Category: Electronics

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Boost Your Cell Phone Coverage

Cell Phone Boost That Works

You might have seen stickers that you put on the back of your phone. They supposedly improve coverage, but they work just about as well as hope. This is better than that. It’s the zBoost Cell Phone Signal Booster.

The zBoost Signal Booster is equipment that you need to install at your home or office (now there is a car model too).  It consists of two parts:

  • Antenna to pick up the signal. It is in 16 inch by 1 inch PVC pipe
  • Booster that you place where you need the signal to go. It is about the size of a router or cable modem.

The antenna and booster are connected by a coaxial cable. There are different zBoost models costing $215-$310 depending on the cell carriers you need boosted. Be sure to get the right model for your needs.

If you read the reviews on Amazon, you will see that most people either love it or hate it. This is based on the individual situation in a particular location. You need to have coverage somewhere so that you have a signal to boost. The ideal location is typically on a roof or a window. Then you put the booster where you need coverage, which is recommended to be at least 25 feet away from the antenna in order to reduce interference.

My Experience

I just installed the zBoost for someone in Arlington, Virginia. It was the dual-band 800 and 1900 MHz XY510 model because they have iPhone 3G’s, which use both bands depending on if they are on AT&T’s Edge or 3G network. Their living room went from no coverage to 5 bars. Be sure to follow the instructions closely and experiment with placement. In my case, changes of 1 foot for the receiving antenna made a difference of 3 bars.

If your home or office has poor cell phone coverage, this could be well worth the investment.

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Geotagging to arrive on Nikon Compact Camera

Nikon Coolpix P6000

Nikon recently announced their new flagship digital compact camera called the Coolpix P6000.

Expected in September for $500 list, this camera has a 13.5-million-pixel CCD. It can shoot in raw mode, meaning that it does not have to apply any lossy compression at all. It has a feature called d-lighting which fixes otherwise underexposed images caused by excessive backlighting. The P6000 even has an ethernet jack.

Geotagging

But the feature that interests me most is geotagging. The camera has a built-in GPS which allows it to embed the location of the camera in every shot.

Geotagging will allow you to look at a photos of your trip on a map. You will always be able to find out exactly where your pictures were shot.  You can embed the pictures in Google Maps or in Flickr with the location link.  Eventually applications such as iPhoto should be able to sort photos by location instead of just by date taken.

Until now, we needed to go through a complex process if we wanted to add GPS information to photos. Ricoh and some pro cameras have offered this feature as an add-on, but it has never been built into a mainstream camera. Hopefully we will see geotagging in more cameras to come.

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Digital TV Converter Box Scams

The FCC has ordered all local over-the-air broadcasts be digital by February 17, 2009. Taking advantage of this, scammers are putting up ads and commercials claiming to offer free digital converter boxes. The FTC should shut down these misleading ads. One ad says:

The United States Deptartment of Commerce is preparing everyone for the switch to digital television by authorizing payment coupons for certified brands of these special TV boxes.

But the government process has us all tied up.

That’s why Universal TechTronics is providing these Miracle ClearView TV boxes immediately to the general public for free for everyone who gets the 5yr. warranty.

There are two problems with this. First, the device is only “free” if you don’t consider the mandatory warranty and shipping of $100.

But the main reason this is bogus is that most Americans don’t need to do anything. If you have satellite or cable TV, you are not affected. And if you are one of the rare Americans that uses a rabbit-ear antenna for over-the-air broadcasts, your TV could have a digital tuner built-in if it was purchased recently.

If you do need a digital converter box, it should cost about $60. You can get a $40 coupon from the federal government that lowers your cost to around $20.

For more on the Digital TV Transition, see the FCC site:
http://www.dtv.gov/

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Where to buy electronics

While Best Buy may be popular for electronics, they are rarely the best buy. Their staff is known to make up answers. Their online prices are not as good as other Internet stores. And their in-store prices are often higher than their online prices, despite what their in-store website shows. Their Geek Squad is poorly trained and could try to take a video of you taking a shower. So instead of driving to Best Buy, first look around online.

Amazon has decent prices, but is also just a good place to shop around for what you want. Between Amazon and Amazon’s third party sellers, their selection is huge and their reviews can help you figure out what is best for you.

Newegg has long been a favorite electronics seller because of their great prices. They are usually one of the first places I visit. They sell lots of electronics, computers, computer parts, accessories, and software.

Cables, such as HDMI cables for HD TVs, are a huge rip-off in most retail stores. Best Buy and Circuit City will charge $40-$100 for a cable that is no better than a $5 cable from MonoPrice. MonoPrice’s cables are so cheap that you might suspect that they’re selling stolen goods. But MonoPrice has been around since 2002 selling quality cables and parts for their real price.

Although their site is not as attractive as MonoPrice’s, Blue Jeans Cable also offers a good deal on cables, especially if you need something special that is custom made.

While their prices aren’t the most competitive, Crutchfield offers a comprehensive site for home theater equipment. Their phone sales people are also knowledgeable.

There are times when you need a real physical store. For example, laptops have different “feels” and are good to play with before purchasing. Luckily, in the D.C. area, we have a great store for electronics.

Micro Center, with 21 stores nationwide, has a store here in Fairfax, Virginia. They have good prices and a wide selection of computer equipment and software. They have a television section for large LCDs and Plasmas. Unique today, they have a section just for selling Apple products. Micro Center is great for geeks too because they sell everything you need to build a computer from the ground up. MicroCenter also has a bookstore and a game section for PC and console gaming.

Micro Center‘s employees are generally quite knowledgeable, especially compared to those at Best Buy. They make money on sales commissions by putting a sticker on items that they help you to find. On checkout, those stickers are scanned for comissions.

If you’re shopping specifically for an Apple product or accessory, Apple’s retail stores are great and have an intelligent staff. Since Apple keeps prices the same everywhere, you won’t feel ripped off shopping there. There are only a few ways to get prices slightly better than the standard list price from Apple. You can get an Educational or Government discount from Apple. Or you can go to a third-party seller that might offer a small discount or combo package that Apple does not have. Amazon is the best of the third-party sellers now. They offer $100-$150 off of most current iMacs.

Although Best Buy is ubiquotus, there are many better alternatives. Give some of these other electronics stores a try.