About a decade ago, if you wanted to put your application on the Internet, you started by buying a server. Then, you had two choices: Bring enough bandwidth to your office or put your server in someone else’s facility. Given the cost of Internet connectivity at the time, it was usually less expensive to rent […]

Pinnacle Studio Plus has been around a long time, and every version gets better. In fact, one might argue that other packages targeting the consumer market have become better by competing with Studio. The product follows an intuitive three step process: Capture, Edit, and Make Movie. ‘Capture’ is used to import video from a camcorder. […]

If you’ve ever decided to loose weight, you’ve undoubtedly been exposed to an endless stream of products, most of which make it sound very easy. Take this pill or drink this tea and those extra pounds will simply disappear. While deep down we know that achieving weight loss requires a process in which we consume […]

The Olympus Stylus 1050 SW is a pocket-size camera with specifications that include: waterproof to 3m (10ft), shockproof to 1.5m (5ft), functional to –10 C, a 10.1 megapixel sensor, 3x optical zoom lens, digital image stabilization and some neat new features. There are a number of things I love about the 1050 SW. Olympus has […]

Having your laptop stolen can ruin your whole week. Hopefully, by now, you’re backing it up regularly and you know that there’s software available that can dramatically improve the odds of getting your computer back. But perhaps the creepiest aspect of having your laptop stolen is that someone might be going through the information you […]

Years back, we used to joke about virtual reality gaming and what would happen if a total virtual environment like Star Trek’s holodeck was really invented. As I recall, our consensus at the time was that those who couldn’t separate virtual and real worlds would probably die of starvation. While we’re fortunately not quite there […]

Pinnacle, part of the Avid family, made a lot of noise earlier in the year when they released VideoSpin for free download. Unlike the other products I looked at, VideoSpin does not include the ability to create a DVD. Its focus is on creating video for YouTube, Yahoo! Video, or exporting files for use on […]

Last week, I wrote about the importance of backups in preventing data disasters but that’s only one of the things I worry about. Even if you can recover your data from a recent backup, a few questions remain: Who has your data, what can you do about it, and can you get your computer back? […]

Premiere Elements is Adobe’s consumer video editing package. Going from raw video to a finished production in Premiere is a very straight-forward three step process: Edit, Create Menus, and Share. The Premiere Elements 4.0 editing mode allows you to work with video clips of various formats, including “themes” that it provides to help with your […]

The SP-565 UZ is the latest “ultimate portable zoom camera” from Olympus and is very similar to the SP-570 that I recently wrote about. The 565 and 570 have virtually identical specifications; the main change being that Olympus wisely removed the electronic (i.e.- non-mechanical) zoom ring from the lens and placed it around the release […]

Imagine you’re at work and the phone rings. It’s your alarm company, your home has been burglarized. You arrive home and, among other possessions, your computer is gone. To make matters worse, so are your accounting files, several years worth of email, and every digital photo you have of your kids. If you’re lucky, your […]

The Coolpix P6000 is Nikon’s flagship compact digital camera. Its main features include a 13.5 megapixel sensor, a 4x zoom lens (35mm equivalent of 28-112mm) with vibration reduction, a beautiful 2.7” LCD display, full manual controls, and RAW image capture. Nikon also added two firsts: A built-in GPS for automatic geotagging and an Ethernet port […]