Set to debut in 2009, Palm is hoping that the Treo Pro will be the one to save Palm and return it to its glory days.  Unfortunately, analysts are predicting that this will not be the case, and in fact, not only will the Treo Pro be a failure, it may take Palm down with it.  

Let’s take a look at what we know about the device.  We know that it’ll have a 320×320 touchscreen, a QWERTY keyboard, a 2-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, a microSDHC memory slot, GPS, a stereo headphone jack and will be running Windows Mobile 6.1.  Looking at these stats, do any of them seem very 2009?  The North American market loves things that are groundbreaking, and it is precise those types of items that will steal market share and garner serious media attention.  The iPhone is exactly that sort of device, going from zero percent market share to being a serious contender in very little time.  The interface is a leap forward, the aesthetics are appealing, the packaging unique and the software more usable than others.  

Palm’s upcoming device has exactly none of these characteristics.  Why is it still using a 320×320 screen, when not only the iPhone, but other phones already on the market have adopted large screens?  It would be stupid not to go with a large multitouch screen at this point, since a 320×320 stylus-input based screen is what Palm has been using for years and years, and those devices have led it into the rut it’s in now.  

Next, a 2-megapixel camera?  The iPhone was widely criticized for using such a camera as well, but at least with it, it has other star attributes.  The Nokia N95 has had a 5-megapixel, Carl-Zeiss lens-equipped, autofocus camera that can shoot TV-quality video for years now.  Lots of pathetic dime-a-dozen phones have cameras in this league, and for a phone that costs, $549, surely, the customer will expect better. Given all the time that they still have, this can still be fixed.

Wi-Fi connectivity is essential in a smartphone, but why not one-up everyone and include Wi-Fi 802.11n capability as well?  In gadgets and technology, one-upmanship is the name of the game.

The microSDHC slot is necessary as well, I don’t even think it needs to be mentioned as a feature.  However, to compete with the latest crop of phones, the Treo Pro should have at least some onboard flash memory, 4, 8 or preferably 16 GB.  This will also allow Palm to better position the device as a media player, and if including the ability to use the phone as a mass storage device, will allow business users to carry around their most important documents everywhere they go.

GPS is a must-have feature for many these days, so kudos to Palm for including it, but we still need to see how good the implementation will be.  At the price Palm wants to charge, it had better have turn-by-turn navigation.

Stereo headphone jack… is this 2004?  Why is this a big deal?  Not only should the phone have this, it should also have A2DP (stereo Bluetooth).  There’s no mention of whether it does or not, but since they’re making a big deal about this jack itself, I can only assume that it is not included.

Palm needs to understand that to capture the market’s heart, they need to not only match the best out there, they need to beat them.  And with the specs of the Treo Pro, it seems that they’ll be a long ways away from even matching the imitators to the best.

You’ve probably heard of the Porsche Cayenne.  It’s the vehicle that supposedly saved Porsche from sure doom, appealing to the upper-crust crowd who feel they need a certain combination of sports car, SUV and alcoholism.  It’s also the vehicle that shares its underpinnings with the common people’s SUV, the Touareg.  Well, Porsche thought that further differentiation was needed, and that weeding of the poseurs from the super-poseurs was also necessary.  They’ve gone ahead and introduced a 5000-lb, 11.3-mpg getting manual-transmissioned SUV.  

That’s right, you read that correctly.  Porsche thinks that the same people who buy the Cayenne for reasons of practicality and posing are also hiding the spirit of a thoroughbred car enthusiast, and that they can no longer live chained to assimilation and mundanity by an automatic transmission.  Can you imagine the 40-year old Beverly Hills moms dropping off their children to private school, and then revving away, power shifting, throwing their head back and laughing with glee at the sheer joy of driving?    

Vehicles like this take the love-it or hate-it thing to another level.  There will be people like the Autoweek guys who find it useless and bewildering, and then, somewhere, will be those who think it is expedited from God himself.  What do you guys think?

Featured in Autoweek

The Back To The Future franchise seems to be as popular as ever, seeing as how the Hoverboard from the movie fetched millions recently, and now this. Nike has released a real-life version of those oh-so-cool shoes we saw in Back To The Future 2, the Power Lace model from 2015.

In the movie, Marty McFly slides his feet in, and the shoes automatically lace up to the correct tightness, sporting glowing logos to boot.

You didn’t think you were going to get the glowing logos OR the power lace, did you? Indeed, the Hyperdunk 2015s are just visual memorabilia you’ll wear on your feet, but I’m pretty sure they’ll get more stares and comments than your tired 20-year old Back To The Future t-shirt.

Suffice to say, any real fan will be disappointed, but then again, we still have another 8 years till 2015! Sure, it’d be cool to have the power lace and glowing logos, but what I want is to see the Hoverboard finally make the light of day.  Even better, the Pit Bull version, complete with mini jet-engines that adjust their own angles!!!  

Yes… I’m swimming in the deep end of my imagination now, but that aside, what do you guys think of these shoes?

Via Wired

Scheduled to arrive soon on a possible return ticket from VaporTown, the first Android phone has been approved by the FCC.  Estimates for availability are ranging from September to November at the moment, though some experts think that even November might not be possible.  

The Android platform was billed as the one for the future, making good on all the shortcomings present in the iPhone, Blackberries, Symbian OS devices, Windows Mobile devices and yes, even Palm-based devices (for a little background on these, check out our introduction to these platforms here).  However, not only has it taken its sweet time to come to market, it doesn’t seem to offer any real advantages over the other platforms.  

Sure, it’ll have Google-branded software to take on your office documents, mapping needs, e-mail requirements and so on, but pretty much all smartphones can already do all that stuff, and fairly well I might add.  Google will probably make better versions of smartphone software for the Android platform, but by how much, remains to be seen.  The Google Maps application for Android has only one noticeable advantage over the other versions at the moment, Street View.  I’m not sure it’s really an advantage, so much as a gimmick.  Street View is nothing more than a panaromic picture taken at a point along a street.  It’s not like you can go down this street and still be in street view, so it doesn’t seem to be that useful in real-life.

It is open-source, which potentially, can have lots of benefits, but how does that affect the average user?  Is that person going to be tinkering with the innards of the OS and using indie software?  Looking at the success of the App Store vs. jailbreaking and using the Installer, I’d so no.  

The fact that Android can run on different hardware is one of its better features.  If you don’t care for HTC’s Android derivative, you (might) have the option of going for a different phone running Android, one whose form factor, looks or usability suit you more.  HTC’s Dream, the first Android phone, is pretty bulky, and I don’t see it appealing to the masses the way the iPhone currently does.  

The iPhone interface is one that has forever changed the way we interact with our digital devices, and surely, it’s to be expected that the style will be adopted by others, since we see even Microsoft borrowing the whole concept for upcoming versions of Windows.  However, I feel a little disappointed that Android borrows heavily from the iPhone interface, yet at the same time, with less visual pizazz.  

As of right now, the Android platform isn’t any better for web surfing than the iPhone is.  It, like the iPhone, will not play friendly with Flash.  Apple doesn’t think that Flash is right for mobile devices at the moment, because of devices not being powerful enough and Flash also not being optimized for them.  This is basically true, and I personally think the next mobile revolution will come from optimized PC-style hardware in mobile devices.  The iPhone is the first baby-step towards this goal, running a version of Mac OS X developed for its ARM CPU, but the next real revolution will have special CPUs, something like what Intel’s Atom is for netbooks, with more RAM, storage and better video/3D capabilities.  The Android platform is better suited to such a revolution than the iPhone, by virtue of it being able to run on different hardware.  A manufacturer could potentially have it running on an much more powerful CPU, with more RAM, and that would open it up to desktop-style apps.  A high-end device could perhaps have a micro-DVI connection for a monitor, and with a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, wouldn’t that be interesting?  

I’ve let my imagination get the best of me here, but as you can probably see, there is potential.  Unfortunately, that may not be enough to take on the iPhone, and time will tell how Android will fare.  For the time being, I just don’t foresee HTC’s Dream making a big enough splash for people to notice.  

As always, I welcome your feedback!

Manufacturers love, nay, need to create massive buzz about cars that have been redesigned.  I’ve always found it entertaining though, because it’s kind of like saying

We fixed all the mistakes we made on the last one, and since it was fundamentally wrong from the start, we redid it from the ground up.

Well, it’s not like that, but we can make fun, can’t we?  Redesigns are usually of the revolutionary or evolutionary variants.  It’s usually cars that don’t sell as well that tend to go for revolutionary redesigns, because they have much less to lose.  The Acura TL sort of defined a new value point way back in the late 1990s when it came out, and its comes-one-way package of the time accentuated that.  Its sales have been declining in the past few years, and since the Accord it’s based on was recently redesigned, the TL too gets the same treatment.

Acura is easily the least successful of the three luxury Japanese brands, and from my point of view, it’s easy to see why.  Even though they were first to the North American market, they never really got the status they wanted.  Many times over the years, Acura’s (idiotic) marketing team has wondered and obsessed over why people refer to their cars as a Lexus, BMW, Mercedes, Audi or Infiniti, and to their own cars as an Integra, Vigor or Legend.  Their brainiac response to this was not to understand why people value those brands more, but to rename the Acura lineup to have forgettable models, such as a 3.2TL, CL, RL and RSX.  Funny thing… when you don’t fix the problem at the root, it has a way of biting you in the derriere later on.  People still call them TLs.

From the start, Sochioro Honda, brilliant engineer and entrepreneur, didn’t believe in excess.  He thought that a 4-cylinder engine was more than enough for anyone.  That’s why Accords of his time had 4-cylinder engines exclusively.  Even after his death, the folks at Honda tried to follow his philosophy, and that is why Acura’s flagship cars have never had anything more than a V6.  But the problem is that people don’t need luxury cars.  They buy them because they want to, because they want to be pampered and enjoy the excess of a Hybrid V8 like in the Lexus LS600h or a twin-turbo V12 like in the Mercedes S600.

Buyers responded to this philosophy by simply not buying Acura’s high end luxury sedans, which are the flag carriers for a car company.  It doesn’t matter if it consumes fuel excessively, is heavy, too expensive or anything else for that matter.  Even if they sell it at a loss, its purpose is to generate lust in people’s eyes and fulfil an aspiration to own it, if nothing else.  Honda/Acura seemed to understand this idea with the NSX (that it is a flag carrier), and continued producing it long after it wasn’t profitable anymore, but mysteriously, this idea evaded them for the regular lineup.  The NSX too, never really gained the popularity they wanted in North America, so in essence, Acura had nothing to show off, and nothing for buyers to really want.

Acura also focused its efforts on the cheaper models, models which never should have been sold as Acuras, such as the Integra and RSX, and the CSX (in Canada).  Mercedes and BMW quickly realized that North America doesn’t like the idea of an expensive 4-cylinder car, and they got rid of the 4-bangers in the 3-series and C-class, and Lexus knew this from the start.

So, while a V6 is entirely acceptable in the entry level segment that the TL competes in, it lacks the prestigious nameplates that the others carry.  Acura is lost in the same no man’s land that also contain Volvo and Saab.  People don’t know what to make of them.  They’re not quite Toyota and Ford, and they’re not quite BMW and Mercedes either.  For this reason, Acura really needs to undercut the pricing of the other guys, and while this used to be the case with the first generation, pricing is not really a plus point anymore. The price of the TL has gone up, and the price of the C-class and 3-series have come down.  The Infiniti G35 has really shaken this segment up too.

So what do I make of this new TL?

Firstly, I think it takes the best design features of Acura concepts, then messes them up as good as it can.  The front-end reminds me of a city snowplow, and the rear end is sloped to such a degree that you could cover it with snow and teach your kids to ski on it.

The four exhaust pipes LIE about the power that does not exist underneath, for this is not the Lexus IS-F, and it certainly doesn’t sound like it either (the IS-F has a wonderful Nascar-sounding engine).  About the looks, what can I say?

What’s with the lines and sharp creases?  Trying to be like Cadillac, is that it?  Well, that’d be the worst idea, seeing as how Cadillac is a company in the midst of reinventing and finding itself. There isn’t much of an Acura identity, so there’s nothing to adhere to, and therefore nothing to strengthen the brand’s presence (they still don’t get it).

Bottom line:  an exercise in fugliness.

The interior is nothing to write home about either, though its not actually bad, like the exterior or the idea of the car itself is.

Clearer, better gauges, a bigger screen with better navigation and such features can only be good. Acura has finally decided to start using colours other than tan and black, which is good.

Live weather updates are a good thing.  I am a little concerned about the quantity and concentration of buttons on the center console.

This might be a bit of a nightmare for people that aren’t very techno-savvy.

Fundamentally, I think the car is all wrong.  It’s based on an Accord, so it can’t feel all that different, no matter what they do.  Front-drive is a no-no in this segment, and I’m a little stumped that Acura didn’t understand this.  Don’t they see the success of the 3-series, C-class, and most of all, the Infiniti G35?  The SH-AWD system isn’t bad, but it works more as a gimmick than anything else, because I don’t think any normal person will be taking their Accord-based family sedan onto a track, and then admiring the few thousandths of a second the SH-AWD system saves them.  At least it’s still an AWD system.  The EPA estimates for the SH model are 17/24.  Did you read that?  That’s the kind of mileage you’d expect with a V8 car such as the Mustang.  Lexus GX 470 owners report that their 6000-lb, V8-powered SUVs get 18.5 mpg in real-world conditions, something that this TL might be able to.  That’s pretty pathetic, isn’t it?  Honda never used V8s and larger, more powerful engines in the past with the argument that they’re not as good on gas.  What’s all this about then?

Here’s what I say… The Honda Accord can be had with the same chassis, similar engine (that runs on regular gas and is quite efficient), navigation and many of the features the TL has for about $10,000 less.  For about $8,000 less, you can get yourself into a Mercedes C300, or for $13,000 less, the C240.  Around the same money will also get you into the delicious rear-drive IS350 from Lexus as well.  There is no compelling reason to buy this redesigned monstrosity that is still called the TL.

Our Take on Car & Driver and Road & Track

You know those guys who are well into their 40s, but have dyed their spiked hair, have an earring that came out of the DeLorean from 1985, and wear camouflage shorts and t-shirts with funny comments on them?

Yeah, that’s who the new Maxima would be if it were a person.  You see, back in the day, late 80s to late 90s, the Maxima was the cool, suave, multi-talented guy who seemed to have his life together and be able to pull off just about anything.  In 1995, a car that went 0-60 in 6.6 seconds, returned 28+ mpg on the highway, had a luxurious interior befitting that of a much more expensive car and cost about $25,000 was rare stuff.

Fast forward 14 model years.  The Maxima is now heavier, larger and carries a tough-guy grin at the front, replacing the who-me anonymity of that 1995 go-getter.  Thanks to all that weight, a larger, more powerful engine has made the Maxima an alcoholic - real world economy is less than 20 mpg in the city.

The problem is that it’s been replaced by younger, more attractive cars that are better at what they do.  It tries to be the elder statesmen of Nissan’s lineup, so it is big, but just looks weird.

Someone told it to go to the gym and get a rounded rear-end, because that’s in style nowadays, but it doesn’t match with the grinning Arnold face or the beer belly.  From certain angles, it tries its best to look like a sexy, muscular coupe that’s in vogue these days (cough, G37, cough), but fails like a knockoff perfume.  There are hints of the original there, but honestly, there’s no fooling anyone.

However, as they say, looks are only skin deep, and they can’t be seen from the driver’s seat.  Apparently it’s what’s underneath that counts, and unfortunately, the Maxima’s personality has serious issues thanks to its front-wheel drive setup.  The Maxima isn’t sure if it wants to be one of the nation’s top selling family sedans like the Altima, a sport sedan like the BMW 5-series, or a svelte coupe like the G37, but it doesn’t matter, because it can be none of those.  It’s too expensive and confused to compete with the likes of the Accord, Camry, Malibu and their ilk.  And it won’t be able to compete with the Germans either, because without the balance of rear-wheel drive, the Maxima will understeer like a old man slowly letting go of his grip on reality.

The grasp of reality has indeed been lost, as the Maxima struggles to find someone who will take its SUV-like consumption of premium fuel, high price, poor build quality and lack of everything else.  Anybody that wants a car that costs this much and shares it’s alcoholic desires is better advised to look at Hyundai’s Genesis V8 - a car that will feel, perform, look and sound better, and we’d bet, gets no worse economy figures.

Our Take on Car and Driver’s Review

So after reading about HTPCs (part one), you figure you like them.  Based on what they can do, you might think they’d cost you an arm, a leg and a portion of your left butt cheek, but gladly, no.  We’ve priced out high-value configurations for both our American friends (from Newegg) as well as us Canucks (from our local chain, Canada Computers). Note the difference between the terms high-value and budget.  Budget usually means cheap, no matter what.  In the context of this little price-out, high-value means bang for your buck!

THE CASE:  Starting with the case… HTPC cases can and do go beyond a thousand dollars, but even crossing four or five hundred dollars is no big deal.  The vast majority of the money goes towards touchscreen LCD screens, motorized and huge in some cases.  The way we look at things is, an HTPC is supposed to be part of your home theater.  So, while a touchscreen LCD looks cool and is nice for showing your system off, it does little to no good when you’re sitting on your couch, and your HTPC is not.  You’d either need to constantly approach the box, or have it beside you, both of which are just awkward.

“It can control my sprinkler system, entire house’s lighting and HVAC, stream a thousand movies and archive all my home videos and pictures.  What’s that?  No, I have to keep getting up and going to the box to change stuff.”

In all likelihood, you’re going to use a remote to control your HTPC, so I’ve excluded the choice of those ultra-lavish cases.  Being a high-value choice, I haven’t left out aesthetics.  The model I have selected is the Antec Fusion V2 case in your choice of silver or black.

It has a very appealing brushed aluminum front (real), and an LCD display.  Most people will think its a reciever or high-end video player of some kind, which is the goal!

It also has an integrated IR receiver which you’ll probably use for your Media Center remote or Harmony remote, which means a cleaner look (not having recievers hanging out the wazoo, ya know?).

THE POWER SUPPLY:  The Antec Fusion V2 case comes with a more-than-acceptable power supply, one that many people buy as a standalone.  Its not loud, and with 430 true watts, it provides more than enough juice for everything an HTPC needs.  While you can go quieter, that would add quite a bit to the bottom line, so if you’re on a budget, we recommend sticking with the included PSU.

THE MOTHERBOARD:  The Asus P5E-VM is like few other mATX boards.  It is actually robust enough to be good at overclocking and stability (hence, gaming) and has tons and tons of features packed into its small size.  It employs a modern chipset, decent onboard sound, firewire, has multiple options for configuring storage and best of all offers an integrated HDMI port.

This is one of the most important parts of a computer, even though it might not seem like it.  This motherboard checks off everything we need:  speed, stability, firewire, lots of memory control options, decent integrated sound with digital outputs and of course, that HDMI port.

THE CPU (cheaper):  We were going to recommend the E1200, a Celeron with dual cores, essentially a detuned Core 2 Duo.  But when we saw that you only had to add twenty bucks to double your cache and have an extra 400 MHz out of the gate, we had to give the value cake to the Intel Dual-Core E2180 CPU.  Being an excellent overclocker means that the E2180 can easily attain speeds of 3.0 GHz, sometimes even with the stock cooler.  For our application, I’d recommend running it at 2.4-2.6 GHz or so, which is easily doable with the stock cooler, and plenty for full 1080p playback.

The CPU (cheap):  And for those of you who don’t want to bother overclocking, we’d like to recommend the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400.  With a generous cache of 6 MB and a high multiplier, this is a highly sought-after CPU for overclocking and performance.  We have one here running at… are you ready for this?  4.3 GHz.  The E8500 is rumoured to be an even better overclocker, as these are the same CPUs but binned differently, but in some cases it costs a lot more than the E8400.  For our application, and in this group, you won’t need to overclock the E8400 even a little bit.  Running out of the box at 3.0 GHz, this is more than enough to tackle anything an HTPC can throw at it.

THE VIDEO CARD:  We won’t need one!  There is one integrated with the motherboard, and it does a good job for everything we’re going to have it serve up.  If you plan on gaming, you’ll need to add a better video card, but then, you probably shouldn’t be looking at a budget computer to serve your needs.  An added benefit to using the integrated card here is that there is no wiring to do to have sound+video through your HDMI connection.  If you have a separate video card, you’ll either need to use a DVI-HDMI cable/converter, or if the card has an HDMI port, you’ll need to have a connection from your motherboard or discrete sound card going to your video card.  I see that as being complicated for newbies, and the discrete video card will not improve picture quality in any noticeable way.  Some might argue that use of Purevideo or something might be a benefit, but with the CPUs we have chosen, that is a non-issue as each of the three CPUs in the recommended configuration will easily be able to handle 1080p video decoding.

THE SOUND CARD:  None.  Since we’re going to be passing sound through the HDMI connection, or through coaxial digital or optical digital connection to the receiver, there won’t be much noticeable benefit to using a discrete sound card.  The motherboard I’ve recommended has a sound card integrated, and it’s everything we need!

THE OPTICAL DRIVE:  You might think I’m going to recommend a Blu-Ray drive here.  You’d be wrong.  In my opinion, a Blu-Ray drive in an HTPC is more trouble than it’s worth.  Instead, I’d recommend going with a nice DVD-RW drive, and if you must have the Blu-Ray playback, get a 40 GB PS3 for little, if anything more than the BD-RW drive for your PC.

THE RAM:  We’re not going for anything over-the-top here, just something that is fast and stable.  Our choice is the G.Skill DDR2 PC2-8000 speed 2×2GB kit.  It gives us enough headroom for overclocking, with a very good track record for stability.  We’ve chosen 4 GB here because in our use, it makes a noticeable difference in a Vista Media Center PC with lots of media stored on it.  The price delta from 2GB -> 4 GB is small enough that we can stretch this category!

THE HARD DRIVE:

For our American friends, I’m going to recommend the Samsung Spinpoint F1 500 GB hard drive.  It’s one of the fastest 7200 rpm drives you can get, and it is also very quiet, both attributes that are desirable in the HTPC context.  It doesn’t hurt that it is one of the two cheapest 500 GB drives Newegg has either!

For the Canadians, we’re getting a really good deal on the Hitachi P7K500 500 GB 7200 rpm hard drive.  It’s known for good performance, if at a slightly higher temperature with moderate noise levels.  We get this a lot cheaper than the States thanks to a MIR, so this is definitely a go if you’re buying soon!

I recommend two of each drive to get you guys started in the HTPC world.  Believe me, 1 TB might sound like a lot, but it isn’t when you transfer your DVD collection bit-for-bit, then all your pictures (and all your scanned pictures), and your music… and the list will indefinitely continue.

THE ACCESSORIES:  I don’t recommend you waste money purchasing a keyboard and mouse.  Just use something you have lying around, or just borrow your existing set for a day to set the HTPC up.  After you set it up, it’ll boot right into MCE and the rest you can control from the MCE remote.  You can also use a more fancy remote, like one of the Harmony remotes, but extravagance in home theater computing is best left for another such post, the “unbudget HTPC.”

So how does it all stack up?  Let’s have a look-see.

For America:

Antec Fusion V2 Case                                          $189.99

Asus P5E-VM HDMI                                             $129.99

Lite-On LH-20A4P                                                 $22.99

2 x Hitachi Deskstar 500GB                                 $139.98

G.Skill PC2-8000 4 GB RAM (2×2GB)                      $84.99

(Now, pick ONE of the below)

Intel E2180                                                             $69.99

Intel E8400                                                           $169.99

___________________________________________________________________________

Total w/ E2180                                                   $637.93

Total w/ E8400                                                     $737.93

For Canada:

Antec Fusion V2 Case                                           $189.99

Asus P5E-VM HDMI                                              $147.99

Lite-On LH-20A4P                                                 $29.99

2 x Hitachi Deskstar 500GB                                 $103.98

G.Skill PC2-8000 4 GB RAM (2×2GB)                      $86.00

(Now, pick ONE of the below)

Intel E2180                                                            $76.99

Intel E8400                                                          $192.99

___________________________________________________________________________

Total w/ E2180                                                    $634.94

Total w/ E8400                                                    $750.94

So there you have it!  I haven’t included shipping or taxes, so make sure you account for those if applicable.  Either of the two configurations are superb, and the only difference here is the CPU.  Both CPUs are capable of full 1080p playback, so that is not a concern.  The HTPC in its use will not go obsolete very fast, since what we’re doing on it will not change much, also nice to know.  These, however, are entirely meant to be media machines, and if you’d like your HTPC to be a HTGPC (home theater gaming PC), many of the component choices would be quite different.  We’ve tested these configurations and found that they work together very well.  When set up well with Vista Media Center and corresponding must-have HTPC software like FFDshow and AC3Filter, it will function brilliantly.  We’ll put a guide up soon showing you the software configuration of an HTPC. And if you want Blu-Ray playback, we’d recommend you pick up a PS3, or if you just hate them, another standalone player.  The price difference from a BD-RW drive to a PS3 is minimal if present.  In Canada, you can get a 40 GB PS3 these days on sale for $299!!

Please feel free to leave comments, we’d love to hear from ya!

You’d think that with gas prices at an all-time high and showing no signs of retreat, manufacturers would slowly step away from their SUVs with their hands in the air, but no.  Mercedes-Benz in all its wisdom believes the SUV market will not only live on, but continue to grow.  Even though it might not sound like it, I do agree.  Not in Europe, not in Asia, but in North America, I don’t think we’re about to give up our SUVs anytime soon.  

Autoweek has taken a look at the 2010 (is it even 2009 yet?) Mercedes-Benz GLK350 4Matic.  Yes, our German friends think that playing around with their favourite letters will yield favourable results.  I’m not so sure… you’d want some brand and model awareness if you were MB, right?  But they’ve got the GL, the CL, the CLK and many more, so I’m not sure more 3-letter model names based on the letters that already make up existing models is a 160-IQ idea.  Anyways, they’re using the corporate workhorse, that 3.5-liter V6.  It’s fairly well-engineered and probably serves its purpose well, but in a 4000-pound vehicle, it’s not going to be fast, even if Autoweek claims it will be.  Basic power-to-weight ratio idea here folks.  It will also have to work very hard to get moving, so fuel consumption will probably suffer and return mileage more like a V8 than a typical V6.  

I personally don’t understand these crossover SUVs that well.  I get that they result in a carlike drive and ride, that’s good.  I get that they’re cheaper to manufacture since the underpinnings are usually from another popular car in the range.  What I don’t get is that SUV buyers often enjoy a high seating position and sometimes higher ground clearance.  Yet most crossovers, like this GLK are quite low to the ground, barely higher than a regular car.  I also don’t get why they’re so heavy.  It’s not the all wheel drive equipment, you can find that in Audis and Subarus too.  If it’s based on a car, why doesn’t it weight like a car?  

The GLK will probably do well in its premium segment, and because there is something of a bling factor present.  Unbelievably, that does make a difference… look at the Navigator and Escalade, coming from brands that, to youth, were considered cheap and cheesy.  In my opinion, there are better choices.  The German mini-utes don’t bring their A-game to the table like the Japanese do and like the Americans have been doing lately.  

Via Autoweek

Though there seem to be blog directories as far as the (virtual) eye can see, most are not very useful.  Whether you’re a blogger looking to submit your feed and finding an out-of-service form or being forced to insert some zany looking code on your site, or you’re an avid blog reader looking for fresh content, blog directories sometimes fail miserably at the simple task they’re designed for.  Bad layout, bad design, too much advertising, whatever.  Blogged.com seems to be okay, along with a few more. What’s our take on RSS Hugger?  Here are the goods.

The Good:  Shiny Web 2.0 look, very simple layout, no apparent advertising.

The Bad:  Gibberish on some blog names appears, possibly because they’re not English-language.  The dark look may not be to everyone’s liking. 

The Ugly:  Seems to be the life-long passion of a single man.  Blog directory love, really?

So you’ve heard or read about HTPCs, or perhaps seen one at someone’s house, but haven’t really considered getting one because of the cost, lack of mainstream availability or maybe because you don’t see the need for one. Whatever the reason for not getting one might be, there has never been a better time to jump into this category. Big-box retailers are carrying them, cost has never been lower and performance has never been better. You might be asking yourself what an HTPC can do for you then.

HTPCs can provide you the following features:

• DVD playback. HTPCs can upscale DVD playback to the resolution of the TV. This used to be one of the biggest draws for HTPC use until upscaling DVD players made their way around. In many ways, HTPC upscaling is superior to that of upscaling players, but it sometimes involves configuration steps that can be daunting for new users. However, it is something that only needs to be done once, and when configured properly, can look absolutely fantastic! Newer video cards include built-in video scaling/upconversion as well, and while configuration is easier than the manual method, it still involves steps that may be alien to most users. On the plus side, it offloads a lot of the heavy duty processing to the video card (from the CPU).

• Blu-Ray Disc playback (if equipped with a Blu-Ray Disc drive). This is quite a CPU-intensive task, but as long as you have a modern CPU, it shouldn’t be a problem. With the latest round of video cards, they include a feature where the task of decoding the Blu-Ray video is offloaded to the graphics card (from the CPU). A Blu-Ray disc drive will add $150-$300 to the price of your HTPC.

• PVR & Timeshifting Capabilities. Call it a DVR or PVR, doesn’t really matter. What does is that it will record your favourite shows for you at the correct times. You’ll also have access to some sort of interactive program guide where you can confirm shows, times and descriptions. If you add an extra tuner, you can record one program, and watch another at the same time. If you add two extra tuners, you can record two programs on different channels, and watch a third. If you add three extra tuners, well, you get the idea. Currently, this works only for standard definition channels. You won’t be able to do this with HD channels over cable, or satellite, but you can with OTA (over-the-air) channels. I’d recommend you check what’s available in your area before you go for the OTA HD option.

• Music, Pictures and Video Jukebox. You can store all of your music, pictures and videos on your HTPC for easy access. This is actually more useful a feature than people might understand initially. If you have friends or family over, and want to torture them digitally, all you have to do is hit the green button on your HTPC remote and go to a pictures slideshow or a repeating home video! It’s also a great way to listen to music through your surround system, and will allow you to index your music and have album art. If you have ripped your DVDs or downloaded videos (I won’t ask where), you can have them on your HTPC as well for easy viewing on your HDTV.

• DVD Jukebox. A really great way to have on-tap access to your DVDs and not ever harm the discs is using your HTPC as a DVD jukebox. You can rip all your DVDs to a hard drive, and have them present in full-size with all the menus and features present. When you’d select the DVD (complete with box art) from the menu, you’d see the same menus and would be just as if you popped the actual DVD in. This takes quite a bit of space, with DVDs ranging from 4 to 9 GB in size, but hard drives are so cheap now it shouldn’t matter. I saw one of the fastest currently available drives, the Samsung F1 in the 750 GB size for $90 (CDN), which could contain between 100-150 DVD movies by itself. Double that, and for $180, you’ve got 200-300 DVD movies stored, indexed and ready to go. There are even plugins for Windows Media Center to rip DVDs right from the menu, and MythTV has that functionality built in out of the box (I’ll tell you about WMC and MythTV in the second part of this series).

All of the above are typical features that the average user would use an HTPC for. Being a computer though, an HTPC is open to any number of uses and many people use the following features as well:

• Emulator for classic games (Nintendo, Super Nintendo etc.)

• Download machine (You can set your downloads in the background)

• Browsing/Internet use, other standard computer uses

• Home Automation. You can use your HTPC to monitor security cameras, record footage from motion-sensing cameras, control blinds and motorized window coverings, manipulate your home’s lights and HVAC and more. This is a fairly new area and is growing in popularity every day.

You may also be wondering how you control and interact with your HTPC.  There are a number of methods to choose from, but your main tool will be the HTPC remote.  Interacting with your HTPC will not feel or look like you are doing so with a standard computer.  

There will be a TV-friendly interface that you can read comfortably from afar, and is designed to look attractive and fit in with the general home theater idea.

You can use the Microsoft remote, one of its derivatives, or a product such as a Logitech Harmony remote that is designed to replace all of your other remotes with one.  We’ll look into this a little later on.

Now that you know what an HTPC can do for you, where do you get one? You can always buy from a custom manufacturer, but then you’d pay exorbitant prices. You could buy one from a big manufacturer at a typical big-box retailer, but then you might have to live with design mediocrity or poor cost-benefit ratios. Your best bet would be to build one yourself.

If you’ve never done something like that before, the task might seem Herculean, but don’t worry, Geekliness is here to help with that! In part two of this series, I’m going to show you where to shop, what to buy, how to put it together and finally, how to make it all work flawlessly! Stay tuned!