Computer Reviews

What I particularly like about this surge protector is the feature that has two "always on" outlets. This ensures that my telephone answering machine can be plugged in and protected even when I shut down the unit. I also use this protector for my secondary computer, USB hub and Epson scanner.

This surge protector handles small and large plugs with no problems. It's design to handle large plugs means they don't end up eating up two plugs. Very well done. I highly recommend this surge station.

This surge protector is designed well, so you don't waste two outlets to plug in an AC adapter. It also has two outlets that are always on, so you can turn off your computer equipment at the switch without having your lights go out.

Downsides: It's a bit expensive, and it wastes a bit more power than other surge protectors, even when it's turned off.

Used almost daily, and *zero* problems. I remain satisfied completely. My original review is appended.*******************
My little office TV went out and I thought I'd bring it in for repair... but then for not much more, I got a brand new TV with better features than the old one. Side-mounted AV inputs are a keen idea, and 3 different picture settings (custom, theater, normal) are pretty luxe for such a bargain TV. The dual front-firing speakers sound good (though this is not a stereo TV). Naturally, set-up was a no-brainer, and picture quality is quite acceptable. My only little note of dissatisfaction is the apparent inability to set the closed captioning to appear only when the sound is muted, but I'll manage without that I'm sure.

I was looking for a tv for my kitchen and came upon this tv in Amazon's Gold Box Deals. I couldn't pass up the price as the cheapest one I had on my wish list was twice the price of this tv. This baby has a great picture and all the features I need for a 3rd in the house, not-extensively used tv. I like it a lot and would recommend it to all.

This is a great TV. I bought it to replace a 20" Wega that was too big for my bedroom. It's design is much nicer than the normal "black box," with nice silver-grey features. The side and back A/V inputs are great, as most small TV's are lucky to have just one. The A/V outputs are great, except that the audio is only sent out in mono, so therefore you'll only get one speaker playing sound on a HiFi stereo like mine. The picture is awesome, and exceeds the two other 13-inchers in my house (one GE and the other a Sharp). Although you don't get the brand name, you get better features, PRICE (anywhere from 20 to 75 dollars difference), and a better picture. My one gripe is the power button, oddly enough. It actually pushes in deep, reminiscent of TV's where you had to push in the volume switch for power. Also, you can't turn the TV all the way off with the remote, only to standby; which is identical to off, except a miniscule red light on the front. While it doesn't bother me, since it is no larger than a pinhole and projects barely any light, it might bother others. Oh, and one more thing, the inputs and outputs do tend to "wiggle" a bit, but they are completely functional. This TV perfect for bedrooms and dorms, especially if you want to hook up multiple devices, and if you like better quality forless money.

The Apple Cinema Display is, quite simply, the best monitor in the world.
Like all LCD monitors, the 22 inch diagonal measurement of the Apple Cinema Display is a measurement of viewable area. Add a couple of inches to this measurement to get an equivalent CRT monitor size, since CRT measurements include an inch or so of black around the edges. This is a huge amount of space - enough to display two full 8.5x11 inch pages side by side, including margins, and still have an inch left over around the edges.
In addition, LCDs, at their native resolutions, are significantly sharper than CRTs. As a result, I find that an LCD screen feels as big as a CRT that is half again as large.
Apple's LCD monitors are all digital, unlike many LCDs on the market, which take an analog signal from the computer (intended for a CRT display) and convert it to digital. As a result, Apple's LCDs have no flicker - important for people like me who are sensitive to flicker and subject to migraines. Picture quality is also improved over analog driven LCD displays.
Apple's current LCD desktop monitors, including the Cinema Display, also eliminate the disadvantages of earlier generation LCDs. The color is much better than older LCDs - suitable even for print prepress, which LCDs used to be useless for - and the Cinema Display is twice as bright as a CRT display. Don't be misled by notebook flat panels - they have power consumption limitations that Apple's desktop LCDs don't have!
One note: the Cinema display uses Apple's proprietary Apple Display Connector. This is very convenient if you have a current or recent G4 Mac; if you have an older Mac or other machine, you'll need to buy a third party adapter.
If you work in front of a computer and ever feel like you need more screen space, I can't recommend the Apple Cinema Display too highly. I own two - one for work and one for home.

I have had the Apple Cinema Display since around the time it came out. (Yes, I paid [a lot] for it!) And to be honest, I would pay it again because this is truly the best display on the market. I use both a MAC and PC in my profession (Designer) and am very dissapointed that an equivalent hasn't been made available for the PC.

The crispness, quality, color, and size cannot be matched by any product currently available. It's a beautiful piece of technology and goregous to look at, at any angle. It's even sexy from the back!

I highly recommend this display if you design on a Mac. There is simply nothing better...!

Use one of these, and all other displays are revealed to be a cruel joke. I have had a for 9 months, and I am never going back. The single ADC cable and connector provides data, power, and USB ports to the display. The enormous display supports multi-page photo and layout editing, and the video output from a DVD in letterbox format will take your breath away. This is a video display that can change your life, it has changed mine.

I have one of these displays that I use at work, and think that it is the best thing since sliced bread! Apple has done an amazing job. The brightness and clarity are absolutely brilliant. I love that it has only the one cable, which carries power, video, and USB signal all in one. It makes for a nice clean work area, without all those ugly cords for power, video, and USB. But then again, that is no surprise, because you can tell that Apple truly cares about beauty, as well as performance. My hats off to Apple!!

Let's see, there are too many cool things about this display. It costs about the same as any of the other premium LCD panels at this size (you can get a cheaper one, but you usually give up contrast, viewing angle, or speed). You get a single cable attachment to your Power Mac (carries video, power, and USB) which saves a lot of clutter. You get a pair of USB ports on the monitor which most others don't offer, despite it's convenience. And it just looks too darn cool on the desk next to the Power Mac.

Love it.

I just bought this flat-panel at the recently reduced price, and I'm totally happy with it. It's got a much smaller footprint than my old 17" monitor, it's bright, easy on the eyes, and a total breeze to set up.

I was a little leary of ordering such a "delicate" item online, but then realized Apple would have to ship it to me, just the same. It arrived fine, and without any dead pixels.

At the new, lower price, you really can't go wrong.

This is simply the most superb value I have yet to encounter for home laser printers! Fantastic print quality, compared to HP 2200 network model this is easily as good. Prints are fast and the printer quickly goes into and out of sleep mode to conserve power. I have it installed over a TCP/IP home network with each computer able to send print jobs directly to the printer over the wired or wireless internet. The installation was painless and the print drivers and software work flawlessly, easily allowing you to select options such as duplex printing, toner saver mode, multiple pages printed to a single page without breaking a sweat! You cannot beat this deal, ...!!!

We have owned a Brother HL-1670N double-sided network laser printer for just over a year. The quality is amazing for the price and it's double-sided!

The only trouble we've had is when we forget to use the correct tray for extremely heavy stock paper, eventually it will jam trying to roll it over for printing on the opposite side.

Overall, this printer has been one of the best office equipment investments we've made.

This printer is a great product. I bought this printer for my office and for home, and they have been running flawlessly so far. The reasons why I like this printer are:

1. Built-in duplex: Printing on both sides of a paper really reduces the amount of paper that I need to carry around. This printer (and HL-1650, I think) provides built-in dulpexing for low price.

2. Built-in ethernet port: This printer has a network card and it works as a network print server. We don't need a separate printer server that should be up and running all the time. From a laptop or a desktop machine, I can print directly to this printer.

3. Postscript emulation: I am a heavy unix user and I print postscript documents quite often. This printer supports Postscript!

4. Large paper capacity: The standard tray takes 250 pages, which is more than enough for my everyday use. If you need more capacity, you may opt to buy additional 500 optinal paper tray.

If I decided to buy a similar HP printer, I would have paid around $1100, which is way much more expensive than this one. I am exteremely happy that I decided to go with brother, although it was not a very easy decision, given the popularity of HP. Some of the minor complaints that I have about this printer are:

1. Sometimes, GIF images do not print as well as I would like to. If you mainly want to print a lot of grey scale images, this printer might not be the best choice. (I haven't tested it yet, but adding more memory may improve the image quality though.)

2. It does not come with a paper manual. Everything is on a CD-ROM and it is not complete, either. It took me a while to figure out how to print a postscript document from a Linux machine.

I think the best plays to buy a cameras is brandon.s store it is the best.

After shooting Canon's 28-105mm on my Canon A2e for five years, I had to replace it with a similar length lens equivalent for my new Canon 10D. The 24-85mm comes out to be a little longer on the short end, as well as on the long end (38.4-136mm "35mm equivalent"). At twice the price of the 28-105, I can only say that you are getting twice the lens, and it's great. you will pay more for 67mm filters for this lens (as opposed to 58mm for most of Canon's consumer lenses), but it's all worth it!

This is a fantastic lens made from fantastic glass. It's a joy to shoot, and it's a great match to the smaller 22.66mm sensor of the lower-end pro digital bodies. It's worth every dime of the price.

This lens is almost superb for its price! It's a middle-class lens, what appears in the following:

- it has bigger light-factor (3.5-4.0 vs 4.0-5.6 in the low-class lenses). This gives you more possibilities, for instance to use faster shutter speeds or to decrease the depth-of-fild for special effects)

- the first (outer) lens doesn't spin what gives you an opportunity to use square filters; using a poliriser becomes as easy as any other filter.

- the USM (Ultra Sonic Motor) gives you a really super speed of focusing and completely silent engine. You'll catch the fastest actions and nothing will distrub your object!

These are the most important and useful features of the lens. I should also admit, that the focal distance of this lens is almost ideal for everyday photography, because gives you an opportunity to shoot from landscapes (~24-50mm) to portraiture (~50-85mm) with an equal simplicity and quality.

This lens is an absolute steal at under $600. As can be expected of any "L" series lens, it produces absolutely flawless images throughout the entire focal length range, even wide-open. Construction is rock-solid: this lens will last forever. This will be your "work-horse" telephoto lens.

On the down-side, it's heavy, and probably not a good choice for carrying around on hiking trips, though it's considerably lighter (and less expensive) than its f/2.8L cousin. No IS, so you'll want to use a tripod or other support, but the tripod ring mount is not included (about $120 extra).

Still, you should immediately buy this lens before Canon wises up and raises the price, or stops producing it altogether. You'll be kicking yourself later if you pass this one up.

This is my first "L" Series lens and I have to tell you that I'm very impressed. The focus is quiet and the images are sharp and crisp. The zoom is good enough to capture any shot. I think that I'm in very big trouble in the pocket book, because I don't think I'll be buying anything else but an "L" series!!

In my opinion, this Canon lens provides the best value in Canon's entire line up of "L" glass (lenses). If you have never used an L lens before, this will open your eyes to what you have been missing. Very fast focusing, very sharp images, very little chromatic abberation, and consistent quality through the entire zoom and aperature range.

One note; with a widest aperature of f/4 and a long focal length, you will not be able to take indoor photos without excellent lighting or a flash. I've tried to take photos of ice hockey, where the rinks are notoriously poorly lit, and had very little success. Even with a tripod it is a challenge to maintain a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the action of a kids game (yes, even with ISO at 800). But in good lighting or outdoors in the daytime, this lense rocks.

Great sports photos. Great nature photos. This lense is extremely versatile. I have even used it with flash indoors for portrait photography.

There is not too much to mention on the negative side. Its size and color do make it stand out a bit in public, and people may thing you are a professional photographer. I've also noted that the depth-of-field with a wide open aperature, especially at f4, is very narrow. As long as you've been careful to focus on your subject, the background will be blurry. But focus on something other than your subject and you may find your subject to be blurry.

All in all, this is one great lens that will let you take very sharp photos. And it is a bargain price compared to its f/2.8 and f/2.8IS sibliings.

I've used Casio calculators for over 20 years and love them. Good keypad layout, easy-to-use buttons, intuitive commands. This scientific calculator is perfect for engineering students.

I have been using Casio electronics for over a decade now -- starting with first data bank and touch screen watches. The brand has never failed me, so I have chosen Casio FX-260 over TI and Sharp competitors again. The calculator is great for graduate classes in Computer Science and Finance for sure (this is what I am using it for), and I am certain it will be more than enough for Physics, Chemistry, and other sciences. Compact design, a high-contrast screen, rubber keys -- everything is just right. And if I want to do graphing, I will use Matlab. Highly recommend!

Needed a scientific calculator for a chemistry course and I found this one to be very easy to use. ...

The best design for your desk top. High quality of this drives me crazy. However, it is a little bit expensive. Anyway, I love this high tech toy.

The wireless revolution has seriously altered the way I work. It didn't seem like it was that big of a deal, to be able to work anywhere in the house on a laptop. And then I was home over Thanksgiving and tried my father's - it was incredible. So, soon after I had my own and I love it - I even ended up getting another one for my wife's laptop.

Whether it's browsing amazon.com late at night in bed, checking morning email in the kitchen while the kids run around, or being able to set up a writing desk anywhere in the house without worrying about an accessible internet port - the airport system is awesome. Even if you only have a desktop computer it's worth it - you can to put the computer in a place where there's no internet plug, without the 40 foot cord draping your wall to connect it. All in all, a wireless system may seem extravagant, but once you have one you'll wonder how you got by without it.

The airport card, along with the base station, allows you to connect several computers, even ones that don't have wireless cards in them (i.e., we have two laptops on the wireless system, and then one iMac that doesn't have an airport card is plugged directly into the base station). You can print, scan - anything - wirelessly, as long as those extra components are connected to the base station.

If you have a big house and the base station won't be centrally located, you may want to look into the antenna. I have a 2500 square foot house and the base station is at one end of it. I can get access from anywhere in the house without the extra antenna, though in one or two places it's a weak signal. My father's house, on the other hand, is over 5000 square feet and the base station is at a far end - you can't even get a signal on the other side of the house. However, he purchased the antenna and the signal is now very strong wherever you are. A warning - you should make sure your airport network is password protected, especially if you get the antenna. The signal will be broadcast through half your neighborhood and if not protected, people can get on and use your airtime, clogging up your bandwidth.

Make sure you get the right card! There's the airport extreme card and the regular airport card (I believe they are both compatible with either base station). Check Apple's website for direct compatibility between your computer and the two different cards. They are different sizes and will only fit in the right kind of slot.

One final word - I've heard from others that certain products from Net Gear or other wireless manufacturers accomplish the same thing as the airport card and base station for much cheaper. I can't attest to the validity of this, but it might be worth looking into. I'd exercise extreme caution, since if you go with Apple products it will be covered with tech support, even if it's more expensive. And putting third party hardware in your computer will likely void the warranty on your computer.

The new base station is great. But don't be taken in by the advertising for the external antennas sold by Dr. Bott. They do nothing to extend the range of the airport and in most cases decrease signal strength. Check out the discussions on the Apple web site for more info on the external antennas.
Other than the external antenna port being a waste of time because there are no good antennas for it, the new ABS is a nice access point. And best of all, the new Windows utility for configuration is quite handy. Thankfully Apple has finally realized that the Airports aren't just "Macintosh" peripherals but are also used by many Windows users.

While this isn't the greatest graphics card out on the market, nor is it even the best value, I strongly believe that this is the right card for me. Both ATI and Nvidia, the two largest graphics card manufacturers, have a reputation for turning out high quality, fast video cards. But, ATI provides better TV-out support, whereas my impression is that Nvidia approaches TV-out as more of an afterthought. Thus, since I want to have the option of playing games and watching movies on my large TV, I felt this card was the better choice. Sure it's not the fastest thing around, but it's pretty good at what I need it to do.

Installed in a 4 year old Dell (PIII 500 MHz). Previous video card (Diamond Viper V770) was not fully supported by XP. Installation went smoothly and the card has been solid. The Radeon 9000 Pro has nice array of features -- To minimize clutter, I did not install some of the software that duplicates the media player and similar capabilities already in WXP. Recommended for anyone interested in a reasonably priced middle to high range video card.

I got a Athlon XP 1800+ computer with 1.25 gig of ram, 80 gigs of hard drive..just to name some of the stuff. anyways i upgraded from a geforce 4 ti4200 to this ati radeon 9000 pro...man it runs so smooth, clear and with the ram and cause athlon was meant for ultimate gaming....it runs super awesome. i suggest for u guys with intel p4s or whatever to get a athlon xp its more advanced.