Movie sequels are rarely as good as the originals. Fortunately, just the opposite is true with consumer electronics, where Gen 2 is almost always a good thing, loaded with extra features and tweaked for better performance. In the case of the new Pioneer Inno XM2go portable satellite radio, it's a great thing.
P2P. No longer the story. The press is burned out on it. As are the insiders at music conferences. Bring up file-trading, and they wince. But more people are downloading more files than ever before.
Last issue, I talked about the five questions I'm asked most often while working as a custom installer in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina. But as I compiled my list, I realized that there are way more questions I hear all the time. So here's my second Top 5 (except this time I cheated and went with 5.1).
As soon as you pull it from the carton, you know that the Toshiba HD-XA1 HD DVD player means business. Its 17-inch rack-size width and 20 pounds of heft beckon to a day when men were men and DVD players were both taller and heavier than a slice of white bread.
Another ask-the-editors session, this one about improving your home theater, was full of sage advice and even a few pretty good one-liners. We made it through almost 40 minutes of give and take until someone asked us which high definition disc format was better, Blu-ray or HD-DVD. Bottom line, we're not sure. The only thing about which we all agree, however, is that this format war stinks for everybody.
Fans of "The Office" would recognize Melora Hardin in a heartbeat as Jan, Michael's boss. "Monk" fans think of her as Trudy #2. And if you're addicted to "Gilmore Girls," the just completed season had Melora playing what we all hope will be a regular role on the series. Bet you didn't know she was an amazing singer though, did you?
Thiel's eagerly anticipated CS3.7 was on display and playing music, with the help of Audio Research tube gear and power by Richard Gray's Power Company.