Zune HD Video!

Hi. As they say on twitter, I’m “the guy” with a Zune. Well, one of them anyway. Microsoft has recently officially announced the release of a new Zune this Fall. The Zune HD! Some of Features of the new Zune include:

1. a Touch Screen with multi-touch navigation. This is a 3.3-inch screen and has a vivid 16:9 OLED display (480×272 resolution)
2. Integrated HD Radio receiver: Tune into all your favorite stations with crystal-clear reception. Access a variety of HD Radio stations at no additional cost. Plus, tag the songs you like for later purchase.
3. HD Video out:  720p HD movies, TV shows and videos in high definition on your HDTV through the Zune HD & AV Dock (sold separately). Or take them with you for premium entertainment on the go.
4. Built-in Wireless: Connect, update, and buy content wirelessly from Wi-Fi hot spots. Stream millions of songs over Wi-Fi directly to your Zune HD and turn it into a portable digital jukebox.
5. Web Browser: Enjoy your favorite websites with a full-featured web browser including tap-to-zoom technology, built-in accelerometer, and touchscreen QWERTY keyboard.

There are tons of pictures of the new harware over at Gizmodo and there is also a short video demo below.

Zune HD Video Hands On from Gizmodo on Vimeo.

I’m not finding anything on the price point yet but, as soon as I do I will update this entry. It seems very fast and sleek in the video and I’m looking forward to some more demo’s and the release!

More to come!

**EDIT**
According to Paul Thurrott over at the SuperSite the browser for the new Zune HD will be a “Flavor” of IE 6. Check out his latest article on the new Hardware.

Also, I found over at PCWorld, an older Article saying the NEw Zune HD will come in 16 and 32 gig versions. But, that may be subject to change.

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TOMMY: The Campus Review

If you’ll remember , I was contracted to play in “The Band” for the Clarence Brown production of TOMMY. I know, I know… you play Horn. “You’re not a Rocker Robert! ”

Anyway, the production finished up it’s first week and is about to start up its second. (Shows run Wednesday through Sunday for the next two weeks) And, it appears the show has gotten it’s first review. This one comes from the Daily Beacon (The University of Tennessee’s Paper) and it’s not too bad.

Here’s a snip:

…Still, there are few things more boring than a big, fluffy production with no substance. Fortunately, “Tommy” delivers in terms of song and story as well as scope. As much of a star as any of the cast members, a genuinely rocking, professional band ushers the audience along this wacky, psychedelic, yet somehow touching rags-to-riches-to-rags narrative. Although they occasionally rush some of the compositions and don’t exude the rebellious rock personae as much as they’d like to think (ear plugs were unnecessarily given out before the curtain went up), this surrogate Who completed the nearly impossible task of doing justice to the source material (even the drummer succeeded in not massacring the incomparable Keith Moon’s spastic fills)…

Well, let’s see, we rush and aren’t Rocker enough… I take that last part to mean it wasn’t loud enough. I CAN play louder… Ask anyone. If that’s all it takes to “exude the rebellious rock personae” then I’m all there. Of course, I think the sound guy will go into fits. Anyway, not a bad review overall, I think. The show will get better, only 11 more to go! If you’re in town, come see the show. I think you’ll enjoy it!

Click here if you’d like to read the rest of the review from the Daily Beacon.

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Google Chrome: ooh, shiney!

Last night I downloaded and installed Google's new browser, Chrome. I plan on putting it through the ringer today and will, if possible, use it as my primary browser.

My initial impressions are pretty positive. The download is simple and quick. There is a 400ish kilobyte installer that you download and run. That installer then brings down the rest of the browser. All in all download took about a minute or less.(that's saying something as my internet is terribly slow).

When the installer runs it asks to import your settings from you default browser. This it does really well, brings in saved user names and passwords as well as bookmarks.

Like I said, I'll be putting this thing to the test today. It's only beta but looks really good so far. And, I will say that this is probably the quickest rendering browser yet. It really shows off the inadequacies of my internet service.

Go ahead and give Chrome a try for yourself, you can download a copy here: Google Chrome Browser

More coming soon.

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Online Backups: Mozy

I have to say that my initial impression of Mozy Backup was not that great. Besides the abundance of outgoing bandwidth at my server the initial backup was very slow. I was only sending up a little over 1.5 gig of data and, it took the better part of a day to complete. But, now that I think about it more, that was actually a good thing. That way the first backup does not totally consume your outgoing pipe.

Well, no sooner than my initial backup was complete, I needed to restore some data. In the midst of a site update I overwrote the wrong set of files. This gave me a perfect excuse to try the restore feature. And, I will have to say, I was VERY pleased. The restore for this directory of files was very painless. Just open the app, click the files to restore and tell it to overwrite the destination files. And, Boom! The restore took all of 30 secs. Perfect!!!

Mozy saved me and I didn’t even have it running two days yet. So, if you are considering the Mozy service, Do it! Forget about the initial back up, it’s gonna take some time – deal with it, it’s well worth it!

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The Toshiba A305-S6843 Laptop

The Toshiba A305-S6843 Laptop

Recently I decided it was time to replace my laptop. My old Laptop was a Toshiba 4300 series. The laptop came originally installed with Windows 98SE, 800mhz PIII processor, 16 gig hard drive, DVD rom, 128 meg RAM. When I got this laptop originally it was “The stuff” so to speak.
When Windows XP was released I upgraded the OS to Win XP Pro. Over the years, I maxed out the RAM (384meg) and swapped the 16 gig harddrive to an 80gig. And now this machine was “the stuff” again.

Well, after a life of about 7 years the machine was “showing it’s age” So I decided it was time to update. Needless to say I was happy with the Toshiba so I decided to stay in that brand for the new machine.

I needed a laptop with a good fast processor, lots of RAM and Harddrive, Video with it’s own memory, wireless N, DVD, Vista Ultimate, etc.. Basically a laptop that I could really “work” on and wasn’t too heavy. Tall order, I know. But, after a bit of looking I came across the Toshiba A305-S6843 (at BestBuy of all places) and it nearly had everything I was looking for.

This laptop is packed with features.

It boasts:

• Intel Core2Duo T8100 2.1ghz processor, Intel GM965 Chip set
• 4 gig (4096MB) PC5300 DDR2 SDRAM
• Multi Format DVD+/- RW drive with double-layer support (spports Labelflash direct-disc labels)
• 15.4″ WXGA TFT-LCD widescreen display with TruBrite Technology; native support for 720p HD content
• ATI Mobility Radeon – HD 3470 with 256MB
• 400 gig of hard drive space. (2 x 200gig SATA Drives)
• Builtin Webcam and microphone
• Intel a/b/g/n Wireless Wi-Fi Link 56k modem
• built-in harman/kardon Speakers
• s-video output and HDMI connection
• 5-in-1 bridge media adapter supports Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO and xD-Picture Card
• i.Link (IEEE 1394) Interface with 4 high-speed USB 2.0 ports
• Weighs approx 6 lbs. measures 1.5″ thin.
• Vista Home Premium 64bit Edition

The only thing that didn’t pass my requirements was the OS. I really wanted Vista Ultimate but, I can do the “Windows anytime upgrade” for $150ish to upgrade to Ultimate.

Here’s the best part… the thing that really sold me on this machine. It was only $1099.00. In my opinion for the RAM, Processor and Harddrive that was an amazing deal. (Since buying this machine the price has increased to $1249.00. Still a good price I think)

Enough for the specs, here is what I think so far.

Pros:

• Quick booting
• Super fast operating (with 4gig RAM and a T8100 processor, it should be)
• Awesome Display, Movies, text, web all display very well
• Sound… Well, the sound is very clear and loud
• Battery life is decent, on average I get about 3hours or so per charge.
• Doesn’t get very hot during operation. (my last Toshiba would burn your lap after a while)
• Quite operation – even when the fans speed up

Cons:

• Vista Home Premium 64bit – Would have preferred a pre-install of Vista Ultimate 64bit
• The glossy finish on the keyboard gets a little “slick and greasy” feeling
• no COM port.. (I know this is dying out but I need it to connect to some equipment)
• Serial to USB adapter wont work. (no Vista 64bit SIGNED drivers)

Overall this has been a great purchase. Super fast, lots of RAM, powerful and not too heavy.

If you are looking to replace your current laptop then, in my opinion, this would be a viable solution for you (it has been for me). You get lots of “bang for the buck”. I think You could definitely do worse for the money, but not much better.

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