Saturday, May 28, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
Apple TV MC572LL/A
I own a Boxee, Roku and now Apple TV. It is hands down the best video streamer box on the market today. As expected from Apple, the menu system alone is worth every penny of paying a little more from Apple. The Netflix on my blueray, Roku and Boxee is pure crap. I was ready to turn off my Netflix until I tried the AppleTV box. Apple must have gotten special treatment from Netflix... but who cares. The menu is clean easy to use and responsive.
Additional features in the box like Youtube, podcasting and other stuff all follow the same format.
The remote control is a joy to use. the Roku remote tears my thumb off from too much use. My bluray player remote has blind bumps on it that make your thumb bleed from too much pressing. (Boxee has a decent remote control.)
Streaming from the iphone and ipad is simple. The box automatic recognizes the devices thru airplay.
A major flaw of the box is the Apple Movie rental portion of the box. I have purchased 3 movies from them. All took soooo long to buffer and stream. Dont even think about rewinding inside a movie, your stream will break and then you are in for another 20 min delay. I will never order a movie from Apple again until that is fixed.
Additional features in the box like Youtube, podcasting and other stuff all follow the same format.
The remote control is a joy to use. the Roku remote tears my thumb off from too much use. My bluray player remote has blind bumps on it that make your thumb bleed from too much pressing. (Boxee has a decent remote control.)
Streaming from the iphone and ipad is simple. The box automatic recognizes the devices thru airplay.
A major flaw of the box is the Apple Movie rental portion of the box. I have purchased 3 movies from them. All took soooo long to buffer and stream. Dont even think about rewinding inside a movie, your stream will break and then you are in for another 20 min delay. I will never order a movie from Apple again until that is fixed.
TomTom XXL 540M 5-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator
Everything is easy and enjoyable with it. This is my fourth TomTom. I keep buying them and give them away after using for a while. I have the big one so that I can see it without my glasses. I leave it on even driving locally as I can see when I am goin to arrive and speed limits/alerts. Never had the need for any kind of technical support, so I cant comment on that. I dont have the traffic update feature but a couple times when I ran into bad traffic, I just pushed alternate route and it sent me around it saving a great deal of time. Also I use it on my motorcycle. When I'm not using it, it's just rattling around in my saddle bag. Surprisingly, it takes the abuse. The screen has never got scratched or scuffed. The GPS that is an optional accessory for my bike is like $900. Whats up with that? Whatever extra it does, I don't need. The price for this particular model is unbelievably inexpensive. Like $100. Cant go wrong.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Black Eyed Peas - Just Cant Get Enough
Damn right, I just listened to this like four times in a row, absolutely loving it.
or download here:
or download here:
How to Brew: Everything You Need To Know To Brew Beer Right The First Time
Like most homebrewers, I started out with Charlie Papazian's book "The New Joy of Homebrewing". I had the second edition. It was a good book, but comparing it to this text, it seems hopelessly dated.
With the explosion of microbreweries across the country, lots of people got turned on to GOOD beer - and many of those looked into homebrewing. With so many people trying different methods and equipment, over time, brewing became simpler and much of what was deemed necessary in the earlier days was discarded. Many of the techniques and equipment listed here are the results of years of trial-and-error streamlining by other homebrewers. In addition, there's never been so many resources available via mail order and on the net. Homebrewing really is easy at this point.
This is the best basic brewing text I've found. You can start with it by making extract only beers, graduating to specialty grains in addition to extract, then to all grain brewing and making your own recipes and beer styles. The book is linear, presents the information as you need it and the information ranges from the most basic (like sanitation) to as technical as you could possibly want (water chemistry).
For years I've been an extract and specialty grain brewer. I never completely understood the process of all-grain brewing until I bought this text. It gave me the courage to build my own lautering tun and brew my first batch of beer made completely from scratch. It was a pale ale, nothing exotic, but man was it good beer. Check out the author's website and read the first edition online. The second edition is improved, so if you like the online text buy the hard copy book.
There are other good texts out there (the author lists many of them in the back of the book) but if you only want one homebrewing text, buy this one. It's a shame that Amazon doesn't carry it anymore. Track it down.
With the explosion of microbreweries across the country, lots of people got turned on to GOOD beer - and many of those looked into homebrewing. With so many people trying different methods and equipment, over time, brewing became simpler and much of what was deemed necessary in the earlier days was discarded. Many of the techniques and equipment listed here are the results of years of trial-and-error streamlining by other homebrewers. In addition, there's never been so many resources available via mail order and on the net. Homebrewing really is easy at this point.
This is the best basic brewing text I've found. You can start with it by making extract only beers, graduating to specialty grains in addition to extract, then to all grain brewing and making your own recipes and beer styles. The book is linear, presents the information as you need it and the information ranges from the most basic (like sanitation) to as technical as you could possibly want (water chemistry).
For years I've been an extract and specialty grain brewer. I never completely understood the process of all-grain brewing until I bought this text. It gave me the courage to build my own lautering tun and brew my first batch of beer made completely from scratch. It was a pale ale, nothing exotic, but man was it good beer. Check out the author's website and read the first edition online. The second edition is improved, so if you like the online text buy the hard copy book.
There are other good texts out there (the author lists many of them in the back of the book) but if you only want one homebrewing text, buy this one. It's a shame that Amazon doesn't carry it anymore. Track it down.
Yamaha NS-SP1800BL 5.1-Channel Home Theater Speaker Package
You will not belive your ears. For the price you cannot get better sound. ou will need to spend 5 times or more to match, let alone beat the sound qualty. Sub is powered and all the speakers look great. They will look great on stands or on end tables like I have them. They are 6 ohms which means they need more power than 8 ohms speakers to get same result. I have them with yamaha 463 receiver and they sound great. I'am very happy.
Le Pan TC 970 9.7-Inch Multi-Touch LCD Google Android Tablet PC
Who needs a tablet computer? That is what I've been saying to my Apple Fanboy friends since the iPad came out. Honestly, if it weren't for the Vine program, I would not have gotten a tablet.
My first impression, out of the box is, I'm impressed. It seems to act just like my Android phone. It is very responsive for a 1GHz cpu.
The instructions that come with it are non-existent, a card with where the buttons are. Their support page gives a URL error. Their FAQs has no entries except for the specs.
Cons:
* The sound is very tinny. It is not very good, especially compared to my friend's iPad.
* No rear facing camera. So this is only good for chat. Can't really take pictures or use a scanner app. A little disappointing.
* The auto-brightness doesn't work very well for me. I think it makes the display too dark under all lighting conditions.
* It cannot play trailers from apple.com/trailers.
* The system tutorial in Settings->About Tablet doesn't work. It just returns to the previous screen.
* Android 2.2 is not designed for tablets. Google said this.
* The wireless can use 802.11n but only the 2.4GHz band and not the less cluttered 5GHz band.
* My biggest complaint is that both the on/off and the volume buttons are very hard to use. They are too small or too recessed.
Pros:
* The display is very nice and a good size.
* Price, though I think they could have sprung for more than a 4gb card. Even my phone came with 8bg card.
* Battery life seems real good. I've been using it for over 3 hours over two days and it is at 56%.
* The Android system is a plus. I hope it can be upgraded to 3.0+
* It comes with the Kindle app installed and ebooks look real nice. I do still like my Kindle better since it is so much lighter.
* Touch screen is very sensitive. I find if I press too hard, it doesn't work. But of course that kind of sensitivity can be bad too, because I press things I don't mean to all the time.
Some other notes: I tried Firefox mobile on it. It doesn't feel like Firefox and the password manager doesn't allow for a master password and that made me nervous. Also flash did not work with Firefox, so I removed it. I do not like the generic Browser on Android. So I will be looking for a new one.
I installed the "Hackers Keyboard" from the app store and really like that. No more hunting around for special keys, they are all there.
I played some games that required interaction of the touch screen and the motion detections system. Both worked very well.
You might think from all my cons that I don't like this tablet, but that is incorrect. Most of the cons are nits. If you are looking for a device that you can sit on the couch with, browse the web and check email, this is it. It would be nice if the speakers sounded better (I'm looking for an equalizer app) and if the buttons were easier to use, but this is a very nice device for $350.
My first impression, out of the box is, I'm impressed. It seems to act just like my Android phone. It is very responsive for a 1GHz cpu.
The instructions that come with it are non-existent, a card with where the buttons are. Their support page gives a URL error. Their FAQs has no entries except for the specs.
Cons:
* The sound is very tinny. It is not very good, especially compared to my friend's iPad.
* No rear facing camera. So this is only good for chat. Can't really take pictures or use a scanner app. A little disappointing.
* The auto-brightness doesn't work very well for me. I think it makes the display too dark under all lighting conditions.
* It cannot play trailers from apple.com/trailers.
* The system tutorial in Settings->About Tablet doesn't work. It just returns to the previous screen.
* Android 2.2 is not designed for tablets. Google said this.
* The wireless can use 802.11n but only the 2.4GHz band and not the less cluttered 5GHz band.
* My biggest complaint is that both the on/off and the volume buttons are very hard to use. They are too small or too recessed.
Pros:
* The display is very nice and a good size.
* Price, though I think they could have sprung for more than a 4gb card. Even my phone came with 8bg card.
* Battery life seems real good. I've been using it for over 3 hours over two days and it is at 56%.
* The Android system is a plus. I hope it can be upgraded to 3.0+
* It comes with the Kindle app installed and ebooks look real nice. I do still like my Kindle better since it is so much lighter.
* Touch screen is very sensitive. I find if I press too hard, it doesn't work. But of course that kind of sensitivity can be bad too, because I press things I don't mean to all the time.
Some other notes: I tried Firefox mobile on it. It doesn't feel like Firefox and the password manager doesn't allow for a master password and that made me nervous. Also flash did not work with Firefox, so I removed it. I do not like the generic Browser on Android. So I will be looking for a new one.
I installed the "Hackers Keyboard" from the app store and really like that. No more hunting around for special keys, they are all there.
I played some games that required interaction of the touch screen and the motion detections system. Both worked very well.
You might think from all my cons that I don't like this tablet, but that is incorrect. Most of the cons are nits. If you are looking for a device that you can sit on the couch with, browse the web and check email, this is it. It would be nice if the speakers sounded better (I'm looking for an equalizer app) and if the buttons were easier to use, but this is a very nice device for $350.
Sony Bloggie Touch (MHS-TS20/B) - 8 GB, 4 Hours NEWEST MODEL
I've had this camera for about a week now and have been loving it ever since. I've used another "flip" camcorder and the Bloggie Touch puts it to shame.
Pros:
1. Love the quick on and record. Great for spontaneous videos of the little one.
2. The touch screen interface makes it both useful and fun to use the big screen.
3. The still pictures come out brilliant, when the lighting and focus is good.
4. The battery charges up super fast and stays with you for a whole day of shooting.
5. The image stabilization is good. You can take decent video while walking around and panning too. Note that it is not optical, but electronic SteadyShot stabilization.
6. The lens is very good quality and the pictures are crisp.
7. Really like the "snap picture while recording" feature. I find myself using that feature the most. The video doesn't stall while the picture (full 12M resolution) is being taken and since the focus and exposure are usually locked well while you're in the middle of the video, the pictures come out great.
Cons:
1. In low lighting, there is quite a bit of graininess and using the digital zoom makes it much worse.
2. While the lens is good quality, the auto-focus mechanism is really very slow. If you move around the camera too much before focus has locked on, the auto-focus will almost never lock.
3. What I really miss with this camera is a flash. Even a tiny one would help with low light pictures.
4. Minor annoyance: to preview a picture right after you take it, you have to go through at least two clicks. Sony could have designed it so that it always goes to the last picture taken by default, instead of the thumbnail list of all pictures/video on the device.
I decided to purchase this camera over a still camera that can do video because:
1. This one is dead simple. One button to turn on, one to take video and one to take stills. This makes it both easy and quick to use.
2. This one can do 1080p video and 720p at 60fps.
3. Its under $200 and is smaller than your phone.
4. Its got internal flash and USB connector - no more SD cards or cables. 8GB is enough to get you through the day before you can come back to your laptop to dump the pictures.
I decided to purchase this camera over other ones in the same category because:
1. Its got a big display and the touch screen is fun to use.
2. Its got a better lens system than the others.
3. Its got (some) image stabilization.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Samsung UN55D8000 55-Inch 1080p 240Hz 3D LED HDTV
I saw this TV come available from one of my tech sites, I bought it the same day.
The TV came in and Wow is all I can say.. Now I have seen the posts on Samsung's Website and that really did not deter me as I have been buying Samsung TV's and monitors for years and never once did I have a problem.
The colors and dark levels are wonderful. The 3D effects are so cool and yes this is my first 3D TV, I have seen 3D in movie theaters but its so much better being at home. The added applications are cool and the added NAS support is wonderful. I have a Synology NAS and once I plugged it in to the network the TV detected my NAS and listed it as Synology. Only draw back with the DLNA is that there is no graphic art or pictures of the Movies but the titles show and thats fine. (There might be hack for this and will research)
Of course Amazon delivered the TV with in the hours as I requested and the box was in great shape. Amazon rocks.
Pros: The colors and dark levels, Normal HD programs are so crisp and clear it almost hurts my eye's, The small bezel makes this TV pop on my wall. (Note Painted my wall flat black and with the small bezel it all most looks like its a window), Too many more to list..
Cons: The remote as I really wanted the IPHONE looking remote and the keyboard is really small and I have big fingers. Also the Power plug was on the other side.. Meaning the HDMI, Optical and USB plugs are on back right side and the power plug is on the back left side if facing the TV. As well the power cord is really short.
But even with these complaints I really like this TV and will be enjoying it for a number of years.. This TV gets a five star rating from me.
The TV came in and Wow is all I can say.. Now I have seen the posts on Samsung's Website and that really did not deter me as I have been buying Samsung TV's and monitors for years and never once did I have a problem.
The colors and dark levels are wonderful. The 3D effects are so cool and yes this is my first 3D TV, I have seen 3D in movie theaters but its so much better being at home. The added applications are cool and the added NAS support is wonderful. I have a Synology NAS and once I plugged it in to the network the TV detected my NAS and listed it as Synology. Only draw back with the DLNA is that there is no graphic art or pictures of the Movies but the titles show and thats fine. (There might be hack for this and will research)
Of course Amazon delivered the TV with in the hours as I requested and the box was in great shape. Amazon rocks.
Pros: The colors and dark levels, Normal HD programs are so crisp and clear it almost hurts my eye's, The small bezel makes this TV pop on my wall. (Note Painted my wall flat black and with the small bezel it all most looks like its a window), Too many more to list..
Cons: The remote as I really wanted the IPHONE looking remote and the keyboard is really small and I have big fingers. Also the Power plug was on the other side.. Meaning the HDMI, Optical and USB plugs are on back right side and the power plug is on the back left side if facing the TV. As well the power cord is really short.
But even with these complaints I really like this TV and will be enjoying it for a number of years.. This TV gets a five star rating from me.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Playstation network got you down? why not go xbox?
Xbox has the most reliable gaming servers out there... period. I have been an xbox user for years now, though the birth of my daughter has turned it into a netflix box more than anything lately. I am sure however that I will soon enough get back to my games and with Kinect for xbox the young one will be gaming sooner than I would have thought possible previously too :-)
Friday, May 20, 2011
Affiliate Marketing Software
Affiliate marketing software is the perfect solution to everyone's problems when it comes to keeping track of your income and your earning potential. Affiliate marketing is something that many people get involved with, but few people actually know how to manage it. The use of an affiliate marketing software can not only help you succeed in affiliate marketing, but can help you maximize your profits.
The affiliate marketing software that you choose will help show you which products and affiliate programs that you will be able to maximize your profits with. There are so many affiliate programs available that it can be incredibly difficult to decide which programs are the best programs to get involved with, and which ones will bring in the most money. Some affiliate programs will offer more money per click or a higher percentage per purchase, but the sales that result from that do not tend to be as high, which in turn hurts your profit.
The affiliate marketing software will take away all the guesswork involved with trying to decide which programs or products turn the most profit. They will supply you with reports that will allow you to see which ones have had the greatest amount of return for other people, so that you will be able to sign up for their program.
The affiliate marketing software is specifically built so that instead of signing up for every affiliate program out there which can make your website look jam packed with spam, and can draw attention away from the big money making marketing plans. You will be able to select the top earners, so that you maximize the amount of traffic that flows through these select marketing plans which in turn will earn you a much greater amount of money.
Most affiliate marketing software will not only help you select which specific affiliate programs that you should sign up for or get involved with, but will help you track your income as well. You will be able to see which programs are bringing in the greatest amount of money. Depending on the affiliate marketing software that you decide on, you will be able to receive affiliate marketing training so that you will be able to know how to design your website to help maximize profit. Most affiliate marketing software will allow you to set up everything you need to so that you will be able to maximize your profits. There are many affiliate marketing software programs that are available. It is surprising how much easier it will be to get started and begin making money rather quickly.
To learn more about affiliate marketing software that can put 5 figures a month in your pocket while you lazily do nothing at all, click here!
http://eridlon.lazyafrich.hop.clickbank.net
Affiliate marketing software is the perfect solution to everyone's problems when it comes to keeping track of your income and your earning potential. Affiliate marketing is something that many people get involved with, but few people actually know how to manage it. The use of an affiliate marketing software can not only help you succeed in affiliate marketing, but can help you maximize your profits.
The affiliate marketing software that you choose will help show you which products and affiliate programs that you will be able to maximize your profits with. There are so many affiliate programs available that it can be incredibly difficult to decide which programs are the best programs to get involved with, and which ones will bring in the most money. Some affiliate programs will offer more money per click or a higher percentage per purchase, but the sales that result from that do not tend to be as high, which in turn hurts your profit.
The affiliate marketing software will take away all the guesswork involved with trying to decide which programs or products turn the most profit. They will supply you with reports that will allow you to see which ones have had the greatest amount of return for other people, so that you will be able to sign up for their program.
The affiliate marketing software is specifically built so that instead of signing up for every affiliate program out there which can make your website look jam packed with spam, and can draw attention away from the big money making marketing plans. You will be able to select the top earners, so that you maximize the amount of traffic that flows through these select marketing plans which in turn will earn you a much greater amount of money.
Most affiliate marketing software will not only help you select which specific affiliate programs that you should sign up for or get involved with, but will help you track your income as well. You will be able to see which programs are bringing in the greatest amount of money. Depending on the affiliate marketing software that you decide on, you will be able to receive affiliate marketing training so that you will be able to know how to design your website to help maximize profit. Most affiliate marketing software will allow you to set up everything you need to so that you will be able to maximize your profits. There are many affiliate marketing software programs that are available. It is surprising how much easier it will be to get started and begin making money rather quickly.
To learn more about affiliate marketing software that can put 5 figures a month in your pocket while you lazily do nothing at all, click here!
http://eridlon.lazyafrich.hop.clickbank.net
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