The PC-Free Portable Media Player

The player puts your Rhapsody music in your hand and never needs to be connected to a PC to do it—not even for setup.

The concept is simple: The Ibiza uses Wi-Fi to connect to the Rhapsody online music service to stream or grab your Rhapsody music. The device also has a 30GB hard drive, so it can be used as a traditional portable media player. (You do need to connect to your computer to load non-Rhapsody files on the player.) Oh, and it plays video (there's an AOL video tie-in, too) and displays photos on a screen identical in size to the iPod 's. On top of that, there's FM radio, a Web browser, Bluetooth functionality, and an awesome navigation pad (virtually identical to the one in the new Zune players ). Pretty impressive. It's not all good, however: The interface can be slow at times, and if you're streaming music (versus playing a download), the tracks can take some time to cue. Nor is the Ibiza likely to win any beauty contests. But if you want access to your Rhapsody account on the go, you should give this player a try. On the flip side, if you're not a Rhapsody fan, there's no reason to buy this device over a Zune or an iPod.
The Ibiza is part of a new class of PMPs that's emerging: the subscription service–based device. Slacker is releasing a portable player designed to work specifically with its subscription Internet radio service, and earlier in the year, SanDisk released the Sansa Connect, which has a strong Yahoo! Music tie-in. But the Ibiza doesn't work only with Rhapsody like, say, the iriver Clix Rhapsody or the Samsung P2 do. (These devices load limited content every time you connect the player to your PC via USB.) The Ibiza lets you take Rhapsody with you—complete with artist bios and all your account's channels—without your ever having to touch a computer. This is something no other player currently does. Makes me wonder, "Hey Haier, where the hell have you been?"

Read the rest of the PC Mag review. Click Here

Favorite Utilities

Utilities I love listed below.

Descriptions from pcmag.com.

SnagIt: http://www.techsmith.com/ ($40) - wonderful screen capture program.

IrfanView: http://www.irfanview.com/ (free) - this graphics iewer lets you see any image file and most digital videos with just one right click. It's that simple. You can also use this power viewer to convvert files to other formats and do some quick editing and annotation.

DriverMax: www.innovative-sol.com/drivermax (free) -use DriverMax to back up your hardward drivers. Then, after a fresh Windows install, DriverMax puts all the drivers back in less than 10 minutes. That's much better than reinstalling each printer, scanner, and network adapter individually.

ProcessScanner: www.processlibrary.com/processscan (free) - By matching this web-based system scanner with a never-growing online database of processes running under Windows, Uniblue provides a massive amount of data about what's happening above and below the surface of Windows.

GSpace: http://www.getspace.com/ (free) - Just about everyone has a Gmail account, but few use all its gigabytes. With GSpace, put that online storage to work for all types of files.

TweakVI: http://www.totalidea.com/ (free to $50 depending on plugins) - This Vista-only collection of optimizations comes in a free version and two paid-subscription versions that accept plug-ins for even more customization. All will modify items such as your desktop, Start menus, browsers and provide virtual desktops. For full review see go.pcmag.com/tweakvi.

Google Desktop 5: desktop.google.com (free) - Indexes all of your data files - including email and instant messages - so you can find them fast. Interface includes multiple search-box configurations and an advanced search option.

ShadowProtect Desktop 3.1: http://www.storagecraft.com/ ($80) - Fast reliable backup to local and network drives. Easy restores, even to diffent hardware. Can work on files within image backups. For more info: go.pcmag.com/spdesktop3_1

BullzipPDF Printer: www.bullzip.com/products/pdf/info.php (free) - The BullZip PDF Printer works as a Microsoft Windows printer and allows you to write PDF documents from virtually any Microsoft Windows application.

Free 411 Voice-Activated Driving Directions

1-800-FREE411 and Dial Directions announced the integration of their services to bring nationwide directions to mobile callers - with a combination of the latest in voice-recognition technology and the convenience of text messaging.

You call 1-800-Free411 to get your listing, and you are prompted if you want directions to that location. Just say where you are located (address or intersection) and you get a text message with point-to-point directions to get to your 411 request. I look at it as 411 for the 21st century - a voice-powered melding of geolocation data with listing data, if you will.

Jott This

Well, Google has done it again. They've created an awesome little product that is:

• very useful
• free
• currenlty not offered by anyone else (at least not that I know of)

The product is JOTT. Call an 800 number, record a message and tell it who you want the message sent to - yourself, a friend, etc and it will email or text message the desired recipient. Jott then transcribes (with incredible accuracy, I might add) your message and sends it on to the receipient. It also saves a copy of the original sound recording along with the transcription for your future reference.

You can use it to send notes or to-do’s to yourself while driving down the road – or to send a text message or email to a friend by talking it rather than typing it (safer!) – even if you’re at home and would just rather talk than type. Or try making a blog entry verbally. Keep a journal and archive both your audio entry and your transcripted entry.

Very cool.

Did I mention that it’s free?

http://www.jott.com/how-to/jott-in-action/

Amazon Kindle

If I had to choose 5 concepts that I am most excited about, the ebook would be one of the five. There is SO MUCH potential with this concept and so many new ways will evolve to engage with the "printed" word that simply is not possible in paper format.

Personally, I see incredible opportunity for e-books. Sure, you can carry 200 books on a device the size of a paperback and you can buy a book in 10 seconds on the beach. But for me it goes way beyond that. Collaboration with others in a ‘virtual bookclub’ and automatic collection of highlighted text are two ideas that I don’t see anyone pursuing but I think will be what makes these devices the ‘killer app’.

While this device has its limitations, it’s a huge step in the progress of e-books.

What I like about the Kindle:

• Quality product
• Easy to read screen
• Mainstreams the ebook concept
• No-hassle wireless integration
• Page forward page backward bars.
• Size

Ideas I would like to see implemented:

• Wi-Fi built in (rather than being tethered to the cellular service). Granted, this would complicate the setup of the device and add to Amazon’s costs to support the device considerably.
• More open environment – allow email, RSS, etc. on the device over wi-fi
• Ability to view other e-book formats
• Ability to save and view ebooks purchased in Kindle format on a PC
• Ability to save highlighted text to an online folder that can be accessed via the device on-demand, or via a web front-end where the content could be viewed (and Google searchable) or downloaded to your computer.

Amazon's Own Video Release

Technology Evangelist's Review

iPod Touch

Toss out the weak and expensive phone aspect of the Apple iPhone and what do you get? The iPod touch, which just happens to be the best portable media player ever made. Finally, an iPod with Wi-Fi built in so you can buy music from iTunes without a computer, all using the beautiful multitouch display screen. Add in a delightful little browser and access to YouTube videos and you've got a media player that does so much, so easily - and looks great doing it. - PC Magazine (see the entire post: PC Mag)

Audio Engine Speakers

Audio Engine