Freedom Lawyers of America

> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11460-2003Oct11.html
>
> Working with home movies on your computer, once a task of staggering
> expense and complexity, is reaching the point of actual usefulness -- just
> in time to save our degrading collections of fragile videotape. The
> combination of increasingly fast computer processors, increasingly roomy
> hard drives and increasingly cheap DVD- and CD-recorder drives makes it
> feasible to edit a tape library down to more watchable versions and then
> save the result on more permanent DVDs or video CDs (a lower-quality,
> cheaper way to store video).
>
> But if video editing is now doable, it's far from perfect -- especially
for
> users trying to add this capability to an older machine, because they have
> traditionally needed to add new hardware inside the computer's case. One
> add-on kit accepts that limit, whereas a second offers a detour around it
> for a higher cost.
>
> ATI's All-in-Wonder 9600 Pro (Win 98 or newer, $250, www.ati.com) requires
> adding a card to an available, internal PCI slot and assumes that you've
> already got a DVD or CD burner. This video card can import footage from a
> variety of sources -- VCR, camcorder and live TV -- via its analog
> composite and S-Video jacks. (It also adds extremely fast 3-D graphics to
> your computer.)
>
> A digital FireWire port is absent here, however, so you'll have to use the
> lower-quality, fussier analog outputs on digital camcorders.
>
> ATI bundles both beginner and advanced video-editing software. The simpler
> Muvee Autoproducer captures video and lets you string along clips in a
> sequence, add titles and export to a variety of formats (for instance,
DVD,
> Video CD and Windows Media Video) in just a few clicks. But you'll need to
> use a separate disc-burning program, Library, to get the movie onto a DVD
> or CD.
>
> The second option, Pinnacle Studio SE, delivers much more robust editing
> tools, including scene detection, clip trimming, visual sequencing with a
> wide variety of transitions, timeline editing, audio editing and extensive
> titling options. It also can create DVDs with professional-looking menu
> screens. Despite that power, it's fairly simple to learn -- and this one
> program also handles CD and DVD burning.
>
> A free online TV programming guide lets you schedule recordings of TV
> programs onto your PC's hard drive, turning your computer into a
TiVo-style
> video recorder with no monthly fees. But this is of limited relevance to
> the vast majority of people with computers and TVs in separate rooms.
>
> Hewlett Packard's Movie Writer dc3000 lets you start editing video without
> ever cracking open a PC's case -- but you'll need a USB 2.0 port and extra
> cash. At $400 (Win 2000 or newer), this external device, which combines a
> DVD+RW drive with composite and S-Video capture circuitry but omits
> FireWire, is the most expensive game in town. But it's also the simplest
to
> set up: Install driver and video-editing software, then plug it in.
>
> Actual use is not quite so effortless. Its "one-step" recording system,
> which is supposed to capture video and write it to DVD (the software
starts
> up when you press a button on the dc3000), first requires some
> configuration for the type of video you want to import, then sends the
> footage on a detour through your hard drive before burning the disc.
>
> For editing, HP bundles the same Muvee program as ATI, as well as
ArcSoft's
> ShowBiz, a mid-level editor that lacks the power of Pinnacle Studio but is
> fairly easy to use in comparison. Like Pinnacle Studio, it takes you all
> the way from capture to burning the DVD.
>
> None of these solutions is an ideal mix of capability, simplicity and low
> price. If you also need to upgrade your PC's graphics, the All-in-Wonder's
> power justifies its price. If you have a USB 2.0 PC that lacks both a DVD
> recorder and video-capture capability, get the HP.
>
> But the easier answer, especially if your computer is showing its age, may
> be to buy a new, video-ready PC or Mac, though it costs a lot more.
>

> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42814-2003Oct4.html
>
> The computer industry makes plenty of devices to let you work away from
> home, but hardly any of them fall between a laptop and a handheld
organizer
> in size and capability.
>
> Yet, not everybody needs or wants a full-fledged laptop on the road, with
> its cost, weight, limited battery life and complexity. Meanwhile,
handhelds
> are too limited to let you write a letter and send it to somebody, at
least
> not without buying a great deal of add-on hardware.
>
> Two devices from a couple of unlikely suspects, however, suggest an
> in-between option. They're not for everyone, but they do point to some
> interesting alternatives to mobile computing as we know it.
>
> Both the QuickPad Pro Mail (made by Mountain View, Calif.-based QuickPad
> Technologies) and Texas Instruments' TI-83 Plus Silver Edition (with an
> optional keyboard) feature full-size computer-style keyboards, weigh in at
> about two pounds, offer simple connections to a standard PC and operate
for
> many hours on cheap AA batteries.
>
> They hark back to the era of computing when performance was measured in
> kilobytes, not gigabytes -- in other words, few power users will be happy
> with them.
>
> But somebody who just needs a cheap way to write might be content. They're
> simple to use and rugged, since they were designed for use in classrooms
> instead of offices.
>
> The QuickPad Pro Mail, launched this spring for $349, comes in one
piece --
> 9 by 12 inches wide and 1 inch thick, weighing two pounds -- that contains
> a standard keyboard and a monochrome, non-backlighted LCD screen that
spans
> just 18 lines high and 80 characters wide, matched to the width of the
> keyboard.
>
> The most useful software on board is a bare-bones word processor, but the
> QuickPad also bundles rudimentary organizer, spreadsheet and calculator
> applications. The whole thing boots up to its icons-on-a-desktop interface
> in about four seconds; although it runs on a version of DOS, user input
> doesn't get more complicated than navigating with the arrow keys and
typing
> one-letter commands.
>
> The QuickPad's slate-gray case includes an array of connection options:
USB
> and serial ports, a Compact Flash memory-card slot, an infrared
> data-exchange port and a phone jack for the internal modem. The QuickPad
> can connect to any standard Post Office Protocol account to send and
> receive e-mail -- but it can't read any attached files.
>
> QuickPad Technologies, a relatively recent start-up, sells this device,
> with a few related models, to consumers only through its Web site
> (www.quickpad.com). Michael Spencer, the company's marketing vice
> president, said regular institutional sales to state governments provide
> sufficient income for future development.
>
> Texas Instruments, a company without any name-recognition issues, took a
> different approach with its TI-83: It took a pocket-calculator design and
> added software and hardware to allow it to function as a basic note-taking
> machine. This $139 device remains on the hefty side, with a tiny
> black-and-white, non-backlighted screen (just 64 by 96 pixels); the $45
> add-on keyboard makes typing possible and includes a nifty note-taking
> program called NoteFolio.
>
> There's no provision for e-mail, however, and most of the rest of TI's
> software focuses on educational and science markets. The TI-83, as
> conceptually intriguing as it might be, doesn't measure up to the QuickPad
> as a writing tool.
>
> Both of these devices fall well short of Palm and other handhelds in terms
> of screen quality and software support -- even if no Palm combines a
> full-size keyboard and modem in one unit as the QuickPad does.
>
> There is, however, something to be said for a device built around long
> battery life, durability and a traditional keyboard. Millions of people
> once relied on a comparable device: It was called a typewriter.
>