Geek Corner

Hello everyone,

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've last posted but here are a few gadgets that you might be interested in. These I'm sure will be a huge hit this summer.

TurboLinux's Wizpy bootable Linux PMP
by Thomas Ricker

We witnessed the birth of TurboLinux's Wizpy, watched it strike out in earnest and eventually earn a living on the mean, PMP streets. So how has the wee, bootable Linux distro cum PMP fared? Well, according to a review over at LinuxLookup, it's a nice piece of kit and all although a bit finicky. 1GB of the 4GB is reserved for the OS and fully functional desktop (Firefox, OpenOffice, Skype, etc.) with the remaining 2.8GB allocated to OGG/WMA/AAC/MP3 audio and DivX video. However, as the reviewer points out (and we agree) the $290 price tag will limit its appeal to early adopters and Linux fanboys. Actually, strike the latter, any fanboy worth his salt will build his own bootable DAP (without the tiny 1.7-inch screen) for less than $40. Poor poor Wizpy, why'd you have to become such a snob?


Logitech's QuickCam Pro 9000 and Notebook webcams
by Thomas Ricker

Logitech just stepped up their webcam game with the introduction of a pair of $100 QuickCam Pro 9000 and QuickCam Pro for Notebooks. These are the first two webcams to carry a Carl Zeiss Tessar lens under a new exclusive deal 'tween the two. Besides the highly touted optics, the cams feature a less than 3 second auto-refocus time, a 2 megapixel sensor, recordings at 30fps and 960 x 720 pixels, and compatibility with Skype and all the other popular PC video messaging applications. Both should ship in Europe and the US before July is done.