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This Weeks TechtalkRadio Show

This weeks Full Show has been posted, In this weeks Cast we talked about a variety of Subjects including The Samsung Galaxy Tab and Why Andy isn’t going to CES but the Search is on for Sponsorship for Slick to Attend, Andy talks about the New Wirecast Interface and the Help from Steve of TechBuzz to get it up and Runing as well a look at the new Studio. Western Digital sends over the 3TB Internal and External USB 3.0 Solutions. A Look at Flock and RockMelt and Slick shares some info on Spike TV’s Coverage of the Video Game Awards December 11th.

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Record the voice of cherished person reading a storybook

Still wondering what gift to give for Christmas?  I gotta great idea!

Hallmark has Recordable Storybooks…
“…record each page of a book and have it played back over and over as the recipient turns the pages.  The recording will not be lost, even when the batteries need to be replaced…”

Titles include:
The Night Before Christmas
All the Ways I Love You
Bright & Beautiful
Hey Diddle Diddle!
I Love You Grandma
My Grandpa and Me
My Little Princess
Thank You God For Everything
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
and We’re Not Scared of Anything.

“…Hallmark expects to have about 15 Recordable Storybook titles available.  The original books were designed for an adult to read to a child. Subsequent titles also are perfect for adults and children to record together or for children to record for a grandparent.”

Consumers have found many creative ways to use Recordable Storybooks, including:
Parents stationed overseas in the military have recorded books for their children waiting for them at home.
Grandparents and other family members who live far away have recorded the books for the children they love as a way to be with them even when they can’t be physically present.
Family members took turns recording each page of a book for a loved one in a nursing home.
Adoptive parents have recorded a storybook for the child they were waiting to adopt in another country so the child would recognize their voices.
An entire family recorded a storybook for an adult child who lived overseas and couldn’t be with them for the holidays.

I received a copy of The Night Before Christmas.

When I had completed recording the story, I needed to use a small Phillips screwdriver to remove a cover to access a switch, and move it from the “UNLOCK” position to “LOCK”.  This is the same location that houses the three replaceable AAA size batteries.

When my daughters were young, I found birthday cards that allowed me to record my voice on them.  In their late teen years, they reminded me about them, and stated that they had liked them.

The Hallmark Recordable Storybook reminded me that, when I was a child, I had been given a small portable reel-to-reel recorder, had recorded the voice of my great-grandmother, and for many years had listened to it for comfort.  The recorder and recordings have been lost for many decades…but I can remember what she said, and how she said it.
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Help, I am Out of Hard Drive Space

We’ve all been there! You want to do some work on your Computer and you keep getting a warning telling you the Hard Drive is Full. Going through your drive and deleting files would be the nice thing to do, especially those ones that just seem to be duplicated throughout your Hard Drive. If you don’t have time to do that, adding storage is always a great solution. In fact, with the pricing on Hard Drives currently, it is really to your benefit to plop down a few bucks and get that deal on the 1TB or 2TB drive you had your eye one. Getting some of that clutter and files off your hard drive can also help your system run better. A Good Defrag after moving a bunch of files off your hard drive is like a nice oil bath for C3PO, but I digress.

We talked with Wilson Tang from Azio Corporation on a New Hard Drive Enclosure the company is producing called the E377-U31. This Aluminum cased Hard Drive enclosure with a Slide Out Tray gives users the ability to Add a SATA Hard Drive with a Couple of easy steps. Seriously, it could get easier then this! The Power Connector and USB Cable, which was supplied, connect up in seconds to the Enclosure which offers a screwless design so after a couple of snaps the Drive is in place. Viola!

Pricing is great on this Enclosure system and it really looks pretty good on the Desktop. Users can opt for a USB 3.0 connection or go for the current standard USB 2.0. If you decide on the USB 3.0, you are backwards compatible with the USB 2.0 and USB 1.0 designs. You’ll need a USB 3.0 to get that full speed or you can purchase a USB 3.0 Expansion Card which can be placed in an available PCI Express Port and connected to an available Power Connector.

We like the Sturdy Design, Ease of Access and Side Mounted Fan on the Unit. Listen in to our interview with Wilson Tang of Azio at http://www.techtalkradio.com/hardware/azio.html You can also view photos of our tester unit on the page.

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SteelSeries helps gain the advantage in Gaming

Bruce Hawver talked with Andy Taylor of TechtalkRadio
Brcue talks with Andy Taylor of TechtalkRadio

I talked yesterday with SteelSeries CEO Bruce Hawver about some of the products we will be seeing this holiday season from SteelSeries. It’s not the first time Bruce has been on our show and certainly won’t be the last. Since the previous discussion with Bruce, the company has expanded it’s product line to include more branded gaming items, eyewear to combat eye strain and fatigue and a new way to pay for the products you would like to get.

With the upcoming season, it is expected that peripherals will make up a huge portion of the gift buying. While many look to add USB Web cams and storage, SteelSeries knows that gamers want the products they make. Over the years we have looked at many of these products including Headsets, Gaming Mice and the very cool Merc Stealth keyboard produced by Ideazon which SteelSeries acquired. Some of the new product from SteelSeries include headsets with removable ear cups, connector cords which can be disconnected and put away and even a few with USB connections. For the gamer that likes to be part of the conversation, a variety of the headsets include microphones that collapse inside the ear cups. This is valuable considering the few different headsets we’ve looked at from other vendors with microphones that detach could be at risk of losing the microphone piece. Even the Console game can benefit with the SteelSeries latest Spectrum 5XB for the Xbox360.

The gaming mice products from SteelSeries are a must have for fans of World of Warcraft. The latest product branded with Blizzards MMO title, is the World of Warcraft Cataclysm MMO Gaming Mouse. This peripheral features the ability to bind all 14 buttons to the in game selections for WoW as well as advanced illumination and drag and drop setup with over 130 preset game commands. The Mouse is beefier and almost looks as though it would come from the World of Warcraft! If you’re not the big WoW fan, you could also get into intense combat with the Medal of Honor branded products or Starcraft II to name a few.

SteelSeries has also partnered with the folks at PaynearMe which allows shoppers to select a product for purchase on the SteelSeries website and visit a local participating 7-Eleven to have the payment processed. This can come in handy when a credit card is not available or the buyer wants to pay with cash.

Check out our Interview with SteelSeries CEO Bruce Hawver and be sure to take a look at the SteelSeries Website for a full look at the products the company offers. Our interview can be found at http://www.techtalkradio.com/hardware/steelseries.html You can also get some great information and updates on the Unofficial Official Blog for SteelSeries at http://fragyou.net