I bought a Playbook... again

Wow, I almost can't believe I bought a BlackBerry PlayBook again. Last time I thought it was a good deal at $250.00? But since then the 32GB version has come down to $118.98 during sales, and $150.00 regular price. Poor RIM... there's no denying that they are in a bad place in the mobile marketplace but the Playbook is still a good piece of hardware that is undervalued, perhaps even by BlackBerry themselves.

I was humming and hawwing for awhile about rebuying a Playbook, but at the price point, it serves my needs: photos, Internet. Video playback is still atrocious for me, but at least I found a free player that will play the videos made on my Galaxy S Glide phone (the default player stutters and drops frames on these videos like crazy-- awful) So I have limited needs for the PlayBook this time around, mostly just a 7" photo viewer I can put my China trips photos on... I do hope that functionality improves even more in the future... BB10, hope, hope?

I have to say, the onscreen keyboard is one of the better ones I've used. I'm typing this entry on it in portrait mode right now, and the word correction and "thumb span" seem very good. Not to mention that it actually works with Blogger, unlike my Android phone... Hello, clueless Google? If I can upload pictures, it will be near perfect.

UPDATE: I found an issue with the screen, there was something stuck under the glass. Not a dead pixel, but a little dot of something. Also, there was a gap along the edge where the volume/power buttons are. I returned the unit, lucked out that Staples had another. This one has no screen issues or gap, though I'm not sure if the wifi is quite as strong on it.



later
don

3DS in Olympics Opening Ceremony

A few cameos from the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony that had me stoked: A shot of the Pink Floyd pig strung between the smokestacks of London's old power station-- a nice nod to their Animals album cover and the whole pig balloon floats away incident-- as well as using the Pink Floyd song Eclipse at the end of the show... nice.

But one cameo that really caught my eye: A kid playing a Nintendo 3DS during one of the videos:

There was also a sequence where a bunch of people flashed what looked like white Samsung Galaxy Notes, but I think Samsung is an official Olympic sponsor... after all they show Samsung Galaxy S III commercials every freakin' break.... but is Nintendo a sponsor?

Hmmm. It's a very slow summer for handheld news.


later
don

Kingston SD cards are thick

I've bought a few of them, and I've noticed that for some reason Kingston cards are insanely thick.They're really hard to put in & pull out of my card readers and gadgets. I originally bought an Kingston 8GB SDHC card for my 3DS, but since the only way to load & pull media off of it is to transfer the card between the 3DS & my PC, I'm worried that they will stretch out the slots on my various devices. So I haven't even used it yet.

 I am currently using them on my Aluratek Cinepal media player (which is not so great BTW, which is why I haven't yet done a proper review of it) but again, I have to use a card reader to transfer media onto it. I hope they don't wreck the SD slot on my reader for other SD cards.

Why the heck are they so much thicker than other SD cards? It's bizarre and annoying. There should be a standard spec for SD cards that all brands should adhere to.

Maybe that's why Kingston cards go on sale so often...


later
don

quandary over phones

The last couple weeks have me pondering over what I want to be my next phone. As much as I love my HTC Legend, it is really showing its age on the inside. The outside still looks amazing, I take good care of it; I don't put it in a pocket with keys, etc. But I do just shove it into my pocket as I'm running out the door, mostly with no case (I only got a case last time I was in Shenzhen, it was given to me) It's amazing even the screen has no scratches, it's a great little phone. The small form factor makes it so pocketable and real-life portable.


But the 600 MHz processor and small amount of ram... even worse, the small amount of space for apps.... I don't have that many apps on it and I've constantly got a "low space" warning on there because I have less than 20 MB free-- about 11MB free last time I checked.

So I think I need to upgrade to a more spacious & powerful phone. I've got my eye on quite a few contenders:


HTC One X - I'd prefer the One S for its size & form factor, but only the One X international version has "32GB" of storage... I think it's 22GB of actual usable storage.... which is enough for me. It has a great camera and Ice Cream Sandwich Android 4.0 OS... but it's a big phone. 4.7" screen... I definitely think there should be 4.7" screens but for me, I think that may be too big. 4.3" seems about as big as I can comfortably fit in my pocket. And it's around $700.00 for an import version, super expensive.





Samsung Galaxy S2 - This is the top smartphone of 2011. It shows to be consistently the fastest with browser and apps (from video reviews & tests) the screen is huge and looks really good. But there are some issues I'm worried about. It's super thin but there are reports of it getting really hot around the camera area after extended browsing & use. Plus the overall look of it is nice but there's something... I dunno, kinda cheap-looking about Samsung phones, just the materials maybe? And I've heard the screen scratches easily, part of the build quality issues.




White Samsung Galaxy s2 - Anyone who's read my past entries about my white Star Wars PSP-2000 knows I love white gadgets. I can't decide whether I like white even more than black. So a white Samsung Galaxy S2 should look awesome. But one thing I really don't like about it is that chrome bezel around the phone. I've held it my hand and it just doesn't look as good as in the pics and videos. But it's still white... and it looks so nice in the pics......




HTC Evo 3D - This one is really high on my list. As much as I complain about the faults of the 3D on the 3DS, I really love the idea of mobile 3D gaming. I'd love a better 3D camera, and the Evo 3D is about the only place for that. But it is chunky, and though it would give me the closest experience to my HTC Legend, on the other hand, there are also no surprises... I know what I'd be getting in a Sense UI. I've held the phone in my hands in Hong Kong, and the feel is good. But there are build quality issues with this one too. The power button is super sensitive. Volume buttons are mushy.




Samsung Galaxy S Slide (Captivate Glide in the U.S.) - This is currently at the top of my list. I'd *really* like a qwerty keyboard on a decent phone. The spces are right up there, but the keyboard is very flat. And there's no FM radio, another feature I really appreciate on my HTC Legend. The 4" screen should be nice but I wish it was 4.3" like the SGS2. Also it's a pentile screen.


Gaahhhh..... so much choice... I just don't know which one would fit my needs the best. I *really* want a slider keyboard, but I also want FM radio. And a decent keyboard, it's bizarre that Samsung messed up the Glide when they've done qwerty keyboard sliders before. I may be able to get by with wi-fi streaming of my most-listened to radio stations like CBC. So right now the odds-on favourite is the Glide..... but I really like the Evo 3D too.... I dunno......


I might wait until the Samsung Galaxy S 3 is revealed on May 1. But I'm reasonably sure it will only be a minor upgrade ala iPhone 4S, so it probably won't be something I'm super interested in.


later
don

Blackberry PlayBook

So I took the bait on Xmas eve, and ordered a Blackberry Playbook 32GB tablet from Staples online. But I don't think I'm keeping it....

The price point at $250.00 is fairly ok... and what I read about it seemed like it's a fairly solid tablet. I enjoy my HP TouchPad a lot but sometimes it is a bit big, especially when I take it out with me. With the case, it weighs in around 2lbs, which is close to my netbook weight. 2lbs may not sound like a lot, but when you're talking portability, trust me it is a consideration.



The Blackberry PlayBook definitely has a nice form factor. It's 7" as opposed to the TouchPad's 10", and it's very thin. On the bottom edge, there's the memory storage size (32GB) a micro HDMI port for output to an HDTV, a micro USB port, and a proprietary 3-pin port for a dock(?) One of the small issues with the micro USB port is that it's not shaped like most and you have to be careful to plug in the USB cable the right way. Usually the shape of the port shows me which way to plug it in.




The top edge has a headphone jack, power button and volume/play buttons. It's good to have hardware buttons but on the PlayBook I prefer to put it into sleep mode just using the onscreen buttons.

What's really great about coming out of sleep mode is all you need to do is swipe from bezel to bezel (either up/down or side/side) So I only need the power button to turn on the PlayBook from a full turned-off mode.





The back is a very simple soft touch rubber. Resists fingerprints but can pick up lint. It feels very comfortable though.




I love the thinness and simple design. However, the PlayBook is quite heavy considering its size. I suppose it's not unreasonable for it to weigh almost 1 lb, but when you look at the size and thinness of it, it looks like it should weigh less. So it can be a bit of a burden to hold for long periods... but the HP TouchPad weighs about 2x so....



I may not be a typical tablet user, my needs are fairly simple. I want a tablet for internet browsing, photos, music, videos and apps.

The Blackberry Playbook does most of these very well. The interface is very similar to the HP TouchPad's WebOS: apps close into a window view, you scroll horizontally between them, there's good multi-tasking.

My big problem with the Blackberry PlayBook is videos. I record videos in simple profile MP4 format, usually 368 x 208. Suited for PSP playback, but they also play very well on my HTC Legend phone and HP TouchPad. But on the PlayBook the videos are very pixelated. My videos look better on my TouchPad which has only a slightly higher resolution, but a bigger screen. Videos should look better on the PlayBook because of the smaller screen. I'm not sure if RIM is using a not very good MP4 decoder for video playback or what.... it makes me sad that my videos look so crappy on this thing.....

I really want to love the Blackberry PlayBook-- in fact I actually DO love a lot about it. Just not videos. That's not the most important part of a tablet but it is a major one for me. It's such a shame. So I think, with great reluctance, that I have to return it....... hopefully I can find a 7" tablet that will better fit my needs...... but there is also the PS Vita coming which will suck up as much $$$ as the PlayBook so maybe I need to just save up for that.




later
don

HP TouchPad 32gb

So Friday/Saturday was a tech frenzy the likes of which I have never seen... the great & terrible HP TouchPad hunt.

I heard about the HP TouchPad being discontinued, so I kept a bit of an eye on it, then I heard about the massive price slashing by The Source & Future Shop on Friday afternoon-- I rushed down to FS to grab one, they only had a 32gb left for $149.99 which I snatched up as quick as I could (this being Future Shop it took about 20 mins. waiting for a stupid manager to enter a password into a till)... what kinda irks me is that all the FS employees bought up most of the stock before the general public could get a chance-- they were crowing about it quite proudly, as were The Source employees when I went there looking for one. I didn't know a whole lot about it when I bought it, and had I known it has such a smooth UI & user experience I would've bought another for my dad. I *really* wish I could get another one for him. That's my big regret of this whole debacle.

What a score though... this has to be the best tech deal of the year for me. It's a sweet gadget that is not as good as it should be, but for my needs, it fits the bill quite well.

So basically, the TouchPad is one of the many tablets that have been released this year; in fact I think it only came out something like 50 days ago? Bizarre that HP would just drop it like they did & slash the price by 75%. It's a dead product but I'm still seeing those annoying HP Touchpad ads with Lea Michelle, or that boxer/politician on my TV in heavy rotation... guess HP paid up at least through the weekend. I can't imagine how much money they're losing by this decision to just scrap it.



There are good things & bad things about the HP TouchPad. For multimedia, pictures, music, video, it's as good as a phone/PSP, but with a bigger screen. HP's WebOS is different than what I'm used to, but surfing the web is a mostly smooth endeavor on it-- though there are a few quirks. Not a huge deal, but the web browser can't be set to launch on a homepage. You tap to open it & then you gotta input a URL or side swipe to open the Bookmarks list. Just little things like that which make it less dynamic than it should be. But compare it to my phone browser (Android 2.1) which is OK, but is clunkier than the TouchPad browser. Then we go down further on the handheld browser list, to the Nintendo 3DS (very clunky) browser and the PSP browser. So for a portable/handheld, the TouchPad scores very well. But... compare the TouchPad to my Toshiba NB205 netbook, and it's a different ballgame.



I'm not sure it's fair to compare a tablet like the HP TouchPad to a netbook/laptop, but with the MSRPs of tablets being firmly in the $400.00-$500.00 range, it's gotta be a consideration. Let me put it this way-- I'm typing up this post using my netbook. Hell yeah did I consider doing it on the TouchPad, but the onscreen keyboard is pretty finicky. I'm used to the Android keyboard on my little HTC Legend being cumbersome... yes the TouchPad is bigger, but it takes more than double the time to type things than it does with my netbook keyboard. Using the TouchPad to do general websurfing is great. Flash loads up fine, and I haven't had any problem viewing embedded video. I can post the odd comment on message boards, but any sort of content creation, whether it's blogs or whatever, is kinda hard. I will try to post an entry using the TouchPad sometime.



The body is very black, rounded & smooth. It's also a huge fingerprint magnet. It's heavier than I thought it would be, and with the rounded body shape & weight I can't find a decent stand for it yet.



There are 2 speakers along the length of the side/bottom of it, which sound better than most handhelds (including my crap netbook speaker)but they are recessed into the smooth body & the speaker holes feel bit sharp when you hold the tablet soemtimes. the HP TouchPad also has bluetooth, I synced it with my Creative D100 bluetooth speakers and it sounds great.

The TouchPad has a front-facing camera, but no rear one. And the camera can only be used with one app, Skype. Reminds me of my PSPgo mic that has never been used because I don't Skype.

I bought the HP TouchPad with the hopes of it being a good photo viewer, music player & most important: video player.

USB - The TouchPad is seen as a USB drive, which means drag & drop. I love that! I hate having to use software to load media onto a device... it's one of the main reasons I haven't gotten an idevice yet. It has a micro USB port at the bottom of it, again no proprietary cable, I can use the same cables that I use for my phone. The USB cable it comes with also plugs into a dongle that is a power adapter wall plug. I don't think that a USB drive or memory stick can be plugged directly into the TouchPad, it does not look like there's a USB Hosting feature. The only quirk I discovered with the TouchPad is that it has to be ejected by right-clicking EJECT on the device icon in Windows. If you use the Eject USB Device command in Windows, it doesn't unmount it properly, and you'll get this "Ouch!" message on the TouchPad.

Music - The HP TouchPad supports .mp3, AAC, non-protected files (non-DRM) I haven't put much music on it yet, it's not high on my list as I'm really happy with my HTC Legend phone as my main music player. The HP TouchPad music player interface is basic, there are 2 views, list and side-scrolling album view. Playlist creation is fairly easy, tap+hold a song, then drag it to a playlist along a side panel to add it. Songs can be repeat one/all/shuffle & the usual album/artist/genre categories.

Video - Much like Android, videos are in the Photos section, all mixed in. There's 2 settings for video: fullscreen or original aspect ratio. It only plays .MP4 files, .MP4 simple profile, H.263/H.264. Which is very limited. But-- it actually plays my PSP Video 9 encoded PSP videos!!! I am *so* happy about that because I've rarely come across ANYTHING that can play those. And it plays them well, usually the best I can get is a buggy playback from any handheld that's not a PSP. So for me specifically, this is an awesome video player. More codec support would be nice. What's bad about the video playback is that it doesn't show the name of the video file, nor a thumbnail image. So you load it up with videos & get a bunch of generic video icons with only the length. No title, no date, nothing about it other than the length. That is very annoying especially if you want a lot of vids on it. I think the TouchPad was rushed to market, though things like this could be fixed with a software update if only HP hadn't abandoned it so quickly. UPDATE: I installed WebOS update 3.0.2 68 and now videos show their names! So that's an improvement.

The video controls are very basic, it's similar to the Android/iOS with the length bar, but the bar is ridiculously small for the size of the screen. So moving the playback cursor is really tricky & strangely not nearly as good as on the tiny screen of my HTC Legend, which itself is not nearly as good as the precise video playback controls of the PSP. For a screen the size of the TouchPad, it's stupid to have such a small playback bar. Again, could be fixed with an update, but...

Photos - Supports .JPG. Photos do show thumbnails, and the basic functions are here, there's a slideshow option of course. The slideshow transitions, well.. there's only one that I know of, and it's not very good. It works, but it ain't fancy. Even my Aluratek has better slideshow transition options.

Multitasking apps - The HP TouchPad can do multitasking quite well. I can play music while web browsing, open up vids/pics, pause that to do some web browsing, and come back to it. The interface uses windows "cards" which works fairly well. Let's say you're looking at a web page, and you want to open another web page up, it creates another card that stacks up over the previous one, and so on. So you swipe from the bottom of the TouchPad to go back to your stack of cards, and you can tap on whichever in the deck or to close one or all, you flick it up & it throws it away. That's how all the apps operate. Very nice & smooth. I love just flicking things away on this thing.

I think the TouchPad was rushed to market too early, and I also think that all the tablets are overpriced. Last year I was lusting a bit for an iPad, and I've always been interested in the tablet market. I was hoping that these tablet wars would offer some good deals as the competition heats up. I did not expect a firesale like this. It's kinda sad, actually, even though I don't think the HP TouchPad is worth $400-$500, it shouldn't be discontinued, especially so early in its lifespan. HP has some weird things going on, and with the rumblings that they might be leaving the PC market altogether, that's not good for consumers at all. I think we may see computer prices rise sharply if there's one less major company making entry-priced PCs. If the TouchPad or other tablets were priced starting at $350.00 or $250.00, then they'd be more enticing for people to buy. I don't know if it's the iPad(1/2) effect or what, but it just seems like the pricing is too steep for what they actually offer to the user. Just go to Staples, seeing their display of tablets, there are so many out there that I wonder if we'll see some more tablet firesales as competitors fall by the wayside. Motorola Xoom, BlacBerry Playbook-- I'm looking at you!

Before buying the HP TouchPad I wasn't familiar with WebOS, so now I'm trying to discover as much as I can about it. It's essentially a phone OS with a UI tweaked for tablets. But basically the same can be said for all the tablet OS's, right? Tablets are just bigger versions of smartphones. In some ways that's a good thing, but they need to be priced more reasonably. Smartphones themselves are also frustratingly overpriced, but the market demand for them unfortunately has made it profitable for all the companies (manufacturers & service providers) to overcharge.

It's too bad that there will be no support for WebOS, while I don't like it overall as much as Android, it's a smooth interface that could be improved and could have been a contender. That's the same that could be said about the HP TouchPad itself. We hardly knew ya.... there may be no future for this gadget, but in the meantime I'm having fun with it, for the price it was a great buy & now I'm looking harder at other tablets. if I could find one that's better than this, I'd gladly pay more for it.


later
don

iPad/Macbook Pro

I finally got a hands-on with the iPad at London Drugs about a week ago.... and I have to say, on first inspection it is one impressive piece of kit. I was amazed by how small it is, and light. It also doesn't seem to get too hot-- though I'd wonder whether that's the case during prolonged real use. There is a real smoothness to the interface, it is just like an iPhone in that regard.

So I've been crushing a bit on the iPad.... but lately I've really taken a shine to the Macbook Pro. Yes it's overpriced but the overall package is elegant. Metal body, illuminated keyboard, not too much screen bezel and a huge trackpad...

I still really like my Toshiba NB-205 netbook, but like anything, there are little issues about it. The body looks fairly nice and at least it isn't too much of a fingerprint magnet... but there's still a bit of a cheapness in the materials-- it's got a plastic body, the keyboard area flexes a bit. I've been noticing a bit of a clicking noise when I hit the PgDn (page down) button. The trackpad buttons are nice & big but they click very loudly, a lot of times I tap the pad so as not to make so much noise, but tapping the trackpad isn't as responsive as a physical button.

But my biggest problem isn't hardware, it's the OS. I'm getting pretty tired of the Windows OS being so vulnerable to malware. It would be nice to not have that worry all the time... I'd still run a firewall & anti-virus on a Macbook, but there is just much more peace of mind knowing it's not quite as big a target as Windows.

Man, a Macbook Pro would be nice... but my NB-205 isn't quite a year old yet. There's no GOOD reason to get another computer at this point. But I'm pretty sure that my next computer will be a Macbook. I'm really leaning that way at this point.



later
don

Google Pac-Man permanent!

Awesome! That great playable Google Pac-Man logo is still around, Google has made a permanent link for it:

http://www.google.com/pacman/



Nice.


later
don

Playable Pac-Man Google logo

Cool.... in honour of Pac-Man's 30th anniversary, Google made a celebratory logo, which isn't unusual, they do it a lot.

But this one is actually playable! Nice one, Google.

Speaking of Pac-Man, Namco-Bandai is one of those game companies that doesn't get a lot of respect, but they've published a lot of games for PSP. A few of my favourites like Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception, Ridge Racer & Me & My Katamari, but there are many more.

So congrats Pac-Man, and let's hope Namco-Bandai gives the next PSP iteration a shot.


later
don

Olympic Torch

Yup I've only been watching the 2010 Olympics for the last 2 weeks and not much else... besides being ill (again?!) ugh..... my TV shows have been piling up on my PSPgo, waiting to be watched & deleted. What's cool is that I recently got an 8GB CF card at Costco for like $9.97 or something. great price, and it seems to work in my Neuros Recorder II+ fine. Now I can record like 15 hours of TV or something? For $10.00 that's pretty sweet.

So I have to admit... I have a bit of gadget-lust for the 2010 Olympic torch. It just looks very cool; sleek & elegant design with metal trim that reminds me of a PSP.





I kinda want one... now I wish I'd put my name in to be a torch bearer or whatever the process was. I'm sure I could buy one off of eBay, but I really don't want an overpriced USED model... I'd rather it be new, clean or if used, then used by me.





Just another one of those things that falls into the useless-but-cool category like the Sony Rolly.



later
don

BudgetGadgets.com

I was recently contacted by someone working for this gadget wholesaler site, called BudgetGadgets.com.... they asked if I would review a couple of their PSP accessories & post my results, which I agreed to do so.

So hopefully in a few weeks I'll have the 2 items in hand, and will try them out. My reviews will be honest & 100% my opinions, like all my other reviews.

The site looks similar to something like DealExtreme; based in China, generic brands, low prices and free shipping (that's always good!) It's worth checking out if you're looking for accessories for your favourite gaming consoles (they have more than PSP stuff) or gadgets.



later
don

AAXA P1 Pico Projector

This is a neat device... a portable projector that has a PSP-2000/3000 cable (sold seperately)

At first I was really interested in it for the PSP connectivity, but the projector on its own sounds pretty cool: it has 1GB of internal storage, a MicroSD card slot, and it plays a variety of video/audio formats.

The cons are the battery life is really short-- 45-60 mins, and it apparently isn't super bright (PSP owners are used to that....) plus it is kinda expensive... right now it's on sale for $240.00 U.S.

AAXA P1 PICO PROJECTOR official product page

SlashGear article about AAXA P1 PICO PROJECTOR

interesting review of AAXA P1 PICO PROJECTOR













I'm thinking that video projection is going to be the next step for portable video players. I've been very interested in seeing where portable video is going since 2006, when small mp3 players like the Sandisk e200 series started featuring video playback. It would be awesome if the next PSP had a projector in it that could blast the game/video/photo images onto a wall....




later
don

Daylight Savings

Just a reminder for those of us in North America... hope you set your clocks ahead by 1 hour as we "Spring" into Daylight Savings today.

On the PSP, there is a setting specifically for Daylight Savings in the Date & Time setting. Just switch it from Standard to Daylight Savings and it flips the time ahead by 1 hour. Is it really any easier than setting the hour ahead manually? Probably not. I found that my time would flip ahead an hour of what it's supposed to be, because I didn't realize that's all the setting did, so I'd end up not using it. Now that I know, I have my time synced to it as long as I remember.




I had to set my 3 PSPs, my Sandisk Sansa E280, my watch... but my DS Lite, oddly enough already had the right time. I wonder if it's automatic or if I just hadn't set it back before. Can't remember....



later
don

Kingston 16GB MicroSD

Sa-wheeeeeet!!! On Friday I ordered two Kingston 16GB Micro SD cards from Expansys... and just a few minutes ago there was a knock on the door-- they showed up already! Ordered on Friday, showed up on Monday! That's phenomenal delivery time for Canada!

They cost around $53.00 each, but with tax and shipping it works out to a bit less than $70.00 each for them... it was something like $138.00 in total...












The reason I bought 2 is that I'm going to use a PhotoFast CR-5400 microSD to Memory Stick Pro Duo adapter:




I also just ordered it, but it's coming from overseas so I expect it'll take a bit longer to arrive. Once it shows up, I pop the two 16GB MicroSD cards into the adapter, and the adapter into my PSP.... and Voilà! 32 GB of storage in my PSP! Actually, after formatting, probably 29 GB.

Still... that will be damn impressive. I have to say, couldn't come at a better time. Right now I'm rocking an 8Gb Sony memory stick pro duo on my main PSP, and it's pretty full what with all the tv shows I've been taping from my Neuros Recorder II+... I'm taping them faster than I can watch & erase them... and seeing as how 1 hour = 400MB or so, it can really fill the space.

I would've liked to have gotten the Sandisk 16GB MicroSD cards, but they are still just too expensive in Canada.... when I happened upon that price for the Kingston, I had to give it a try.

I learned about this from Playstation Underground member Bone of World's thread about it. I'll post my experiences when I've got my hands on the adapter.



later
don

console icons

Found this really awesome work on Flickr by artist Axel Pfaender...



He has icons for all the major systems, and they look really cute & great! Very cool.



later
don

device map

Ugh... I've been trying to re-configure my device hookup to my tv... it's one of those things that isn't that hard, yet it's just hard enough that it's not easy to do without really thinking about it.


My setup is that my Wii & Xbox are wired to my VCR through a signal switch, (my VCR's line 2 is set up for my PSP) then my VCR goes through my Neuros Recorder II+, which then goes to my tv's line in.

The problem with this setup is that I can't tape any tv shows on my VCR or Neuros if I'm using my Wii or Xbox.

So this morning I decided to just draw my signal chain out, and it was definitely more confusing than I'd thought. Luckily, seeing it on paper rather than having to imagine it all in my head helped.

Really, all I needed to do was change the output from the Neuros to the switchbox, then have the switchbox output to the tv. But you can see the erased mistakes & dotted lines to nowhere when I was first trying to decipher my signal chain.

I thought I'd tried this before, but for some reason the Neuros would shut off when I switched the signals. I'm not sure if I just didn't have it wired properly that last time or if the connections to/from the Neuros was loose, which is a bit of a problem with the device. Still, it seems to work now. So hopefully I won't be missing some of my shows, like Battlestar Galactica, when my nephew comes over wanting to play my consoles. I needs my stories!



later
don

DTV delayed

IGN quietly posted an article about how the switch to DTV has been delayed.

Originally, Feb 2009 was the deadline given to U.S. tv stations to switch their signal over from analog to digital. This doesn't mean much for anyone using cable, but if you're still tuning in tv stations using an antenna; that's analog. As in, "gone by Feb 2009".

For most, tuning in tv station through an antenna (anyone remember "rabbit ears"?) is like washing clothes using a ribbed washboard & bar of soap. But it's gained a newfound relevence for me.

See, I have a portable tv, a Sony Watchman:



It looks similar to that, but mine looks better.

I got it when I was a kid, and loved it like crazy for awhile. Then I put it away and only a couple years ago came across it again. Sure to (old) Sony quality, it still works!

But of course the only way to get any tv channels is over the air, through the antenna. So when that gets shut off.....

Being in Canada, I'll only lose a few U.S. tv stations, like KVOS in Bellingham or some of the ones in Seattle. But it will still be sad.....


I've been planning to do a photo spread of my Sony Watchman & PSP to compare the 2 devices. It's pretty obvious which one has the most functionality, but it's also sad that quality-built devices like the Watchman shows Sony just doesn't make things like they used to.



later
don

Firefox 3 update

So the other day, my Firefox 3 updated.... added a bunch of security improvements... probably a couple weeks too late as I was infected with more viruses recently. My comp looks clean, but......


One thing I noticed with this latest update is after it's done, they load up a page talking about how Firefox is really reliable security-wise... I can't remember the URL, but it also displayed a graph showing in 2006 that Firefox had much less vulnerabilites than IE.

Yeah. That's great. I wouldn't be surprised if that was true.... IN 2006. But Firefox 3 just seems really flawed. They made so many changes to it, that I wonder if they didn't leave HUGE holes in it, otherwise, why this new page trying to reassure us that it's "all good"? there could be the threat of Google's browser, Chrome, but I think that's still in Beta form. I've been trying to find out if Firefox 3 is really flawed, but I haven't found much other than news reports from back in June, probably when it was first released. I wonder if many others have found their infection rate skyrocketing....



later
don

Multiply

So I got a notice that MSN was closing its Groups section... big surprise, yeah right..... and it was pawning off its Groups members to some other site called Multiply. Multiply seems to be some sort of Facebook-wannabe "Social Networking site"... I dunno.

What's really annoying is I re-joined the former MSN Groups that have migrated to Multiply, and I *specifically* set my email preferences to *not* get email from EVERY SINGLE LITTLE MESSAGE posted in these Groups. So of course GUESS what's happening.

Not only am I get EVERY BLOODY MESSAGE sent to my email, it's sending the SAME message MANY MANY times. So whoever's posting is probably not even posting that much, but when I get that same bloody message 10-15 times... gah, it's annoying.

I've checked my settings over a few times, I thought maybe it takes a day for them to kick in... but I'm still getting this crap... and none of that explains why there's so many repeats of the same email message anyway. Multiply seems like a PURE CRAP site. Seriously, how hard is it to make an email mailing list that doesn't go crazy & spam its members? I can understand these things happening once in a while, but this has been going on for a few days, and Multiply seems to think this is normal & acceptable behaviour.

I'm going to give it a few more days, and see if Multiply can stop SUCKING so much. I doubt it can. Avoid Multiply, they seem like a shitty site.

I may just import this post onto my Multiply site... but if this is how they are normally, I don't want to support them in any way, not even if it's slagging them.


later
don

Useless crap that I have a crush on - Sony Rolly

I saw something that reminded me of the Sony® Rolly I read about last year, when I was heavily researching mp3 players.

Sony® Rolly:





It's stupid, useless.... but I really like it. ...

[EDIT]:Just looked to see if it was available in Canada, and came across the Sony store listing it for $400.00....$400.00?!? GO FUCK YOURSELF SONY. I think I'm over it now.....



later
don