Archive for May, 2004
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Monday, May 31st, 2004
World’s Fastest Flash Memory Card
Pretec is demonstrating the world’s first MMC 4.0 flash memory card with Read speed about 150X (22.5MB/s) and Write speed greater than 120X (18MB/s), which is the highest speed small form factor flash memory card in the world today. This card is compatible with most SD devices and is about 200% faster than the fastest SD card available in the market and about 800% faster than the Pretec MMC (V3.2) 1GB, which is the fastest and highest capacity in the market today. No pricing or availability on this yet… but just a heads up on what’s happening in the flash memory world.
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Friday, May 28th, 2004
DIY iPod Battery Replacement
I own two iPods, the first generation 5gb and the third generation 30gb model. I’m starting to notice battery life on my 5gb model go, but there is no need to worry because www.ipodbattery.com offers battery replacements for all iPods, even the new iPod Mini. If you’re not having battery problems, it’s still cool to check out their installation photos so you can see how tighly the iPod components are packed… I didn’t know Apple was using 4gb IBM Compact Flash Microdrives! Learn something new everyday…- First/Second Gen iPod
- Third/Fourth Gen iPod
- Ipod Mini
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Friday, May 28th, 2004
Upgrade The DACs In Your 49TXi or 59TXi Receiver
I love hacking my gadgets to make them better than what the manufacturer intended and Alex Hardware shares the same view. They have posted a “how-to” on updating your DACs (Digital to Analog Converter) in either the Pioneer 49TXi or 59TXi flagship receiver to ones that are used in much higher quality equipment. The 59TXi is my personal favorite all-in-one receiver and with this mod it really makes it sing. The mod parts cost about $190 (from Digikey) or you can have them do all 8 channels for $495 (parts and labor). It will void your warranty so you might want to wait 3 years or get a DAC 10 ASSY board (AWK7725 part number for 49TXi and AWK7773 for 59TXi) from Pioneer Parts (about $300) and then you can swap it back in if anything happens.
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Thursday, May 27th, 2004
McIntosh MX135 A/V Control Center
Some people love the looks, others hate them… I’ve always loved McIntosh Labs products. The company has been around for over 54 years and they introduced their latest A/V Control Center this month. The MX135 is their fourth-generation dual zone, preamp/processor taking home theater processing to a new level. Five sets of component video inputs, composite and S-Video upconversion together with two pairs of balanced stereo inputs, eight channel balanced outputs, twelve analog inputs, eleven S-Video inputs. The MX135 utilizes the new state-of-the-art Texas Instruments ‘Aureus’ digital processing chip that is capable of 1200 million floating point operations per second. It also includes a full-featured two-channel pre amp with pure analog function including a phono preamp section. Leading the impressive list of featured technologies that the MX135 incorporates are Dolby ProLogic II, Dolby Digital, DTS, Neo:6 and Stereo 96 that improve the surround imaging and decoding. Pure analog modes such as Two Channel, External, and Pure Stereo are also featured. No THX certification here… who needs it when these guys over engineer all their products with the highest standards. An additional input is provided for the optional TM-1 phase-locked loop AM/FM tuner module. The MX135 is a 2-zone processor with both zones controllable from the front panel or with remote sensors/keypads and comes complete with an event based learning remote control. The MX135 is shipping now at a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $7,600.
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Thursday, May 27th, 2004
Shake, Rattle, and Roll… Part II.
A few months back I got a chance to demo the Odyssee by D-Box (Click here to read that entry). It looks like they aren’t the only company wanting to be the first to revolutionize the home theater market by adding tactile feedback to the mix. Quente Cafe has a press release from Crowson, a home theater product company, about a new tactile system for your home theater. The press release doesn’t talk about the technology behind the TES100 (Tactile Effects System) in full detail, except that “now you can see, hear and FEEL the gut-wrenching punch of a fiery explosion, the bone-jarring crack of a gunshot, the deep, rhythmic vibrations of a powerful muscle car, or the warm, soothing resonance of a cello…”. I think they are using high quality tactile transducers embedded in the chairs instead of actual acuators like the D-Box system. They are sweet looking chairs, like the one pictured with built in joysticks, but I still prefer D-Box technology over transducers any day! [Thanks Ajit M.!]
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Thursday, May 27th, 2004
Pinnacle Showcenter PVR
The Pinnacle ShowCenter is a digital media receiver that connects to wireless and wired home local area networks and enables streaming of multimedia files from any PC on the network to a television or home entertainment system connected to ShowCenter. Using the ShowCenter remote control, you can easily find and play your digital audio, video and photos stored on the PC. Today, Pinnacle Systems has announced the latest version, ShowCenter 1.5. The new version adds personal video recorder, Internet radio and enhanced usability features. ShowCenter 1.5 is expected to be available in June 2004.
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Wednesday, May 26th, 2004
34″ HD Color Inorganic EL Display Prototype
A few days ago I posted about LCD screens reaching sizes comparable with Plasma technologies. Today, iFire Technology demonstrated a high-definition 34-inch prototype display to an audience of flat panel scientists and industry peers at the annual Society for Information Display conference held here in Seattle. The 34-inch color display is the largest flat panel ever produced using inorganic electroluminescent technology. Based on iFire’s proprietary thick-film dielectric electroluminescent technology, the 34-inch prototype is also the first native high definition display of its kind. With a format of 1280 x 768 pixels, the display is capable of handling both 720p video and XGA-class computer data. The exciting thing about this is that the 34-inch iFire display was fabricated using low-cost processes that are expected to be directly transferred to commercial production. iFire expects its displays to have a significant manufacturing cost advantage over other flat panel technologies. iFire commissioned an independent study to compare its manufacturing model against both LCD and PDP, in a generation 6 manufacturing environment. The study, conducted by Industrial Design and Construction indicated that iFire could have an estimated 30 to 50% advantage in both capital and module costs. Which means that this may be the technology that gets 30+” flat panel displays in our home for less than $2k! iFire plans to begin pilot production of 34-inch HDTV display modules in 2005. The company also has a non-exclusive technology collaboration agreement with Sanyo Electric Co. of Japan, which includes development work on 34-inch panels.
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Wednesday, May 26th, 2004
LidRock CDs Coming To BLIMPIE
Just a heads up for all you LidRock CD collectors out there… BLIMPIE is going to be launching their huge “Super Summer” Promotion on May 28th and will be offering three separate custom LidRock Audio/Interactive CDs — one for each of the three months of the promotion. Each collectable CD comes packaged in the plastic beverage lid of a 32 oz. drink and will feature music from a headline artist with additional songs from other current, popular musicians as well as interactive content including music videos, artist bios, concert dates, sneak previews of other BLIMPIE “Super Summer” LidRock CDs and a special BLIMPIE printable coupon offer. Which artists will they be offering you ask… Alanis Morissette, LeAnn Rimes, Ben Jelen, Tyler Hilton, Amy Dalley and Rodney Atkins. LidRock CDs will be available for $1.00 for customers who purchase a 32 oz. beverage or for $1.49 without beverage purchase. So there you go, I try to post something for everyone… even the LidRock collectors of the world.
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Wednesday, May 26th, 2004
NFL Team Using USB Dongle To Protect Data
With everything moving to a digital world, you need a way to protect documents and systems from unauthorized access. The Chicago Bears are doing just that. They chose the Aladdin eToken authentication key to protect its highly sensitive electronic play books, player contracts and scouting information. The Bears are the first NFL team to use this type of authentication technology as a strong defense against unauthorized access to proprietary information. This is basically the same type of USB “dongle” software manufactures like AVID include with their systems to thwart piracy.
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Wednesday, May 26th, 2004
Jetsgo to Offer In-Flight Entertainment
I don’t know what all the excitement about in-flight entertainment is… I always travel with a portable device like a laptop or mp3 player and soon a Portable Media Player. Anyways, Jetsgo is offering an in-flight personal entertainment product to Canadian air travelers. The digEplayer is the world’s first completely self-contained, portable video on demand entertainment unit preprogrammed with over 20 movies, as well as television shows, cartoons, videos and music choices. Forty digEplayers will be available on each plane (on their MD-83s and Fokker 100s) and they will be in service in July. On the technical side, these digEplayer VOD units are about the same weight and size of a typical portable DVD player and contain a 40gb hard drive and utilize the latest technology licensed from e.Digital Corp, DivX, and DRM. I wonder if people are going to try to “extract” these off the plane?
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.
