it makes the 360P and 480P and 720P version look very clean due to down sampling.

This is the iPazzPort bluetooth keyboard and trackpad. The name sounds funny where I can visualize a picture of a fat cat sitting on the couch with the caption “I can haz remote controlz?” But jokes about the name aside, this seems like a very viable product.

At $42 shipped from China (or $50 at buy.com), it’s the lowest price that I know of for a mini bluetooth keyboard/trackpad. Lenovo has something for $60 and Logitech has the DiNovo for $150.

The keyboard has a backlight for darker rooms and the keys offer some good tactile feedback while the trackpad and scrollbar work smoothly and accurately. It’s also a thin device with average build quality that feels pretty good in the hands overall.

BlueTooth paring was simple and you didn’t need any special drivers. Just push the button at the bottom and scan for it in the Windows BlueTooth user interface, then key in the pairing key and hit enter on the keyboard. The wireless range works well beyond 30 feet so it should work in any size living room.

The bottom part of this chassis feels slightly loose and the on/off button doesn’t glide on and off easily, but I’ve just left it in the permanent on position since the device goes to sleep on its own to conserve battery life. It has a lithium ion battery that recharges via the USB port, but I don’t know how long the charge lasts when I don’t bother turning the thing off. I’ll post an update on battery life days or weeks later when I need to recharge this thing.

Overall, this is a good form factor device that works well. If you need to control an home theater PC in the living room, I don’t think there is a more affordable option than the iPazzPort.

If the bad news about all the new critical iPhone and Mac OS X vulnerabilities announced at BlackHat 2009 weren’t bad enough, there now appears to be a new vulnerability in Apple’s hardware.  This type of a hack h0wever isn’t something where you can go into an Apple store and have an Apple “genius” exorcise because once the Apple keyboard is infected and locked; there is no practical way of undoing the damage.

Read the rest and see my video interview with the researcher at DigitalSociety.org

I have been battling arm/wrist/hand injuries for a while. Last summer, when I really got into weightlifting, I had some tendonitis. After that healed, I had some real wrist issues in November, aggravated by heavy lifting. I know that the computer is at the root of these problems, and the weights just bring them to the surface. At the recommendation of a friend, I ordered one of the Evoluent vertical mice. I have been using it all day, and so far, I love it! If you are looking to reduce pain or fatigue in your mousing arm, definitely give this a try.

The basic idea, is that your arm’s natural position is flat at your sides. Put into a mousing position, your hand would be in a “handshake” position. Rotating your arm 90 degrees to lie flat on the desk puts stress on the joints, tendons, and ligaments. A “vertical mouse” is designed to allow your arm to remain in the “handshake” position.

My biggest fear with the Evoluent, is that I would lose the high quality and sensitivity of the Logitech MX 518 that I had been using. I was plesantly surprised on this score. The Evoluent has a button on the bottom allowing me to adjust it from 800 DPI to 2600 DPI, which is a broader range than the MX 518. As a bonus, it retains its setting even after losing power, which means that I do not need to reset it after switching between PCs on my KVM. This was a major anoyance on the MX 518; I trained myself to automatically bump up the DPI after switching PCs. Unfortunately, unlike the MX 518, adjusting DPI involves turning the mouse over (and using trial-and-error to find the DPI setting best suited for the task at hand), which is less convenient that pushing buttons near the scroll wheel like on the MX 518.

Another fear I had, was dragging my little finger all over the mouse pad. The mouse is well designed, and my finger does not rub at all. Also, with the high DPI setting, I barely need to move my hand, which helps. The Evoluent has a nice, solid feel to it, but it is not heavy, either. The material feels great in my hand, and retains heat well, so it doesn’t feel like grabbing a cold stone like some mice do.

Now, for the things that I don’t like. I do not like the sensitivity of the buttons. Well, I should say, I love how senstive they are, but because of the design, when I grab the mouse, I tend to accidentally click a button. Also, I tend to do a click when I started a movement to the left. I know that this will take some time to get used to, and I am not too worried about it. Also, if it is important to you (and it is not to me), the mouse is aesthetically unpleasing. Finally, I am not a big fan of the third mouse button in general, especially when it is used as a “back” button, as it the case here… that causes me pain when it is accidentally clicked!

Overall, I know that the things I do not like about the Evoluent are mostly “learning curve” items that won’t bother me in a week. Again, if you have problems with yours hands, wrists, carpal tunnel, etc., give this one a try. For me, taking care of my arm is critical, so I am glad that I got this mouse. I snagged it for roughly $35 after shipping, as a Newegg open box, but they retail for around $50.

J.Ja

Finally I’ve found the one headset I’ve been looking for that can serve as a PC headset and a handset/mobile phone headset.  I was pleasantly surprised by the Plantronics MX500i 3-in-1 VoIP Headset.  I figure at an MSRP retail price of $60, it had to be good but it was even better than I though.  You can actually get it for $38 including shipping.

The MX500i 3-in-1 is a product that has both a 2.5″ headphone plug that plugs in to most regular cordless telephones and a USB adapter that plugs in to any computer.  I’m happy to report that both operating modes worked superbly and the ear design works well and isn’t unwieldy.

I’ve had plenty of disappointments with USB or BlueTooth headsets which almost always seem to be limited to narrowband applications because they would only support 8 KHz digital sampling.  The Polycom Communicato C100S continues to be my favorite USB speaker phone solution ($100) can support 22 KHz digital sampling and it supports wideband applications such as Skype or Counterpath‘s software-based SIP phones which support G.722 wideband codec (see this article on an explanation of wideband codecs).

Hoping the Plantronics MX500i would at least match the Polycom’s capability, I was pleasantly surprised that it even supports up to 48 KHz digital sampling.  In fact it was louder and clearer than the Polycom Communicator speakerphone and I would dare say that it sounds about as clean as a studio microphone though it’s probably a little more constrained in dynamic range to filter out noise.  Here is an uncompressed WAV sample I recorded for you to check the quality.

If I had to give it one criticism, I would say that the USB adapter and headset along with all the cabling combined is a little harder to tidy up and travel with than the Polycom Communicator which tucks everything in to a neat little package.  Then again, the Communicator costs more than double the money and its sound quality while the best for a USB speakerphone can’t compare to this high quality headset.

So in conclusion, I would say this is an affordable solution that sounds even better than the Polycom Communicator though the Communicator is still useful for hands-free and ear-free operation.  If you’re looking for something in the $40 range or you’re looking for the best call quality, the Plantronics MX500i is for you.