Topic: Best New Toy Nominations for 2002 (Read 2959 times)

JimH · « **on:** December 29, 2002, 02:22:47 pm »

I got a 200GB Western Digital drive last week. Fluid bearings and 7200RPM, the package said. It's quiet.

My little PDA is nice. It's a Sony NR70/V. It has a tiny camera that takes tiny pictures and it plays MP3 files from a memory stick. It has a screen that opens like a cell phone and then swivels to lie flat against the device. It's a little big for the pocket but it's a nice way to move information from home to work and back.

I like my wireless LAN. Thanks to Linksys for the Access Points. It's 11mb/second and now there's a faster standard, but it changed my life a little.

I love my Sony camera. It's a DSC-P9. 4.0 megapixels.

Sony has done an amazing job of integrating devices. Memory sticks bridge a lot of them. 128MB for $89 now. That's a big change. Put one in a camera, take 100 pictures, pull it out, load the pictures onto a notebook PC, start up MC, watch a slideshow of today's pictures. Even better in a cafe.

TiVo has also changed the way I watch stuff. It's a big improvement.

I sold some of my old toys this year. A 100-CD changer. A DVD player. A cartridge CD player.

Next year maybe Blue Tooth will clear my desk of the rat's nest of wires.

Any other nominations?

KingSparta · « **Reply #1 on:** December 29, 2002, 02:51:44 pm »

>> I got a 200GB Western Digital drive last week.
Internal? did you need to install Software Bios?

Toys:

1. New 1.8ghz Computer (Junk I think)

I can't wait to give this computer on my wife, (Intel Video On Mother Board Sucks). don't handle good games well. other than that it's fine.

2. Short Wave Radio $159.00 Grundig YB400PE (I like It)
3. 15 Inch TV\VCR (Next To My Monitor)
4. Return To Castle Wolfnstein (Game\Good)
5. MS Combat Flight Simulator 3 (Game\Good)
6. Unreal Tournament 2003 (Game\Good)
7. Medal Of Honor (Game\Good)
8. Visual Basic .Net (Jury Still Out)
9. Norton System Works 2003 (Seems To Work Well)

Wife Said something last weekend about getting A Tivo, I have been thinking about it for sometime, but did not like the limited amount of hours it recorded (Needs a larger hard drive). the new one is 80 hrs and that sounds ok (thats at low quality) so i am sure it's around 30 hours for good quality and that where I would set it.

JimH · « **Reply #2 on:** December 29, 2002, 03:10:35 pm »

Quote

I got a 200GB Western Digital drive last week.
Internal? did you need to install Software Bios?

Internal IDE. It comes with an Ultra 100 controller and that's how it's hooked up.

It took me two days to get it to believe it was more than 90GB. My mistake turned out to be letting the WD software copy my 80GB drive over to the new drive. It recommended FAT32 and I accepted. Two days later, I understood why NTFS was the correct answer.

I wish I were as much smarter now as I am older.

retrospek · « **Reply #3 on:** December 29, 2002, 06:11:15 pm »

My vote (from a UK perspective) is my TIVO. I don't know what I would do without this thing - it really has changed my viewing habits ...

I just wish they would market the product better in the UK as most people don't even know it exists over here.

Some other nominations are:

- My T68i Sony Ericsson Phone
- My Bluetooth Headset
- My BMW

I'm sure I have more - but once I've opened them I get bored within a week and move on

Mark

Uwe · « **Reply #4 on:** December 29, 2002, 11:05:37 pm »

This year i got "my" MC/MJ. It helps me ripping all my music. Two weeks later i sold my Sony 200 CD-Jukebox. For that money i got my Archos Jukebox 20 Recorder. From that time i can hear all my music everywhere and everytime.

Uwe

TimB · « **Reply #5 on:** December 30, 2002, 03:09:58 am »

Ah toys:

iPod
TiVo
Laptop
802.11b

All lifechanging.

-=Tim=-

John Gateley · « **Reply #6 on:** December 30, 2002, 08:37:16 am »

GPS with mapping software. Just enter an address and it tells me where to go.
I also keep motorcycle routes on it, and boring old camping.

j

zevele10 · « **Reply #7 on:** December 30, 2002, 10:11:15 am »

what is TiVo?

i did not buy toys this year.
Only yesterday an AMD Athlon XP 2000+ AT/AT and a Soltex mainboard.
Think about to plung 2 monitors.
But MC needs to give us better visu based on art sleeve to justifie to do it
DVD writter and Soundblast external sound card for a very near future
I may spend big on Blue Tooth ,cause i cannot stand all this wires

On the software front;
MC9 of cause-i mean it-and my Yahoo Mail plus are the 2 things i like the most.As the tager software i bought last month

RemyJ · « **Reply #8 on:** December 30, 2002, 10:20:42 am »

I'm with ya on the GPS, John. I've got my Garmin mounted on my handlebars loaded with maps. Saturday I caught myself watching the moving map instead of the road though. Not good on Colorado back roads in the winter.

802.11b is up there as well. In fact, I'm consulting to a startup company planning a national wireless internet access platform so I'm playing with all kinds of cool stuff.

The best though: my new Genovation programmable keypads. I spend a lot of time in my home office so I've got a 15" TV, DSS and DVD in the room not to mention MC on one of the PCs and I was always losing the stupid remote (for some reason I was always carrying it to other parts of the house and leaving it there). The keypads are fully programmable, have nice standard keyboard type keys, can be labelled and plug in to the keyboard port (which makes it hard to walk away with!). Combined with Girder and a Slink-e, it works great!

A second runner-up is a KVM switch and extension cables. It allowed me to put my noisy file server in the bathroom closet.

JNKH · « **Reply #9 on:** December 30, 2002, 11:42:23 am »

My Nomination goes to

a) Affordable Wireless LAN for the entire home- can work anywhere, enjoy listening to my jukebox anywhere and access broadband internet

b) Apple iPOD. Very nice, charming, and useful as a portable jukebox

c) USB 2.0- much faster interface (although firewire is still more outstanding. USB 2.0 may eventually be cheaper)

d) I second the Sony-Ericsson T68i with bluetooth. Amazing product and this would be my Product of the year choice. I'm waiting for the new Sony-Ericsson P800

e) PlexWriter CDRWs (40/12/40A) which is cheap, reliable, and very useful for Media Center.

f) Digital Camera choice would be the Fujiflim Finepix 601. A very outstanding camera. (6MB, 3x Optical Zoom, Compact in size)

retrospek · « **Reply #10 on:** December 30, 2002, 12:14:24 pm »

I'm also waiting for the P800. I've registered with some web sites but they are all waiting for stock.

It sounds like a great little device..

Mastiff · « **Reply #11 on:** December 30, 2002, 12:14:48 pm »

My vote goes to my Fujitsu-Siemens PocketLoox PPC2002, with Wlan and the Ericsson T39M. A full communications suite, at home or on the road. And then of course NetRemote and MC9 multi-zone!

KingSparta · « **Reply #12 on:** December 30, 2002, 02:54:09 pm »

GATELEY

> GPS with mapping software. Just enter an
> address and it tells me where to go.
You did not need to spend all that money. if you needed somone to tell you where to go you should have let me know.

I am good at it, Ask my wife

John Gateley · « **Reply #13 on:** December 31, 2002, 05:27:43 am »

Wow, I caught a big one!

j

Doof · « **Reply #14 on:** December 31, 2002, 06:00:26 am »

My gift to myself this year : Cave Diving training and the craploads of additional gear (toys!!!) that goes along with it. I just ordered a pair of Apeks ATX-200's (regulators) and I'm eagerly awaiting their arrival.

Other than that... well... the HeadBlade I got from my girlfriend is pretty cool, although I haven't gotten around to trying it out yet.

And the gift certificates to the local dive shop are always a plus.

I've had TiVo for a long time now. Going on two years, almost.

And when I get back from Florida, I'm planning on picking up two Maxtor 200GB ATA/133 drives to throw in my system as a RAID 1 array (mirrored) so I won't have to worry about losing all my music and video again.

NoCodeUK · « **Reply #15 on:** December 31, 2002, 08:21:18 am »

Hey All!! Happy New Year!

Just got a 120GB HD which I am gonna use for my music. What is the best way to set this up in XP so it recognises it as the MY Music folder? Have tried changing it with tweak xp but it keeps reverting back to the previous location which I cannot delete. There are some files in there which are 0 bytes but refuse to be removed meaning I cannot delete the old my music folder competely?? Any Ideas??

Cheers as always,

Adam

Doof · « **Reply #16 on:** December 31, 2002, 08:55:16 am »

What I've done is to right click on My Documents (in the start menu) and choose Properties. And then point that folder to the new drive. Of course, that will move over your entire My Documents folder along with My Music, but that's really not such a bad thing. At least then, all your data will be on a seperate drive from XP, so if you ever want to format your system, you can do so without worrying about copying all your data elsewhere first.

phelt · « **Reply #17 on:** December 31, 2002, 04:47:42 pm »

NoCodeUK:
You could try XTEQ. It's free. It kicks the crap out of all other Windows tweak utils that I've tried. It warns you if a certain function might have negative repercussions. It's scary cool

phelt · « **Reply #18 on:** December 31, 2002, 04:56:08 pm »

I got one of the Maxtor 250 Gig external HD's, with Firewire and USB2 connections. It has a button on the case - you press the button and the backup utility runs. I don't use it because I have other backup strategies, but it has reduced calls from family and friends about their data. That's a good thing.

I agree that TiVo changes perspective, but I can't help wondering why it's so slow. Once my Radeon 9700 Pro All-In-Wonder gets here, and MC9 gets channel data, maybe I won't have to think about it any more

Harry The Hipster · « **Reply #19 on:** December 31, 2002, 08:56:26 pm »

Tivo hands down. Changes everything in yr viewing habits. Re-engineered units with expanded hard drive capacity available at eBay and elsewhere. Haven't seen any units with expanded memory, which would be even more useful:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=11725&item=1948258880

HTH

JNKH · « **Reply #20 on:** January 01, 2003, 12:22:26 pm »

Quote

Just got a 120GB HD which I am gonna use for my music. What is the best way to set this up in XP so it recognises it as the MY Music folder? Have tried changing it with tweak xp but it keeps reverting back to the previous location which I cannot delete. There are some files in there which are 0 bytes but refuse to be removed meaning I cannot delete the old my music folder competely?? Any Ideas??

I also have a 120GB and XP where my 120G is dedicated for my music directory.

One way to set up XP to point to your new drive as the music folder is
i) Use Window Explorer
ii) Move the current MyMusic folder to your new destination (120G drive) using the EDIT/MOVE TO FOLDER feature of windows explorer.
iii) XP will automatically point your MyMusic to the new destination. Delete whatever you need, and add whatever songs you need.

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: Best New Toy Nominations for 2002 (Read 2959 times)

zevele10

phelt

phelt