This articles was originally written in October of 2004 for Metro Marquee Magazine based in Moncton, NB. I wrote it as an “audition” piece to show my work and was given a weekly technology column in the paper. That paper eventually became [HERE] Magazine locally in NB.
iRiver, PMP-120, $460USD (approx), www.iriver.com
First it was the walkman, then cdman’s, and within the last few years, portable MP3 players have become the big thing. Now, thanks to companies like iRiver, you can take music, and video with you to the park.
iRiver has introduced the PMP-120, which is one of the few first offerings of portable media centers. These little gadgets are designed to play all of your digital media files, including video. It’s total capacity allows you to store 600 hours of music, or 80 hours of video. Integrated with an FM tuner, voice recorder, built in speakers, and rechargeable batteries, this unit is a digital media owner’s dream. If you own a PVR (Personal Video Recorder) that allows you to transfer your recorded media to a PC, a unit like this would be great as you could take all those episodes of The Simpsons you’ve recorded with you wherever you go. All of this with one minor downfall. It can’t play DVD’s.
The idea with a unit like this is that you copy all the digital media from your PC (or other digital media center) to the unit via a USB 2.0 cable. For those of us who have movies on our PC, or know how to rip DVD’s we already own, it’s great. But if the bulk of your video is stored on DVD’s itself, and you’re not that savvy with ripping them onto your PC, it’s really nothing more than an oversized MP3 player. If you have easy access to digital video files on your computer, this unit works with all the major formats and can also display digital photographs instead of video.
Beyond Microwave, $150US (approx), www.beyondconnectedhome.com
The 1980’s saw an evolution in home cooking when the microwave became a mainstay in the kitchen. Along with your fridge and stove, in today’s world, the microwave is just another regular appliance that everyone should have. One drawback, no one really knows exactly how long you should cook that TV dinner for without overcooking it. Now that’s not a problem, thanks to the Beyond Microwave.
This interesting little microwave is unique in that it comes with a bar code scanner, and 4000 pre-programmed bar codes into the machine. When you want to cook something, you scan the bar code and it automatically sets the time and temperature needed to cook the item you have scanned. All you have to do is press Start. If it doesn’t recognize the bar code, it will connect to the internet (via an add-on product) and download the bar code information from it’s website. The idea is that with all of this information pre-programmed, you’ll never burn your popcorn again and everything you cook will cook exactly the way it should. No guesswork involved.
I don’t know about you, but the idea of my microwave telling me how to make my food is a little unsettling, but I think it would be a cool addition to any geek’s kitchen.
Reviews by
Matthew Klem
October 8, 2004