Top 25 Tech Advances for 2005-2006
1. HP
iPaq 2495: This Pocket PC replaced my worn-out iPaq 2215, and it is
better in every way, with built-in wireless Internet, Word Mobile, which now
saves documents in the native .doc format, PowerPoint is now included, as well
as a revamped Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player. It has more memory, more hard drive space,
and now allows you to easily rotate the screen to show wider images, which is
very handy. It is just better in every
way, and the best upgrade of the year.
2. HP
Pavilion DV9000 Notebook: Why
would have thought that it would be so hard to decide on my first laptop
purchase? I looked at hundreds before
choosing the 4 lb. Dell Inspiron XPS 1210, but when that eBay deal turned out
to be a fraud, I went big. My goal was a
“desktop replacement” with the most power I could find. A workhorse!
So I went with this sleek but powerful stallion with 2 GB of RAM and a
17-inch widescreen monitor. It runs
Windows XP Media Center, which I’m still not totally sold on, but with the new
AMD Turion X2 dual-core processor and 2 100 GB hard drives, it serves my
purposes very well. It has a built-in
media card reader and a high-speed slot for the included TV Tuner card, as well
as the icing on the cake, two audio output jacks for headphones and a built-in
web cam. 4 USB ports also meet all
peripheral needs. Plus, it looks very classy.
At 7.8 lbs, it’s a bit big, but remember, it’s a desktop replacement.
3. Atomic
Learning tutorials published: This was the year for me to hit the
national Web site atomiclearning.com, of which I am a member. As luck would have it, I contacted them and
they gave me a shot. After getting my
“Audacity” series published on their site, they wanted a 2nd series of my
choice. Thus, "PC Maintenance and
Security" was born and I think it’s my best accomplishment so far. Now they want more. Getting the nice Christmas gift box of
chocolates direct from
4. Audacity:
This is the software program that launched my career with AtomicLearning, and
its ability to record directly from a computer’s stereo mixer, edit any sound
and export it as an MP3 has given people around the world more capability than
they’ve ever had, and at what price?
Absolutely free open source software at its finest. If you’re not an audio pro, this software is
all you need. It can do wonders if you
know how to use it. If you don’t, then
check out my tutorial on AtomicLearning.com
5. Streaming
audio & video wirelessly: I’m still not sure if it’s my new
laptop’s powerful built-in wireless network card, its fast processor, my
software or my router, but I am now able to stream audio and video files over
my home network from my desktop hard drive to my laptop in real time without
any noticeable drops in quality.
6. Comcast
OnDemand: We switched to Comcast cable TV after using DirecTV for a
while. The biggest improvement is their
wonderful OnDemand choices which allow you to watch free movies with just a
click of the remote, as well as previous episodes of cable shows that you might
have missed. Very convenient, and the
more added cable services you pay for, the more OnDemand choices you have. This really adds a nice interactive option to
your Comcast experience.
7.
8. 2.5”
Laptop Hard Drive with Enclosure: When looking for a flash drive with
the highest capacity possible, I stumbled onto these little laptop-sized hard
drives of 40 GB, 60 GB, 80 GB, etc. Since
they fit in the palm of your hand, they make for the perfect portable external
drive that can be used to back up not only your documents, but also your
movies, music and photo collection all in one place.
9. Sony
CyberShot camera w/video capability: After losing our Nikon CoolPix
digital camera, we found this one at Staples in the discount rack. Its 6-megapixel resolution is outstanding,
and its diminutive size makes it perfect to carry around. Even the .mpg videos have turned out
well. This was a very nice bargain
replacement digital camera.
10. The
Core Pocket Media Player: I
can’t begin to tell you how pleased I am with this little media player for PDAs
(it works on both the Palm and Windows CE/Pocket PC operating systems). TCPMP is the only application made for the
Pocket PC that plays all compressed video formats, such as DivX, Xvid, MPEG,
QuickTime, etc. and the video quality is
like high definition. None of the
digital video defects, such as the bad audio-video synchronization problems
found in previous pocket media players.
This one just works. Have you
ever wanted to watch a full feature film or converted DVD on your Pocket
PC? Now you can. This program is made even better when you
find out that it is open-source and costs nothing.
11. Laptop Cooling Pad (USB) Stand: My wife turned me on to this phenomenon. A little stand with built-in fans to help
cool your laptop. I was skeptical, but
it works like a dream. Most high-powered
laptops today run very hot, and your lap may get hot enough to fry an egg. Not a pleasant experience. This laptop cooling pad, platform, stand,
whatever you want to call it, will keep your notebook as cool as can be for
long periods of time. I now recommend
them to all laptop users.
12. Real Rhapsody/Comcast:
Comcast teamed up with Real (makers of RealPlayer) to offer something
extra to their customers. It’s called
Rhapsody, and its music services compete with Apple’s iTunes and Roxio’s
Napster. There is no better way to enjoy
online music with a broadband Internet connection than this service. With Comcast, you can enjoy Internet radio in
perfect CD quality, you can create your own personalized radio stations based
on up to 10 of your favorite artists, plus you get the usual 25 free music
plays from their vast collection. You
can watch music videos from many popular artists for free, and their
information and discography of each artist is excellent. I like the create-your-own radio station
feature the best, and when used with Audacity, you can record your own songs
and convert them to MP3 with no problem.
13. AllWebMenus
Pro: This $39.99 application is
designed to be used with popular HTML editors like FrontPage, or it can also be
used by itself. It is a DHTML
menu/JavaScript menu maker that allows you to design attractive menus and site
maps for your Web sites with minimal effort.
The program generates on the fly the navigatable preview of the menu you
are designing, and for FrontPage users, all you have to do is have a
Navigational structure, and AllWebMenus does the rest of the work in creating a
very cool and professional looking interactive menu. This program really blew me away, and I used
it to create the menu for our District Technology Site.
14. MP3
Maker 11 Deluxe: After becoming
fed up with Roxio’s latest Music-CD-burning software offerings (they haven’t
come out with a decent one since version 6), and since I cannot uninstall
version 9 without corrupting Windows XP, I decided to try something new to record music CDs. MP3 Maker 11 Deluxe by Magix offers several
very good features in a single multi-tabbed interface. It allows you to manage your music into a virtual
library (like iTunes), record directly from your computer, from a microphone,
from a CD, etc. (like Audacity et al), convert CDs and other audio files to MP3
(like MusicMatch Jukebox et al), but it is more intuitive and has additional
features that the others don’t have, such as Auto DJ and Audio ID. The only feature it’s missing is a CD
label-maker, which I’m told is in the
15. FearNet
(Web site & cable network): This new and interesting multimedia horror
movie service, launched on Halloween of 2006, is the first multi-platform
horror network. It offers more than
1,000 horror movies from the Sony and LionsGate libraries as video on demand,
online and over mobile devices. FearNet
On Demand (available to Comcast subscribers) features about 200 titles a year,
with more than 70 hours of programming per month. Online, Fearnet.com offers a video-rich site
packed with free movies, a message board, and fresh original content. This network is a must for any horror fan
like myself.
16. Comcast's
video e-mail: After a little tweaking of settings, I finally got
Comcast’s video e-mail to work with my laptop.
This is a really nice service that is easy to use once it’s set up, and
it will impress your friends and relatives since the video e-mails should play
on any computer with Windows. Imagine
sending a unique video message to celebrate the experience of a baby’s first
birthday, or to hear a child’s first words.
The possibilities are endless, and Comcast deserves credit for adding
this multimedia component to its e-mail and making it so easy to do.
17. Blogs
hit mainstream: I think Blogs
(Web logs or Web diaries) are an interesting phenomenon, and although I have
not taken part in it yet, I have done some research on the topic and find it to
be a great way for people to share their thoughts, views and knowledge. There are many great blogs on the Web, and
Google (among others) have some excellent blogging tools that anyone can use to
get started. Look for this to only gain
in popularity in the upcoming years.
18. LogMeIn
accounts set up for customers: LogMeIn.com has become my secret weapon,
and its basic features are free.
Creating an account and setting up its software can take less than 10
minutes. Recently I have told some of my
customers about LogMeIn, and have had them set it up on their home
computers. This way they can allow me to
access their computer remotely, even if their firewall or security settings
will not allow me to access their computer in any other way. LogMeIn works no matter what, and since I install
it on all of my own computers, I have learned the best ways to use it. LogMeIn Pro allows users to move files back
and forth between computers and print files from one location to another. This is probably the one service I have that
I absolutely could not do without.
19. Live
Windows Boot CD with Norton Ghost installed:
PHASD computer technician Jamie Yielding’s greatest creation (a Windows Live
Boot CD with Norton Ghost and Microsoft Office installed) allows for easy
backup of customer machines. It is the
quickest and easiest way to “Ghost” a laptop without a floppy drive and copy
the image directly to a USB external hard drive, among other things. It offers even more flexibility than using a
Live Linux CD because it allows you to copy files directly to an NTFS hard
drive, which Linux does not recognize.
Overall, I have gotten a lot of mileage out of this CD when fixing
people’s computers.
20. USB
LAN Adapter: Do you
have an older computer that does not have an Ethernet card? Non-computer-tech people might not care about
this, but if you need to download Windows updates and perform other
time-consuming downloads, this little USB network adapter allows you to connect
to a high-speed RJ-45 cable and convert a low-speed dial-up connection to a
high-speed broadband connection in seconds.
Of course you need the high-speed Internet connection to begin with, and
at least one free USB port, but if you have Windows XP, this will work without
installing any additional software.
Windows 98 users need the driver CD.
21. USB
Wi-Fi Adapter: This
is another option that eliminates the long network cable necessary in #20. If you have a wireless router (hotspot) in
your home or office (or neighborhood), installing the software and plugging
this little adapter into your USB port will offer wireless Internet
connectivity to a computer that didn’t have it previously. After I use this to connect to a Wi-Fi
hotspot, I do my downloading and then remove the software from the customer’s
machine.
22. iTunes-Video
downloads: Apple’s
iTunes has evolved with the advent
of their newer iPod Video player, and since that came out, the availability of
video downloads has increased drastically.
TV shows like “The Office” and “Lost” offer all of their episodes for
download, and besides being excellent music management software, their iTunes
Store is becoming a great, accessible place to find video for your computer or
iPod Video player (if you’re lucky enough to have one).
23. Podcasts
& Vodcasts (iTunes): One of the coolest new phenomena of
the past few years was that of Podcasts, and now Video Podcasts (known by some
as Vodcasts). There is no better place
to listen to them, or watch them than the king of all pod-catching software,
iTunes! Podcasts are regularly-scheduled
radio shows on various topics which people can subscribe to, and then they are
delivered through software to your computer.
Podcasts are downloaded often without your knowledge through the iTunes
software. When you open the program, you
will see that you have new episodes of podcasts that you have subscribed
to. One show I subscribe to is called
Photoshop TV, and it downloads video podcasts in lengthy 30-60 minute segments
on demand. The quality is
excellent. iTunes is not the only
podcatcher software available, but it is free and one of the best at it.
24. ABC
Amber
Outlook Converter: This is a $20.00 program that I bought for
one reason. It converts all of your
Microsoft Outlook e-mail into the format of your choice. You can string all messages together into a
PDF file, or break them up into a Web page (HTML), Word format, or dozens of
other file formats. It is great for
converting HTML e-mail into PDF so I can read large amounts of tech newsletters
all at once on my Pocket PC. It is easy
to use, and performs a very useful function for Outlook users.
25.
Anti-Spyware
Utilities: Any computer tech person will tell you that
there has been a scumware epidemic for the past few years. It has gotten so bad that even a brand new
computer can become flooded by spyware, adware and other malicious software
within hours of taking it out of the box.
No computer running Windows is safe without multiple anti-spyware
utilities. Some of the best of the past
few years include Windows Defender (free beta), Spyware Terminator (free), Webroot’s
Spy Sweeper ($30.00), Spybot Search & Destroy (free), Lavasoft Ad-Aware
(free), HiJackThis (free), Spyware Blaster (free), AVG Anti-spyware (free) and
Spyware Doctor ($30). The list of great
products goes on and on. None are
absolutely foolproof, but without at least two of these products, your computer
simply will not run efficiently for very long.
There is too much Web junk that can get in and gum it up. Take my advice and get some of these products
on your computer right away, and guard against the scumware epidemic.