The Nüvi 250W GPS from Garmin is a widescreen version of the Nuvi 250 GPS! This navigator has a stunning 4.3" touch screen for clear instructions and increased user comfort. All you have to do is enter the postcode and the name of the town you're heading to for it to display your itinerary. Garmin has also kitted the Nüvi 250W GPS out with Navteq maps of 33 European countries and preloaded speed camera alerts. What's more, this GPS lists over 1 million points of interest, including restaurants, petrol stations, bars and tourist sites, and will help you to organise your next family excursion. In addition to this, you can customise your GPS by saving your own points of interest and up to 500 of your favourite destinations and addresses. Furthermore, the Nüvi 250W also features a JPEG image viewer, a currency converter and a PIN code protection system.The Nüvi 250W is the ideal on-board computer! Maps included: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Monaco, Germany, Greece, Italy, San Marino, Vatican City, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Ireland, Spain, Andorra, Sweden, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

By David Katzmaier

The average American spends hours in front of the TV each week, but the picture on an average American TV looks like Times Square on steroids: too bright and garish to seem anything like real life. That's because default settings for TVs are configured to make an impact on the sales floor of your local electronics superstore, not necessarily in your living room. With the emergence of higher-quality wide-screen and high-definition TVs, not to mention the DVD movies and HD programs that fill their big screens, living-room images can look better than ever before--as long as you don't settle for the manufacturers' default settings.

Our guide includes three steps you can take to help make your television picture look its best. For starters, we'll tell you how to properly set the basic picture controls available on most TVs. Next, we'll take a look at various home-theater setup DVDs that provide expert advice for both video and audio fine-tuning. And lastly, we'll give you the lowdown on professional calibration and whether it's worth the investment for your high-end set.

HDTV tune-up tips: Basic | Intermediate | Advanced
Basic
You can do a lot to improve your picture using the simple adjustments found on all televisions. Taking the steps below will make the picture look more realistic and closer to what the director intended.

Room lighting
Since most people turn down the lights to watch a movie, our recommendations are designed to deliver a better DVD picture in rooms with controlled lighting. Unless you have a big-screen projector or you're sitting at the minimum viewing distance, you shouldn't watch movies in complete darkness--it can cause eyestrain. For bright plasmas and smaller direct-view sets, the ideal setup is to place a dim light directly behind the TV and leave the rest of the room dark. Look for special "daylight" bulbs that glow at 6,500 degrees Kelvin. You should also prevent any light in the room from reflecting off the TV, as glare will hamper image fidelity. Watching at night is best, but if you watch during the day, thick curtains will really improve the picture.

Before you make any of the adjustments detailed below, set room lighting as if you were about to watch a movie. For viewing in brighter environments, we recommend you use one of the picture presets, such as Standard, Sports, or Vivid, and reserve your custom settings for dark rooms.

Brightness
What it is: Also called black level, brightness actually adjusts how dark the black sections of the picture appear.

What it does: Excessive brightness can result in a two-dimensional, washed-out look with reduced color saturation. Images with brightness set too low lose detail in shadows, and distinctions between dark areas disappear in pools of black.

How to set it: After connecting your DVD player using the highest-quality input available, insert a DVD that has letterbox bars above and below the image, and find a scene that has a roughly equal amount of light and dark material. Turn up the control all the way, then decrease until the letterbox bars begin to appear black, as opposed to dark gray. If you notice a loss of shadow detail--for example, when people's eyes disappear into the depths under their brows--then you've set brightness too low. Some plasma, LCD, DLP, and LCoS TVs won't ever look black, so you'll need a setup disc to properly configure their brightness.

Contrast
What it is: Also called picture or white level, contrast controls the intensity of the white parts of the image and determines the overall light output of the display.

What it does: Contrast is usually set extremely high by default because it makes images look brighter in the store. High contrast can obscure details and distort lines in the image, cause eyestrain in dim rooms, and shorten the lifespan of tubes and plasma elements. Setting contrast too low robs the image of impact.

How to set it: Display a still image from DVD of a white object with some visible details--such as someone wearing a white button-up shirt or a shot of a glacier from the Ice Age DVD. Adjust the control up all the way, then reduce it until you can make out all the details in the white (such as buttons on a shirt or cracks in the ice). In general, TVs look best when contrast is set between 30 and 50 percent.

Color
What it is: Also called saturation, this control adjusts how intense the colors look.

What it does: When there's too much color, the set looks garish and unrealistic. It's most noticeable with reds, which are often accentuated (pushed) by the TV's color decoder. On the other hand, too little color diminishes the impact of the picture, making it look drab. Setting color to zero results in a black-and-white image.

How to set it: If available, first set the color-temperature control to the warmest option as described below. Then find an image of someone with light, delicate skin tones, preferably a close-up of a face, on a DVD. Turn up the color control until it looks like the person has sunburn, then reduce it until the skin looks natural, without too much red. If the rest of the colors look too drab, you can increase color slightly at the expense of accurate skin tones.

Other controls
Tint: Unless you're using one of the DVDs mentioned in the Intermediate section to set it properly, this control is best left at the midway point.

Sharpness: This adds artificial edges to objects, which sometimes helps with soft cable signals but almost always mars the already sharp image from a DVD. Reduce it to zero unless you detect visible softening along the edges of text; if you do, increase it until the edges appear sharp again.

Edge enhancement: Also called VSM or SVM for scan-velocity modulation, set this control to Off if possible.

Color temperature: This important control affects the entire palette of colors. Select the Warm or Low option, which should come closest to the NTSC standard of 6,500 degrees Kelvin.

Generally, the image looks best for DVD with picture "enhancements" such as autocolor, autoflesh tone, autocontrast, noise reduction, and other proprietary processing modes turned off. DVD image quality is good enough that these modes usually do more harm than good.

More:CNET

Crisp and clear

LCD screen has more pixels per square inch than a CRT TV, meaning you get a sharper image (it's worth remembering that, like all TVs, there are LCD screens that have better clarity than others)
Less reflection, less glare

Because of the backlight, LCD TVs won't flare up when the sun hits them, and they don't flicker - making them easier on the eye.
Wide viewing angle

Though not quite as versatile as a plasma screen, because an LCD TV is flat you can watch it from a wide angle in the room.
Save space, look sharp

LCD TVs are so compact that a 15" flat panel LCD screen gives you the same amount of viewable screen as a traditional 17" CRT display.
It looks good - even when it's off

This might not be your first concern, but LCD TVs are sleek and slim, easily mounted on a wall or fitted snug against the side of your living room.
Films, as they were meant to be seen

LCD screens often come with a widescreen aspect ratio. Put simply, this means that you can watch movies and DVDs the way they were intended - and not "boxed" in to fit a CRT screen.
No "Image Burn"

Although this is becoming less of an issue with plasma screens, they still run the risk of suffering "image burn" - when an image paused on the screen for a long time leaves a trace. LCD TVs do not have this problem.
No scan lines

Look closely at your traditional CRT screen and you can see thin lines. LCD and plasma TVs do not have these.
Lower emissions, better power conservation

LCD TVs are more economical to run than both plasma and CRT TVs. They can even help you save on you electricity bills, consuming about 60% less power than traditional televisions.

via:tesco

Why just frame one picture when you can relive all your memories? Introducing the Kodak EasyShare digital picture frame. It's ready to go right out of the box just pop in a memory card or connect your digital camera and enjoy the picture and video show.

You can even put your memories to music add MP3s in a snap and listen to them on the frame's built-in speakers. And with the frame's viewing and editing features, you're in total control. The digital picture frame tell a story, make a statement.Favorite memories - now playing in a frame near you. Smart, intuitive multimedia done your way:" Start viewing your pictures and videos right away just insert a memory card or connect your digital camera and enjoy " A frame full of features: slide shows your way, thumbnails, copy, delete, and print " Set the mood with music listen to your favorite MP3s with built-in speakers " Selectable viewing hours featuring automatic on/off settings

Simple to use:" Be in charge with the handy remote control " The convenient drag-and-drop feature makes transferring pictures a snap " PictBridge enabled, so you can print pictures without a computer

Viewing excellence " Optimized with Kodak light managment film to provide bright, clear display with excellent viewing angle " View your pictures on the 16:9 widescreen display featuring Kodak color science for vibrant color and crisp detail

Some Reviews:

 Purchased this for my dad for his birthday, so easy to use and set up.
Really great idea to view all your family photos on.. Loads of his friends are now purchasing them as they are a great gift to receive.

 The frame has a nice design. It is easy to set up and use. Only problem I had was to work out how to download the images from the computer onto the frame. After hours looking into it I found out the frame doesn`t have an internal memory which wasn`t clear on the amazon website or from the instruction leafleat either. Otherwise it is a lovely frame.

The Jive Box has been designed to set the benchmark in ultra compact audio system performance. Whilst turning heads with its stylish design, the Jive Box has been acoustically engineered to deliver an output of 70Watts RMS. Patented technology including an external ClassHDTM Amplifier and a Hi-X Woofer has made it possible to achieve its very high acoustic output and deep bass from such a small enclosure. The Jive box boasts connectivity for iPod and other audio devices, LED Light guide, DSP Technology and a multi functional remote control to make it the complete sound solution.

Revolutionary Technology
Achieving such high performance from a small cube of only 18 cm square requires a bold new approach to compact audio design that utilizes several new technologies in amplification, transduction and signal processing. These new technologies are all incorporated within the Jive Box.

ClassHDTM Amplifier
Rated at 70 Watts, the ClassHDTM amp is not only the most powerful in its class but also the most efficient. The key benefits are; greater volume, less distortion, and the overall size of the amplifier is allot smaller. Thanks to Logic3's technical wizardry the ClassHDTM AMP has been incorporated within the power supply and therefore does not impact on the size of the Jive Box.

130 mm Hi-X Woofer
The Jive box incorporates a patented Hi-X woofer which produces deeper bass sounds and lower levels of distortion. This revolutionary woofer accomplishes this as it has twice the excursion of a non Hi-X woofer of the same size, also thanks to an underhung magnet assembly usually only seen on professional studio monitors, the woofers structure is kept robustly centred and keeps the voice coil immersed in a constant magnetic field. The major benefits being lower distortion levels and the capability to deliver deeper bass sounds from a more compact subwoofer.

Digital Signal Processor (DSP)
The Jive Box also incorporates a Digital Signal Processor which manages the crossover technology between the satellites, the subwoofer, the equalization (EQ) tasks and all of the driver & system protection protocols. The optimization scheme is a powerful integrated 28 bit DSP + DAC + ADC processor. Using a DSP in such a device is essential to deliver precise control of the many electronic elements featured. The DSP can even match human perceived loudness curves, so that the Jive Box can deliver fuller sound even at very low volume levels.

2.1 Sound System
The Jive Box includes a combination of speakers including 2 Neodymium midrange drivers, 2 tweeters, and a Hi-X woofer and passive bass radiator. The Jive Box has been arranged in a 2.1 system configuration, with two satellites and a subwoofer. Middle and high frequencies are divided between two stereo channels each with a 75 mm Neodymium midrange driver and two 25 mm tweeters. Second order Butterworth filters divide the mid and the higher ranges. Additional bass is produced by a tuned Passive Radiator that also utilises the full Hi-X suspension technology. The 130 mm Hi-X woofer works in conjunction with the Passive Radiator to produce low frequency responses to 50 Hz.An ingenious feature of the Jive Box is the location of the two tweeters positioned on the top/front corners of the cube, this has proved to be ideal in creating spatial awareness and preserving the tonal balance whether one is seated in front of or standing above the Jive Box.

LED Light Guide
The Jive box provides stylish visual effects via an angled LED light guide which divides the top half of the Jive Box from the bottom. Red, green or blue LED's can be activated by the remote control and can be dimmed to each user's preference to create the desired ambience.

IR Remote Control
The Jive Box comes complete with a multi functional IR remote control. You can control volume, bass, treble, songs, albums and adjust the decorative LED's colour and brightness from the comfort of your chair at the touch of a button.

Connectivity
The Jive Box is a stereo audio system featuring the iPod universal dock and with a 3.5mm audio input for MP3, CD and most other music players. Outputs are provided for iPod synchronization with your computer, and a composite video connector allowing you to play videos or pictures from your iPod or iPhone on your TV.

via:Ipod accessories

Some scammer out there has a sense of humor (and a shrink wrap machine), because when Greg opened his apparently "new" copy of Grand Theft Auto IV, he found a used copy of "Boys N Da Hood.

It's sort of old news by now, but I had pre ordered Grand Theft Auto 4 (for Xbox 360) and left a $8 deposit well over a year ago at the GameStop in Hicksville NY. When I arrived at the store on Thursday 5/1/08, just 2 days after the release of the game (4/29/08), I was told that they were sold out of the game. "But I reserved a copy." I said. I was told by the goofy teenage employee that "It is GameStop policy to only hold reserved games for 48 hours." So I immediately went into "Where is your manager mode". After explaining that his manager wouldn't be in for another another hour, the employee got nervous and after what can only be described as divine intervention, found "the last copy" of the game under the counter. I said great, thanked him and left with my game.

When I opened the package minutes later, untampered security seal and all, I found that the original game was replaced with a used and worn gangster rap CD. (see image attached). I quickly brought it back to the store, and after the kid giddily took a few pics with his camera phone ("Dude, holy shit, I've never seen anything like that."), I was told again that I had received the last copy of the game and that he was in no position to issue me a refund. If I hadn't foreseen this becoming a huge pain in my ass, I would had thought it was pretty damn funny - my friends certainly did! Boyz N Da Hood, really?

Now a LONG story made somewhat shorter - I made several phone calls to Take 2 Interactive, the manufacturer of the game, while I waited for the GameStop manager to arrive. While dealing with Take 2 I was given a 2 hour royal runaround, however almost everyone I spoke to had a very pleasant British accent. After speaking with everyone from the shipping department to a frustrated Scotsman in the Technical Support department, I realized this could only end with an abrupt and unsatisfying dead end. Eventually I gathered that I would have to take it up with the retailer.

After speaking with the store manager, who was no help, he told me I need to take it up with the manufacturer. Already tried that! I asked for his corporate number and his district manager's phone number as well. I tried the corporate number first where I was told that they could do nothing for me, and I would have to get in touch with the DM. After leaving a few messages with the District Manger over several days, I finally got a hold of him. I have to say, when I did finally get a hold of him he was begrudgingly willing to get me a new copy of the game. Can't say that he believed my story at all, but none the less I was happily carjacking on my TV later that night!

Thanks for your time, hope this is useful for your site, which I love!
~Greg

via:consumerist

Portable Bill Counter/Detector

If you need to count money on the go, consider the innovative AB300 bill counter with integrated rechargeable battery. This money counter checks banknote authenticity using UV verification, magnetic ink testing and bill width detection while the unit counts at a blazing speed of 800 bills/ min. Its space saving design makes it the ideal portable tool for protecting your business against counterfeit losses.

10"W x 7"D x 5 1/2"H

via:iguzz