Lexar Echo ZX USB backup Drive

Lexar smallest USB drive

USB Lexar Echo ZX backup drive

One of the smallest USB drive

Available format:

8 GB 

16 GB 

32 GB

Speed:

-Up to 28MB/s read - 15MB/s write

-Compatible with both - Mac and PC systems

I do not use  it as a Backup drive, so I  formatted it using MAC Disk Utility.

I always leave this USB drive connected to my Macbook pro.  

My hard drive only has 250 GB, so that's giving me an extra 32 GB.

This Lexar Echo zx USB drive is so small that you don't even notice that you have this USB drive connect to your Mac or Pc.

Built-in Lexar Echo backup software activates as soon as it's plugged in, to securely and automatically protect files with 128-bit AES encryption. 

But like I said before I don't use this function.

I love this little Lexar USB drive.

It is fast for my USB 2.0 and reliable so far.

If you need extra storage and you don't want to disconnect your USB drive all the time, this Lexar Echo zx is a good choice.

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Garmin GPS 1490LMT

Garmin 1490 LMT GPS

Garmin 1490 LMT GPS

LMT stands for:   

-Lifetime maps and traffic updates as long as you own the unit.

Lane assist:

-When there are many lanes to choose from in major cities, on the top left corner of the GPS, it will show you directional arrows that represents the lanes and the white arrow is the lane you should be on.

Text to speech or turn by turn directions:

-This is a voice that will say street and direction name in real-time, guiding you while driving.

-You can disable this option if you want.

Traffic alert:

-Where available it will provide you with real-time road updates.  Highlighting construction zones, slow moving roadways and traffic accidents and will suggest alternate routes around the affected areas.

With the LMT model you have a free life time Map and traffic updates as long as you own the unit.

Junction view:

-In major cities, where available, it will shows you a realistic images of the upcoming junctions.

-5" LCD touch screen colour display:  480 x 272 pixels

-Sleek ultra-thin design

-Bluetooth

-Multi point routing with route planner

-Trip computer records kilometre, maximum speed, total time and more

-MicroSD memory card expansion slot

-ecoRoute feature calculates a more fuel-efficient route

-6 million points of interest

-"Where am I ?" feature:  Find the closest hospitals, police stations, gas stations, nearest address, intersection and coordinates

-Built-in lithium-ion battery with up to 4 hours battery life

Dimension:  13.7 W x 8.6 H x 1.6 D cm

Weight:  221 g

This GPS has life time map and traffic updates.

In august, I updated the map before going to Niagara Falls.

Pros:  

• I love the 5 in touch screen display
•  Touch the screen and find "Hospital, Police, Gas station" near by
• The junction view is terrific
• 6 million points of interest
• Bright display
• Loud volume

Cons:

• I must say that this GPS miss to name some streets.
• In Toronto traffics it kept telling me to take exit.
• I got so confused that I took my older Nuvi 350.   

Example:  

-Nuvi 350 told me to drive 12.5 km and take the exit.

-The newer Nuvi 1490, like I said before, kept telling me to take exits.

Example no 2:  

-While my older Nuvi 350 makes me drive for 25 km before changing lanes, the 1490 kept telling me to change lanes every 2 km.

I like The Nuvi 1490 LMT and I hope that an update will correct this.

For the GPS Holder on the photo, click here

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Never own a DSLR Camera, Look at the Canon 1000D/XS Great to learn

Canon EOS DSLR XS or 1000D

If you are looking of upgrading to a DSLR, look no further than the Canon EOS XS.

This Canon XS camera is very good for a first DSLR.

Easy to use features that help you learn the dynamics of shooting while allowing you to improve your skill level.

When I bought it a few years ago I paid around 750$ for it with a 18-55mm lens.

Now you can find this camera for about 400$ with 18-55mm and 70-300mm lens kit.  which is very good for a DSLR.  On the picture above you can see the 70-300mm Lens which I paid 250$ separately.  

This camera is perfect if you never own a DSLR camera before and want to learn.

A point and shoot camera takes a long time to focus and zoom, but with a DSLR camera, you can zoom and shot right away if you are on auto focus mode.  DSLR camera are very fast with a very good image quality.  If you try it, you will never want to go back to a point and shoot.  

-You can zoom to a long distance in a sec with a telephoto lens.

-10.1 megapixel CMOS sensor with digic lll image processor

-Sensor size format:  APS-C

-2.5 LCD monitor with live view function

-High speed, wide area 7 point AF with center cross type sensors

-AF type:  TTL

-Excellent performance with 3.0 fps continuous shooting and burst rate up to 514 JPEGs (until memory card is full).

-Iso 100/1600

-RAW

-RAW + JPEG

-Self timer

-Shutter speeds:  1/4000 - 30 sec

-AWB/ auto white balance

-Exposure compensation

-White balance bracketing

Built-in flash type:

-Retractable, Auto Pop-up Flash

GN:  13 meters /43 feet -  Iso 100

Flash metering system:  E-TTL II auto-flash

Flash sync

Flash recycling time:  Approx. 3 sec.

White balance setting:

-Auto, Daylight, Shade, Tungsten, White, Fluorescent light

Battery type:  Lithium-Ion

Battery model:  LP-E5

Dimension:  

6.2 D x 9.7 H

Weight:  450 g

Difference zooming with a DSLR and a Point and Shoot: Click here

To see The cheapest 80-400mm Lens available: click here

You want low price spear batteries with charger? click here

If you want to see the difference between a built-in flash vs Speedlite: click here

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Yongnuo 565 EX TTL speedlite 58 GN & auto mode & Comparison with built-in flash

Speedlite Yongnuo 565 EX TTL

I wanted a stronger flash than the built-in canon T3i flash with auto functions.
So I found the YN-565ex.
The yongnuo 565ex is very strong with 58 GN.

Here's a little video to show you the difference between T3i "built-in flash and the YN-565ex hot-shoe flash":  Comparison from 10 feet & 25 feet at iso 100 & iso 200.

I found it on Ebay for 190$. (November 2011)

Middle of 2011 came out the: New "Yongnuo 565 EX" ETTL  speedlite

Hot Shoe & Wireless (Off Shoe) Flash for Canon and Nikon.

The Canon 580EX II speedlite is very expensive, between 400 and 599$, so I did a little research on the web and the YN 565 EX is often compared to the Canon 580 EX II.

Same features as the 580ex II, except for HS sync and master mode.  

-Same GN 

-Same flash recycle time

Flash mode:

• TTL slave 
• Manual
• Multi

Slaves groups:

• 3A, B and C

-GN 58 at 105mm

-GN 33 at 35mm

-4 Channels

-Automatic zoom 24-105mm or manual

-Bounce card

-Overheat

-Metal foot

Zoom range:

• Auto-24-28-35-50-70-80-105mm

Color temperature:

• 5600k

Flash time:

• 1/200s - 1/20000s

8 Levels of output control:

•  1/128 - 1/1

Vertical rotation angle:   7 - 90 degrees 

Horizontal rotation angle:  0 - 270 degrees

-User friendly LCD screen

-Fast recycling time (3 seconds)

-PC port

-Port for external battery

The YN 565 EX will work as a wireless slave and not as a wireless master.

But if you own "Canon 7D, 60D or T3i/600D"  you already have a built-in wireless master mode

Wireless trigger distance:

• 20-25m indoor
• 10-15m outdoor

Weight:  380 g

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Apple TV

Apple TV

Apple TV is a Wi-Fi device that connect to your HD TV.  

• Wi-Fi network is all you need for wireless video streaming
  or 10/100Base-T Ethernet network 
• AirPlay streaming from all your iOS devices.
• You can stream content from your computer, IPad, Iphone or Ipod touch right to your TV.

But most of all, from your Apple TV you can have direct access to the following content on your HD TV.

• Play YouTube and Vimeo videos (Free)
• Radio (Free)   Many categories: (Country, Classic, 70's, 80's, 90's, Ambient, Blues, Comedy, Jazz, Regae, RnB/Soul, Sports Radio, News /Talk Radio, Religious) and more.
• Enjoy Audio & Video Podcast (Free)
• Flickr (Don't need to register to access photos and videos)
• Rent or buy HD movies or TV Shows (You'll need an iTunes account for these functions)
• Netflix (Need Netflix account)
• Enjoy your music and photos from iCloud  (Free 5 GB of free storage, need to register)
• Watch MLB- live or on demand (Subscription required to watch live and archived games)
• Watch NHL (Subscription required to watch live and archived games)

Like other devices, with the remote:

-you can:  ( pause/resume, fast-forward and reverse)

-When you first switch the Apple TV on, you are ask to choose your network & enter your password.  

-Beyond that, you're asked to enter your iTunes account name and password

- If you are a NetFlix user, you will be asked to enter this information too.

-And again, if you have an iCloud account you must enter your username and password to get access to it from you Apple TV.

-If you have an iCloud account, and you have photo stream enabled, you know that all the photos you take with your iPhone or iPad are sent automatically to your iCloud account and to all of your other registered devices.

-Your apple TV will be able to stream the last 1000 photos from iCloud.
-It is the same for the music you buy from iTunes.

Apple Tv is compatible with high-definition TVs with HDMI and capable of 720p 60/50 Hz

Very simple remote.
-Just a few buttons.

A little downside:
-It would be nice to have one button that takes you directly to the menu because you have to back your way out through a tier of submenus to get to the home menu.

There is no power button on the remote, but there is a sleep option in the Apple TV settings menu.  From:  "never up to 10 hours".

For my part, I use Harmony one remote, I did an Apple TV activity so when I  press the close button to close all my devices,  the Apple TV goes off also.

Click here if you want to know more about Harmony remotes.

Now available from the App Store "Remote App control"  means that you can control the Apple Tv with you iPhone, iPad or iPod touch with this App.

This unit is small, cool and very silent

-Dimensions:  3.9" x 3.9" x 0.9" high 

-Weight:  0.6 pounds  

Want to know about and other device that connects to your TV?

WD Digital TV: Click here

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HP OfficeJet pro 8500 All in one Printer

HP Officejet Pro All in One Printer

I will begin by saying that this printer is completely wireless.

You can place the printer no matter where in the house.

Means that you don't have to connect it to your router or computer.

After installing the driver, software and configured everything, you can use it from any wireless computer anywhere in the house.

-You can setup your network on the printer itself

Draft mode is pretty fast:

-You can print 100 pages in less than 4 minutes.

-In the advance option, you can adjust the Ink volume & the drying time.  This way if the print is to light you can increase the amount of ink used or vice versa.

The ink cartridges have a great printing capacities

I printed about 1000 pages without having to change the black ink cartridge, and I haven't changed the colour cartridges yet.

With this printer you can:

-Print 

-Copy

-Scan (Flatbed or Automatic Document Feeder-ADF)

-And Fax

-Duplex printing / Auto 2-sided printing

-3.5 touch screen display.

-It is nice to navigate through the menu with the touch panel

Paper handling:

-250 sheet input tray

-150 sheet output tray

-50 sheet automatic document feeder capacity.

-Power saving features

Media Sizes:

-Letter, US legal,A2, A4, A5, A6, B5, C5, C6 and more.

-You can even customize the size.

Media types supported:

-Paper (brochure, Inkjet, plain)  Photo paper, Envelopes, Cards (index), Transparencies.

Memory card slot compatible with:

-SD, SDHC, CompactFlash 1 & 11, Memory stick & MSP, MMC & more.

-USB port.  

-You can connect your camera directly (PictBridge).  You can crop and adjust colour/contrast using the touch screen.

You can even E-mail document directly from this printer. Just put your sheets in the automatic document feeder, press the E-mail button on the printer and there you go.

But you have to install and configure the software first.

See this video to know how to configure your software to use the Scan to Email function.

I scan many sheets music that I use with my Ipad to play the piano, so I E-mail them directly to my Ipad with this printer.

2 Sided Printing Long Edge vs Short Edge

If you play any music instrument, you should click both link below:

Airturn - wireless music page turner

Forscore App for you PDF sheet music.

Very nice printer.

If you use the normal printing mode, be prepare to wait, because it is a little slow.

But when you try the draft mode you'll never want to use any other mode.

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Western Digital TV HD Media Player-WD TV

Western Digital TV HD "WD TV"

Connect this "WD TV HD media player" to your TV and it will play your movies, videos, Images and music from your usb drives.

It can play High-Definition videos through an HDMI port.

This way you don't need to watch everything on your computer.

Some Western Digital devices, now have Wi-Fi incorporated.

Video Out:

-1 HDMI

-1 Component

-1 Composite

-1080 i/p

-720p

-576 i/p (PAL)

-480 i/p (NTSC)

Audio Out:

-1 RCA

-1 Fiber Optic

-1 HDMI 

-2 built in USB ports

Supported formats:

Video:

-MP4/Mov (MPEG4, H.264)

-AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4)

-WMV9 (MGP, MGEP, VOB, DVR-MS)

-MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG 1/2/4, VC-1)

Photo:

-JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG.

Audio:

-MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, DOLBY DIGITAL.

Playlist:

-PLS, M3U, WPL.

Subtitle:

-SRT

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Budget Ebook reader "Aluratek Libre"

Aluratek Libre Budget Ebook reader

I was looking for a cheap eBook reader to read my PDF user manuals outdoor during the summer time, so I found the Aluratek libre for 79.99$

I was pleasantly surprised !!!

Reading outdoor with this eReader is absolutely wonderful.

The display is easy on the eyes and no reflective at all.

Relatively cheap compared to the major brand.

-5" ePaper display

-Screen resolution: 640 x 480

-Landscape or portrait mode
-5 choices of font size

-Mp3 player

-Headphone jack

-Support multiple text formats:

"PDF, TXT, EPUB, MOBI, FB2, PRC and RTF"

-Support pictures formats:

"JPG, BMP, GIF and animated GIF"

-SD card slot.

-When choosing a new Ebook, the loading time is a little slower than most Ereader, but when loaded, the pages turns faster because the screen refreshes faster than E-Ink reader.

-Screen doesn't flicker between pages which I really like.

-The rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery life is OK.

Includes:

-Includes 100 free eBooks

-Manual

-Protective cover

-AC adaptor

-USB cable

-Earbuds

79.99$ / 129.99$

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HD Canon Camcorder Vixia HF M30 incredible zoom and image quality

Canon Camcorder Vixia Serie

Canon Vixia HF M30

This Canon Vixia HF M30 HD camcorder has a stunning image quality

Zooming distance is incredible, smooth and easy: 

-15X optical zoom with astounding image quality

-300X digital zoom capability to captured extreme close-ups: 

-8GB internal memory

-SD memory card slot

-Ultra sleek, compact and light body, makes it easy to carry around

-2.7 LCD touch panel 

-Optical image stabilization with powered "is"

-24p & 30p  frame modes

-Fast and accurate Auto Focus

-5 recording modes:  From low to very high quality

-3.3 Megapixel 

-1/4" CMOS image sensor captures video at 1920 x 1080 resolution.

-Canon Digit DV III image processor 

-This Canon Vixia HF M30 camcorder automatically switches video recording from the internal drive to SD card when memory becomes full.

-With optional SM-V1 mic, you can record 5.1 channel

-And much more...

-The included remote is very handy and well made.

But the battery that comes with the Canon Vixia HF M30 lasts about 40 minutes only, so you should carry extra batteries.

-Want a very good non OEM spear batteries with charger for a very low price, Click this link:

http://gadgetalkabout.blogspot.com/2011/10/upstart-battery.html

Watch this video to see its incredible zoom ability:

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Yada bluetooth mirror

Bluetooth Mirror for your car

If you want to keep your hand on the wheel while talking on the phone and don’t have bluetooth in your car, have a look at Yada YD-V16.

Yada YD-V16 is a bluetooth mirror that attaches quickly to most rearview mirrors by clipping it directly over your existing rearview mirror.  I have been using it for over a year, and I love it.

There is an integrated LCD display hidden within the mirror.  When not in use, it’s perfectly glossy and reflective.  But if someone is calling, the LCD display will light up showing you the number or the name of the in-coming call.  You can also setup 3 fast dialing numbers.  Just by pressing one of these 3 buttons, “the menu, “the calling” or “the volume up” button. it will dial automatically to the number you set up for that button.

If your phone supports voice dialing, you can activate that through the Yada YD-V16.

The sound is clear, loud and adjustable.

There is echo cancellation and noise reduction.

You can use it 25 hours talk time or 650 hours of standby.

Included:  Car charger.

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Eye-Fi Card

Eye-Fi Card

"Eye-Fi" is SDHC memory card that has built-in Wi-Fi. 

That means that it will transfer wirelessly your pictures to your computer, other devices or your favorite sharing site, using a specified network.

No need to take the card out of your camera to transfer your photos or videos.
-Instant uploads.

The setup is quick and easy, but you have to know a little about computers and folders.

• 1.  Select your network.   Note that you can add up to 32 networks
• 2.  Choose your destination:  Choose the folder where you want the photos and videos to load.  You choose one folder for your Photos, and one for your videos.
• 3. Insert the card into the camera and start snapping away.  You will see the picture fly into your computer right away.

Comes with USB adaptor.

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USB Microphone AT2020 Audio-Technica

USB Microphone Audio-Technica

The AT2020 is a Cardioid condenser USB Microphone from Audio-Technica.
-You just connect it in your computer USB port.

The sound is absolutely fabulous.
I use it mostly with Logic express and Final Cut pro.
All I have to do, is connect it and my software detects it right away.  If not, just select AT2020 in the audio setting.
Very simple and it is a great Mic.
You hear no hiss, no electrical noise and there is no latency.
I will have this AT2020 mic from Audio-Technica for a very long time.

AT2020 specification:

• Frequency response:  20Hz - 16kHz
• Impedance:  100 ohms
• Max input sound level:  144 db SPL,  1 kHz at  1% T.H.D
• Noise:  20 db SPL
• Dynamic range:  124 db, 1 kHz at max SPL
• Power requirement:  USB

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Mophie juice pack air battery case for Iphone

Mophie battery for iPhone

Mophie juice pack air is a rechargeable external battery case that will charge your Iphone, while protecting it with a nice light shell.
Where ever you are, you will never go without power.
Turn the battery power on when you need it, and your Iphone will begin to charge.
When my Iphone has only 10% left, this battery will charge it up to 90%.
In the back of the battery you have a LED status indicator to let you know how much juice is left by the push of a button.
You connect the Mophie juice pack air to usb to charge it.  Takes about 3 hours.
Iphone 3g   Iphone3GS and is now available for Iphone 4.

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Logitech Harmony Remote

Logitech Harmony Remote

If you own several devices, you need this Gadget:  Harmony Remote by Logitech.
If you don't want to use more than one remote, you must own  "Harmony Remote".
With just a push of a button you can open or close all your devices at once.
The remote control multiple devices at once.
Also this remote has infrared (IR) learning capability.


   

   See this video to know how to setup your remote


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