channels

The Zoom H2: A heck of a stereo/four-channel recorder

When a friend turned me onto Zoom's H2 stereo/four channel digital recorder ($200), my first impression was that it looked like a man's electric shaver. It's not just for musicians, students can record seminars and conferences. I think it'll come in handy when I'm doing interviews.

The H2's selectable recording quality runs from 64-320 Kbps MP3 up to much better than CD quality, 24 bit/96 KHz linear PCM (WAV files). Four-channel, 360-degree surround recordings can be made in 24 bit/48 kHz format with the H2's two sets of built-in microphones--or … Read more

Whither Infiniband?

Back in the 1990s when the original PCI I/O bus was getting a bit long in the tooth, two disparate groups of vendors proposed solutions to the problem. Compaq, IBM and Hewlett-Packard championed a standard called Future I/O, while Intel, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems pushed a competing technology called Next Generation I/O. In an unusual act of solidarity, the two groups got together, compromised on their differences, and came up with a jointly developed technology called Infiniband.

In simple terms, Infiniband is a switched I/O channel that connects processors to other processors and high-speed peripherals like … Read more

Sharks on a browser

I have to hand it to the Discovery Channel. They're one of the few TV networks out there whose sweeps week involves one animal, and an absolute onslaught of programming about it. I'm speaking of course about Shark Week, an annual TV event that's been around since the late '80s.

One of the more amusing marketing tools I've run into this week is their Shark Week video remixer, which is a somewhat stripped-down version of Adobe's Flash video-editing tool containing various clips of sharks swimming, attacking, and messing about with divers. Users can string together … Read more

Searchles: Searching goes Web 2.0

As everyone knows, you only get one shot at making a first impression, and my first impression upon visiting Searchles was one of bewilderment. I received a couple e-mails from an employee at Searchles and decided to check out what the site was about. I was greeted with a search box along the top of the screen, and a feed of recent posts running down the left. A listing of groups and tags filled up the rest of the real estate.

Not sure where to begin, I typed Iraq into the search box and returned a query of 3,188 results. The top result was culled from October of last year and the top 10 posts seemed to be all over the map including videos from the Iran-Iraq war. So perhaps the site isn't geared toward current events, but each subsequent search I performed yielded an equally diverse set of posts. The group functionality seemed a bit more utilitarian, but it took some time before I stumbled onto the part of the site where Searchles really does excel.… Read more

Nintendo announces WiiWare

Pretty soon the Wii's online store won't be just for Virtual Console games and Opera. Nintendo just announced WiiWare, a Wii software creation service for indie developers. Smaller game companies will be able to use WiiWare to produce downloadable games to distribute and sell over Nintendo's Wii Shop Channel.

Nintendo's move has shades of Microsoft's XNA Studio Express initiative, in which the Xbox community can create games and potentially make them available for play on the Xbox 360 or on Windows machines.

This is more than welcome news for Wii owners, who have been experiencing … Read more

Download now, or pay later for Wii surfing

Be sure to hook your Wii up to the Internet and download the Internet Channel soon. That's the deadline for downloading it for free.

So, what exactly is the Internet Channel? It's the feature that lets you use your Wii to browse the Internet from your television with the Opera Web browser.

Right now, the download for using the Internet-surfing feature is free for the life of the machine. But Opera released a "final" version of the feature in April, and soon you'll have to pay for it. As of July 1, anyone wishing to … Read more

MySpace launching branded video channels, possible Joost killer

MySpace will soon launch more than a dozen branded video channels, featuring content from big names like the National Geographic group, The New York Times, and Reuters. Users will be able to access the video content on branded content microsites similar to YouTube's partner channels with the BBC, NBC, and CBS. MySpace is allowing content providers to customize their content interface, with special backgrounds and color schemes. Expect something similar to Trailer Park, which MySpace launched last month.

The new service will tie in to MySpace's current videos platform, although there's no word yet on whether or … Read more

Wii's Mii-maker inspires celebrity avatars

As anyone who has managed to get their hands on a Nintendo Wii will shamefully admit, one of its most fun features is the Mii Channel, its easy-to-use avatar creation tool.

While that's not news, the phenomenon of celebrity avatars making their way across cyberspace is. People are sharing formulas for making celebrities and Wii console numbers to become friends so they can share avatars. There are several sites dedicated to the celebrity-inspired Miis and even contests to see who's making the best one.

Celebrities include everyone from Ali G to Zach Braf. Many of them can be … Read more

Newegg.com has the Mushkin 2GB 240pin DDR2 SDRAM Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory for $105.99, after a $20 mail-in rebate.

NewEgg has the Mushkin 2GB 240pin DDR2 SDRAM Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory for $105.99, after a $20 mail-in rebate. >> Regular price $125.99 >> Deal price $105.99 >> Save $20 >> Deal ends May 18,2007 Click here for deal.