Dave Zatz, Author at Zatz Not Funny!

Netgear Announces the Digital Entertainer Express

In addition to the requisite networking product announcements, Netgear has introduced a refreshed Digital Entertainer at the press conference I’m currently attending. They’ve dropped some hardware from the EVA9150 to hit a lower price point with the Digital Entertainer Express (EVA9100) – which will be available shortly for $229. Unlike the 802.11n found in the … Read more

Sling Unleashes a Placeshifting Quartet

So much for getting to bed at a reasonable hour… as EchoStar just hit us with four Sling-related announcements. As I promised last week. Unfortunately, none of these Slingbox devices are headed to retail and will be exclusively offered via cable or satellite provider. Which, in the near term, means solely DISH Network. The Sling … Read more

CES 2010, Day 0 Summary

Vegas, Baby, Vegas! After sharing a flight with Walt Mossberg, I’m on the ground for the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and Mari will be joining me in about 24 hours. We’ve made the command decision to stay fewer nights this year for a variety of reasons. Certainly the trip is not inexpensive, in terms … Read more

Ceton to Unveil CableCARD Quad-Tuner ($399)

I’ve just received word that Ceton will be unveiling a low profile, PCI Express “Quad-Tuner” card at CES. Strike that. Steve Ballmer will be unveiling the Ceton card. During Microsoft’s opening CES keynote tomorrow evening! The $399 PC accessory is expected to ship in Q1 and enables simultaneous tuning of four live channels of digital … Read more

ZNF: The Year in Stats

Following in Brent’s GeekTonic footsteps, I’d like to point out a few fun facts from 2009 ZNF blogging as we enter our 6th year rocking the suburbs.

Despite my earlier assumption, given our evolving strategy of fewer but more meaningful posts, blog traffic was actually up about 30%. We averaged 66 posts a month in 2007, 48/mo in 2008, and hit an all-time low of 42 in 2009. I’ve yet to crunch the numbers, but suspect revenue growth was flat year over year as the global economic situation negatively and significantly impacted advertising during the first half of ’09. ZNF is a largely labor of love, so we’re not really sweating it.

In terms of visitors, as you can see from the Google Analytics query up top, nearly 70% ran Windows (at least some of the time) in 2009 and were pretty evenly split between Internet Explorer and Firefox. And there’s still too many on IE 6 – 18% of total ZNF traffic to be exact. I imagine a portion of those also account for the 1.32% who visited via dialup. Dialup?! Which brings us to source referrals. Like most websites, a vast amount of our traffic comes in via search engines. Well just one in particular:

Syabas to Launch $130 Popbox

Syabas, the makers of the Popcorn Hour Media Tank, have announced their intentions to launch a lower-cost media playback device this spring. The Popbox ($130) retains much of the impressive codec and high resolution/bitrate support seen in the Popcorn Hour line, but will also emphasize web content such as Netflix (via “Popapps”) and feature a … Read more

The Technology of 2009

Now that 2009 has come to a close, it’s time for some personal tech reflection – beyond the “boxes of the year” and my entry level HD video cam recommendation. By and large, my primary 2009 gadgetry looked quite similar to what I used regularly in 2008 (never minding some model upgrades): iPhone, Macbook, Xbox, TiVo. The two notable additions to my lineup were the Sonos S5 and Sprint’s edition of the Novatel MiFi. Although, I wouldn’t have been so dependent on that MiFi had AT&T not provided me significantly worse coverage in 2009 than in 2008.

Michael Gartenberg has put together his Best Personal Tech of 2009 for Engadget which is worth a read, as I agree with many of his selections. ;) So let’s focus on a few items he and I don’t see eye to eye on. Instead of the 27″ iMac, I’d rather single out Apple’s redesigned 21.5″ model. It has a much better price/performance/features ratio and is truly a bargain by Cupertino standards. Plus, it ships without screen issues. On the software front, Gartenberg highlights both Snow Leopard and Windows 7. Which are merely evolutionary upgrades by any measure. In fact, Snow Leopard would be called a service pack from anyone else and Microsoft’s most notable Windows 7 “feature” is not being Vista. Lastly, I’m not yet sold on any of the underpowered, novelty “pico” projector devices/functionality.

Netgear “Push 2 TV” at CES?

With CES nearly upon us, the leaks and pre-announcements continue to pile up. Next is Netgear’s Push 2 TV box, which just hit the FCC. So I helped myself to a few test photos and took a quick gander at the manual. The Intel-based technology sounds a lot like “Projector” functionality offered by SlingCatcher. Basically, … Read more