Summer 2008 "Gadget Love" Review

Seems the last time I posted about my gadget addiction was about 1 1/2 years ago. I did post about my bad experiences with a Logitech G7 "gaming" mouse back in October, and about some of my experiences with various word processing programs, but other than that (and my "new" speakers) it's been a rather long hiatus. So, without resorting to jokes about "my long hiatus" (heh), here is my latest installment of "Gadget Love":

1. iPod Nano 3G. I have the 8GB one; silver/white. Very cool little device. Works very well, sounds very good. Plays most MP3s that I've tried. I did not buy this thing, it being a gift from my employer, but I can still recommend it as a really good and really portable music player. I have something over 7,000 songs in my MP3 library, so I have plenty to listen to. It holds about 1,000 songs at the hefty bitrate I like to use. I have the Belkin leather iPod case. Not bad.
   
2. To go with the iPod, I bought the Belkin TuneCommand AV docking station with remote. Plugs into your stereo (or any powered speakers with dual RCA jacks, or if you buy the right cable). The remote can move between songs in the current playlist and adjust the volume. You cannot navigate to/from the iPod menu. That you still have to do by hand. I did not pay $150 for it, mind you. A month ago it was $49 from the big A.
   
3. Western Digital Caviar 500GB WD5000AAKS SATA disk drive. $85 at NewEgg.com. Who knew a bare-bones hard drive could be a "portable"? Because ...
   
4. Vantec NexStar hard drive dock. Available from ThinkGeek.com. USB or eSATA docking station for any 3 1/2 or 2 1/2 inch form factor hard drive. Yeah, I have it plugged into a USB port on my computer, and the 500GB hard drive is the external backup for my computer. Has a power supply and an eSATA cable with PCI adapter. Presumably I could hook it up that way. We'll see. I get 20MB/sec transfer when backing up files.
   
5. Kingston DataTraveler 8GB thumb drive. Has a retractable USB plug, so it doesn't need a cap (that can get lost). Faster than my old Seagate 5GB mini hard drive (which got dropped so I decided to retire it before it broke for good). So far (1 month use) it has been 100% reliable. And $30, too.
   
6. Cannot recommend the OCZ 4GB drive I reviewed 18 months ago. Loses files. Most disappointing. Buy the Kingston, instead.
7. I use D-Link USB hubs. I have two, and they simply work.
8. I have an ancient Iomega 80GB external hard drive I bought maybe 5-6 years ago (really!!). It still works flawlessly, and it runs virtually 100% of the time, backing up my wife's computer. My old ZIP drive finally broke, and it looks like it cannot be replaced, but from my experience Iomega makes good stuff.
9. MediaMonkey music library organizer and player. Not as good a player as Winamp, which I also own, but organizes your music library like a madman. It will use Winamp as a player, but can't show you what files you have queued up in the Now Playing window. You have to look at Winamp to know that info. Very sophisticated user interface, with very few bugs.
10. GoodSync backup/sync software. Made by the same people who make RoboForm, Siber Systems. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but this is a must if you want a tool that can/will keep your portable thumb drive sync'ed with your hard drive, and it with your backup drive, etc. I own 3 copies (one for my home computer, one for my work laptop, and one for my wife's computer). It's very easy to set up, and it is foolproof and option-filled, for the inveterate geeks among us.
11. Logitech V450 Nano mouse. Sexy and black. Just bought this to replace my aged Logitech MX1000 laser mouse that was starting to miss clicks. I believe I really do like the smaller mice better than the larger ones. This mouse is designed for laptops, and the USB dongle is ... in a word, tiny. Has 2 AA batteries, wich they claim will last a year.
12. Gave my Logitech V320 mouse to my wife. No, no problem with it, she just needed a cordless mouse for her work laptop, and I already had my VX mouse I've been using. I bought the V320 because it's symmetrical, and I could use it left-handed (the V450 is also symmetrical). Nice mouse, and stows the dongle underneath.
    
13. Shure E2c earbuds. I'm sure they work for some people. I could not find a small enough sleeve or foam to fit my ear comfortably, or that didn't want to fall out almost immediately. Yeah, I know--yr doin it rong. Fuck that. Personally, the cheapie earphones that came with the iPod work better, and they don't fall out as easily. I probably shouldn't trash these puppies, but $70 should buy a better fit than none at all. I use the Sennheiser PX100 on-the-ear headphones at work. They are primo, but your ears get sore after a few hours.
    
14. Plantronics Explorer 350 Bluetooth headset. It works, but you have to charge it using the USB adapter cable--there's no other way. Also, it picks up a lot of ambient noise, which might be expected.
    
15. Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE sound card. Had to buy this to replace the crapped-out one that came with my computer. Cheap enough, and it seems to work, but I think next time I might invest more money in a better quality card.
    

That's about it, for now. I have tried/used other gadgets and pieces of software, but nothing I'm still using regularly, or that I would care to mention.

Look for a new music review, soon. I've been obtaining a lot of (free and legal) download music in addition to my regular purchases of albums from the Amazon.com MP3 download site. Also discovered the OGG format, but only Jamendo seems to get it right. Their MP3 encodings are often distorted, which bums me out greatly.

So, look for other stuff, soon.