Well, I just decided to do an update check on my iphone and nothing, tried 5 minutes later and it said 2.2 is available.. it’s installing as I type.

One of the features I’m most looking forward to is the Google Street View.

Two other good ones are the option to turn off the auto-correct and hitting the home button from any page on the home screen will take you to the first page.

I’ll post back after I play with it for a little while and check out the stability.

This ‘Netbook’ is just awesome, it’s very quick, has wireless, USB, external monitor, 1.6Ghz Atom processor, 160GB HD and 1Gig of RAM.

The version I got comes with XP pre-loaded on it, but the main reason I got it is that it’s a very good candidate for loading OSX86 on it.

I’ll post more details on that later, but long story short is that I now have a fully functional dual boot between Windows XP and Mac OSX Leopard 10.5.5!

Leopard is an AMAZING OS so if you’re going to research and do this project, PLEASE go out and buy a copy of Leopard… technically you’re not supposed to load it on any machine other than an Apple machine and you’ll still have to download a hacked version, but at least pay for the operating system.

Here’s an embeded video I posted on YouTube to show how it runs on my machine:

Here are some links to some of the tutorials I followed:

Battery and Audio source auto-switching now work… see this post:
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.ph…

OSX86 install:
http://forum.insanelymac.com/lofivers…

Cracking it open to replace the wireless card:
http://www.aspireoneuser.com/forum/vi…

Dual boot with Windows:
http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/ind…

Some of the changes in the new firmware

• Improved signal strength
• Wipe of all data if wrong passcode is entered 10 times
• Faster backup times
• Better stability
• Speed improvements
• Push improvements
• Security improvements
• And more…

I haven’t installed it yet so I can’t comment on the update from a personal view, but I’ve been over at the forums on MacRumors and people have mixed reviews about some of these improvements.

There are some people saying that the signal strength hasn’t changed, they just changed the rating.
For instance (this was one example in the forums) if you have 3 bars before the update, you’ll have 5 bars now.. but there won’t really be any reception increase, it’s just visual.

As far as the backup times, stability, speed, etc… From what I’ve read, those have all seemed to have improved significantly.

I have a 1st gen iPhone (waiting for a proper GPS app before upgrading) so I can’t test the 3G stuff for myself, but I will post back with my review of the other changes later today or tomorrow.

One tip I did see is to put your phone in ‘Field Test’ mode to look at the actual signal strength vs just the bars. You may want to do this before and after the update to see if there really is any change.

Please post comments related to your experience with the update.

I love both machines, but the Macbook is severly under utilized. The only time I use the laptop is when I go out of town or my wife or I may use it if the other one is on the main machine.

I wanted to get a cheap laptop and sell the Macbook to put some money toward bills, in comes the Presario F700 series…

First I looked on Craigslist to see what was available, then I checked online and local stores and they were all a little more than I wanted to spend. Craigslist had some in my range, but for really old ones.

Then I stopped by Frys on the way home from work and the had the Compaq Presario F763nr for sale for $400 and the specs are not bad:

• 1.9 Ghz AMD Dual Core Athlon X2 (64 bit)
• 1 Gig RAM
• 120 Gig HD
• 15″ XGA screen
• 802.11 b/g
• Ethernet and modem
• 3 USB ports, VGA & Svideo out and multi-card reader built in
• Vista Home (only negative I saw)

Needless to say it sounds like a pretty damn good Linux box, so I picked it up.

My wife checks her hotmail, uses Office to do some bills and word processing and browses the web on the laptop. She doesn’t really care if she uses Windows or Mac, but I didn’t want her to have to learn the differences with Linux.

So I repartitioned the drive in Vista and installed Ubuntu 8.04, I decided to do the dual boot so my wife could use Windows and I could use Ubuntu.

The only things not working out of the box were the wireless card and display drivers. I fixed the display drivers by adding the Nvidia drivers via the software install tool.

For the wireless I followed the info at this link.

Now the machine is fully functional, everything works great and it SCREAMS in Ubuntu. I’m figuring I can get around $800 - $900 for the Macbook and I have no doubt I’ll be very happy with the Presario in its current configuration.

So I’m one of the lucky few who got the Wii Fit… yes I like and yes it works.

There’s one activity in the game that is synchronized boxing.
Basically you throw punches and step an a particular pattern.

It’s a very good exercise, but the problem is that sometimes the cable to the nunchuck gets wrapped around my hand.
Then when I flick my hand to clear the cable, it thinks I’m throwing another punch.

Then I read about the Nyko Wireless Nunchuck and stopped on the way home to grab one… here’s the resulting review.

First of all, it’s pretty slick how it works.

It comes with a little transceiver that connects to the bottom of the Wii remote.
After a quick pairing, you’re ready to go.

I tried it briefly with Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 (’cause that’s what was in the console) and it worked great!

No wires, it was very responsive and was perfect in combination with the Nyko Perfect Shot I got a few weeks ago.

I popped out the MOH game and popped in the Wii Fit game, loaded up the boxing exercise and had at it!

At first it was great, seemed to be just like the wired one… but after a while I was missing punches thrown from the nunchuck.

The punches were either missed or delayed, I quickly started to realize that it wasn’t as responsive as the wired one. To be honest I’m not sure if it’s the fact that it’s wireless, the motion sensor isn’t as good as the wired one, or what.

All in all for something like MOH, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, etc… where you’re using the nunchuck to control your character, it seems to work great!

For something like the boxing that needs to be responsive, it’s lacking.

I wouldn’t say don’t get it, in fact for most things I would recommend it, but I wouldn’t ditch the wired one just yet either.

Well it came (no I haven’t done the review yet), popped the SIM out of my iPhone and popped it into the HiPhone to play with it.

I put in the settings for SMS, WAP, etc… but it was late so I took the SIM back out, put it back in the iPhone and crashed.

The next morning I went to send an SMS from the iPhone, everything looked good, but the recipient never got it. I tried multiple people on multiple services and none of them got it either, I could get SMS but not send.

I went on the AT&T online support line and they basically just pointed my to an Apple iPhone troubleshooting page. I tried all the suggestions there, including a hard reset, and nothing worked.

I called them back today and got an Apple guy, 45 minutes later he transferred me to an AT&T rep, about 20 minutes later she transferred me to a tech support rep, about 20 - 30 minutes later she told me to take it to an AT&T store.

Frustrated I asked her to give me the SMS Message Center Number… I won’t list it here ’cause if it doesn’t work for you I don’t want to be responsible for hosing your device. Just call support and they should freely give it to you.

I did a little searching on Google and found the code to put that number into the phone. I did a reset and… bingo, I was back in business!

Call tech support for the Message Center Number, once you get it use this code on your iPhone:
*5005*7672*+NNNNNNNNNNN# - NNNNNNNNNNN = the message center number.

That got it working for me, HTH!

Since I found out about this little gem I can’t stop reading about it and see it everywhere I look. There’s WAY too much to list about it, so I won’t go into details until I get my review up, but here’s a Google link so you can read until your hearts content.. or you get sick.

It’s supposed to be the best iPhone clone out there, but I wanted to see if it could even come close to my beloved iPhone so I just ordered one to play with.

It’ll be here in a week or so, so after I play with it for a while I’ll write up a review.. should be interesting.

– Update –
Ok, I just got an email that it’s on the way.

I’m guessing it will probably be here by Monday, so hopefully around Wednesday I’ll put up the review.

Update: Apple has just posted a link to the ‘March 6 Event’ .

 This post has a really quick rundown of the conference Apple held today about the SDK.

• The SDK is available for download from iPhone Developer Program link. 
• The third party apps will require iPhone version 2, being release in June 2008
• The applications will be distributed through the iTunes store and there will be a mobile version.
• Developers will set the price and get 70%
• Free apps will be available and there will not be any charge at all (to developers or end users) for free apps.
• Developments will be done through an updated version of Xcode
• You need at least 10.5.2 on an Intel Mac for the SDK (not confirmed).
• VoIP apps will be allowed over WiFi but not EDGE.
• Apple will not allow any apps with high network usage, pornographic content, potentially dangerous code, etc..

There is a lot more info at the Apple iPhone Developer Connection so head on over there (link above) and check it out.

I installed it and so far the only updates i’ve heard about (through Macrumors) are:

1. Faster camera - Definitely faster on my phone
2. Bluetooth Connectivity improved - looking forward to testing this in my car
3. Safari tabs don’t go to white screen when switching - This would be nice as well

I’m in the camp that believes the firmware is just a prep firmware for the SDK and iPhone applications to be released so I’m HOPING that’ll be this week.

I got to work and went to make a call and the phone is BURNING hot and totally locked up.

I powered it down until it cooled off and then powered it back up and the battery was almost totally drained… it’s charging now and seems to function OK.

I don’t want to deal with a faulty battery, so I made an appointment at the Apple store, hopefully I can get a replacement. I’ll post back with the results.

Update:

So I just got back from the Apple store and they said since they couldn’t recreate it at the store there’s nothing they can do for me. They said if it happens again come back and they may be able to do a replacement at that point… bummer..

Just came accross this article that states that in August ‘06 Apple filed for some patents related to AppleTV that would allow for widgets to be displayed with the video.

Apparently some of these widgets would allow for additional content, interactivity and even iChat capabilities, etc… cool stuff!

You can read the whole article at AppleInsider.

The price of the existing models remains the same.

I LOVE my iPhone and I do run through the 8GB from time to time, but if I’m going to upgrade I think I’ll hold out for the iPhone 2 at the end of the year.

What I’m REALLY looking forward to is the 3rd party apps and the Leopard 10.5.2 update… but I’m very patient.

Just about every product they come out with, or announce, I want to get.

Even with all its limitations I considered running out and getting an AppleTV, I didn’t, I thought about it.

The MacBook Air is the first Apple product in a long time that I just really don’t want.

Don’t get me wrong, it looks really slick and the screen is beautiful. I can’t by any means say it’s a bad machine, it’s just got some limitations that I’ve dealt with before on “ultra-portable laptops”.

The biggest thing for me is no optical drive.
I had a laptop a couple of years ago that had no optical drive (external one), and it was just flat out a pain in the ars.
Sure they play it up that you don’t need it ’cause it has built in 802.11n and they have a way for you to access your drive on another machine (which, you could do before anyway), but for me that won’t cut it.

I deal with a lot of people and a lot of people still give me things on CD / DVD, I don’t want to wait until I get home to load these up, especially if it’s business related.

Then there are CDs and movies. Granted most of my media is ripped, but the thing only has an 80 gig drive on it, so it’s not like I’ll be able to store my whole library on there. Plus, because I don’t like to deal with DRM, I still buy CDs and DVDs and then rip those, so I wouldn’t be able to do that on the road.

No Firewire
I do some multimedia stuff, so most of my external drives are Firewire, I guess enough said about that one.

No Ethernet
Uhh.. did I miss something? Is there no Ethernet port on this thing?

Don’t get me wrong, for the right person this might be a SWEET device, but for me it’s just not going to cut it.

Until the entire world is covered by WiFi, or until they add the ability to get on the cell network, I think the device is just way too limiting.

I’ll just stick with my “old school” MacBook.

There are a few reasons I decided to do this and I’m actually happy I did, I personally like the Wii better than the 360.
I’m not even going to write anything about the PS3 as I’ve never tried one.

This is by no means a 360 bash, and I’m sure I’ll get a lot of flack.. but here it goes.
Just keep in mind this is not a recommendation, just my story.

First of all, I’ve been a gamer since back in the day, the first game system I ever played on was the Odyssey.
This thing was the shiznit back then!

It was so basic it didn’t even have any background, it just had these sheets of plastic that you stuck to the screen.
For instance I remember this one car racing game and the track was a sheet that you stuck to you TV by static cling.
It’s cheesy by today’s standards, but it was bad ARS back then!

Ok, so now that I’ve dated myself, let’s get on with it.

First, I have a 21 month old son, so I don’t have enough time to play to get good enough to survive more than 1 minute when playing online.
Because of that, Xbox Live was not a factor for me.

I’m sick of First Person Shooters, I’m sick of racing games, I’m sick of games that look beautiful but are lame or ridiculously easy to beat.
I would DEFINITELY sacrifice visual quality for rich, in depth, intriguing gameplay.

First of all I must say that, for the most part, the 360 games look AWESOME!
There are a few games out there that just don’t take advantage of the power of the console and that’s really a shame. They’re like rehashed Xbox games.

Speaking of rehashing, a LARGE portion of the games out there are just the same old story lines, same old games just much better graphics.
Take two games I was REALLY excited about for instance - Gears of War and Halo3.
Both of these games are basically using a theme that’s been around since the original Doom - A space marine fighting aliens.

Yes I know that they weren’t really aliens in DOOM, more like minions of hell and in GoW and Halo3 they’re not “Space Marines”, but come on.. it’s the same basic story line.
Both those games are cool, but I’m just bored with the same old rehashed story.

That being said, there are some really lame games for Wii as well.

What I LOVE about the Wii is the controller, even if you’re an Xbox or PS fanboy/fangirl you’ll have to admit that’s the best designed controller ever.

Before I got the Wii I read a lot of complaints about the graphics on an HDTV.
I have it hooked to my HDTV and it looks GREAT, yes it’s not as good as the 360 but still looks pretty damn good!

What sold me on the Wii is two points:
1. It’s family-centric
2. It has unique games

Family-centric was very important for me as my little guy grows. Plus this is the only game system I’ve ever been able to get my wife to play with me on!!
There are a few games that make it great for parties as well, we’ve used it several times when we had company over and it’s a blast!

Basically, I think I was looking for a different approach to gaming and found it in the Wii console and the games.
In my opinion the Xbox 360 and the games are the same old thing in a gorgeous package.

There’s not much doubt though, if you’re a hard core gamer you’re probably going to want the 360.

A couple of months ago I posted that I tried out the Dlink DSM 520 and it didn’t quiet cut it and took it back. (you can check out the review here)

I then spent some extra cash and picked up the Netgear EVA8000, and this is the review.

In case you didn’t read the DSM 520 posting, here are some things I’m looking for in one of these boxes:

• Both Ethernet and WiFi built in
• Be able to stream HD video
• Be able to view pictures, video and play MP3s from the server
• Be fast, easy to use and reliable
• Allow for playback of some online content such as podcasts, youtube, etc…

First of all, this box has all the things that you would expect in one of these kinds of devices:

• Ethernet and Wifi (802.11g)
• HD outputs - HDMI and component
• SD outputs - SVideo and composit
• USB port to play external media

The one thing I really wish it did have was 802.11n instead of g, this should not be an issue if your playing mostly Standard Definition (SD) video, but doesn’t cut it for HD stuff.

The Hookup / Setup

I brought the box home, pulled it out of the box and hooked it up. It had a very nice guided setup that was super easy (and quick) to get through.I decided I wanted to use the Youtube and podcast features, so I installed the software on the PC that has all my media on it.

The setup on the software is very nice and, if you don’t have shares set up already, will allow you to build network shares very easily… it’ll even create thumbnails of your pictures.

Playing Media

From the main screen, the first time you try to access any media it will go out and browse through your shares and build a database of your files, this may take a little while if you have a bunch of media. After that it’s just a matter of going to the appropriate section off the main menu and selecting your media. I recommend turning on folder browsing (under the admin section), that will make it a LOT easier to find your media.

MP3s played flawlessly.
Pictures displayed flawlessly.
YouTube and podcasts work great.
Videos, depending on what I played, played flawlessly.

Initially I was set up with WiFi, so most of my videos played great but some of them (high quality, higher bitrate) would stutter. Any HD stuff I could forget about, I’d get MAYBE 2 minutes of it before it’d start stuttering so bad it was not watchable.

Fortunately I had run some Cat5e out by the TV, so I went wired and 95% of my problems went away.Once I was wired I could even play my HD video and it looks AWESOME through this box on my HD TV.. what a difference.

My suggestion is, if possible, go wired.

Reliability

The device is very reliable, but not perfect.There have been some times where I went to watch something on the box and it was locked up, I had to hold the power button until it went off then power cycle it.
I think I’ve only had one actual crash, but it had to do with a corrupted file I was playing.

There’s one feature that’s advertised that just flat out does not work.There is some PVR functionality where, if you have a supported card, you can control the TV card on your remote computer and even watch shows… this just doesn’t work.

First of all, you’ll pull your hair out trying to find one of the “supported” cards, then even when you do you’ll pull more hair out trying to get it to work.I Finally got one working, went to my EVA 8000, switched to the TV mode and actually saw TV… for second.
The best I’ve ever gotten it working was having it pause every 15 seconds or so for a few seconds which, in my opinion, is not watchable.
I didn’t even bother trying out the recording capabilities.

These problems are ALL over the user forums, so apparently I’m not alone.

Enhancements

This is one of the biggest selling points, as far as I’m concerned.On the Netgear forums you can sign up as a Beta tester for the box, you can then download beta firmware to load on your 8000.

These firmware updates provide bug fixes AND enhancements. For instance, out of the box you cannot play MKV files.. but load one of the beta firmwares on there and they play just fine in all their HD glory.

I’m running the latest beta (as of the time of this writing) and it’s working GREAT!

Final thoughts

The box is kind of expensive (~$400) and it’s not perfect, but it’s definitely the best set top box I’ve ever owned.
The reliability and functionality are all right on and there are new beta firmwares every few weeks, so it’s a great team they have at Netgear.

I’m a Mac guy so naturally I thought about an AppleTV, but it’s so limited I just couldn’t bring myself to get one. For the same price you get infinitely more options with the EVA8000.

… and before I get a million emails / comments, I’m talking about a STOCK AppleTV, not a modded / hacked one.

There’s a very good, much more thorough review on LIVEdigitally..

I had a setup using SageTV and a media extender, but it wasn’t HD, was a bit buggy and kind of slow.
After looking around a bit it came down to the Dlink DSM 520 and the Netgear EVA8000… I tried them both..

This review will be of the DSM 520.

Here are some of the things I’m looking for in one of these devices:

• Have both Ethernet and Wifi built in
• Be able to stream some HD video
• Be able to view pictures, and play my MP3s from the server
• Be fast and easy to use (important for the W.A.F.)
• A bonus would be some online content such as podcasts, youtube, RSS, etc…

Being a Dlink fanboy, I first tried out the DSM 520.

I brought the box home with very high hopes, most of the network hardware (wired and wireless) in the house is Dlink stuff and I’ve been VERY happy with it.
The setup was a breeze, I had the thing ready to go in about 5 minutes.
It requires the install of a media server, which it comes with, but you can use something like TVersity as well.

The device recognized my PC (once the software was installed) no problem and I was able to access all my media.
Actually, I should say I was able to browse all my media.

One of the things I was psyched about this product is that they were going to add support for YouTube and other online media sites on October 4th.
When I set up the device (on October 7th) I didn’t have those options so I checked for an update, and guess what.. there was one available!

I downloaded the update and anxiously looked for the online media… still not there.
Apparently the sales department and technical department don’t talk much at Dlink because they recently changed the date for these services from 10/4/2007 t0 “coming soon”.

The GUI on this thing is horrible. It’s almost like they slapped something together really quickly before shipping the unit.
I messed with the device for a few hours and it locked up at least 3 times.

Of the media it found, I was able to play some of it.

One of the selling points for me is that it plays MP4 directly, which my camera records in, so I didn’t have to convert any of my home videos.
This was hit and miss playing these. Same camera, same settings and some files played and some didn’t.
Some of the other videos I have from MPG to Divx / Xvid were hit and miss as well.. although they’re supposed to be supported.

Another HUGE problem (in my opinion) with the video is when you stop the video, then go back into it it doesn’t remember where you left off.. very bad for watching movies (especially with a 19 month old in the house).

Pulling up pictures worked well, but was REALLY slow.

I have no complaints about the music player portion, it worked really well.
It did take a little longer than I would have expected to load the initial song, but after that it was good.

That’s about as far as I got with the device.
I got so fed up with it that I unhooked it, boxed it up and got it ready to return to the store.

Now keep in mind this was over 802.11G, so if you have it hard wired it may be a little faster.. but compared to the Netgear EVA 8000 (I’ll post that review tomorrow), it was MUCH slower over the same connection.

If you’re thinking $200 is cheap for a media player like this then there’s a reason for it.
If you can get it on sale, or use some gift money or something for $100 it might be worth getting, but I wouldn’t spend any more money than that on it.

We now have the WiFi music store and some other features like the home button double tap to take you to your favorites list… NICE!

I also am looking forward to the video out for it, I’ve been wanting that feature since I got the phone.

If your phone is hacked or you have 3rd party software on there you may have some issues. Apple is supposed to have a restore app available next week, but if you haven’t updated yet then you may not want to just.

Luckily I restored my phone earlier in the week to a “stock” 1.02 firmware so I didn’t have any issues at all with the update.

I’ll probably never use the WiFi music store, but I like some of the other features…. and it’s only a matter of time until someone figures out a way to get 3rd party apps back on there.