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Ive been thinking about mounting my LCD HDTV on my wall over the fireplace. The only problem, I don’t want the wire web running along my floor, or hanging from my TV to the floor. One way I can hide the wires is by drilling holes and pulling the wires behind the walls. I can do that but the way the room is set up would make things a little difficult to do. I decided to check into what other options I have.

Thats when I found Wiremold. With Wiremold, you don’t have to pull wires behind your walls. Basically, Wiremold sits on the outside of your wall. Its more like tracks that you install on your walls and the wires run inside. Yea you can still see the tracks, but the wires are neatly hidden inside the tracks to give your Home theater a cleaner look.

Wiremold comes in a few different sizes of 5 ft tracks. The tracks adhere to your wall by either using adhesive tape, screws or a combination of both. The good thing about Wiremold, they are paintable. You can install your Wiremold, run your wires inside, snap on the covers and paint to match your walls.

I said that they are available in 5 ft sections but those sections can easily be cut to the size of your choosing. Also, there are accessories such as corners, reducers, junction boxes, and couplings that you can also purchase to round out your setup. I’m still considering several different options but so far Wiremold is tops on my list.

As far as price, if you check Cableorganizer.com you can get 5 ft sections anywhere from $8.25 to $15.00 a piece (depending on width).

We all know about Circuit City’s demise, at the fate of online retailers. Well I don’t know if that’s why CC is closing here soon but I feel it is. Regardless the reason, that leaves Bestbuy as the sole electronics store in my area, and that is bad, and I am sad. Enough about that, Lets talk about the deals.

My router has been acting up for a while now, loosing wireless connections, firewalling websites, locking up. First it was maybe 1 time a month or so. Then it started to happen a little more frequent. Now, it is happening several times a day. Forcing me to reboot every PC on my network and unplug the router for 20 seconds or so to fix. I cant be doing that all day so I decided it is time to get a new router. All the details about what I bought and how I made the decision is not important right now, what is important is this little overlooked but "I should’ve known" item of interest.

I picked the Linksys WRT54G2 (had the WRT54G). I was going to go to Bestbuy to pick it up, but I remembered Circuit City is doing their liquidation so I went there instead to see if I get a little bit of a deal. I did get a deal…Only %10 off  though. As I paid for the router and walked to the door, a CC employee was checking customers receipts. He looked at mine, and ran the highlighter across it and gave it back to me. As I walked out of the door, I looked at the receipt and notice that he didn’t just make a general checkmark on the receipt, he actually highlighted a line of text.

All Sales Final. No Returns, No Exchanges.

Yea the store is closing soon, and this is liquidation, but it never occurred to me that if I got home and the product didn’t work, I was stuck. Is saving %10 percent worth it? What If I bought something that was expensive, got home and found out it doesn’t work…or work with my equipment? A digital camera with a malfunctioning screen, a BluRay player with a broken disc tray…Anything can happen (and does from time to time).

Luckily the router I bought works fine, but that small little highlighted line of text has changed my thoughts about going to CC…untill of coarse the discounts are a lot better than %10

I never know who may read this blog but heres a tip, if you are stumped on what gift to buy someone, read their blog. You might find an answer. Someone used that bit of incite and got me one of the things I wrote about just before the holidays. The Black & Decker cordless power scissors was neatly wrapped under my tree this year…Well it wasn’t under a tree….and it was in a gift bag, not wrapped. Needless to say, I never would’ve thought something so simple would’ve been such an exciting gift to get.

Like a kid, I quickly opened it and started using it for just about anything I can think of. I’m not going to do a full review. Just going to tell you my quick impressions of hours of fun and nonsensical enjoyment I got out of trying to use these electric scissors for any task I can think of.

First, these Scissors are louder than I thought they would be. Sounds like a mini buzz saw. They also seem to cut through anything I threw at it. I say "seem to cut" because after using them for a while, I realized they aren’t heavy duty at all. Don’t get me wrong, the scissors are well built, and they do cut a lot of materials.  When you go to do a long cut on thicker materials, such as cardboard, they will tend to bog down and sometime stop mid cut. 

The best use I see for these Scissors are for cutting through that annoying blisterpack that many electronics are packaged. Thin simple materials such as paper, the Black & Decker cordless power scissors cuts through so well that I have to check to see if I’m actually cutting anything.

When you put a good job to the scissors, it will drain the battery pretty quick. Luckily it takes no time to recharge. Too bad you cant use the scissors and have them plugged in at the same time. I’m guessing that is keep you from mistakenly cutting through the power cable.

Even though it isn’t as powerful as I would’ve hoped, it is still pretty handy and well worth the money…which is about $16 on Amazon.

Ive been interested in the idea of a "Netbook" since its inception. A small, light weight laptop with hours of battery life for a low price. Something I can throw in my backpack and bring with me with no hassles. Needless to say I haven’t bought one yet (the economy is a killer these days). At CES, Sony unveiled a new product that really isn’t a Netbook, but along the same lines. The Sony Vaio P series is for the most part a netbook, but not really netbook priced. There are some differences right off the bat. take a look at the picture and see if you can see it…

The Vaio P has a 8 inch screen but it is a really wide screen for this class of computer. That wide screen makes a big difference. For example, the native resolution is 1600×768. Most Netbooks have a lower resolution. Higher resolution means a crisper display, and more screen real estate. The wide screen helps because it cuts out on some of the scrolling you have to do with most netbooks. For example, if you buy one of the 7 inch netbooks. you have to scroll horizontal and vertical when viewing web pages. with the wide screen, the whole website should fit on the screen horizontally, and you should only have to scroll vertically. That makes using the Sony Viao P a lot easier than other netbooks.

As far as the other specs, most are what you would expect from a  netbook.

Intel atom 1.33ghz processor

2 gb ram

60gb HDD

802.11 b/g/n

Integrated wireless broadband

GPS

Bluetooth

Media card slots

Pretty standard fare. The one difference is Vista. The Sony Vaio P comes with Windows Vista basic or premium installed, instead of Windows xp or linux like most Netbooks.

The price on this bad boy starts at $899 so its more of a premium netbook price. When you think about  the portability and style, many will be happy.

Read more here.

This years CES was a pretty scaled back affair. There were announcements and products, but the excitement of the previous years has been very minimal. Thats not to say that there wasn’t anything worth talking about. I haven’t blogged about anything that went on during CES, mainly cause I wanted to wait till the smoke clears. Now that it has, I want to talk to you about the product that I was most excited about.

The Palm Pre

If you have been reading this blog for a while, You’d know that I was a big fan of my Treo 650. A big fan of Palm’s Treo line of smartphones in general. Palm has been pretty quiet in the last few years but at this years CES they announced the Palm Pre. The Palm Pre is an all new smartphone, sporting an all new OS built by Palm. From the pictures and information Ive read about the Pre, I can say for now…Palm Is Back!!!

First the Pre combines 2 things that I have wished for, a nice big 3.1 inch touchscreen display, and a full slide out QWERTY keyboard. First lets talk about the keyboard. Currently, I own a Apple iPhone and my main complaint with that phone is how much I hate using the touchscreen for everything. I want a real Keyboard for typing. The Pre’s keyboard is very similar to the keyboard on Palm’s Centro, but a little bigger. Its also a vertical sliding keyboard. To be honest, the orientation of the keyboard doesn’t matter to me, as long as it has one.

In the past year, there has been many phones released that has touchscreen displays, but we all know that a touch screen is only as good as its interface. the interface on the Palm Pre is powered by an all new OS, the WebOS, developed by Palm and this OS looks to be a smoker.

Some of the other features of this Palm Pre include

MMS (which the iPhone still doesn’t have)

GPS

3 Megapixel digital camera (with LED flash)

WIFI (802.11 b/g)

Bluetooth (2.1)

8 gb storage

3g

Push Email

App store

Full media capabilities (3.5mm headphone jack)

Theres just one problem….Its going to be exclusive to sprint. Right now I cant leave AT&T (I have an awesome plan I cant give up). But according to what I heard on PC Mag radio, that sprint exclusivity will only last 3-6 months then the Pre will be released on all carriers. when it does, if its as good as It looks, I will be replacing my iPhone with the Pre. For now, looks like my New years wish number 7 has came true.

Read more about the Palm Pre here.

Saw this over at Engadget. Click the pic.

About 2 weeks ago, I got a little surprise in my mailbox. I received a pair of Ableplanet’s NC200 Clear Harmony foldable noise canceling headphones. Ive tried a bunch of inexpensive noise canceling/isolating earbuds but its been a while since Ive used a really nice pair of earphones.

To give you a little background, Able planet boast their "linx audio" noise canceling technology. as we all know, many manufactures of all types of listening devices have fancy names to the technology they use to lock out background noise. to be honest, I wasn’t really expecting too much. Checking the list price, these headphones sale for about $99 bucks so I would think that they should be one of the better set of headphones Ive used.

Opening the box

When I first opened the box, I noticed that they were a really nice looking pair of headphones. Nothing too fancy but they did have that "nice piece of hardware" look. In the box was the NC200 headphones (volume controls on the cord), a stereo adapter, and a simple black carrying pouch. I quickly put them on my head to see if they blocked out noise. I was a little disappointed. Noise was blocked but any more than any other pair of headphones…I thought (more on that later). The Headphones itself were pretty comfortable. I could see myself using them around the house or at my desk, I couldn’t see myself using them for my iPhone music listening when I’m out and about (I’m a earbud guy). Over all, as far as the look and feel, I was satisfied. I put them back in the box for later use.

How did they fair when used?

A day or so later, I sat down to use the NC200 for the first time, noticed that they didn’t fit into my iPhone so I decided to use my laptop. A friend was over and took a look at them. I was explaining how the noise canceling didn’t do much when I just put them on my head without anything playing and that’s when he pointed something out to me. On the side of the right headphone there is a little on and off switch. Dont know how I missed it before. I put the headphones on and flipped the switch to on and all of the background noise (and I was in an area with a lot of background noise) got sucked out of my head.

Ahhh here we go.

Theres that link audio that I read about. Now my disappointment from earlier was gone. I took the headphones off and looked at them again and noticed the battery compartment. The noise canceling tech is powered by a single AAA battery. So on to my test.

How did they fair?….for real this time.

Over the next couple of days, Ive used the NC200 exclusively for just about everything I did on my laptop. Ive listened to music, Watched movies, Online content, did a few video tutorials. Even tested the PZIZZ software I wrote about the other day. I was in the same area though all of the testing. That area is noisy, which makes a perfect environment to test noise canceling headphones. The technology used with the noise canceling headphones worked out really well. I felt it sufficiently blocked out background noise, to a point where once things are playing, you clearly heard what you were listing too, and nothing else (unless you concentrated on listening to things in the background). They didn’t quite block as much noise as some of the noise canceling earbuds Ive tried, but it was a more comfortable feeling. The earbuds Ive used all felt like my head was in a bubble, I didn’t get that feeling with the NC200. The NC200’s actually felt quite natural. There were times when I forgot there was even background noise and would flip the switch off to see what things sound like without the link audio technology activated. Big difference. I really liked the natural feeling of noise being removed when using the NC200’s. To give you an idea, Imagine you are in a room where someone is running a vacuum cleaner. Now imagine that person with the vacuum goes upstairs on the far side of the house. That was the difference.

As far as the sound quality, I was also satisfied. Movies sound great when played on my laptop using the NC200’s. You got a full range of sound and and every voice and sound effect was really clear, about as good as it would sound if I was sitting in a small room by myself watching a television.

Ok What did I not like?

I have to be honest, There wasnt much I didn’t like about these headphones…well maybe a few things. First the hinge where you fold the headphones for storage seem like it would be a little prone to breaking. I didn’t have any problem with it, but I was really careful as it was a concern the whole time I used them. I feel that as long as you have them unfolded, there was no risk, but folding them scared me. There is a snap that holds the headphones open when unfolded that you have to put a little more muscle into unsnaping the hinge than I felt comfortable with (also that I felt would wear over time and loose its "snap").

Also,the NC200 are pretty comfortable, but there were times where the room I was in got a little warm, and I noticed that the vinyl around the "ears" cause a little more sweat than Im use too (hope AblePlanet doesn’t want these back).

The last little thing was the noise canceling technology. While it worked pretty well, it didn’t work quite as well as I like. seems like it did a really good job with some types of sound, like a person talking, but other sounds were always there, in a minimal way. I really cant fault the NC200’s for that because I feel that the natural feel to the noise canceling tech made up for whatever sounds got through. and to be honest, Most people will not be using these headphones in an environment like the room I was in testing.

Conclusion

I have 2 conclusions. Before I get to them, I have to say that if no one told me how much the NC200 cost, I would guess $199. They seem like a "near high end" set of headphones. But the regular price is $99. I clearly think these are worth the money and is a good buy if you have a need for a nice pair of noise canceling headphones.

Personally, I think that while $99 is a good deal, and I can recommend at that price, I would still say shop around first. Luckily, if you look around you can find the NC200’s for Half that price (try Amazon). At $44.90, I was call this a definite buy.

Check out the NC200’s at AblePlanets website

Check out Amazon.com’s listing for the Clear Harmony NC200 foldable headphones.

Its a brand new year and I’m looking forward to all of the exciting things that will happen in the world of gadgets. What do you wish will happen this year? Well, like I did yesterday on my other blog, I’m going to share a few of my gadget related wishes for the new year

My 09 tech and gadget wishes

1. Media from any download service will work with all devices

If I download a movie from iTunes, it only works on iPods. If I download a movie from Xbox live, I have to watch it on my Xbox. I know this is a long shot, and will never happen but I wish drm and formats will consolidate so that any movie, song, or tv show downloaded from any service can be viewed or played on any device. Give the customers a choice, let us price shop. Stop forcing us to buy specific equipment to watch specific content.

2. I wish for an iPhone with a slide out QWERTY keyboard

Another long shot. If you kept up with my rants about the iPhone, you’d know I have a love/hate relationship with that phone. One of my biggest complaints is the lack of a QWERTY keyboard. I know, some of you think the touch screen is so cool that you make yourself think that you don’t need buttons. Adding QWERTY with real buttons would greatly improve the iPhone, to a point where my next phone would be a QWERTY iPhone (right now, I’m pretty sure my next phone will be something other than an iPhone). Steve Jobs and Apple in general have a thing about buttons, so this will probably never happen. but one day, someone is going to release an Android phone, with a real QWERTY keyboard, and many will switch over to it. I just wish Apple would do it first.

3. Netbooks with better processors

One thing that has kept me from buying a netbook thus far is the lack of options when it comes to the CPU running them. Yea the Intel chip is good as far as battery life and power consumption, but I would like something with a little more umph. I would like to plug a netbook into my LCD TV and play Blu ray movies (via usb Blu Ray drive) if I want. I would like the opportunity to encode, convert, burn video at similar speeds as I do now with my desktop when I want. Is it too much to ask to have a highly portable Netbook device that can do some of the things "I" want to do on the run from time to time? Add a dual core processor? Id even be happy if they added one of those cheap ATI cards with AVIVO (Ive seen Desktop version for $30 bucks). I don’t want a high end laptop in netbook form, just the option to get a netbook with better components.

4. $99 Netbooks

I really think by the end of 09, this will be a wish that becomes a reality (and will top the holiday sales charts) I wish the prices of the minimal Netbooks, the ones that sale for $299 today, will drop to about $99 bucks sometime this year. Imagine how many people will be getting $99 dollar netbooks as gifts during the 09 holidays if this happens…Get on it Asus.

5. News of the Next..next generation consoles

I know, many console gamers want their Playstation’s and Xbox’s to last 10 years, but that’s not me, I’m from a PC gaming background, and I like new hardware. I like improvements, I like new features. While many are predicting 2011 or 2012 before new consoles are announced, I’m hoping for new console announcements in 2010. What I wish for is not announcements, but leaked information to give me an idea of what to expect the next go around in the console world. (I actually think holiday 2010 is when a new generation should start)

6. A drop in Blu Ray disc prices

This Blu Ray disc price drop I wish for isn’t just for movies, but also the blank Blu Ray media. For one, I wish the Blu Ray movies will drop to the same price as today’s DVD. Second, I wish that blank Blu Ray media would drop to a sensible purchase price (which right now it isn’t)

7. Palm’s CES announcement will rock your world

As many of you know, Palm is announcing something at CES this year. There has been much speculation, but no one knows what it is (as far as I know). I was a big fan of the Palm Treo 650, and even though that phone is long outdated, and there are better devices available, I still haven’t been as satisfied with anything Ive owned or read about as I was with that Treo. I’m wishing for a renewed life for Palm with an announcement of a awesome device, and a new awesome OS. Will it happen? Well we got about a week before we know.

A while ago, I mentioned a little piece of software I had got in called PZIZZ. Ive had this software for a while and finally got around to trying it out this past week.

For those of you that don’t know, PZIZZ is a sleep aid. You can purchase the PZIZZ software and once installed, it will generate an audio track that you listen to to help you get a more relaxing night of sleep, or just a rejuvenating nap. Like Ive said before, I never put too much faith in those sleep aids, so from the beginning I was a little skeptical.

What about the PZIZZ software

The software itself is pretty small, I installed it with no problem, then activated and launched it to see what I got. You are greeted with a window of 3 icons. You have the option of generating a track geared towards general sleep, a quick nap, or meditation. When you launch one of the icons, you then have a choice of how long you want the audio track to last. You also have the option of exporting the track and automatically having it added to your iTunes library, ready for your iPod or iPhone. You can also just listen to the track on your PC.

I started with a 20 minute nap track. It only took a few seconds to generate the track and then I exported it to my iPhone just to see how easy it was to do. Which it was easy.

I eventually grabbed a set of headphones (that I will review here in the next few days) and got comfortable and listened to the track on my notebook.

Whats on the audio track?

The audio track was really something completely different than what I was expecting. I figured there would be music, maybe some sounds of the ocean or wind blowing. Nope, not quite. Instead, there were soothing sounds that fall more along the lines of sound effects than music, well some of it, there is also music mixed in. Also, there was a soothing male voice that talked you through a small stretching and relaxing routine. You have the choice of not having the voice if that isn’t your thing. I have to admit, I listened to it, and followed the directions of the male voice and in no time, I was sleep.

I figured at the end of the 20 minutes that it would wake me up, but it didn’t. to be honest, Ive never actually heard the end of the track, every time I tried it, I went to sleep after about 10-15 minutes of listening.

One thing I have to be honest about is why I went to sleep. I don’t know if the audio track I was listening too caused me to go to sleep, or I would’ve went to sleep anyway. But I did enjoy and felt relaxed listening to PZIZZ.

Should you get it?

Well to be honest, I’m not sure how effective PZIZZ would be for people that have problem sleeping, Me personally, I haven’t had any problem sleeping lately (I sometimes get into funk where I do but that hasn’t happened in a while). But I can definitely say that there is a nice relaxing feeling that comes along with the sleep I got when using PZIZZ. I would say it is worth the purchase but don’t expect any miracles.

Prices range from $29.95 (single module) to $49.95 (both daytime and nitetime modules) to $147.00 (All modules and handheld device)

Im always looking for portable ways to use my laptop in comfort. To my surprise, Walmart has an item that I thought would only be found at an online based store. The Pacific Digital portable laptop table. If you look at the picture, it looks a lot like a portable laptop table Ive talked about before. I haven’t looked into it but they might be the same table. There are 2 differences though. The table from Walmart has a bracket to hold documents, and the table at Walmart is almost half the price of the one I talked about before.

Lets look at the table and why I like it. To start, the table in its storage state is 10.9×1.8×13.7. At that size it is easily carried, or stored under your car seat or in the trunk. depending on the size bag you use to carry your laptop, you could keep it in your bag with your laptop. The legs and the "document bracket" are all retractable/foldable. Once you open the table to get it ready for use, the table top can even be expanded a bit more for those of you with those 17 inch laptops. Of coarse it isn’t a replacement for a real table, but when you need a table in a pinch, this would definitely come in handy.

Find it at Walmart for $34.88