Roman's Tech Help

What will Apple Look Like Going Forward?

2011-10-06T14:28:00.001-07:00

First, I do want to express my condolences. Steve Jobs was one of the greatest innovators and creators of our time. His person and intellect will be dearly missed. He did a lot to help shape much of the technology that we all interact with on a daily basis. Who will our innovators be going forward?

And that really is the subject I especially want to consider in relation to Apple. I am not saying that the company has no talent apart from Jobs, but he was a visionary when it came to new applications of technology and Apple greatly benefited from his contribution. He was kicked out several years back and it had a negative impact on the company.

I am a Microsoft/Google guy but I recognize that the market needs innovative companies like Apple to continue to push the limits for what is possible. It is one thing to develop new tech, it is quite another to make it work so well and be intuitive enough that you attract a substantial user base across a fairly wide demographic. Jobs created a company that did this time and again. He was most often at the head though and one has to wonder about the fate of the ship after the loss of its captain.

I am also a strong free competitive market guy and I am confident that even though we have lost such a great mind, others will rise to the challenge (within Apple, or without) and fill the void. The future of consumer tech is still bright and I am looking forward to the discovery of our next generation of creative talent.

The Kindle Fire, Galaxy Tab PLUS, Acer Iconia A100 - The Small Formfactor Market has Gotten Interesting!

2011-09-30T08:21:00.000-07:00

"WHAT SHOULD I BUY?"

That will be a question that many potential tablet buyers will be asking themselves in the coming months (especially leading into the Christmas season). For those who have their hearts and wallets set on the 7" form-factor, they have some new options to consider.

In the big retail electronics stores (Best Buy...), there was really only one.. perhaps two options a year ago if one wanted to purchase a 7" tablet. You could spend $600 and get the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7".... or, if you didn't mind doing some "hacking" you could pick up a Nook Color at $250 and root it to give you a full Android device.

But now the big companies are finally catching on. Consumers like the idea of a small, portable device to be well... small and portable and at a portable price. Enter the new contestants...

The Amazon Kindle Fire (pictured above) - Its most notable features... a gorgeous 7" IPS 1024x600 screen, a Brand Spanking New Texas Instruments OMAP4 Dual-Core Cortex-A9 and the SGX-540 GPU (part of the same SoC as the OMAP4 so expect this in all TI OMAP4 products). For reference, the SGX540 is a very strong 3D graphics accelerator that was much lauded on the mobile phone front and also featured in the first Galaxy Tab 7" device. This SoC (System on Chip = CPU + GPU) should offer spectacular performance all around.

Oh... and a price of only $200... Yeah, Amazon got that right for sure!

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 PLUS - Samsung recently announced its Galaxy Tab 7.7 (which features 7.7" screen) and we aren't discussing it much. For the sake of brevity we are trying to focus on 7" devices. Suffice to say, the Galaxy Tab 7 PLUS and 7.7 share similar hardware aside from the screen. The 7.7 will have a gorgeous Super Amoled while the Galaxy Tab 7 PLUS will have a (still very nice) IPS screen and reportedly a lower price point. The 7 PLUS is powered by, what at this point, is still an unknown Samsung Built 1.4 Ghz processor. It is sure to be fast though. Neither device has had a price announced for it yet, so it is just blind guessing at this point. Most likely, we will see Dual Cameras and fast performance on both. It really will come down to the price though and perhaps build quality. There is still some speculation on the build quality of the Kindle Fire. My 2-Cents, if the price goes north of $400 they are going to have hard time selling them, just like they did when the Galaxy Tab 7" came out and sported a ridiculous price tag of $599.

Acer Iconia Tab A100 - I applaud Acer on getting a 7" device to market featuring the Nvidia Tegra II processor. The Tegra II is the current "champ" in the processor arena as it is built by graphics enthusiast company, Nvidia. Time will tell how the Tegra II, one of the first Dual Core Cortex-A9 processors to be launched and has therefore been out for quite a while now, will hold up VS. the new Samsung and Texas Instruments parts. My guess, the Samsung might give it a run for its money but Nvidia is a juggernaut in the processing arena and is probably a good 6 months to a year ahead in development from both of these other companies. Hence, their new Quad-Core Cortex A9 is right around the corner (perhaps in devices by early next year? or sooner??) and they will maintain their performance crown and perhaps their place as the most widely used processor for 9" and up tablets. But, more to the point, the Iconia A100 features a 1024x600 screen (same resolution as the other two devices in this article) however I am unsure of the technology employed (IPS, Amoled?) and it comes in at a "respectable" price point of right over $300. It also is the only "respectable name brand" tablet that I am aware of that packs a Tegra II in a 7" package.

WHAT DOES ONE DO WITH A TABLET ANYHOW?

I was having this discussion recently with a friend. I have owned 4 different tablets now and here are the things I find myself doing most...

1. Reading - Yep, that's right.... Not technically glamorous but the 7" form factor is, IMHO, the BEST of all of them for this. All of the devices that I own feature basic LCD technology and low resolution 800x480 screen. I like the higher resolution screens better, but the 800x480 actually doesn't look bad. Suffice to say, if you are trying to choose between these devices above, you won't have to worry about that.

2. Email - Which ties into READING again but also includes TYPING... In which case a responsive UI and Touchscreen are vital. Once again, the 7" form factor in Portrait orientation is PERFECT for this.

3. Web Browsing - A combination of the things above. Typing, Reading, Pinching-to-Zoom... Also, a quick processor and strong WiFi signal makes all the difference when it comes to page-load speeds.

4. Netflix - Once again the hi-res screen with IPS or better tech would probably really improve this experience. A strong internet connection is also vital.

5. Light Gaming - I have devices that can handle 3D gaming pretty well... and I have bought some of the 3D titles from the market... but honestly, I just don't play them that much. More often, I gravitate towards the "cheap" and light games like Angry Birds, and Robo Defense, as they are quick and fun to play which is often the kind of situation you find yourself in with a mobile device. So, GPU performance is nice but it isn't vital, for me at least.

Take Note... Battery life is ABSOLUTELY VITAL for both of these functions in order for your mobile device to remain... mobile. Seeing how the above devices stack up in this area will be very important.

IN CONCLUSION...

Time will tell... My advice right now... Don't spend more than $300 on a tablet. Honestly, the Kindle Fire will handle 95% of what most buyers want and do on a regular basis. If you want some extra functionality and don't mind sacrificing screen technology... you could jump into the Chinese Market which has been selling android devices in this size and at a much lower cost for the last 2 years. It can be a bit of a bumpy road though when picking out a device... Stability can be an issue and finding an honest re-seller can be difficult.

Which means you could always buy from me :). The whole point of this article anyhow right? Drive more traffic to my retail business.TopNotchTablets.com. Just kidding : )... That's not the WHOLE point! I really do hope this has been a valuable read and you at least have some info on these three new/upcoming devices that look to be really cool.

If you ARE shopping... especially if you are an "ebayer" or looking around at the lower cost off-brand options (there are many)... I highly highly recommend this article: Which Android Tablet Should You Buy?. You might also be interested in this article as well: Making Sense of the Android Tablet Market: You CAN have our iPad and Pay Your Bills Too!

Cheers!

Roman

Androids are Invading... Is RIM Becoming a Casualty of War?

2011-09-26T15:08:00.000-07:00

A report by Nielson came out recently that showed that Android adoption rates have been increasing among consumers. While, SURPRISE!, RIM (Blackberry) adoption has slowed and Apple is at a bit of a standstill at the moment. By sheer market share vs. the other two players, the Android invasion is in full force...

SEE ARTICLE HERE: http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobile-technology/nielsen-us-android-adoption-accelerating-174035

What does all this mean? Just my 2-cents as I am not an economist. But my guess is that if this trend continues you might start to see A. More Expensive Android Devices, B. Lower Priced iPhones perhaps? and C. RIM going the way of the dinosaur...

How do I feel about this? Well, before any Apple Fanboys jump on my case, I actually do like the company and have a healthy respect for its products. But yes, I am an Android user and I do prefer their stuff if only for the price. Honestly, I don't really care who is "on top" as long as we all still have a great selection of devices to choose from at reasonable rates.

Now, if history proves anything, as soon as Apple releases its new i-Device (iPhone 5?) in a few months the trend will quickly change as everyone jumps on the latest "apple-toy bandwagon." And yes, I do have a bit of derision there but I heartily admit that Apple makes a cool device. I just don't understand the sheeple who don't have enough know-how to appreciate the differences between an iPhone 3GS and an iPhone 4 who will run out and spend $XXX on a new device when what they have works really well... all I have to say is congrats to Apple on excellent marketing and fine product development to have such a following.... and no, I am not stereotyping everyone who upgrades from a iPhone 4 to a 5 as being a part of this group... but c'mon you gotta realize it probably defines the majority. Anyhow, I most certainly digress... my point was, that this current trend could easily be upset, at least for a time.

Alas, I do mourn RIM and their current situation. I think they also make a fine product. The Playbook is an excellent, if IMHO overpriced, device. I think they need to either jump on the Android bandwagon and start making said devices or, redefine their niche' because Corporate use is slowly being taken over by Apple and Android as both platforms have become significantly more secure over the last year or two. So I will ask you all this question... where can RIM go now besides the Corporate sector? Does anyone think they could make a comeback among Corporate users or are their days numbered? Could they make a comeback in the consumer market? I get the impression that the number of folks that prefer their trademark form-factor of phone are slowly being won over to touch screen devices. I know I myself now prefer a "touch" keyboard to a physical one.

Interestingly enough, I have read that the Playbook should be able to run Android apps before the close of October... Does anyone think this will significantly affect the market? Could RIM incorporate this into a new line of phones?

Cheers!

Roman

What is This New Android Tablet?

2011-09-25T15:26:00.000-07:00

So, I just got my weekly YouTube update and I subscribe to colonel zap. He makes some of the best YouTube android tablet preview videos out there for merimobiles and if you like following the android tablet market like I do, I heartily encourage you to subscribe to him as well! (And yes that was totally unprompted, his video tablet reviews just plain rock)

Anyhow, he just came out with a new video about a new tablet called the Zeontouch Pad 2 Game Killer. The device is your standard 7" 800x480 capacitive touch Chinese fare but it does have a few qualities that make it stand out from the bunch. The first being a rather massive 4200 (maybe it was 4500?) mAh battery that is claimed to be a very high quality 12-cell.

The next thing that is interesting is that the device claims to have a Cortex A9 heart beating at its center and some places even say it is a NEC built part. The EV2 is the only Cortex A9 part made by NEC that I am aware of as being available in tablets. So, is this device using our beloved (if a bit quirky) EV2 platform?

This brings up another intersting question. If it is using the EV2, why is it called the "Game Killer"?

The EV2 is a great processor to he sure, but in all honesty gaming is not one of its strong suits. I would be more happy to find out this is actually a new NEC designed chip, but I doubt that is the case.

At $260ish this tablet is a bit pricey, even with the larger battery, and that is before you throw in decent shipping. If it is indeed using the EV2 though and is paired with such a large baterry, it will definitely get phenomenal operating life (I would think a couple days of standby at least) . Or is it perhaps using the Amlogic A9 chipset or even better... something new all together?

Anyhow, just thought I would share my most recent curiosity with the crowd. :-)

Cheers,

Roman

HTTP://topnotchtablets.com

Sent from my Meiying Phantom M11

Which Android Tablet Should You Buy? Navigating the China-Tab Market...

2011-09-07T05:53:00.000-07:00

A lot of people are beginning to discover the Chinese Android Tablet market. Many are asking about what tablet they should buy. I understand the frustration because I was there a year ago. I was clueless about what was out there, I didn't know much about mobile technology and had to do many long hours of research. Hopefully I can save you some time if you considering diving into all of this. There are a many options for your money, most of which are "bad" options. However, if you follow my guidelines below and do a little research on the model you considering you will probably get a pretty solid tablet at a great price!

FIRST: CPU and GPU always go together because they are on the same chip (i think) for mobile devices.

Here is what I consider the bare minimum for a tablet:

CPU: Cortex A8 or Cortex A9 - DO NOT buy an ARM 11 device.

Some popular cortex A8 CPUs in order of worst to best... (chips in green = best bang for your buck in my opinion)

Freescale IMX515 - Bottom Line Cortex A8 but widely used. Decent all around performance but particularly weak GPU

Telechips TCC8803 - Excellent Media Playback performance. I haven't seen much support for these on the forums though. Somewhat weak GPU (Mali 200). Probably a better choice than the IMX515 though.

TI OMAP 3530 - I am not particularly familiar with Texas Instrument mobile processors. I do know that this one carries a PowerVR SGX-530 which is a step up from the Mali-200 in terms of performance. These are used in a lot of Witstech Tablets

Samsung S5PV210 - A "cheap" variant of the processor used in the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7". It has a VERY STRONG GPU - SGX540 and excels at gameplay. However, due to the higher power draw of this variation of the chip, battery life tends to be a bit shorter for many devices. Overall battery life though is heavily dependent upon the size of the battery in the device as well, so your best bet is to read reviews of the specific device you are considering. The Herotab C8 is probably the most popular ChinaTab that has featured this chipset.

Samsung S5PV110 - This is the same processor as found in the Galaxy Tab 7". It carries the same SGX540 gpu as the 210 BUT it is a much more energy efficient processor. It tends to be more expensive than the S5PV210 but battery life and heat should be improved.

Rockchip RK2918 - This is a "brand new" Cortex A8 chipset recently released by Rockchip. DO NOT CONFUSE this with the RK2808 which is a much slower, much older ARM11 part. This chipset probably trades blows for the top spot with the S5PV210/110 chipsets. It has a Vivante GC800 GPU which, on paper, is significantly faster than the SGX540. It absolutely excels at media playback as it can do 1080p flawlessly. Being newer, power consumption seems to be "up in the air." Some chips seem to be more energy efficient and run at 3.7 volts while others seem to by power hungry and run at 7.4 volts. Read reviews, milage will vary from device to device. There are several 8" and 7" models out that feature this chipset.

--Some popular Cortex A9 CPUs in order of worst to best... (chips in green = best bang for your buck in my opinion)

NEC Renesas EV2 - Dual-Core Processor - Extremely energy efficient with the best battery life of all the chipsets (Cortex A8 and A9). Battery life is phenomenal on these. It provides snappy performance for pretty much all android functions (especially multi-tasking between multiple apps). It has a Samsung SGX530 GPU so 3D performance is "okay" but FAR from stellar. Unfortunately, this chipset has had a tumutuous time with firmware and Media Playback is not very good. Ongoing bugs are Youtube HD playback and Hi-Def 1080p video playback. The RENA3 is one a few devices that actually use this chipset, with a couple more devices coming out in the next few months. Currently, it is stuck at Android 2.2, however 2.3 has been promised.

AMlogic 8726M Cortex A9 - Single Core - An interesting chipset all around. It packs a PUNCH for a GPU. It features a Mali-400 powerhouse. The same GPU featured in the Samsung Exynos 4210 chipset. Unfortunatley, I am not very familiar with the actual performance of devices that use the AMlogic chipset though so I can't verify whether that GPU is really being "flexed" so to speak. I do know that poor battery life has been a gnawing issue for many devices built around the AMlogic chipset. Hopefully better firmware will lead this to being a phenomenal choice all around.

Tegra II 250 - Harmony - A cheaper, earlier variant of the Tegra II 250, found in lower-cost Tegra II devices. The Nvidia Tegra II is a VERY STRONG performer all around. It is a Dual Core Cortex A9 part. The older Harmony variant is "stuck" at Android 2.2 however.

Tegra II 250 - Ventana - Identical to the "harmony" version (I think) except that this is a newer design and it is found in all the expensive tablets that advertise the Tegra II. It is running Android 3.0 and up without issue.
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MEMORY: AT LEAST 512 MB DDR2/3 - Don't settle for less... The only chipsets (from the list above) that I have seen paired with less memory are the TI OMAP and IMX515 chips.

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TOUCHSCREEN: Capacitive Multi-Touch... NEVER RESISTIVE - People might argue with me on this one, but I have used high-quality resistive touch devices... the experience DOES NOT COMPARE to a good Capacitive multi-touch device. It is worth the money. Don't skimp . If you are trying to choose though, do realize capacitive is "far superior" technology at present.

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BATTERY LIFE: Do some research... DO NOT GET A DEVICE with less than 5-Hours of stated battery life. As a general rule, if the processor says it is a 3.7 volt then it is probably going to get better battery life than another device that has a processor that is running at 7.4 volts with the same size battery (measured in mAh... ex. 3400 mAh). Cortex-A9 is also supposed to be more "energy efficient" than Cortex A8. These are extremely general guidelines though as battery life is affected by so many variables. Research the specific device model you are considering. Search Google, and the forums, and read, read, read . This is a bit of a "hill that I die on" so realize that I speak with some bias as it is an important issue to me personally.

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ANDROID: Only get a device that ships with Android 2.2 (or later) from the factory. Just a decent rule of thumb.

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FEATURES Just a list of "suggested items" that are nice to have but not vital...

1. WiFi-N - Almost all tablets support at least WiFi-G, but a growing handful support WiFi-N and the extra speed and connectivity is a good thing. This is also another "personal hill" for me though as I run a pure-N network at home (and am too cheap to buy another router to setup a "G" network also... lol). So, all my tablets have to at least support "N" connectivity.

2. Blutooth - I don't have much use for it... but you might! Keep an eye out for it as extra connectivity is never a bad thing.

3. GPS - Several devices have this, many don't. It just depends. It is definitely a nice feature to have though and I consider it a significant "bonus" for any device.

4. 3G - Expect to pay anywhere from $30 to $120 more for the same device if it comes equipped with built-in 3G (a sim-card slot). This allows you to put your cell phone carriers sim-card into the tablet and get 3G data connectivity, just like many smart-phones. This is an awesome feature but it can lower battery life. However, it makes your tablet extremely more usable as you are no longer tied to wiFi hotspots for internet.

5. HDMI-out - when it works, it is very cool feature. I have tested many tablets where they have an HDMI-out port, BUT, the firmware is buggy and it doesn't work. Anyhow, being able to connect up to your big screen and using your mobile tablet for some netflix is kind of cool.

6. USB Host port - Okay, this is two-fold. Pretty much all china-tabs support USB host, don't get a tablet that doesn't (USB host allows you to plug in usb devices like thumb-drives and keyboards and mice, just like you do on your pc, and use them with your tablet). Now, something that is really handy. MOST tablets have "mini USB" ports and you have to use an adapter to use USB devices with the host port. Some tablets however have a "full-size" USB host port. This is VERY HANDY.

7. USB charging - Pretty much all tablets come with a power-brick and that is the primary and often only way to charge them. Some tablets, however, support being charged via their mini-USB port. I have found this to be an EXTREMELY useful feature, especially for travelling. Many commercial GPS units and many Smart Phones use the same connection for charging. The voltage is always the same. Also, your computer can be used to charge your device. So, what this means is that if you own a newer Garmin, then you have a car charger for your tablet. If you have a smart-phone with the same adapter, then you have extra wall-chargers for your tablet. This is often a slower way to charge your device, but it is an excellent feature to have as you don't have to always lug your power-block around with you.

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Here are just some thoughts on "screen size and resolution" as there are several and much of it is up to individual preference as to what is "best."

Screen-Size
Suffice to say, you probably don't want to get anything smaller than a 7" device. I actually prefer the 7" widescreen form-factor for its weight, one-handed operation, and portability, but your desires may vary. Other common sizes/aspect ratios are 8" 4:3, 9.7" 4:3 10" Wide, and 10.1" Wide...

Resolution
Screen Resolution has to do with how man pixels are crammed into that 7" or 8" or 9" screen. The higher the resolution between "same size screens" the better. 800x480 is the lowest and most common resolution. 1024x600 is the next and highest resolution for 7" devices though only a handful have it. 800x600 and then 1024x768 for 8" devices (which are often a 4:3 aspect ratio). 1024x600 and 1024x768/800 depending on aspect ratio for larger devices.

Higher-Resolution does look much nicer but it also tends to cost significantly more depending on the device. Just realize that a higher-resolution is a good thing.
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CONCLUSION:

Okay - I hope that covers all the major bases so to speak and really helps some folks make a decision. This should help you "eliminate" a LOT of choices. Then you can come on here and ask about specific models rather than just asking -generally- "what should I buy?" . I wish I had found an article like this when I first was shopping around, it would have saved me a lot of time. I hope it does the same for you!

Cheers,

Roman

http://topnotchtablets.com

P.S. - I operate TopNotchTablets and currently sell two 7" models. One is based off of the NEC EV2 platofrom and the other off of the RK2918 platform. Both meet the "minimum specs" above and also offer a lot of cool features. Neither offer built-in 3G though.

WoPad i7 - 7" Rockchip Cortex-A8 Tablet Review - Part III

2011-09-04T17:17:00.000-07:00

Continuing on with my review... Well, I went ahead and made a product page for this device on my website. I am selling them! I was able to work out a deal with my supplier and was able to set the price at $189 which includes shipping via DHL. I am pretty thrilled but that is all I will say about it. In this final section of the review I cover the device's Screen Quality, Features, Video Playback, Speakers, and Gameplay performance.
Screen Quality - 4.5 Stars
Yeah, this screen rocks! Yes.. it is only 800x480 (dock half a star) but viewing angles are SUPERB and Colors are absolutely VIBRANT. Phenomenal screen. I took a picture of this device next to the RENA3. Now, granted, the RENA3 doesn't look this bad in "real life" as I think my camera may have caught it "just so" and it ended up looking a bit blurry. The RENA3 screen is NOT blurry. However, DO NOTICE THE COLORS. The RENA3 looks "washed out" by comparison when you stick it next to the Wopad i7. The screen is an absolute delight to say the least.

The RENA3 is on the Left, the Wopad I7 is on the Right. As you can see, the i7 has the same resolution and size screen, but the quality is significantly better.

Features - 4.0 Stars
The Positives: (more "+" means it is a bigger deal...)
WiFi-N - ++++
Front-Facing Camera that is actually Decent Quality ++
Full-Size Host USB Port ++++
Charging via the Mini-USB port +++++
Screen protector included +
Working HDMI-Out +++

The Negatives: (more "-" means it is a bigger deal)
No Dedicated Physical Home Button - -
No Bluetooth -
No GPS - - -
No Haptic Feedback -
NO DEDICATED PHYSICAL VOLUME CONTROLS - - - - -

Video Playback - 5 Stars
The RK2918 video playback capabilities are pretty much perfect. That is all that really needs to be said but I will go ahead and say more anyway lol... It plays everything from uncompressed 1080p MKV files to measly low quality AVI's and YouTube HD. Anything that doesn't work perfectly with hardware decoding can easily be watched using software decoding with free players like Moboplayer. Perfect Media device.

On-Board Speakers - 3 Stars
I used a volume booster program to get a bit more from them. Once I did this, they were loud enough... otherwise they were a bit quiet for most things. Also, they are rather "tinny." It is somewhat obvious that they are cheap... At least there are two of them and they are positioned well. Overall, average for a China Tab...

Game Play - 5 Stars
I have tried several different games so far including some fairly demanding games like Samurai II: Vengeance. Every game I have played has gone very smoothly and looked great. The Vivante GC800 doesn't seem to even begin to break a sweat on this device's 800x480 screen. I haven't sampled a wide variety of games though so I can't comment very well on its overall compatibility. From what I have seen though, this is a great gaming machine.

Conclusion
I LOVE THIS DEVICE! In fact... I think I might even like it more than my RENA3. The case design just feels "good" in your hands and the whole thing is pleasing to the eye. The full-size USB host port is SO MUCH more "usable" due to the fact that you don't need an adapter. Wopad was smart enough to include USB charging as well, which is very handy and does at least a little to offset the shorter battey life (vs. the RENA3). The device is NOT heavy even though it has a nice metal back plate. I have changed my mind about my initial comments on the I/O ports. They really don't look bad at all. The strong graphics processor, excellent video playback, solid wifi performance, decent front camera, and beautiful screen ALL ROCK.

My ongoing concerns...
1. Build Quality - The bottom front face of my device is still "popping up" ever so slightly (like it isn't glued down all the way) and I can push on it. The top of the front-face is solid though so I know this isn't just how it is designed. This is very annoying however I need to emphasize that it is also "very slight" and not something anyone would ever notice when looking at the device.

2. Battery Life - I have to charge this during the day, even if it sleeps most of the day. My RENA3 can go a day and half at least if it is just "sleeping". I still think this device is probably significantly ahead of most of the devices based on the S5PV210 7.4v platform though (the Herotab C9 being an example).

3. Longterm Stability of the Current Firmware - I did manage to "crash" it and I had to do a "factory reset." On this platform, a factory reset (I think) reflashes the firmware files which are stored on the device. Anyhow, it fixed my issue. I screwed it up by letting it completely die on battery and trying to start it up immediately after it died on almost no battery. That is when I started having all kind of odd problems to the point that I had to do the factory reset. This was VERY suprising considering how stable the firmware had been up until this point. Also, I could not wake the device screen from "sleep" this morning and had to use the reset switch, this was a first and only though and it hasn't happened since.

That sums it all up

OVERALL RATING: 4.25 Stars
Yeah... .25... because it is definitely better than a 4 but not quite a 4.5 lol. I love this device and I look forward to selling it and using it for quite a while to come. The value for the price is just excellent. Thanks WoPad for giving me some strong faith in RK2918 platform again and for spending the time to make a nice looking STABLE, fast device.

http://topnotchtablets.com

WoPad i7 - 7" Rockchip Cortex-A8 Tablet Review - Part II

2011-09-04T17:04:00.000-07:00

Continuing on in my Review of the Wopad i7. in this section I cover Wifi, Device Stability, and Battery Life...

WiFi - 5 Stars - Stable, Strong Signal

WiFi has been pretty good today. To clarify it is WiFi "N" not just "G". It says this explicitly on the back of the device. This is really good news as I run an "N - Only" network at my house. I was thinking I was going to have to slow the whole network down by changing back to mixed mode while I tested this device. Very nice surprise. It connected quickly with my Network. I think I get almost exactly the same signal strength and distance as the RENA3, which I have always considered decent. I live in a 2 bedroom apartment though, so other folk's use may vary. The real test is if I can sit outside and still get a signal. Which I can. It is feint, but it stays connected and I can skim the internet. I know this is all very subjective but I think I can say with a fair bit of assurance that most people won't be disappointed by the WiFi.

Stability/Bugs - Ongoing testing - 4.5 Stars

Also.. I am impressed by the fact that this thing has been ROCK SOLID STABLE. No crashes, no hangs when waking up from sleep. Today is going to be my first full day of use with it. So far I have used Google Reader (which has a bug that screw up the lettering in article previews, this is specific to this tablet as I do NOT have this issue on the RENA3) and I have played a game. The bug with google reader is annoying to say the least and it makes me wonder about other apps. The built-in Android keyboard not having an "enter" key in some circumstances was NOT GOOD. I am not using the built-in keyboard anymore. For the time, I am docking a half-star for all of this. The WoPad people however should really be commended. It is so rare for a new China Tab device to be so stable and to work so well. For comparison, the RENA3 is still really a "3.5star" device in this area. Overall the RENA3 is stable, but it still freezes on occassion or it can't be brought out of sleep. This is rare, but it still happens enough to be bothersome. I haven't gotten any indication that I will have those kinds of issues with this device. The RENA3 has come a long way though, it was probably more like a 2.5 Star device at release on my "subjective scale of how I feel about things"

Boot times were MUCH slower today. Like around 70 Seconds. This is very noticeable when put next to the RENA3 which boots in roughly 20 seconds. I hit the power buttons on both at the same time, the RENA3 boots much faster. I am not sure why the increase in boot times? Perhaps because I have added an 8gb SD card and installed some apps? This also is why i am docking half a star.

Battery Life - 3.5 Stars

I used the WoPad I7 all day today, on and off throughout the day. I can't seem to find a definite answer on the actual battery size (I have seen everything from 2800mAh to 3400mAh) and my wife has already informed me that, unlike the last device I had (the RENA3) I am not allowed to open this one up. Apparently the RENA3 doesn't feel as "sturdy" as it did before I took a peek inside. Anyhow, I used the device "light" throughout the day and I got 8 hours out of it before I finally plugged it in. I think I could have pulled another half hour out of it doing like internet browsing before it would have completely died. Stuff I did... I probably played a couple of different games (mostly 3D... Jet Car Stunts) for about an hour to an hour and a half today. I also watched a NetFlix TV show for 45 minutes. I browsed the internet and answered emails probably a total of 2 hours. So About 4 - 5 hours of differing use would be my guess with 3 hours of sleep spread out between. The backlight was on the "middle" level of brightness (using the power control widget) most of the time and high brightness for short periods. The backlight brightness seemed to make the biggest difference on how fast it went through the battery.

Compare this to the RENA3 - I can do all of this same activity and STILL have 40 - 50% of my battery. So I would say at worst it gets half the battery life of my RENA3 and at best it gets about 2/3 of the life my RENA3 gets. Now, it might be more efficient than the RENA3 at specific things like video playback, but I really can't speak to this as I haven't done a side-by-side comparison of just straight video playback to see which device will last longer.

Overall, I am pretty happy with the device's battery life. I think it is still significantly better than the majority of devices out there. Especially things like the Herotab C9 that only get like 3... YES 3!?! hours of battery life. What is the point of even having a tablet that has to be plugged in all the time? Anyhow... forgive my rant.

I will report back after a week of use to see if the battery holds its longevity. If it maintains the majority of its battery life after several charge/discharge cycles I think this item will definitely end up on my digital store shelves. I have been absolutely thrilled in the sense that I don't think there is a single other device that you can get for $180 - $190 total cost that provides this kind of value.

WoPad i7 - 7" Rockchip Cortex-A8 Tablet Review - Part I

2011-09-02T21:48:00.000-07:00

Okay, I just got my WoPad device via DHL about 30 minutes ago... My supplier is wicked fast. I ordered on Thursday night and I got today on Monday :). here is a quick rundown on my impressions of everything thus far...

Packaging - Nice... looks professional :), sweet color graphics on the box. Although the picture of the tablet on the top of the box is a different device lol... Overall a plus though.

Accessories - Headphones SUCK! (big surprise... or not... I didn't have any expectations anyhow...) They include a screen protector (and not the crappy pre-installed one, but a separate apply-it-yourself screen protector... this is a plus... of course I haven't tried using it yet :)... Power Adapter... cheap but I am sure it will work. At least it is probably easy to replace :)... USB cable is your standard fare...

I am fairly impressed with this device...

Each of these is out of 5 stars...

Physical - 3 Stars
It is a little bit bigger than the RENA3 all around. Same width, slightly thicker (although I will comment on this in a moment), slightly taller. Despite being a little bit thicker than the RENA3, it actually feels thinner in the hand because of the shape of the device. This is a plus. Also, the back IS NOT PLASTIC... At least it sure doesn't feel like plastic. It is extremely rigid and it isn't glossy. This is a HUGE plus and the main reason it earns 3 of its 3 stars on the physical... Speaker placement is good, hands don't block them when holding the device and the mesh grilles look nice.

a. I/O (input output) Full Size USB port... another BIG plus. No stupid adapter needed to plug in a mouse or keyboard or hub. Just a standard size USB :)... It also has a Micro-USB port to connect the device to a pc... Power Connector... Headphone jack... Micro-HDMI out.... MicoSD card slot. I/O looks a "little" bit cheap. For example, the Full size USB port doesn't match up "exactly" with the outside of the case. I am nitpicking a bit but it is noticeable. However, it is important that I note that it doesn't hinder its function. Also, HDMI-out works, almost perfectly (except the screen on the device goes black but HDMI-out works really well) and this is a HUGE plus in that it seems the manufacturer actually put time into the firmware! Amazing... My only problem is that the connection doesn't feel very secure and if if the cable isn't placed into the device "just so" then the colors on the screen it is outputting to go awry. Overall, the HDMI "loose connection" issue AND the I/O ports looking just a little bit off... I dock half a star...

b. Buttons - Across the top - Power, Menu, Back... I would knock a partial star off for NOT having physical volume keys but I am already docking enough points in the next section and some would argue that physical volume keys are a personal preference. Anyhow, I wish they were there, but they aren't. I also wish the back button was on the front face like pretty much every other android device. It is annoying in that it is on the top edge but, oh well. The buttons all "feel" good and are fairly solid. I think I will eventually get used to the placement of the back button and it won't be that big of a deal. This setup IS probably preferable to the UBER sensitive capacitive buttons on the front of the RENA3.

c. Overall Build Quality - Here is why it isn't a 4.5-star... The front face of the device doesn't feel extremely "secure" with the back aluminum shell. It feel just a tiny tiny bit loose. So, slightly cheap feel on the front... If I "try" to "bend" the device the front face will start to come up at one of the corners... Not COOL... I should note that this only happens if you are actually trying to bend the device... but it isn't taking much pressure. I worry that if I were to say... drop the device from 2 or 3 feet up (like off of my kitchen table) and a corner of it hit the ground that the front face would "pop out" I am only docking 1.5 stars for this as the device overall looks and feels good... But it is obvious that build quality could have been a little bit better... perhaps super glue or stronger plastic snaps would have helped? But then it is probably easy to get into so that might be a plus for the hacking community.

Performance - 5 Stars - Touchscreen response is EXCELLENT. Easily as good as the RENA3. The Android UI is ridiculously smooth. I haven't had much time to test internet browsing yet but I have high hopes based on the phenomenal UI experience. This is what I expected from the first RK2918 device I had but it just didn't quite deliver... I did try out heavy gunner. (I ran into an odd issue with the keyboard where the "enter" key disappeared and was replaced by a smiley key... this kept me from getting into heavy gunner which also has the poor design of requiring you to enter a name into a box that has no "okay" button under it to confirm. So without an enter key on my keyboard and without an okay key in the game I was literraly stuck and had to force a device reboot lol, I replaced the built-in keyboard and this fixed the issue) Heavy Gunner is PHENOMENAL on this device. It is fast, responsive and the graphics look great. That was a BIG complaint I had against the other RK2918 device. Web browsing was NOT as smooth as it could be. This was web page loading speeds AND scrolling/pinch-to-zoom. I haven't used this device enough yet to say yay or nay yet though. The one or two pages that I did look at felt better than how things were on my last RK2918 device but they did not feel as smooth as the RENA3.

...............More to come ---> I am tired of typing and I am waiting on the device to charge up ----> Getting a feel for battery life is going to be important -----> so far I am pretty happy though and this device is probably going to be on my digital shelves at TopNotchTablets in the very near future (as long as battery life checks out...)-------> Did I mention it charges via the micro-USB port!!! Heck yes! That is also another huge plus :).........................

Cheers,

Roman

http://topnotchtablets.com

GOT MY GOOGLE MUSIC BETA INVITE!!! WOOT :)

2011-07-06T19:34:00.000-07:00

Just had to share... this popped in my email tonight!!

I am rather excited and will give a FULL review after I have played with it!

Cheers!

Google Music BETA - Store Your Music in the Cloud!

2011-07-03T22:38:00.000-07:00

The terms "the cloud" and "cloud computing" have been thrown around a LOT lately. What does it all mean? Using someone else's servers to do the work that you would normally have your local computer do. A good example of this would be google docs. If you aren't familiar with Google Docs, it is basically free office software (a word processor, spreadsheet program, and something? else...) that all run from your google account. These programs aren't installed on your local computer (Like Microsoft Office) and, while you have the option of storing the files you create on your local computer, the default is to keep them on Google's servers. This is cloud computing...
Why the term cloud? Most likely because your information could be / is not just on one computer but possibly spread across a myriad of machines. These machines could be virtual or actual, but they are all part of whatever network Google has setup to handle this kind of work.

What is so great about cloud computing? Well, in a "pure cloud" environment, you would no longer be tied to your local office computer. In a perfect world, the specs (or computing power) of your local machine wouldn't really matter all that much either. As long as you have a fast internet connection (the most vital component which makes or breaks this whole deal) all of the rest of the computing would be done "in the cloud." Honestly, I don't feel we are quite there yet... However, cloud storage, has become much more of a reality. Case-in-point: Google Music...

Amazon already offered a form of cloud storage some time back. You can still sign up for this service and get a free 5gb of space that follows you wherever you have a computer and an internet connection. Google, through its current beta, is offering 50 GB!! of free storage AND (this is the cool part) it is currently optimized for "streaming" your music connection to your android powered device.

I recently opened up a tablet sales business (http://topnotchtablets.com). I sell really nice, economical, off brand Android powered devices. A hard combination to find. The one thing that these devices due tend to be limited in is internal storage space. You can always add a 32 GB MicroSD card, but I have 40 GB of audio files : ). The beauty of Google Music, is that your entire audio collection can be stored in that 50 GB of free Google Server space and accessed wherever you can get an internet connection. Hence, your device could theoretically have an unlimited amount of space (if you are willing to pay for it down the road....) or 50 GB of free space as long as you are connected. The music application built into android 3.0 is supposedly able to connect right into Google Music Beta and you can search and play your music.

I signed up for the beta program a few days ago. I STILL haven't gotten an invitation yet though : (. I would encourage you to do the same though. This could be a fun, FREE, cool service and you might just be lucky enough to get an invitation!

You can sign-up here: http://music.google.com using your Google Account.

Cheers!

Windows 7 - Get a Free Copy - Legally

2011-05-13T21:27:00.000-07:00

Okay... I hope the title caught your attention :)... I am going to very quickly show you where to go to get a "free" copy of "Windows 7," completely LEGAL.

I will give you fair warning however and state that this IS a bit of a misleading headline but I think you will still be intrigued...

First: You aren't getting Windows 7. You are getting Windows Server 2008 R2 which is nearly identical to Windows 7 except that it comes pre-packaged with a TON of extra server features and its initial configuration is a bit different. However, you don't need to install any of those extra features that you don't want and after tweaking a few things it looks and acts almost exactly like Windows 7 Ultimate Edition. Theoretically, anything and everything that runs fine on Windows 7 will run just as well on Windows Server 2008 R2.

Second: You ARE getting a "180 Day" trial version which, I believe can be renewed twice for a total of 540 days of continuous use before requiring a full reinstall... But, using a VHD file, I can actually help guide you around having to reinstall all your programs when that expiration date comes up.

So, with those two caveats, you get a completely free, legal copy, of one of the world's best and most used operating systems. Not to mention it comes with full server functionality as well if that is something you are interested in....

Where do you download this stuff? How about Microsoft :)... I told you this was legal!

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/trial-software.aspx

There ya' go.

The more adventurous/tech savvy of you can go ahead and download the ISO files or the VHD and get started. I would like to/plan on doing another article on how to initially set all of this up.

Cheers!

Forays into Ubuntu - Booting Linux from a VHD

2011-05-13T21:04:00.000-07:00

I am always intrigued by the idea of Linux. Don't get me wrong, unlike many people, I actually love Microsoft and I am a HUGE fan of Windows 7. But Ubuntu (especially 11) is pretty darn cool. Do you know what is more cool though? Booting an entire operating system from a VHD (Virtual Hard Drive). That's right, I am not booting a Virtual Machine, I am using the full hardware of my computer system. The only thing that is virtualized is the Hard Drive and its associated interface.

So guess what is even more cool than booting from a VHD... Booting Ubuntu 11 from a VHD! And I have done it successfully! In fact, I am writing this post right now from my computer which is currently running Ubuntu 11 from a VHD file (See Screenshot Below...). So, what is all this VHD stuff about? For a full on explanation, check out this article from Wikipedia. But, here is the short of it:

A screenshot of me writing this article on Ubuntu 11, pasted into this article as I am writing it... Inception? :)

Imagine having a SINGLE file on your physical hard drive that is itself an entire hard drive. Inside this file there is a boot partition, a system partition, etc. Everything is contained within a single file. If you wanted to take your entire hard drive with you, you could simply copy that file to a USB stick and load it onto another machine. If you wanted to have 20 different operating systems or multiple copies of the same operating system to boot into (i.e. multi-boot not just dual boot) you would simply have 20 different files on your hard drive rather than having 20 different physical hard drives -OR- one physical hard drive with 20 partitions. Why is having a 20 files better than having 20 partitions? Because files can be easily deleted without affecting anything else on the system. They can also be EASILY moved from one system to another... Furthermore, they are very easy to backup. Each VHD file is also its own little world. The operating system that boots from the VHD is completely unaware of ANYTHING else on the physical hard drive on which it resides. It has no idea there are 19 other VHD files on your physical hard drive each with its own operating system. Why is this important or interesting? Lets say you wanted to have a computer that was set aside JUST for "playing" with potentially dangerous files like viruses... Because a VHD is a self-contained unit that has nothing to do with the rest of the physical hard drive, it is like a sandbox. No virus can get out (none that are around right now at least). Maybe you really want to open up that forwarded email from your crazy 70 year old aunt who happens to forward just about everything and has been known to unwittingly send a virus or two on occasion. Oh, lets talk about system restores for a moment as well! Instead of taking 2 hours to get your system back up and running from its last backup, how about it only taking 20 minutes! That's right, because you just backup your VHD file on a regular basis. If something gets corrupted while the operating system is running, you just copy your backup VHD file back onto the physical hard drive and boot from it and you are good-to-go. Have to deploy 50 custom copies of an Operating System with multiple installed and configured applications to everyone at work? Easy, the file can be copied over and over and dropped on each new computer as needed. Shew... That was a lot. Suffice to say, booting from a Virtual Hard Drive opens up a world of new possibilities. Oh, and if you own Windows 7 Enterprise or Ultimate edition, the VHD booting feature is built right in... Yeah, it's pretty sweet!

Now, having multiple bootable Windows 7 VHDs is definitely handy... But being able to boot multiple Linux Distro VHDs is just plain fun. You can have Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, Suse, etc. etc. ALL on the same physical hard drive and all on the same physical partition. Now, Linux booting won't work natively with Windows and requires a FREE third party tool called Vboot. Vboot is actually an easy solution for setting up Windows 7 VHD booting as well as Linux. I plan on walking through how I was able to get BlackBuntu and Ubuntu 11 setup in upcoming posts. I hope at this point that I have piqued your interest though!

Cheers!

$200 Android Tablet Battle Royale - Graphics Powerhouse Herotab C8 VS. Processor Powerhouse RENA3

2011-05-09T10:15:00.000-07:00

Written by Roman with Video Reviews and Q&A by Guest Contributor Colonel Zap

The forums over at SlateDroid have been buzzing in regards to the new RENA3 android tablet. Several folks now have gotten the device in their hands and are really liking what they are seeing. The RENA3 features a powerful NEC Renesas Dual-Core Cortex-A9 SOC (from which it gets its name.) However it is hindered (in my humble opinion) by the fact that it is saddled with a PowerVR SGX-530 GPU. On the other hand, the Herotab C8 features the same powerful Samsung hardware found in the Galaxy Tab. The device has a very capable PowerVR SGX-540 GPU but the main processor, while having quite a bit kick, is still only a single-core chip based on Cortex-A8 design. These devices are nearly identical in price and offer a similar feature set. So, while I have been very excited in regards to the RENA3, I have been wondering how it stack up against the powerhouse that is the Herotab C8.

Shortly after releasing our featured written review of the RENA3 comes a new video review by Android Tablet veteran Colonel Zap. The Colonel has released a multitude of high-quality video reviews of different Android tablets, several of which have been featured on this site in the recent past. His videos are excellent in that they fully show off actual device usage giving the viewer a real sense of the speed and responsiveness of the tablet.

The Colonel has had the privilege of spending some time with both the RENA3 AND the much loved HeroTab C8. He has done a full video review of each device and we are going to be taking a look at those reviews in a few minutes. First I wanted to give a run down of the specs for each unit:

AND IN THIS CORNER...

Herotab C8

Processor - Samsung S5PV210 (ARM Cortex TM-A8) 1.0GHz
Memory - 512 MB DDR2
GPU - PowerVR SGX-540
Internal Storage - 4GB
Screen Technology - Capacitive MultiTouch (how many points?)
Screen Size - 7"
Screen Resolution - 800x480
Rotation - 360 degrees
WiFi - B/G
BlueTooth - NO
GPS - NO
HDMI - YES
USB Tech - 2 Ports, 1 Host, can't charge device from USB port
Battery Size - 4500mAh
Microphone - YES
Camera - 1.3MP camera (front)

RENA3

Processor - NEC Renesas Cortex A9 1GHz (2 cores) 533MHz + 666MHz
Memory - 512 MB DDR2
GPU - PowerVR SGX-530
Internal Storage - 4GB
Screen Technology - Capacitive MultiTouch (how many points?)
Screen Size - 7"
Screen Resolution - 800x480
Rotation - 270 degrees
WiFi - B/G/N
BlueTooth - YES
GPS - NO
HDMI - YES
USB Tech - 1 Host Port, Device Charging from USB supported
Battery Size - 3200mAh
Microphone - YES
Camera - 2.0MP camera (front)

As you can see, these are two very similar devices. The RENA3 has WiFi-N, Bluetooth, and a nicer camera, but a smaller battery and it doesn't support full screen rotation. But a video is a worth a million words. Take a look at two of Colonel Zap's excellent reviews:

BRAND NEW RENA3 VIDEO REVIEW BY COLONEL ZAP:

What a sweet device! Let's take a look at the C8!

HEROTAB C8 VIDEO REVIEW BY COLONEL ZAP:

Very Slick!

Q&A with the Colonel
Upon watching the RENA 3 review I noticed a few differences between it and the Herotab C8. Despite the faster processor, the RENA3 seems to have a very slight bit of lag compared to the silky smooth Herotab C8. The is specifically noted during screen rotation but this could simply be due to firmware. The RENA3 is still a VERY new device. The Herotab C8 at the time of it's review, had already had at least one firmware upgrade. I took the opportunity to ask a few questions of Colonel Zap about his own perspective on how each device compared to the other. Here are my questions and his responses:

Q - It seems like the herotab C8's screen rotation was much more responsive, what was your impression?
A - True, the C8 does rotate the screen more quickly. Perhaps this is just a question of the firmware?

Q - How does the visual quality of the two screens compare?
A - I personally think that the Rena Display looks slightly better. The color and brightness look a little better in MY opinion.

Q - Battery capacity on both devices is different, did you notice a difference in battery life?
A - I really can't say, I have never drained the battery on either one of them.

Q - I was wondering about your impressions on overall build quality compared to the HeroTab C8?
A - The C8's built quality is definitely better. The Rena's plasic backcover feels a little "cheap" but it's still o.k. On the other hand, it is WAY lighter than the C8.

Q - How many points of multi-touch does each device support?
A - They both only support TWO touch points.

Q - Do these devices support android market out of the box?
A - They both support the Android Market out of the box but I THINK the C8 won't find EVERY single app by default?! Skype for example... but I have read that there is a tweak to give the C8 full market access...

Q - How did gaming (especially 3D gaming) compare from one device to the other?
A - I really haven't noticed any differences, the games I tested performed pretty much equally.

Q - How well does multi-tasking work on both devices? (running a game AND music at the same time for example...)
A - Again, I really don't think there is much of a difference? I think how well a device multi-tasks is mainly a question of how much RAM it has.

Thanks Colonel Zap for the excellent feedback. I hope this short overview of the two tablets helps you make a decision on which one to buy! Personally, I am still more of a fan of the HeroTab C8 due to the stronger GPU performance which is integral for 3D gaming. However, the RENA3 offer Bluetooth, Wireless-N, USB charging support, AND a powerful Dual-Core Cortex A9 processor which are extremely compelling features! The SGX-530 is certainly capable of 3D gaming as demonstrated by the Colonel's video review and if you only plan on doing light to moderate android gaming I think you would be pretty happy. I am looking to do some heavy 3D gaming on the device which is what pushes me towards the Herotab C8.

Regardless, the future is looking exciting and bright for Android Tablets. I am looking forward to seeing what kind of devices the next 6 months will bring! Perhaps we will finally see the Tegra II come down in cost, which would really shake up the budget market!

In the mean time, keep your eyes peeled for a review of AMLogics rather interesting SINGLE-CORE Cortex A9 SOC which features the rather... mysterious? Mali400 GPU. Another poster is eagerly awaiting a new device featuring this hot new hardware. I can't wait to see what kind of performance the Mali400 GPU brings to the table in a low-cost package!

Want to join the conversation? Check out our RENA3 thread over at: http://www.slatedroid.com/topic/17209-rena-3/

RENA3 - Blazing Fast Dual-Core $240 7" Android Tablet Review

2011-05-06T22:46:00.000-07:00

Post Guest Authored by Tobias Staermose with Forward and Concluding Remarks by Roman

The Tegra II isn't the only game in town anymore when it comes to Cortex A9 processors. NEC recently released its “Renesas” SOC, a Dual-Core Cortex- A9 chipset running at 1 Ghz. Tablets have already shipped with this new hardware. The ~~good~~ GREAT news is that these devices weigh in at a FRACTION of the cost of similar Tegra II devices. Now, with that being said… Do they provide Tegra II performance? No. Despite what some unscrupulous sellers might try to proclaim, these chips can't compete with the Nvidia powerhouse. BUT, they do a pretty amazing job for the budget market. They pump out 1080p video, they provide a PERFECTLY SMOOTH and VERY FAST Android operating system experience. The few tablets available that sport the processor come with 1080p HDMI out, a USB Host port, and several other features that can be hard to find in more expensive name brand components. Today, we are going to discuss one of these exciting new devices.

Enter the RENA3. The pictures of this tablet look gorgeous; this isn't your typical cloned iPad/iPhone ChinaTab. When it comes to tablets though, pictures aren't really worth a thousand words... Thankfully a friend has allowed me to post his own HANDS-ON review of his experience with the tablet over a 3-day period. Here is what he had to say:

--------------------Hands-On Review Kindly Provided by Tobias Staermose---------------------

Okay, I have been playing with the RENA 3 for three days now, and... I REALLY like it.

First off, the screen is GREAT! It's very bright and the colors reproduction is good. It would be nice if it was a bit higher resolution but for the price this is an excellent screen...

The sensitivity and response time of the capacitive touch screen is excellent, and from what I have seen, as good as they come. I would say, "Fruit Ninja" is a joy to play and it never lags... EVEN when I am playing music at the same time! "Asphalt 5" also runs smoothly, once again, with the music player running in the background! I think this speaks to the multi-tasking power of having a dual-core processor under the hood. Overall, I am extremely impressed with the "snappiness" of the whole device. I have only experienced a very slight lag when the device is really pushed.

One of the first applications I installed was the Dolphin High-Definition Internet Browser. Even on my very slow connection the browsing experience felt quick. I was able to run FOUR tabs without any problems or any slowdown. The system remained very responsive.

On the video front, I unfortunately didn’t have an HD video that I could test, but I did load up an .avi at 640x480 and it was no big deal…

Moving on to one of the things that I found most impressive about this device… the battery. It’s almost too good to be true. After I initially recieved the device, I plugged it in and let it charge all night. I then unplugged it around 9:30 the next morning. I played with the USB host port by charging my ipod through it and transferring some files. I then listened to music using the external speakers for about 1.5 hours and then let the device sleep for an 1 hour. I then got back on the device and browsed the internet for a couple of hours, played a few games and loaded several more apps. I then let it go to sleep again. Around 10:30 that evening I took it out to watch a movie and after about 15 minutes the 15% battery warning came up and 15min later it died. I was very impressed by this. It is worth mentioning that the device CAN also be charged via the USB port. This is definitely slower than using the included power adapter but it is a nice option to have in a pinch.

Now it’s not all good… I felt that the build quality is just OKAY… It’s not an “iPad” but it is nice… The only thing that seemed a bit cheap was the line where the two halves of the outer casing meet. Other than that the device itself feels very solid. I actually love that it doesn’t look like an "Apple", and it’s more like a "real" product not a cheap knock-off from China.

There were a few other minor negatives… The USB driver for connecting the device to your pc is not all that great. In fact I believe there is probably a bug someone should work on. I found that connecting a USB thumb drive to transfer files was faster and more stable than plugging the tablet directly in to my pc… The only other bug I ran in to is that sometimes (3-4 times) it doesn’t want to “wake-up” from sleep and you have to "reset" it. The few times this happened I had to hit the restart button; nothing was deleted.

Overall thoughts… I LOVE this device… the more I use it the more I like it. The few quirks it has can be quickly learned and are easy to avoid. Hopefully they will be fully remedied in future firmware. With that being said, there has been a bonus! I think this is going to be an easy device to hack! I was able to root my device in 10 seconds with z4root?! Now I am looking forward to the community developing some good custom Roms!

Here's a breakdown of How I would Score the Device:

The Pros (On a 3-point scale? –Roman)
+++ Overall Responsiveness of the device (scrolling through menus, apps , touch screen accuracy, etc.)
+++ Battery life
++ Size and Weight
+ Wifi reception
+ Buttons (Getting used to their placement takes some time)

The Cons:
--A few bugs (The USB-to-computer connection needs some work)
- Build quality could be better
- Can’t wake the device from sleep sometimes

That cover all of my thoughts so far!

Cheers,

Tobias Staermose
-----------------------------------------------------

Thanks Tobias for providing a hands-on look at this slick device. It is encouraging to hear that things ran really smoothly on the gaming front. One of my main concerns is that this particular SOC comes with the PowerVR SGX-530 chipset, which does tend to lag behind the significantly more powerful 540 chipset that is paired with the Single-Core Samsung Cortex-A8 SOC found in the Galaxy Tab and HeroTab C8. I would like to see some actual benchmark results down the road comparing the two devices. With that being said, things sound excellent. It is worth pointing out that this device also comes with Wireless-N (based on the specs) whereas most devices shipped from China are only Wireless-G. Finally, I would like to find out some more regarding video playback.

Thanks for reading!

EDIT (06/06/2011):

Interested in buying a RENA 3? The device can be had for only $240 from TopNotchTablets.com:
TopNotchTablets is actually MY new website/online shop. I did a LOT more reading up on this device and was so impressed I decided to buy one for myself. I fell in love with the device but found it frustrating that so many retailers reported inaccurate information and also FAILED to mention how expensive shipping was. Furthermore, most retailers were based in Asia and could be tricky to deal with. Anyhow, this led me to open up my own online business. I established a relationship with two good suppliers in Hong Kong, got a sample device and tested it heavily. My site is NOT the cheapest place to buy this tablet, but I strive to make it the best. Actually, if you are wanting decent shipping (i.e. getting your tablet in a week, not a month) I AM ONE OF THE CHEAPEST :)...

If you are interested in purchasing from me (or just want all the accurate information on this device before purchasing from someone else...), visit my website at:

http://topnotchtablets.com

Normal Price for Tablet + HDMI Cable is $250 (this includes DHL shipping); however if you use the Coupon Code "RomansTech", it will take the price down to $230 for EVERYTHING including FAST Shipping...

If you PREFER; here is the link to buy from MERIMOBILES. There base price is $217 and it does include shipping. BUT, they use the cheaper EMS or Hong Kong Certified Air Mail which could take up to 30 Days to get to you. If you ADD FAST DHL SHIPPING, the cost comes out to $232 for JUST the tablet. My deal includes an HDMI cable :)... So, if you want to wait a month and get JUST the tablet, you can pick one up for a little under $220.

http://www.merimobiles.com/RENA3_Android_2_2_Cortex_A9_1GHz_Dual_core_1080p_p/meri0628.htm

Kick Out Wireless-G

2011-04-30T12:44:00.000-07:00

It's time to give Wireless-G the boot! Wireless-N devices are pretty cheap these days and the speed is insanely fast by comparison... Like on the order of 5x faster. If you stream any kind of media, play games, or transfer files over your wireless network, this upgrade could really improve your quality of life! :) NOW, there is ONE caveat if you are going to move things in this direction...

I was responding to a comment today on one of my WDTV tutorials and I felt it justified a post all it's own. If you are going to go Wireless-N you need to Kick-Out ALL wireless-G components or upgrade them to Wireless-N as well. That means: Laptops, Cellphones, Tablets, Media Players, TV's, Toys, Game Consoles and Neighbors who are stealing your internet because you were to lazy to figure out how to secure your network :)... The easiest way to upgrade most components is to buy low-cost Wireless-N Mini USB adapters. I bought an Airlink Wireless Golden-N USB Mini adapter for my wife's laptop. The thing is SO tiny it doesn't cause any problems whatsoever... and here's the kicker, you can get them in even SMALLER sizes now... like the Airlink Wireless-N Ultra-Mini, which I believe might be a bit slower than the Golden-N but the size is incredible! Tablets and Cell phones might be a bit more difficult to work out. In which case you COULD possibly buy and old Wireless-G router and hook it up as a separate hotspot/network for those older devices.

Even if only one device on your network is Wireless-G, your whole network will be throttled down to Wireless-G speeds, even if your router is Wireless-N. This also means that your WDTV, with its wireless-N adapter will be connecting at G speeds and high-def movie streaming won't work real well.

I hope this has saved you all some headache and frustration if you are having trouble figuring out why your supposedly wireless-N network is performing so poorly.

Cheers!

If I Were To Replace My WDTV...

2011-04-28T21:56:00.000-07:00

Keeping it inline with my last post on how much of a "server" you can buy for $400, I ended up hopping on Newegg again today and started putting together a different kind of machine... An HTPC...

Don't get me wrong, I love my 1st Generation WDTV. It works and it works really well considering how much I ask of it. But eventually I DO want to get Netflix and Hulu... and Pandora access would be kind of nice as well. Not to mention a wireless keyboard and mouse for some internet couch surfing. Personally I would like to try out some other cool software too, like XBMC, which is a free Media Center software solution that gets talked about ALOT on most of the major WDTV forums. How about support for EVERY codec under the sun, like those annoy RMVB files that for some crazy reason our 1st Generation WDTV's can't handle...

So, I started to ask myself, if I were to replace my aging 1st Generation WDTV, what would I buy in its place? For a long time now I figured I would replace it with a WDTV Live Plus! This would provide a faster interface, support for a few extra odd codecs and Netflix support. On top of all that, these boxes can be picked up for around $80.

But then it hit me... I am coming up on about 2 years of ownership for my 1st Generation device. I spent about $110 on it. If I picked up a WDTV Live Plus! for $80 or if I picked up the even newer WDTV Live Hub for around $180, I am quickly approaching the $200 mark or the $300 mark for equipment. If I had spent that much money on an HTPC setup 2 years ago, I wouldn't be replacing it today... So, for the "second time around" maybe I should just build an HTPC!

Now the bottom line is that 2 years ago I didn't have $200 - $300 to spend on an HTPC (and I still don't today for that matter but dreaming is fun :)...).

I already have an old slimline micro-atx case that I am not using so I would only really need to buy the internal components... With that in mind, what could I build that would meet my needs and be in the $200 price range? My minimum requirements were; A.) It has HDMI out B.)It can play 1080p Video (streaming and files) without issue and C.) It boots up fast... Bearing those in mind, here is what I was able to throw together. (Once again, I am not affiliated with Newegg, I just do most of my personal shopping on there...)

$55 MOBO: BIOSTAR A880G+ AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard (It has a Radeon 4250 built in which can handle most video without breaking a sweat, it has HDMI-out, and it support "core-unlocking" which lets you unlock the deactivated core found in most low-end AMD processors

$40 PROCESSOR: AMD Sempron 140 Sargas 2.7GHz Socket AM3 45W Single-Core Processor (Low power which means it will run relatively cool, the "Single Core" is a negative BUT a lot of people have successfully unlocked the 2nd core on this chip which can greatly improve its performance, even as a single-core it will have plenty of kick, DIRT CHEAP)

$20 MEMORY: G.SKILL NS 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (2GB isn't much but the budget is extremely tight. I would buy only 1 chip at first and hopefully upgrade a few months down the road if necessary. Unfortunately I won't be able to take advantage of the "dual channel" memory mode which double throughput because I am using only one chip, but I would rather "future-proof" a bit now than throw away 2 1gb sticks later...)

$35 POWER SUPPLY: FSP Group FSP300-60GHT 300W TFX12V 80 PLUS Certified (TFX is the "odd" formfactor that will hopefully fit in my old slimline micro-atx case, FSP makes one hell of a power supply, 80 Plus Certified means it runs cool and is very efficient, all of which is very important in an HTPC which will often be in a cramped space and running all the time...)

$50 HARD DRIVE: Kingston SSDNow S100 16gb SATA II (This is the "gem" of the hardware selection and the device that will make this machine feel a whole lot faster than what it really is. 16gb is hardly any space at all but should be enough to hold Windows 7 and any media center software of my choice. Why not have more internal storage you ask? Because all of my media is stored on a server and can be shared wirelessly over the network. Furthermore, I still have a 1.5 TB external hard drive that has the rest of my media on it that I am currently using for my WDTV's local storage. With that being said, I opted for a 16 GB, hyper-fast SSD which will allow for much shorter boot-times than a regular hard drive and should last a great deal longer. What is so great is that this technology has come so far down in price over the last 2 years. This device supports "TRIM" which is important for the longevity of an SSD. This is the component I would get most excited about!...)

-----------------
$200 TOTAL

So that's the list... There is no CD/DVD drive. I would possibly add that on later but for the most part we don't really watch DVDs any more. I would probably just hold-out until blu-ray drives drop even more as the system has all the necessary components for smooth playback. I already have an older wireless keyboard and mouse which would work nicely in the living room.

If I can scratch the money together for this little project you may end up seeing a "How to Build a Dirt Cheap HTPC" article series on here next!

Cheers!

How Much Hardware Can You Pack Into A Home Server for Under $400?

2011-04-28T09:43:00.000-07:00

I am going to keep this post short and sweet. Here is my pick of hardware, (What I feel is the best bang for your buck) for a home server. I will put together a $400 base build and I will list some extra's you might want to pick up if you have the cash..

CASE $30: APEX PC-389-C Black Steel ATX (no frills case, had to go cheap... but there is plenty of room for modest upgrades down the road...)

PSU $40: Rosewill Stallion Series RD400-2-SB 400W (400w may not seem like a lot but this should handle our system just fine. You could even upgrade to a middle-weight graphics card down the road and be ok)

MOBO $105: GIGABYTE GA-880GMA-USB3 AM3+ (more expensive than what I would normally spend on a mobo but it has an AM3+ slot on it which means you can upgrade your proc in a year or two to AMDs hot new "bulldozer" processor line which is coming out in about 6 months. Furthermore, the onboard GPU is beefy enough for at least some light gaming. You won't be running Crysis 2 anytime soon but World of Warcraft should be okay...)

MEMORY $70: G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2x4GB) (the cheapest 8 Gigs of memory I could find, and you can add another 8 gigs later on)

PROCESSOR $115: AMD Phenom II X4 925 Deneb 2.8GHz (my original idea was too buy a dual core phenom and unlock the other two processor but this is a much more stable option. Plenty fast and 4 cores is great for a server...)

HARD DRIVE $40: Seagate Barracuda ST3500413AS 500GB (cheap and 500GB is "enough" storage for now, if you have the extra cash, buy two more of these drives. Having 3 separate drives would be great for running Virtual Machines later on)

Total Price (all prices above include shipping costs): $400 exactly :) - So not quite "under" $400 but close enough.

Have an Extra $70 to throw at this machine? Here are a few proposed upgrades...

PSU $50: FSP Group SAGA+ 400R 400W ATX12V (same output? hardly... FSP Group makes some of THE BEST power supply units. This product should be stable and run for years to come. Not to mention it can handle a heavier load than the PSU in the first build, even though they are rated the same...)

CASE $50: Xigmatek ASGARD II (for only $20 more you get about $50 more in features. Much nicer looking case, tool-less, great cooling, still a budget case with a few drawbacks but it is an extremely nice case for the price...)

HARD DRIVE x2 $80: Seagate Barracuda ST3500413AS 500GB (Don't buy a bigger hard drive, rather add a second identical hard drive... You have several options if you do this... If you leave this computer to be a server and want more security, you can make the 2nd hard drive "mirror" or be an exact copy of the first. That way if one drive dies, you have a second backup/exact copy. If you want more performance, you can "stripe" the drives, this makes them behave like 1 physical drive with 2x the data throughput. Finally, if you want to use virtual machines on your server, splitting them up across two hard drives will give you much better performance than just sharing one...)

CONCLUSION:
So that is my current recommendation for building a low-cost server for your house. Things that aren't included: a monitor, keyboard, and mouse. All of which you will want to purchase if you later decide to make this a regular, extra, desktop computer. However, in the case of a server, after the initial setup, you can simply "remote" in. I am assuming/hoping you have a monitor/keyboard/mouse in your house you can "borrow" for a few days to do the initial setup. After which, those things can be returned to their original owner :) as you will be able to access your server from another computer. You CANNOT game remotely on a server. I will just point that out now. You CAN game on a server operating system, but you need to be directly connected with your own Monitor/Keyboard/Mouse setup.

One Other Note: I am in no way associated with Newegg. I personally buy most of my computer hardware from them because they are a great vendor and do a great job of handling returns, which is rarely necessary. None of those links above are affiliate links or anything like that and I encourage you to shop around as you may be able to find better prices for components on sites like Amazon or Tiger Direct.

EZRSS.IT - A Better Way to Feed TV Shows to Your WDTV

2011-04-26T21:55:00.000-07:00

Not too long ago I did a tutorial on How To Setup Bittorrent to Automatically Download Your Favorite TV Shows & Share Them With Your WDTV. In that tutorial I used the popular torrent site KickAssTorrents.com to create a filtered RSS feed for a TV show that you could use with uTorrent. However, filtering your search results on KickAssTorrents can be a bit of a pain.

At the time, I wanted to use EZRSS.IT for the tutorial instead, but the website had been down for an extended period of time. The website is now back up and I wanted to write a quick post to "append" to the original tutorial as a better solution for content downloading. So here is how it works...

[EDIT]

At the time of this writing, 04/26/2011, the site is still having problems... EZRSS now comes up but their torrent hosting site still seems to be down as torrents won't download from the links they provide. Keep trying it because this really is a much better method if they get the site working again....

As of today, 04/27/2011, everything is working!

[EDIT]

1. Go To http://EZRSS.IT

2. Type in the name of the show you want and click "search" (I will use the example of "Sanctuary" again)

3. You can then further filter the results using the next set of search boxes that come up if you want.

4. Once you get a list of episodes that looks complete (there may be duplicate episodes but remember that uTorrent can filter those out) click "Search-based RSS Feed"

5. Copy the webpage URL Address from your browsers address bar.

6. Open up uTorrent

7. Left click on "Feeds" in the left hand pane and then click on the "Add RSS Feed" button from the banner menu up top.

8. Set your Feed Up using settings similar to the ones shown below and using the webpage URL in the Feed URL box.

9. Click the "OK" button and you are good to go!

Enjoy and remember to download responsibly!

A Brief Reminder: You should have a Windows Share that your WDTV can access. You should have a folder inside that share called something like "New Content." Your default download location in uTorrent should be set to that "New Content" folder. As soon as shows are done downloading they will be available to watch on your WDTV over the network. See the original bittorrent tutorial (linked in the first sentence of this article) for a more in depth explanation...

Three Home Server Options

2011-04-26T09:07:00.000-07:00

When building any kind of computer, the first task is deciding on what hardware to purchase. There are several different routes you can take when it comes to building/buying a home server. I have listed what I consider to be the three most common options.

The first, and perhaps cheapest, is to buy a pre-built server from HP, Gateway, Dell, or any other number of major manufacturers... In most cases these devices will have a dual-core Intel Atom processor at best. They have a low power draw, are relatively quiet, are usually pretty small, and can be found for under $300 if you look carefully. Many of these run a full copy of Windows Home Server and therefore offer quite a bit of functionality in that regard. The downside is that in many cases they don't even have a display adapter; you have to "remote desktop" in to the unit if you want to do any configuration. This also means doing anything that requires a graphics processor goes out the window. No games, no photoshop... etc. Furthermore, the Intel Atom isn't exactly a powerhouse processor which can heavily limit some other functionality. Finally, their often small form-factor, while convenient, doesn't leave much room for upgrades. A better, albeit more expensive, route to take is to look into building your own Mini-ITX machine if you want something in this size with some more kick.

A second option, if all you care about is having shared network storage, is to simply opt for a NAS (network attached storage) device which will hold multiple hard drives in different configurations of raid (for either data integrity or for more speed). If you go this route, ALL you are going to get to do in most cases is serve files. This can also quickly become an expensive option as well. NAS boxes tend to be overpriced in my opinion. They are often VERY reliable though which is something that can't always be said of Windows Server.

A third option, and the last one I will mention, is to simply build a regular desktop computer, keeping the functionality of a server in mind, and install a server operating system on it. This is my preferred option because A.) It is WAY more fun B.) You can easily upgrade the device and can re-task it as a desktop machine later on if you don't want a server anymore C.) You have a lot more control over the price D.) The hardware you get will in all likely-hood be WAY more powerful for the money spent. There are downsides though... A.) Probably more maintenance B.) It's going to be physically bigger C.) It will probably be more noisy than the other two options. D.) It is going to draw more power.

We are going to be looking at building the third option. Money and flexibility were much more important to me, personally, than overall stability and size/noise of the device. Furthermore, something you build on your own can be very stable depending on what you do with it and what components you use when you build it.

What are the most important components of a Server? The processor is first and foremost the most vital component followed in short order by the amount and speed of memory/ram that you use. In the case of a processor, having more cores is more important to a server than to a desktop because a server is much more likely to be performing multiple simultaneous tasks. Having extra physical cores can make a big difference. Furthermore, we are going to be playing with virtualization (running "virtual" computers all on the same device) and if you can give each virtual machine its own dedicated core it makes things run much more smoothly. I will discuss this more in depth in a future article. You still want your processor to have some "kick" and with that being said, I wouldn't settle for anything less than an AMD Phenom II or Intel Core I5. The next article I put together will list out my recommended "pick" of hardware that comes in under the $400 mark. The video/sound performance are not very important on a server but, bearing in mind that you might want to do some other things with this computer, I will keep "upgrade-ability" in view.

Stay Tuned!
Roman

Why setup a home server? My 4 Good Reasons... and Maybe Yours?

2011-04-25T19:59:00.000-07:00

Finding a "place" for your home server
may prove difficult...

In the near future I want to write an article or two on how to build a LOW cost powerhouse home server. But before I do that, someone is going to ask, "Why a home server?" (Or why a server at all for that matter?) The answer to this question could go in a LOT of different directions so I figure I will just give you the reasons why I have a server set up at our house. Other can share their own reasons in the comments if they feel so inclined...

Here we go, my Top Four Good Reasons:

1. For School - this probably won't apply to too many of you but I personally am an IT student. I am learning all about this stuff, and by virtue of that it helps if I have at least some of the stuff I am learning about.

2. For Fun - this item will probably catch a wider swathe of my audience. If you came here to hack your WDTV, you probably would have a lot of fun playing with a server. Granted, another piece of technology to...
suck away your time isn't exactly a marriage & family builder. (unless you are the rare and very lucky individual that is a part of a family of nerds...) But, it is an excellent go-to project when you have nothing better to do or you are trying to procrastinate from something you should be doing...

3. For Central Storage - If you live in my household, there is a lot of writing going on all the time. We both write but my wife is the grammar nazi. I operate off of a desktop computer and she operates off of a laptop. Sometimes I want her to review something I have written before it is finalized. I have also been on the job hunt and I have had her look my resume over about five times. If we had to use a USB drive to share those word documents that would be a lot of back and forth and I strive for ~~laziness~~ efficiency. I keep my resume and other word documents on the server. She has access to them to review/edit and I have immediate access when she is done. But all of that is kind of boring. (I am elaborating a bit on this point because central storage really is THE point of a home server.) You might not have guessed it, but we have a WDTV. Guess where all of our music and videos reside... the server. The WDTV has access to the server and everything runs pretty smoothly. Bittorrent also runs on the server, a much better place for it than our local machines... The laptop can be in the kitchen or the bedroom or the living room and my wife has access to our entire music and video library.

4. For Gaming - Yep, that's right, gaming! I am one of those lucky souls who has a wife that likes to geek it up on occasion. However, gaming on a laptop isn't much fun. Our rather lackluster bank account is a common theme in my writing and I am always trying to do things on the cheap without sacrificing too much on the quality. With that being said, Windows Server 2008 R2 is more or less Windows 7 with a bunch of extra features. My server has a pretty nice processor in it and even though it is using integrated graphics they are still far superior to that of my wife's HP laptop (which gets so hot it warps wood and melts plastic if you try to game on it). Our budget could never justify an extra desktop computer but the server (which was ~~in part~~ mostly bought for school...) Serves its dual purpose well and games like Titan Quest run pretty smooth.

So there you have it, my four reasons for having a home server. Now I would like to hear back from you! Do you have a home server? If so, what operating system are you running? What do you use it for and how do you justify it's existence to the rest of the family? :)

Cheers!

Just to whet your appetite a bit, I plan on putting together a decent media server for under $400 in components running Windows Server. I will show you how to get a free and legal copy Server 2008 R2 (with a few caveats) and discuss setting up multiple virtual machines using Hyper-V. I also plan on going through a few other fun items like how to host your own publicly accessible web-server. (as long as your ISP doesn't catch on and block it!) Stay tuned!

Microsoft Web Platform Installer - AWESOME!

2011-04-25T13:57:00.000-07:00

So, maybe I am a little bit late to the game in talking about this but I just discovered it today. In my humble opinion, getting IIS 7.5 setup (Microsoft's web server software for Windows Server) is a royal pain in the arse! I mean, the initial install is a breeze, don't get me wrong, but anything after that is a bit convoluted... My task, which I thought would be simple, was to install Drupal (a very powerful website CMS - content management system, blogger and wordpress are also examples of CMS's) on my virtual Windows Server 2008 R2 machine. Two days and a whole lot of reading later and I still couldn't get the blasted thing to work!

Back to my original premise, working with IIS is a royal pain in the arse! Apparently I am not alone in thinking this because today I stumbled upon a little tool that made me smile because it addresses my compaint(s)! They call it the Microsoft Web Platform Installer. It's small, free, and OH SO VERY POWERFUL :). This little beauty is made for those of us who want to setup a web server using Windows Server and IIS and don't want to have a brain hemorrhage in the process. What does it do?

After the short install period, you open up the program (we will refer to it as WPI for short) and it gives you a list of common programs/applications/CMS's that web developers and nerds like me. You click the "ADD" button next to anything you want to run and then click the install button and that's it! WPI scans your system, figures out your setup, and installs and configures all the necessary dependencies. It's amazing!

My primary goals was to install Drupal on a complete Microsoft platform using the tools native to Windows Server. This isn't the only option. If you are starting to dip your feet into the waters of web development a friend of mine recently pointed out an amazing website called Bitnami. The folks at Bitnami have made easy to use install packages for various open-source CMS's (such as Drupal). These packages are an "all-in-one" kind of solution, much like WPI. The difference is that they install and opensource server stack (which many of these CMS's are natively built for) whereas WPI is meant for Microsoft Windows Server. This would be my preferred solution if I wasn't already running Server 2008R2 with IIS.

If you are interested in reading more about WPI, take a look at this link:

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2009/06/02/microsoft-web-platform-installer.aspx

How To Setup Bittorrent to Automatically Download Your Favorite TV Shows & Share Them With Your WDTV

2011-04-18T22:16:00.000-07:00

Would you like to have TV Shows delivered DIRECTLY to your WDTV? Can this be done EVEN with a 1st Generation Unit?

YES! But it requires a few more things than just your WDTV and a Television Set...

I have had LOADS of people ask me how to run Bittorrent on their WDTV. This is possible but it isn't very efficient... In my experience, Rtorrent (the command line torrent client that runs on the WDTV) tends to be unstable and will often slow-down (even lock-up) the already somewhat sluggish 1st Gen WDTV. I suggest a different and, in my opinion, better solution...

QUICK ASIDE: My (Personal) Justification for Downloading TV Shows (Feel Free to Ignore)

With services like Hulu and Netflix being locked out of many devices, there are no options for getting fresh television content on our aged (but loved) 1st/2nd Gen WDTV's from... "legitimate?" sources. I often do use Hulu via a laptop and I pay money for Netflix. I find these both to be pretty phenomenal services and I am all for paying money for TV. On top of that, we have satellite tv service available (legally and freely through a family member's work) but cannot install a satellite where we live. With that being said (i.e. my personal and probably insufficient justification), what I will be walking you through is considered by many to be a bit of a "grey" area both morally and legally. The last thing I really want on my site is a big "flame" war (or the MCAA/RIAA throwing a legal fit...) in the comments but if you want to discuss this topic feel free. Just don't hate on (sue) me :)...

------END ASIDE------

So here is what you are going to need...

1. A Computer with a Hi-Speed Internet
   Connection

2. A Home Network that is either A.) Wired
   or B.) Running at Wireless-N Speeds
    Explanation of Basic Home Networking

3. A WDTV with a Connection to Your Network
    How to Network Your 1st Generation WDTV

4. A Shared Folder on Your Network that is
   Also Mounted on Your WDTV
    How To Share Files with Your WDTV

5. An Amazing Free Program called uTorrent
    Download uTorrent

If you are a little lost on any of the items above (especially, 3 & 4), visit the hyperlinks underneath each section. I have already put together tutorials on getting your 1st Generation WDTV setup with a network connection. I have also walked through how to setup a shared folder in Windows 7, however I will talk in more depth about how to mount folders on the WDTV in this tutorial.

So, enough chit-chat, here's the deal...

THIS DIAGRAM ILLUSTRATES WHAT WE ARE TRYING TO ACHIEVE

LET'S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS!

STEP 1 - Download and Install uTorrent
Okay, unlike most of my videos I am not going to hold your hand through all of the different parts of this tutorial. I usually don't have a problem doing as much because I want to make these fairly complicated but cool technologies highly available to all. So, this is the first step and you are going to be a bit on your own...

A. Download uTorrent (use this link or the link above or click on the giant uTorrent Logo)

B. Install uTorrent by double clicking the file you downloaded and following the prompts.
- I will mention that you will want to watch out for this little screen during the installation (make sure no check marks are in any of those boxes, I hate browser bars...)

OK, once that bit is done, the next fun thing we need to do is set aside a couple of folders on your computers hard drive and set them up to be shared with your WDTV!

STEP 2 - Make a WDTV User Account in Windows (this is for Windows 7)
(If you have already been through my video tutorial on sharing a folder with your WDTV you can skip this step)
Okay, you can't use "guest" or open authentication with your WDTV and Windows. You must have a second user account set up in Windows for your WDTV to use for authentication. This isn't very hard to setup...

A. Go to the Start Menu --> Control Panel --> User Accounts and Family Safety --> Add or Remove User Accounts --> Create New Account

B. In the "New Account Name" Box, type in something simple. I recommend "WDTVUSER"

C. Keep "Standard User" selected as the Account Type

D. Hit the "Create Account" Button. Okay, this is going to create the account and take you back to the screen shown above and it should show your new account. Click the new account.

E. Select "Create Password"

F. Now, this is pretty straight-forward. Enter the password you would like to use twice. Once again, I recommend keeping it relatively simple. An easy password would be something along the lines of "paSSWDTV82". The idea is you want it to be all "one word", no spaces, and have a combination of upper and lowercase letters and numbers. A true strong password would include some odd characters but I am not sure what the WDTV can handle so I recommend avoiding things like "$" and "@" for the password for this account. Type whatever you want to use in twice, and then click the "Create Password" button. We are done with that!

STEP 3 - Create a New Folder with A Couple of Folders Inside of It...
A. Go to Start --> Computer --> Local Disk (C:) --> New Folder --> Name the folder "WDTV"

B. Go Inside the folder you just created and create these new folders (without the quotes): "Torrents," "New Content," & "Media." It should look like the picture below when you are finished...

STEP 4 - Share the "WDTV" Folder You Just Created
A. Hit the "Back" arrow button in Windows explorer.
B. You should now be back inside our C: drive looking at the new "WDTV" folder you just created. Right-Click on the "WDTV" folder and select "Properties" from the context menu
C. Go the the Sharing Tab --> Click "Advanced Sharing"
D. Put a check mark in the box next to "Share this Folder"
E. Click the "Permissions" Button
F. Highlight "Everyone" and click the "Remove" button
G. Click the "Add" button
H. In the white box type in the name of the new user we created in STEP 2. Click the "Check Names" Button. It should underline whatever you typed in and perhaps add or slightly modify it in some way. If it does this then you typed it in correctly.

I. Click the "OK" button
J. Now, on the next screen, with your user selected, Put a check mark in the box under "Allow" next to "Full Control" as show below.

K. Click "OK"
L. Click "OK" in the next window
M. Click the "Security" tab
N. Click the "Edit" Button

O. Click the "Add" Button
P. Same procedure as before. Type the name of the new user in the white box. Click the "Check Names" button. Click the "OK" button
Q. Same as before: Highlight the user in the next window and put a tick mark under "Allow" out next to "full control"
R. Click the "OK" button
S. Click the "Close" button
T. Take a breath :) That was a lot of steps. Now your new folder is both "shared" over the network for ONLY that new user AND that new user has full "Security" access at the folder level (Known as NTFS permissions) to access and change any of those files or folders.

---CHECKPOINT---
At this point you should have:
-uTorrent installed on your Computer
-A new standard user created with a password
-A folder on the root of your C: drive called "WDTV" with the folders "Media", "New Content", and "Torrents" inside of it.
-Share and Security Permissions granted to the new standard user you created to access and modify the WDTV folder.
---CHECKPOINT---

STEP 5 - Configure uTorrent to Use Your New Folder
A. Open up the uTorrent program that you installed in STEP 1
B. Go to Options -->Preferences-->Directories
C. Put a check mark next to "Put New Downloads In"
D. In the white box underneath "Put New Downloads In" type in: "C:\WDTV\New Content" (without the quotes)
E. Put a check mark next to "Automatically load .torrents from" and next to "Delete loaded .torrents"
F. In the box underneath of "Automatically load .torrents from" type in: "C:\WDTV\Torrents" (without the quotes) It should look like this:

G. In the left hand menu: Go to "Connection"
H. If you have a router you need to know how to add a firewall exception for the port shown in the box. I you have a relatively newer router and a feature known as "upnp" is enabled, you can try using "Enable UPNP port mapping.
I. Put a check mark in the box next to "Add Windows Firewall Exception"
J. In the left hand menu: Go to "Queuing"
K. Make the settings look like my picture below, take special note of what is "ticked" near the bottom and the "0" out beside of it:

L. Click the "Apply" button
M. Click the "OK" button

STEP 6 - Tell Your WDTV to "Mount" Your Shared Folder When it Starts Up
Up to this point, everything has been "relatively" simple. I am sorry if anyone one of you are drowning :). It has been a lot of information but it hasn't been to hard. Now is when things get a bit more tricky because it is going to involve editing a file on the Thumbdrive you use with your WDTV. But I am sure you can do it! Let's dive in!

A. Open up new text document in Notepad++ (A program that was included in several different software packs that I have for other tutorials including the first one on installing custom firmware, if you don't have it. here is a download link: http://notepad-plus-plus.org/download )

B. Copy the multicolored line of code below (sandwiched between the "---------" lines) directly into the blank text document (you will probably lose the colors, that is fine):
------------
xmount //XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX/WDTV WDTV cifs user=WDTVUSER,pass=PASSWORD
------------

C. Okay, you need to modify that line of code with some information specific to you. Leave anything that is in red alone.

D. The blue"XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX" should be replaced with the IP address of the computer from which you are sharing the files. I.E. the computer you just made a shared folder on.

E. The green "WDTVUSER" should be either left alone if you made your user account above have the same name as mine or it should be replaced with whatever the name was you put on the new user account.

F. The orange "PASSWORD" should be replaced with whatever password you used for the new user account.

G. Here is my completed line for this tutorial:

xmount //192.168.1.101/WDTV WDTV cifs user=WDTVUSER,pass=paSSWDTV82

Of course, your text will be ALL in black and that is okay. The imperative thing is that all of the spacing and everything in red remains the same. Just to be clear, there is a space after xmount a space between WDTV and WDTV, a space between WDTV and cifs, a space between cifs and user=. Those are the only spaces. To be more clear :), there is NO space before or after the comma that separates the username from pass=. I hope that was clear (probably not) but the syntax is very important.

H. Okay, now you need to plug your WDTV thumb drive (the one that has your custom firmware on it and other stuff from my other tutorials) into your computer.

I. On the root of the thumb drive you will see a "net.mounts" file. Right-Click on it and select "Edit with Notepad++ from the context menu.

J. Cut and paste your edited line of code on the last line of the "net.mounts" file.

You code may or may not end up on "line 18", it really doesn't matter. The important thing is that it is in this file somewhere. I prefer to put my "mounts" on the bottom of this file so that I can clearly see them. You may see that this file mentions using a "guest" account without a password. I have NEVER gotten this to work, that is why we are using an actual user account.

K. Save the file, and you are done with the thumb drive and can plug it back into your WDTV. Just don't plug the power cord of the WDTV back in yet.

STEP 7 - Find and Filter a Good Torrent Website RSS Feed
In this step, we are going to find/create a "filtered" RSS feed (in plain english: a list of recent episodes of our desired TV Show for download. The list will automatically update itself on a regular basis) to plug in to uTorrent.

In my example, I am going to use the popular Sci-Fi TV show, "Sanctuary" which was originally freely/legally distributed via bittorrent and is also freely available on Hulu. This leads me to think that this form of distribution is still legal for this particular show :). Let's get started!

There are two predominant Bittorrent websites that I use, http://eztv.it and http://kickasstorrents.com. EZTV is by far my preferred method for getting TV content but their RSS feed is currently down and I want to get this tutorial out is some form or fashion. With that being said, I am going to walk you through using KickAss Torrents.

[EDIT]
I have made an brief tutorial on how to us EZTV for this, which is WAY better than using KickAssTorrents. View that tutorial by clicking here and come back to this when you are done...
[EDIT]

A. Open up http://kickasstorrents.com in a separate browser window or tab

B. In the search bar, type in a search for your show in this format: NameOfShow EZTV
-EZTV also uploads their torrent files to KickAss (KA) so we can use KA's RSS feed but it is harder to narrow the search results...

C. Here is an example of my search for the tv show Sanctuary

D. This search returned these results...

E. The RED arrow in the above picture is pointing to something that I DON'T want in my search results. This is not something I want to download. So I need to refine my search to filter it out.

F. In order to refine your search results, try to look for a "common" word or phrase that is a part of the results that you DO want and not a part of the results you DON'T want. The word "US" (as pointed out by the little GREEN arrows) is an example from this particular search. So, in order to further filter the search results, try running a search again only typing in "Sanctuary US EZTV". This will narrow your results down to what you want.

NOTE: You will see that you almost always end up with multiple versions of the same episode, that is okay because uTorrent is smart enough to filter out double episodes based on the torrent names. More on that in a bit... The main thing is not having odd files (like the audio files in the pic above) showing up in your search...

G. Okay, now we need the actual "RSS" feed, to do this, click on the little square orange RSS button as shown in picture below:

I. This will bring up a page that looks like a bunch of odd code. This is good! It should look something like this...

J. The URL (As denoted by the GREEN arrow above) is our goal. Highlight the URL, right-click on it and select "Copy." Do not close this browser window until we are done with the next step!

STEP 8 - Set Up the RSS Feed in uTorrent
This is it! The final step! This is where the magic happens. In this step we are going to setup uTorrent to automatically download our favorite TV Shows to our shared folder. Hence, your WDTV will be updated with fresh content as it becomes available! You just navigate to the shared folder on your WDTV and start watching!

A. Open up uTorrent and click on the "Add RSS Feed" Button as show in the picture below:

B. In the "Feed URL" text box, PASTE the URL that you copied from your web browser in the last step. Sometimes uTorrent is smart enough to automatically copy this in.

C. Put a checkmark in the tic box next to "Custom Alias" and type in the name of the TV show in the text box next to it.

D. Select "Automatically download all items published in feed" and put a checkmark in the tic box next to "Use smart episode filter" (this makes sure it doesn't download doubles). Your final result should look like this:

E. Click the "OK" button. You are DONE! You can continue adding other shows using the search and filter method above and then using the "add rss feed" button in uTorrent to add another feed.

NOTE: uTorrent will automatically start downloading EVERYTHING in the feed starting with the most recent episodes. If you don't want the last 20 episodes (or however many come up) it would be a good idea to highlight them all, right click, and from the context menu select "Torrent Options -> Remove And -> Delete Torrent + Data" This will tell uTorrent to delete any files or data is has downloaded in the last several second and to NOT download any of the items you have selected. See the image below...

Conclusion
That was a VERY long tutorial and I hope you were able to get it all setup! Just to quickly recap, here is what we did:

STEP 1 - Download and Install uTorrent
STEP 2 - Make a WDTV User Account in Windows
STEP 3 - Create a New Folder with A Couple of Folders Inside of It...
STEP 4 - Share the "WDTV" Folder You Just Created
STEP 5 - Configure uTorrent to Use Your New Folder
STEP 6: Tell Your WDTV to "Mount" Your Shared Folder When it Starts Up
STEP 7. Find and Filter a Good Torrent Website RSS Feed
STEP 8. Set Up the RSS Feed in uTorrent

I am interested in taking your questions on this FUN topic. Theoretically, this tutorial could/should work with ANY networked WDTV device as long as it can see shared windows folders! This is the BEST method I have found for hassle free updating of your WDTV with FRESH content.

Bittorrent can take up a LOT of network bandwidth. If you dig into uTorrent there is a "scheduler" in the advanced settings that we make heavy use of in our household. We set bittorrent up to run ONLY during off-peak hours (like between 8:00pm and 9:00am) so that our internet can run at full speed during the day. I did't feel like getting into setting up these optional features in this tutorial. I would encourage you to dig around as this is one of the more powerful torrent clients!

>>View the Next Tutorial - How to Install Movie Sheets & Thumbnails on Your WDTV>>

<<View the Last Tutorial - How to Stream Videos and Share Files with Your WDTV<<

--View the Full List of WDTV Tutorials --

DISCLAIMER:
Enjoy this awesome setup and remember to support the shows you love by buying them on DVD or paying for cable/satellite! This tutorial is offered up as an alternative way to view content you already have legal access to, not as a method of getting/stealing free television! Download Responsibly! Cheers!

Internet Explorer 9: It's Seriously Serious and Yes I am Serious

2011-04-11T07:48:00.000-07:00

I love my Google Chrome web browser. It has a TON of screen real-estate, it's made by Google (who really has hard feelings towards Google? :)...) and, oh yeah, the browsing experience is LIGHTNING FAST. So I was rather dismayed yesterday when I was forced to load up Internet Explorer to work on a particular aspect of another website. I had to go down to my windows search bar to find the executable for IE because I so rarely use it that I had finally just deleted all of the shortcuts. I disliked it that much!

But what was I greeted by? I was (very quickly) introduced to Internet Explorer 9, and it was nothing like the Internet Explorer (6, 7, 8) that many of us have come to loathe. Microsoft has (finally) gotten seriously serious about its web browser...

(I am secretly a huge fan of Microsoft :)... but I also readily admit that some of there past products have been really poor...)

Here is a lovely screenshot of this new, lightweight (yes... lightweight!), seriously fast browser.

So what is the deal with Microsoft over the last few years? I personally think that Windows Vista was the last straw for the company... They have come out with some extremely "good" products since. Here are the Top 3 that most surprised me:

1. Microsoft Zune HD - Slim, Fast, Sharp, Slick Interface, Amazing Audio Quality, Solid Product all around...

2. Windows 7 - Yeah, it rocks! Extremely stable, great for games, really fast and it looks really good...

3. The Redesigned Xbox 360 - One of the top gaming platforms world wide, I doubt I need to mention Halo... Now in a much sexier case with built-in wireless....

(On the professional end, Microsoft is also gaining ground with products like Hyper-V, which was included with Windows Server 2008 R2, the newest Windows 7 based iteration of their professional server software.)

Conclusion:

Microsoft is back in the game :), granted if you went by market share they were never really "out of the game." But I think they are seriously competing for the hearts of the end-user again and quickly regaining consumer confidence. Way to go Microsoft! Keep up the good work.

Even if you aren't a Microsoft fan (and I realize that many aren't...), IE9 is pushing the speed boundaries for internet browsing and this can only mean that we will be seeing a faster Firefox and a faster Google Chrome in the very near future. It was my impression that Firefox was starting to get a bit bloated before Google Chrome came around and Mozilla has really upped their game since. I am very excited! We are going to see some real strides forward over the next several years involving consumer level technology.

Making Sense of the Android Tablet Market... You CAN Have Your iPad and Pay Your Bills Too!

2011-04-06T09:29:00.000-07:00

I have been doing a LOT of research on Android tablets lately. I really want to buy one and if this website ever actually produces enough (any?) money I will :)... But I am not sure I am ever going to be able to justify $600 for a tablet. That rules out all the big players... i.e. iPad, iPad 2, Xoom, Galaxy Tab, etc. So where does that leave me?

Six months to a year ago I really wouldn't have had any options (in the $200 price range) that were even remotely comparable to say, a 1st Generation iPad, let alone a Galaxy Tab. But technology has come a long way in a short time. The things that made the iPad so magical, namely a quick processor, highly responsive touchscreen with multi-touch and a robust app market, can all be found in relatively low cost units. Android has matured immensely over the last year (some may disagree) and has a fairly robust app market making it a truly viable mobile operating system. Mobile processor technology has taken off with new contenders in the market like Nvidia and new architectures like Arm Cortex A9 driving prices down on slightly older but still quite capable hardware. Finally, and this has been the longest in coming, quality capacitive multi-touch touch screens are now an economical option in the "budget" market.

Now, you won't see a lot of these devices on the shelves at Wal-Mart or Fry's anytime soon. However, if you know which online retailers to keep tabs on, there is literally a "glut" of android powered tablets coming out of China. But you still have to be VERY careful as to what you buy when you are shopping for a China-brand tablet under the $400 mark. A tablet priced at $300 could easily be riddled with older technology and therefore be a much poorer performer than a tablet priced at $200. I am actually shopping right around the $200 mark and I have found, in my opinion, three viable options which fulfill the mantra, "You can have your iPad and Pay Your Bills too."

So what is important in an Android tablet? Here are some specs listed in order of importance:

1. Processor (at least an Arm Cortex A8 based chip)
2. Amount/Type of RAM (Never less than 256mb, 512mb is preferable, DDR or DDR2)
3. Build Quality
4. Touch Screen Technology (Capacitive Multi-touch is a MUST HAVE)
5. Display Technology (Resolution, size, IPS, LCD, etc.)
6. Additional Features (GPS, USB ports, HDMI out, replaceable battery, G-Sensor)

DISCLAIMER
I plan on replacing the firmware on any of the devices I buy, that is one of the reasons why I don't talk about what Android version these devices ship with. The Nook Color is the only device I have concerns about as far as what comes on the device...

That is the list, it isn't exhaustive I am sure, but I want to elaborate a bit on each point:

1. PROCESSOR

I highly recommend this article. It is a review of a particular tablet, but in the intro it does a VERY good job of explaining the different types of mobile processors that are commonly found in tablets.

http://senk9.wordpress.com/2010/11/30/product-review-generic-freescale-imx515-8-android-tablet/

I am actually just going to quote what the author had to say, but I highly recommend you check out his blog :), I was really impressed. If you like my stuff, chances are you will like his.

The earlier models (circa late 2009/early 2010) were generally based on ARM9 (ARMv5) processors, such as the VIA WM8505 (350mhz) and Rockchip RK2808 (600mhz), these offered poor performance which was more frustrating than anything else (think G1). Examples include Archos 7/8 and the Flytouch. Then the next wave arrived on the back of ARM11 (ARMv6) processors such as the Telechips TCC8902 and IMAPX210. These generally ran from 600mhz-1ghz, offering basic GPU acceleration and the ability for devices to run Android 2.1 onwards. Examples include the Barnes and Noble Nook, Gentouch, Wiipad and Zenithink ZT-180 (of which there is a huge community).
The more recent models are based around Cortex A8 (ARMv7) core’s, such as the Freescale IMX515 (of which this review is centered around), and the TI OMAP 35/34/36 range. Examples of devices based on ARMv7′s are iPhone 3GS, Huawei S7 amd Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 devices (such as the Nexus One / Evo 4G / Desire HD). The next trend appears to Cortex A9 devices, such as those based on the dual-core Tegra 2 (such as the Adam), although availability is still scarce."

Understanding the difference in processors is VITAL information when choosing a tablet. THE most important information in my opinion. The processor is going to determine how smoothly EVERYTHING runs. Cheap, crappy tablets that constantly stutter and lag are using old technology processors. I would avoid them like the plague! For that matter, sometimes some of the more expensive tablets use slow outdated processors. Keep an eye on this. The Flytouch 3 is one particular tablet that comes to mind. It has a very "fast", 1Ghz, Arm 11 based processor. It is fast for an Arm 11 but it is a real slouch compared to an Arm Cortex A8. The Flytouch comes with a 10" screen and GPS, but it uses Resistive Touch technology (more on that later). The interface is fairly smooth BUT it is going to feel extremely clunky compared to an iPad or most Arm Cortex A8 powered devices. The tablet comes in at $189. Drop the GPS and spend twenty dollars more and you can get a device that leaves the Flytouch 3 in the dust. I want whatever I get to work REALLY well. I want an iPad experience without the price of a golden apple...

The only tablets that I have seen with consistently smooth performance (i.e. absolutely NO stutter, that is my minimum standard for what I define as smooth) have at least an Arm Cortex A8 based chip. Speed is irrelevant when you are comparing one chipset architecture to another. Even the 1.0ghz tablets (such as the Flytouch 3) that use Arm 11 based chips will often stutter and run slowly.

Here are two good videos showing the performance of a Cortex A8 @ 800mhz vs an Arm 11 also clocked at 800mhz. See for yourself what a difference one processor generation can make. (And the processor in the Witstech is considered a "slow" Cortex A8)

Cortex A8 @ 800mhz (Witstech A81G Capacitive)

Arm 11 @ 800mhz (Flytouch 2)

Bottom line, don't waste your money on anything less than a Cortex A8 chip.

2. RAM, MEMORY

When you are shopping for a device, try to find something with at least 256 MB of DDR memory. Ideally you want 512 MB of DDR2.

DDR and DDR2, very generally speaking, refer to the speed of the memory. Memory has a clock speed, much like a processor, but the difference between DDR and DDR2 is that DDR2 moves TWICE as much information in the same amount of time as DDR. So even if the clock speed is lower, the effective throughput is often much higher. With that being said, most tablets, especially in the $200 price range, run 256mb of DDR memory. Based on what I have seen, as long as the tablet has a strong processor, the overall operation is still very smooth. However, as more programs and web pages are loaded, my guess is that you are going to see a quicker degradation in overall performance.

--QUICK RABBIT TRAIL ABOUT STORAGE CAPACITY--
A lot of retail websites do an incredibly poor job of separating a device's RAM from it's storage capacity. Storage memory is flash memory (or in some cases a small hard drive) where stuff that doesn't change very often is put. Programs are installed in storage memory. Storage ranges from 2 GB to 64 GB. Do not confuse this with RAM. A lot of sites like to list Storage Memory and RAM together, as if they were one in the same. This is a misrepresentation of the specs (sometimes blatant). More RAM translates into more performance, more storage does not. More storage is simply that, more space for stuff.

Some of you may have noticed that I didn't list storage capacity as something I consider vital. Personally, I want a tablet for web browsing, watching some videos, playing music, and reading books. I want to be able to install some fun games and take notes as well. I am not looking to tote my entire media library with me, and more to the point, most android tablets include an expandable micro-SD slot which lets you add more storage space. All three of the devices at the end of this article offer expandable storage. Built-in storage, therefore, is NOT at the top of my wish list...
--END RABBIT TRAIL--

3. BUILD QUALITY

The only way to know about a particular device's build quality is to read reviews. Suffice to say, there are a lot of cheap plastic devices out there. This is a portable device. You are most likely going to be carrying it all over the place. If you have children... well, need I say more? The closer a tablet is to bullet-proof the better. Aluminum housing/backing is definitely a plus, but not very many devices have it. Plastic varies greatly from device to device. Part of it is the "tactile" experience of the device. You want the device to have a certain amount of weight in your hands and you want it to feel solid.

Personally, I also can't stand "glossy" exteriors and screens. They attract scratches and fingerprints. I don't know why the industry hasn't figured this out yet. Textured plastic that has a "soft-touch" or grip to it is nice looking and easy to hold on to. Some devices have this, but not many.

Oh, ergonomics and the "coolness" factor come into play here. When it comes to aesthetics, I, personally, don't want an iPad clone. Most of them are rather ugly : (... Thinness is a good thing too, but battery life and solid construction are better. A unique, slick design to impress your friends is also a plus!

4. TOUCH-SCREEN TECHNOLOGY

Tablet devices are made up of "all screen." Touch is the primary way you interact with them. The screen and the touch technology are very important. There are two major types of touch technology:

Resistive Touch

Capacitive Touch

Capacitive touch is the more expensive, but vastly more preferable, of the two. For example, two devices have the same processor, one has a resistive screen, the other has a capacitive screen, the one with the capacitive screen is going to feel much faster, even if the devices are otherwise identical? Why? Because capacitive touch is much more sensitive and therefore the device responds more quickly to what you are wanting to do. Once again, there are some exceptions to the rule. Cheap capacitive screens can suck and quality resistive touch screens can be pretty decent. Generally speaking though, you want to get a capacitive touchscreen tablet. If you choose to get a resistive touch screen device, be sure to do some heavy reading/research on it first. Capacitive devices have come WAY down in price in the last year though and I would be hard pressed to recommend a unit utilizing resistive touch.

Multi-Touch - Yes or No?

You want a device that is Multi-Touch and you want it to work well. Generally speaking, MOST resistive touch screens are NOT multi-touch. There are a few though. Capacitive touch screens can go either way. Once again, you need to do some research on your device. Make sure that it is "true" multi-touch and not some odd hack. There are a couple of devices out there that claim multi-touch that are not. Be aware of devices that claim multi-touch but then go on to specify that "two finger pinch-to-zoom works." Obviously if a device is full multi-touch, pinch-to-zoom will work just fine. If the retailer/manufacturer goes on to specify this basic feature, it usually means that pinch-to-zoom is the ONLY multi-touch function that works.

5. DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY

Once again, read some reviews :)... There was a device recently released by Viewsonic. A respectable company to be sure. It had great specs, a fast dual core Tegra 2 processor (way ahead of the Cortex A8), a capacitive multi-touch screen, fast memory... and the screen viewing angles were awful... According to most of the reviewers you had to be looking at the device "straight-on" and any deviance from that resulted in the color shifting or the screen looking so dark you couldn't see anything. Wide viewing angles and bright, vivid color reproduction is important, especially if plan on doing much reading. There is a "new" (I say new because it is seeing more use in recent years, even though it has been around for a while) display technology known as IPS. IPS screens have great contrast (more bright, vivid color reproduction), fantastic viewing angles, and higher resolutions (cleaner graphics). They also take less power to operate so you are getting better battery life. Keep an eye out for devices with IPS screen technology, you won't regret paying a little extra for it. The Barns and Noble "Nook Color" is an excellent example of this technology. The higher the resolution (ie. 1024x700 is better than 800x480) the better. If you are getting a device with a standard LCD (which is the most common) just do a bit of research on it beforehand.

Just as a side-note - 7" seems to be the "Sweet" spot for screen size. Excellent portability but also very usable for the internet and video viewing. Also, a perfect size for reading :) if you are looking for an e-reader.

6. ADDITIONAL FEATURES

There are a whole range of items we could discuss here but the "BIG" ones are: GPS, Bluetooth, HDMI out, USB ports, G-Sensor, and replaceable battery. I want a device that has GPS in it :). I don't care so much about blue-tooth. I also really want an HDMI out (it lets your device play Hi-Def video on your flat-screen TV), and at least 1 if not 2 or 3 usb ports. The G-Sensor is also important to me, this is what auto-rotates the screen for you when you turn your device, it also lets you play fun racing games by using your device like a steering wheel. The G-Sensor is a make or break for me :)...

DEVICE RECOMMENDATIONS

Are there devices that have ALL of these features in a $200 package? At this juncture, NO... but there are some that come close. I have compile a list of three devices below, and my thoughts on each of these areas based one what I have read and watched elsewhere:

(5 Star "How I feel about it" rating system)

Witstech A81G Capacitive Touch - $220 - This is a solid tablet with GPS and some unique features...

1. Processor - 3.5 Stars
TI OMAP3 Cortex A8 running at 800mhz (everything runs very smoothly)

2. Amount/Type of RAM - 3 Stars
256 MB DDR - many devices in this units price range come with only 128mb. 256 mb is my bare minimum limit in what I want in a device. 256mb means everything runs smoothly most of the time. You may be limited on the number of applications you can have open at the same time, but that is something you want to monitor anyway.

3. Build Quality - 4 Stars
Solid build quality, Removable battery (big plus), would be 5 stars but it isn't as "sleek" as some other devices. But it is still a very solid, well built device.

4. Touch Screen Technology - 5 Stars
Capacitive Multi-Touch and from what I have read and watched, it works very well! There are several different but very similar Wistech models. Make sure you get the one that explicitly says "Capacitive" in the name.

5. Display Technology - 3.5 Stars
LCD - 800x480 - Pretty standard display in this price bracket, from what I have seen in the videos it looks like it is pretty bright and crisp. I gave it an extra ".5" because, once again going off of the videos, the viewing angles look pretty wide (which is good).

6. Additional Features - 5 Stars - this is where this device shines!
-GPS - Yes and it works well
-Internal Storage - 2 GB
-USB Ports - 2!
-HDMI Out - NO (The only thing that is sadly lacking...)
-Replaceable Battery - YES (I believe it comes with an Extra!)
-Full-fledged G-Sensor - YES (And it works really well!)
-BlueTooth - YES (this is not on very many devices...)
-3G Dongle Support - Can use a 3G dongle for internet anywhere.
-USB Keyboard & Mouse Support - YES
-Camera - NO

7. Additional thoughts: One other thing worth mentioning. I get the impression that Wistech actually supports their devices. The release new firmware fairly often, they respond to customers on Meritab and the fix problems that customers have. Rare behavior indeed :)

Herotab C8/Dropad A8 - $209 - Raw Horsepower! Great Performance, Sleek design. Amazing Value for the Money

1. Processor - 4.5 Stars
Samsung Built Arm Cortex A8 running at 1.0 Ghz
This is an amazing processor for the price. Amazingly enough, the performance is actually smoother than the Witstech device. I only knock it half a star because Single Core Cortex A9 processors are right around the corner and I they are going to set the performance benchmark in this price bracket. Regardless, this is the fastest device in my roundup...

2. Amount/Type of Ram - 5 Stars
512 MB DDR2 - Blazingly fast and plenty to go around. This device has the same processor and memory specification as the Samsung Galaxy Tab. This really is the peak of performance at an amazing price.

3. Build Quality - 4.0 Stars
If I were going on "looks" alone I would probably give this device 4.5 stars. It is very sleek, it has a metal frame and it has a decent heft to it. It feels solid and expensive vs. some of the more poorly built tablets. I knock it though because I don't like the glossy, fingerprint attracting plastic, but more importantly because I have read elsewhere that some of their other devices are not as sturdy as they appear. Now, with that being said, I can't speak for this device in particular. I like the "look" of it probably the most out of all the devices in my line-up but I still have questions about its durability.

4. Touch Screen - 5 Stars
Capacitive Multi-touch - And it works flawlessly based on everything I have seen and read.

5. Display Technology - 3.5 Stars
LCD - 800x480 - Same impression as the Witstech device

6. Additional Features - 3.5 Stars
-GPS - NO
-Internal Storage - 4 GB
-USB Ports - 2!
-HDMI Out - YES
-Replaceable Battery - NO
-Full-fledged G-Sensor - YES (And it works really well!)
-BlueTooth - NO
-3G Dongle Support - Can use a 3G dongle for internet anywhere.
-USB Keyboard & Mouse Support - YES
-Camera - 1 - Front facing - 1.3 mega pixel

7. Additional thoughts: This is probably the stronger of the two devices. GPS is noticeably absent. HDMI out however is a very good thing and this device has the horsepower to support it. Build quality is the only *possible concern I would have. The C9 is coming out in a few weeks, it will cost around $250 and it will have GPS built in as well as a few other features. It also has a much different look but still the same form factor.

Barnes and Noble Nook Color - $250 (new), $230 (used) - Our final entry is lacking in the "additional features" market and it doesn't pass my "no stutter" minimum requirement. But there is more to it than that because it more than likely isn't a hardware issue. Even in view of the stutter issues, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Nook Color because it does have a few outstanding features... Notably, it has the most solid, sleek construction of all them all and an AMAZING screen. Furthermore, it is a name brand device made by a respectable manufacturer and sold by a highly respected retailer.

The Nook Color in this video has been "rooted" and is running Android 2.2...

1. Processor - 3.5 Stars
TI OMAP3 Cortex A8 running at 800mhz (everything should run very smoothly...)

2. Amount/Type of Ram - 4 Stars
512 MB DDR - It is only DDR, but you get 512 MB of it, (everything should run silky smooth with this much memory)

3. Build Quality - 5 Stars
Extremely solid construction in a compact package with a very slick and unique look. The device is manufactured by Foxconn, who does a pretty solid job when it comes to manufacturing computer components.

4. Touch Screen - 2.5 Stars
It has a next-gen Capacitive touch screen but oddly enough there is some question as to whether or not full Multi-touch works on this device? Pinch-to-zoom functions but people have reported issues with other things that a full multi-touch screen should be able to handle. My guess is that it is, once again, a software issue...

5. Display Technology - 5 Stars
Hands-down one of the best displays found in ANY tablet, let alone in this price range. It has a 178 degree viewing angle, high contrast, high resolution, IPS screen. Think, vivid colors, beautiful video, and a pleasure to read on.

6. Additional Features - 2.5 Stars
(this device was intended to be an e-reader so it is a bit slim on added extras)
-GPS - NO
-Internal Storage - 8 GB (although it isn't a big deal to me, it is worth noting that this unit has significantly more storage than either of the other two devices)
-USB Ports - 1
-HDMI Out - NO
-Replaceable Battery - NO
-Full-fledged G-Sensor - YES (And it works really well!)
-BlueTooth - Hardware Supported but Not Enabled (from what I have read)
-3G Dongle Support - ?
-USB Keyboard & Mouse Support - Probably?
-Camera - NO
-It is also worth noting that while all three of these devices have support for Wireless, the Nook Color is the only one to support Wireless-N.

7. Additional Thoughts: This device should sit nicely between the HeroTab C8 and the Witstech as far as performance goes. But, at present, even when the device is rooted, (i.e. the stock e-reader firmware is swapped out for a baseline, unlocked version of Android 2.2) it still isn't as smooth as the Witstech. It has relatively "good" performance (especially when compared to the Arm 11 device in the video above...) but, as things are, the comparatively lackluster experience vs the HeroTab C8 would run me off from this device. With all that being said, the Nook Color has an incredibly strong following and future software/firmware hacks/updates may vastly improve its performance. However, it could also be that it is running at a higher resolution than the Witstech and therefore it requires a bit more "kick" to run smoothly, which software hacks can't fix. This device is something I would recommend if you want a project :), It looks really cool, it is built really well, and it has an amazing screen. These are selling points that the other devices don't possess and that is why I felt I should mention it.

CONCLUSION

I hope this article will help you better navigate the rather muddy waters of the Android Tablet marketplace. If you didn't guess from my reviews, if I were to buy a tablet today, I would go with the HeroTab C8. However, I am going to wait for the C9 to come out and see how it fares. I really want GPS :)...

The Witstech A81G Capacitive and HeroTab C8 can both be purchased from:

http://www.merimobiles.com

I would recommend checking out Amazon if you are wanting to buy a Nook Color.

Good luck, I look forward to hearing your thoughts, critiques and other feedback!

WDTV Product Line-Up and How To Tell the Difference Between Devices

2011-03-28T10:06:00.000-07:00

Okay, based on what I have read and what I HAVEN'T been able to easily find... it seems there is a great amount of confusion regarding Western Digital's media player product line. I want to set the record straight once and for all. Here is the (almost...) complete list of "WDTV" products with their proper names and their distinguishing features... In other words this page should help you figure out what you already HAVE or what you WANT to get :). The irony is that I am "one man" with a blog and Western Digital is a huge company that has an entire marketing department and lots of $$. Why is it that someone like me had to put this together?

WDTV HD Media Player - 1st Generation (Model: WDAVN00)

Distinguishing Features:
This is your base model 1st Generation unit. It has a slower processor than 2nd generation units and a slightly different interface. My Website primarily deals with this unit. Most of the other units have the same physical form factor. The easiest way to distinguish this unit from a Generation 2 unit is by the location of the engraved "HDMI" and other media symbols. They appear on the front-right of the "curved" coverplate of the device, rather than on the top. This unit DOES NOT have an Ethernet Port on the back and Does NOT support the direct decoding of Dolby Digital DTS.

WDTV HD Media Player - 2nd Generation (Model: WDBABF0000NBK)

Distinguishing Features:
This unit is "nearly" identical to the 1st generation model but, as they say, it is what is on the inside that counts. This unit has a faster processor that supports the direct decoding of Dolby Digital DTS content. The most easy way to distinguish this unit from the 1st generation is the Location of the engrave "HDMI" on the top right of the cover plate and the white/silver "WD" logo on the front. It also has the logo for "Dolby" and "DTS" on the top. This units DOES NOT have an Ethernet Port on the back.

(If you have figured out that you have a 1st or 2nd generation player, you may want to hop on over to my first tutorial on how to install custom firmware on your unit to radically extend its feature set...)

WDTV Mini Media Player

Distinguishing Features:
In my opinion this is the "bastard child" of the WDTV product line-up as there are no other devices quite like it released by Western Digital and it is not a true "HD" device (nor does it claim to be). This devices is easily recognizable by its much smaller and more portable form factor. Notably, it DOES support Real Media (rmvb) files, which the 1st generation (and I think all other units!) does not! Besides that nifty feature it is pretty much crippled compared to the other players. It play content at only 480i (DVD quality) which is "upscaled" to HD... Unless you have a large collection of RMVB files and/or must have something in a smaller form factor I would not recommend this device considering how cheaply you can get the other products now.

WDTV Live Media Player (Model: WDBAAN0000NBK; WDBAAP0000NBK)

Distinguishing Features:
This was the first WDTV unit to have support for networking built-in. Identical form factor as the Gen 1 and Gen 2 devices except that it DOES HAVE an Ethernet Port on the back of the unit. Also, the side "vent" panels and back are silver/light grey instead of black/dark grey. It is nearly indistinguishable from the WDTV Live Plus! Media Player aside from its LACK of Netflix and Blockbuster on demand support. It has a whole host of support for other internet services such as YouTube and Pandora (Pandora is only available in the U.S.) I honestly don't know if there is a hardware differentiation between this unit and the "Plus." I would imagine there is some differentiator that allows Western Digital to lock this device out of using Netflix and Blockbuster.

WDTV Live Plus! Media Player (Model: WDBABX0000NBK)

Distinguishing Features:
Netflix and Blockbuster-On Demand Support, (maybe Hulu Plus support down the road? Does anyone know??). Besides support for these services and the model number it is identical to the "live" unit. I even used the same picture :) because Western Digital does...

WDTV Live Hub Media Center

Distinguishing Features:
The newest unit on the block. Things to note. It has a new form-factor. It includes a 1 TB hard drive (and is therefore more expensive). Support for all of the features that the Live Plus! supports. Has a much better included remote control. Has a very nice, new, slick looking interface that includes things such as Weather/Time/Temp. Furthermore, it is my understanding that this unit can be used to stream media files TO other devices on your network (like laptops with Windows Media Player) and has a whole host of other built in features. I am not going to go into depth on this device, others have done a much better job. The included hard-drive is technically non-serviceable (a feature most of us DON'T like...) and I have heard that some user have had some real headaches getting files onto and off of the device. Wireless is NOT built-in but it does support a wide range of usb adapters. It does have an Ethernet Port. Hopefully future firmware updates will make this device a little easier to use. The major complaint was the fact that you can only add files to the internal hard drive by using the network, which can be cumbersome if you have a lot of files. (Somebody feel free to correct me if I am getting any of this wrong :)...). Anyhow, if you can't tell, my next upgrade will probably be to a Live Plus! I am sure this is a decent device if you need the streaming features though not to mention some of the other nice upgrades such as the interface.

How to Restore Your WDTV to Factory Firmware

2011-03-28T09:44:00.000-07:00

B-Rad's custom firmware not working out for you? Having a problem with crashing or locking up? You may want to restore your WDTV to the latest "Factory" firmware... i.e. the firmware that Western Digital has developed and tested as being stable. (Personally, I have no issue with B-Rad's custom firmware but I have had several people request that I put this together and understandably things don't always work the same for everyone and furthermore people have different wants/requirements...)

Well, you are in luck! In this brief tutorial I have provided everything you need (software with the necessary file modifications and easy to follow instructions) to flash your WDTV back to the stock firmware provided by Western Digital. FIRST, as with all of my tutorials you need to download the appropriate software package for this little operation from one of the two links below:

If you have a 1st generation WDTV, download from here:
http://www.filedropper.com/wdtvgen1firmware

If you have a 2nd generation WDTV, download from here:
http://www.filedropper.com/wdtvgen2firmware

If you don't know the difference then read this: http://romanstechhelp.blogspot.com/2011/03/wdtv-product-line-up-and-how-to-tell.html and then download the appropriate package for your device....

Finally, you will also need a blank USB thumb drive... (if it isn't blank, backup everything on it because we are going to be "reformatting" it which will erase all of the data).

OK... now that you have the appropriate package, the instructions going forward are fairly simple...

STEP 1. Extract the contents of my zip file to a new folder on your desktop.

STEP 2. Plug the thumb drive you will be using into your computer. I recommend you unplug all other USB hard drives / thumb drives / storage devices from your computer for the remainder of this tutorial.

STEP 3. Open the "STEP 3" Folder from my extracted software pack and double-click the "usb_format.exe" file. In the "USB Disk Storage Format" tool window that pops up:

a. Select your usb thumb drive from the "device" drop down box (if you unplugged all other drives from your PC, it should be the only option. IT IS CRITICAL YOU SELECT THE CORRECT DEVICE BECAUSE THIS PROGRAM IS GOING TO ERASE EVERYTHING ON THE SELECTED DRIVE. Yes, I accidentally formated my 500 GB external hard drive with this program once and spent half a day recovering all my data! Humorous now but not at the time :)

b. Select "FAT 32" from the File System drop down menu.

   c. Under "Volume Label" name your device WDTVDRIVE (you can also name it whatever you want, just don't put any spaces)

   d. Put a check mark in the box next to "Quick Format"

   e. Leave the boxes next to "Enable Compression" and "Create a Dos Bootable Disk" empty

   f. Double-check everything and then hit the "Start" button. The formatting process shouldn't take very long at all... You can click "close" when it is finished.
.;
STEP 4. OK, now we have a blank, properly formatted thumb drive. Keep it plugged in. Copy the contents (two files for Gen 1 units; three files for Gen 2 units) from the "STEP 4" folder directly onto your Thumb Drive. They should be the only thing on the drive.

STEP 5. Eject and Unplug your thumbdrive from your computer. Power down your WDTV using the remote control's power button. THEN, unplug the power cord from your WDTV. Unplug ALL other USB drives from your WDTV.

STEP 6. Plug the thumb drive into the "side" USB port of the WDTV. Plug the power cord back into the WDTV and wait for the unit to power back on and fully load into the interface.
   a. Once everything has loaded, your WDTV may jump immediately to the proper icon saying that there is "new" firmware found.
   b. If not, navigate to the "Settings" bar and select the firmware upgrade icon and press the "ENTER" button on your remote.

STEP 7. You will be prompted to install the firmware. Select "OK" and hit the "ENTER" button on your remote.

STEP 8. WAIT AND DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING. The system will first reset itself and it will then bring up a progress bar and start to change the firmware. It could take a few minutes, sometimes it can take quite a bit longer. I honestly don't know why it varies as much as it does at times. Regardless, don't freak out and do anything silly. Wait for it to finish doing its thing. It will eventually give you an "upgrade finished" message and tell you it needs to reboot. Hit the "ENTER" button on your remote when this happens, the system will reset.

STEP 9. When the system reboots and loads up again, it will tell you there is new firmware to install. This is not an "error." Your firmware is upgraded, you don't need to go through the process again. But we do want to get rid of this annoying message. SO... turn off your WDTV and unplug it. Unplug your thumb drive.

STEP 10. Plug your thumb drive back into your computer and open it up.

STEP 11. Copy the contents of the "STEP 11" folder directly onto the thumb drive. The system will ask you if you want to overwrite a file on the drive... select "YES" or "Overwrite" or "Replace". The idea is that you want to replace the file on the drive with the file from the STEP 11 folder that has the same name.

--YOUR DONE!--

You can now use this thumb drive for whatever you want, you can plug it back into the WDTV and it should no longer tell you to update your firmware. The firmware that is now installed is the factory stuff. Cheers!

Wireless-N vs Wireless-G

2011-03-25T19:59:00.000-07:00

So just upgraded the last wireless G component in our household to Wireless N.... Now the whole wireless network can run at "N" Speeds. The difference...

To transfer a file over the Wireless network before: Average Speed - 750KB/s

To transfer a file over the Wireless network now: Average Speed - 5MB/s .... WOW...

Why I Started this Site - My (almost an HTPC) WDTV story...

2011-03-22T17:44:00.000-07:00

For those of you who care :) - Here is the (oh so exciting) story about why I started this website....

I debated over building an HTPC (Home Theater PC) for a long time but the $$ was just never there. I "window shop" on Newegg quite frequently and building wish lists has become an enjoyable pass time. When it comes to my tech hobby it seems that I am eternally broke, so I am always trying to figure out what the best bang for my buck is in terms of price vs. power. This is one of the reasons I am a big fan of AMD. However, I could never get something within my "nearly broke" budget regardless of how much bargain hunting and item switching I did on my Newegg wish list. The only reason I could afford to have the PC I am working with now is because my work paid for it, so the idea of having a computer strictly for the living room TV was a bit of a pipe dream.

The first time I came across the Western Digital TV was in a Best Buy. I picked up the box and was rather intrigued by the concept. I had read and considered purchasing similar products online but usually the price was too high, the company was something odd, and the customer reviews had some glaring negatives. The WDTV, however, was from a respectable company and was being sold at an electronics chain store. Reading the box, I quickly realized it didn't fully meet my needs. It was cool in the sense that it could read just about any kind of file format you threw at it and that it had the ability to pump out hi-def video and surround sound audio. Not to mention the thing was tiny and silent. But there was a glaring issue, no network connectivity, no internet, and no bittorrent access. While it was impressive for its price, I didn't want to compromise....

Then my wife's HP laptop VGA out port stopped working... Why is this significant you ask? Because up until this point we had been watching videos by connecting her laptop to our TV via a VGA cable. It was cumbersome and a bit of headache to hook the thing up every time, but it worked and we were broke (a common theme in my writing :)...) so we were content with using it.

----------------------------------------------------- Rabbit Trail
It is at this point I will throw in my 2 cents about HP. They have come a long way since the days when they saved a buck by hard wiring almost everything in their PC's to the motherboard and requiring proprietary parts for everything else. However they are still a "budget" builder and for the past several years their laptops have been absolutely atrocious. In her particular model of laptop they used a heatsink made of what looks like pot metal and the heat pipe only runs to the CPU and not to the video chip (GPU) as well. Furthermore the GPU is on its own piece of silicon which is soldered to the mobo and there is a sizable gap between it and the heatsink which is filled in by what I am assuming is some kind of thermal pad. For those of you who are lost, all of this means that the cooling system looks like it was designed by someone who thought it better to keep the heat in rather than out. I will write another article on how her whole laptop had crashed and she lost all video (no signal to her LCD)and how I was able to find a rather interesting way to repair it involving a blanket and some copper...
-----------------------------------------------------End Rabbit Trail

So with Sarah's (my wife) laptop VGA connection down we had no way to get videos from our PC's to the TV. This brought the WDTV back to mind. It was about 1/3 - 1/4 of the price of what it would cost me to build a low-end HTPC and it could play every file format under the sun, including really demanding hi-def H.264 stuff, without breaking a sweat (or breaking out into flames like my wife's laptop...). It was somewhat of a "desperation" move but it certainly wasn't an unattractive option.

I ordered my WDTV from Newegg and received it a few days later. I plugged in my hard drive via USB, the WDTV scanned it, and voila' I had beautiful hi-def video from this incredibly tiny player on my living room TV. The interface was simple and straightforward so everyone in the house could use it without having to speak 'geek.' And so I was happy for a few weeks.

Then I discovered the online community that is devoted to this small wonder of a box and oh the hours that I have wasted since. You see, the WDTV, and many devices similar to it, runs its own brand of Linux under the hood. Some adventurous and highly intelligent souls developed their own hacked version of firmware for the box which adds network connectivity, wireless support, bittorrent, and the ability to telnet in and add all manner of software. With an investment of time and a heck of a lot of patience I was able to turn this tiny box into (almost) an HTPC. I can't quite surf the internet on it, but it truly is now a small computer.

I am no Linux buff, however, and I spent hours and hours getting the thing up and running. If I had had a clue what I was doing I could have gotten it running well within an hour or two. There are already a lot of resources on the net surrounding this topic. However it has been my experience that most of these resources assume that the reader has a clue about Linux. I had enough of a clue that I could Google my way through... but I wish to save anyone else who reads this blog the headache by making some of the information that I had a hard time finding easily available.

Cheers!

PS - Have you had horrific (and perhaps humorous) experiences with your HP laptop? If so, please share with the group in the comments section. Let's all laugh at our collective misfortune!

Site Re-Design

2011-03-18T10:33:00.000-07:00

So... I am wanting to make more money off of Google adsense (I love to help people and I am a Capitalist! :).... a poor capitalist because I am making hardly anything off of adsense at this point...) For those of you who have been around for a while, you may remember the days I required people to fill out a survey before they could download the files. I made quite a bit more money off of that... BUT... it was a major headache for many people because A.) You had to fill out a survey (duh)... and B.) a lot of people STILL couldn't download the file. I really do want to help as many people as possible with their WDTV frustrations so I opted to try out Google adsense instead. But it isn't working real well. A lot of people come through the site, but hardly anyone clicks on the ads.

SO... What could I do? First of all, I AM NOT GOING AND WILL NOT EVER GO back to survey based downloads. Those simply were too much of a pain for everyone and the last thing I want to cause is more frustration.

Instead... I did another site redesign. I was going for LESS CRAP and LESS CONFUSION... I would like to hear your thoughts as to whether or not I succeeded :).

Here are the changes:

1. New Header - New Graphic up top, less "busy", only the picture of the WDTV (because I don't really talk about very many other devices, and I want people to immediately realize that is what this site is pretty much all about). I also added in some "Roman" helmets for kick :), yeah, cheesy I know...

2. Menu Design - Easier to read, nicer to look at, more obvious on the page. it is now the primary and central means of site navigation ... (see next point)

3. Ditched the "Site archive" that used to reside on the sidebar - why do I need a site archive? Everything you care about is in the top menu, there wasn't anything in the "archive" that isn't in the top menu that was worth reading... I want to get you to your intended information as quickly and easily as possible. Hence, no more site archive, all primary navigation is done from the top menu...

4. The "SideBar" is now on the Right-Hand side and is a bit wider - Why? Simply put, you read from left to right... So the main content should be on the left and you should only ever focus on the right hand side of the page if you need something from over there... like

5. Improved "Search This Blog" function - Find crap faster, you can use the almighty powers of Google to search within this blog quickly and easily from the top-right of the screen...

6. LESS ADs - But you thought I wanted to make more money? I DO! So, now there is ONLY an Ad on the right hand side of the screen. It will commonly appear to the right of in-site youtube videos. The theory is that I WILL make more money because A.) Hopefully Ads in this spot will get clicked more often & B.)Pay-per-click tends to be higher when there are less ads per page. I am toying with putting a banner ad at the bottom of each page but i will leave things as they are for a month and see what happens...

7. Will possibly remove the "PayPal" donation button in the future - I have never received a donation! :) lol... If people arn't using it, there is no need for it to take up screen real-estate and drag your attention away from the content (and the ads :)...)

SO - I think that touches on all the major changes. Tell me what you think! I really do want to know :)... Do you like things as they are now, or would you prefer a different design?

How to Stream Videos and Share Files Over Your Network with Your WDTV

2010-12-26T14:31:00.000-08:00

So you have finished the wireless networking tutorial and have been rather unhappy with me because you haven't been able to do anything useful with it? Well, this tutorial is your answer. I apologize for taking so long to deliver this, but it is here at last!

This tutorial will show you how to take your already networked 1st Generation WDTV and setup files sharing and video streaming from another computer on your network. What does this mean exactly? All of your video files can be stored on one computer (you know, the one with the 2 terabyte hard drive...) and can be streamed to your WDTV over the network. No more need for local storage :)....

GET THE FILES FOR THIS TUTORIAL FROM HERE:

Download -> WDTV Streaming Software Pack

>>View the Next Tutorial - How to Setup Bittorrent To Download Your Favorite Shows to Your WDTV>>

<<View the Last Tutorial - How to Wirelessly Network Your WDTV<<

--View the Full List of WDTV Tutorials --

How to Fix Problems With Your Music Collection - Windows 7 Permissions & ID3 Tags

2010-12-14T15:41:00.000-08:00

THE PROBLEM

So I have been rather annoyed for a long time now with my music collection and Windows 7. Honestly, you would think that with today's tech, and how long id3 tags have been around that everything would just work... but it doesn't.

I use Windows Media Player 12 to watch/listen to my media, I also use the built in library to find stuff. When I migrated to Windows 7/WMP 12 about half of my music collection stopped showing up in the library or didn't have any information/wrong information. This was incredibly annoying. I keep my music pretty well organized in folders on my hard drive, so I had let it go for a long time as I was just using explorer to find and play stuff. Then I tried to edit tags using explorer and I got this error...

I'd had enough... my anal retentive side kicked in and I wanted my media library straightened once and for all... So I started to dig around online and had a hard time finding any solid answers. Everyone had a piece of the solution but I couldn't find an easy "how-to" anywhere... I got my library and my id3 tags fixed, now I am going to help you do the same...

A LITTLE BACKGROUND (skip this section if you already know this stuff and just want the fix)

ID3 tags - Basically, a "tag" for your music files that includes things like the artist, year, title, track #, etc. Media programs, like WMP scan your files and read these tags, they then build a searchable library based off of the information contained within. Several different versions of these tags have come out over the years and the latest version apparently has problems. Any of your music that has the newest version of the tag may or may not have problems with the WMP12. Sometimes tags can get damaged or corrupted which may or may not cause issues as well.

Permissions/Ownership - Perhaps unbeknownst to you, all of your folders and files in windows have permissions associated with them which dictate who can do what. They also have an "owner" who usually has full control over the file (i.e. this user can modify, delete, copy, read, etc.). Everyone else can usually only "read" the file. If your music collection has moved from several different computers or through several different OS upgrades, your old user account from another computer might have the "ownership" of the files. Which means your new user account on your new machine is not allowed to do much else other than "read" the files. You need to "Take Ownership" as the owner has "full control" of the file by default.

THE FIX

This is a two part solution...

A. You need to have ownership of your files in windows...
Go to http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/add-take-ownership-to-explorer-right-click-menu-in-vista/. Read the article and download the file. As explained in the article, the download is a ".reg file" which adds a "take ownership" option to the windows shell right-click menu. Once installed, in explorer you can right-click on the root folder that holds all of your music and select "take ownership"... I am pretty sure that the ownership is "inherited" by all sub-folders and files. As the new "owner" of your music files, you should have "full control" by default and be able to do whatever you wish with them.

B. Fix Your ID3 tags issues.
Go to http://www.mp3tag.de/en/download.html and get the program. It is a very small and completely FREE program which works beautifully. This is how I fixed my library. Follow my instructions and this should completely fix your tag issues:

1. Install the program

edit - After you are done installing make sure that Windows Media Player is completely closed down, not just minimized. You need all of your files to be available for editing.

2. In the program go to the "File" Menu and choose "Add Directory" - Select the root directory that contains all of your music and WAIT....

3. One it is done scanning you will see ALL of your music and the type of tag it has. In my case I had several bad tags and a lot of id3v2.4... This is the "newest version" of id3 tags that I talked about, and it causes problems.

4. Here is how to fix the problem very easily.... Go to the "edit" menu and click "select all"

5. Now, pay attention. With everything selected, in the left pane of the program you will see all of the different tag fields (artist, composer, year, etc.), go to the "comments" tag block and just fill in some garbage... "abcdefg"... (I don't really care a whole lot about comments so I selected this block because if I screwed it up it wouldn't matter.) now, highlight the garbage you just typed (abcdefg) and replace it with this < keep >... Some of you at this point are thinking, we just put back into the block what was already there to begin with... Yes... we did, but the reason we just went through that rigamarole is because the program now thinks that we have changed something on all of the files and will give us the option to "save" the files.

edit - make sure your put "< keep >" EXACTLY as you see it here without the quotes, otherwise you might lose all of your comments on your files (if you care about them). I actually just copied and pasted "< keep >" from one of the other fields.

6. With all of your songs still highlighted go up to the upper left hand corner underneath the file menu and click the little blue 3.5" diskette (why do we still use this for an icon???) to "save" all of your files.

7. Wait... it took mine several minutes to re-save the information on all of my files...

8. Go into Windows Media Player and click your library button... or something... The idea is that you should get WMP to update your library again. You should get a notification of it doing as much in the lower right hand corner. Once again... WAIT... in my case I got back like HALF of my media library which was not there before... This took about 10 minutes or so.

-Total time to fix your entire library ... I would say not more than 30 minutes....

This wonderful little program uses id3v2.3 tags by default, and when it re-saves your information it changes the tag version to this default... that is what we are doing and that is why it works.

Little Victories... WDTV Still Working Solidly with a Wireless Connection.

2010-11-04T16:49:00.000-07:00

When I first networked my WDTV using a wireless connection, I used an old Belkin Wireless-G adapter. It worked fairly well, it would stream standard-definition xvid files (and occasionally a well encoded 720p file) and music without to much issue. However, the longer the connection remained open, the slower my WDTV would get, the interface would just get sluggish. Furthermore, I would eventually lose the connection all together....

Not so with my D-Link DWA-140 Wireless-N adapter! My WDTV has been running for a week straight now and everything is working beautifully. I still have my connection and the interface is still snappy. I can still see all of my network shares as well and my bittorrent RSS feed is still working. I plan on running this for another week to make sure everything is completely air tight, after which I will work on the next tutorial vid which will teach you how to share files using network shares and FTP, both of which are necessary for my method of getting bittorrent up and running!

Good things to come! Keep checking back for the next tutorial release!

P.S. - The latest tutorial (How to Network Your 1st Generation WDTV...Wireless!) just went live today on Youtube. My audience here however, had access a week early! I plan on doing this with all future video releases. So if you check this site out regularly, you will get access to new material and how-to videos first!

How to Network Your 1st Generation WDTV... Wireless!

2010-10-29T17:50:00.000-07:00

It's finally here! The long awaited tutorial on how to network your 1st Generation WDTV with a wireless connection. This is a rather complicated topic and, as such, I only had time to cover getting your wireless connection setup and getting an IP address on your unit. Once you are finished with this video, use the link at the bottom of the page to go to the next tutorial on sharing vidoes, music and files over your network.

GET THE FILES FOR THIS TUTORIAL FROM HERE:

Download -> WDTV Wireless Software Pack

GET THE REQUIRED HARDWARE FROM HERE:

D-Link DWA-140 Wireless-N USB Adapter (I got a great deal on mine ($16.50) USED from here)

(This tutorial and the accompanying files WILL NOT work with any other adapter, I will try to add some additional support later on, but just getting all of this into video was hard enough.)

Please leave comments and questions in the comments section below (as opposed to YouTube).

Finally, once you successfully finish up this tutorial, take a look at the next tutorial on how to share files and folders over the network. This will enable you to stream videos and music.

>>View the Next Tutorial - How to Stream Videos and Share Files With Your WDTV>>

<<View the Last Tutorial - How to Add a USB Hub to Your WDTV<<

--View the Full List of WDTV Tutorials --

-------------------------------------------------------------
CONFUSED BY THIS VIDEO? THINGS NOT WORKING? BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THESE PRE-REQUISITE POSTS AND VIDEOS:

Networking 101 - Eight Things You Need to Know

How to Install Custom Firmware on Your WDTV

Started Working on the WDTV Wireless Tutorial Video

2010-10-28T15:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I started working on my Tutorial video for setting up wireless on your WDTV. As of this evening I am about half-way done. My goal is to have this out to you all by the end of the weekend. I am initially going to launch the video on here for those of you who actually hang around and read this blog.

Hopefully, I will get some good feedback (i.e. the comments section) from you all, work out any kinks, then let it go public on YouTUBE. My goal is to launch it on the blog one week prior to the YouTUBE launch. Call it a perk of being a loyal reader I suppose :)...

Well, back to work. Who knows, I might be able to get this pushed out even sooner!

Cheers,

Roman

WDTV Wireless - Hit a Few Roadblocks

2010-10-26T11:57:00.000-07:00

I ran into a few snags with my new Wireless-N adapter that I have since worked out but have slowed down my "time to press" for the networking tutorial. I want to make sure that everything is relatively stable before I give instructions on how to set it all up. That being said, I am already compiling a software pack which will be made available with the video.

As with my other two videos, I am going to make the process of adding wireless networking to your device as painless as possible for you. However, unlike my other videos, this one is going to require some extra "standard" equipment. It's unfortunate, I know. It wouldn't really be feasible for me to do a tutorial on how to use every single wireless USB adapter out there with your WDTV. There are simply to many variations and quirks when it comes to getting different devices to work properly. With that being said, I have chosen a solid, low cost, easy to configure, Wireless-N adapter (the D-link DWA-140) as the hardware of choice for this operation. If you haven't read it yet, check out my short post outlining why I picked this particular adapter.

Finally, if you are new to a lot of this and need to develop an understanding of general networking concepts, check out my Networking 101 Post; it will make the upcoming tutorial go much easier for you.

Hope all of this prep-work helps! Stick with me for the next week or two and I should have this new video released!

WDTV Wireless Working - Torrents Working!

2010-10-24T11:21:00.000-07:00

I have some really exciting news!

I was able to get my wireless up and running smoothly with my WDTV! Not only that, I can browse through torrents on the WDTV and set them to download all from the OSD (On Screen Display) with the remote!

This is really exciting, as it is completely changing how I use my WDTV!

Thanks to how quick bittorrent is, I can sit down, pick out the latest episodes of my favorite shows and be watching the first episode in as little as 5 minutes. While I am watching, the next several episodes are downloading and ready when I am finished. All accessible through my WDTV. It isn't quite TV on demand but it is close enough for me.

Getting all of this setup, however, was also rather complicated :(... and took me quite a while to figure out.

With all of that being said, I am going to start by making a video on how to get wireless networking up and running.

I will then make a video on how to share folders with Windows 7 via CIFS (which is slower than NFS but much easier to setup and seemingly more stable at this point)

Finally, I will make a video tutorial on how to setup utorrent to work with the WDTV to download videos which are then accessible to the device.

So, for all of you out there like me who are still enjoying your first generation, no-frills box, I have some nice improvements in the works to get all of the value you possibly can from your device.

Keep checking back, great things are sure to come!

Networking 101 - Eight Things You Need to Know

2010-10-21T09:22:00.000-07:00

I am going to be making a tutorial video on how to get your 1st Generation WDTV on to your wireless network. In preparation for that tutorial, I need to start laying some groundwork for those of you who are perhaps "new" to all of this. The goal of this website is to make rather complicated technical tricks (such as modding a WDTV) which are normally reserved for nerds (such as myself) widely available to all (i.e. noobs :)...). Why? Because, I've been there and know how frustrating it is when you can't find easy to follow advice.

So Networking 101... some concepts...

1. The Router - A "magic box" (as I have heard it called...) that lets you share your internet connection with other devices in your house, either wirelessly or via ethernet cable. It also lets your various network devices (just computers in many homes) talk to one another. If you have a windows "shared folder" on your computer that you can access from your laptop, this is made possible because of your router. The router does what is sounds like, it routes information.

2. The IP Address - Every computer... or more correctly, every NIC (network interface card) has an IP address and if you have a home network yours probably looks something like this, 192.168.1.23. More specifically, every device that is attached to your router, either with ethernet cable or via wireless, has one of these. This is how your router knows where to send information on your network. All information is broken up into what is called "packets" and each packet is tagged with the address of the device it is going to.

3. Default Gateway - I also refer to this as a "Gateway Address." Your router is generally passing information "through" itself. So what happens if your computer needs to talk directly to the router? Perhaps to get connected outside of your local network to the internet? Thats where the Default Gateway comes in. It is simply the IP Address of the router. It is usually automatically configured to be the first address on your local network. For example, if your computer has an address of 192.168.1.10 and your laptop has an IP address of 192.168.1.11, then your router's address (i.e. the Gateway address), is probably 192.168.1.1

4. The DHCP Server - IP addresses are not "set in stone," you can change your computers IP address. In other words they are assigned, either by you (i.e. typing it in) or by something else, namely the DHCP server. What does DHCP do? When you first turn your computer on, or turn your laptops wireless connection on, it sends out a general request for an address (think of when you go to Starbucks with you laptop and want to get on their network). A router will get that request, and the DHCP function of the router will respond and send your machine an IP Address it can use to talk with everyone else on the network. So, if you have never had to "type in" your IP address at home (and you are connected to a router), then it is, in all likely hood, being assigned to you by DHCP.

5. Wireless USB Adapter - Not all electronic devices come with network connectivity built-in (such as our 1st generation WDTV's). However, on some devices we can add this functionality by plugging in a Wireless (or wired) USB adapter. The WDTV is one such device.

6. Wireless B, Wireless G, Wireless N - Successive generations of wireless technology. "B" is the oldest and slowest with the least amount of range and "N" is the newest and quickest (at present) with the most amount of range. If you have a Wireless "B" device, throw it away and upgrade... just my opinion.

7. Device Driver - Software that tells hardware components how to communicate. For example, if you have a printer hooked up to your PC and you want to print something to the device, you computer doesn't magically know how to communicate its digital information into the printers machine code needed to put colored dots on paper. The software driver stands between the two and translates. This is also true of network cards, including Wireless USB Adapters, you need software to make it work. Most newer versions of Windows are nice enough to either already have a lot of common drivers built in or even go so far as to go out and download the drivers you need when you plug something new in. So you may have never thought about this...

8. Wireless Security - You don't want all of your data just floating around un-protected do you? That is where wireless security comes in and there are a couple of subpoints here... All of this is configured and setup ON YOUR ROUTER.

   A. WEP, WPA, WPA2 - Different security standards that you can use. The short of it, DO NOT USE WEP, it is very easily cracked. We are going to be using WPA2-PSK (see next)

   B. WPA2-PSK - This version of WPA2 makes things easy by allowing you to use a "network password. This will take your password and run it through a complex algorithm to generate complex encryption for your network. The short of it is, your network will have a password, you will need to know it.

     C. TKIP and AES - Two different types of encryption, we will be using AES

     D. SSID - In short, this is the name of your wireless network, it is what you see (in most cases) when you first turn on the wireless on your laptop and are presented with a couple of networks to connect to. You will need to know this.

       E. SSID Broadcast - This is the option that, if enable, will allow your wireless network to "broadcast" to everyone listening, what its SSID name is. (this is generally enabled by default on most routers). We will want this to be enabled.

     F. Firewall - ... This isn't too complicated but I will need to cover it in another article by itself...

That is all for now. This is probably quite a bit to digest for most folks. Next article I will deal with how to find all of these setting and change them by accessing your router. In today's world, its really not all that bad :)...

I have also made a nice diagram for the upcoming tutorial which might help you see how some of this stuff fits together. Check it out :)

Recommended External Hard Drive for Your WDTV

2010-10-17T07:39:00.000-07:00

I made another post today about keeping your Media Library Turned Off. This reminded me about the massive hard drive I use with my WDTV and how wonderful it is.

I spent quite a while reading many many reviews about external hard drives and what to use with my WDTV. Here are a few of the conclusions I came to about

What I Wanted...

A. I wanted it to be MASSIVE - at least 1 TB... Music, Movies, and especially every episode of Seinfeld ever released... takes up a lot of space.

B. I wanted to be "master of my domain"... In other words, I didn't want the hard drive to come pre-installed with lots of CRAP backup software which could potentially screw with my WDTV and take up space on the hard drive.

C. It needed to look nice, and inconspicuous, because it would be sitting in a very obvious place underneath the telly in my living room. Preferably, I wanted a hard drive with "dim" running lights.

D. It needed to be externally powered... I.E. it has a power block that plugs into the wall outlet... Why? Because hard drives in this category almost always cost less, they also tend to have more space (see point A), and because I didn't want to put a strain on my WDTV by forcing it to supply power.

E. It needed to be quiet... center of the living room...

F. It needed to be reliable... My original 500 GB started to give out me. My WDTV often had a hard time detecting it (from day 1)... it had extra functions and buttons which leads me to attribute those to perhaps being a part of that problem... (I.E. sometimes it would go into "sleep" mode and not wake up)

What I Got

Enter, the Western Digital "Elements" series of hard drives. Guess what... They meet ALL of the requirements above. I bought a 1.5 TB WD Elements drive for about $120.00 roughly 9 months ago. You can now get a 2 TB Hard drive for that price. They also make a portable elements drive, that is NOT what I wanted, nor should you, because they are more expensive with less space (see point D).

I opted for the 1.5 TB (which in reality is closer to 1.3 TB) because I had completely filled my previous 500 GB drive and I wanted more than just 300 GB of extra space.

My new drive has been running now for 9+ months without a single problem. The drive looks gorgeous (matte black) and the only indicator light is a nice bright white one... IN THE BACK... It is whisper quite and will only get a little warm to the touch after heavy use. I was very surprised by how cool it stayed relative to other hard drives I had used.

It is also one of the FEW name brand drives that comes WITHOUT anything on it. Which is wonderful... you plug it in and it works. And the power saving features are non-obtrusive, my WDTV detects it quickly every time.

A Few Minor Cons that Really Didn't Matter

It is only USB 2.0... and my transfer speed is probably an average of 30MB/sec (which isn't bad), and ranges anywhere from 15mb/sec(rare) to 60mb/sec(rare). USB 3.0 is still pretty expensive at this point and I don't have E-SATA on my PC or Firewire, so overall, I am ok with the transfer speed. The initial 500 GB of data took some time, granted, but everything else has been pretty zippy.

No dedicated power button... Some may view this as a con, but I haven't had any trouble as the drive turns on and off when it is supposed to.

So, if you are in the market for a new drive for your WDTV, I am telling you this is the best drive for your money... Believe me, I searched and searched and did lots of reading. These drives had WAY more positives and WAY less negatives than any other drive in this price range and almost all other higher priced drives.

So if you are interested in picking one up, here are the links:

Western Digital WD Elements 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive - $72.99

Western Digital WD Elements 1.5 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive - $94.99

Western Digital WD Elements 2 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive - $119.99

Final Thoughts

As a final note... never, EVER, buy a hard drive used... Hard Drives, in general, are finicky enough as it is (I read a lot of reviews) and while I am usually all for saving some money, this is NOT the place to skimp...

Some of you might respond to my last point by noting that this is a "value" drive... To which I would respond... "Yes," I thought the same thing until I read a number of reviews that rated this drive MUCH higher in reliability than some of the more expensive ones.

Keep Your WDTV Media Library Turned OFF

2010-10-17T06:52:00.000-07:00

The Media Library function... is not good...

This is just "Roman's Opinion" so follow it if you want... but you need to keep your Media Library function turned OFF as a general rule...

What is the Media Library?

Well... in theory, the media library is supposed to speed up operation of your WDTV by indexing all of your stuff. I am pretty sure that it goes off of Meta Tags for your music and videos... although most of my videos don't have Meta Tags and my music is hit or miss. It is what makes the "search" function work, so you might be hurting if you use that a lot and turn this off.

In practice it screws stuff up for the most part, it can really slow your system down and it will take a lot longer to recognize drives that you plug in. It also doesn't behave well with some custom firmware and a lot of extra apps that work with it.

I don't ever use the search function because I keep my folders extremely organized on my drive. I also have a 1.5 Terabyte WD Elements drive plugged in which is about 2/3 full. I don't have networking set up right now so that means I unplug it fairly often to put more stuff on it. Hence, I plug it IN quite often, so the system recognition time is a big deal to me (and it is a big drive with lots of stuff).

Do I ever use it?

Eventually I am going to go through a tutorial on networking the WDTV and setting up shares so you can stream movies and music from another device on your network. The general rule for this is to STILL leave the Media Library "off." However, sometimes for shares to show up, you have to turn it on for a minute or two to force the system to re-detect stuff (that is my explanation at least). But once the shares show up, I turn it back off.

(UPDATE: I have been using wireless networking with my 1st Gen WDTV successfully for quite some time now, I never use the media library function and I haven't had any issues with shares showing up...)

How do I turn it off?

Turning this off is very easy. On your WDTV, from the main (home) screen, navigate to settings, then select "system". Inside of here your will see "Media Library." Select it and set it to "off"

COMING SOON: How to Connect Your 1st Generation WDTV to your Wireless Network

2010-10-16T12:12:00.000-07:00

As of today, I have finally scraped together enough money to buy a Wireless-N USB Dongle for my 1st Generation WDTV.

In the past, I was able to get an old Wireless-G dongle to work with my unit, but the connection would often be problematic. I avoided making any tutorial videos on the subject because I didn't want others dealing with the same headaches I had been having.

I should be receiving my new D-Link DWA-140 Wireless-N USB device in a week or two. I picked out this device because I had read several positive forum posts and success stories from other WDTV Generation 1 owners who were using the device. Many also noted that the P/N and S/N of the device didn't matter so much, they all worked well with the correct drivers.
This is in sharp contrast to many other devices which have the same unit name but often very different hardware under the hood, making the purchase of the correct device really tricky. Finding a device which is easy to come by for everyone is an important aspect of making a tutorial video. Finally, I was also able to pick up one of these adapters, used, for very cheap. (which is a big deal to me because I am always on a budget : )...)

Once I get the device, it will probably be another week before I am sure that everything is working and stable. After that, it will take me another week to make a full "noob proof" video tutorial (no small feat with this particular subject). I had a lot of headaches setting up my first adapter, something which I would like to spare my blog audience :)...

I will make a short post when I get my new device in the mail and then another as soon as I get it working. In the mean time, I will probably start making some short text/picture (maybe video) tutorials on how to access your router, change your security settings, and all that other good stuff, which is required pre-requisite knowledge for setting up wireless access on your WDTV.

In the mean time, if you want to go ahead and pick up one of these low cost (used) adapters, I have linked directly to their amazon page throughout this post and right here.

Crysis Running Smoothly on my Radeon 5770

2010-10-14T19:32:00.000-07:00

So everything on this blog here-to-for has been about the WDTV... and I plan on getting back to that again but I wanted to take a quick break...

I'm a computer nerd, plain and simple, and I like to play games :). However I am also on a "nice" tight budget. So I was pleased to discover that I can finally afford to play Crysis :)...

I recently upgraded my videocard from an ATI Radeon 3650 512mg card to an ATI Radeon 5770 1gb. Like I said, "always on a budget". I have an old rig (as you can tell).

I am currently running Crysis perfectly smoothly (aside from brief stuttering when a level first loads) on Maxed Out settings with No Anti-Aliasing. My saving grace is my small monitor. It's max resolution of 1440x900 is relatively low by today's standards, and I'm OK with it. I was having some major trouble when I first installed Crysis because the big limiting factor on my system is my low amount of Ram. I had smooth gameplay that was constantly interrupted by short freezing because my page file was getting accessed constantly. However, I turned off Aero and bumped all my Windows settings to basic. I also killed a few unnecessary services and shutdown all other programs. I was able to free up a total of 1.3 GB and everything now runs silky smooth and looks gorgeous.

Here is My Current Rig:

Proc: Athlon 64 X2 5200+
Mobo: Foxconn A74MX-K
Ram: 2GB DDR2 800 (I believe it is 800)
Video: PowerColor ATI Radeon 5770 1GB (v3)
HD: 1x300GB Seagate 7200rpm, 1x160gb 2.5" Laptop drive
PSU: PC Power and Cooling 350 watt (that's right... only 350, but it is a good brand)
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate (Student discount :)...)
Sound: Mobo Integrated
Monitor: 17" Hanns.G @ 1440x900

So, for those of you out their running on an antiquated rig like me, I just wanted to tell you that Crysis runs quite wonderfully with an upgrade to one of today's low-mid range video cards such as the Radeon 5770 which I picked up used from Amazon for $130. I've been very happy because it has torn through everything I have thrown at it (like Fallout 3) on my low-res screen.

Oh, and my whole system is running at stock speeds with no overclocking.

There is hope for nerds/gamers on a budget yet :)...

I was originally going to upgrade my Processor next to a Phenom II X2 Callisto but I think I am going to probably go with a 64gb SSD Hard Drive as that will really improve my day-to-day experience. I had also wanted to upgrade my memory... but DDR2 prices are steep these days and I want to upgrade my mobo first so I can use DDR3.

How to Add a USB Hub to Your WDTV

2010-10-11T09:21:00.000-07:00

This is the easiest, and perhaps one of the most useful, new features to implement now that you have custom firmware installed on your WDTV. It is also a great thing to do before you get into some of the other tutorials which will have you plugging in more devices to your unit.

This is ridiculously simple... Take your USB hub and plug it in... It's that easy. There are however a few caveats...

1. Use a POWERED usb hub. I.E. a Hub that comes with a separate power block/cord and doesn't rely on power from the usb port. You might be able to get away with an unpowered hub but you are asking for trouble.

2. The thumbdrive that holds your firmware and any other app bins on it (like the ones from the movie sheets tutorial) should not be plugged into the hub. It needs to be directly plugged in to one of the two ports on the WDTV. So use one port for your Hub and one port for your main thumb drive.

If you follow the above suggestions, most hubs should work. I have a powered 7-Port D-Link DUB-H7 Hub hooked up to mine right now and it works perfectly.

One more note; in the WDTV interface your Hub will show up as one drive/device, but when you open it up all of the drives plugged into the hub will show up as folders.

Hope this helps, feel free to leave questions & comments!

>>View the Next Tutorial - How to Wirelessly Network Your 1st Generation WDTV>>

<<View the Last Tutorial - How to Install Custom Firmware on Your WDTV<<

--View the Full List of WDTV Tutorials --

Q & A - What is a "wdtv.bin" file?

2010-10-05T19:22:00.000-07:00

This is another very common question that I get asked from time to time. Very simply put, the wdtv.bin file holds firmware installation files for your WDTV. When you turn on your WDTV or plug in a thumb drive, it scans the attached drive. If the unit determines from the wdtv.ver file that it should give you the option to upgrade your firmware, it will do so from the contents of the wdtv.bin file.

Points of interest:

1. The version number reported in the wdtv.ver file and the version number of the firmware installation contained in the wdtv.bin file DO NOT need to match.

2. The version number that is installed and reported on your unit is whatever version number is in your wdtv.bin file. (I.E. the wdtv.ver has nothing to do with what version is installed)

Common Scenario:

Q. Roman, I already installed the custom firmware but my WDTV keeps giving me the option to update... why?

A. The custom firmware DID install, but it is a lower version number than what is reported in your wdtv.ver file. You need to edit the wdtv.ver file to show a version number either the same as or lower than the custom firmware... once it has been installed.

So... what are the basics of flashing firmware then? You get a .bin file and put it on the root of your flash drive. You edit the wdtv.ver file (also on the root of the same drive) to report a higher version number than what is currently installed. When the drive with the files is plugged in, the WDTV will give you the option to upgrade and if you go through the upgrade process it will install whatever version of firmware that is in your wdtv.bin file.

Q & A - What is a "wdtv.ver" file?

2010-10-03T07:42:00.000-07:00

I get this question asked a lot so I figured I would make a quick post about it.

The simplest analogy I can give is to think of the wdtv.ver file as an "on" switch.

When you turn on your WDTV is scans all of the USB Hard drives and/or thumb drives that are plugged in.

If your unit is already on, and you plug in a usb drive, it will also scan the drive then.

If, during either of the two above events, it encounters the file "wdtv.ver," it reads the file and based on what is inside the file it will either prompt you to "upgrade your firmware" or not. Or, following the analogy, it will either "turn on" the upgrade function or it won't.

The file itself is very simple. It contains a firmware version number. If the version number in the wdtv.ver file is newer than the installed firmware, it will prompt you to update.

The WDTV.ver file DOES NOT have any effect on the firmware that you are installing.

For all intents and purposes it is a simple text file that affects nothing other than whether or not your WDTV gives you the option to update your firmware.

I hope that helps answer some questions for some folks. Feel free to comment and ask questions. I will do my best to answer :)

I will do a short post on the "wdtv.bin" file later on...

Welcome!

2010-09-27T06:25:00.000-07:00

I recently created a couple of videos for Youtube on how to mod your WDTV. They have gotten a fair amount of attention so I decided to create a website to help folks out with their WDTV's as well as some of life's other tough tech problems :).

I went through a lot of headache setting my WDTV unit up with custom firmware and I wanted to help out others as much as possible. I hope you find everything helpful and wish you the best of luck as you mod this incredible device!

How to Install Firmware on your WDTV Media Player!

2010-09-26T12:20:00.000-07:00

This is a Step-By-Step video guide for noobs on how to flash your WDTV with custom firmware. All of the software used is free and legal. I have put together a very well organized .zip file to go with this instructional video to make it as easy as possible. This Zip file includes EVERYTHING you will need to upgrade your WDTV (1st or 2nd generation) to B-Rad's custom firmware.

First you need to know if you have a 1st or 2nd generation unit. Read this post to figure it out:

What WDTV Do I Have?

Before you begin, you will need to download the appropriate zip file.

Here are the download links for both:

IF YOU HAVE A 1ST GENERATION UNIT, DOWNLOAD FROM HERE:

Download -> WDTV Gen 1 Software Pack

IF YOU HAVE A 2ND GENERATION UNIT, DOWNLOAD FROM HERE:

Download -> WDTV Gen 2 Software Pack

There is one difference when using the software pack for Generation 2, (other than different file names for some things), Ignore STEP 4 on the video, I already took care of it for you :)...

If you download the files, go through the video, and have any questions, feel free to leave a comment in here. I will do my best to respond to questions.

---WHAT NEXT?----

Now that you have your fancy new custom firmware installed, some of you may be asking, "What Next?" To that I ask... Have you ever been annoyed by the fact that your WDTV only has TWO usb ports? I sure have... One very easy to implement feature of your new firmware is its support for USB Hubs. I have a short, easy to read tutorial that talks about how to add one to your system so that you can plug in up to 8! total devices.

>>View the Next Tutorial - How to Add a USB Hub to Your WDTV.>>

If You Need to Revert to Factory Firmware, Read This: Restore Factory Firmware

------DISCLAIMER--------- i.e. the fine print :)
This is for either a FIRST GENERATION WDTV or a SECOND GENERATION WDTV (depending on which pack you are downloading). Not a WDTV Live or a WDTV Mini.
What we are doing today is upgrading the "firmware" on your WDTV box. Firmware is like semi-permanent software that runs or operates your hardware. Most electronic devices have firmware. Firmware can be used for different things, in the case of the WDTV, it is essentially the operating system for the device and the on-screen display. Whenever you upgrade or change the firmware of a device, your risk destroying the device. This is because firmware is stored on in a special "read-only" type of memory in the device. Whereas you can easily install and uninstall "soft"ware, firmware is a bit tougher to change. The process of installing new firmware to a device is called "flashing." What you need to know is that if you screw it up while it is installing or otherwise, it could make your device not work, in which case you have a nice looking paperweight. Suffice to say, it is always a bit nerve racking the first time you do a firmware upgrade on a device. However, if you are careful, you shouldn't have a problem. I have flashed the firmware on my device probably upwards of 20 times now without incident. As a final note, if everything works correctly, the process is reversible in that I have included a legitimate Western Digital firmware and instructions on how to "flash it back" to that.
-----END DISCLAIMER-----

Install Movie Sheets and Thumbnails on WDTV

2010-09-15T12:06:00.000-07:00

THIS IS PART 2!

If you haven't already gone through my first tutorial on how to install custom firmware on your WDTV you must do so now. This will not work with the stock firmware! You must be running modded firmware. That video can be found here:

How to Install Custom Firmware on Your WDTV

YOU NEED FILES!

Also, like my first video I have put together a packaged zip file that includes all of the files and software necessary for this tutorial. These programs and files are all freely available elsewhere but what I have put together is organized and complete. I will be referencing this throughout the tutorial and I recommend that you get it now from here:

Download -> WDTV Movie Sheets Software Pack

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OK, assuming you are running Custom firmware (either ext3-boot or B-Rad's WDLXTV) what we are going to do today is change our OSD (on screen display) to something cool and add folder images and movie sheets (information about the movie or tv show that is displayed when you open it) to our collection. This is a 4 step process.

What you will need (other than what I have already mentioned):

1. A hard drive with media files on it. (from here on will be referenced as "media drive")

2. Your 2GB or larger USB thumb drive that we used in our first tutorial with everything from that tutorial still loaded on it and intact.

3. The aforementioned software/file zip package. As I already noted the direct link for this is in the video description.

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STEP 1: Copy the necessary app bins to your USB thumb drive. These are found in the "Step 1" folder. Then plug it into your WDTV to make sure it all works.

STEP 2: Arrange your videos on your media drive to work with TVIXIE

Step 3: Install TVixie (Found in the "Step 3" Folder)

STEP 4: Configure Tvixie and use it to create folder images and Data Sheets for your media. Then plug you media drive into your WDTV to make sure it all works.

---WHAT NEXT?----

Now that you have your fancy new interface installed which requires you to keep your thumb drive plugged in, some of you may be complaining, "Now I only have ONE usb port available..." Well... to that I say... there is hope! One very easy to implement feature of your custom firmware is its support for USB Hubs. I have a short, easy to read tutorial that talks about how to add one to your system so that you can plug in up to 8! total devices (well, 7 additional devices because one port is now permanently occupied).

Check it out here -> How to Add a USB Hub to Your WDTV.

--Return to the Full List of WDTV Tutorials--

Tech Tips

2010-04-25T17:09:00.000-07:00

Currently a rather short list. I highly recommend the first article if you are trying to get your WDTV networked. It explains some of the basics for the uninitiated! :)

1. Networking 101 - Eight Things You Need to Know

2. How to Fix Problems With Your Music Collection - Windows 7 Permissions & ID3 Tags

3. Recommended External Hard Drive for Your WDTV

4.Kick Out Wireless-G

WDTV Tutorials Complete Listing

2010-04-23T10:37:00.000-07:00

This is a comprehensive list of my tutorials and articles related to the WDTV. They are in the order I believe you should read them in. I hope you find this helpful!

1. What WDTV Do You Have? - THE Product Line-Up and How To Tell the Difference Between Devices

2. How to Install Firmware on your WDTV Media Player!

3. How to Add a USB Hub to Your WDTV

4. How to Network Your 1st Generation WDTV... Wireless!

5. How to Stream Videos and Share Files Over Your Network with Your WDTV

6. How To Setup Bittorrent to Automatically Download Your Favorite TV Shows & Share Them With Your WDTV

7. How To Install Movie Sheets and Thumbnails on your WDTV

8. Why you Should Keep Your WDTV Media Library Turned OFF

9. Q & A - What is a "wdtv.bin" file?

10. Q & A - What is a "wdtv.ver" file?

11. How to Restore Your WDTV to Factory Firmware

The Crystal Ball - Upcoming Articles

2010-04-21T13:26:00.000-07:00

This is a page/article that I am planning on updating regularly. I am going to keep a running list of ideas for articles, new sections, etc. etc. AND I am all for taking suggestions for what YOU would like to see in the comments section of this page. So, without further ado:

Upcoming WDTV Tutorials:

How to Use FTP to Send Files To and Get Files From Your WDTV

How to Control Your WDTV from a Website

Ideas for New Website Sections:

The Android/iOS/? Tablet Market - Explanations of Hardware, Features, Etc. to help you navigate the ever expanding tablet market

Lightwave 9/10 Tutorials - 3D design for everyone? :)

Hacking Your Home Router - Clear Guides Explaining How to Install and Use the Ever Popular DD-WRT custom router firmware

Remote Control Your... Life? - Controlling your home (media devices, garage doors, lights, windows, locks? from a smart phone).

Website Design using Blogger - Blogger/Blogspot is one of the best "free" options available in my opinion for website design. It is very easy to use and a fairly powerful platform. When paired with another program (not free) called Artisteer, you end up with ALOT of design options as well. I want to make a tutorial series so easy to follow your grandmother could do it (almost) :)... I have been using blogger for over 2 years now and I have picked up a few tricks and tips along the way. I look forward to sharing them!

Website Design using Drupal - This is the best "non-free" option for website design. Drupal is a powerhouse platform. I have heard it said that one could build a website like Facebook using Drupal. Drupal itself is free but often time you have to have web hosting (which unlike blogspot/wordpress/etc. is not free). Drupal is very easy to use relative to its feature set, however it has a vast feature set :) and can be a bit intimidating for the burgeoning developer. I want to make a tutorial set so easy to follow your grandmother who already went through my blogger tutorials could do it :)

So, aside from bring the elderly generation along as far as technology and computing goes, what would you like to see out of a "technical how-to" website? I would love to hear your feedback!