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If it has been a long time since you've checked out the services that Comcast Cable Service provides, you may have missed out on the ideal solution to all of your communications and entertainment needs. Comcast has long been known for its excellent Cable television service, but the company now also provides both telephone and high speed Internet services.

You are guaranteed to be completely impressed by the high speed Internet access that this provider offers. With more choices for everything from entertainment to education opening up online, having a high speed connection is now a requirement. Dial up is just too slow to allow you to use the Internet in the ways that you want. And even DSL is too slow to truly keep up with the array of websites available. However, Comcast's high speed Internet connection runs almost a 100 times faster than a dial up connection and thus gives you the power to access sites that you couldn't access before. This connection speed is actually about 8 Megabytes per second, which is fast enough to allow you to download even full length movies or book length PDF files in just a few moments. This not only makes it possible for you to extend your entertainment possibilities, but it also allows you to access business forms, informational materials, and much more.

Because getting online requires patience against threats like viruses and spyware, Comcast offers options that allow you to keep your computer more secure. Each subscription comes with a free lifelong subscription to McAfee VirusScan and you can also opt to receive a firewall to further insure your computer against malicious threats. You can even keep your children safer when they are online with special access to kid-safe sites featuring music, games, and other safe content.

If you want to get the most out of your communications services, choosing Comcast for your telephone service is a really smart idea. Comcast offers special deals for subscribers who get this service along with one or more of the company's other services and the plans are specially designed to be extremely cost effective. For instance, every calling plan includes unlimited domestic long distance for a flat rate and even international calls are billed at extremely low rates.

Of course, phone service would not be the best unless you also received all of the convenient features that you are used to. That is why Comcast offers over 12 great features with every plan at no extra charge. From call waiting to caller ID you will be able to get the most out of your phone service. In fact, you even get free enhanced voice mail to make your life easier.

Comcast Cable still has a great cable television selection, which is now even better than ever. Recently the whole service was updated to digital, which allows for improved pictures and sound and more interactive choices. Plus, with a selection that now exceeds 280 channels, you are guaranteed to find more of the programming that you love. Special channels even provide the great quality of high definition television, HDTV, or On Demand programming.

You are sure to appreciate the service that Comcast Cable Service offers and even more pleased with the savings that the company can offer you. In fact, if you bundle your services under Comcast, you can receive an incredible level of savings and reduce the hassle of managing services by paying just one monthly bill.]]> Technology News http://www.newtechnologytv.com/index.php?itemid=641 Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:22:00 -0400 http://www.newtechnologytv.com/index.php?itemid=640
If it has been a long time since you've checked out the services that Comcast Cable Service provides, you may have missed out on the ideal solution to all of your communications and entertainment needs. Comcast has long been known for its excellent Cable television service, but the company now also provides both telephone and high speed Internet services.

You are guaranteed to be completely impressed by the high speed Internet access that this provider offers. With more choices for everything from entertainment to education opening up online, having a high speed connection is now a requirement. Dial up is just too slow to allow you to use the Internet in the ways that you want. And even DSL is too slow to truly keep up with the array of websites available. However, Comcast's high speed Internet connection runs almost a 100 times faster than a dial up connection and thus gives you the power to access sites that you couldn't access before. This connection speed is actually about 8 Megabytes per second, which is fast enough to allow you to download even full length movies or book length PDF files in just a few moments. This not only makes it possible for you to extend your entertainment possibilities, but it also allows you to access business forms, informational materials, and much more.

Because getting online requires patience against threats like viruses and spyware, Comcast offers options that allow you to keep your computer more secure. Each subscription comes with a free lifelong subscription to McAfee VirusScan and you can also opt to receive a firewall to further insure your computer against malicious threats. You can even keep your children safer when they are online with special access to kid-safe sites featuring music, games, and other safe content.

If you want to get the most out of your communications services, choosing Comcast for your telephone service is a really smart idea. Comcast offers special deals for subscribers who get this service along with one or more of the company's other services and the plans are specially designed to be extremely cost effective. For instance, every calling plan includes unlimited domestic long distance for a flat rate and even international calls are billed at extremely low rates.

Of course, phone service would not be the best unless you also received all of the convenient features that you are used to. That is why Comcast offers over 12 great features with every plan at no extra charge. From call waiting to caller ID you will be able to get the most out of your phone service. In fact, you even get free enhanced voice mail to make your life easier.

Comcast Cable still has a great cable television selection, which is now even better than ever. Recently the whole service was updated to digital, which allows for improved pictures and sound and more interactive choices. Plus, with a selection that now exceeds 280 channels, you are guaranteed to find more of the programming that you love. Special channels even provide the great quality of high definition television, HDTV, or On Demand programming.

You are sure to appreciate the service that Comcast Cable Service offers and even more pleased with the savings that the company can offer you. In fact, if you bundle your services under Comcast, you can receive an incredible level of savings and reduce the hassle of managing services by paying just one monthly bill.]]> Technology News http://www.newtechnologytv.com/index.php?itemid=640 Sat, 16 Aug 2008 11:22:00 -0400 http://www.newtechnologytv.com/index.php?itemid=639
If you've been following the recent TV technology news to any extent, then you probably already know that there's a format war between Sony's Blu-ray high definition DVD format and the rival format from Toshiba which is called HD-DVD. These two formats can both use blue lasers to store and retrieve much larger amounts of data than conventional DVD's even though all three formats take advantage of discs that are the same size. This provides more than enough storage capacity for an entire high definition movie, plus its bonus features, to be stored on one disc. The problem comes from the fact that the two formats aren't compatible, it's generally agreed that only one format can come out on top, and there's a lot of money to be made by whoever has the winning format in the form of royalties.

This has led to a somewhat nasty fight on both sides to get more people interested in one format or the other. For example, Sony put a Blu-ray drive in its new Play Station 3 video game platform so that it could also serve as a Blu-ray player. The idea was that video gaming enthusiasts would buy the Play Station 3 for the video gaming and then buy movies on Blu-ray discs to play on it. Sony has also recently announced that its Blu-ray players will drop in price by the end of the year in an effort to solidify the lead that they already have.

Toshiba has also fought back with some help from Microsoft which has released an external HD-DVD drive for its Xbox 360 video gaming system which will allow it to serve as a high definition DVD player as well. Toshiba has also cut the price on one of its main HD-DVD players in order to preserve the price advantage that HD-DVD players have observed over Blu-ray players all along. For some reason, a supporter of the HD-DVD format also felt that announcing victory in the format war a few months ago would end the format war, but that obviously hasn't come to fruition.

While the format war definitely isn't over, there are a number of things indicating that it might come to an end soon. The price drops of Blu-ray players combined with the fact that Blu-ray discs have been outselling HD-DVD discs by two to one should be an indication that Blu-ray is winning. But the coming announcement of a double feature movie on Blu-ray disc might clinch it.

The fact that a Blu-ray disc can hold enough data to contain two full length movies in High Definition TV format, points out the superior data storage capacity of the Blu-ray format. Basically, Blu-ray discs can store twenty five gigabytes on each side of the disc, while HD-DVD discs can only store about fifteen gigabytes on each side. That's a difference of ten gigabytes per side and a massive twenty gigabytes per disc! Therefore on technological grounds alone Blu-ray should be the winner of the format war.]]> Technology News http://www.newtechnologytv.com/index.php?itemid=639 Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:13:00 -0400 http://www.newtechnologytv.com/index.php?itemid=638
Touch screen technology isn't a particularly new development, but it's becoming more and more common among gadgets that are coming onto the market these days. Touch screens have actually existed in one form or another for a couple of decades now in the form of screens that could respond to light pens so that people could actually draw images or write directly onto their computer screens.

Some of the first gadgets that took full advantage of touch screen technology were the PDA's of the nineteen nineties with the touch sensitive screens and the styluses that were used to right on them. (These gadgets are actually still in existence today.) Since then, touch screens have found there way into laptop computers that work much like their smaller predecessors. These laptop computer have screens that can turn one hundred and eighty degrees and fold flat against the body of the computer, so that the entire device can be used as a tablet to write on.

Touch screen technology also serves as the primary input device for a new breed of computers that have all of the capabilities of normal laptop computer- some even run the memory hogging Windows Vista- but do away with the clam shell type design in favor of the screen being included in the body of these devices. The touch screen isn't the only type of input device on these tablet computers. They also have various buttons, and some even have small keyboards built in for thumb typing, but the touch screen does serve as a useful supplement to these other kinds of input devices.

The area in which touch screens show the greatest promise is in portable gadgets. One might wonder how portable gadgets could benefit from having touch screens built in. After all, smaller gadgets should have more limited functionality and therefore have less of a need for variety and flexibility among input devices. While it's true that smaller gadgets have traditionally had less functionality than larger ones, electronics technology has gotten to the point where the ability to put ample user interface features on a gadget is more of a limitation to how small it can get than the actual electronics that can be packed into a small size. For example, the limiting factor when it comes to making a smaller smart phone is more a function of the amount of space that the keypad and screen require.

Touch screen technology gets around that limitation by providing a way for to use the screen as an input device, thereby doing away with the keypad completely. This really serves two purposes. First it allows the screen to take up a greater proportion of the gadget's face. Second, it allows the keypad or keyboard to be minimized in size, or even eliminated completely!

There are a number of prominent gadgets that take advantage of touch screen technology to at least some extent. They include the Archos 605 WiFi, the Prada phone, and of course the iPhone. The iPod touch is also hot on the heals of the iPhone. As these gadgets become better recognized, we'll surely see more touch screen technology showing up in a wider variety of gadgets and settings.]]> Technology News http://www.newtechnologytv.com/index.php?itemid=638 Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:04:00 -0400 http://www.newtechnologytv.com/index.php?itemid=636
The United States is set to switch completely to digital over the air TV broadcasts as of February 17, 2009. When this happens, the analog signals that deliver most of the over the air TV content will cease. There will be a number of ramifications of this including the fact that a lot more electromagnetic bandwidth will be available for things like emergency services communications and municipal WiFi networks. These are definitely good things, but the transition won't be completely positive. The one major black mark making the transition to all digital TV signals is that the millions of analog TV sets- that lack digital tuners- will suddenly be unable to receive and display TV signals.

There are several remedies for this situation including the options of buying a new digital TV, subscribing to a satellite or cable TV provider (which will provide the necessary hardware to allow an analog only TV set to continue to function), but the most cost effective solution to this problem will be to buy a digital TV adapter box. Digital TV adapter boxes will receive the digital TV signals and then convert them to analog signals that the older TV sets can understand. This is clearly the option of choice for the federal government because of the fact that it will offer coupons that will put forty dollars towards the purchase of these adapters. A lot has been made of these digital to analog TV adapter boxes, but so far we only have a vague idea of what they look like or what they actually will do.

Now though, we have gotten a glimpse of what one of these digital to analog TV adapters will look like. That's because RCA recently unveiled an adapter box that it calls the RCA DTA800. The RCA DTA800 is basically a set top box that has connections for antenna inputs that will receive digital signals from over the air and analog outputs that will be fully compatible with older analog only TV sets.

The RCA DTA800 will also include a lot of extra features that you might be surprised to find on something that should be a simple conversion box. For example, the unit comes with what RCA calls a "SmartAntenna" that will supposedly help the unit to receive a coherent digital signal even in places where the signal doesn't come in as clearly as one might like. (This is an especially valuable feature because of the fact that digital signals will break up and become incoherent under conditions that would just make an analog signal unusually grainy.)

The RCA DTA800 also has a number of features that will make watching TV much more convenient. For example, this device will provide an electronic program guide that will make it much easier to decide what to watch than it is with analog TV. The unit will also provide various kinds of parental control software. In other words, this converter box includes many of the features that you might expect to find built into a satellite TV or cable TV converter box.

It's still unclear when the RCA DTA800 will be available or how much it will cost, but there's a good chance that the forty dollar government coupon won't cover the full cost of one of these units.]]> Technology News http://www.newtechnologytv.com/index.php?itemid=636 Sun, 10 Aug 2008 10:42:00 -0400 http://www.newtechnologytv.com/index.php?itemid=635
Thanks to recent technological developments it's now possible to get work done no matter where you are. That's because there are a lot of gadgets available that will let you set up an office just about wherever you want.

Laptop computers are the most obvious choices for these kinds of gadgets, and laptop computers are better for business applications than they've ever been before. That's because there really isn't anything that a desktop computer can do these days that a laptop computer can't do. Laptop computers have big, bright, full color displays that are much better than the screens that came with desktop computers even a relatively short time ago. Better still, many laptops have screens that have a wide screen aspect ration (16:9) and are capable of displaying High Definition Television images.

The wide screen format of these laptops is put to good use by their ability to play DVD's. Some gadgets even have high definition DVD drives that can play discs in either Blu-ray or HD DVD formats. (Dual drives that can play both haven't found their way onto laptop computers yet.) However, computers with that capability tend to be expensive and rather heavy. Of course displaying video, high def or otherwise, is entertainment rather than business, but such capabilities are a good demonstration of what modern laptop computers can do.

Perhaps a better example would be the video conferencing capabilities of laptop computers. Many laptop computers- even relatively affordable ones these days- come with digital cameras built in. These compact image capturing gadgets are mounted above the screens of the computers that have them and enable their users to compose videos as well as make video phone calls through VOIP services.

There are also a number of peripheral gadgets that can make laptop computers even more effective when it comes to portable office solutions. The most obvious peripheral is the printer, and there are portable printers available for making print outs while on the go. These tend to be compact gadgets that are powered off of the laptop computer or the twelve volt electrical socket you'd find in a vehicle.

Another clever peripheral device is a portable scanner. This scanner is self contained as far as power and memory so that it doesn't have to be hooked up to the computer to function. This gadget is shaped like a long pen and can be rolled over a document to scan it into the device's memory. The image that the portable scanner captures can then be transferred to the laptop for processing. This gadget can store multiple scanned images all at one time, scan in color and black and white, and has OCR (Optical Character Recognition) capabilities built into it as well.

Another great gadget is the cellular modem. This gadget allows a laptop computer to access the Internet from just about anywhere- at least anywhere that has line of sight to a cell phone tower. This gadget can come in the form of a special mobile phone that can be connected to a computer, a card that can be inserted in the computer, or a chipset that's built into the computer to begin with. No matter how it's implemented, having wireless high speed Internet access from just about anywhere.is a huge benefit for a home office.

With new gadgets like smart phones, it will be interesting to see how the range of the portable office extends.]]> Technology News http://www.newtechnologytv.com/index.php?itemid=635 Fri, 8 Aug 2008 10:36:00 -0400 http://www.newtechnologytv.com/index.php?itemid=634 satellite television equipment that helps you watch all the shows you love. It serves mainly to give you an interface through which to choose the shows you want to watch and to make watching programming easier. However, the technology necessary to do these things is pretty complex. Though people tend to forget about the receiver when they are watching television, a lot of important functions are continuously happening. Receivers also house the extra features that are quickly becoming popular such as DVR. Because the receiver is such an important piece of equipment, it is important to choose the correct one when signing up for Dish Network service.

A receiver is a piece of satellite television equipment that helps you watch all the shows you love. It serves mainly to give you an interface through which to choose the shows you want to watch and to make watching programming easier. However, the technology necessary to do these things is pretty complex. Though people tend to forget about the receiver when they are watching television, a lot of important functions are continuously happening. Receivers also house the extra features that are quickly becoming popular such as DVR. Because the receiver is such an important piece of equipment, it is important to choose the correct one when signing up for Dish Network service.

Receivers range from the fairly basic to the most advanced models with all the frills. However, no matter how many extras these receivers contains, they all have certain features in common. The electronic program guide is one of these features and also one of the most important features found on a receiver. While people who use cable television might still have to rely on paper television guides to find out what is playing, satellite subscribers were able to do away with this inconvenience over a decade ago thanks to the electronic program guide. This guide is the key to finding out everything that is playing and even getting a short description so you can figure out if it even interests you. The guide also lets you select the program you want to watch in order to get to the right channel, so you don't even have to worry about entering channel numbers. This makes it incredibly simple for anyone to use- even children or technophobes. Plus, the program guide comes with the option of using bookmarks and favorites lists to make it easier to navigate. The guide lists hundreds of channels of programming, but the favorites lists and bookmarks make it easy to find the programs you want to watch.

Other features that are found on all receivers include parental controls, on-screen caller ID, and software upgrades via satellite. These features are all meant to give the viewer more control and make it more convenient to watch television. One of the newest features to be found on every receiver is the ability to access interactive television. This new type of interface lets viewers do everything from find out the most current news to playing games directly on the television. This is a new technology that is already proving popular and will likely expand in the future.

Though all receivers have many features in common, each receiver is different from the other models. Receivers come in single and dual tuner models, models with DVR, and standard def and high definition models. The Dish 311 and Dish 322 are the basic standard def models that basically contain only the features previously mentioned. When you upgrade to the Dish Player DVR 625, you also get Dolby Digital sound and a digital video recorder. The high definition models are extremely exciting because they offer the most flexibility. You can watch either standard def or high def on these models and you also get some great extra features like an Ethernet port and a USB 2.0 port. The ViP211 is the more basic of these HDTV receivers and the ViP622 DVR is the ultimate piece of equipment. With its high def DVR and its dual tuners, the ViP622 DVR is the choice of people who are really serious about enjoying their television.]]> Technology News http://www.newtechnologytv.com/index.php?itemid=634 Wed, 6 Aug 2008 10:28:00 -0400 http://www.newtechnologytv.com/index.php?itemid=633 high speed Internet services.

You are sure to be completely impressed by the high speed Internet access that this company offers. With more options for everything from entertainment to education opening up online, having a high speed connection is now a necessity. Dial up is just too slow to allow you to use the Internet in the ways that you want. And even DSL is too slow to truly keep up with the array of websites available. However, Comcast's high speed Internet connection runs almost a hundred times faster than a dial up connection and thus gives you the power to access sites that you couldn't access before. This connection speed is actually about 8 Megabytes per second, which is fast enough to allow you to download even full length movies or book length PDF files in just a few moments. This not only makes it possible for you to extend your entertainment possibilities, but it also allows you to access business forms, informational materials, and lots more.

Because getting online requires vigilance against threats like viruses and spyware, Comcast offers options that allow you to keep your computer safer. Each subscription comes with a free lifelong subscription to McAfee VirusScan and you can also opt to receiver a firewall to further insure your computer against malicious threats. You can even keep your children safer when they are online with special access to kid-safe sites featuring music, games, and other safe content.

If you want to get the most out of your communications services, choosing Comcast for your telephone service is a really smart idea. Comcast offers special deals for customers who get this service along with one or more of the company's other services and the plans are specially designed to be extremely cost effective. For instance, every calling plan includes unlimited domestic long distance in a flat rate and even international calls are billed at extremely low rates.

Of course, phone service would not be high quality unless you also received all of the convenient features that you are used to. That is why Comcast offers over 12 great features with every plan at no extra charge. From call waiting to caller ID you will be able to get the most out of your phone service. In fact, you even get free enhanced voice mail to make your like easier.

Comcast still has a great cable television selection, which is now even better than ever. Recently the entire service was upgraded to digital, which allows for improved pictures and sound and more interactive options. Plus, with a selection that now exceeds two hundred and eighty channels, you are sure to find more of the programming that you love. Special channels even provide the great quality of high definition television, HDTV, or On Demand programming.

You are sure to be pleased with the service that Comcast offers and even more pleased with the savings that the company can give you. In fact, if you bundle your services under Comcast, you can receive an incredible level of savings and reduce the hassle of managing services by paying just one monthly bill.If it has been a long time since you've looked at the services that Comcast offers, you might be missing out on the perfect solution to all of your communications and entertainment needs. Comcast has long been known for its excellent Cable television service, but the company now also offers both telephone and high speed Internet services.

You are sure to be completely impressed by the high speed Internet access that this company offers. With more options for everything from entertainment to education opening up online, having a high speed connection is now a necessity. Dial up is just too slow to allow you to use the Internet in the ways that you want. And even DSL is too slow to truly keep up with the array of websites available. However, Comcast's high speed Internet connection runs almost a hundred times faster than a dial up connection and thus gives you the power to access sites that you couldn't access before. This connection speed is actually about 8 Megabytes per second, which is fast enough to allow you to download even full length movies or book length PDF files in just a few moments. This not only makes it possible for you to extend your entertainment possibilities, but it also allows you to access business forms, informational materials, and lots more.

Because getting online requires vigilance against threats like viruses and spyware, Comcast offers options that allow you to keep your computer safer. Each subscription comes with a free lifelong subscription to McAfee VirusScan and you can also opt to receiver a firewall to further insure your computer against malicious threats. You can even keep your children safer when they are online with special access to kid-safe sites featuring music, games, and other safe content.

If you want to get the most out of your communications services, choosing Comcast for your telephone service is a really smart idea. Comcast offers special deals for customers who get this service along with one or more of the company's other services and the plans are specially designed to be extremely cost effective. For instance, every calling plan includes unlimited domestic long distance in a flat rate and even international calls are billed at extremely low rates.

Of course, phone service would not be high quality unless you also received all of the convenient features that you are used to. That is why Comcast offers over 12 great features with every plan at no extra charge. From call waiting to caller ID you will be able to get the most out of your phone service. In fact, you even get free enhanced voice mail to make your like easier.

Comcast still has a great cable television selection, which is now even better than ever. Recently the entire service was upgraded to digital, which allows for improved pictures and sound and more interactive options. Plus, with a selection that now exceeds two hundred and eighty channels, you are sure to find more of the programming that you love. Special channels even provide the great quality of high definition television, HDTV, or On Demand programming.

You are sure to be pleased with the service that Comcast offers and even more pleased with the savings that the company can give you. In fact, if you bundle your services under Comcast, you can receive an incredible level of savings and reduce the hassle of managing services by paying just one monthly bill.]]> Technology News http://www.newtechnologytv.com/index.php?itemid=633 Mon, 4 Aug 2008 10:26:00 -0400 http://www.newtechnologytv.com/index.php?itemid=632
The government apparently has created new confusion about the coming transition from a mixture of analog and digital TV signals to all digital TV signals for over the air local TV transmission that's scheduled to occur less than two years from now. This confusion is the result of new rules governing how the special converter boxes that will allow analog only TV sets to continue to receive over the air TV programming after the transition.

For anyone not familiar with this issue, apparently somebody decided that all over the air TV transmissions had to eventually use the digital TV format instead of the old standby of the analog TV format that's been around ever since TV became widespread back in the middle of the twentieth century. There are a number of advantages and disadvantages associated with digital TV signals. The advantages of digital TV include the fact that it takes up less over the air bandwidth than analog TV. This is important because restricting over the air TV transmissions to digital TV signals will free up bandwidth for other uses including emergency services communications and municipal WiFi networks. Another advantage of digital TV is that it produces a much clearer picture than an analog TV signal can.

The disadvantages of digital TV include the fact that reception of a digital TV signal is an all or nothing affair. While an analog TV signal will gradually lose fidelity with distance, but still be viewable to varying degrees as the viewer gets farther away from the transmitter, a digital TV signal will produce a crystal clear picture and then just be reduced to noise by interference or unfavorable topography. Another disadvantage of digital TV- and the one that's really an issue with the mandatory transition to an all digital TV signal in 2009- is the fact that without a digital TV tuner, a TV cannot receive digital TV signals.

The fact that a TV cannot display digital TV signals without a digital tuner means that the millions of TV's that lack this essential component will become useless when the transition takes place. This is made worse by the fact that the transition is less than two years away and so far, only a small fraction of the effected population knows that it's going to happen.

There are two solutions to the dilemma though. One is to buy an entirely new TV set and the other is to get a special converter box that contains a digital tuner and can convert the digital signals into a signal that the analog TV can understand. These boxes are going to be subsidized by the federal government through coupons that should cover about two thirds of the cost of a converter box. The latest problem with this comes from the fact that the rules for who's eligible for digital TV converter boxes are confusing. Apparently every house hold is eligible for two coupons worth about forty dollars each until the first billion dollars of funding runs out. After that, more money can be allocated for coupons, but only households that can certify that they don't subscribe to cable or satellite TV will be eligible for those coupons. The fear is that this is taking an already confusing issue and just making it more complicated.]]> Technology News http://www.newtechnologytv.com/index.php?itemid=632 Sat, 2 Aug 2008 10:17:00 -0400 http://www.newtechnologytv.com/index.php?itemid=631
There have been a bunch of great gadgets that supply people with portable music. Surprisingly the first portable music gadgets were available about one hundred years ago. These devices played records and were powered by springs that could be wound up. Since these early devices were spring powered, they didn't require electricity, and that went a long way toward offsetting their bulk in making them portable.

When audio devices switched over to being electrically powered, they took a break from being particularly portable. Part of this was created by the need for vacuum tubes in audio devices- radios specifically. In fact, the first radio sets were huge affairs that were built into wooden cabinets and generally stationary fixtures in people's living rooms.

The invention and wide spread adoption of the transistor- which replaced the vacuum tube- made audio devices portable again. These audio gadgets came in a wide variety of shapes and styles. For example, there was the battery operated radio that has varied throughout the years from being simple, single speaker devices to the massive boom boxes of the nineteen eighties. There have also been a number of portable tape recorders and players (also built into boom boxes), as well as portable CD players.

One particularly popular idea for portable audio gadgets has been the portable cassette deck, often referred to as the Walkman after the name that Sony gave to its version of this device. These gadgets could play audio cassettes and generally had AM/FM radios built into them as well, and played their audio over headphones. Portable CD players like the Discman, also followed this same general concept, only with a CD deck replacing the cassette deck.

Then, in the late nineteen nineties, portable MP3 players became available. MP3 players, or more accurately digital music players because of their ability to play more audio formats than MP3's, have the advantage of using flash memory to store audio rather than audio cassettes or compact discs. This allows a single portable audio playing gadget to hold hundred of songs that can be played back either in a preprogrammed order or a random sequence. The audio tracks for these gadgets are generally purchased on the Internet and then downloaded to the digital audio device. This has also caused a different kind of dynamic in the music industry where the album is becoming obsolete as people buy songs individually.

Newer gadgets that use flash memory have moved beyond audio playback. Some of these devices can also play video on built in LCD screens and most can display digital photos on their screens. The pictures can be downloaded from the Internet or a digital camera and the video is often bought online and then downloaded in much the same way the music is. These devices can also display video that was recorded on a digital camcorder and then loaded onto a computer before being downloaded to the gadget! Some of these gadgets have gotten so sophisticated that they can even record video themselves- either through a digital camera or off of TV signals.

Portable gadgets that are capable of entertainment just keep getting more and more functional!]]> Technology News http://www.newtechnologytv.com/index.php?itemid=631 Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:11:00 -0400