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Archive for the ‘Electronics’ Category
VisTablet 12 Inch Tablet
Author: Rich29 Nov
VisTablet, The New Standard
VisTablet allows you to explore the internet, draw, paint, write, highlight and do professional or home photo editing. VisTablet also opens up advanced pen features available in all the new Microsoft Office applications. Through electro- magnetic induction, information is exchanged between the pen and the tablet while your movements are translated to your computer screen. With no stand-alone power supply required, the VisTablet is a great choice for portable computers as well as desktop PCs. VisTablet will open up the world of design to you in ways that were previously either too expensive or too limiting. VisTablet is the new standard in graphics tablets.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Happy with it
I couldn’t rationalize spending over $300 on a tablet so I went with the vistablet and am happy I did. It may not have the brand name, but it offers the pressure sensitivity and precision to work with my detailed images. The size is small and can conveniently fit in my laptop bag.
5 Stars Excellent Tool
As an art student studying illustration, I wanted a tablet I could rely on to make my workflow a bit smoother. I can trace drawings under the surface of the tablet to get the most precise illustrations. The tablet is light but extremely durable which I found out by accidentally dropping it! The pen does require a battery, however it has a comfortable grip and sits well in my hand.
1 Star Disatisfied
Too much presure was need to get any kind of response from tablet.
Image on screen was jumpy when pen didn’t leave tablet.
5 Stars Good graphics tablet
I am pleased with this tablet, especially for the low price I paid on Amazon. I love how I can place images under the drawing surface and use it to trace which I have never seen before. I am running the vistablet on my PC and I am able to customize the function keys to my liking. I can even customize the function keys once in Photoshop to use all my editing tools. Overall a great tablet that didn’t break the bank.
2 Stars Tracing Slowly – OK / Sketching – Terrible.
Vistatablet LLC has been spamming the heck out of forums, retail sites, and artist communities for the last year or so and it’s obvious they’re targeting neophyte dreamer who would otherwise buy a Bamboo and indeed they bill themselves as competition to Wacom’s natural monopoly on high-end digitizers so they have some real big shoes to fill with very little time left before digitizers go the way of the trackball, magnetic tape, and so on. One thing that should be mentioned and this company ought to be more up front about is that they don’t actually manufacture these digitizers, it’s just a re-branded Aiptek Slimtablet 600U. That little detail isn’t nearly so important as the stark contrast between the Vistablet(600U) and Wacom’s hardware and drivers.
Pressure sensitivity is a simple off the shelf solution, where Wacom excels is in relative position resolution, eliminating lag caused by using an active power transmit/receive pen instead of an electromagnetic inductive strategy, and in the drivers ability to provide as much device customization latitude as is possible without generating a hardware abstraction layer conflict with the OS kernel. This device will no-doubt allow for default use of a digitizer in apps like Photoshop but the specs and drivers make it far less functional than even the “for-fun” Wacom Bamboo. Having bought one of these on e-bay for just under $50, the Vistablet that is really a Aiptek Slimtablet will install on an XP machine; but if you plan on drawing free hand instead of tracing pictures at a slow pace then you will notice a significant amount of jitter, curve lag, inconsistent pressure sensitivity, no angle/tilt recognition, and cursor deviation from tip going as high as a quarter inch.
I caution anyone against buying this digitizer you are planning on doing any sort of sketching, photo-editing, digital painting, NURBS modeling, just enjoy yourself with a bit of doodling, or even want to try out an alternative interface to overcome a handicap/ergonomic issue. Short of slowly tracing pictures and launching a handful of assigned functions, the VisTablet in any could give you a really bad impression of how powerful better digitizers are as tools for the digital artist.
Considering that you’re thinking of forking over $101.75 (as of this writing), why not save up a little while longer so your investment is rewarded with a stable manufacturer of performance oriented digitizers like Wacom or just get a refurbished Slate Tablet PC that’s Wacom Penabled Tablet PC like the HP TC1100 or Motion Computing which can be found for $250-500.
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ColorVision Spyder2 Suite Win Mac
Author: Rich29 Nov
ColorVision Spyder2 Suite Win Mac
ColorVision’s Spyder2 Suite sets a new standard for monitor calibration. This innovative and advanced product delivers unrivaled calibration results for advanced amateurs and designers. The Spyder2 Suite allows you to easily calibrate all of your monitors affordably. System Requirements – Windows 2000 or XP, Mac OS X10.2 or better, CRT, LCD or notebook display(s), USB port
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars It’s a start, anyway — Amazon has a great price, too!
I guess you could say when it come to ease of use — in terms of just setting up this gizmo and running monitor adjustments — it gets 4 stars, maybe 5, for ease of use. Install the software in a minute, position the sensor, start the program, lie to the software and say your monitor has no controls of any kind (Spyder will then kick off a completely automated, hands-free scan), and less than 10 minutes later you’re home free. Unfortunately after over a dozen runs on 3 of my monitors, it’s evident that Spyder’s programmers are fascinated, maybe even obsessed, with the color RED. They must figure the redder the better, I guess. Finally I ignored one of their iron-clad rules: rather than leave the room totally dark or covering my monitor with a blanket during the scans, I turned on the rather subdued, soft lighting I use for PC video work (who the %$#&* works in total darkness? Do you? You can’t even see your keyboard!). With some gentle ambient worklight (tungsten) nearby, I finally got a really nice adjustment from Spyder. Did a teentsy bit of tweaking with some of DVE’s tv test patterns, and now it’s about right. Tip: Don’t calibrate in total darkness, run it in the same light you use for PC work, short of flashing strobes and circus floodlights. Caution: this will not make games or videos look “better” on your PC. Media players, games, and most other Windows programs have no way of recognizing .icm color profiles. Photoshop Pro does ($600), and Sony Vegas Pro does ($800), and a few Windows games that need $400 graphics cards — but Windows Media Player, PowerDVD, most freebie photo printing programs, most Kodak photo-CD browsers, most consumer video editors, and most digital camera utilities do not use Windows or Mac color profiles. For that you’ll have to run a manual setup on your CRT and push your own sliders. Sorry, LCD’s have notoriously goofy picture controls, so don’t be surprised if manual doesn’t work with LCD’s (anyone who uses LCD’s for graphics work is fighting a losing battle anyway). Subtract 1 star because Spyder2 told me that before adjustment my monitor was too green. It wasn’t. It was too blue. Otherwise, Spyder2 on auto did neat, quick work on 3 monitors and two laptops. With some qualifications in mind, I’d recommend Spyder2 over the usual calibration videos or test pics.
3 Stars Terrible software
Seems like it would be a great product if the software wasn’t so bad. The profile chooser software is terrible. Constant messages and errors and they still haven’t fixed it. I have to constantly select the correct color profile at bootup and nothing I’ve tried seems to fix that. When I do run with the color profile, it’s great though, so I give it 3 stars. 5 is the software was good.
5 Stars spyder2 suite windows
Color Vision Spyder2 suite is Perfect for my needs and even more worked right out of the box no muss no fuss the results were even better than I could have hoped for
1 Star Not worth the effort
I received the Spyder2 Suite on April 3, 2008. Installation was straight forward with no problems. It appears to do what it says it will do, however, two weeks later when it was time to recalibrae, found a problem. The recalibration would reach the point of “Adjust Color Temperature Preset”. Next step should be “Attach colorimeter to screen” but it bypassed this step and went to “Remove colorimeter” and loops back and forth between these two steps. Finally I would have to close the program. The only way I can recalibrate the monitor is uninstall and reinstall the software.
Went on line and registered with Datacolor (Colorvision) and they said I would receive an email so as to validate my email address. To this date (May l7, 2008) haven’t received anything from them. After two weeks and no email, sent them an email explaining the situtation and ask for help in this matter. Still haven’t received anything from Datacolor. Called their 800 support line and was told that he couldn’t help as his departmnet doesn’t handle the problem of not receiving emails, but he did give me an email address for downloading v2.3 as I was using v2.2. My AT&T browser said it couldn’t find the address. Finally sent a letter, by mail, to the General Manager directly, asking for help on this matter, as you can’t receive support or download software updates without being registered. That has been two weeks now and no reply. So I guess this is my problem now and it appears Datacolor just doesn’t care about it’s customers. Also didn’t find out that the Spyder2 Express and Spyder2 Suite are discontinued products until almost a month after purchasing. I would go to another company.
I would have gave Spyder2 Suite 4 maybe 5 stars if I wasn’t having the problem and could get support. I didn’t purchase it for profiling the printer as other previews said this sucked anyway. The Suite has more options than the Express.
UPDATE (May 19,2008)
After trying one more time, I called the 800 support line and explained my problem again and was transfered to someone else to resolve this issue of not receiving an email so as to validate my account. While my email address was registered with Colorvision (Datacolor) it couldn’t be explained why I couldn’t receive an email from them. Tried registering with an disposable email address and this worked. I was able to click on the link and validate and was able to download v2.3. After uninstalling v2.2 and installing v2.3 it would still skip the step of “Attach colorimater”. Only by deleting the profile created by Spyder2 by going to Control Panel>Display>Advanced>Color Management was I able to calibrate, and right afterwards to make sure I could, recalibrate the monitor, but by only deleting the profile created first. If I don’t, it will bypass the step of attaching the colorimeter.
I will now give it a 4 STAR RATING and not a 5 star because of all the problems experienced and would recommend this product to others.
4 Stars Will improve your display’s color reproduction!
I was surprised how much it changed the color reproduction on the monitors — especially since I wasn’t really sure the monitors needed calibration. The first calibration on the 17″ MacBook Pro did NOT produce good results; Apple recommends using a target gamma of 1.8 so that was what I initially used and the resulting calibration was horrible. I reran the calibration using the target gamma recommended by Spyder (i.e., 2.2) and got great results. Since then I’ve calibrated two other monitors and gotten very good results — the tones look truer and the colors are more vibrant. My only regret is that I didn’t shell out the extra $$ for the Pro version so that the software would remembered which monitor was being calibrated.
Nik Silver Efex Pro Complete Control for Professional Quality Black and White Compatible with Photoshop Adobe Elements and Apple Aperture Windows And Mac Compatible
Author: Rich29 Nov
Silver Efex Pro Silver Efex Pro provides photo enthusiasts and professional photographers alike with complete power and control to create professional quality black and white images in one convenient tool. Incredible Speed and Results with U Point
Logitech NuLOOQ Navigator 965162 0403
Author: Rich29 Nov
Logitech NuLOOQ Navigator 965162 0403
The NuLOOQ Professional Series provides you with a better way to work with core applications like Adobe Photoshop CS2, Illustrator CS2 and InDesign CS2. Design objects and applications more successfully, and avoid the more time-intensive elements of design; in other words, you work smarter with the NuLooq. The NuLOOQ navigator hardware device and the NuLOOQ tooldial software makes completing basic tasks as quick and easy as turning a dial. A perfect partner for your keyboard and mouse or tablet, it gives graphics designers precise control of option values, effortless navigation of creative imagery and new control over your creativity. NOTE – For best results, it is recommended that users have Adobe Photoshop CS2, Illustrator CS, InDesign CS2 System Requirements – Mac OS X (10.4.4 or later), Windows XP (SP2 or higher), and Windows Vista
User Ratings and Reviews
1 Star discontinued
FYI, logitech has discontinued this product. They even pulled the drivers off the website. So – regarding some people’s issues with usability with software packages (like having to continue to use CS2 while waiting for Nulooq to support CS3 for example) – if this product stops working with the next upgrade you will either have to 1.) not upgrade your software or 2.) stop using this device. So get this only if you plan on using compatible (old?) software for a while.
3 Stars Well…
I like the idea of this product, but it has no support for the most recent Adobe products that I wanted to use it for, and I’ve not developed a habit of using it. So it’s just a nice light effect for my office.
1 Star Not for OSX Leopard users
The problem with this navigator is that Logitech abandoned support and updates for OSX 10.5. So it will still work for zooming in and out of applications and scrolling but there’s no software to customize applications to interact with the navigator.
I used it extensively for Photoshop in OSX 10.4 and it was very efficient to speedup my workflow. Too bad Logithech decided to strip this great tool of its functionality.
3 Stars NuLooq Not Bad
I needed to download newer software than came with the device because of a recent upgrade to OSX10.5. The device is either more limited than I thought it would be, or its real power remains hidden. I still can’t get it to change my brush size in CS3, which is like the main thing it’s touted as being able to do. It is, however, the BEST way to make one’s way around Google Earth.
5 Stars Biggest assets are quality and maximized functionality in minimal footprint
I’m very impressed with this product. Quality is top notch as noted by others.
I also wanted to address my original concern with someone’s comment about top buttons (triggers) being loud and difficult to press: it’s quite the opposite. While not touch-sensitive (capacitive), these surrounding buttons require low pressure to activate and emit a soft click. An interesting surprise was finding out that the middle button is a capacitive one.
I am using this product for Serato Scratch Live and it’s perfect for my needs.
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ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS KEYBOARD STICKERS
Author: Rich29 Nov
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS KEYBOARD STICKERS
The Adobe After Effects stickers can easily transform your standard keyboard into a customised one within minutes, depending on your own need and preference.
Due to the Adobe After Effects’s keyboard stickers are ideal for all users, for beginners and professionals.
The Adobe After Effects keyboard stickers are compatible with all default shortcuts in Adobe After Effects as well as all versions of Adobe After Effects. Therefore, by applying them on your standard keyboard you immediately start editing with Adobe After Effects.
Adobe After Effects keyboard stickers are designed to improve your productivity and to enjoy your work all the way through.
By using After Effects stickers your productivity will be increased by 15 – 40 percent, saving your time and money.
Stickers are made of high-quality non-transparent matt vinyl, thickness-80mkn.
Each sticker is covered with laminate, which guarantees their lifetime durability.
Discover the World of perfection and simplicity with our Product.
OUR MOTTO IS – QUALITY!
The product listed above is copyrighted, has been manufactured and distributed by Royal Galaxy Ltd. Usage of the images posted, distribution or resale has NOT been authorized by Royal Galaxy Ltd, and is in direct violation of its written terms. Federal law provides severe civil and criminal penalties for the unauthorized usage, distribution or resale of copyrighted product, its listings with all imaged posted. For all requests regarding usage of images of this product, its distribution and resale, please contact us by email.
Gefen HDMI M to DVI M Adapter
Author: Rich29 Nov
ADA-HDMIM-2-DVIF – Adapts a DVI source to an HDMI displayADA-DVIM-2-HDMIF – Adapts an HDMI source to a DVI display
Transcend TS8GSDHC6 8GB SDHC card SD 2 0 SPD Class 6
Author: Rich29 Nov
Transcend TS8GSDHC6 8GB SDHC card SD 2 0 SPD Class 6
for use with SDHC-compatible devices only * 8GB capacity * 2MB per second minimum sustained write capability *
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Never ending memory
This was one of the cheapest 8GB chips out there with Class 6 speed.
You want the fastest possible speed and even at that it takes a while to download lots of pictures – can’t imagine how long the slower ones take – so don’t get anything less than the highest class available.
On the plus side, running out of memory is never a problem any more if you take pictures.
5 Stars Wow! An essential for digital photographers using SDHC cameras
All I can say is WOW! We have sure come a long way in a short time. This little 8GB SDHC memory card is all one could ask for in an SDHC card. In my Nikon D80 it lets me take hundreds and hundreds of pictures. Speaking subjectively, the write speed seems to be faster than the camera’s buffer, so that the card is not a bottleneck when taking a long series of continuous photos.
The ONLY thing I disliked about this card was the packaging. It comes in that hard-plastic type of container that can literally blunt the edge of one’s knife or scissors. Or worse, when trying to open it it would be possible to damage the card itself. Why do retailers do this? Also, the card did not come with a little plastic card container. These are minor quibbles.
Two or three of these inexpensive cards, and one would have enough photo capacity for any vacation. I love the digital age!
4 Stars A great buy, but….
there’s just a few caveats.
First, be aware that the card does NOT come with a case. This may or may not matter to you, but it seems like deception by omission that no one informs you. I bought this card along with the 4 GB card for my DSLR, and it ended up being a serious issue for me, since I can only have one card in my camera at a time, and the other card is left unprotected.
Second, the 8GB card is oh-so-slightly thicker than other SD cards (the 4GB is fine). This means that it gets stuck in SD card slots (or at least, it does on my Canon XSi), but all it takes is a little pushing and jiggling, and it comes out every time.
Finally, be aware that although it is rated Class 6, it isn’t quite as fast as the pricier alternatives. I had never encountered a delay when shooting in burst, but when I used the Transcend cards, my camera was incapacitated for a good 10 seconds after shooting a burst of 8 shots or so.
However, even with these issues in mind, I thought the card was an excellent purchase. At one point, Amazon offered this same card with a memory card reader for only a dollar more, which would have been the ultimate deal, but I’ll settle for this. It works, it’s cheap, and I would certainly recommend it.
Still, I’ve only had the card for about a month, and you never know about quality……
5 Stars Buy it
Works as it should, holds tons of pictures, and is cheap. What’s not to like?
5 Stars Very good product.
I recently bought two of these 8GB SDHC cards, one for my Canon SD1000 camera and the other for my COWON D2. The cards work very well and I’ve had no problems with it so far. I even use it for videos and there is no delay. In my D2 it works flawlessly. This is a high quality SDHC card and is cheap.
Pros:
- Lifetime warranty
- Class 6 read/write speed (the fastest speed currently available)
- Affordable
Cons:
- None
I’m thinking of buying the 16GB version.
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Transcend TS4GSDHC6 4GB SDHC card SD 2 0 SPD Class 6
Author: Rich29 Nov
Transcend TS4GSDHC6 4GB SDHC card SD 2 0 SPD Class 6
for use with SDHC-compatible devices only * 4GB capacity * 2MB per second minimum sustained write capability *
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Great product a price. Excellent
This is great product for a price. I have paid around $10 for 4GB and this is class 6 HC better and faster then normal SD card.
2 Stars Service good, Product bad
The 4 gb SD card does not work good I can not get the pictures off of it.
My computer does not read the card, can not format it.
I tried other PCs with no success. Now I am having trouble returning the card.
5 Stars Roomy SD
My new camera called for a 2GB card. While looking for one, I came across this 4GB card and decided to order it instead. It has plenty of space for videos and loads of pictures. I am very satisfied with it.
1 Star Price is right – shipping is wrong
I just ordered this item and neglected to double check the shipping. I wanted four at this price and seemed like a pretty good deal at $10.60, but the shipping and handling turned out to be $21.99! I will go to a bricks and mortar store before I pay that.
Ordered canceled.
5 Stars 4GB SDHC
this is one of the best HC cards on the market works flawlessly in my camera and my PDA and the transfer rates are impressive.
Transcend 16GB SDHC CARD SD 2 0 SPD CLASS 6 with Compact Card Reader
Author: Rich29 Nov
Transcend 16GB SDHC CARD SD 2 0 SPD CLASS 6 with Compact Card Reader
User Ratings and Reviews
1 Star not a happy camper
the card was defective and the reader was some cheap one-not the one in the picture-some off brand. Since I threw away the original plastic packaging, it is not returnable. sent the card to the manufacturer for warranty and we’ll see what happens.
5 Stars What a cool device!
I love my 16Gig SDHC memory card – captured my nephew’s wedding and brother’s band music all on one tiny card, but the coolest thing is the USB card reader… the slots that came on my computer won’t read SDHC but that isn’t stopping me now!
5 Stars Pleased with my purchase
I purchased this combo to use with my new Canon FS100 SD Flash Camcorder. Both the memory and the card reader work great.
The card reader is very basic, It has no cover for the USB connector or anything to keep dust out of the SD slot. I simply keep my spare card in the slot to keep it from collecting dust, dirt or lint.
The SD card does feel ever so slightly loose in the reader but this has never had an effect on its ability to read the card.
Over all, I am very happy.
3 Stars Freight seemed no discount even you buy two
What made me sad is that it seemed I have paid double freight when I bought two SDHC cards together, there was no discount. As to the product quality, it seemed OK.
5 Stars FANTASTIC DEAL
Nice and fast card , great addition for my Cowon D2 also would be a great card for any camera. The included reader work’s like a dream.
Buy 2 there cheap!
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Genius MousePen 8 x 6 Inch Graphic Tablet for Home and Office
Author: Rich29 Nov
Genius MousePen 8 x 6 Inch Graphic Tablet for Home and Office
The Genius MousePen 8X6, USB 8″x6″ Graphic Tablet for Home and Office. Make handwriting notes and drawings on the Internet and in any application program. 1024-level pressure sensitivity for all kinds of shapes and thickness control. 8″x6″ working area, comfortable for easy drawing, painting and using the PC.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Genius MousePen
I bought this as a gift for my adult son whose hobbies are sketching and photography. He said it will be useful both at work and home. Its an amazing tool and I’m thinking about getting one for myself.
1 Star Mac users, beware
Notice that the good reviews come from windows users.
I got this as a birthday present. Unfortunately, even though the product claims to support Mac OSX, it really doesn’t. Here is my list of problems:
* The CD included is ANCIENT. Forget the free software, the CD does not contain the mac versions.
* Even the most recent drivers from their website are bad. They mess up some permissions and upon installation and reboot, you need another reboot to fix them.
* It is NOT compatible with INK. That means, forget the handwriting recognition, unless you have some other program of your own.
* The pen works as a mouse (after the painful driver installation), but the pressure sensitivity feature does not work in photoshop. This is quite possibly due to the inability to install elements and the other software from the CD, since they don’t have the MAC versions.
* Also it frequently causes photoshop to hang for possibly ~30sec at a time. You do a couple of brushstrokes and then the program just freezes for what seems FOREVER.
* If you decide to unplug the tablet from your computer, something that you NEED to do all the time if you have a laptop, it will only work again upon plugin 1 in 30 times. The rest of the times, the only solution was to RE-install the drivers and reboot twice (because of the permissions problem).
I just got today a bamboo fun from wacom, and it works SO seamlessly. It was more expensive, but I’m sure that the simple bamboo (the non-”fun” version), works equally well, it’s just less fancy looking, and it seems to cost more or less the same as this product.
I’m returning the genius. I really consider the mac compatibility false advertisement.
5 Stars This is great
I bought this for my son becasue he is now into Manga. He loves the product. He loves the fact that it is so slim and i think it is a great prodcut for a wonderful price. I would reccommend this product to anyone.
4 Stars Works great for the price!
I wasn’t expecting much from such a cheap tablet, but it’s much better than smaller, more expensive store bought tablets I’ve owned. It does what it’s supposed to, but you’ll have to play with it a bit before you get your settings just right for normal use in Photoshop or whatever you may use it for.
Great product for the money.
5 Stars Wacom at a fourth of its cost
I am studying to be in Graphic Design, and Visual Marketing. I needed a Graphic Tablet fast and like every other college student, struggling and poor. If I got a WACOM it would mean water and ramen for 3 months straight. I came across this with its outstanding reviews and the price. There was no way nearly 170 ppl were wrong. I decided to take my chances and very happy I did. It came quick and impress how nice and big the tablet was with Pen, and mouse. I don’t use the mouse but definitely the pen. I put a fully charged AAA battery in the pen and immediately impressed. Vista recognized it and installed the driver. I installed the Install CD, but wasn’t really necessary. Their software is out of date so you need to go to their homepage and find this model and download from there. Works great with Adobe Illustrator, Autodesk Sketchbook Pro 2009, and Paint. Trust me if you are looking in the market for a cheap graphic tablet than this is the product for you. You cannot go wrong with this