Hasta La Gadget!

I love the springtime, because all the little birdies are singing “cheap, cheap, cheap.”

1. You’ll never know what you’ll find on Cheap Geek: today I’m bringing you big savings on a flat-screen monitor from a company you’ve heard of! That never happens. Grab an Acer V Series 17-inch LCD monitor for only $98.24 from Buy.com, and get free shipping. It comes with a 3-year warranty and is even wall-mountable.

2. If you’ve got a summer cruise coming up, this is a great deal. Buy.com is offering the Polaroid t833 waterproof digital camera for $132.95, with free shipping. It’s perfect for pool and beach shots, and the price makes it a fun purchase rather than a serious expense. It has an 8 megapixel resolution, a 3x optical zoom, and a 2.5-inch viewing screen.

3. If you’ve been getting into Skype calling, a good headset could make your computer calls easier. Try this Logitech PC120 headset, which Discount ID is selling for only $9.90.

Bonus Deal: Check out HP’s two-day Monster Sale for discounts on desktops, notebooks, printers, and more.

Logitech’s G19 gaming keyboard—which borders on ludicrous with its embedded Linux mini-computer and full-blown LCD monitor—is the best one they’ve made yet, even if it doesn’t quite reach its full mind-blowing potential.

Holy Crap, There’s a Monitor in My Keyboard
The 320×240 LCD display that hovers over the keyboard is really the G19’s raison d’tre. After incarnations of its G15 keyboard with a monochrome display for game stats and system info, it was really the only place left to go, and for the most part, it’s a comfy place with silk sheets and free Coke in the minibar. I mean, you can watch YouTube or movies while you frag.

The screen’s size and resolution are good, but not exceptional—it’s okay for watching short video or YouTube clips with the built-in client, checking the time, scoping your CPU load and anything else you’d be peeping at a glance. The bezel around it is gigantic, so there’d definitely be some space to make it larger.

What makes it impressive is the fact that it’s its own mini-computer, so matter how intensive the game you’re running is—Left 4 Dead, for instance—you can pop up a YouTube video or your rip of Dawn of the Dead with no slowdown at all, and every applet runs quickly and smoothly. They’re all pretty to use and configure as well.

There are a few annoyances with the video software. The YouTube client, for instance, doesn’t let you hunt for a specific video, you’re stuck browsing through a list of feeds, like top rated and most popular. That said, it’s really fast and easy to use. With the video client for your local files (which monitors a single folder), in my experience it played anything ending in .mpg, but when I tried to play .avi videos it said more codecs were needed.

What’s frustrating is that so much of the display’s potential is still untapped. Logitech so far only provides a handful of applets and “can’t comment on unannounced projects/products.” It doesn’t even do cool things with other Logitech products, like their G35 headset. It is open source, so anyone can develop for it, but we are talking about trying to build a development community around a $200 keyboard. The list of PC games that take advantage of it isn’t mindblowing, so you might wanna check if your favorite is on board (mine weren’t). So the currently anemic selection of software you can run on it might be a dealbreaker, at least for now.

Hardware
If you’ve used a higher end Logitech keyboard before—especially the G11 or G15, you roughly know what you’re getting. Logitech’s keys are a perfect balance of punchy and squishy and just really feel fantastic—it’s why they haven’t messed with the formula in a long time. Overall the G19 a solid piece of hardware, though you might expect something less plastic-y and more tank-like for $200, if only so it felt more likely to survive the onslaught of sweaty hands pummeling keys and Cool Ranch Doritos. The wrist rest is unacceptably cheap and crappy, though.

But Logitech adds a lot of value with little (and big) touches. There are a total of 36 possible macros (you can instantly switch between three sets of 12, which are color-coded. There are media controls galore, as you’d expect from Logitech. I really love the heavy spin wheel for volume, which matches up with the one on their G35 headset (more on that soon). You can make your backlight any color of the rainbow you want (or turn it off). And there’s a toggle to deactive the Windows key, so you don’t accidentally crash your game by popping up the Start menu.

It’s got two high-powered USB ports on the back—standard for gaming keyboards. It works pretty well if you’re just plugging in a mouse and a USB headset, but what I’d like is some audio jacks, so when I plug in my gaming headphones, I don’t have to reach around to the backside of my desktop.

One of the tradeoffs for having dual high-powered USB ports and a mini-computer inside is that you’re going to have to free up a space on your power strip for its power brick.

Game On?
Even with its handful of flaws, it’s a fantastic keyboard that builds on what Logitech’s been doing well for a long time, and it’ll get better as more software is developed for it. But it’s also $200, and its headlining feature isn’t fully fleshed out yet. I love it, but practically speaking, I’d wait a couple of months for the price to come down and more software to make it more excellent.

Attention, venture capitalists: I’ve got a great idea for a site that revolves around a cheap geek who discovers great tech deals everyday. Now can I have $10.6 million in Series A funding puh-leeze?

1. Mac laptop users, if you’ve fallen in love with videoconferencing with your notebook’s built-in iSight camera, did you know you can present a much better image by using an external cam? Logitech makes the best webcams around, and Amazon is offering a great price on this top model. The QuickCam Vision Pro attaches to a notebook or sits flat, and has a Car Zeiss lens with a 2megapixel sensor. Get it for $109.70 with free shipping.

2. PC not running right? You can now grab a software bundle that includes TuneUp Utilities 2009 (with one-click maintenance) and Steganos Safe 11 (for securing your data) for 50 percent off. Get both together for $49.95.

3. Turn your vacation footage into something someone might actually enjoy watching. Magix Movie Edit Pro 15 is out, and you can get it for $79.99, a $10 savings off the regular price.

Some people, like Madonna, say we’re living in a certain kind of world–a material world. Whether or not you’re a Madonna fan, check out Gearlog’s deals for Tuesday, March 3:

1. Amazon is selling the Canon PowerShot SD770IS 10-megapixel Digital Camera for only $144.95 today only. Regularly @229.99, the camera has many features, including 3x optical image-stabilized zoom, 2.5-inch PureColor LCD II screen,and face and motion detection technology to automatically reduce blur. Again, the sale only last for today as part of Amazon’s Deal-of-the-Day.

2. Save up to 20 percent off of select HBO series at Best Buy this week. Choose from titles like “Flight of the Conchords,” “Big Love,” and “John Adams.” Hurry, the sale ends on March 7.

3. The Logitech Pure-Fi Anywhere 2 Portable Speakers for iPhone 3G and iPod is 30 percent off at Buy.com. Down from $129.99, the speakers are just $89.99 with free shipping. It has a 10-hour battery life, so you can take it anywhere, especially with the included traveling case. The speakers also charge your iPhone or iPod as it plays your tunes.

Like a skeleton in the closet or a beating heart in the floorboards, many home theater enthusiasts are cursed by a barrage of remote controls, each with different shapes, sizes, and battery demands. Cheap multi-device programmable remotes help, but Logitech’s Harmony line has for years been something of a savior, elegantly hiding all your devices behind simple activities like “Watch TV” or “Play a CD.” The Harmony 1100 is the latest to join the lineup, and is in many ways the most elegant to look at and to hold. Sadly, though, it’s far from the most intuitive to use, and so is not exactly our favorite.

Continue reading Harmony 1100 remote review: a bigger screen isn’t always better

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Harmony 1100 remote review: a bigger screen isn’t always better originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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