Sewell Direct has a great option for people who are looking for a way to display their video output from their computer on their TV. The Computer to TV coverter takes the VGA output from your computer and converts it to an S-Video signal which can be seen on almost any TV. It also gives you a VGA output in addition to the S-Video connection so you can still use your existing monitor.

The Sewell solution is one of the least expensive on the market, too. One downside to converting your computer’s video signal to a TV is that most TVs do not have as high a resolution as computer monitors do. Because of this, text and other fine graphics will appear pixilated. However, it does work for large text and displaying videos. So, get it for the right reasons and it’ll work great for you.

I know this is the exact opposite of the other product reviewed entitled “expresscard to pcmcia” but I’ve heard them both called the same thing, so - sorry for the confusion?

Anyway, this is basically a device to connect your older PCMCIA-standard cards to a newer laptop with an ExpressCard slot (sometimes erroneously called PCMCIA Express Card or Express Card PCMCIA - there’s still a lot of debate out there). The new ExpressCards are thinner and have a generally smaller form factor than their chunky predecessor. They are also much faster, which means you don’t hit the same bottlenecks by plugging the PCMCIA card (an older technology) into the Express Card slot.

These are, as always, available from Sewell and will set you back about $110/unit. It obviously isn’t the best option for someone just looking for a new ExpressCard USB Controller Card, since those are much cheaper, but for individuals who have security key cards, sound cards, tv tuner cards, an old data aircard etc. in PCMCIA format, it really is about the only option. Picture below.

Back in the day, when you wanted to play your non-cassette music in a car with just a cassette player, you had one of those funky pseudo-cassettes that would plug into a standard mini-stereo jack. While the technology was great for the time, it definitely had drawbacks. eg. The cord sticking out of your car stereo, running around your parking break and into your CD player with 40 second ESP (and Bass Boost!).

Well, times have changed and so has our music-toting technology. The iQFM is the best solution I’ve seen for getting your music media to your car stereo without wires and with some features a standard aux input just doesn’t give you. For example, you not only get the 1/8 inch stereo jack, the iQFM also has a slot for SD cards and a USB port for flash drives. With these getting more and more affordable, it’s very feasible to carry a few around packed with music. Simply plug either into its appropriate slot in the iQFM and it scans the entire device for any MP3 or WMA files you have on it.

Another big plus for the iQFM is the quality of sound you get. Not all FM transmitters are created equal. The iQFM is on the safe side of the border marking the strongest FM transmitter you can have without a license from the FCC. This means you get high quality audio, even in areas with lots of radio stations that normally pollute sound signals from a transmitter.

The basic design of the iQFM makes it very easy to use. You set it to an FM frequency, set your car stereo to the same, and hit play on your audio device or on the iQFM itself (if you’re using an SD card or flash drive). The iQFM even reads ID3 tags on MP3s so you can see the title and artist flashing on the device. And, and this also sets it apart from some other transmitters, it actually looks pretty good (see pictures below).

The device comes in both the black iQFM and the white iQFM models and are available from Sewell Direct for just under $50.

So there’s already a card that let’s you use your PCMCIA card with a laptop with only an ExpressCard slot. Well, this is the inverse of such a product. The biggest plus (besides cost, a mere $50-ish compared to $110 for the inverse) is that it’s a slick form factor. Someone had their brain on full blast when they came up with this design, since it is really non-intrusive, which is key for mobile computing. Obviously, there are limitations as to the types of cards that this will support, since PCMCIA is a step down, technology-wise, from the updated ExpressCard. But it does work for the new ExpressCard aircards and any other ExpressCard using a USB interface (versus the native PCI express interface). The PCMCIA ExpressCard Cradle is available for preorder only (first shipment expected on August 14th) from Sewell. Image below.

The Top Global MB9000 is a step up from their previous industrial-level model, the MB8000. It performs basically the same function, that is to take a wireless 3G or 4G signal (for those of you blessed to be in Rev A range) and convert it to a wifi signal. These are particularly popular for trade show booths, where you may need portable wireless access to more than one user at a time. The MB9000 has a couple great advantages over it’s predecessors, though. It not only supports 4G signals, but will take dual PCMCIA cards (or wireless ExpressCards when connected through a PCMCIA slot with a PCMCIA ExpressCard Cradle). It aggregates the bandwidth from both cards, basically giving you a very usable, high-bandwidth broadband connection in a portable box. Sewell carries the MB9000 for $1339.95, a higher sticker price than most Joe Schmoe consumers want to pay, but well worth it for the enterprise-level user who needs the performance. Picture below.

So Sewell is releasing a USB to DVI adapter in the near future (available for preorder only now). This means you can take a video card with you to add an additional display to a laptop or desktop easily. It’s actually quite ingenious. For desktops, you don’t have to rummage around in your case to install new hardware (luvs me that plug and play!). Plus, it’s portable enough that if you wanted to switch a display from notebook to desktop or if you want to use the same device with multiple computers (not simultaneously obviously), you can do it easily.

The adapter boasts 128 MB of RAM which is enough to drive a display up to 1400×1050. And, I got to test one. It looks really good. There just aren’t many comparable products, either, if you want an additional display without doing a full product install. Pics below.

So, now that I’ve thoroughly talked up the Samsung Blackjack, I have to say that I found my first real pet peeve of the device (that’s not to say that it was infallible before, just that there wasn’t anything that really bugged me). On the top left of the device, there is a place where you attach the charge/sync USB cable. The plug is covered by a rubber tab that pops in and out to protect the port from dust and whatnot.

This is a nice little novelty and wasn’t a major hassle by any means. That is, until recently. I’ve now had the phone long enough for it to not be under warranty (of course), but not long enough to merit looking for a new phone (although I do have phone schizophrenia, apparently). The problem? All night, while the phone is charging, the little rubber thing is unplugged (so the charger can be in). After time, the little rubber cord that ties the plug to the phone starts to bend in such a way that it no longer keeps the plug in place, but pushes it out of the hole. This is highly irritating and not a consequence of any phone hardware abuse, either. It’s just poor engineering. I hope one of my 2 readers is a bigwig at Samsung.

This is actually originally from a comment that I wrote on MetaFilter in response to some people talking about the “new” Google personalized homepage. It’s logo says “iGoogle” which is very reminiscent of a popular portable music player released by Apple. Someone suggested that maybe Google and Apple were merging. To which, I replied:

I could only imagine the ads that came out of a Google/Apple merger.

‘Hi, I’m the Google Algorithm”
“And I’m the Yahoo! Algorithm”

“Hey, what you got there, Yahoo?”
“Oh, this? It’s a new server. Yeah, finally had to upgrade.”
“Really? Congratulations.”
“Yeah, we hit our 10,000th user.”
“Wow, for the day?”
“No, just overall.”
“Oh. Well, good luck with that.”
“Thanks.”

I feel cheap reposting material, but I thought it was pretty good.

The world of online search algorithms is a dynamic beast, to say the least. That’s why it’s nice that there are tools out there like WebCEO to keep track of how your sites are performing in the search engines. Basically, such a program will go out as if it were a web surfer and virtually type in keywords in the searches on your behalf. They then tell you how far down the list you are on those keywords.

This is useful, not just to see if you can expect some increased traffic, but to see what actions have what affect on your site. For example, my pagerank just went from 0 to 4 on my Brian Regan fan site (rare, but it happens apparently). I saw that it started ranking better on the term “Brian Regan” on MSN as well. Does MSN care about Google’s ranking system? Maybe.

I also submitted the site to dmoz, an open community directory. But I don’t think it could have posted in time to have such a quick effect. This leads me to conclude (not a conclusive conclusion, methinks) that MSN at least lightly weighs Google’s PageRank system. Not surprising that they’d try and take something back from a company that’s taken so much from them.

So, working at Sewell has given me lots of fun experiences. We will take time now and again to try something a little unusual for fun/marketing. Our latest attempt is a little project called Will it Shatter, a parody of the popular “Will it Blend” videos on YouTube. So, go check it out on YouTube. Or, wait a minute! I could just post it here. Nice one, me.