Uncle Mark 2004

Mark Hurst

Description

Uncle Mark 2004

Informations

• Publié par: ofesotan
• Nombre de lectures: 49
• Langue: Français

Extrait

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Table of Contents

The Gift Guide Introduction - ii Digital camera - 1 Personal computer - 3 Cell phone - 6 Digital music player - 8 Kitchen tool - 10 Solution to e-mail overload - 11 Video game system - 13 Online games - 16 Board games - 17 Gift for kids - 18 Other “essential” items - 19

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The Almanac How to give a Best Man speech - 20 How to run a meeting - 21 Umbrella storage system - 22 Sending e-cards, recommendation site- 23 How to remember the camera batteries - 24 How to write dates in e-mail - 25 Which seafood to eat - 26   Leaving papers on a chair, preparedness guides - 27 Rules for walking in New York City - 28 How to visit New York’s Central Park Zoo - 29    A surprising skill, and Merlin’s forehead trick - 30 How to leave a telephone message - 31

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Introduction

As a technology expert, I get a lot of questions – from friends, family, and colleagues – about what technology to buy. I can usually give a quick answer, because I know which products are genuinely good and which are covered in a thick layer of marketing hype.

TheUncle Mark 2007 Gift Guide & Almanacis the fourth annual compilation of my recommendations. It’s a free downloadable guide that helps you make the best decisions for technology purchases, and for some gifts as well.

If you’re like most people, you have questions about technology that you don’t want to spend a lot of time researching. But where to get the answers? You can’t trust manufacturers, since they want you to buy the most recent or most expensive option. Depending on who you read, the technology media may not be on your side, either. Sure, plenty of websites and magazines – even Consumer Reports– can give you 17 different options of digital cameras, but that doesn’t help much. You’re not asking to see all the available choices. (The problem of having too many choices is explored further in Barry Schwartz’s bookThe Paradox of Choice.)

A better question is, which ONE product should you buy, and why? The pages ahead will tell you. Uncle Markis a free, non-advertised guide where I give recommendations that I personally believe in. I also tell you the reasons why.

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I publish this guide each year for fun, for the common good, and to spread the word about my other projects: my newsletter atgoodexperience.com, my consulting firm atcreativegood.com, my conference atgelconference.com, my anti-design guide atthisisbroken.com, and others. (I do mention one for-pay project of mine –Gootodo.com– in the body of the guide. You’ll see why.) But mostly I wrote this guide to answer, in one place, the questions I often get asked by people looking for clear, direct, unbiased technology advice.

Much of the gift guide this year is brand new, due to many companies releasing new products.

Two final pointers:

1. If you want to be notified when the next Uncle Mark guide comes out, then subscribe (for free) to my Good Experience e-mail ne wsletter. Just enter your e-mail address atgoodexperience.com, reply to the confirmation e-mail, and you’r e on.

2. If you have any other questions, e-mail me here:enripeexom.ccemdoog@kra them in a future Uncle Mark guide.

Enjoy,

(Uncle) Mark Hurst New York City November 2006

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Buy the Canon Powershot SD30 because it’s small, powerful, and affordable. It’s smaller than my wallet, smaller e ven than many cell phones, which means you can carry the camer a in your pocket at all times. And that’s the whole point of having a digital camer a: taking as many pictures as you want, wherever you go. If your camera doesn’t fit in your pocket, it’s not a good choice.

The Canon Digital Elph (PowerShot SD30), Consider how the SD30, or “Elph”, fares in the main criteria for Uncle Mark’s digital camera pick for 2007. buying a digital camera:

Summary: “Digital Elph.” That’s your answer. There’s no need to readConsumer Reportsor do a ton of research. I’ve done the research already, and this is the best choice for non-professionals.

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Digital Camera: Canon Powershot SD30

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• Battery life: Battery life is decent in the SD30, though the previous version (my pick last year, the SD20) had longer battery life, and it wassmaller, because it had no zoom. Unfortunately, in “upgrading” the SD30, Canon added a zoom, which requires lots of power to mechan- ically spin the lens in and out, causing a huge drain on the battery. On amateur cameras like these, the zoom usually isn’t very good anyway. I prefer the SD20 for that reason, but it’s hard to find. Anyway, the SD30 is satisfactory on battery life.

• Quality: The Elph’s picture quality is very good for a non-professional camera. (Some cell phones have built-in camer as, but their picture quality is still low. For now, get a real camera.)

• Price: Retail price for the SD30 is around $270, which is competitive with other major brands and models. (See AmazonThe SD40 model is more expensive but no better..) mera pick, the Sony Cybershot U40 My past ca , is no lo er s consumers wanted • Megapixels: The SD30 has 5 megapixels, which is way mor e  matter mera, no;tt ehoh wrgaeexipac l-2 aagem gn Notold.ugh  eno than any amateur will need; like zoom, a big megapixel count latest model is ugly and enormous. is just a way to sell more expensive cameras. All you really need is 2 megapixels, which allows you to make great 5-by-7-inch prints. A 5-megapixel camera can generate wall-sized prints, but who cares? 99.9% of the time, 5-by-7 is fine. (Just set the Elph to shoot at 2 megapixels.)

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First, the exceptions. There are two reasons why you might want to buy a Windows PC:

• If you need to plug into an existing Windows network at a school or corporation, go ahead and buy Windows. Even though a Mac might actually work fine on the network, the in-house tech department will refuse to support Macs, so there’s no need to fight them. You’ll need to be on good terms with them, anyway, when your Windows PC has problems.

Summary: network at work or school.

Description: long after Apple introduced the Macintosh computer in 1984. Mine won’t be the last words on the subject, but I can give you the reasons behind my recommendation for Macintosh.

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• Some people are bitterly opposed to anything Apple- or Mac-related. If y ’ e one of these ou r people, by all means buy a Windows PC.

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Personal computer: Apple Macintosh

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• Make sure you’re buying the MacBook, not the MacBook Pro (a good but more expensive Mac).

• Upgrade the RAM to 2 gigabytes, if you can afford it. (Otherwise, 1 gigabyte is OK.)

• Keep the hard drive size at the default size – 80 gigabytes – which is plenty big enough. If you plan to do a lot of video editing, you might want to upgrade to 120 gigs.

• Wireless capability, with the Airport Extreme card, is included in every MacBook, so you don’t need to upgrade that.

• You might consider buying AppleCare. At $250 it’s pricey, but if you buy it, you’ll get very good tech support for thr ee years.

• Separately, from Amazon.com, buy Microsoft Office. Note that theStudent-Teacher Editionis several hundred dollars less than the normal retail version.

The 13-inch MacBook, shown above, is an excellent computer. Macintosh is always a better  ou If in the end you do decide to get a Windows-based machine, one t e y c a   v a   t h o tuone,  s n s n l c e o w W o   d g n no C d P  n s i   x n e a  n hi i W t   s a ir c k h . oice t ws netwo note of advice: make sure to buy, install, and maintain the maximum armor-plated virus protection. Studies have shown that an unprotected PC on the Internet today is infected by a virus within 20 minutes. Macs have no such worries.

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1. Macs are easier to use.

There are two main reasons to choose a Mac over Windows:

If you use a Windows PC, you’re constantly vulnerable to Internet viruses, of which ther e are new strains almost every week. Using a Windows PC is a constant risk to all the work you do on the computer: e-mail, documents, photos, everything. And if you use the most vulnerable e-mail program available today, Microsoft Outlook, you’re doubly at risk (and inefficient – Outlook has the worst user interface of any major e-mail program).

Macs have little or no risk of catching an Internet virus. Fewer viruses are written for Macs, and the Macintosh operating system – OSX, pronounced “OS Ten” – is inherently more stable than Windows. You’re more safe and secure all around when using a Mac.

The whole point of using a computer is to get things done. Given the choice between getting your work done more or less easily, why would you choose the harder option? This has always puzzled me about people choosing Windows PCs – why would they choose to belessproductive? The Mac was designed from its inception to be an elegant, effective, easy-to-use system; Windows was built in pieces, leaving it unstable – think of a house of cards – and with a confusing, poorly designed user interface.

2. Macs are more secure against viruses.

wouldn’tyou choose Macintosh?

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For “techies” and early adopters who want all the latest features, I recommend the cell phone with it all: the Palm Treo 700p (find it atpalm.comorAmazon). It combines a phone, e-mail, instant messaging, Web browsing, Palm software, and a digital camera, all in one device. There is no contest here: Treo is by far the best- designed of all the multi-function devices out there. (I have a hard time imagining who reallyneedsall those features in one device, but it’s a great gift for a techie.) Note that you want the The Treo 700p (not 700w) is the best PDA. Treo 700p,not700w, which runs on buggy Microsoft code.the

Description other features to their basic ability to make a phone call. There are two ways to deal with this: (a) find the best-designed device that offers all of these features, or (b) avoid all the techno-complexity and find a phone that is good atmaking phone calls(what a concept!).

Summary

Cell phone: Treo 700p, or an old Nokia

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Unfortunately, my neighborhood cell phone store didn t have any ’ of my carrier’s Nokia phones – only Motorola, which is known for poor interface design. If you’re stuck in this situation, consider your options carefully (or buy online, as I should have).

A “least bad” option: the Motorola v188. Looking at every single Motorola in the stor e, I chose the least bad option, the Motorola v188. The interface design is poor , as I expected, but otherwise it works fairly well as a phone. And it’s much simpler than the combination cellphone-camera-toaster- blender-icecream-maker gizmos that T-Mobile and Motorolareallywant you to buy. (And don’t even think of getting a KRZR or PEBL or whatever Motorola’s latest fashion statement is. If you want pure ornamentation, buy a T-shirt – it lasts longer and there’s no tech support.)

consistently made the easiest, most reliable cell phones. Some of their new models have trendy, high-tech interfaces that are hard to use; try to get the oldest model your carrier supports. Some good options are the Nokia 1100, 6030, 6103, and 6133 (6131 in Europe). Each carrier only supports certain phones, though, so check to see what’s available: tryMyRatePlan.com.

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