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Articles: Apple TV 4 (2015) Blank Screen on Computer Monitor Issue Solved

Posted by: david on Tuesday/January 19/2016 - 11:42 PM
Cool Devices
Recently I had purchased a refurbished Benq RL2455HM computer monitor via a sale by Benq Direct. Although the highly-praised screen is made more for gaming with its 1ms response time, we had used it with an Amazon Fire TV Stick as a TV for the kitchen. The RL2455HM works well for that purpose, but unfortunately it is a real pain in the butt to change the volume as you have to literally press different buttons 10 times reach the menu to do it. Overall, even though that was a pretty nice setup, obviously the new Apple TV....

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Logitech Harmony 300i vs 200 - Comparison & Differences

Posted by: david on Tuesday/November 22/2011 - 05:00 PM
Cool Devices
I was curious what the difference is between the Logitech Harmony 300i remote I have and the new Logitech Harmony 200 I just noticed. The Harmony 200 is shorter and does not have as many buttons. Doing a comparison at Logitech.com revealed the differences. The 300i supports 4 devices while the 200 can only do 3. The only other important difference is the Harmony 200 lacks programmable buttons. On my 300i there are a group of useful buttons below the 4 main device selection buttons towards the top and personally I've assigned functionalities such as....

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Articles: BPA-Free Water Filter Pitchers

Posted by: david on Thursday/November 10/2011 - 09:41 PM
Cool Devices
There has been much published studies regarding the negative effects of BPA (Bisphenol A) that I wanted to avoid using plastics that contain it, especially food and water containers. The current Brita water pitchers I use does not say it is BPA free, so I must presume it is made of polycarbonate plastic which does have BPA. I try to help avoid BPA leakage/leeching into the water by keeping the filtration pitcher away from direct sunlight and heat. But in the end I thought maybe there are some BPA-free water filtration pitchers out there for more peace....

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TouchPad Won't Turn On After Update: Works After Reset

Posted by: david on Monday/August 29/2011 - 03:29 PM
Cool Devices
Today when I was using my new HP Touchpad a message popped up showing that a webOS update to 3.02.68 was available from HP. The version that was on it was 3.0.0. I went ahead and let it perform the update and plugged it back into the USB charger. About half an hour later I went to check on its progress but all that showed on the Touchpad was a blank screen. Hitting the Center or Power buttons didn't do anything. Seems like it just won't boot up. Yikes! To my relief though, after doing a....

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HP Touchpad vs Asus Eee Pad Transformer

Posted by: david on Friday/August 26/2011 - 10:42 PM
Cool Devices
After a couple of hours of using both devices, here are my observations on the differences in comparing the HP Touchpad powered by webOS 3.0.0 vs Asus Eee Pad Transformer running Android 3.2. The HP Touchpad is noticeably smaller than the Asus Eee Pad Transformer tablet but is yet quite a bit heavier. No microSD or SD card slot for the Touchpad for expansion. The Eee Pad Transformer lets you insert a microSD card. The Touchpad doesn't come with a rear-facing camera. The Touchpad seems a little thicker, and the feel is more glossy and slipperier than the textured back of the Eee....

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Find HP Touchpad MAC Address

Posted by: david on Friday/August 26/2011 - 10:27 PM
Cool Devices
Got my shiny new $99 HP Touchpad today. To retrieve the MAC address for the HP Touchpad I had to: 1) click on the "Center" button, then the up arrow in the bottom right hand corner. That opened the "Launcher". 2) I then navigated to the SETTINGS TAB and clicked on the Device Info button. 3) Then I clicked on the More Info button which displayed both the Wi-Fi and Bluethooth MAC addresses. It also showed that the model # of my Touchpad is HSTNH-I29C, hardware version A. Software version is HP webOS 3.0.0. Like the....

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Find Asus Eee Pad MAC Address, Setup and First Impressions

Posted by: david on Friday/August 19/2011 - 03:00 PM
Cool Devices
I received my ASUS Eee Pad Transformer TF101 tablet today. It felt a litter heavier than I expected, but not too bad at all. I powered it on and after about 20 seconds it asked me to setup the language and keyboard options, and then the Wi-fi wireless settings. But oops- I use MAC address filtering so I needed to find the mac address for the Eee Pad before it could connect. I looked on the box it came with- on the bottom there was a label showing stuff such as Customer P/N, EAN, P/N, the....

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Casio BG5600MOB-4 Baby-G Married to the Mob Watch Unveiled

Posted by: david on Friday/April 15/2011 - 12:11 PM
Cool Devices
Just in time for Mother's Day, Casio today launched the pink Casio BG5600MOB-4 Baby-G Married to the Mob Watch. Though some moms may find the styling too aggressive and be more suited for teenagers. The BG5600MOB-4 provides the following features, in addition to the unique styling: Timer and Stopwatch Water Resistance up to 100 meters Four Alarms Impact Resistance World Time feature LED light The Casio BG5600MOB-4 will be available at Macy's, Nordstrom and Bloomingdales starting in May 2011 at a price point of just under $100.....

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TRENDnet TV-IP121WN and TV-IP110WN Wireless N Cameras Unveiled

Posted by: david on Tuesday/April 05/2011 - 01:12 PM
Cool Devices
Trendnet today launched the TRENDnet TV-IP121WN and TV-IP110WN Wireless N Cameras. The TRENDnet TV-IP121WN offers night vision LEDs to see in the dark. Both cameras offers easy to use WPS wireless setup and the included software supports up to 32 cameras. There was no mention of resolution, however, leaving us to think that these are 640x480 cameras, especially since only MJPEG compression is supported. The TV-IP121WN will sell for around $210 and the TV-IP110WN will go for about $190. With a only $20 difference if you are deciding between these two cameras the TV-IP121WN....

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Canon VB-M40, VB-M600VE and VB-M600D PoE IP Cameras Unveiled

Posted by: david on Wednesday/March 23/2011 - 02:23 PM
Cool Devices
Canon today launched 3 new IP (IP meaning it connects directly to the network and has its own network IP address) cameras that support Power-over-Ethernet (PoE). The Canon VB-M600VE is an outdoor dome-style camera with pan/tilt, the VB-M40 offers 20X optical zoom and can pan and tilt, while the VB-M600D dome cam offers a wide angle view and 3X zoom. Each new product also sport SD Cards slots as well. The new cams offer 1280x960 resolution at 30 frames per second (fps) which is significantly higher than the usual 640x480 30/fps or even just 15/fps in other IP cameras.....

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Casio GR7900EW-7 and G6900EW-7 G-Shock Solar Power Watches Unveiled

Posted by: david on Wednesday/March 09/2011 - 02:26 PM
Cool Devices
Casio today introduced a green version of its G-Shock watches in the Casio GR7900EW-7, GR7900EW-7 and G6900EW-7 G-Shock solar powered watches. The "Green" feature being having more to do with the packaging being environmentally friendly. Some notable features of the new watches (all in white) include, of course for the G-Shock line, shock resistance, along with a high capacity rechargeable battery plus water resistance up to an impressive 200 meters. Stopwatch and alarm clock features also are standard features, with the GR7900EW-7 differentiating itself with a tide and moon display. Check out this hands-on video review of the....

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PENTAX Optio S1 Compact Digital Camera Unveiled

Posted by: david on Wednesday/March 02/2011 - 04:14 PM
Cool Devices
PENTAX today took the wraps off of the PENTAX Optio S1 digital compact camera in several interesting colors such as chrome or glossy black or green. The 14 megapixel Pentax Optio S1 has a light body with 5 times optical zoom along with a 2.7" LCD. Other features in this little camera include an optical shake reduction system and the ability to take HD videos (720P). A remote control is also available. Right now you can buy it at the Pentax Web Store for $200 (it's on pre-order). Here is a nice hands-on demo and review of....

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Griffin Survivor Case for iPhone 4 and iPod Unveiled

Posted by: david on Thursday/February 10/2011 - 12:46 PM
Cool Devices
Griffin Technology has launched Griffin Survivor case for iPhone 4 or iPod touch (4th-gen) to pass military endurance testing. The super-rugged Griffin Survivor is the first first in Griffin’s new Armored collection of cases, is designed to go anywhere and stand up to the toughest of environments.
Pricing is set at around $50.

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ECTACO JetBook Lite in Burgundy and White Released

Posted by: david on Friday/April 23/2010 - 12:32 PM
Cool Devices
ECTACO today introduced new models of the its jetBook Lite ebook reade and two new colors in burgundy and white.

The new Jetbook Lite models are:

JetBook Lite with KJ Bible
JetBook Lite with Quran in English
JetBook Lite with Torah in English
JetBook Lite with Russian Bible
JetBook Lite with Spanish Bible
JetBook Lite with School's Reading List

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WS-9077TWC-IT-CBP Weather Station Review

Posted by: david on Monday/March 09/2009 - 02:53 PM
Cool Devices
I got the The Weather Channel WS-9077U-IT from Amazon.com because I was tired of my other flaky weather stations. Thus far this weather station has by far the best range of any I've used. This is mainly because it uses the 900 MHz spectrum (915 MHz, to be exact). The model of the wireless sensor is TX29U. On the package it claims a 330 foot range, but I'm just happy it works in the patio of the house which is about 60 feet away from the base station with two walls in between. In comparison, the....

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Minimum Viewing Distance for big screen TVs

Posted by: david on Monday/November 05/2007 - 11:24 PM
Cool Devices
If you have a 73 inch TV you should sit at least 7.5 feet away. With a 65/62incher you'd want to be about 6.5 feet away. If your TV is 57" then 5 and a half feet would be the minimum. With a 50 and 52" HDTV the min. distance is 5'. 47 and 46 inch TVs have a minimum viewing distance of 4.5 feet. A 42" TV (a common size for LCD TVs and Plasmas) requires you to sit at least 4 feet away. 37" TV? About 3.5 feet. With a 32" TV it'd be around 3.25 feet.

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Samsung Introduces Ultra-compact Mini-yepp

Posted by: david on Friday/March 15/2002 - 07:50 PM
Cool Devices
[excerpt] Weighing in at just 34 grams in a stylish metallic pendant design, the Mini-yepp is expected to become the ultimate accessory among portable music fans. This shows what Samsung Electronics products are all about: advanced technology, cutting-edge and hugely desirable design, and all at an affordable price.



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As Online 'Home,' E Villa Has Leaks

Posted by: david on Wednesday/July 18/2001 - 10:07 PM
Cool Devices
E Villa is certainly the best looking of the Net appliance lot. At the core of the handsome silver-tone machine is a 15-inch, high-resolution monitor, positioned portrait-style (vertically) so as to render more of a Web page on-screen. On the front of the device are decent sounding stereo speakers and a slot for the chewing-gum-size Memory Stick cards to store and share pictures and videos, music and e-mail attachments. The volume control, power switch, and buttons for taking you directly to the Web, the e Villa home "neighborhood" and e-mail are easily accessible.



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