Sights and Sounds of Multimedia

By George Harding

Sansa by San Disk …

The world today is full of MP3 players, all sizes and shapes. The original Apple iPod created an industry for not only MP3 players, but also devices to go with MP3 players, such as cases, speakers, stands and more.

There are many companies today that offer an MP3 player. I received one at the Consumer Electronics Show from San Disk that is, according to them, one of the most popular. Such a description is relative, of course, because the Apple players have over 90% of the market. The rest is shared by quite a few companies.

The Sansa I received is 1 GB, which is small by today’s cheap flash memory standards. It’s offered in a 2 GB model as well, but even the 1 GB model can hold 250 songs in MP3 format, double that in WMA format! At 10 songs per CD (and some CDs have fewer that that), that would mean some 25 CDs can be loaded on that model. Enough?

But that’s not all!

The Sansa is also an FM radio, with pretty good reception. And, it’s a voice recorder. And, it polishes your shoes – not really! The owner’s manual says it can also be used to store some of your pictures! This product is an example of the miniaturization and combination of functions that is occurring today.

The Sansa is very small, about the size of a pack of gum. There is a button that is on/off (long press) or function selection (short press). The center button is used to select items. There is a rectangular button around the center button that is used for forward/back selection, pause and up/down selection, depending on the function being displayed.

The top edge has a volume control (up/down) and bottom edge Hold slider (Hold makes all buttons inactive). One end has the usual 2.5 mm jack; the other end has a socket for the plug that attaches to a USB port. The cable for this comes with the unit.

You use your computer to rip the songs you want, usually with Media Player, but any such software will do the job

The unit comes with software that looks for ripped songs, displays the titles and lets you drag and drop the ones you want to the Sansa.

The Sansa is an excellent MP3 player with very good fidelity and excellent workmanship. If you have large fingers, this would not be the product for you, because the buttons/controls are small. With that caveat, I found this unit a pleasure to use!

Sansa MP3 player by San Disk www.sandisk.com About $70, lower at some stores.

ThermoHAWK 200 Infrared Thermometer …

This is neat little gadget that measures temperature. So what’s so special about that? Well, for one thing, the measurable range of temperatures is -27° to 230° F, more than your usual thermometer!

For another, you need not touch the item you are measuring. You just hold the device close and the temperature is shown in a window on the barrel of the device.

The size of this thermometer is a bit fatter than a penlight flashlight and a bit shorter. It has a key ring attachment on one end, and a metallic cover for the infrared element on the other. A button is provided to turn the device on; it turns off after a few seconds of non-use. A small window is built into the cylinder to show the temperature read.

Since you don’t need to touch the item being measured, you can check temperature of hot things easily with no danger to the measuring device.

Power is provided by two small disk-shaped 1.5v. batteries. Temperatures may be read in either Fahrenheit or Centigrade.

The model 400 reads temperatures up to 428°.

ThermoHAWK Infrared Thermometer by Q3i www.q3i.com Price about $40 for model 200

WeatherNow II by Oregon Scientific …

What a delightful device! Here we have weather info at our fingertips, including current temperature (inside and outside) and humidity, today’s high and low forecast, plus three-day forecast of high, low and precipitation probability. In addition, it shows date, current time, sunrise, sunset and sky condition.

How it works: All this information comes without any sensors! The unit uses the MSN Direct service through Microsoft DirectBand. This service is broadcast from local towers in some 100 cities, and includes quite a lot of information. There is no charge for this information.

The Weather Station information not only captures the weather data you need, but also receives the date and time, adjusted for time zone and Standard/Daylight as appropriate.

Power is provided by batteries (4 AA cells) or AC power. The only wire involved is a short antenna wire used to receive the MSN Direct broadcast.

There is nothing to set up and no PC is required to operate the Weather Station.

The sky condition information is amazingly extensive, being a graphic of cloud and precipitation conditions forecast. There is somewhat different info for today’s weather than for the 3-day forecast. Today’s weather graphic will change as conditions change during the day.

The temperature displays not only show the numeric value, but also how that temperature (indoor, outdoor) has changed. Humidity percentage also has a direction arrow.

I think you would like this device as much as I do!

WeatherNow II by Oregon Scientific www.oregonscientific.com Price about $130 direct