It took long enough, but there are finally some Windows-based competitors to the revised Macbook Air. This Samsung 9 series laptop is actually thinner and lighter than the Air, but only by very slight differences. Unfortunately it only comes in 13″ version, so there is no competitor to the 11″ Air yet.

Specs look good, with a much more powerful CPU than the Macbook Air and includes 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD.

When I was researching Ikea’s new induction cooktop I noticed that some of the established induction manufacturers started offering a new product. A hybrid cooktop has a combination of induction and “electric ” (radiant) heat elements. This lowers the price point and may make transitioning to induction easier. This has been done with gas/electric units but not with induction.

With Samsung you can get one or two induction elements combined with radishes elements to total 4.

The 300WX has 1 induction and 3 radiant elements.

The 500WX has 2 induction and 2 radiant elements.

I’ve had an induction range for about a month now, and wanted to share my thoughts about this new type of cooktop. First off, a lesson about what induction is. Induction is a method of cooking that uses magnetic fields to heat up your cookware to the desired temperature. This means there is no heat transfer from a coil or cooktop to the cookware, it’s the cookware itself that heats up to the desired temperature. This gives two very good advantages, one is that the cooktop itself remains very cool. It also allows for very fine control of the temperature – as soon as you dial down the heat, the heating surface will cool off. This control is much like most gas cooktops but is a distinct advantage over normal coil or electric ranges.

My impressions so far are very positive. Getting the pan or pot to the right temperature is VERY fast. The temperature is also much hotter than my previous electric range – especially with the “boost” option that my Samsung range came with. Some not-so-obvious benefits include lower power consumption (less energy is required for a pan to reach a certain temperature) and some safety benefits (the cooking surface does not get as hot as any other type of range). As mentioned before, the cooktop remains very cool during it’s operation, as exhibited by the picture attached provided by Bosch.

There are some drawbacks. Only pans that exhibit magnetic properties can be used with these cooktops. You have to be careful, because even though the majority of All-Clad pans are compatible with induction, they have a few pieces that are not. The specific Samsung unit I bought has a fan that turns on when the cooktop is on. It’s reasonably noisy (louder than my fan hood) so you have to be aware of it’s operation. Also the Samsung unit has the rear cooking elements placed slightly too far back. Not a big deal most of the time, but if you want a wider pan in the rear large burner, it’s a bit of a pain. On the other hand, the Kenmore unit had cooking elements that were placed slightly too close together. The other main drawback is price. An induction range will cost from $500-$1000 more than a premium electric range.

Overall, I’m very happy with my induction range. I highly recommend it. Most full and slide-in induction ranges (like the Samsung I bought) come with a convection oven, but that’s another article.

This category has been dominated by one camera for the past few years, the Panasonic Lumix LX3. Within the past few months, the Canon S90 and Samsung TL500 both try to steal market share away from the Lumix. All cameras are compact with fast, bright lenses – feature starting aperature sizes of f1.8 or f2.0. However, all the lenses have a different focal length. The incumbant LUMIX with a 24-60mm (f1.8-2.8), the Canon with 28-105mm (f2.0-4.9) and Samsung with a very wide 24-72mm (f1.8-2.4).

I plotted these on a graph to compare the type of coverage at each focal length It becomes quickly apparent that the Samsung offers the brightest lens at all focal lengths (lower f-stop is brighter). Canon offers the most zoom and the 3 year old LUMIX soldiering on.

If the Samsung does use the same sensor as the S90 as rumored, pairing it with such a bright, wide lens will really be fun to use. The Samsung will definitely be able to capture the most light in dark situations. The Canon will provide the most zoom. Once the Samsung hits the streets look for many sites to do comparisons of the low-light performance of both cameras.

This is probably the ultimate TV right now. Arguably better than Sony’s XBR8 which also featured LED backlighting with local dimming. Remember, not all LED backlights are created equal, and the XBR8 and Samsung’s 8500 have the local dimming feature for the blackest blacks on LCD. The full review is at AVGuide.

Too bad this set didn’t come in 50″ or 52″. 55″ is a bit too big for my living room.

I’m a big fan of induction ranges. They’re great for instant heat, precise temperature control and low on energy consumption. They’re perfect for anywhere that can’t get a gas range – especially condo’s and apartments. While Kenmore and GE were the first to make a full range, Samsung just introduced their own, and at a 10% lower price than the others.

Update: These are available at Future Shop and Sears. Sears prices it at the same price as their Kenmore Induction Range.

There’s no such thing as an LED TV, at least not a mainstream TV you and I would buy at the store. However, Samsung has been advertising their new line of TV’s as “LED TV” and confusing many customers. Flat panel displays are either plasma and LCD. There are more fringe technologies like OLED but in reality at your local electronics store only those two are offered. The reason “LED” is used is because LCD TV’s can be backlit with either CCFL or LED technology.

CCFL, cold cathode fluorescent lamps, are your basic fluorescent lightbulb. They have been used as a LCD backlight for decades. Arriving on the scene two years ago, LED’s are used instead of a CCFL to light up an LCD TV. These LED-backlit TV’s have many advantages, including a bright, consistent backlight, low power consumption and the ability to make LCD’s even thinner than they are.

Causing more confusion are the two LED backlight configurations. Traditionally the LED backlight is behind the screen, lighting the screen from behind also allows a new technique called local dimming. This shuts of LED’s that are behind the black areas of the image, leading to “blacker blacks” which have always been a weak spot for all LCD TV’s. However, a cheaper version of LED backlights have been introduced called “edge lit”. Picture quality is not as good as backlit LED, but edgelit LED TV’s can be made remarkably thin.

Be on the lookout for these types of technologies when buying your new TV. The best LCD picture quality will be from an LED backlit LCD with local dimming.

LG has announced that the LH90 series of LCD televisions is coming to North America. Not only that, but it comes with THX certification.  One of the notable features, besides the local-dimming, LED backlight, is the ability to play DIVX movies from a USB port on the TV – as well as JPGs and MP3s. It comes in 55″, 47″ and 42″ sizes.

• • 2,000,000 : 1 MEGA Contrast Ratio
• • 1080p Full HD Resolution – TruMotion 240Hz
• • 24p Real Cinema
• • HDMI 1.3 with Deep Color

When buying a new television, be careful about picking TV’s with LED backlighting – not all of them are what they appear. LED backlighting is one of the newest technologies used to improve picture quality and power efficiencies in flat screens. They’re used in LCD TV’s to produce the light that shines through the screen. Until the last year or so, all LCD’s were backlit using cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL), which are similar to flourescent lights.

Samsung was one of the first television manufacturers to offer LED’s to replace CCFL’s as the main backlighting source. The main advantage was a much brighter and smoother backlighting – no more “bands” or “waves” of brightness when the LCD is showing a dark picture. Moreover, the first LED backlit televisions had “local dimming” or the ability to turn off portions of the backlight to produce very dark blacks – always a weakness with LCD’s compared to plasma TV’s.

Originally, Samsung’s  950 and Sony’s XBR8 models both included LED backlighting with local dimming. However, things changed this year – Samsung introduced new televisions that had LED backlighting, but introduced in a cheaper, less featured package.

These are called “edge lit” LED backlit televisions and make up their 7000 and 8000 series televisions. The LED backlighting has moved from behind the TV to the edges. This has two detrimental effects on picture quality – the backlighting is not as uniform throughout the screen, and the backlight is incapable of local dimming. However, this type of backlight does produce VERY thin televisions, and are cheaper that full LED-backlit TV’s.

Be aware of this change, and make sure you know what you are getting. Samsung is rumored to launch a 9000 series television which features a full local-dimming LED backlight.