ASUS O!Play HDP-R1 1080p HD Media Player
Primary need was the ability to play my existing library of ISO DVD’s. Each time we purchase a DVD, I make an ISO of it so that I can play it from a main server on any of the computers in the house. We also make a no nonsense copy of the DVD and store the original using only the backup copy to play so that if it gets damaged we can rebuild a new backup etc… This eliminates the annoying previews and removes all the menus etc..
Anyway, I wanted a way to be able to access the ISO library on the main HDTV. I played with Xbox360 and Microsoft Media player, but the speed and access was terrible and to get Media Player to actually be able to serve ISO movies was even more work. So I looked for better solution.
Once I had a good network connection near the TV, I picked up the ASUS O!Play Media Player. Needed to do a firmware upgrade and setup a new regular user on my primary Windows 7 workstation and then I could access the hard drive share on the box that contains the ISO library. Now I can play the ISO DVD movies, access Images and music and play just about any media on the main HDTV in the family room.
I had looked at the new HDP-R3 which is just being released which has a wireless network capability, but since I already had put in the DAP wireless bridge, it wasn’t necessary. Turns out the DAP makes a faster connection anyway.
I also looked at the Western Digital WD TV Live Network-ready HD Media Player which is very popular… but it does not support ISO movie’s…
D-Link DAP-1522 Xtreme N Duo Wireless Bridge/Access Point
Really needed to get a good fast network connection over where there main HDTV is located so that we can hookup things like an XBox360, media player etc…
I was using a powerline network connection but it was not making a fast enough connection.
I picked up a DAP-1522 to setup a bridge so that I could then use it’s 4 available Ethernet ports to connect the Xbox and media player into and anything else we end up over there. The wireless signal only had to go about 12 ft through two light indoor walls to get to the main cable router I am using (LinkSys WRT150N which is running DD-WRT firmware). Configuration was fairly easy once I did a firmware upgrade and switched to MSIE to access it (FF, Opera, etc do not work well in the configuration modes).
I had to change the default IP of the device to match my internal network first and then configured it to use the WPA2/AES setup for a secure connection. Hard to see what type of signal strength you get with the DAP but the LinkSys shows a good solid connection and the speed has been great.
Note that this device can be a bridge or Access Point. As a bridge, it provides a wireless connection to an existing high speed Wireless router and provides Ethernet ports that can then be used to access that same network. As an Access Point, you would add this to a wired network so that you could then access that network via a wireless connection.
Comfortable long wear bluetooth headset
I think I have finally found a headset that I can use with my Cell phone that gives me the same headset ability that I have with my land line.
When I am on the phone, I normally need to have both hands free to type, drive or whatever so I need a good headset that is very comfortable to wear, lasts a long time on a charge and has good noise cancellation abilities to reduce wind, air conditioning and other environmental issues that make the connection sound good.
The Blue Eagle 2 is a a headset with an ear cushion that goes on top of the ear, with a head strap that goes over the head. There is a box under the ear piece that contains the controls and the batteries and a boom mike that is very maneuverable that can go under the mouth for optional use.
The battery life is extraordinary, with talk time up to about 14 hours and standby going days. Much longer than my Cell phone can talk without being connected to a power source. As a result, I now plug in my Cell whenever I am near a power source both at home, in the car and at the office.
Results so far have been spectacular with easy of use, comfort and great sound quality even in noisy environments. I’ve now used it for 4 or 5 telephone conferences lasting 1 or more hours without any real issues and today, used it all day long.
The headset comes with a USB cable which is unusually long, a AC and DC USB adapter and a brief but detailed enough small printed manual. No software was needed to setup the unit other than pairing with the cell phone which basically was automatic.
Cost was near $100.
Pro’s… Long talk time, easy to charge, controls simple enough to use, great sound quality both sides of the connection, comfortable. Boom mike easily moved and positioned. Works great in the home, office and vehicle.
Con’s… large, with a large boom. Not hidden like smaller units. Only a 6 month warranty.
Despite the size, it is a winner for me.
Extending Offline time
The new MiFi is great… but the battery life is fairly short at between 3-4 hours. I need a solution where I can be unplugged for much longer periods.
So I picked up a Tekkeon MP1800 external battery pack. This is s self-contained battery that charges via USB or Wall socket (note the wall plug is NOT included). After being fully charged, it can be used to power a lot of different devices such as Cell Phones and … a MiFi card.
I did an online endurance test yesterday and was able to maintain a WiFi connection of the MiFi with the extended battery for more than 14 hours continuously.
When I halted the test because I didn’t want to leave my Netbook running unattended, the MP1800 still had power to give and the MiFi itself was fully charged. So even if the MP1800 had died then, I still would have had at least another 3-4 hours left.
The only issue I’ve had is that I can’t power the MP1800 at the same time as it is providing power as the manual suggests can be done. When I try, it faults the USB port and shuts down the Notebook and Netbook. I’ve sent an inquiry to Tekkeon to find out what is going on there…
The device comes with a variety of tips that include Samsung, Mini-USB, Micro-USB and others but does NOT include the wall adapter that is shown in the manual. It comes with a black carry pouch as well.
Secure WiFi on the move with MiFi
On the move and need a WWAN connection that is secure… I was using a USB720 WWAN card. Worked pretty good for two years. Wanted to have something that had it’s own power so the Netbook would last longer…
I picked up a Novatel MiFi 2200 (Verizon) service. This device has it’s own battery, and makes a WWAN connection over the Verizon EVDO Rev A network and provides a secure WiFi portal for up to 5 devices. Combined with an external battery pack Tekkeon MP1800, I can maintain a secure WiFi connection to the Internet for 14 hours or more without plugging into the wall socket.
The size of a credit card with the thickness of about 1/4 inch, the unit is very small and easily fits in the Netbook case. The battery life on it’s own is about 3-4 hours. Can also be Tethered to the PC to provide USB connectivity and WiFi at the same time (contrary to initial reports. Will post a note about that shortly).
Like the USB720, I get typical 800kb – 1.2 mb connection speeds using the WiFi connection.
Sprint offers the same device as well made by Novatel though it supports GPS which Verzion seems to think is not important.
Toshiba Netbook NB205 is GREAT!
Toshiba nb205
What a great Netbook.
After looking around for a couple months I finally found a Netbook that I can carry with me just about anywhere without lugging 20lbs of stuff with me.
The Toshiba NB205 (I got it in the color Sable) is a very light weight < 3lbs computer with a great clear screen (10.1″), includes 1GB of RAM, full keyboard (Main difference), great touch pad though I prefer to use a mouse. Includes 3 USB (Charging type), Bluetooth and WiFi and a battery life that appoaches 9 hours on a single charge.
Toshbia nb205 Back view
Don’t have to bring a charger with me any more, can have full wireless access by using my USB720 WWAN card with Verizon…
Obtained the unit from Amazon which included the 6cell battery for $399. I have since upgraded the memory to 2GB (~$24) and plan on getting a replacement for my USB720 with the MiFI 2200 wireless portable EVDO router soon.
Been using this now for several weeks. I got an inexpensive but very usable case, which holds everything I need and is under 5lbs complete. Leaving my much heavier HP notebook at home now.
SBSH Flakes out and now deletes posts.
Funny how a company that basically turns silent on development of a number of its apps after announcing new beta releases right in the middle of beta testing of several of their products all of a sudden starts deleting posts from it’s support forum that are critical of their actions (or in this case inaction).
Development on PocketBreeze, PhoneWeaver both which had updates due any day, have had nothing done for months ago so they could introduce such great new products as GoNews (who needs another RSS reader) SafeWallet (iphone and Blackberry) they apparently dropped development of SafeWallet for WM, and VoiceQ Symbian.
Of course they already have my money so why should hey bother correcting problems with existing software I already have purchased.
Last night, I had to replace PocketBreeze since it stopped showing any schedules which it the ONLY reason why I got it. Calendar Touch doesn’t include a Today Screen pluggin. I replaced with with Spb Diary.
I also replaced Pocket Weather with Spb Weather.
Messages posted last night about the PocketBreeze issues and notice that I was moving away from the product were deleted this morning. Not like they don’t have lots of others complaining about their lack of continued support for products that people have paid for as you can see in their forum topic below:
http://forums.sbsh.net/index.php?showtopic=25610
SBSH is a dead product as far as I am concerned and there is little point in referring them any longer.
New “Official” Rom Released for Omnia i910
Received email this afternoon…
Thank you for your interest in adding open GPS to your Samsung Omnia from Verizon Wireless. To download the software that will add this feature to your phone, go to:
http://support.vzw.com/phones/index.html?p=4366
Once you download the new software, your Omnia will be equipped with not only VZ Navigator but will also allow you to use other navigational services that you obtain from third party retailers.
Verizon Wireless
Customer Service
Note was sent by Stephen Schwed…
I flashed one of my Omnia i910’s last night. Smooth install, took longer to download the software than to do the flash. Flashing took aprox 7 mins.
GPS is unlocked and it appears that the aGPS functionality is there unlike the Rom upgrade for the Samsung Saga.
Not a lot of additional changes noted, but I don’t have service on that phone to really check it out. Will flash my main phone Friday sometime after I make sure I have copies of everything. I want to reload everything from scratch to get the most out of memory etc.
Thank you for your interest in adding open GPS to your Samsung Omnia from Verizon Wireless. To download the software that will add this feature to your phone, go to: http://support.vzw.com/phones/index.html?p=4366 Once you download the new software, your Omnia will be equipped with not only VZ Navigator but will also allow you to use other navigational services that you obtain from third party retailers. Verizon Wireless Customer Service
Grand Daughter = Camcorder
JVC Everio GZ-MS100 Camcorder
With a grand daughter now at the house 3-4 times a week, the request was for a camcorder to take videos with.
We have had a video camera before, it was a Sharp model 10 or so years ago, but it never worked all the great and the tapes were a royal pain to deal with.
I spent a lot of time looking at these from the very low end up to about $1k before moving back down to this unit. I didn’t think we would use it all the much and spending a lot of $$ on something we may not use a lot didn’t make much sense.
One thing I really liked about this particualar unit was that it recorded on to regular SD cards. While not an “HD” unit, I didn’t need HD quality to start with and with the setting I have it on now, I can get almost 4 hours of video on an 8gb card (something I seem to have a lot of floating around lately).
The battery it came with will last about 2 hours which really is more than enough. Can’t see spending 2 hours video taping anything very often. Normally, most of the video clips are 2-4 minutes at a time which can then be stitched into a longer video with all the segments put together for the “event”.
I can always get another battery, either larger or the same size if that becomes an issue.
Unlike a camera where the images are a fairly managable size, the videos are much larger. A 4 min video of the grand daughter removing fur from the kitty was cute, but before I did anything with it it was 185mb in size.
Using Super (a free video conversion software package), I was able to convert this larger file into much a much smaller flash file (smaller screen size too). Which I could then post on the family site for everyone to see.
I also have been playing with the demo version of Sony’s Vegas 9 Pro suite which can do all kinds of effects, stitch various snippets together and then output very professional looking stuff.
I plan on using the camcorder for video taping Weather events too…. right now it is in San Diego getting a family tour.
Oh… one very strange thing about the JVC camcorder… It comes in 2 colors, the silver one you see and a really cool looking red version. I was going to get the Red version until I saw the price difference… I really don’t get it since it is 
exactly the same unit with just a different color, but on Amazon the silver one was $179 and the red one was $499 .. go figure??? We got the silver one.
Looks like we got a real deal because the silver one is now $269 on the same site though I don’t recall it being advertised as a special.
GPS’s started with 1 now have 3
StreetPilot 2610
For more than 3 years I’ve had a Garmin StreetPilot 2610 in my Truck. Used it every day.
What I really liked about it was the Remote Control. Now you are not supposed to program it while driving and sticking your hand out to touch the screen can be deadly (literally), but with the remote, I found if I held it way down by my side while driving I could watch the road and take quick glances at the device as I slowly entered something. Didn’t do it often but it worked when necessary. Any time I had to do anything more complicated, I just pulled over or had the passenger do it.
Nuvi 790
Recently it was time to upgrade. The cost of GPS’s are way down from when I got the first one. I look a lot and finally picked up a Nuvi 790. I liked the ability to add an 8gb SD card, put a ton of music on it and use POI’s (Points of Interest) locations sets into the memory so that I could see them as I drove along. Things like Circle K Stores, Costco’s and even Walmarts.
Took the unit on a trip to Laughlin and it worked great. However, there were a couple things that really bothered me… #1 when using a route, the current speed is replaced with the Arrival time… I’ve been using the StreetPilot for years to see my speed and this was going to be very hard to get used to. #2 no remote. Just switching to another screen requires you to reach out and touch the device. I didn’t like that. so three weeks after I got the 790 I moved up and gave this one to my wife to use…
Nuvi 885T
I got a Nuvi 885T…… very much like the 790 but with some enhanced features.. #1 It always displays the current speed on the screen. I now have the speed of the vehicle back where I have been used to seeing it for years. It also on major roads puts the speed limit right next to it.
#2 Voice Control. using a button you put on your steering wheel, you can then speak commands to the unit to switch screen, and do functions. This gave back the ability to make changes while driving without the deadly reach out and touch issues.
You can tell it to play music, switch to map view, even get a Weather Radar map from MSN Direct.
It like the 790 has Bluetooth which I use occasionally to link to my phone when driving for handsfree usage, the ability to add a SD card (I again used an 8gb card).
One disappointment with both the 790 and the 885T was the FM Transmitter. It is basically useless. I already had an FM transmitter that I used with a music player in the truck and just plugged the cable from it into both of the Nuvi’s to hear them over the speaker system. With the music player and tons of MP3’s in memory, I get all the music I need while still being able to hear voice directions, Speed Camera alerts, traffic alerts and other info from the unit.
While I left the StreetPilot in my truck most of the time, both of the Nuvi units are taken out when I get out. I used the dash disk for my truck and my wife is using a Garmin BeanBag mount which works really well, much better than I thought it would.
She is on a trip to San Diego right now, giving the Nuvi 790 a whirl right now.
The old faithfull StreetPilot will be a hand me down to one of the kids that don’t already have a GPS in their vehicle.
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