Matt’s Desk: Editor’s Blog

I use USB thumb drives to store all sorts of data, most of which would be useless (and boring) to anyone other than myself.  But some of the data is potentially valuable, including aspects of my finances and even some private information entrusted to me by third parties.  This reality has somewhat limited my use of USB drives since they can be so easily dropped, misplaced or stolen.

In the past I’ve experimented with encryption software, but I don’t think the average user would be very comfortable with much of what’s out there.  What the USB-thumb-drive-using masses need is a drive that comes with good security right out of the box.

And that’s exactly what the new Corsair Padlock 2 has: 256-bit AES hardware encryption baked right in.  What does this mean?  Well, in a nutshell, it means that there’s internal juju that locks down the information stored on the drive and it’s not computer dependant.  There’s no software to install, and there are no special adapters.  You just program the lock code (4-10 digits), and enter that code using the buttons on the drive to unlock the data.  Don’t input the correct code, and the Padlock 2 doesn’t even register when it’s plugged into a USB port.  If you did happen to lose the Padlock, it can only be used by the person who finds it once it’s been restored to factory defaults, which wipes all data in memory. 

I think this product (or products like it) will prove invaluable to professionals who carry sensitive data on a daily basis (lawyers and CPAs come to mind).  But its uses go far beyond preventing corporate espionage or identity theft – the Padlock 2 security is great for students, parents, or anyone who has mobile data to keep safe.

At present, the Corsair Padlock 2 is available in an 8GB capacity.

I began looking for a book light for my Kindle about a week ago.  What I quickly found was that most solutions were clip-on, gooseneck lights that seemed to stick out too far with too much off-center bulk. That’s not really what I wanted.

Then, during a Google Images search, I stumbled across the Kandle, a cleverly-named, Kindle-inspired LED book light that’s also compatible with other eBook devices like the Sony Reader.

The Kandle is the only Kindle-compatible book light I found without a long, flexible neck to deal with.  Rather, the Kandle has a wide, two-hinged light that’s situated at the top of the screen.  This is exactly what I was looking for.

The only thing that makes me a bit hesitant to go with the Kandle is that it runs on two CR2032 “coin” batteries.  These batteries aren’t as easy to find as, say, AAA batteries, and I can’t imagine they’d last as long.  Still, Amazon has a set of 25 of these batteries for a little over $5, so that should last a while.

So, I think I’m going to take the plunge and grab a Kandle.  Any thoughts? 

The most frustrating thing about web video is that you have to jump through so many hoops to watch it on a TV.  I use the PS3 for streaming Netflix, but I can’t watch Hulu or other web videos on the console; for that, you really need a PC or Mac connected to your boob tube.

But TV manufacturers are beginning to tune into the fact that Internet video is here to stay and that it’s most naturally viewed on a TV. To cash in on this reality,  a new generation of TVs is emerging with built-in Internet connectivity, video playback and web software.  And it’s about time.

One of the first pioneers into this brave new world is VIZIO, a brand of TVs sold largely by Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club.  Three new VIZIO TVs will be available for purchase next week (the 42-inch SV422XVT, the 47-inch SV472XVT and the 55-inch VF552XVT) that include VIZIO Internet Apps, or VIA, which allow you to connect to the Internet (via 802.11n Wi-Fi or Ethernet cable) for watching Netflix, Amazon Video on Demand, Yahoo! Video and VuDu.  Hopefully Hulu will join the party at some point, but I won’t hold my breath. 

And the VIZIO Internet Apps aren’t just about web video.  There’s also social networking capabilities with Twitter and Facebook connectivity, Internet radio via Pandora, and photo viewing with flickr. 

That’s all well and good, but it’s the built-in web video technology that caught my attention.  It’ll be interesting to see how this trend develops.

Irfan Skiljan’s Irfanview is my favorite general, all-purpose image viewer and editor.  The program is small (about 1.3MB), simple to use, has a range of useful features and makes solving many everyday image problems a worry free affair.  Oh, yeah – and it’s totally free.

I use Irfanview for many things.  If a family member or friend sends a photo that’s 4000 pixels wide, I can resize it with a couple of mouse clicks.  If I have a PNG or TIF image that I want to convert to a JPG or a GIF, Irfanview does that, too.  It also works with TWAIN scanners, including my Canon LiDE 200, making scanning in and editing new photos a snap. Advanced features include batch renaming and format conversion, icon file support, and tons of add-ons for specific uses.

I could go on and on – and I’ve only scratched the surface – but suffice it to say Irfanview is one of those applications I would hate to live without.  Even If you only dabble with images on your PC (Irfanview, sadly, is Windows only), download the software and free yourself from image headaches. 

I depend on Windows for most of my office work (and am actually a Windows lover), but my personal computers are Macs – and I love them, too.  So when Apple today announced a refresh of its Mac line, I was interested to find out exactly what was what. 

Most of the changes aren’t exactly breathtaking, but they are certainly welcome.

First, Apple announced new LED-backlit iMacs with Core 2 Duo, “coming soon” Core i5 and Core i7 CPU options, and your choice of 21.5-inch and 27 inch displays.  The Core 2 Duo models are shipping now, but the Core i5 and i7 models won’t ship until November.  I have a Core i7 CPU in my office PC and man, does that kitty purr.

Apple also refreshed the oft-forgotten Mac mini with new CPU, hard drive and memory options.  On top of that, there’s a new Mac mini server without an optical drive, but with room for two hard drives.

A new plastic unibody MacBook replaces the old plastic model with a new LED-backlit display, a multi-touch track pad, and a built-in battery (boo!) for up to 7 hours of use per charge.  There isn’t much in the way of configuration options with the new MacBook; it ships with a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, 2GB of RAM (4GB max), a 250GB hard disk and the nVIDIA 9400M GPU.  There’s also a SuperDrive.

The only revolutionary product (arguably – I’ll reserve judgment until I use one) of today’s release is the new Magic Mouse.  This one is pretty interesting. 

The top surface of the Magic Mouse is a multi-touch sensor; you can click anywhere (the entire top piece is a button), use multi-touch gestures, touch scrolling up-and-down or left-and-right, click on the left or right sides for left or right clicks, etc.  It connects via Bluetooth, so you don’t have to use a USB dongle for Bluetooth-enabled Macs. 

The downside?  The Magic Mouse sells for $70.

I’m seriously considering getting one.  What about you?

You can check out all of these new products at the Apple Store.

This summer I wrote a short blog post about DoubleKiller, a free duplicate file finder for Windows that had saved me a great deal of time in locating and erasing redundant files on my office PC.  Since that post, I’ve received a lot of email on the topic, mostly from users, but  also from a few makers of competing products.

One such product, DupeTrasher 2009, caught my attention, and I agreed to try the software for an additional posting about a duplicate file finder, but this time of a retail alternative ( DupeTrasher sells for $24.95).

Let me begin by saying that DupeTrasher is much more attractive than DoubleKiller; that may or may not make a difference to you, but I think this simple, attractive interface is more user-friendly, particularly for less-experienced Windows users.

You have several pre-defined option icons (seen above) including One-Click Search (which scans your entire PC), Master Folder Search (which locates duplicates for deletion outside a specified master location) and Custom Search.  There is also a CD/DVD Duplicate finder, which scans a CD or DVD disc’s contents, then checks your hard drive for redundant copies which can can be deleted.  There’s also an Archive feature which searches for duplicates both of archive files (ZIP, RAR, etc.) themselves and of archive contents.

I found the CD/DVD function particularly helpful since I have so many backup discs lying around.  I was able to find over 21GB of duplicate files on my external hard drives which were already backed-up to three different discs; given more time I hope to be able to find other duplicates already backed-up to disc.

Whichever search method you choose, once completed you’ll be given a results page, showing any duplicate files found based on your desired parameters.  Here you can decide how to proceed, select which file(s) you’d like to delete and so on:

(CLICK TO ENLARGE)

I found the color-coded results page made deciding which files to delete much easier than solutions with a plainer, more DOS-like appearance.

Comparing and contrasting a free and a retail duplicate file solution was interesting.  My verdict is this:

If your needs are simple, and if you’re a fairly advanced computer user, free solutions like DoubleKiller will probably suit your needs just fine.  But if you’re a  novice to intermediate user, or one who needs highly specific features like CD/DVD or Master Folder searches, DupeTrasher 2009 is probably worth its $25 price tag.  There is a free trial, so — of course — take it for a spin before you buy.

Update: From now until mid-November, use the coupon code DT2009-P32D at checkout and save 40% off the retail price of DupeTrasher 2009.

DupeTrasher 2009 Web Site

-M

Have opinions or questions about this review?  Please post in the comments section below, send me a Tweet or email me.

I use a Sony PS3 as my living room Blu-ray player – not because I play console games, but because it made the most sense to me compared with other players.  Why?  Because the PS3 also plays video files from USB drives, has a wireless Internet connection, an internal hard drive, access to an online video store and unbeatable processing power.  As a BD player, the PS3 has served me very, very well.

My only complaint has been that I couldn’t use my Logitech Harmony remote to control Blu-ray playback.  The console accepts only corded and Bluetooth control inputs, which means Infrared remotes like my beloved Harmony 670 didn’t work – but now there’s a solution.

Logitech has released the Harmony Adapter for Playstation 3, a small add-on that allows all Harmony remotes to control the PS3. The adapter receives IR commands from Harmony remotes and then sends those commands over Bluetooth to your PS3.  It supports all 51 PS3 command inputs and is good for Blu-ray control, navigating the XMB and even powering the PS3 on and off.

Now I can finally control every device in my home entertainment center with a single remote control.

The Logitech Harmony Adapter for PS3 is now available for purchase from the following retailers:

Amazon.com     Logitech Online Store     Buy.com

I love Hulu.  But confined to a web browser, the service has somewhat limited utility. 

Now, Hulu is available as a stand-alone application on Windows and the Mac OS.  This app is not only beautiful, it’s very functional and makes it easy to watch full TV show episodes, clips and movies without bothering with a browser.

Connect your PC or Mac to your TV and Hulu Desktop really comes alive.  It works with remotes (assuming your computer has one) which allows you to move through menus, make selections and more, all without mousing or keyboarding.  It’s video on-demand in a user friendly package – and it’s 100% free.

I’ve been using Hulu app for a few hours and so far, not a single problem; if that changes, I’ll let you know.

If you’re a fan of the service, download the desktop version and give it a try yourself.

One of the first things I did after I received my new MacBook 13.3″ Unibody notebook was upgrade the RAM and hard drive.  The 2.4GHz unit that is $1599 (MSRP) comes with 2GB of DDR3 RAM and a 250GB hard drive.  I wanted to double each of these.

Upgrading your MacBook does not void the warranty; this is a myth. Apple provides, quite openly, instructions on how to perform each of these upgrades.  Just know that if you make some horrible mistake while upgrading, this will make Apple less willing to help you!

I doubled the capacity of both the hard drive and the RAM: 250gb -> 500GB hard drive and 2GB -> 4GB DDR3 memory.  These two upgrades cost $157 – from Apple the memory upgrade alone would have been $100 (I paid about $65 for mine), and Apple doesn’t yet offer a 500GB drive option. With the extra 2GB of memory and a doubling of the storage space, my MacBook is really rockin’. 

The upgrade components I used were:

• Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500GB 2.5″ SATA Hard Drive
• Crucial CT2KIT25664BC1067 2×2GB DDR3 SODIMM

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If you’ve ever sent multiple files to a single recipient, chances are you’ve created a ZIP file.  Even if you’ve never created one yourself, you’ve almost certainly received or downloaded one. 

I’ve downloaded thousands of ZIP files over the years, but in the past few months I’ve begun to notice more and more multiple-file downloads distributed not as ZIP files, but as RAR files (with filenames ending in .rar). Like ZIP archives, RAR files are mules, designed to compress multiple individual files into a single file for distribution or download. 

Unlike the ubiquitous ZIP format, however, Windows doesn’t have the native ability to open or extract RARs, and chances are, if you ever download one, you’ll have no way to open it without downloading new software.

WinRAR is the most popular utility for dealing with RAR files, but it’s $29.  If you’re not up for spending thirty bucks to open a single file, check out IZArc.  The software handles RAR files quite nicely, as well as ZIP, BIN, TZ, CAB, ISO and ARC files, just to name a few.

For users who are no stranger to archive file types, IZArc also offers useful features like drag-and-drop support, Windows Explorer integration, AES encryption, multi-volume split/merge, disk spanning, and more.  I like IZArc so much, I’ve made it my default Windows program for dealing with all archive files.

Matt