Reviews

I've written here before about emergency locators, those gizmos that can help rescuers find you if you become lost in the wilderness.

The tragic death of CNET's own James Kim and the disappearances of Microsoft's Jim Gray and famed adventurer Steve Fossett have convinced me that anyone who travels outside populated areas ought to carry one of these devices.

Following that earlier post, I was contacted by SPOT Inc., makers of the SPOT Satellite Messenger, which began shipping through major outdoor retailers this fall. They offered me a SPOT messenger for review, and I happily accepted. It … Read more

Although it has it's annoyances, in general, I like NOD32 antivirus vesion 2, from ESET. But a new version was recently released and new software scares me. As I wrote about in November, I hold this truth to be self-evident:

All new software contains bugs and design mistakes.

I recently worked on a Windows XP computer whose copy of NOD32 version 2 had expired the day before. If it's possible to renew a copy of NOD32 v2, then finding out how eluded me. After clicking around everywhere in the user interface, and not being able to learn anything … Read more

It's like the difference in taste between a tomato you grew in your backyard or one of those plastic things at the supermarket, or frozen pizza vs. a slice fresh out of the oven in Little Italy. We're talking big differences here. And those are the sort of sensual pleasures high-end audio delivers compared to iPods and ear buds. Sure, the little buggers sound good enough, but if you really love music, don't you want to hear your tunes sound as good as they can?

I'm sitting here listening to the late British singer/songwriter Nick … Read more

Spyware Doctor is a popular commercial anti-spyware program. The product's home page is littered with accolades, though a few are for version 3.8, and others are for version 4, whereas the current version is 5. The CNET review at download.com gave it 3 stars (out of 5)* and 2,362 people at download.com rated it the same 3 stars.

PC Tools sells the full version for (approximately) $30 for one computer, $50 for two and up. That you can get a mostly functional version of the software for free, may have passed under your personal radar. … Read more

I'm a little late to the party with this unboxing of my new OLPC XO-1 laptop, but the machine arrived while I was out of town visiting my family for Christmas. In fact, there's a story there.

Before I left, I started hearing that people were receiving their XO-1's, and I realized that if mine didn't show up before I left, it would almost certainly arrive while I was gone. The OLPC people sent out no shipment notifications and didn't reply to several emails, so I had no way to delay the shipment or contact … Read more

Klipsch has just made a limited number of these available on its website, for just $249! This blog originally ran on November 29.

I have fond memories of Klipsch's three-piece iPod speaker. Back in 2005 it stood out in a field of itsy bitsy iPod speakers--the iFi came with a bona-fide 8-inch, 200 watt subwoofer and a pair of two-way satellite speakers. Wow, what a concept, speakers you could actually place far enough apart to create stereo imaging. Most of today's iPod speakers, including high-end contenders like Bowers & Wilkins' Zeppelin sound small because they are small. Yes, … Read more

My previous posting was an introduction to both DNS and OpenDNS. Here, I offer a brief review of the features and services offered by OpenDNS.

First though, let's consider what happens when DNS breaks. As noted previously, the DNS system translates computer names into IP addresses. So if it breaks, it may seem that your Internet connection is broken when in fact, it's fully functional. That is, from your ISP's perspective everything can be working fine, all the lights on your modem and router* can be normal, but still, you can't get to any Web sites … Read more

How grand is it? The entire system weighs 3,800 pounds, stands thirteen feet tall, and was designed to fill even the most lavish homes, and yes, palaces with sound! The system employs three stacked planar-magnetic arrays and eight-foot tall subwoofers. I've heard Wisdom's statuesque speakers at high-end shows and they really do produce a sense of scale that conventionally sized speakers can't muster. For those lucky enough to afford the very best, the Infinite Grande closes the gap between mere hi-fi and the sound of the real thing. The better the speaker the less you hear … Read more

Ted Landau December 2007

Dear Mr. Landau:

I bought an iMac about a year ago and have been delighted with it. It was my first Mac, having previously owned several Windows machines. It did take me a bit of time to get used to all the differences. But it was worth it. Actually, the biggest adjustment I needed to make was a very pleasant one: I needed to get used to the idea that my Mac would not crash every couple of hours, would not need to be cleaned of viruses every other day, and would not require that I … Read more