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Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

Got my Nook 3 weeks ago, I wanted to use it for a bit before making a review, so far I must say that I love my Nook, aside from a couple of things I will detail in just seconds, everything just works as expected, this thing feels nice on your hand, not too heavy not too light, it feels just like holding a book.

There are thousands of free eBooks on the internet, including the latest bestsellers! so it is nice to be able to obtain all those books I have been thinking about buying for a while and just having them ready at no cost for reading at my own pace, there are literally hundreds of sites where you can find free eBooks.

One thing I have noticed is that the Nook (and I think eReaders in general) manage to bring us back to the habit of reading books, with the advancement of the internet and so many connected devices these days, it is easy to spend hours looking at a computer, laptop, notebook iphone etc screen entertaining ourselves with new information, eReaders make it easy for us to satisfy our hunger for new information without the eyestrain that comes along with those other methods, the Nook is a great device, in my opinion the best eReader out there,

Just to make it better Barnes & Noble pushed Software 1.3 to the device a few weeks ago, this upgrade fixed a few things that were not working very nicely, besides stability improvements the update added a few new features such as in-store-reading, games and a web browser.

Some people have complained about long boot up times, that’s true ONLY if you totally turn off your nook, by default it has a sleep mode where it can go to sleep or wakeup in just half a second.

The only things I would like to see improved is the fact that you cannot yet go directly to a specific page on your documents, (Though you can bookmark any page for quick access) but I’m sure that will soon be added, it’s not that hard to implement, I would also like to see ways to zoom in or out in .pdf documents.

Oh don’t forget to download and install the Calibre eBook Manager  to sync and manage content on your Nook!"

Hey everybody, I’m still alive! For the last month I have been looking for a good FM Transmitter for my car;  because seriously who wants to be creating CDs to listen to music anymore? my car does not have an AUX audio input, so a Modulator is not an option,  the only way for me to go was wireless, so I went on a quest for a good FM Transmitter, to my frustration none of them worked as they should, with all honesty they ALL sucked big time, but I will go into details about that later… I made some research and came across The Whole House FM Transmitter, I was hesitant at first because – I’m sorry to say – their website does not look very professional at all, first impressions are always important to me, still I decided to research even farther and came up with some really nice reviews about this product on the internet, so I was like what the heck, let’s give it a try and went ahead and ordered this baby, oh boy… to my surprise it worked just as expected, this little device works exactly as advertised, The Whole House FM Transmitter claims that it broadcasts whatever audio source you want up to 150 feet in all directions. This means it can cover more than 70,000 square feet, I have verified and I can bear witness that it does indeed do what they claim.

As an universal FM transmitter, it can broadcast any audio source to every FM radio. The audio sources include TV, Satellite TV Receivers, DVRs (eg. TiVo), Home Stereo Systems, DVD Players, VCRs, iPod, Microsoft Zune, Creative Zen, SanDisk Sansa MP3 Player, Other MP3 Players, Stereo Systems, Satellite Radios, CD Players, Tape Players, Palm Pilots, and Computer Audio (Internet Radio, Streaming Audio, Audio Files & Audio Downloads).

You don’t need FCC license to operate Whole House FM Transmitter. You can power up the transmitter unit via wall outlet, car adapter, USB or 3 x AA batteries. It just takes 10 minutes or less for set up, The Whole House FM Transmitter Gold Edition comes with an FM transmitter unit, 1/8? (3.5 mm) Stereo Headphone Jack, Stereo RCA Jack with Volume Control, 110/220 V AC Power Supply, 12/24 V DC Automobile Adapter, and USB Power Cable.

You create your own FM radio station to broadcast around your house and even outside your house with any FM transmitter. But many FM transmitters don’t work because they are not powerful in broadcasting signal as you will see from my experiences below, and from the experiences of many other reviewers out there, check out the Bestbuy reviews and you will see what I mean.

Before finding The Whole House FM Transmitter I started with the Griffin iTrip Universal; the idea behind that transmitter is great, it is a wireless device that charges through the USB of any computer and does not need to be connected to your car’s lighter charger to work, the charge lasts enough for a decent trip and it also works good at home to listen to your computer tunes through the house on any stereo system, however the problem with this transmitter breaks the whole point of an FM Transmitter, it is not powerful enough, I constantly heard static through my little trips throughout town while I tested it, so I went back to the store and this time I got the none wireless Griffin iTrip Universal, this one proved to be much better, but I still struggled to get a good signal, I kept hearing a lot of noise and static through my speakers, then went back to Bestbuy and got myself The Microsoft – Premium Car Pack for All Zune MP3 Players, I love Microsoft products but come on Microsoft, this? really…..? I don’t want to even get started with this one, even though it was the most expensive of all and that I have a Zune player (I would expected it to be %100 compatible) it was horrible, I could not get a single frequency with a clear signal in the whole FM spectrum with this device, so I returned it in just 2 days.

I was about to give up on FM Transmitters, when I decided to give the Belkin Tunecast Auto FM Transmitter model  F8Z439 a try; this one proved to be a lot better than the previous ones, however after trying it out for two weeks I knew already that it was also sucky, the belkin managed to keep a solid signal most of the time while making trips around town and while going to work etc, however as soon as I got into the freeway, the story changed, I could drive more than two miles without having to change the frequency, that aside from annoying it’s very dangerous if you are driving, yet I had already made my mind to keep it since all my previous experiences were worse and it seemed to me that price made no difference either, I decided to keep the lesser of the 4 evils, it looks like the FCCs regulations along with companies not really caring much to make a good product is killing the quality of probably all the assortment in this category in the market these days.

So I kept my Belkin for a couple of weeks but deep inside I could not believe there was nothing out there that would actually work as intended, and that’s when – Praise be To God Almighty-  lol, I decided to research and came across the The Whole House FM Transmitter, If you are looking for a transmitter that actually works, be that you want it for your car, home, office, or business, then do not waste your time trying out all the worthless crap out there, make yourself a favor and go order one of these babies, you will not regret it, what’s even better, the company has just came up with version 2.0 of their product and this one seems to have been improved over its predecessor, I will be ordering a second one to use as my personal home radio station soon, that way I can stream my tunes all around the house and keep my original one for my car.

One thing I STRONGLY recommend with this device is that you attached the provided extended antenna that comes along with your order inside the package, your experience will be even greater if you do.

Ok, a GPS was one of those things I have been after for a while, but I refused to pay a lot for it, since I really don’t need it too much, except those few times I go out of town and addresses can be a pain to find, so my local RadioShack had the TomTom XL 340s on sale for just $159, since they were still closed because it was very early in the morning and the Sears next to them was already open I asked the sales person if they would match the prices and he said yes without delay, he asked where I had seen that price and after telling him online, he asked how much they had it on sale for, I said I wasn’t sure if it was $150 or $159, he went ahead and checked RadioShack’s site and it was actually $159, however guess what… he matched the price to $150, so that’s what I ended up paying plus taxes, (A friend tells me the sales person wasn’t just nice, it’s because Sears actually has a price match + $9.00 USD policy) either way I think I got a good deal because all other retail stores had it at anything from $229 to $249.

This is the first real GPS I have ever had (Previously used my Phone’s) and so far so good, It works great and guides me everywhere I have asked it to without issue, even in those far from the city areas, It is packed with features you only find in expensive models, TomTom needs to get their act together in what has to do with the software/firmware updates though, they definitely have issues with that, the vast majority of negative reviews I have seen about the XL 340s is about people getting frustrated with the software and maps updates, that’s why I gave it a 4 in ease of use at my Bestbuy review of this item, the actual GPSs graphical interface is very user friendly though .
The main problem I see is that the new software they attempt to put in does not fit in the first upgrade attempt, then on second attempt the old firmware will update first thus being able to detect the problem and remove the old stuff first then it all goes smoothly, but most people never make it to the second try it seems because the error messages are not clear enough, just disconnect the device totally from your PC and retry the updates, old stuff has to go first then the new maps will fit, If you have issues updating your device just follow the following simple steps and you should be good to go:

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NetGear’s WNDR3700 what an excellent router it is! got mine a few days ago and I couldn’t be happier with it because of its great speed, long range, and the ease with which I was able to just hook up my FreeAngent USB drive, thus making my media and files available to me in my entire home network and worldwide via FTP and HTTP, overall it was so easy to setup, I love the ability to create a guest network for home visitors etc, this is an awesome machine, loving it, not one single crash or disconnection in any device throughout the house, oh and finally my Zune finds my home network! The person who gave this router a 1 at bestbuy.com must have some serious cabling or interference issues or simply doesn’t know how to set up a router.
The only downside I noticed is that the setup wizard CD that comes with it is not compatible with Windows 7, given the fact that Win 7 is around the corner NetGear should have taken care of that, however the router can easily be setup manually by going to http://192.168.1.1/index.htm with your browser.

A month ago I had a big storm in my area and all my equipment got bricked, modem, NIC card, external dialup modem (which I only use with Phonetray) and yes my router, I had been a Linksys loyal user for years, but when this happened and my WRT54GX2 gave up the ghost, I had no choice but to start looking for a new router, first I tried the Linksys WRT400N but it turns out that this one did not have Gigabit ports and on top of that the router was crashing whenever I attempted to stream videos to my PS3 with it, so I went for their top of line product the WRT610N which cost me a nice $199 USD, but I was totally disappointed with it, this product could have been one of their best ever, its concept and set of features is magnificent, it did look really feature complete to me, so I went ahead shelled out that amount of money and bought it home, days after using I realized it must be one of the worst products Linksys has ever put out on the market and the certainly one of the worst I have got myself.

I did not pay attention to the reviews, but boy that was a mistake! I had horrible connectivity issues in all my devices, PS3 kept getting disconnected and whenever I tried to access files or videos the Router would crash and reset my internet connection in all my devices on the network, the storage feature (one of the main reasons I bought it for) is a mess, it wouldn’t recognize my created users, I couldn’t change passwords, and while attempting to connect from the internet with an ftp client it always complained that the user/pass was wrong, but IT WAS NOT! the software that comes with the router DOES NOT work and crashes, sometimes it won’t even start! and for the record YES I DID upgrade the firmware to their latest version, Linksys should fire or demote whoever watched over product quality when developing this product, I can’t believe they are charging $200 for it, it’s not worthy $20, get it out of the stores, recall it, it’s giving you a bad name Linksys! I wish I could get v2 but there’s no tell until you open the box, and who knows if it will be same?

I’m now a happy camper with my storm’s nightmare behind me, I only paid $159 for a product far superior and that actually does what it promises, keep up the good work NetGear.

I came across this a few days ago, and I was really impressed, it seems to me like waiting 30, 40, sometimes up to a minute or even more for your computer to boot up will soon be a thing of the past, thanks to Phoenix, the company that makes the BIOS (basic input/output system) of many computers today.

According to the company this new Instant Boot BIOS cuts down the boot time to less than one second, then Windows 7 itself takes approximately another second, so that’s roughly two seconds for a machine with this new technology  be able to present a ready usable desktop, can’t wait for more news on this. check out my video for more details:

   Finally got around designing my own WordPress theme, and well you can see the results yourself lol, I’m still playing around with it, not totally satisfied with colors etc, so I most definitely will tweak it in the upcoming days, but it was already time for a change, my previous theme was over  a year old and besides nothing being wrong with it however, it was boring already. If you usually visit my site from a mobile phone, you will not see any changes because the mobile theme has not changed at all,  it’s only the main site look that was modified for now.

I still need to update some areas of my blog such as the current look of my desktop etc, heck I don’t even use Windows Vista any more lol, anyway I hope my visitors enjoy the new look and if you have any suggestions please let me know, once again thanks for reading me.

  Windows 7 finally made it to the Manufacturers, today Microsoft announced it’s availability with a post on the Windows 7 blog by Brandon LeBlanc.

After downloading it for hours with one failed attempt, I installed it on my computer and I must say that I’m impressed by it, it feels so snappy, light on resources and all my software works on it, even certain programs that gave me issues with the RC build are now working like a charm, I only had issues with Phonetray, a program I use to block telemarketers calls, but after applying certain settings with the compatibility feature it also worked good; I honestly think and I’m sure many will agree with me on this one;  that Win7 is the simply the best OS to ever come out of Redmond, XP users will finally have a good reason to move on and be up to date with the times.

The only thing I dislike about this version of Windows is the fact that Microsoft updated half the icons and left the other half with the Vista look, why they did this is beyond me; with such a great OS why made it look to the regular user like the previous version of Windows that many disliked?  I’m not complaining though, 7 is great, it’s better to have a good under the hood operating system that just works as it should, and where today’s hardware and even some old programs still work than having lots of nice eye candy that’s good just for the eye, but I was really expecting at least a new theme and icons for a change.

If you can’t wait to try it, install a torrent client and Download Windows 7 RTM Build 7600.16385 For x64 Systems or you can also Download Windows 7 RTM Build 7600.16385 For x86 Systems to see a higher quality screenshot of my desktop above Click Here

I have seen people in YouTube uploading videos created with this camera and wondering why theor videos don’t show up in HD once uploaded to YouTube and other video sharing sites; I have created a tutorial on how to record and crop videos with your Logitech Pro 9000 Quickcam and make them compatible with YouTube HD.

Super Software website: http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

Today I finally received my VadoHD camera on the mail, I have been looking for a while checking out the different HD pocket cameras on the market, reading reviews and comparing features, After some reading and asking many VadoHD users about its performance and quality I decided to go with this Creative’s product and I hope it lives up to its hype.

So far the camera has performed great for me, I would not call the video quality amazing but it’s definitely great for a camera this size and with this price point, If you want professional video quality then you really need to spend some more serious bucks ’cause this won’t cut it for you, but if you are like me, someone just looking for a way to capture those special little moments that come out of the blue every now and then then this is the camera for you.

It has 3 recording modes to record in SD, HD and HD+ the last one being the best quality of them three, additionally it has options for anti-flicker and it lets you select the type of TV system you want such as PAL/NTSC, it also has options to decide which language you want the menus to appear, you can also select options such as Time/Date and Instant Record capabilities, when turn on Instant Record puts the camera in a standby mode where it wakes up instantly when you press any button.

The camera also comes with an HDMI output (cable included) which allows you to connect it  directly to any HDTV in the house and watch your videos directly from the camera in full HD from the source, and it has a nice rugged cover to protect it, the only thing I don’t like about the cover is that it is white and the camera is black so it doesn’t look too good when you put it around the camera.

Editing and creating small home movies is very easy with the included Vado Central software that comes included with the camera, it does have a limitation though where it only allows you to put together 3 videos as part of the movie, if you want to add more than 3 you are required to buy the pro version of the application for under $20 bucks which is not a bad deal in my opinion, Vado Central also allows you add music and pictures as part of your videos.

If your computer has an HDMI port then you can also use this camera as a webcam; of course don’t expect to be streaming HD videos using Windows Live Messenger or Yahoo messenger, these applications have built in limitations on the quality of the video you can stream, nevertheless another nice thing you can do with this device.

Keep in mind YouTube takes out at least 20 percent of the original video quality so this is by no means the actual quality of the videos you get with this camera, but at least you can have an idea, so here’s a short demo movie I made with my VadoHD:

Today AOL released an update to its flagship instant messenger client AIM, this time it was version 6.9.13.4, I’m shocked at the little changes made; Looks like they are barely maintaining it; look at the changes on this build:

• Get status updates from your friends on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube
• Missing someone from your Buddy List? Find them easily with simple look up tools.
• It’s free! There is no subscription required

LOL Yeap, that’s the official change log, as if the little changes weren’t enough to alarm old time AIM followers, AOL has reverted back to the old AIM logo: that is the little yellow man, yes the red AIM icon is gone, I think AIM is on the way out; I haven’t even felt the need to install it on my computer for the last year or so, Last time I gave it a try it was ugly and felt slow and didn’t look good with Windows Vista at all, most of my friends have migrated to either Windows Live Messenger or Yahoo (Which sucks IMHO).
Hard to believe and sad to see one of the oldest applications on the net, once also one of the most popular ones dying like this, I think this is just a sign of the slow and painful death AOL itself is going through; what happened AOL? how did you let yourself fall from grace like that? you used to own the internet.

Get it HERE if you feel curious about it.