Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

This article talks about the timing of purchasing electronics - there's always a cycle, and timing the cycle will get you the best products for your dollar. Sometimes that means buying at the end of a cycle, to save money, and other times it means holding off purchasing until the start of a new cycle so you can get the newest technology. Myself, I'm waiting for the release of the Panasonic VT50, a TV that was announced at CES to rave reviews. I've set aside money to make the purchase, and am patiently waiting for it to be released (should be any time now).

On the other hand, I per-ordered an HP Envy Spectre 14 the first week it was announced, knowing full well that Ivy Bridge would be coming out soon - I just wasn't expecting it to happen within 60 days of me getting my new laptop (HP just announced two new Envy laptops). Ultimately the new Envy laptops don't have the same screen resolution or features as mine, so my laptop wasn't replaced, but at the back of my mind I do wonder if I mis-timed the purchase...

"So you've created a kickass, play-anything media center with XBMC, but it's a too hard for your less tech-savvy friends and family members to use. Here are a few ways to make your home theater PC so easy that your four year old could use it."

XBMC is a powerful media platform, but it's not always the easiest thing to use - especially for the "regular" types of users who weren't the ones to set it up in the first place. This article walks you through some of the ways to optimize the whole experience. Worth a read!

"If you have more than one computer at your workspace, ShareMouse will let you control them all with a single keyboard and mouse, as well as copy and paste text between them and drag files back and forth."

If you're looking for a simpler way to use a single mouse and keyboard across multiple computers, and found Synergy a little too hard to set up, ShareMouse is worth a look!

"When the Nikon D800 was announced, the specification that got everyone's attention was - and to a large degree still is - the massive pixel count of its 36.3MP CMOS sensor. When a moderately-sized full-frame DSLR body aspires to go toe-to-toe with medium format cameras and backs at a fraction of their price, other attributes can seem secondary."

DPReview.com has reviewed the D800, and what can I say? It's a phenomenal camera. The 36 megapixel sensor is truly state of the art, and the camera built around it is no slouch either. If you ask me, this is the FX and DX camera of the moment. Shoot it at 36 megapixel for class-leading resolution, or downsize it to 12 megapixels to exceed the D700's performance. Shoot at 15.3 megapixel for a DX crop that beats the D7000. Now, if only I can find the money for it somehow. On a more curious note, I wonder why DPReview upsampled the Canon 5DIII files instead of downsampling the D800 files; usually that makes the image that is being upsampled look a lot worse. Still, great camera. Time to raid the piggy bank, I think.

"Olympus has announced the Tough TG-1 iHS, a high-end rugged, waterproof compact camera. The main selling point of the camera is its 25-100mm equivalant F2.0-4.9 zoom lens. The TG-1 is tougher than previous Tough models, being waterproof to 12m (40ft) and shockproof from a height of 2m (6.6ft) and will have optional waterproof fisheye and telephoto converter lenses available."

What is iHS supposed to mean? Anyway, this is a new Tough camera with increased specifications from the previous models. In particular, the 4x 25mm-100mm equivalent f/2.0-4.9 zoom lens is faster than many other cameras in its class, especially at that wide end with the f/2.0 aperture. The camera has a 12 megapixel back-illuminated CMOS sensor which is stabilised, a 3" VGA OLED screen (but in Pentile layout), 1080p video mode coupled with a 10 FPS still shooting mode at full resolution or 60 FPS at 3 megapixel, and built-in GPS. As with a rugged camera, it features waterproofing and shockproofing. The camera also promises to feature AF technology from the PEN cameras, so hopefully it will be quick (I do suspect the technology is more on the software side). Oh and what modern Olympus camera is without the Art or Magic Filters? Available in June for US$400.

""More than a decade ago, Microsoft execs, led by Chairman Bill Gates, were touting a future where .Net coffee pots, bulletin boards, and refrigerator magnets would be part of homes where smart devices would communicate and inter-operate. Microsoft hasn't given up on that dream."

Desktop computers, check. Laptops, check. Gaming console, check. Mobile phone, check. Home automation... it looks like Microsoft is intent on offering services for every aspect of your life. Their latest innovation comes to you in the form of HomeOS, a home automation system. Home automation is nothing new, and there are numerous specialized companies ready to offer you fancy, expensive automation systems so you can stand outside your home constantly turning your lights on and off from your phone. If you have an appetite for tinkering, there are more home grown solutions such as LinuxMCE, that while it handles media streaming, also integrates with many other things such as automation and security. Apple is slowly approaching this sort of service as well though right now, it seems mostly just focused on media.

I think that HomeOS could go really well, especially if it integrates with Windows Home Server. It would not make sense if you needed two separate servers to handle your home server-like needs. I have to wonder if there is a great use for this, as them young ones seem to be living a much more mobile lifestyle than before, and whatever you have at home is not as relevant anymore.

"Aside from its unique looks, the K-01 is also a full-featured interchangeable lens camera. It has a 16 Megapixel CMOS sensor, K-mount lens support with built-in image stabilization, lots of manual controls, a boatload of scene modes and special effects, an HDR function, and 1080p video recording."

When the Pentax K-01 was announced, I mentioned (right in the headline no less) that Pentax cannot seem to do mirrorless cameras right. Well, in addition to all the issues that come with sticking to the K-mount instead of developing a new mount for a large sensor mirrorless camera (fat body due to large flange distance for the mirror box, slow AF with some lenses not designed for contrast detection autofocus), Pentax seems to have some terrible quality control issues here. Jeff Keller has a long history of reviewing digital cameras, but I don't think I have seen him point out so many issues in one review before! Nevertheless, if you are still interested, you can read the review, where the output from the camera is actually quite good, but given all the other issues, I think there are better mirrorless cameras out there.

"The ability to cram in more and more transistors in a die has made it possible to have both the CPU and GPU in the same silicon."

AnandTech has posted their review of Intel's Ivy Bridge from the perspective of a HTPC user. They looked at refresh rates, decoding and rendering benchmarks, network streaming capabilities, power consumption, etc. Their review is pretty comprehensive and should be a must read for anyone wondering if they should update or keep what they have.

"Here is something interesting, you may already know that Microsoft plans to sell Windows Media Center as a separate paid pack, but now the company has just revealed that Windows 8 will also stop the support for DVD playback."

If you want to watch DVD movies on your Windows 8 computer in the future, you will have to get the Media Center Pack or the Windows 8 Pro Pack. The basic consumer version of Windows 8 will not include the ability to playback DVD movies. Microsoft's reasoning behind the omission is that more and more consumers are getting content from streaming sources so DVD playback is no longer on the top of the required capabilities list. No word on the pricing of the Media Center Pack yet.

"Today is a big day for Adobe. Not only is the company officially unveiling the next versions of virtually all of the applications in its Creative Suite, but Adobe is also launching its Creative Cloud online offerings. This marks a major change in how Adobe is selling and marketing its flagship product: while the company will continue to offer a shrink-wrapped version of CS6, it's also introducing a subscription service with this update. For $49/month with an annual subscription or $79/month for month-to-month memberships, users can now get full access to any CS6 tool, including Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Premiere Pro and AfterEffects. The suite will also include Adobe's new HTML5 design and development tools Muse and Edge, and will be deeply integrated into the company's tablet apps. Users will be able to download and install these apps on up to two machines."

Adobe recently announced the newest release of Creative Suite, the sixth version (CS6). As shown in the graphic above, there are numerous feature enhancements across all the products in the suite. Upgrading even one of the Abobe apps can be an expensive proposition for most people. Personally, I have a copy of Photoshop that is a few revisions behind, but would like to upgrade it. It is probably a good time to do so from a functionality perspective. What is intriguing with this latest release of apps, is that a new option purchase option is available. Called Creative Cloud, this new purchase option is actually a subscription service. For $49/month (US) with an annual subscription or $79/month (US) for month-to-month memberships, users can now get full access to any CS6 tool. For me, this is an incredibly tempting offer.

The Read link article has all the details about the new edition of Creative Suite, and the new subscription service. Once you've had a chance to read it, drop back here and let me know if you think the subscription service is a good deal.