Mike Outmesguine

Stories By Mike Outmesguine

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  Computing

  Computing By Mike Outmesguine

  Netgear @ CES - RangeMax MIMO wireless access point demo

  The Netgear "RangeMax" MIMO pre-802.11n wireless access point was on display in this demo at CES. Using LEDs to show how each antenna looks at signals from different directions, the Multiple-In-Multiple-Out technology configures the seven embedded circuit-board arrays into one of 127 different beam patterns. When a user accesses the AP from different rooms in the house the beam pattern shifts to find the best combination of antennas for that user. Netgear says the access point will have no external antennas and will look a lot like one of their 8-port switches (without all the lights and Ethernet ports) when it's released later this spring.

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  Accessories

  Accessories By Mike Outmesguine

  Memorex TravelDrive M-Flyer: USB flash drives for bosses

  Why do executives get (or need) their own USB drive? Furthermore, why does anything labeled "executive style" usually correllate to it having better style than its normal consumer electronics equivalent? Are they saying executives are more classy than the rest of us? Because the Memorex "executive-style" TravelDrive M-Flyer is encased in very classy stainless steel, and wastes precious little time between golf rounds with transfers up to 25MB per second over USB 2.0. It also includes a push-button retractable USB cable, a flashy lights show when it's plugged in and transferring data, and it stores up to 2GB worth of TPS reports. All this for a scant (well, scant if you're an executive) $250.

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  News

  News By Mike Outmesguine

  SanDisk @ CES - Showing off their new Sansa flash MP3 player

  Along with everything else they announced, SanDisk also showed off their latest flash-memory digital audio player. They're renaming all of their flash players to Sansa—this particular one supports MP3 and WMA, includes an FM radio, and lights up music info on an Indiglo LCD display. Runs on one AAA battery and maxes out on-board storage at 1GB, but includes an SD slot for adding up to 2GB more of removable storage.

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  News

  News By Mike Outmesguine

  RCA @ CES - Lyra flash-based audio players for the athletes among us

  RCA also showed off two new flash-based Lyra MP3 players here at CES. Both are 256 MB flash players with compatiblity for MP3, Audible, and Microsoft's new PlaysForSure program. Aimed at the active lifestylist, the RD2212 is a splash-proof/sweat-proof MP3 player that's about the size of the Rio Carbon and that comes with all sorts of extras for the Ironman/Ironwoman/Ironperson inside of you like a 50-hour battery, a built-in stopwatch, FM tuner/recorder, calorie counter, and heart rate monitor. The RD2312 is a tiny player with a backlit amber screen that automatically inverts the display so others can see what song you're listening to while you're during handstands (or something or other). Click to see a couple more pics.  

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  Accessories

  Accessories By Mike Outmesguine

  GPX @ CES - MP3 headset adds SanDisk TransFlash slot

  The GPX all-in-one MP3 player and headset (which has an available SD card adapter), just announced the addition of a slot for a TransFlash memory card. We usually see TransFlash reserved for cellphones, but the fingernail-sized memory card adds up to 256MB of interchangeable music to the 512MB max of built-in memory.

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  Accessories

  Accessories By Mike Outmesguine

  SanDisk @ CES - SD card with built-in USB adapter

  We got our hands on this sweet new SD/USB card from Sandisk. Yeah, you got that right: it pulls double duty as a normal-looking SD card, but flip it over, pop off the cover, and it slips into any USB port just like that. We're not sure why Sandisk hopes to cannibalize their own USB card reader market by putting everything into one package, but we are definitely, definitely not complaining. Think we can get them to do this with TransFlash or MiniSD? No? Well, click on to see some more pics.

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  Accessories

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  RCA @ CES - Acoustic Research HDTV Digital MediaBridge unplugged

  Calling it the first wireless HDTV receiver (yeah, right guys), Thomson showed off their new Acoustic Research Digital MediaBridge. This $300 set-top box has built-in 802.11g WiFi and Ethernet, supports audio, hi-def video, and MP3, WMA, WAV, MPEG2/4, XviD, and WMV9 served from up to 3 computers in a home network. Coming next month, the $300 bridge is compatible with CinemaNow HDTV downloadable movies. Now if they can just figure out how to do it without adding a computer into the mix (but that wouldn't be a media bridge/adapter, now would it?).

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  News

  News By Mike Outmesguine

  RCA @ CES - Lyra Mini Photo MP3 player

  RCA is aiming to offload the "average" household's store of 600 digital pictures (we've been known to shoot that many before lunch) with the Lyra Mini Photo, their new MP3 player which sports a 5GB hard drive and a 1.5-inch color LCD screen for annoying your friends with slideshows. Products like this shiny new 5GB hard disk MP3 player fit into that plan. At $270 this one actually costs more than the iPod mini, in case you were wondering.

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  News

  News By Mike Outmesguine

  RCA Lyra Audio Video Jukebox gets an upgrade

  The second generation of RCA's Lyra personal video player gets a few changes. It's a little slimmer and smaller, but will still house a 20GB drive along with a CompactFlash slot as well as be able to record video directly in. Big upgrades are a programmable timer and built-in tiny speaker. The Lyra Audio Video Jukebox doesn't have any magic bullet against recording video that's protected by Macrovision, and won't record if it finds you are playing a DVD, videotape or some of the satellite broadcasts that contain this annoying signal. Click for more pictures of a well-handled mock-up we saw here.

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  Reviews

  Reviews By Mike Outmesguine

  Xeni Jardin Reviews the BMW iPod on NPR

  The ultra-connected Xeni Jardin gets behind the wheel(s) of a BMW 3-Series coupe with an iPod sitting in the glovebox, controlled through the steering wheel, and displayed (sort of) on the radio while cranking out bluegrass (mmm.. bluegrass) and funkadelic roller disco. She talks about it on the NPR radio show, Day-to-Day and, on BoingBoing, writes, "So, bottom line: super-fly car, and a fun first edition of a system that needs a few finishing touches to live up to feature demands of discriminating geeks." Great look at the car from an in-touch, techy point of view!

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  Smartphones

  Smartphones By Mike Outmesguine

  Internet Access Using Mac OSX, Bluetooth, a Cellphone, and ATT Wireless

  Mike Chambers posted a How-To of the steps necessary to connect to the internet from OS X via the Motorola v600, ATT Wireless and Bluetooth. This is a non-trivial set of procedures but Mike breaks it down step-by-step. I performed the same task for a Windows XP laptop to a SonyEricsson T610 using T-Mobile and Bluetooth but I wasn't brave enough to sort out how I got it all working! Thanks Mike!

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