The PhoneBoy Blog » gadgets

Accell UltraAV USB 2.0 to HDMI Video and Audio Adapter

PhoneBoy — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 01:05:29 +0000

Every laptop comes with some method for hooking up to a computer monitor. On PC laptops, it’s a VGA connector. On Macs, it’s whatever version of DisplayPort Apple is using these days. Some might have HDMI ports–heck, phones and tablets certainly do.

Getting a computer hooked up to a modern TV is not nearly the ordeal it used to be. My Visio has a VGA plug on it, making it really easy to hook up to any computer. So one wonder why you might need a device like the UltraAV USB 2.0 to HDMI Adapter from Accell?

The problem with VGA: it’s an analog connection which means you can’t play back any videos with DRM. Also the video may not be as crisp and clear as you might get with a digital connection. You also would need a separate connection for audio. You might also not have a TV with VGA. Or, if you have one of those really thin laptops, no video output ports at all!
This USB 2.0 adapter solves that problem. Every modern computer has at least one USB port (whether it’s free or not is, admittedly, another matter). The device will work with any PC or Mac and includes a driver disc. Unfortunately, my PC laptop has no optical drive, so I opted for downloading them from the provided URL–interestingly not Accell’s site.

I tested the adapter, which was provided to me as part of this review, using a Lenovo X201 laptop and my 40″ Visio TV. Once I loaded the drivers and plugged in the adapter into my laptop, my big screen was now a monitor that Windows could mirror or extend my desktop to. I played a few videos to test the adapter and everything worked as expected.

You can get a UltraAV USB 2.0 to HDMI Adapter from Amazon or other places for $99.99.

Comments

10 December 2011, Accell UltraAV USB 2.0 to HDMI Video and Audio Adapter | Vga Port writes: [...] more: Accell UltraAV USB 2.0 to HDMI Video and Audio Adapter Uncategorizedapple, computer-hooked, display, hdmi, laptop-comes, vga, whatever-version [...]
10 December 2011, You've been Stumbled! writes: [...] You've been Stumbled! [...]

This work originally came from The PhoneBoy Blog and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Fingerprint: e37ac627f3d973694c212ff9430d215a

My Review of the Amazon Kindle Fire

PhoneBoy — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 07:23:38 +0000

I like my iPad 2. I really do. While it’s not perfect, I have a significant investment in the Apple iTunes universe. I could get it with WiFi and 3G. It does most of what I need. In many ways, it is the replacement for my personal computer, even if it does have some restrictions.

So, one wonders, why did I decide to spend a couple hundred more dollars and buy a Kindle Fire? Especially for a device like the iPad, is tied to an ecosystem I am not heavily invested in?

A number of reasons. First of all, the price tag. $199 is quite compelling. It’s the kind of thing I see more people buying than an iPad, which has a minimum entry price of $499. It’s smaller than an iPad: 7 inches instead of 10, which will affect how one might use the device. Third, it is tied to a well-established company with nearly as compelling of an ecosystem as Apple. I have no doubt Amazon will introduce other Kindle Fire-type devices in the future and the first generation Kindle Fire will improve with additional software updates.

So how does the Kindle Fire measure up? Hit the break for my thoughts.

The Hardware

I thought Apple had a pretty minimal hardware design on the iPad with only a volume rocker, a power button, a mute switch, a headphone jack, and the ever-present iPod/iPhone connector. Amazon takes it a step further by eliminating all buttons on the Kindle Fire except for the power, a MicroUSB port, and a headphone jack. This undoubtedly keeps the cost down, but means you have to use the touchscreen for changing the volume, which some reviewers have pointed out may be problematic.

The Kindle Fire, while having a smaller screen, is also a little thicker (11.5mm versus 8.8mm on the iPad 2) and has a plastic back with Kindle embossed in the back rather than the solid aluminium back of the iPad 2. It does have speakers, like the iPad 2, as well as WiFi. No Bluetooth or 3G modem on the Kindle Fire. It also only has 8GB of internal storage (of which about 6GB can be used for applications and content), whereas even the smallest iPad 2 has 16GB (with about 14GB usable).

One advantage the iPad 2 has is that with a 10 inch screen, there is a lot of surface area for battery. Since the Kindle Fire is smaller, there is considerably less surface area for battery. That said, it’s much easier to hold a Fire in one hand. Reports from various reviews are the Fire gets roughly half the battery life of an iPad 2 (5 hours versus 10). I haven’t had a chance to test this yet.

The device comes with a MicroUSB charger. While you can charge using a regular MicroUSB cable connected to a computer,wage Fire will charge considerably slower than if you use the included charger. This is similar to the iPad. The main reason: you need more power to charge those big batteries in a reasonable amount of time. A typical USB port on a computer just won’t cut it. In either case, the power button lights up amber to indicate it is charging and not yet fully charged.

People have complained they’ve accidentally hit the power button at the bottom of the device. I didn’t that find that to be an issie. Theoretically, you can rotate the device so the button is at the top and the software adjusts–at least the built-in apps do. Not all the third party apps do.

While the screen on the Kindle is reported to be “chemically strengthened to be 20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic, making it extra durable and resistant to accidental bumps and scrapes,” you might want to get a Kindle cover anyway. Fortunately there is a huge assortment of Kindle Covers available. Unfortunately, they aren’t much cheaper than their iPad counterparts.

The Software

The Fire is an Android-based tablet, but you may not necessarily know it by looking at it. That’s kind of the point. For most people, it is just a device that let’s them surf the web and consume content from Amazon. The fact it’s an Android device is likely only of interest to a few people.

When you pull it out of the box and power it up, the device asks you about what WiFi access point you want to connect to and not a whole lot else. The device comes activated right in the box. Not so great since the box it ships in says Kindle Fire right on it. Easy to open–it comes in Amazon’s “Frustration Free” packaging–and easy to steal off your doorstep. Fortunately, I was home when it arrived so it didn’t stay on my doorstep long.

The device presented itself with a carousel with all of the apps and content on your device. Scrolling through the content is fairly easy. You can also tap different sections along the top to access your newsstand (magazines, newspapers), books, music, video, documents, applications, and the web browser. There are also shelves you can put your favorite items on by simply holding down on the item in the carousel and selecting Add to Favorites. This interface is similar to coverflow in iTunes, but unique and relatively straightforward to use.

For the different content areas, there is a clear distinction between what is stored in Amazon’s Cloud and what is stored on your local device. For example, the Fire immediately saw all 4000 tracks I uploaded to Amazon’s Cloud Storage and showed me every app I had previously purchased with the Amazon App Store on my Nexus One. While pretty much all content can be streamed from Amazon’s cloud, apps must be locally installed in order to run.

The device has, as you would expect, an on-screen keyboard. It is relatively easy to use, given the device’s small form factor, but the spacebar is widely criticized as being way too small. After a few instances of typing several words separated by dots, I completely agree.

Because the device has no buttons other than the power button, you also have to use the touch screen in order to get to what would be the home, menu, back buttons on a traditional Android device. When you’re in an app, you will see a tiny bar with a carat in the middle of it (or you can touch the screen to see it). From there you can see a home, back, menu, and search button you might find on an Android device.

One unique and somewhat controversial piece of software on the Fire is the web browser called Silk. It is an “accelerated” browser in the sense that it uses the cloud to help render and deliver some of the content to your device. The problem is: it sends some information to Amazon about your browsing habits, though it turns out it’s pretty minimal. Even the Electronic Frontier Foundation was generally satisfied with the privacy of Amazon’s Silk browser. Reports are that in bandwidth constrained situations, it does actually improve things, but on my WiFi at home, it’s about as fast as my iPad at rendering pages.

One other bonus of the browser: it supports Flash. I played a few Flash movies on various websites and found the performance reasonable. This makes more websites accessible but even Adobe is dropping flash support for mobile devices, so it’s really only a temporary situation.

Applications for the device can be purchased from Amazon’s App Store, which is a bit more curated version of Google’s Marketplace. You won’t find every app there, but you will be able to find a lot of most common ones. Amazon also has a “free app of the day” where they make a paid app available for free for 24 hours. I’ve picked up some neat apps that way.

One thing I found somewhat disturbing about the Kindle Fire was how it handled software updates. I knew between the time I ordered the Kindle Fire and the time it arrived, Amazon released a new firmware for the device, so I was expecting a new software version to be available. What I wasn’t expecting is that shortly after I pushed the power button to turn of the screen, my device began to update on its own without warning!

I have two thoughts on this particular behavior: there are some users who would love to beta test updates. Then there are those whom will never choose to update, even if you give them a choice to do so. The device assumes you are one of the latter, which given this is aimed at a general consumer, is probably a safe assumption. I’m not sure how I feel about my device automatically updating on its own, but at least it chose to do it when I was theoretically not using the device. There are users who I’m sure would like some warning their device is about to be updated.

Given that the device comes with a 30 day trial of Amazon Prime, which activated shortly after I turned on the Kindle Fire, I checked out the streaming content available. There’s about 10,000 available for streaming (movies, TV shows, documentaries, etc) and it plays quite nicely on my home WiFi.

My general feeling on the software is that, while not as polished overall as iOS, it is certainly better than your typical Android distribution. With Amazon’s compelling ecosystem, Amazon has created the first real competitor to the iPad in the Kindle Fire.

Families and the Fire

One thing people are often tempted to do with devices like the iPad or Fire is share them amongst family members. I know any time I want to bring out my iPad, my kids beg to play with it.

The problem is that neither the iPad or the Fire were designed to be multi-user devices. There is one set of data, and only one set of data on the device. All those racy ebooks you bought on Amazon? R-rated movies you bought from Amazon Video? Also available on your Fire. And no way to prevent it short of deleting the books from your library, which means you have to repurchase them.

All content you’ve ever looked at is in the carousel, which makes it really easy to find stuff you’ve recently been looking at: Apps, Videos, Web Pages, and more. Unfortunately, if you’ve been reading one of those racy books you don’t want your kids to see, not go great. While some items can be cleaned out of the carousel (Apps, Videos, and Web pages can be cleared out via settings), not everything can and it’d be nice if there was a setting to just not put stuff there. Edit 22 December 2011: In the 6.2.1 release of the firmware, you can now tap and hold down on items in the carousel and manually remove them.

Even Apple gives you some rudimentary controls over content that kids might be able to view or purchase. You can disable access to Safari, the Camera, YouTube, iTunes, and Installing/Deleting apps. You can restrict changes to certain settings, and only permit movies, TV shows, and Apps to those rated below a certain value. You can disable in-app purchases entirely and/or require a password for all purchases. It’s not quite as granular as I’d like–for example I’d like to disable applications individually–but it’s at least something.

The parental controls on the Fire are limited to restricting in-app purchases with a pin. That’s useful, but why not purchases in general? On the plus side, unlike Apple, Amazon emails me right away when something is bought so I can find out if my kids bought something, so it might be a good lesson in responsibility for my kids. Edit 22 December 2011: There is also now a setting in the 6.2.1 firmware to only allow WiFi to be enabled with a password. This effectively restricts access to any purchases and the Internet, but it’s a relatively crude level of control and does nothing to restrict access to content already on the device.

While I am a firm believer that technical parental controls like these are no substitute for proper parental oversight, there’s zero excuse for not providing at least something. That said, a number of the “parental control” problems are addressed by using a free launcher application called Kids Place. You specify the apps that the children can launch from a traditional icon grid. It blocks Marketplace access. It can even force the device into Airplane mode (i.e. turn off WiFi). All other access is protected with a 4-digit PIN protected. It’s not perfect, ~~and not completely intuitive to set up,~~ but it addresses my major complaints.

I’ve read some complaints from people about filtering web access to only kid-friendly content. While I personally handle that on my local WiFi, maybe it’s something Amazon can offer as part of their SILK browser, maybe as a separate paid service (or something included as part of Amazon Prime)?

Customizing the Fire

Because Amazon is using Android on the Kindle Fire (specifically version 2.3), and they’ve not gone to great lengths to lock down the device in the same way Apple has done with the iPhone and iPad, the device has a much greater potential for customization than the iPad. Shortly after the Fire began shipping, Amazon published the source code, which they are required to do as a result of various Open Source licenses in Android. This doesn’t mean their entire software stack is published, but enough that someone could take the Kindle Fire and repurpose it as a general Android tablet. People also figured out how to root the device right away, which is the first step in installing custom firmware.

Even if you’re generally happy with the Fire as-is, maybe you want a bigger selection of apps than is available on the Amazon App Store? Because it is running Android and the ability to install third party apps is supported (touch the gear in the top right, touching More, then Device and enabling the Allow Installation of Applications from Unknown Sources), you can do that. You can download applications from the web or copy them onto your device by connecting your device to a computer with a MicroUSB cable, mounting the device as a USB drive, and copy the files that way.

If you want to want the various Google apps on your Fire (Gmail, Google Maps, etc), including installing the Android Marketplace, it’s a little more complicated than that. You have to do a series of non-trivial steps that most people likely won’t bother to do (I didn’t) but if you simply must have your Google Marketplace apps on your Fire, you can. Edit 22 December 2011: If you let your Kindle Fire upgrade to version 6.2.1, the easy one-click root methods won’t work.

The Verdict

The Kindle Fire is 90% of an iPad 2 for 40% of the cost. It’s a great balance between the curated experience of iOS and the open, free-for-all, highly customizable Android experience. If you haven’t bought an iPad yet and you mostly consume content, this is the tablet for you.

Unfortunately for me, as I said above, I am not as heavily invested in the Amazon ecosystem. I only watch the occasional movie from Amazon. I buy most of my music from iTunes. And I have a considerable investment in iPhone and iPad applications, many of which do not have Kindle Fire (or even Android) equivalents. I also do not necessarily trust that “the cloud” will be there when I need it–especially over WiFi. That’s why I bought an iPad 2 with 64GB and 3G.

More content, more storage (perhaps a MicroSD slot), and more connectivity options (3G, Bluetooth) would go a long way towards making the Fire a more compelling offering for me. That said, I believe the Kindle Fire has a bright future and will provide Apple some real competition against the iPad in a way that no other vendor has been able to do to date.

Comments

9 December 2011, Kindle Fire’s lack of parental controls raises concerns — Tech News and Analysis writes: [...] http://phoneboy.com/3428/my-review-of-the-amazon-kindle-fire Reply or Share [...]

Samsung “Indestructible” MicroSD Cards

PhoneBoy — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 00:09:17 +0000

The folks at MemoryCardZoo.com sent me a Samsung MicroSD card, which various reviewers have said has “amazing levels of durability, being water, magnet, and shock proof.” How do they fare against standard MicroSD cards? Well, I decided to put it to the test and put together a video showing what I did.

WPvideo 1.10

Direct link to video

Comments

8 September 2011, Indestructible SD cards - help me destroy them - Neowin Forums - Page 4 writes: [...] 12-September 07 A video doing the same thing perhaps? (Unless this is you) http://phoneboy.com/...e-microsd-cards ipb.global.registerReputation( 'rep_post_594294444', { app: 'forums', type: 'pid', typeid: [...]
12 September 2011, MJS foto | Webplats » Vattentålig mobil writes: [...] Samsung ”Indestructible” MicroSD Cards (phoneboy.com) [...]

Think Outside Keyboard with iPad

PhoneBoy — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 01:58:23 +0000

I have a habit of keeping older technology around. Just because it’s not new and shiny doesn’t mean it won’t continue to be useful.

Such is what I have found with my Think Outside Stowaway Sierra Bluetooth Keyboard. I bought it back in 2007 to pair with the Nokia N800 tablet. While the Nokia N800 never lived up to its full potential (and given what’s Nokia’s plans are for Meego, one wonder why they bothered to release the N950), the Think Outside Keyboard can still be used with any Bluetooth-enabled Smartphone or, in this case, my iPad 2.

I remembered why I liked this keyboard initially: it’s more or less a full sized keyboard complete with arrow keys. This makes it very easy to type on. It also folds up into a reasonable size, which makes it very portable.

For the sake of argument, I’ve taken some comparison pictures with the Zippy BT-500, which is a portable keyboard I reviewed previously. As you can see, the Zippy keyboard is a smaller keyboard, but the keys are too cramped to type on comfortably. This Think Outside keyboard is definitely better to type on.

The only thing I don’t like about it is that the keyboard is not suitable for using on anything but a flat surface. However, I can’t complain about the cost of this keyboard since I paid for it four years ago. With a fresh battery, it still works pretty good.

Think Outside got acquired by iGo at some point and they’ve stopped selling these or similar keyboards. It’s a shame, because a variant of this keyboard will still sell pretty well today.

RedMere HDMI Cables: Small Cable, Big Picture

PhoneBoy — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 01:32:58 +0000

I don’t normally write about something as mundane as HDMI cables. They’re all the same, right?

RedMere Technolgies makes an active-cable technology that various video cable manufacturers can incorporate into their cables to make them smaller, lighter, and more flexible, yet provide excellent video quality. While that’s certainly nice even for your typical HDTV components, where the thinner cables are really desirable is for portable devices such as mobile phones.

RedMere’s PR agency sent me a couple of cables for my Nokia E7 to review (they didn’t know if I needed an HDMI-C Mini or HDMI-D Micro cable, turned out it needs an HDMI-C). They were RedMere-branded cables, but RedMere themselves doesn’t make cables for sale. These are representative samples of cables you can find for sale from various manufacturers and retailers.

I hooked up my Nokia E7 to my HDTV using both the RedMere-supplied cable as well as a regular HDMI cable connected to my Nokia-supplied adapter. I could not tell the difference between the two cables in terms of video quality, but there’s a clear difference between the thickness and weight of the cables. The RedMere cable clearly wins in terms of portability, being lighter and thinner than even my Micro USB cables I couldn’t imagine putting a regular HDMI cable in my travel bag due to its thickness and size.

There are a number of manufacturers that make cables with RedMere technology inside. If you’re looking for a smaller, thinner HDMI cable, you can’t go wrong with one of these cables.

The iPad 2–What I’ve Been Missing

PhoneBoy — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 00:25:07 +0000

As implied by my review of the Hammerhead case for iPad 2, I am now the proud owner of an iPad. Yes, I successfully resisted the siren call of Steve Jobs long enough. However, a funny thing happened: I spent a few days on the road with Kellman and saw how he used his. That pretty much sold me on the utility of the iPad.

Kellman did a number of really cool things:

Had ubiquitous connectivity thanks to the built-in 3G modem. This isn’t so much of a concern for me when I travel in the US, but when I travel outside the US, it’s very much an issue. The iPad 2 is unlocked so I can easily swap in a SIM card from a different operator. I can also easily sign up for a prepaid data package right from my iPad (though I haven’t tried this yet).
Did a presentation from his iPad. You can get a cable for your iPad that allows you hook up to a VGA projector, use Keynote to give the presentation, and control the presentation with an iPhone! No laptop required!
Accessed a number of computers remotely using LogMeIn Ignition. While this is a rather pricey app at $29.99, it gives you the ability to control any number of PCs or Macs from your iPad using the well-known LogMeIn service without any additional charges. I recently tried this out with my computers and it works well.
Flipboard. I had heard about it, but until I actually saw how it worked with my own eyes, I didn’t really get it. Now I do. It integrates Twitter, Facebook, and a number of news/information sources from the web and presents it in a magazine-based format that is very compelling.

Given the above, the fact I already had a significant investment in the Apple universe (having purchased an iPhone 3GS two years ago and an iPod Touch for the family last year), and the fact that none of the Android tablets I looked at were nearly as compelling, including the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, which is was the closest, I pulled the trigger and bought one. It wasn’t cheap, that’s for sure, especially since I opted for the 64gb version with 3G.

Once I got it home, and given my recent experiences with the Nokia E6 and Nokia E7, I began to understand why people really love the iPad. The software is one aspect, of course. Then again, as an iPhone/iPod Touch owner, I already knew this. What made it more compelling was, quite honestly, the larger screen.

It’s not just to see the content better, though I certainly found that to be one reason to like the iPad. The screen size also enables one to utilize a touch interface either. This point was driven home to me when I was evaluating the Nokia E6 with its small but touch-enabled screen. Having the real estate to actually perform the various touch actions is very important. The iPad has that. In spades.

The other obvious benefit to having a large screen is you can have an even larger battery. 10 hours is quite a lot of battery life. While I haven’t been able to get anywhere near running the battery down, it certainly will last a normal day. Considering I frequently fly to Israel, which takes me almost 24 hours, having a gadget that can last the entire journey without having access to a power plug is certainly desirable. I’m putting this to the test as I type this.

The iPad 2 has both a front-facing and rear-facing camera. The camera quality is nothing to write home about, of course, though I can find uses for this. I have smartphones to capture higher-quality pictures, anyway.

In any case, I am very happy with my iPad purchase. I wish more of the apps I had previously purchased previously were iPad enabled. I had to spend some money to buy iPad-enabled versions of many of the apps I was actively using, which is far preferable to using iPhone apps in the emulation mode.

Comments

11 July 2011, Kyle writes: Good idea to see how a device can be used in the real world but could you have been equally swayed if your buddy was doing cool tricks on an android tablet instead?
11 July 2011, PhoneBoy writes: The bottom line is that Android, at least in the tablet space, has not proven itself yet. I did see a Galaxy Tab 10.1 up close and personal. The hardware was excellent, in some ways better than the iPad 2. The applications, at least the ones I saw, were also pretty good. There wasn't enough of them, or at least enough of the right ones. Also, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 did not have an integrated 3G modem. While it's not something I will use that much traveling domestically, it is something I plan to use when traveling Internationally.
12 July 2011, Ed writes: After I posted previously on your phone entry, I purchased the Galaxy Tab 10.1 the day it came out. I thought it was great to see it the same size and weight as the iPad2, and Live wallpapers are neat for a bit, and of course the messaging is excellent. I really struggled on Apps. iPad has an excellent refined interface, with plenty to choose from. Android (Honeycomb) has a good interface, but awful at app selection. Some of the Apps that came up were in Chinese, or incredibly cheesy, making the experience very ho-hum. Not to mention that when Android hangs a bit, or the screen doesn't come up properly, my instant reaction is that it's cheap, and not in the same class as the iPad. I've had a few issues on iPad, but the slick clean interface is the best. My stance is that right now, iPad is the best, and one google figures out how to pull everything together on one platform, one OS - then the real competition starts.
12 July 2011, PhoneBoy writes: The Android ecosystem is not tablet-friendly yet. This is the conclusion I came to. I have no doubt they will catch up like they did (mostly) on phones but it will take time.

Hammerhead Hard Shell Case for iPad 2

PhoneBoy — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 21:49:25 +0000

I recently bought myself an iPad 2. While that topic in and of itself is worthy of a blog post, at the moment I’ll focus on the fact that needed a case for it.

The obvious choice would be the Apple’s Smart Cover. While I’ve seen them in action, the main issue I have with them is they only cover the screen. They don’t necessarily cover the rest of the iPad. The fact it wakes and sleeps your iPad is nice. $40 for a piece of polyurethane and magnets (or $70 for leather) was a bit spendy.

When I was looking in Target yesterday, the only thing that looked like it might work was a case from Speck, more specifically the PixelSkin HD Wrap for iPad 2. I didn’t like it. The case was too hard to get on and the screen cover was not easy to fold up for propping up on a table (or holding for that matter). Really didn’t like it.

Fortunately, when I got home, I found a Hammerhead iPad 2 Hard Shell Case had arrived at my house. Katie, a PR rep from Sommerfield Communications, sent it over to review. It was very easy to get on my iPad 2. The cover easily folds up for either horizontal, vertical, or slated use. The cover turns the iPad screen on and off when it closes just like the Smart Covers. And the price through Amazon with free shipping? $39.99! A better case for the money, if you ask me.

So you can see the case in action, I took a couple of shots of my iPad with the case in various conditions. I’m very happy with this case and, had it been available at Target, I would have bought it instead of the Speck.

Comments

13 July 2011, Ed Gardner writes: Dameon, Wise choice on avoiding the "Smart" Cover (I only refer to it by that name ironically). I had my iPad2 for only two days before an obvious failure of magnetism sent the device in a slow motion fall to a tile floor. Ok maybe, it wasn't in slow motion, but it sure felt that way when it was happening... The result was a crushed corner and completely shattered screen. When I explained to Apple care what happened, they quickly offered to take the cover back and replace the iPad. Seeing as this is completely against their warranty policy, I can only assume there must be a know issue with these covers and their apparent ability to forgo the laws of physics. I then opted for an all leather Cygnett case that appropriately covers and protects my replacement iPad's back, hiding its glaring lack of the quite appropriate personalized inscription that read "Don't Panic." -- Miss you my friend, Ed
14 July 2011, PhoneBoy writes: No cover is perfect. The problem with the iPhone covers as been that they scratch the back of the device (or at least they did with the 3GS). That said I'd rather have the overall protection.

My Review of the Hidden Stuffle from Timbuk2

PhoneBoy — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 14:49:20 +0000

Originally submitted at Timbuk2

A super-compressible duffle that folds up teeny.

Hidden Stuffle

Amazing Roomly, but Pack It Lightly

By PhoineBoy from Gig Harbor, WA on 6/29/2011

Pros: Lightweight

Best Uses: Traveling

Describe Yourself: Practical, Career

Primary use: Business

Was this a gift?: No

Keep in mind this is a makeshift bag, so it is lighter than an ordinary suitcase. That said, once unfolded from its relatively small pouch, it makes a nice-sized duffle bag that can easily be used to offload lighter items. If you’re going to use it to store items with sharp edges and check the bag, you will want to wrap the items in something softer (e.g. clothing) so as not to accidentally puncture the bag when subjected to mishandling by airline luggage folks.

(legalese)

My Review of the Hidden Messenger from Timbuk2

PhoneBoy — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 14:37:36 +0000

Originally submitted at Timbuk2

A messenger that hides inside your messenger.

Hidden Messenger

Does Job, Albeit with Some Limitations

By PhoneBoy from Gig Harbor, WA on 6/29/2011

Pros: Lightweight , Comfortable

Cons: Too small

Best Uses: Airplane travel , Day Trips

Describe Yourself: Career, Practical

Was this a gift?: No

For what the bag is, it does the job, but you have to be aware of some of the limitations.

1. Since this bag is meant to be a makeshift bag that folds into a pouch, it lacks any sort of structure or padding. If you, say, use it for a small laptop (or an iPad), you may want to add your own padding (e.g. a towel or something else).

2. Since the bag is a messenger, smaller items can leak out the top of the bag if you’re not careful.

3. The unit I received (a menthol colored one) already had some stains on it. The bag is also, due to its light color, relatively transparent. I didn’t think it was problematic enough to return, but clearly there were some quality issues in the manufacture of these bags.

4. One should be careful not to store heavy, pointy items in this bag long-term given that it is relatively thin.

That said, I found the bag to be very useful on my last trip. I can put all of the things I am likely to need on a flight in there and not have to break into my larger carryon bag.

(legalese)

AVS GEAR Zippy BT-500

PhoneBoy — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 08:00:28 +0000

Over the years, I’ve reviewed a number of keyboards. Today’s entry is from AVS Gear: The Zippy BT-500. Their PR agency sent me a unit to review.

Here you can see it on my 17″MacBook Pro. The keyboard is relatively small and has kickstands on the bottom to raise the keyboard. It is reasonably sturdy and provides one feature I had not seen in a bluetooth keyboard before: the ability to pair with up to six different devices and easily and quickly switch between devices!

I set up three different laptops (running both Windows and Mac OS X) as well as my iPhone 3GS. With a press of a couple of buttons, I was able to easily switch between all of the devices. There is a few seconds of delay when you switch, but that is understandable given what is happening.

My only real complaint with this keyboard is the same complaint I have with all smaller keyboards: they are difficult to actually type on for any length of time. The layout is also somewhat challenging. I find myself hitting the up arrow when I want to press the right shift key. I also find I miss the spacebar key more often than usual. Maybe I simply need to work with it and get used to it.

If you travel with multiple devices and you need a portable keyboard, this device is what you want. It’s a good deal for $49.99, though I’m sure you can get it for a couple bucks cheaper if you shop around.

Cases, Cases

PhoneBoy — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 18:12:17 +0000

I received a MacBook sleeve and a iPhone 4 keyboard to review. They are both essentially cases. Let me explain.

The MacBook sleeve, in this case, is a 17″ SeeThru Satin case made by Speck that GearZap sent me. It’s black and covers my mid-2009 era MacBook Pro quite nicely. It feels good, is “see thru” in the sense that the glowing Apple shows through on the top and the blinking power light. I haven’t battle-tested it with a trip anywhere, but I suspect it will hold up quite nicely.

Meanwhile, I also got a TypeTop Swivel Mini Keyboard for iPhone4 from Mobile Fun. The tiny keyboard, about as thin as an iPod Touch and as big around as an iPhone 4, comes in a case that can carry both the iPhone and the keyboard together. The case can swivel around so that it looks almost like a mini laptop!

Unfortunately, I still don’t have an iPhone 4, so I cannot try this case as was intended. However, I can say the keyboard paired nicely with my iPhone 3GS. The lack of instructions on how to pair the keyboard was annoying, but it didn’t take long to figure out. Just a little tiny button at the top of the keyboard by the blue light.

Even without the case, the keyboard, which can be easily removed from the case, is small enough that it could easily go in my travel bag. It charges with an included MicroUSB cable.

The Cisco Valet: Easy Setup, but is it Secure?

PhoneBoy — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 19:46:08 +0000

A PR firm representing Cisco asked me if I wanted to review the Cisco Valet, which is a line of “surprisingly simply home wireless” devices that, I have to say, does what it says on the tin. It is by far the easiest setup process I’ve seen.

The first thing I noticed was the packaging. A complete lack of technical jargon or marketing about how this router compares to the others they sell. There most technical things on the box are in small print and are just basically a list of system requirements and a warning that, due to a number of factors, your wireless speeds and range may vary.

When I did the initial setup, I used my Mac–usually a stumbling block for these so-called “easy setup” programs. The Easy Set Up key is little more than a Flash drive that contains some documentation and the Cisco Connect application. Launching the Cisco Connect gives you a screen that tells you to do do three things:

Plug the router into your Internet connection
Plug the router into your power
Click next

In less than the five minutes it tells you it could take, I had a screen that told me my router was set up and I was connected to it. Sweet! You could, of course, do some additional configuration of the router. A very simple interface is presented for doing this (click image for larger view):

The add device option gives you the settings you need to configure a device. Obviously, it’s going to vary by device manufacturer. Once it has detected the device has connected, you can then “name” the device for later. Handy!

I didn’t mess with the parental controls–I almost never find them granular enough for my tastes. However, it appears they do some category-based URL filtering and allow you to blacklist sites. The problem is the restrictions are per-host, meaning you have to select the individual hosts that you wish to restrict. You also can’t whitelist sites or create a default URL filtering policy that applies to all connected hosts. That said, it’s more functionality than I’ve seen in a typical consumer router.

The guest access feature is quite handy as well. Cisco Valet creates a second (open) SSID that your guests can use to access the Internet. It is segmented off from your regular wireless network and presents a captive portal to your guests, whom must enter a password before they are allowed access to the Internet:

Of course, you can disable this feature as well.

When the router is first configured, the SSID is set to a random adjective-noun word combination and the password is set to a 10 character random string. In the Valet Settings, you can change these things to something. You can also save this to the Easy Setup Key (or create a new one using any standard USB thumb drive) that will allow you easily configure other Mac or Windows computers in your house with the correct wireless settings.

And, of course, there’s the Advanced Settings, which fires up a web browser with a typical Linksys-style web interface for configuring the router (though it is entirely Cisco-branded now). This is where the geek settings are, of course, and are, “advanced.” I’m sure given the relatively ease through which computers can be added and the basic settings can be configured, there will rarely be a reason for most people to ever visit the advanced settings.

But Is It Secure?

Most reviews stop here. They are quite happy that someone has finally come up with a wireless router that almost anyone with even rudimentary computer knowledge could configure and use. That is a feat worthy of praise, no doubt.

I am not most people. I wonder, in the back of my mind, does Cisco make this device easy to use, yet actually make it secure? The answer is not surprising–to me at least.

First, it’s probably worth pointing out that I work for a competitor to Cisco: Check Point Software Technologies. We don’t compete in the consumer market, really, but we certainly in the enterprise network security market. That doesn’t affect my opinions here, but I figure I should disclose that since some might consider it a conflict of interest.

Prior to proceeding with the setup wizard, I saw what the router was broadcasting by default–a WPA-protected access point named CiscoXXXXX (where XXXXX corresponded to the last 5 digits of the device serial number). My guess is the router is preconfigured with some default WPA password that the Cisco Connect software then changes to something else, which it then tells you after the setup is complete.

Cisco gets props on a number of things security related:

Choosing a random network name (SSID)–most manufacturers use a known default
Configuring WPA as a default
Choosing a random password that contains numbers, upper and lower case letters, and special symbols

All three of these things are good. By choosing a random SSID and a random password, it makes it harder for someone to brute-force (i.e. guess every possible password) access to the wireless access point.

While these are far better than what I’ve seen from others, it’s, unfortunately, not enough. To be relatively safe from a brute-force attempt, the passphrase needs to be at least 20 characters–random ones at that. Also, it defaults to WPA/WPA2 mixed mode, which allows you to use the TKIP, which may be needed for some legacy hardware, is not the most secure. You can change to WPA2, which only supports AES. It would be nice if you could change the rekey interval, but I don’t see a way to do that from the advanced settings.

There are a couple of other dangerous settings enabled by default:

Universal Plug and Play is enabled by default (which, when paired with malware, could easily make your computers more vulnerable to attacks)
WMM Support (in the QoS section) which, when enabled, makes your network a little more susceptible to hacking when WPA (not WPA2) is enabled.

The Nintendo DS Factor

One rather common WiFi-enabled device in any household with children is the Nintendo DS. This device does not support WPA at all. Even the newer DSi, which does support WPA, doesn’t support it for DS games. This means, if you want your kids to be able to use the WiFi features of their DS games, they won’t be able to use them unless you use WEP for your wireless security, which is not recommended.

This is, in my opinion, one big disappointment with the Cisco Valet. There is no way to allow a Nintendo DS to use the Guest wireless without using WEP. They could very easily allow the whitelisting of certain MAC addresses to be allowed to access the Guest wireless (which is open, unencrypted, and will work with the DS) without requiring web-based captive portal authentication.

Other Minor Gripes

The Cisco Connect software allows you to configure items that cannot be configured with the Advanced Settings interface, namely the Guest wireless access. I would like to be able to change the default IP range used for the Guest wireless and, possibly, whitelist certain machines as I described above.

By default, the router administration password the same as the WPA password. This does make it easier for end users, but I think you should be able to set them independently in the Cisco Connect software.

I also do not see a way through the Cisco Connect software to upgrade the firmware for my router. This is a necessary, sometimes daunting task, especially given the number of hardware variations that can exist even with the same model. There’s no reason Cisco couldn’t have made this process as simple as they’ve made everything else–push a button and it takes care of the rest.

And, of, course, my security gripes above. While they went a lot farther than I’ve seen other manufacturers go, they could have gone just a little farther in choosing more secure defaults, possibly with an optional “security settings” page so you don’t have to hunt in the Advanced Settings interface to make the wireless connectivity more secure.

All in all, though, I am very impressed with the product. I could easily see myself recommending this product to my non-technical friends and family as a dirt simple way to share their Internet connection and create their own personal wireless hotspot.

The only people I cannot recommend this product to are Linux users who lack a Windows or Mac machine on which to run the Cisco Connect software. Since the initial setup of this router cannot happen without the Cisco Connect software, which does not run on Linux, your “out of the box” experience will be less than fulfilling. You only need the software the first time, of course, but you might be better off with a Linksys-branded router.

So yes, Cisco did it. They made WiFi easy for normal people to set up. Using the Easy Setup Key, I set up four different Windows computers with my Cisco Valet settings in a matter of minutes. It was drop-dead simple. I wish they spent a little more time on the security side of things, but this is a tough one to do without making things more inconvenient for users. Given what Cisco was aiming for here, I think they nailed it.

Comments

13 February 2011, The Cisco Valet: Easy Setup, but is it Secure? - Wireless Network News writes: [...] Cisco Valet: Easy Setup, but is it Secure? The PhoneBoy Blog / 29th Jan 2011 Nintendo [...]

Streaming Movies Should Cost 99 Cents

PhoneBoy — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 01:36:23 +0000

Seeing as I was planning to go see the new Tron: Legacy movie today (I did–it was pretty good IMO), I figured it’d be a good idea to refresh my memory and watch the orignal. I vaguely remember seeing the movie at the Drive-In when I was a youth, but I probably fell asleep during it and didn’t actually watch much of it.

I tried to find the movie and I stumbled across the complete movie on YouTube–in HD no less. I added the private YouTube channel to my Roku box and fired up the movie, which I watched with my wife and my son. Even though I warned him this movie was released nearly 30 years ago, my son was appalled at the graphics. He was also generally bored by the movie, though he thought Tron: Legacy was a lot better.

In any case, this is the first time I had really had a chance to “show off” the Roku box to my wife. The default Netflix channel was there and I explained how it worked and that, for $8 a month, we could watch as many movies as we wanted whenever we wanted.

Her problem: she rarely has time to watch anything–certainly not enough to make $8/mo worthwhile. She’d rather do a pay-as-you-go.

So I showed her the Amazon channel. I flipped through the movie selection. The movies varied in price, of course, but she balked when she saw it cost $1.99 (or a lot more, in some cases) to rent something.

Her comment: it should only cost $0.99 to rent a movie. At that price point, it’s worth renting a movie once in a while. Anything more than that just isn’t worth it.

I have to say, there’s something magical about that $0.99 price point. I can’t tell you how many applications I’ve purchased on iTunes at that price point. There are a few games I’ve never played that I bought precisely because it dropped down to $0.99 (from a much higher price point).

I would have happily paid $0.99 to watch Tron via Amazon or some other service. I couldn’t even buy the movie on DVD since Disney decided to let the DVD go out of print. Instead, I watched it on YouTube. For free. And the new movie? Can easily be had on Bittorrent. For free.

When will the content rights holders realize free is their true competition? Instead of working against Redbox and Netflix–two companies who clearly understand how people want to consume content and what they’re willing to pay–work with them. You’ll have a lot more people consuming the content and you’ll make a lot more money.

Power PC Ubuntu Mini (Formerly Mac Mini)

PhoneBoy — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 08:17:35 +0000

I finally made my old Power PC-based Mac Mini useful. I installed the latest fUbuntu release on it, which even though the makers of Ubuntu don’t officially support, works reasonably well.

Of course, you get a lot less “non free” software since Power PC on Linux is even more of a bastard stepchild than Linux on Intel. I also have to give up Google Chrome/Chromium since it only runs on Intel or ARM hardware.

Even so Ubuntu seems a lot more snappy than OS X Tiger seemed to be.

Roku: Bringing Internet Content To Your TV

PhoneBoy — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 08:18:46 +0000

Over the years, I’ve read about a number of devices that bring content from the Internet to your TV. I even bought a device last year that let me watch movies compressed on a computer on my TV. It never worked quite right and it finally gave up the ghost recently.

Having recently obtained a sizable Amazon.com gift certificate–enough to cover the cost of a Roku XD|S–I took the plunge. Today, Ingot it in the mail. Here’s the unboxing pics:

Hooking it up to my TV (a 20 year old 19 inch RCA) was a snap. Even though my TV lacks composite jacks, I already have an external device that provides this. The minute I plugged it in, the device began booting. Shortly after, I was walked through the WiFi setup and the rest of the activation process, which did not take terribly long.

You do need to be near a computer to activate your Roku as you have to create a Roku account to associate it with. In order to use certain channels on your Roku, you also need to associate your Roku with the relevant accounts (e.g. Netflix, Pandora) one time. Fortunately, I was able to do most of this from my iPhone as the activation process (entering a short code into a website) is generally pretty painless.

To be honest, I haven’t had a lot of time with the box yet, though I did spend some time with it last night, trying various free content, including Hulu Plus and TWiT (no, I didn’t activate any of the free trials yet). I also tried watching video off the USB port, which worked provided the video was encoded in the right format (MP4 or MKV encoded for Apple products (i.e. with H.264)). Note that as of yet, there isn’t an “official” channel on Roku to watch content off a USB drive, but I find the “unofficial” USB channel mentioned in Roku’s FAQ to work nicely.

Since this is a streaming player, you have to have a decent Internet connection for this (5-7mb/s connection). If you’re doing it wireless, you definitely want an N series router if you’re doing HD content (I’m not, at least not as of this writing). After selecting the show I wanted to watch, I had to wait several seconds for the show to begin streaming before it would start playing. Playback was very smooth. You could also rewind/fast forward with a seeking delay.

I found the device relatively easy to use, but I think there are a few things they could do to improve it. The most obvious one to me: add a queue so you can select various shows to watch in the different channels and then watch them one right after the other without having to navigate to the different channels. It would also be nice if I could modify the channels on my Roku from the computer. You can add “private” channels (and here’s a nice list of the ones known to exist), but there’s no way to see what you’re subscribed to or remove channels.

One thing the device lacks that I find truly annoying: an off switch–either on the device itself or on the remote. It probably wouldn’t have cost THAT much to do it. Because of the way the device hooks into my TV, I have to either unplug it or partially unhook it from the TV to prevent it from completely taking over my TV.

All-in-all, I’m pretty happy with the Roku. It does more or less what it says on the tin and it’s not terribly complicated to use. Certainly, the price is right.

Comments

28 November 2010, tom writes: i tend to find these sort of boxes quite uninteresting. i have not had a TV(i do have monitor i watch movies on) for over a decade and that may be part of it. but the other part is that it is just disappointing that these boxes do not have better general purpose web browsers in them. i believe there is a sizable part of the population that would be better served getting there web content from something other than a general purpose computer. especially i am thinking of the people who own computer they they are often unable to use because of viruses or sometimes just totally screwed up settings. they have laptops they bought for the single purpose of getting on the web but they are in the service shop more often than not. i know all about this as the owner of a small computer shop. many of these same people like to attach there laptop or desktop computers to their TV's for a larger screen experience. a small box that attached to there TV and had a wireless keyboard and a full blown web browser would be perfect for many people.
30 November 2010, PhoneBoy writes: We used to have this kind of box. It was called WebTV, and as I recall, it failed miserably. It was before it's time, maybe. You can use a Wii as a sort of WebTV box. You can hook up a USB keyboard and download a web browser (from Opera, I think) from the Wii store. It used to be $5 but I think it's free now. I set up a friend with this kind of setup a couple years back (before they could afford a computer). Between the lack of resolution on a standard definition TV and general deficiencies in the web browser, it was not the most compelling experience, but it worked in a pinch. It even let you see YouTube videos, as I recall. You can turn any PC-based computer into a "general web browsing computer" by booting off an Ubuntu CD (or other Linux distro). You don't have to worry about something nasty coming in as the session vanishes when you shut down the computer. The closest thing to a maintenance-free computer right now is the iPad. It does require a periodic visit to iTunes, though, which I find to be the most disappointing "feature" by a longshot. The only other problem: cost.
1 December 2010, tom writes: i agree that iPad should need a computer for updates and activation. i actually think the cost is not all that bad. i have somewhat high hopes for google upcoming chromeOS. but i am not sure netbook size machines are the correct format. i know lots of people who want trouble free web browsing machine but also want a large screen. i would love to see chromeOS in 15 to 17 in. format laptops that are thiner and lighter than current model and have longer battery life. i believe it wold be a winner. i also believe it will not happen. why i believe it will not happen? they would take sales from more complete and expensive laptops. keeping machines netbook sized will limit appeal and therefore keep chromeOS from grabbing market share away from what windows machines that may be more profitable.

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