TechLore - Mind Over Matt'er

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Matt Whitlock

Chevy Volt's $40,000 Price Tag Unveiled - Is it too high?

Matt Whitlock — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:58:35 GMT

1998 Cell Phone Holster the Best Choice for Modern PPC/Phone Hybrids?

Matt Whitlock — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:03:57 GMT

HP's TouchSmart 2 Announced, Gives iMac a Little Competition as Best Looking All-In-One

Matt Whitlock — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:52:20 GMT

Yesterday, HP Announced the successor to the TouchSmart, a touch friendly, kitchen computer released well over a year ago. Boasting an attractive (albeit slightly odd) design and touch capable widescreen LCD monitor, the quasi all-in-one TouchSmart turned out to be great seller for HP. While I have always given iMac props in the all-in-one looks department, HP may just have a cooler looking, sleeker design (only 2.6 inches thick!) with the TouchSmart 2... but your opinion may vary. Not only do I think it looks nicer than the iMac, but it continues to offer the unique, kitchen and family friendly touch screen interface. At 22" you'll need a fairly large size kitchen to put it in, but the innards have been improved enough to warrant placement in any area of the home. Under the hood of both different models in the new lineup, you'll find a 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5850 processor, DVD burner, built-in webcam, 500GB hard drive, 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 9300M HD graphics card, and 802.11n Wi-Fi adapter... enough PC for most folks at any level. The only difference between the two trims is the inclusion of a TV tuner, which you may or may not need....

Grand Theft Auto IV - First Impressions

Matt Whitlock — Sat, 03 May 2008 15:05:36 GMT

The biggest problem of being a cheapskate gamer is that by the time I get to a game, it's already yesterday's news. I just can't fork out $60 for every good looking new release that comes down the pike (and there are a lot of good looking games these days!). No doubt you'd see more video game reviews here in my blog if I thought I could talk about a game when its still fresh. It often takes months for games to hit the $20 rack. There are those games, however, that force me to bend the rules a bit. New Zelda games are one, but if they continue to be locked to Wiimote wavin' I'll probably pass going forward. I'd easily shell out full price for Fable 2, a game I've been looking forward to for a while (and probably one of the biggest reasons I bought a 360). Last night I succumed to temptation and picked up a copy of Grand Theft Auto IV, partly due to the special Circuit City was running on it (the free $10 gift card with purchase made it a touch easier to swallow). This would be the first time I've considered a...

Matt's Tech Law #3 - E-mail Read Receipts

Matt Whitlock — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 23:47:21 GMT

Another day, another annoyance to complain about. This particular issue isn't related to gadgets, but e-mail is now one of the (if not THE) primary form of communication among individuals, and without technology, it wouldn't be the case. Those in a corporate enviornment have no doubt encountered the e-mail read receipt, and probably send some or all messages requesting one yourself. Home users may not have ever had to deal with them since not all e-mail clients, particularly in the free online services, support them. So what is a read receipt? For those who have never seen one, read receipts are a form of e-mail tracking. Quoth the Wikipedia: "E-mail tracking is useful when the sender wants to know if the intended recipient actually received the e-mail, or if they clicked the links. However, due to the nature of the technology, e-mail tracking cannot be considered an absolutely accurate indicator that a message was opened or read by the recipient. Some e-mail applications, such as Microsoft Office Outlook, employ a read-receipt tracking mechanism. The sender selects the receipt request option prior to sending the message, and then upon sending, each recipient has the option of notifying the sender that the...