About Home Theater Systems

Home theater systems are a setup in homes installed for the purpose of providing cinema quality video and audio reproductions. It includes television and video equipment with special audio systems incorporated - like surround sound. The objective of recreating the feel of being in a movie theater is actualized by placement of a movie screen across the wall, use of projectors and speakers having surround sound and special furnishings like upholstered seats and couches. For a standard home theater system the video display unit should be at least 40 inches and the number of speakers involved in the surround sound system should be at least five.

Features and utility of home theater systems of technology

The home theater provides much better movie viewing experience than typical television screens. Television screens are typically square shaped and fail to provide the realism observed in movie screens. Home theater systems are designed to take care of this and provides a worthwhile re-creation of the movie house.

Home theater arrangements may comprise of a simple setup involving a DVD player fed through a stereo system and a larger, specially designed television set. Again, it may also constitute an elaborate arrangement whereby an entire room is professionally wired involving multiple speakers and projectors are set up together with a projection screen.

The home theater room housing the home theater system is usually a room without windows - much like a cinema. Such rooms are to be found in sophisticated, plush homes. Home theater system installation gives a touch of class, refinement and taste to the room and the home. You too may be looking for securing a home theater system for your home and want to settle down for nothing less than the ultimate in home theater experience. In this case you need to commission professional installers who will design the entire movie viewing room and gear it up for delivering the cinema experience.

Use of wireless home theater systems

The home theater setup involves considerable wiring. This is needed to connect the multiple speakers placed at various locations and the projectors and other equipment. However, wireless home theater systems have also come up now to ease out the trouble of setting up wiring networks. Though these are more expensive they often prove to be worth their value by being free from the numerous wires and the associated hassles.

A Tale of VoIP Billing Woe

We recently signed up with a Voice Over Internet Protocol provider at work. At the beginning there was a lot of hesitation to use a technology we thought was considerably young. Even though in technology age it's pretty old, having been created in the mid 90's. Still, there were a lot of concerns about reliability and use. Previously nobody in the office had, had any familiarity with with Voice Over Internet Protocol, which is often shortened to VoIP, and pronounced voyp.

At the beginning things were frustrating, and we quickly learned that you shouldn't have your VoIP tied to an unreliable internet connection. Also, we quickly discovered that using our VoIP for faxing was going to be inconvenient. On top of that we signed up with a service provider who was less than helpful. One particularly disturbing incident was just recently resolved. After a couple months with our VoIP we noticed a discrepancy in our bill. We had signed on for auto-bill pay and when we looked at our bills we noticed that our monthly charges had jumped from the original quote of $39.99, to nearly double. When I called our provider they explained that when we had signed up they had given us a "free" extra line. However, after a couple months the offer had expired and the second line was no longer free. What made the experience even more aggravating was the second line cancellation fee which was something like $40.00. After talking with the timid operator, who recognized my situation for what it wa

s, a scam, he agreed to drop the cancellation charge. But we were still out almost $100.00 in charges for that second line.

This experience left the business with a sour taste in our corporate mouth. This wasn't so much due to VoIP, but to our VoIP provider. It was unfortunate that we didn't do the research necessary to find a quality VoIP provider.

During this whole experience we placed calls to other providers, and we quickly discovered that we had jumped the gun in selecting our voice over IP provider. These other companies seemed twice as friendly and a far better deal over all. However, doing this research was like pouring salt into an already gaping wound.

When we had selected our provider, we had merely glanced at the top three VoIP companies out there. After a brief comparison between companies we made our decision. Part of the problem was that our decision was made in haste. This was because we were a start up company and needed a phone number quickly. Having an operational phone were our customers could reach us was more important than heavy research on voice over IP providers. On top of that we had to have advertisements made and business cards printed. So much in business revolves around that phone number and we needed it fast. That haste decision has cost us an extra $100.00 so far, plus the additional stress associated with working with a less than hospitable company.

I'm writing this all down so you can avoid the pitfalls that I encountered. During the time of frustration with our current VoIP provider we discovered that there were lots of smaller companies out there, who offered sometimes more for less than what we are currently paying. If only we had done a little searching we could have made this discovery and avoided a massive headache. I've penned this cautionary tale in order to encourage you to seek out these smaller and lesser known providers.

Currently, things have become a little bit better. But it still hurts to pay our provider every month knowing that there are companies out there who are willing to provide us the same service with a smile. We would cancel with our current VoIP provider but they have forced us to live in fear. Fear of having to go through it all again. Not only would canceling their service come with a charge, but it might also mean we would have to go through the headache all again. It's the cowards way I know, but it's more convenient then the alternative.

Using voice over internet protocol has been great. We get our voice messages in emails, and phone calls can be routed to our cell phones if we have to step out. As far as I'm concerned I wouldn't want anything else in the office. I only wish I had gone with some other VoIP provider. The good news is, you still can, and even I can in a year or two. So do the research and find the right VoIP provider for you. You won't regret it.

A Guide To Plasma Televisions

One of the newest additions in television technology, Plasma Televisions are the 21st century display devices which are fast becoming a popular choice among television viewers. Plasma televisions have higher resolution and quality performance than other conventional televisions; they guarantee crisp and clear images, and superior quality.

Plasma televisions became a reality after the successful invention of the plasma display panel in 1964, by Donald L. Bitzer and H. Gene Slottow at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Embracing a unique technology, Plasma televisions produce pictures from a combination of inert gases such as xenon and neon. When the gas is charged using electrodes, the atoms collide with each other and release energy in the form of invisible ultra violet (UV) light. The light is then focused on the three phosphors (red, green, and blue) and a brilliant picture is produced.

Plasma televisions come as Enhanced Definition TV (EDTV) with a resolution of 852x480 and the Higher Definition TV (HDTV) featuring a native resolution of 1024x768. Plasma televisions have a high widescreen aspect ratio - the ratio between the width and height of the screen. As plasma televisions do not use any electron beams like the conventional ones, they are immune to the effects of magnetic fields. They offer a wider viewing angle and accurate image reproduction. Plasma televisions are slim and space-saving and can even be hung on a wall. Moreover, most of the plasma televisions come with a flat screen which eliminates edge distortion.

Plasma televisions can be used in meeting rooms, corporate offices, and network control rooms. They are ideal choices for home-theater enthusiasts. On account of quality performance in ambient light, plasma televisions are widely opted for teleconferencing.

A countless number of retail and online stores specialize in plasma television sale. Due to their inherent merits, plasma televisions are becoming the most demanded alternative to the standard CRT and projection televisions.

10 reasons to go for body dryers

Technology has made our life more luxurious and comfortable. It has spawned many gadgets without which we can not imagine our lives. Body dryers are one more addition to this long list of gadgets which makes life a little more livable.

what is a body dryer?

A body dryer is a device used for drying the whole body without a towel after a shower or bath. The drying process takes place due to warm air being released by the blower. The body dryer comes with a pre-fixed blower housing along with outlet and inlet openings.

A body dryer is very similar to a hand dryer with the only difference being in size. As compared to a hand dryer, a body dryer is much bigger in size and helps to dry the whole body within just three minutes of operation. To use the body dryer, you simply have to stand underneath the ceiling-mounted unit, switch it on with the remote control and adjust the heating as per your comfort.

You are all set to enjoy the feeling of warm air. Since body dryers come with an adaptable temperature setting, they are perfect for homes with or without an electric shower.

There are quite a few benefits of using body dryers instead of towels to dry your body after a shower. Some of these are:

1. Body dryers help you to dry your body easily after a shower. It takes less effort than using a towel.

2. You don’t have damp, smelly towels hanging around in the bathroom.

3. Body dryers dry your body in a more gentle and relaxing way as compared to towels.

4. When it comes to hygiene, body dryers are a much better option than towels.

5. Body dryers are faster and provide better result than any type of bathroom heater.

6. Body dryers are particularly helpful in drying kids and pets after a bath.

7. If you have difficulty drying yourself with a towel because of mobility issues or skin irritations then a body dryer can provide a more pleasant experience.

8. not only are they easy to operate, they are also economical.

9. With body dryers you get less laundry work to handle.

10. The best part about body dryers is that they help in reducing the moisture in the bathroom by making it dry quickly.

With so many benefits, body dryers are becoming quite popular in countries like the UK, the USA, Australia and also developing nations. However, for safety reasons it is essential to buy a body dryer from a reputable company. When it comes to quality, you can rely on brands such as Triton as they are one of the best quality manufacturers of body dryers.

Before installing a body dryer in your bathroom, make sure that your home has good quality wiring or electrical supplies. In the UK, you can make use of the many well-known wholesalers, distributors and online retailers of electrical supplies for purchasing Triton body dryers along with other reliable electrical equipment like underfloor heating, storage heaters and galaxy showers.

A Flashback from Way Back

Relax. You're not having a flashback. Retro video game systems have made a massive resurgence in recent years, likely due to the fact that some kids never grow up. There seems to be a real affection among the techno-geeks out there for the original gaming systems. A cursory search of the internet will yield hundreds of results for websites dedicated to retro gaming. These systems were all the rage back in the day, and it appears that their time has come again.

Back when I was a young boy, these gaming systems were like a gift from the heavens. The only way I was able to play video games was to go downtown to the arcade. This posed a significant problem, as my parents were not too keen on the idea of letting me go downtown by myself. Furthermore, the local arcade tended to attract some shady characters. I skipped school one afternoon and went down to play Ms. Pac-Man, but I got caught by a truant officer. After that incident, my parents were only too eager to buy me the new Atari.

Man, I loved that system. The Atari 2600 had all the best games. Asteroids was, by far, my favorite game. Dude, I could play that game forever. Or so it seemed. What about Pitfall? I loved that game, too. Then, Kung-Fu Master came out! I don't think I left my bedroom for a month. At the time, I swore I wouldn't sleep until I rescued the fair Princess Victoria. Damn those knife throwers! To this day, my parents still blame that game for the decline in my grades that semester.

By the time the home video game market bottomed out in 1984, I had amassed a rather large collection of games. I sort of lost interest in video games around that time. I ended up giving my Atari and all of the games to my kid brother. I didn't play it much anymore, and I was too busy trying to get a girlfriend. In retrospect, I wish I had kept that system. I would love to spend an evening playing Space Invaders! Maybe I'll see if that arcade is still open. I wonder if girls ever go there……

3 Hot Selling Notebook Computers

The laptop market is an overcrowded field with literally hundreds of offerings available to consumers. Some laptops are very basic models with Celeron processors while others are full blown multimedia powerhouses. Featured here are three top models from the “plain Jane” to the middle of the road, to the fully loaded.

Dell Inspiron 1200 – It is possible to purchase a notebook computer for considerably less than $1000 and Dell offers several models below this threshold including the Inspiron 1200. This particular model is the price leader amongst laptops especially when rebates are figured in. A recent Dell advertisement has been touting the Inspiron 1200 for just $499 after a $150For rebate is received. What do you get with this model? Not a whole lot: an Intel Celeron M Processor 350 (1.30 GHz/1MB Cache/400MHz FSB); Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition; 30GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive; and 24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive. Surprisingly, Dell does include wireless capabilities in the form of a networking card.

HP Compaq nx9600 Notebook – HP’s acquisition of Compaq has produced a nice line up of notebook computers including this particular model geared toward those consumers replacing their desktop computer. Retailing at just over $1300 [before $100 rebate] this midrange offering is nicely loaded as it offers a 17" screen; Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition; an Intel Pentium 4 Processor with Hyper-Threading technology; a 40 GB hard drive; a 12 cell battery; wireless connectivity; and graphics oriented software.

Sony VAIO FS675P/H Notebookspacer – The Sony Vaio name is typically associated with high performing, high priced offerings. The VAIO® FS675P/H Notebookspacer fits the bill as this workhorse retails at just under $2000. Chief features of this model are: an Intel Pentium M Processor 750 (1.86 Ghz); Microsoft Windows XP Professional; DVD+R Double Layer/DVD+-RW; 1GB RAM; and a 100GB hard drive. The screen is 15.4" Widescreen5 LCD with XBRITE™ technology and all of Sony’s top digital software for photography, video and audio are included as standard equipment.

All three models attract different types of consumers, but each model is a standout in its respective class. Consumers are the winner when it comes to shopping for a laptop as prices continue to drop, new features are added, and technology improves with every new model marketed.

10 reasons why you should buy an Ipod nano

A trendsetter and expensive is what the Ipod nano is to most people. It makes a statement that I have arrived and I appreciate technology to the fullest. To some it is just another music player to others it is the best.

Here are a few reasons why you may want one:

1. It is pencil thin and can fit into your wallet along with other paraphernalia.

2. Imagine a space of 2GB or 4 GB—this means you can store from 500-1000 songs. Pure listening pleasure.

3. The click wheel and color display take music towards new horizons---plays 14 hours of music.

4. Carries photos, pod casts, and audio books. You can navigate through many photographs using the click wheel. Photos can be transferred and synced with a folder using the itunes softwear.

5. The Ipod can be accessorized using the dock connector and head phone jack. So music follows you around at home, in the car, and even while walking or running. Where ever you go the Ipod will follow.

6. Its feather weight and so easy to lug around. The screen does not crack or break easily contrary to fears. However the Ipod is not scratch or stain proof.

7. Synchronized with iTunes and the iTunes Music Store, the Ipod can access the world’s largest selection of music.

8. The pod has a state of the art processor, system performance, and flash memory. The technology is such that it never skips.

9. The system requirements are everyday, either a MAC OS x 10.3.4 with aUSB port or Windows 2000 SP4 or windows XP.

10. Music is your whole life and pure unadulterated sound is something to die for.

Expensive, the Ipod retails at US$199 for 2GB and US$249 for 4 GB. But it sets the trend and gives a vison of what music heaven can be.