By Jon Kenton

It’s that time of year again when the world’s leading electronics manufacturers get together to show off their latest products. The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is held in Las Vegas every January. Approximately 110,000 visitors had the opportunity to meet with 2,500 exhibitors, featuring a whopping 20,000 new products. We obviously don’t have room enough to discuss them all, but here are a few highlights.

With the huge success of Avatar this holiday season, undoubtedly helped by stunning 3-D showings, a new breed of 3-D–enabled TVs was very popular at the show. CNET (cnet.com) sponsors the Best of CES awards and Panasonic’s Full HD 3D VIERA Plasma television took both the Best in Television and the coveted Best of Show categories. Panasonic’s Full HD 3D technology delivers a full 1080p-resolution image to each eye, offering viewers the highest possible visual experience. Panasonic will ship four 3D models in the spring of 2010 in 50-, 54-, 58-, and 65-inch sizes. All four 3D VIERA televisions feature Panasonic’s VIERA CAST(TM) IPTV functionality, and all models are THX certified for the best sound reproduction possible. Many other manufacturers announced 3-D technology, including Sony, JVC, Samsung, and Toshiba.

Not surprisingly, the trend toward connecting everything to the Internet continues. A big buzz at last year’s CES, Yahoo’s Connected TV initiative has moved a step closer to us all having Internet TV by adding several new companies to its cache of developers and adopters. Yahoo has software called the Yahoo Widget Engine that will run programs called (not surprisingly) widgets. Along with existing partners such as Samsung, LG Electronics, and Sony, manufacturers Vizio, Viewsonic, and Hisense have announced new products that will ship this spring. Widget partners include Amazon, USA Today, eBay, Twitter, Facebook, CNBC, NBC, Napster, RadioTime, Dailymotion, and The Weather Channel.

Speaking of the Internet and linking to phone services, there was some very interesting and controversial news relating to a new product by Magic Jack—yes, that’s the very same company you have heard on TV promoting their Internet phone gadget. YMax Corp., the company behind Magic Jack, announced a new gadget that will allow you to use your cell phone at home for free calls. Essentially, this new device acts as your own private cell tower in your home. It then connects to your computer and sends your call over the Internet. There has so far been a muted response from the cell phone network operators, who have paid billions for the rights to the radio frequencies, as questions were asked about the legality of the setup. The bottom line is that if this product goes to market, it will allow users on GSM networks such as AT&T or T-Mobile to reduce the minutes they are charged for while making calls from within the home.

Got a digital camera and can never find the cable to get the photos onto your PC, or you can’t remember how to upload to your photo-sharing site? Checkout the wireless memory cards from Eye-Fi. Yes, that is just what it sounds like: an SD memory card with built-in Wi-Fi. At CES, we saw the new Eye-Fi Pro X2 wireless SD card. Store up to 4,000 photos or three hours of video with 8GB SDHC capacity and then upload photos and videos directly from your camera through your Wi-Fi network. The X2 has unprecedented wireless performance built in as it implements the latest technology standard (802.11n). There is a comprehensive list of features, including the ability to share your JPEG photos and videos on popular Web sites like Flickr, Facebook, Picasa, MobileMe, and YouTube.

If you want to display some of those photos and want to automatically jazz them up a little, you may like Casio’s new Digital Art Frame. With in-built automatic Photoshop-like software, this digital photo frame “transforms ordinary digital photographs into works of fine art,” as several reviews state. Users can create up to eight different authentic styles of art from a single photo at the push of a button: watercolor painting, color-pencil sketch, pastel painting, pointillism, airbrush, and oil painting, Gothic, Fauvist, or otherwise. The frame has a 10-inch LCD display, supports SD memory cards, and has WiFi capability.

If you like gadgets and can stand to be in Las Vegas at capacity attendance, then add CES to your calendar next January. If not, look for my highlights here in North Valley Magazine!

by Jon Kenton

It was approximately a month ago that a catastrophe of global proportions was unleashed upon our household. As I walked through our living room, I could hear an incessant “tick, tick, tick” noise. At first, I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. As I honed in closer to its source, I was drawn towards our TV and media setup, and the devastating realization of what had happened became crystal clear. “Nooooooooo!” I screamed, as it was now obvious that the sound was emanating from our DVR and the hard drive had crashed!

Although not nearly as ubiquitous as the TV itself, the Digital Video Recorder (DVR) is now commonplace. According to a recent study by the TV and media researchers, the Nielsen Company, approximately one-third of households now own a DVR. This is closer to 50 percent when digital cable, satellite, or fiber is the TV source. DVRs are now, for many, as much an intrinsic part of the TV and entertainment experience as the TV itself. Freedom is the key, and because we’re living in the Land of the Free, it seems entirely reasonable that one can watch what we want when we want and not necessarily be tied to the broadcaster’s schedule when it may interrupt other important activities in our hectic lifestyles.

So, back to our hard-disk crash and the resultant impact on any DVR user. Setting aside the issue of any lost programs, we find that now, without the magic box, we have to watch regular network TV—OMG! Not only must we now revert to the near caveman lifestyle of having to rearrange our schedule to match the TV listings, but we also have to watch the adverts. It’s also not possible to pause regular TV, so how on earth do we manage to go to the bathroom or grab another beverage? Ah, yes, now we remember the benefit of commercial breaks. I know, I know—it’s just TV, but as the ever-growing DVR statistics show, it is important to a lot of people. Should one miss an episode of one’s favorite new program for whatever reason, there are alternatives.

Other than the DVR, there is a variety of ways to catch up on missed programming or follow two programs that compete for the same time slot on different networks. Not surprisingly, the Internet comes to the rescue. Although it will cost you money, the nice folks at Apple have an extensive selection of TV shows that can be downloaded from iTunes, including many of the major broadcast and cable network’s latest seasons. An individual episode will cost $2 or $3, and you may also purchase an entire season pass. Buying your favorite shows does give you the advantage of watching it over and over, much as you would with a DVD, but if you don’t care about keeping them, there are ways to watch for free (yes, legally). Founded in March 2007, Hulu.com is partly owned and supported by NBC Universal, News Corp. (FOX), and The Walt Disney Company (ABC). As well as access to some back catalogue classics such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Kojak, or Knight Rider, you can also watch streaming versions of the latest episodes of the current season of many shows (e.g., House or Family Guy). Typically, the latest shows don’t appear online until some days after the initial airdate, and they are only available for a limited time, so don’t think you can catch up months later. If you are a CSI or How I Met Your Mother fan, you will notice CBS shows missing from the Hulu lineup. There has been some friction here, in good part due to CBS’s competing site TV.com. The site is very similar but has a differing lineup and, of course, with CBS shows included. Not all episodes are available and sometimes you’ll only get clips, so you need to be careful and not assume you will always be able to find what you want.

The bottom line is that there are ways to catch up with your favorite shows if you miss one or your DVR has a coronary, so don’t panic. I am sure a few of you are saying, “But I don’t want to watch TV on my computer when I have a great TV.” Not to worry—there is a solution to that as well, but it will need to wait until our next issue.

By Jon Kenton
The fundamental technology behind the camera has not changed since they were first invented. Removing artistic composition from the equation, a good photograph requires that the subject be in focus and that the exposure be correct. The principles of exposure have never changed—correct exposure requires a specific amount of light to fall on the “film.”

Three components combine to create the exposure: the aperture (or the hole in the lens that lets light through), the shutter speed (how long the hole is open), and the sensitivity (ISO) of the film (how much light is needed). To create any given exposure, you can have multiple combinations of the three elements as long as they provide the same result. For example, if perfect exposure is obtained with a specific aperture open for 1/30 of a second, doubling the aperture setting (letting in twice as much light) only needs half the time (i.e., 1/60 of a second). The table below shows examples using different combinations that lead to the same result. Note that I have used illustrative numbers, not true photographic values, to keep the math simple.

The actual values used for aperture are known as f-stops. Each full stop halves/doubles the amount of light let through. The exact range of values available will depend on your lens—typical values might be f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, and f/22. Speed is expressed in seconds or fractions of a second. Again, as you double/half each value, you change the exposure by one stop. Sensitivity is expressed as an ISO value, with 100 as the typical base. Each doubling of the ISO makes it twice as sensitive (needs half the amount of light). What do these different attributes do?

Aperture affects the depth of field or the depth of the area that will be in good focus. Large apertures have small DOF—great for those portraits where you want to blur the background. Landscapes usually need a very large DOF so that everything is in focus (small aperture).

Speed is all about the ability to capture motion. For still life, any shutter speed will work—even five minutes using a tripod would be fine, as the subject doesn’t move. To capture your child at a sporting event and freeze him or her in sharp focus will require a shutter speed of at least 1/500s.

Sensitivity lets you change how the film or sensor reacts to light. Low ISOs need more light, and high ISOs need less. As we will see, changing the ISO lets you take better shots in specific situations.

On a nice sunny day in perfectly lit conditions, your camera will probably take great shots in its default auto mode. In less-than-perfect conditions, or when you are looking for a specific result, taking control of the exposure settings will allow you to get the best shots.

Even on a bright day, when shooting indoors, there is rarely enough light for standard auto exposures. The shutter speed will need to be much slower than you can handhold without introducing shake or blur. Setting the ISO to 800 instead of 100 means that you can now shoot three stops faster (e.g., 1/60s instead of 1/8s). Great when you can’t use a flash—say, in an art gallery or museum.

If you want to take an outdoor portrait but the background is unattractive and would distract from the subject, the auto setting would typically have a smaller aperture because of the bright sunlight and render the ugly background in focus. Set your camera to “aperture priority” mode (typically Av on the dial) and set the aperture as wide as you can (lower number, e.g., 2.8). Focus on the eyes and hit the shutter button. Zooming in can also help to decrease the DOF. Set up right and you will have a nice, sharp portrait with a blurred background, which would be desirable.

Understanding the fundamental technology of your camera allows you take control when needed and get the results you want, not the ones the camera wants to give you. Happy shooting!

By Jon Kenton
The Internet represents a wide mixture of technologies, from the multitude of interconnected servers and communications infrastructures to online software applications that can help you do just about anything. When it comes to the Web, the questions I hear most often are “How does Google figure out search results?” and “How do I improve my search ranking?”

Google’s search algorithms are highly proprietary and well-guarded secrets, so I won’t even begin to try to explain them. There are many people who claim to know how to circumvent the system, but I would be wary of anybody who claims to be able to do this. This is a big topic, but there are certain well-understood strategies for improving the effectiveness of one’s Web site. I will touch upon a few.

To be successful using a Web site, one needs to adopt a multilayered set of strategies. The first layer is, of course, to have a Web site. If you want to get real business from the Web, don’t skimp; a bad site can be worse than not having one at all! While merely having a Web site is a good thing—as it acts as an electronic brochure for clients or prospects that you explicitly direct there—unless the site is promoted further, its usefulness stops there.

The second layer is all about getting a first-time visitor to stay awhile and review your company and what you have to offer. This is achieved through the design, attractiveness, and, most importantly, relevance of the content on the site. Web browsers have a very short attention span, and the nature of the medium leads visitors to make an assessment of a particular site very quickly indeed. Unless you grab their attention within a very few seconds, they will leave your site and go elsewhere. Not only should the content and design of a Web site lead a first-time visitor to invest his or her time in exploring but there should also be useful content that is refreshed regularly in order to bring previous visitors back again to get the latest of what’s being offered.

The third layer is driving traffic, which brings us back to Google placement. Having a great site that cannot be found or is buried deep within the sea of your competitors diminishes the investment that went into creating it in the first place. The key to driving traffic and visitors is a combination of “valuable” and relevant content that is recognized by the search engines, along with third-party links to your site. Both of these help to raise your “Web value” and so improve your page rankings for “organic” listings. The other strategy is to utilize paid or sponsored listings; the overall process of driving traffic and increasing page rankings is known as Search Engine Optimization, or SEO.

As previously stated, the first requirement is that your site has well-organized content that is highly relevant to your business and is clear to the reader (and the search engines). The content should be refreshed regularly. Search engines get bored just like people. A variety of content is also helpful. Consider adding video, audio, presentations and PDF downloads, but remember to keep them relevant.

Linkbacks (i.e., other sites that link to yours) are key elements to getting the attention of the search engines. There are many ways to achieve this. Ask your various affiliates and partners if they will add a link to your site on theirs, and offer to reciprocate. There is a wide range of online directories covering nearly all industries. Many of these are free or have a nominal charge. Spend some time surfing, find as many as you can, and sign up.

The bottom line is that SEO takes time and effort. If you are in a highly competitive industry with numerous large players, you may never get on that elusive first page, but with some well-thought-out strategies and a dose of patience, you can improve your placement dramatically.
If you would like to know more, contact Jon at techno@northvalleymagazine.com.

By Jon Kenton

 
With this being the Entertainment issue of North Valley Magazine, here is a rundown of the latest entertainment products that were announced at the beginning of the year. Most will be available for you to purchase soon. Check out your local electronics store or the relevant manufacturer’s Web site for the latest details.

2008 saw televisions getting bigger and bigger, but not much has changed since we reported from CES (the Consumer Electronics Show) last year with Panasonic’s 150-inch plasma and Sharp’s 108-inch LCD continuing to rule the roost. This year, the trend seems to be televisions heading for the gym and slim coming in as the new big. Multimedia and Internet connectivity is the other commonality across many of the newly introduced televisions. Now you can watch TV, listen to music, and surf the Web all from the comfort of your armchair, with only a few button presses of your TV’s remote for exercise. I think it’s us, and not the TV, who need to consider a visit to the gym!

New for 2009, the Z1 series was added to Panasonic’s VIERA range of plasma screens. Sporting a slimmed-down panel only one inch thick, the Z1 will support full 1080 resolution and is THX certified. There is a slot for SD memory cards, and the VIERA Image Viewer can display digital photos and videos. For music connectivity, Panasonic now has added an iPod dock to four of their X1 series LCD TVs. Simply plug in your player and control your music library from your remote.

Samsung is also going for ultraslim models with three of their LCD series (6000, 7000, and 8000). With their own new slimline wall mount that allows you attach their TVs just over half an inch from the wall, the combined TV and mount will be less than two inches. With TVs and mounts getting thinner and thinner, it really is just like hanging a picture on the wall.

Internet-connected TVs are being introduced by many of the major manufacturers. Utilizing Yahoo’s “TV Widgets” technology, these new TVs will provide the capability to access a variety of Yahoo features. View digital photos at Flickr; check on the stock market, news, or weather at Yahoo!Finance Yahoo!News, and Yahoo!Weather, respectively. There will also be supported content from third parties such as USA TODAY, YouTube, eBay and Showtime Networks, with many more sources due to be added as the service grows and develops. Among the major manufacturers to announce products supporting TV Widgets and other Internet access features are LG, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, and VIZIO.

If you don’t feel like upgrading your existing HDTV but do like the idea of broader Internet access, there are now even more options. If you haven’t moved up to Blu-ray yet and can wait another few months, LG has two players that also have networking features. The LG BD370 and BD390 support 1080p native with the ability to upscale existing DVDs to 1080p. The audio side is equally matched with advanced audio format decoding of Dolby TrueHD, Digital Plus, and DTS-HD. Both feature Internet connectivity with the ability to stream online video from Netflix, YouTube, and CinemaNow. The BD370 needs an Ethernet cable, while its big brother, the BD390, has built-in wireless connectivity. Netgear continues to bridge the worlds of TV and networking. The Digital Entertainer Elite (EVA9150) is the latest in a line of all-powerful media players. Bringing together all things digital, it connects to your television and can pull content from your home network as well as the Internet. If you just want to be able to get Internet TV direct to your new slimmed-down HDTV, check out the Netgear ITV2000. There is plenty of streamed media to choose from, with sources such as BBC.com, CNN.com, ESPN.com, and EuroSport.com, to name but a few.

With the television continuing to maintain its status as the center point of home entertainment, don’t forget to get out of your chair once in a while to stretch your legs!

By Jon Kenton

The holiday season is with us once again, and whether you are adding to your own personal wish list or racking your brains for gift ideas, I thought I would help by outlining a few of this fall’s latest gadgets and gizmos.

New cell phones and PDAs continue to hit the market. Touch screens (perfect for Smart phones) are appearing everywhere. HTC’s Touch Pro combines a slide-out keyboard with touch-screen technology—the best of both worlds and very iPhone-like. The TouchPro runs Windows Mobile 6.1, and has great connectivity options—Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and even GPS. Expect to pay $300–$400 with a service agreement.

For BlackBerry fans who like flip phones, the Pearl Flip 8220 will be of interest. The 8220, the first clamshell design from RIM, has everything you would expect of a BlackBerry, including multimedia capabilities, camera, browser, and e-mail. It also has built in Wi-Fi. Pricing is around $349, and T-Mobile will be one of the providers.

This fall, most camera manufacturers are continuing to introduce new and updated D-SLRs. New mid-range models include Pentax’s K-m, Panasonic’s Lumix G1, and the 50D from Canon. With resolutions ranging from 10–15 megapixels (50D) and a slew of features including auto dust removal and anti-shake technology, they are all great options for stepping up into the realm of Digital SLR photography. If high resolution in a pocket-size point-and-shoot package is more your thing, check out the Canon SD 990 IS. Fifteen MP, manual controls, image stabilization, and their DIGIC 4 processor for great results and fast response times all make this a powerful package for approx $340.

In the world of gaming, titles such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero have turned our living rooms into grand concert stages. This September, Rock Band 2 was announced. This updated version has many enhanced features and new modes; there’s also a new and improved drum kit. The game comes with 100 songs, and there’s a constant stream of new downloadable tunes released every month. Also be on the lookout for Guitar Hero World Tour . The folks at Guitar Hero are now matching the Rock Band configuration with the addition of a drum kit and microphone.

E-books and e-book readers are gaining in popularity. They are able to hold many hundreds (or thousands, with additional memory cards) of titles in a lightweight portable package. Popular models include the Reader Digital Book from Sony, iRex Technologies’ Digital Reader Series and iLiad Book Edition and, of course, the Kindle from Amazon. With hundreds of thousands of titles from classics to current bestsellers and a wide selection of newspapers and magazines, there is no shortage of things to read. Prices range from $300 to more than $600, depending on size and features.

Love scratching your head while trying to solve Suduko? Then how about adding an electronic version of the game to your wish list? Excalibur Electronics have created a touch-screen PDA-style version of this ever-popular puzzle. It has over 800 different puzzles, graded from easy to difficult and all created by Will Shortz, The New York Times Crossword Puzzle Editor. There are a couple of different-size versions ranging from $20–$80. Hours of fun—but keep some Advil handy!

By Jon Kenton

What is luxury? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, luxury is an “indulgence in something that provides pleasure, satisfaction, or ease,” but is not “absolutely necessary.” If we take a moment and look around our homes, offices, or cars, I am sure we will find many items that we see as real necessities. I would bet that, at one time, these items were seen as luxuries or even frivolities. The Austrian economist and philosopher Ludwig von Mises once said, “The luxury of today is the necessity of tomorrow.” This has been historically proven time and time again, wherever technology is involved.

Consider certain fundamentals that the majority of the population now owns and couldn’t or at least wouldn’t do without: radio, television—even the refrigerator and freezer. At one time, these were seen as luxury items. In the 1980s, a new gadget appeared in the marketplace. It was expensive and bulky, and most thought it would only ever be used by business executives. Any guesses? Yup, that was the cell phone. There are now nearly 3.5 billion mobile phone subscriptions—that’s over half the population of the world! Does that make it a luxury or a necessity?

Given our earlier definition of luxury—indulgent and unnecessary—most of the latest technogadgets would seem to fit the bill. They are either expensively adorned or “designerized” versions of current products that would seem for the most part to be highly indulgent, or clever new technology, or packaging that’s looking for that magic demographic that deems it necessary. Let’s take a look at a few current examples, some of which are creeping into the mainstream and others that are still way out there—you can decide where they fit.

Staying with the mobile phone theme, if you want the designer label to go with your latest device, they certainly come with a luxury price tag—Tag Heuer, to be exact. The company has a phone called the Meridiist, which they say is “the perfect cosmopolitan traveling companion, uniting formal purity with functional perfection.” No extra-special features, but you can get it in crocodile skin! A snip at around $6,000! If Christian Dior is more your style, they will soon have their latest creation available for $5,000—this phone is at least studded with diamonds! If these are a little pricy even for you, but you still want the luxury label, Armani and Prada phones can be had for around a tenth of these two “necessities.” If adding glitter or gold fits your definition of luxury, then you can pick up almost any technodevice with “enhancements.” From a jewel-encrusted $20,000 Kodak camera to a gold-plated Gameboy ($25K) or even a whopping 71-inch plasma TV with a 24-karat gold casing for an equally whopping $132,000.

Back to the more mundane—at least pricewise. How about those GPS units? Once a definite luxury, but not so now with portable units available for a few hundred dollars—but are they really necessary? They certainly can be convenient when visiting unknown places, or trying to find the nearest gas station or Tag store to buy your $5,000 cell phone. The technology continues to evolve, and before long, a GPS device will be a near-standard feature in most cell phones or cars.

Multimedia is now everywhere, from our desktop to our mobile devices. The integration of these devices into our homes and lives is less pervasive. The DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance, dlna.org) has brought together over 250 companies from the fields of consumer electronics, computing, and mobile device with the goal of changing this. They are creating standards and specifications aimed at the next generation of devices that will ensure seamless integration such that we can watch or listen to whatever we want, wherever we want, whenever we want.

If these items seem like indulgences today, think back to the days when the VCR was first introduced. Once we can gain such control over our ever-increasing multimedia environments, necessities they will be.

By Jon Kenton

There are over a billion PCs out there, and a large majority of them has one version or another of Mr. Gates’s productivity suite, Microsoft Office.

Although the premium versions have lots of extras (e.g., database software or Web development/publishing tools), the three foundational legs of the Office suite are Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Millions of people use these now de facto tools every day for word processing, number crunching, and creating presentations. Most, however, probably use less than ten percent of the capability of the software, typing simple documents or using Excel essentially as a calculator.

I am frequently asked about a variety of issues, to which the answer is: “Office can do that.” “Really? I never knew!” is the usual response.

Here are a few suggestions that will help you get more productive with your productivity software. First and foremost, treat yourself to a book. There are numerous types; for example, the For Dummies series that will walk you through all the clever things the software can do. I guarantee that you will be pleasantly surprised and find many easy ways to achieve results you have been ignoring or doing by hand. You have spent hundreds of dollars on a PC and the software—another few bucks on a book is money well spent.

I obviously don’t have room to cover a book’s worth of tips and instructions, but here are some of my favorites that I use all the time. Many are implemented across the entire MS Office suite. Others are specific only to certain tools.

Keyboard Shortcuts Many if not all of the most commonly used commands can be accessed via a keyboard shortcut. This means that you are not continually removing your hands from the keyboard and reaching for the mouse. To use them, it requires hitting a couple of keys at the same time, usually the Ctrl (Control) key. Examples might be Cut and Paste—Ctrl C and Ctrl V—or Undo, which is Ctrl Z.

Format Painter This is one of my favorites. Once you have set up the style of a particular portion of text, the painter allows you to literally paint that style onto other areas. You use it by selecting the original format and then clicking on the paintbrush icon on the main toolbar. If you double click, it will stay active until you click it again. Try it out.

Images Management With digital cameras now so prevalent, everybody is adding his or her own pictures into documents. If you need to do some simple editing, rather than going back to your photo program, right-click on the image and select the picture toolbar. This gives you access to simple adjustments, brightness, contrast, and even cropping tools. It also has a compression button. This resizes the data in the images to match the usage of the document. The worst culprits are PowerPoint presentations in which the addition of numerous full-size images will quickly make for a 10+Mb file—not very e-mail friendly.

AutoCorrect You may not realize it but these applications actually take care of your mistakes for you. Try typing t-e-h instead of the—miraculously, it changes automatically. This is the AutoCorrect feature. You can make this work even further for you. If you type a phrase or long name frequently, you can set this feature to help you. For example, you can make it automatically change nvm to North Valley Magazine. Look under Tools for the AutoCorrect options menu.

Drawing tables Many people have a hard time with adding tables and figuring out beforehand how many rows or columns they need for the dialogue box. A much easier way to create a table is using the Tables and Borders toolbar. You will see a pencil and eraser icon in the top-left of this toolbar. Simply use these to draw and/or erase lines, and voila—there is your table.

You can find out more about these features by looking at the included help in each application, and of course, in the shiny new book you have just bought.

By Jon Kenton

In January, we hail in the New Year, make our resolutions, and head back to work after the holidays. If you are in the technology industry, January means heading to Las Vegas for CES, the International Consumer Electronics Show. This is where everybody shows off their latest innovations and techno gadgets.

I spent a week there, and here is my rundown of the latest and greatest. If you like to be an early adopter, make sure some of these items are on your buy-me list.

Televisions loomed large in the central hall, and when I say large, I mean large! Panasonic introduced their 150-inch plasma screen. In case you have some spare space in your living room, you’ll need eleven feet to fit this monster in. Now, that really is home theater. Know, however, that bigger is not always better, especially when it comes to the thickness of TVs. Many manufacturers were featuring new OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) Technology. Sony demonstrated their XEL-1 11-inch version as well as a prototype of a 20-inch OLED screen. These babies are ultra-thin—about the thickness of three stacked credit cards. Pioneer also had a wow factor with their “Project Kuro” 50-inch plasma, which was all of 9mm thick—that’s just over a third of an inch! Not only that, but they boast an infinite contrast ratio, meaning absolutely black blacks.

If a huge screen and 360-degree soundstages are not enough for your home theater experience, then you should check out the Motion Code system from D-BOX Technologies. By adding motion actuators to your existing furniture and utilizing equipment that can decode an extra motion track on your DVD, you can feel every bump and roll along with your favorite action stars. In a demonstration featuring the latest Die Hard movie, we experienced what D-BOX claim is the ultimate in sensory emersion. All we need now is the heat from all those explosions and the smell and feel of Bruce Willis’s perspiration, and we’ll be in sensory overload.

There were some very stylish new products, and the Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin certainly qualifies—it won a CES Innovations award. The Zeppelin is an iPod dock-and-speaker system. It has a total output of 100w with two midrange/tweeters at 25w plus 50w of bass. Netgear was also awarded in the home networking Innovations category for their Powerline HD Plus. This device allows you to create a home network using your existing home electric circuits. You simply plug in an adaptor, connect your device’s network cable, and off you go.

Staying with the home-networking theme, D-Link had a slew of new products on display at CES. As well as additions to their wireless router range, they added four new media players. My favorite was the MediaLounge PC-on-TV (DPG-1200), which allows you to stream Internet media content from your PC to your television. It copies your PC’s desktop onto your TV screen; with a functional trackball remote, you can control your PC from your armchair, even if it’s elsewhere in your house.

To see absolutely everything that’s featured at CES, you need to walk the aisles for the whole week. If you are looking for that very indispensable something, then Interactive Toy Concepts has just the thing for you. Their RC Cooler, one of my favorite items at the show, will find a place in my backyard. Yes, it’s a cooler and it keeps your beer cool. Nothing new there. But this cooler is on wheels and has remote control. With just a flick of a switch, RC will deliver a cold one right to your chair—now, that’s cool!

By Jon Kenton

The advent of wireless home networks has created a booming industry, providing great freedom and flexibility for us all. Unfortunately, it has also spawned a new breed of pests: piggybackers who take advantage of your unsecured network and use your broadband service for free. Worse, if you have shared storage and an open network, they can get to that, too. And wireless has made life even easier for the worst kind of pest—hackers. If your network is left unsecured, they can easily gain access and wreak untold havoc on all your PCs and servers. But don’t fret—there are some basic steps that you can take to secure yourself.

1. Site your router as close to the center of your home as possible. This will minimize signal leakage outside your walls. This is often difficult, as you must place it near wherever the broadband connection enters your home. Also, most apartments are much smaller than the transmission capability of a router. You would still probably leak to all the other apartments around you.

2. Change the default password. Every wireless router has an administration function that allows you to set it up and change its configuration. The defaults for all routers are widely known, so as soon as you install your router, change the password!

3. Change the SSID and then hide it. When your PC goes searching for a network, it is looking for a network name or SSID. Out of the box, it will be set to the same name as for everyone else who bought the same router. The first thing to do is to change it to a unique name you can remember. Don’t use something generic like “office”—be a little more creative. Once you have done this, set your router to not broadcast the SSID. This will prevent anybody from seeing it. You can still enter it manually on your laptop, as you know the name. Once you have set the Remember Network setting, you won’t need to do it again. This should prevent most piggybackers, but won’t stop hackers.

4. Enable MAC filtering. Each PC’s network adaptor has a unique identifier known as a MAC address. You can set your router to work only with PCs whose MAC addresses you have identified.

5. Turn on Encryption. This essentially creates a code that only your router and PCs know how to decode. There are two common forms: WEP and WPA. WEP is better than using nothing, but serious hackers have figured out how to break this coding scheme. WPA or WPA2 is the strongest encryption available today. The issue is that not all PCs and routers have all encryption schemes, so pick whichever one all the devices on your network will support. They all work in a similar way. You pick a key, which is a string of letters and numbers much like a password. You enter this into each device’s encryption configuration, and then they all know the key to unlock the code so they can communicate. Change the keys periodically.

If you take the above steps, you will have made yourself as secure as you can against wireless intruders. Would you leave the door to your home wide open? I doubt it! So, why leave your wireless network wide open?