praveensg.com

Like the saying goes, ‘What’s life without gadgets?’, how can a site be complete without a place to showcase all your gadgets? On my site, this is that place. I shall keep updating this list as and when things get added to the collection! Check them out and throw in a line if you got suggestions. Oh by the way, I made that saying up

*10/18/2008 Update*

Since last time I posted on this page, I have added a few more gadgets to my arsenal

Panasonic 50PZ800U

The highest rated TV on the market as of this writing. CNet gave it a whopping 8.7. I say ‘whopping’ since it bettered the Kuro, arguably the best plasma available. Kuro was rated at 8.3. Before pulling the trigger on this one, I also tried the Samsung LN46A650. Even though it is one of the most popular LCDs right now, I wasn’t that impressed. I have been a plasma fan ever since I got my Philips 3 yrs back. This was my first LCD and man was I disappointed. The black levels were touted to be the best for an LCD. I somehow could not agree. Not only were not blacks black enough, the motion blur started giving me dizziness and headaches. 2 days later, the TV was back on its way. After that I spent almost 2 months on my research and after repeated visits to all the electronics stores in Austin, I finally pulled the trigger on the Panny. I must say, I have been thoroughly impressed. The THX mode is incredible out of the box. No calibration needed whatsoever. We keep watching Planet Earth on Bluray almost every day just to experience the sheer viewing pleasure that this TV has to offer. It’s almost lifelike.

*10/18/2008 Update*
iPhone 3G
- Got the iPhone 3G after selling my old one on CL. For some reason, liked the older one better.

Playstation 3.

I bought this one basically for Bluray. I have never played a game on it As far as Bluray is concerned, I have no complaints at all. I have heard PS3 does better Bluray than most Bluray players out there. For the price I got this for, any other player was a no-brainer. The ability to do so many more things with the PS3 makes the deal even more sweet. Try TVersity if you’re looking for a media server for PS3. It’s pretty cool.

Previously…

Apple iPhone 8GB
The coolest one so far. I mean how can you have one and not flaunt it? Hehe I reckon this one needs no explanation besides the fact that it’s cool

Garmin Nuvi 360
This is one of the medium-level models to come out of Garmin’s portable GPS lineup recently. The unit comes with a 3.5″ screen equipped with voice-prompted turn by turn directions along with nifty little bells like an MP3 player, photo viewer and a cool little audio book player. All of your media goes into an SD card. The device can also be hooked up to a traffic receiver for real-time traffic updates.
If you’re looking for a fully functional, no-compromise, value GPS device, then look no further, the nuvi 360 does it all for you.

Canon Rebel XT
If you have an inkling towards photography and have been craving for a digital SLR for too long now, then the Canon Rebel XT should satiate almost all of your photographic hunger. Even though a lot of people prefer the Nikons over the Canons when it comes to digiSLRs, I went with a Canon since I wanted to be able to accumulate as many lenses as I could. With Nikons, you’d have to run to the bank everytime you thought of a lens given their premium price tags. But before buying an SLR, do consider what you’d use the camera for. Don’t invest in an SLR if you don’t plan on using it for professional quality photography. You need to master the basics at least. If you’re comfortable with just point and shoot photography, then going for an SLR might turn out to be a blunder in fact. The pictures suck real bad if you do not know what you’re doing. I’d recommend buying one of those slimmer Powershots or Cybershots in such cases. Not only are they great to carry around for day-to-day use, they do take great pictures.

XBox Media Center
You would absolutely love this one. I’ve managed to acquire an old XBox off of craigslist that was modded with an Xecuter chip by some guy who didn’t know what to do with it. This is why I’m crazy about CL. You name it, they got it on CL, literally anything. Most people mod their XBoxes to store game ISOs. Since I’m not that big of a gaming buff, I proceeded to install XBMC on top of it. More about XBMC here. Not a lot of people appreciate what this guy can do to all your media. XBMC supports every damn video/audio/streaming format that is there under the sun. I have two 300 gig hard drives connected over the network that hold all of of video and audio files. It also has FTP server support, which means you can easily FTP into the hard drive and upload content over the network. This helps immensely in syncing playlists and video streams regularly. I’ve replaced the standard rca adapter that comes with the original xbox with a component adapter, which not only improves the pic quality by at least 100 times but also does digital sound via an optical out. Pretty sweet huh?