Archive for April, 2004
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Tuesday, April 27th, 2004
McDonald’s ESPN25 Happy Meal Games
Between April 30, 2004 – May 27, 2004, at participating restaurants, while supplies last, McDonald’s will be offering six ESPN25 inspired mini-handheld sports action video games. McDonald’s will offer games in each Happy Meal and Mighty Kids Meal featuring basketball great Vince Carter, soccer star Mia Hamm, skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, car racing champion Tony Stewart, football star Michael Vick, and tennis champions Serena and Venus Williams. If someone gets one or six, please post your comments.
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Tuesday, April 27th, 2004
Polaroid Photo Bracelet
Just when I thought Polaroid was done, they come out with something that might just be a hit with teenager girls. Now they can use the Polaroid izone camera system to create beaded photo bracelets. I’m not going any further with this one… so if you want more info, Google it.
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Tuesday, April 27th, 2004
EVAC-U8
I stumbled across a product by DU PONT that everyone should own, especially in these crazy times. It’s called EVAC-U8, this device is a personal emergancy escape smoke hood which can provide 15 minutes of breathable air and eye protection. Don’t expect these to become a new fashion trend (they look a little scary), but they are small enough to have in your desk at work or at home. They cost about $75 and can only be used once.
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Tuesday, April 27th, 2004
A Less Paper Office
Do you ever sit there and wonder why we still have tons of paper in our filing cabinets at home? Invoices, statements, receipts, manuals… the list goes on and on. None of these are easily accessible or searchable, even if you have everything filed under the appropriate subjects. A good friend of mine has been on a mission to give his traditional filing system an extreme makeover. He bought a new scanner and has been scanning all his documents into searchable PDFs. To read up on his adventures in OCR and scanning, check out Reece’s Blog.
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Monday, April 26th, 2004
Parasound Halo C1
If I were going to design an A/V Processor it would probably look something like the Parasound Halo C1. It is THX Ultra2-certified and that can also be software upgradeable (supports Dolby Pro-LogicIIx via a firmware update). I love the little 5″ front panel TFT display which can display the main or zone video and the setup menu, great if you locate your components away from your main display. The Halo C1 has a load of input and outputs which will motivate you to buy more devices to plug into it. The use of BNC connectors for the component inputs and outputs is nice to see, that way you can use your true 75ohm cables. The C1 isn’t perfect, it doesn’t have any 1394 IEEE, HDMI or DVI inputs or outputs, but don’t let that stop you from checking out this beautiful unit. It will set you back about six grand but it does come with an unprecedented 10 years parts, 5 years labor warranty which should give you carefree use for many years.
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Monday, April 26th, 2004
Treat Your Mom Like A Star, Get Her A TiVo!
It really bugs me when people call their DVR a TiVo when it’s really not. In a recent article over at Wired, they discuss this exact issue. Now Tivo is trying to get your mom to use the real TiVo by using Sex And The City Star, Sarah Jessica Parker and The Practice’s Camryn Manheim. They both agree that TiVo has make their lives easier. Your mom does deserve the real thing… so treat her like a star and get her a TiVo!
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Monday, April 26th, 2004
Comcast to Trial HD DVR Using Digeo Moxi
I was wondering when we were going to start seeing Digeo’s Moxi Media Center in the mass market. Today, Comcast and Digeo announced a planned commercial trial of Motorola Broadband Media Centers (BMC) with Moxi. Deployment of approximately 40,000 integrated dual-tuner DVR and HDTV is slated to begin later this year. The Motorola BMC with Moxi platform will offer a high-definition DVR that provides a unique user interface and is designed specifically to support cable’s
expanding menu of content and services. It sports a powerful processor,
internal hard drive, and built-in cable modem allowing the Moxi Menu viewers instant access to current and future program listings whether they originate from live broadcasts, on-demand programming or their own DVR recordings. Comcast Digital Cable might just have a new customer…
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Monday, April 26th, 2004
Sony Ships First 23GB Blue Laser Media
Well, Sony has done it once again… they have released yet another format for us to adopt. Today, Sony Electronics has started shipping Professional Disc for DATA(TM) media that uses blue lasers instead of standard red lasers to write more data onto a disc. This release is aimed at the professional industry first… featuring a huge 23.3GB storage capacity per single-sided disc, Professional Disc for DATA media provides enough storage for data such as medical imaging, broadcast, audio/video editing, graphic design and enterprise content management. The new format will be available in both write-once and rewritable versions with reading speeds of about 11MB/second and 9MB/second write speeds. The discs retail for $45 each.
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Sunday, April 25th, 2004
LoJack Leads To Bust
I wonder what the results would have been like if my friend had the LoJack system installed in his 1965 refurbished Mustang when it was stolen, found four days later after being taken for a joyride, crashed into a rock, shot at, and then exploded. This happened almost 10 years ago when there was no LoJack systems available. This morning I was reading our local news and saw that the LoJack system helped catch an illegal chop shop in Tacoma, WA. The Lojack system works by you first reporting your car is missing and then the Police systems pick up the silent radio signal emitting from your car. The amazing part is that LoJack says over 90% of cars equipped with LoJack are recovered… they didn’t say what shape though. [ via KOMO NEWS]
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Friday, April 23rd, 2004
AT&T Wireless Self-Destructs
CIO.com has a great story on how and why AT&T Wireless is falling apart. Being a former AT&T Wireless customer for over 10 years, a couple months ago I decided to end my contract because of the long wait times, poor customer service, and terrible GSM coverage in my area. If you were or still are an AT&T Wireless customer, you need to read this article. It made feel sorry for AT&T Wireless.[Direct Link To CIO AT&T Wireless Self-Destructs Story]
[Thanks Peter!]
About the archives
Welcome to the archives here at MAVROMATIC.
These are a collection of our previous posts. If you'd like to read about the latest and greatest, click here.
Welcome to mavromatic! My goal is to bring to your attention the latest DIY projects, the greatest home automation and home theater products. As well as, the occasional offbeat entry, to spice things up a bit.
