Michael L Berman's blog

You know it's a bad Summer when:

--- Ziff-Davis pulls the plug on its DigitalLife exhibition scheduled for September at the Javitts Center in NYC.

In an official proclaimation, Paul O'Reilly, vice president of DigitalLife said:

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I am sitting here buried in keyboards. They're everywhere I look - - - on the shelves, on the floor and, of course, attached to my computers. So, in an effort to keep from tripping over them and to restore some order in my life, let me clue you in to a few from Adesso that I really like.

How about a waterproof keyboard that you can roll up and fit in your briefcase or laptop bag?

Two manufacturers of quality turntables want to give you a link to the past by making it easy for you to convert those old, dusty vinyl records to digital files.

To a music lover, pure Nirvana is being able to listen to your favorite melodies in pure, crisp tones wihtout distractions. No rattles. No hums. Just beautiful music, reproduced the way God intended.

Beware!!!! Nasty scammers are after your IRS rebate check.

They're circulating an email from a phony IRS address advising unsuspecting recipients to set up an electronic transfer of their rebates to their checking or savings accounts. Unfortunately, that's not the case and, in the end, they have your Social Security number, bank account number and possibly a credit card number.

The day of the old player piano is long gone, with only images of old saloons and western movies keeping it percolating in the recesses of our minds. But the concept of those old uprights lives on as it enters a new age of computerization, electronics and pure, raw sound that we've come to expect from today's modern marvels.

I'm surrounded!

Everywhere I look, there's a gaggle of gizmos and gadgets sitting in piles around my office. Although I had every intention to write about these tech toys, somehow they've found their way into one of these piles - - - sentenced to oblivion until I get the urge to free up more floor space.

Whether it be for gaming, modding or pure business use, there's a keyboard out there with your name on it. In fact, the three keyboards from CyberSnipa, Saitek and Adesso offer a few features that are tough to beat.

Finally, someone has developed a portable CD/DVD burner that doesn't sacrifice speed for portability!

The folks Startech have just released their new Slim DVD+/-RW External USB 2.0 Drive ($121), which can handle everything from CD and DVD +/-R to dual layer DVDs and at speeds we expect from built-in drives.