Imagine a world where you can watch your DVD movie, play a video game, or enjoy your Apple iPod without disturbing anyone, having someone see what you are watching or bothering you, and all in your own private world.  The Vuzix iWear AV920 Video Eyewear allows you see a virtual 62” big screen while wearing the AV920 like a pair of big eyeglasses.  The AV920 is compatible to almost any type of audio/video device such as an Apple iPod, DVD Player, or Video Game Console and using a built-in lithium ion battery, which provide for up to five hours of use, the AV920 can be completely portable.

If you are like me, there are many times where a personal video screen can be very useful.  There are times when I want to play a video game, but my wife does not want to see or hear the game.  There are the occasional nights where she wants to sleep undisturbed and I want to watch a movie.  I have even used the AV920 to watch a movie on an airplane when there was nothing good to watch on the in-flight system.  And each time, I was able to privately enjoy the simulated 62” big screen.  Using two high-resolution displays, the AV920 creates the feeling of viewing video on a big screen display “floating” in front of you.  The AV920 can even display 3D movies and games giving you a true 3D experience, although there are only a handful of 3D movies on DVD and 3D games available.

Read our full review of iWear AV920 Video Eyewear

The Addesso Z12 to try out is a nice looking tablet that seems very sturdy and well made. At an MSRP of $149, the Z12 is $50 less expensive than Wacom’s comparable large Bamboo Fun tablet, so it invites a little side-by-side comparison of the two.

The Z12 is larger than the Bamboo Fun, with a 6x10 inch active surface, compared to the Bamboo Fun’s 8.5x8.3. The Z12 also sports 1024 levels of pressure for inking, twice that of the Bamboo Fun, however, the Bamboo Fun has higher resolution, with 2,540 lines of resolution compared to the Z12’s 2000.  The result is that the Z12 gives very good performance and the bigger active area makes it a bit easier to use, especially if you have a widescreen monitor.  I actually liked the Z12 better for handwriting and found it was easier to get good handwriting recognition in Windows Vista.

Read our Review: Adesso Cyber Tablet Z12

Whether you have a keyboard or touchpad that is not working, want something better, or just need a desktop keyboard or mouse when working in the office, there are a wide range of choices available to the notebook computer user.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Even though most people prefer the common mouse for working with their computer, I have always preferred a trackball.  I find them easier to use, take up less workspace, and are great when traveling on a plane where there is almost no space to use a mouse.  My favorite has always been the Kensington Orbit Trackball

The original Orbit was a mechanical trackball that always needed cleaning due to dust, lint, and oil building up on the ball and transferring to the rollers inside.  The new Orbit Optical Trackball has eliminated that problem with an efficient optical design.  The Orbit features Left and Right mouse buttons and a small, comfortable ball.  The Orbit connects to the notebook via USB.  The top of the Orbit is covered in a black coating that makes it more comfortable and your hand is less likely to slide off the trackball.

Read: Extend the life of older notebooks: Part 7 - Keyboard and Mouse

As with any computer, the real enemy is heat.  My notebook does get really hot, especially at the hard drive which is right under the space for the left palm.  A really bad design on the part of Acer engineering.  The cooler you can keep your notebook, the longer it will last.  Other than making sure there is unrestricted airflow around you notebook, there are a number of products you can use to improve the notebooks’ cooling efficiency.

The Lapinator is a passive cooling device design to give your notebook good air circulation and improved comfort.  It is available in two versions: the 11 oz., 13"x12"x1" Lapinator and, its large brother, the 15 oz., 18"x12"x1" Lapinator Plus for larger notebooks.  Both use 3M Thinsulate sheets to block 95% of the heat from reaching your legs or desktop.  By improving the air circulation, the Lapinator helps the notebooks’ internal cooling system run more efficiently.  So the Lapinator helps to improve heat dissipation, comfort, and ergonomics.  It’s also thin enough to fit in most notebook bags.

Read: Extend the life of older notebooks: Part 6 - Cooling

If you have any older notebook, there is the possibility that sooner or later your power supply will die.  In fact, there is a good chance that it will fail before your notebook does.  So whether you need a replacement power supply, an extra one for the office so you do not always have to plug and carry one with you, or you need a more flexible alternative when you travel, check out some of the power supply choices on the market today.

The Targus Mobile 70 Universal AC/DC Adapter is a good replacement power supply for any notebook.  With a set of included power tips for most notebooks, and other tips available from Targus, this power supply will work with almost any notebook.  Check the Targus web site for compatible tips for your notebook.  With 70 watts of continuous power and up to 90 watts of peak power, this power supply can handle the needs of any power hungry notebook.

Read: Extend the life of older notebooks: Part 5 - Power

If you have a notebook computer, sooner or later, you will be taking on the road with you.  Or at least moving it from one place to another.  When this happens, what you really need is a good, protective bag or case to protect your investment. And don’t forget to use a security device to keep your valuable property from taking a walk without you.

This is a great bag for overnight travel and features many zippered pockets and compartments.  The back is contoured for comfort against your leg when carrying the bag by the two part handle.  The handle design is made of two part that are connected to the bag separately and fit together to give a comfortable grip and balances the weight of the bag.  A mesh pouch for a water bottle is attached to the left side and Velcro down to store it when not in use.

The rear side of the bag can be unzipped to reveal 2 large pouches and 2 smaller zippered pouches.  The top of the bag contains a zippered compartment for the telescoping handle, a zippered compartment for the top-loading notebook sleeve which can be unzipped and removed from the bag.  The notebook protection of this bag is good, but not designed for heavy abuse.  So don’t let the bag take too many bumps and tumbles. 

Read: Extend the life of older notebooks: Part 4 - Protection

Good audio is one thing that most notebook computers lack.  With only 2 tiny little speakers, the average notebook cannot generate the type of sound that most people have been accustomed to from their music, movies, and games.  Of course there are a few notebooks such as the old Toshiba 5105 line that have good sound due to small Harmon-Kardon speakers and a built-in subwoofer, but even most expensive, high-performance notebooks do not have great sound.

Since there is no way to change or upgrade the internal speakers on a notebook, the best alternative is to use a set of external speakers when you are in your home / office or a set of headphone.  Headphones, especially ones with microphones, can serve a dual purpose by giving you better sound in and out for Skype, gaming, or internet chatting.  Most notebooks have built-in microphones that are about as good as their internal speakers.

Logitech, being one of the biggest companies in the accessory market, has a wide range of speaker and headphone products.  So for this profile, we would like to introduce you to a couple of our favorites.

Read: Extend the life of older notebooks: Part 3 - Audio

Notebooks operating on Windows XP or Vista require large amounts of RAM memory and hard drive space.  And every time you install a new program to your computer, the need for both increases.  If you are looking to upgrade the performance of your older notebook, there are two things that are absolute must do’s.  The first is adding more RAM memory since the more memory you have available to the operating system, the faster the system will run.  The second is replacing or adding a new hard drive.  With the increased storage capacity, your operating system will run more efficiently, there is room to increase the cache area to simulate for memory, and you will have more room for programs, media, and data backup.

If you are already using the Vista operating system, then you must be aware of the Microsoft Experience Index.  This is Microsoft’s way of rating the overall ability of your computer so that software publishers have an easier way of informing the customer of the resource and performance needs of the software.  So as new software become available and more performance is required, you will be able to easily determine if your computer can run the software efficiently.  Memory and Hard drive space have the most significant impact on the E.I.

Read: Extend the life of older notebooks: Part 2 - Memory and Storage

Recently I started to think about buying a new notebook computer.  As I looked at all the choices at my local computer store, I wondered about all the other things I wanted to buy and thought to myself: “Can I get another year out of my old notebook?” Thus began my quest to find products that would help to extend and protect the life of my notebook while also keeping it current with today’s models.

For this “experiment”, I decided to use an Acer Ferrari 3400 notebook.  A flashy little notebook which was very fast, feature filled, and top-of-the-line when it was released 2-3 years ago.  But now the basic model with its AMD Athlon64 3000 CPU, 512MB of RAM, 80GB 4800rpm hard drive, etc. is starting to show its age.  Even though its features still compare pretty well against most current notebooks, it is no longer considered “top of the line”.  So how could I “upgrade” this notebook?

Read more of Extend the life of older notebooks: Part 1

The Traffic Assist 100 from Becker will be officially launched at the IFA 2008 consumer electronics show in Berlin. Known under the pseudonym “Crocodile”. On the technical side, the Traffic Assist 100 scores points with fast route calculation, an integrated 2 GB memory with pre-loaded data for 42 countries, 3-D Terrain View and 3-D City View with crystal-clear images. The Becker Crocodile features menus and text-to-speech instructions in 28 languages to safely guide user to their destinations. With a price tag of around 300.00 eu, the Becker Crocodile will be available on the market in October 2008.

The Becker Crocodile is based on the Becker Traffic Assist Z 201. Although the rubber-coated, water resistant version can also be used in a car, it is ideally suited for motorbikes. The crystal-clear 4.3 inch widescreen colour display with day and night view features an ingenious graphic guidance system that makes it easier for bikers to read the display in low visibility conditions with a closed visor. Other features including the Lane Info function for safe lane selection on multilane roads, realistic motorway traffic signs and visual/acoustic warning signals for speed limits have been carried over from the precursor model.

The Terrain View display opens up to the horizon in brilliant image quality and is especially helpful when driving over hilly terrain or on winding roads. For better orientation in cities, buildings are displayed as 3-D models.

http://www.mybecker.com/

HotHardware.com has posted their take on Lenovo’s new ultraportable baby, the X200. Here is a quote:

"It is obvious from its feature list that the X200 isn’t quite as advanced, in terms of its mechanical design, as the X300.  Despite being of similar weight and size as the X300, the X200 doesn’t have an internal optical drive, nor is it as thin and it doesn’t even have a touchpad.  It also sports a 12.1” screen like the X61, rather than the 13.3” LCD that the X300 is equipped with. However, the X200 isn’t lacking in its base hardware specification, that’s for sure. It incorporates all of the same communications, networking and connectivity options and features as the X300.  In addition, it’s also built on Intel’s new Centrino 2 platform which offers support for the new Penryn-based Core 2 Duo mobile processor. The X200 is available with the Penryn P8000 series, which is an upgrade of the original Merom mobile Core 2 Duo processors and it offers 3MB L2 cache, a 1066MHz FSB, front-side bus throttling, and the SSE4 instruction set. Most impressive of all, it has a TDP of only 25W, 10W lower than Merom, despite packing more features and higher frequencies.”

Hot Harware found the X200 to be an excellent value with excellent built quality. The X200 had great processor performance with a great battery life. The unit had good connectivity and plenty of features. On the dislike side of the fence they poo poo’d the lack of a touchpad and no built-in optical drive.

Read: Lenovo ThinkPad X200 Ultraportable Notebook

Geek.com has posted up info on Nokia’s new U.S. 3G optimized N79, N85 and N96 handsets. here is a quote:

Today Nokia announced that it will be shipping three 3G optimized Nseries phones to the United States in the fourth quarter of 2008. The phones are:

N79: featuring a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, 10 pre-loaded N-Gage games, FM transmitter, Xpress-On smart covers

N85: featuring a 2.6” OLED screen, N-Gage gaming (with at least 10 games pre-loaded), music with integrated FM transmitter, 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, Dual LED Flash, A-GPS (for geotagging and navigation), WiFi, and an 8GB microSD card

N96: featuring a 2.8” screen, 16 gigabytes internal memory, built-in kick stand, expandable memory card slot, 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, Wi-Fi, A-GPS, N-Gage games, and more

Read: Nokia N96
Read: Nokia N85
Read: Nokia N79

The S740 is designed for flexible and efficient messaging with its 12-key keypad (ideal for super fast one hand messaging) and full QWERTY keyboard (perfect for those who prefer a two handed messaging experience) both input capabilities ensure efficient and accurate typing, as well as support for POP3, IMAP and Exchange push email.  Instant messaging (IM) and SMS can also be accessed through the familiar 12-key interface on the front of the phone.

The S740 follows the sleek design of HTC’s Touch Diamond. This slim smartphone features a matt black facetted back, a 2.4 inch QVGA display and slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 7.2Mbps HSDPA on the 900 and 2100MHz bands, quadband EDGE, a 3.2-megapixel fixed focus cam, WiFi, GPS. All that run on Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard and a Qualcomm MSM7225, 528 MHz chipset.

The HTC S740 will be available across Europe from September 2008. [Press Release for the HTC S740]

A premium portable navigation device for those looking for both style and substance, the NAVIGON 7200T offers cool features such as Reality View Pro, Lane Assistant Pro and Free Real-Time Traffic Updates for Life. It features a host of next generation features such as Voice Destination Entry, allowing drivers to specify their destination by simply speaking the address, and Landmark View 3D, which brings a new dimension to the map with hundreds of richly-textured 3D landmarks across the U.S. and Canada. The NAVIGON 7200T employs NAVIGON’s next generation software, on average requiring fewer clicks than any other GPS product to enter a destination.

The unit features a 4.3-inch, 16:9 touchscreen display, 2GB of flash storage, a SiRF GRF3i+ GPS chip, microSD card support, 64MB of RAM, powered by a Centrality Titan I 600MHz CPU.

NAVIGON 7200T will sell for $449 (MSRP) in the U.S. and Canada. It hits stores shelves and online retailers in October 2008. Customers can already pre-order NAVIGON 7200T devices at Amazon.com.

http://navigonusa.com/about/news/2008-08-25