Technoground

With the glut of network-attached storage (NAS) devices available todaymany with nearly identical feature setsfrom a host of reputable manufacturers, you could probably pick one blindfolded and still wind up with a unit that easily meets your needs. In recent years, this thick competition has put pressure on NAS-drive manufacturers to find ways to... feature-stuff and differentiate their offerings to make them stand out from the crowd... Todays high-definition TVs may be relatively smartfitted out with built-in Wi-Fi and interactive Web appsbut theyre not ready to make the PC obsolete quite yet. If you want to use your TV for watching and listening to your own digital media collection, browsing the Web, and playing games, your best bet is to connect a home theater PC (HTPC) to your TV. An HTPC lets you take full advantage of the processing power, storage capacity, and graphics capabilities of an actual computer... I tried to take the iBike iDash for a spinreally, I did! But I kept getting flats. My Notes From The Technoground column is a guilty pleasure of mine. Essentially, I get to write about anything tech I wantwithin reasonas long as the topic is potentially interesting for ComputerShopper.com readers. It gives me the opportunity to play with cool products and technologies that might not otherwise come my way. "Cool," in theory. But sometimes, "cool" doesnt always work out the way I planned. This last March, a nifty-sounding product, the iBike iDash CC, popped up on my radar screen. The iDash lets you use your iPhone or iPod Touch as a full-function cycling computer... To be minimally good, a tablet must have three key attributes: access to one of two major mobile-app e-tailers (Apple, or the Android Market), a gorgeous screen, and the best touch interface possible. To be very good, it must also have long battery life, a sleek design, and exceptional media playback. Pandigitals Nova has none of these things. The one thing it does have is a low price: $189. It could replace an e-reader, or get you into an ...Read More