…and this weekend.

This has been a slow (and very welcomed) weekend.  Not much going on, save for:

Saturday:

• Finished off the first campaign on Majesty for Android.
• Traded in my Wii at GameStop; It was worth $36 in store credit (with double trade-in value).
• Had lunch with Brian and a few of his friends; they were discussing EverQuest, XenoMiner and a few other geekery related subjects- very enjoyable conversation.
• Wandered around Frys; bought a cheesy Puzzle Expedition game for the 3DS.  It was a pre-owned game for $10- and I guess it was almost worth that amount.  :)
• Started reading book 11 of Wheel of Time series- Path of Daggers.
• Tried to port my blog over to SquareSpace; no luck.
  I concatenated all of my other blogs to WordPress with the intention of migrating over to SquareSpace.  The import hasn’t worked right and WordPress actually seems pretty decent (save for customization costing $30/year).
• Played MineCraft
• Setup my Telescope and took several dozen Moon shots with my Canon T4i; it was a full moon.  :)

Sunday

• Worked out with Shannon
• Downloaded EverQuest II- which I purchased years ago and is now free to play- and played for an hour or so; made it from level 1 to level 5.  Queued up the 14GB full game download.
• Found the Ender Stronghold in my MineCraft world and dropped right into the End Portal room.  I now need to find ten (10) more Ender pearls to make enough Eyes of Ender to activate.
• Went to see Diana’s new house.  It has a Brinks alarm panel and a SimpliSafe alarm system.  The later seems to be an inexpensive alternative to the Brinks system…
• More MineCraft
• Purchased XenoMiner
• Tried to get a few shots of Jupiter through the scope; no luck with the Samsung NX100, a 16mm eyepiece and an Orion variable tele-extender.

I have been looking at the NinjaBlocks device but it looks like they are selling when they have enough to make a batch of 1000- and the next order ships in March…  It appears to be a Raspberry Pi with a 433Mhz shield and in a cool case.  Seeing as how most of the 433Mhz functionality is duplicated in either x10 or zWave (or a multitude of other devices) I am not sure if I want to try yet another system.  If this would tie into the SkylinkHome wireless devices it would be very cool (as they have not released their gateway hub as of yet)- but I don’t think that is the case.  There are too many similar function but protocol disparate devices… :(

…and I am still waiting on my Mavia from Mavizon  to ship… :(

Weekend Ramblings

I think I will start a journal of notable events that occur; for starters, I will highlight some events of this weekend:

Prelulde:

On Friday I couldn’t connect to my WiFi thermostat and it indicated ‘replace batteries’ when I retuned home.  I replaced and it seemed to be working Ok.  Tracy came home later and tried to turn on the heater as it was a bit chilly- and nothing happened.  I spent about an hour and couldn’t get the WiFi thermostat to reset or connect to the network so I assumed it had died and decided to replace.

Saturday:

• Arrived at Lowe’s at 8:30 to purchase a Nest thermostat.  The new Nest is $50 more than the original, so I opted for the less expensive one.  The Next is kept in a cage in the front of Lowes and the ladies there had trouble finding it.  15m later it was discovered in a box labeled ‘hold for black Friday’ that was hidden behind another box.
• Removed and replaced the thermostat with the Next.  The included cover plate does a great job of covering over the holes I have made in the sheetrock with the last 3 thermostats… ;)
• Flipped the breaker to return power and… nothing.  Broke out the VOM and I was not getting 24v over the thermostat wires.  Checked the breakers- looked good but flipped and reset manually.  Went into the attic and verified the 3A fuse is still good in the air handler.  Took a reading on the high side of the transformer and I was showing no AC voltage.  Traced back to the inputs and verified there was no AC voltage coming into the unit.  Started tracing the Romex wire back over the rafters and found it runs into a box with a light switch in-line…. <facepalm>.
• Flipped the lights witch on and the Nest booted up.  After setting up WiFi it downloaded 2 or 3 updates, finished configuring and good.
• Talked roommate’s parents through starting up ShowMyPC so I can access their computer.  Turnes out they couldn’t understand my printed instructions and had swapped out the PC and I was remote controlling the PC I had already setup with remote access- not their old PC that I was going to backup their data from.  Ended up getting the old PC shipped to me (due here on Wed or Thurs) so I can backup to another USB drive and send back.
• Bought tickets for Django Unchained at Phipps Plaza in Buckhead; 20m to make it there and get a set.
• Used Waze, but it neglected to note that one lane of the exit from I-85 to Buckhead was closed.
• Made it to the theater at 11:40; still showing the trailers.
• The seats are awesome; full electric controlled recliners.  The concession area is arranged in a sprawling format as they have food, candy, drinks and such at different stations.  There is also a bar for those that like those types of things… ;)
• Went up to Alpharetta with Jamey to meet James and his wife for lunch at Smashburgher.
• Looked at the Nexus 4 at T-Mobile; I am not really impressed as I am using a Galaxy S III running FrostyJB ROM.  4.2 looks cool, but the 4.1.2 ROM I have has many more extras.
• Stopped at a gaming store that sells bars, pool tables, pinball games, shuffleboard tables- all kind of cool stuf.  A bit expensive for me and no place in my house for such items.
• Lunch at SmashBurger
• Wandered around Fry’s for a bit; picked up a ‘Basic Arduino’ kit for $60.  After reviewing the book online, I may return- this is very similar to the Parallax Basic Stamp kit I picked up 6 months ago.
• Playing ‘Blockheads’ on the iPad; this app can eat up some battery power.
• Restarted my MineCraft server and played for a bit; went back into the nether and found a good stack of glowstone dust (should have brought my Feather Touch pick!) and soulsand.
• Updated FrostyJB to a newer version that supports management of the apps in the quick menu when a headphone is plugged in: added Audible, Akimbo Player, Player Pro, BeyondPod and Spotify.
• Sleep

Sunday

• Installed Ubuntu on my Chomebook C7 via instructions at ARS Technica.
• Worked out with trainer.  Used DigiGit on iOS with ANT+ module & Garmin chest strap to record heart rate.  Max:162, Average: 122
• Created a temp SquareSpace account- it cannot import directly from LiveJournal.
• Created a WordPress account- imported LiveJournal account, two Blogger accounts.
• Setup Falcon’s game to record for roommate via DirecTV webpage to her DVR; interface has greatly improved.  Added Tron Upgrising, Big Bang Theory and Simpsons to record on my DVR.
• SMS chatted with Kristen; she is working at 4pm at TK
• Need to finish up Winter’s Heart (book 9 of Wheel of Time); 6 chapters left.  May drive out to Fry’s in Duluth and listen to Audiobook while driving…

Concatenation of Blogs

I am trying out WordPress and importing all of my old blogs from LiveJournal, Blogger, MSN Spaces, etc.  This should be interesting… ;)

Progression into the Age of Digital

Utility bills, bank statements and credit cards have been transitioning to paperless for several years.  Most utilities, credit providers and banks now have online access to your accounts to facilitate viewing statements and paying balances.  This transition was helpful as I was able to make a spreadsheet and keep track of dates and amounts (and URLs), make a monthly check to verify everything was up-to-date and pay bills online via bank account/credit card (I am not a fan of auto-pay).

Many banks have also started offering the option of providing Bill Pay as a free service- making it even easier to pay all bills from one location.  The options I have seen are adequate, but some can be difficult to setup (Have you seen how many PO boxes and zip codes most Credit Card companies have for payment centers?). Moreover, some recent web bases services provide a more comprehensive overview of finances and/or bills that allow for easier payments and some basic financial planning that the banks do not offer.

Mint is a free program that can ties into banks, credit providers and other financial institutions to provide a centralized  source to view all of your finances- as well as create budgets and create graphs to see where your money goes.  Mint does not have any tie-ins into utility, cellular or many other reoccurring bill providers.  Mint aggregates all of you individual website logins into a singe page.

Manilla is another free service that fills in some of the missing parts of Mint.  Manilla uses a similar aggregation to Mint, but it focuses on utility and phone bills in addition to banks and credit providers.  The web site can present a month view calendar with upcoming bills and provide an automated login to the bill provider’s website.  Manilla does not appear to facilitate the actual payment transaction, rather it is more of a monitoring and alerting system.  One thing I like about Manilla is that it downloads PDF copies of the bills/statements and stores them in a ‘documents’ folder- and if you have ever tried to find the actual PDF copy of your bill on AT&T’s website, you will appreciate what this means.  ;)

Additionally, both Mint and Manilla have Android and iOS apps.

I look forward to the day when there is a combined service that offers the analytics of Mint, the wide service range of Manilla and a true bill-pay system that can transfer funds between banks/credit cards/utility providers- perhaps even tracking income and taxes for the yearly federal and state filings.  :)

eBook Editing

There are a wide variety of eBooks that are publicly available on the web- unfortunately many of them have crap formatting (or misspellings, rantogetherwords or missing punctuation).  Recently I discovered Sigil, a freeware EPUB editor.

It appears that an EPUB is a file container that can house xml documents, images and other items I have not explored (fonts, cascading style sheets, etc.). 

Using Sigil and an EPUB that have a title cover, the cover.jpeg (note it is usually jpeg, not jpg) can be readily be replaced with an updated version.

Sigil allows table of contents to be generated from the header markup data (h1, h2, h3, etc.); this is very useful for removing extra blank pages and regenerating a full table of contents.

Further searching found I can insert images into any xml document.  So- just for example- if I had a copy of one of the Wheel of Time books and I felt like adding in the chapter icons, I could download the icons, resize them to a consistent size that would fit on an eReader (100×100 or 100×200, depending on the original size) and then insert and verify the proper icons for each chapter.

After the formatting is completed and saved as an EPUB, I can re-open it in Calibe, verify the formatting looks good and convert it to a kindle format (MOBI or AZW) to read on my Kindle screen.

Android eBook Stuff

If you like to manage your eBook library and use it across multiple devices, download and install Calibre on your PC or Mac. 

Calibre is an app that can search for missing metadata/book covers, convert between different non-DRM formats (MOBI, EPUP, AZW, etc,) and sync with a wide range of devices (Android, Kindle, iTunes to name a few popular ones).

The Android market has a wide spectrum of eBook/Comic readers that all have inherit features and limitations.  One requirement I have for any eBooks reader is the ability to side-load media- that is the ability to add eBooks from another market/source outside of the associated eBook market (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc).  Some apps allow this readily but some make this task difficult/impossible as they want to tie you into purchasing only from their market.

A few readers that I find myself using on Android are:

Moon+ Reader

This is currently my favorite as it allows browsing the SD card for eBooks (i.e. no need to import or put in a specific folder), it supports EPUB, MOBI, CHM and HTML eBook formats (plus others) as well as CBR & CBZ Comic Book formats.

The free version has advertisements. The $5 pro version removes the ads and adds PDF support, text-to-speech and other tweaks.

Aldiko Book Reader

This is a no-frills eBook reader that supports EPUB and PDF files. It is fairly user friendly save for eBooks need to be imported into the Aldiko library into /sdcard/ebooks. The importing makes a copy of the original file and may end up with duplicates (i.e. in both /Books and /eBooks).

A premium version costs $2.99 and removes ads, adds the ability to add nodes and highlights and receives updates before the free version. Additional free and paid plugins allow for eBook sync via Dropbox.

Kindle

This connects to Amazon’s market to download any books purchased from Amazon.  Sadly, the Amazon app does not allow direct importing of 3rd party EPUB/MOBI files.  It does creates a /sdcard/kindle folder where you can drop converted AZW/AZW2/AZW3(/MOBI?) format eBooks (converted by Calibre) that will also be added to your library.

Note: if you are on a PC and running Android v3 (ICS) or later, the /kindle folder is not presented over the MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) USB connection.  Earlier versions of android support MSC (Mass Storage Controller) USB settings and will let you directly access the folder.  If you are on ICS or later, you can use an Android file explorer such as Astro to move files from the /sdcard/Book folder to the /sdcard/kindle folder.

If you are using a Mac OS system, you will need the Android File Transfer utility to access an ICS or newer device.

Nook

The Nook reader is the Barnes & Noble storefront ebook solution.  It also allows for reading of EPUB books added to the /sdcard/Nook folder.

Kobo

Kobo reader ties into the Kobo store (go figure!) and allows for importing of EPUB books from the SD card.  As of yet, I have not figured out exactly where it stores the books it imports…

Google Play Books

This is the most useless of all the eBook readers.  It is included by default on all newer tablets and it allows you to read any books purchased from the Google Play store. i.e. if you have an EPUB/MOBI/PDF that you want to access, you need to use another program.

There are a plethora of other readers but these are the ones that I have tried and sometimes still use.  :)

xMas Rebuild

Plans for my xMas weekend:  Rebuild my desktop to remove the abomination that is Windows 8.  

I have tried to live with Windows 8 for over a month- and it feels like attempting to work on a car while wearing kitchen mittens.  I understand Microsoft is trying to unify their interfaces across the different platforms (phone, tablet, desktop) but there should be differences as they are designed for different tasks: phones are for communication  tablets are for media consumption and desktops are for creating/composing/organizing.  Tiles do not work well for the later use.

Windows 8 may be good for a new computer user, but has a ‘forget & relearn’ curve that doesn’t seem necessary for an interface that has been tweaked and revised for 12+ years.  Throwing most of the interface basis away for a new flavor while not allowing for backwards usability is a bit fool-hardy.  I also see this could likely cause a rift between corporate and home user OS versions (which Microsoft has been trying to unify since Windows 2000).

It feels like Microsoft is rushing to have everyone embrace their app store as they see Apple and Google making a decent profit.  :(

Several annoying issues that I encountered with Windows 7 are still present with Windows 8.  My favorite is Windows Explorer going AWOL for 30-60 seconds while it determines the contents of a folder (with an i7-2600k CPU, 32GB RAM and searching an OCZ Agility 3 SSD).

BOSD crashes (mostly from iTunes) have been more frequent in the past month of testing Windows 8 than I remember having cumulatively in my entire Windows 7 experience- It feels more like it was in the days of Windows 2000 where things would BSOD for no obvious reason.

Something is different with SMB shares on Windows 8- or the Windows 8 firewall behaves differently than earlier versions.  The network browser on a PCH-A110 cannot find a folder share on my Windows 8 PC.  The same share is accessible to a PCH-C200 and all Mac/Windows PC systems (and the PCH-A110 can see access other SMB shares on the network).

The Windows 7/8 upgrade has the feel of the XP/Vista upgrade (note: I liked Vista- with the proper hardware) issues all over again; while not as steep as Vista, it still has a long way to go to be usable. Mayhaps they will work out the issues and tweak the interface when Windows 9 rolls out.

Audiobook Player Notes

Audible for Android or iOS

• Audible Player on Android is listenable at 3x; in iOS- not-so-much (it should like crap on iOS)
• Audible Player on android shows a book as one item in the library with chapters; on iOS it breaks it down into downloaded parts, each with its own chapters and showing only playtime for the current chapter.  Audible really needs to update their app on iOS to make it more consistent when moving between platforms.
• Ex: The Fires of Heaven – Wheel of Time Book 5
• on Android: 
  29 chapters; 36:27:37 total playing time
• on iOS:
  Part 1, 7 chapters, shows playtime per chapter. 
  Part 2, 8 chapters, shows playtime per chapter.
  Part 3, 8 chapters, shows playtime per chapter.
  Part 4, 8 chapters, shows playtime per chapter.
  Part 5, 6 chapters, shows playtime per chapter.
• Audible does sync listening locations- which is nice when switching between devices.

Akimbo Audiobook Player for Android

• Akimbo Audiobook Player for Android will play Apple Audiobook format (m4b), but cannot play at greater than 1x due to Apple licensing restraints.  It can play back mp3 audiobooks at different speeds up to 4x (but this doesn’t always work- dependent on device, media. etc.).

MortPlayer  Audiobooks  for Android

• The MortPlayer Audiobooks is a great player with a nice interface, but does not have support for the Apple m4b format.  I am also unable to find a way to change playback speed.  The absence of these two features makes it useless for my needs.

Wii U : First Day Experience

Today I picked up a Wii U (standard version) and hooked it up to see what the latest gaming console from Nintendo has to offer. The Wii U has some neat features, but is not very ‘impressive’.  The only noticeable improvements to the former system are the 1080p HDMI output and the touchscreen gamepad.

Setup:

The Wii U (in Wii mode) uses the same IR sensor bar as on the original Wii- so if you have a 3rd party wireless controller, it should work.  The unit has a multi-AV port to allow use of the old Wii composite cable (but HDMI is much easier if you don’t have this cable already).  The unit would almost be a direct pull-out-and-replace with the same cables save for the new power supply is 5A instead of 3.7a (and a different angle on the plug).  It will also pair with a standard Wii controller for up to five players (one with the gamepad + four Wii controllers).

There was a system update that took 20-30m, but it was up and running after that. 

Initially none of the pre-installed video clients (Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon video or YouTube) were working, but a Netflix update has been released that allows me to connect and stream.  Updates for the other three are expected sometime in December.

Game Play

I popped in New Super Mario Wii U and started playing (after a short game update).  The game is fun and plays well (albeit a bit difficult until I get used to the new gamepad layout), but I was disappointed to learn the Wii U Pro controller does NOT work with this game- only the gamepad or a standard Wii controller.  In single player mode, the game is displayed on both TV and gamepad- so you can turn off TV and use it like a massive handheld console.  :)

Popping a Wii disc into the console prompts to start a Wii game.  The entire Wii console mode is 1080p, but the games show obvious indications that they were designed for a 480p system; Zelda – The Skyward Sword has a block grid that fades in/out as Link moves around. 

As expected, only standard Wii controllers work while in Wii mode; the touch gamepad shuts down.

A ‘Wii U System’ channel is added to the Wii menu to allow returning to the Wii U system.

Storage

The Wii U will take a standard USB media stick for additional storage in any of the USB ports (two on rear, two in front); I inserted a generic 64GB USB drive and it prompted me to format and seemed happy. 

The SD card slot appears to be only for Wii game emulation saves/games/points.  The SD card slot will not recognize a 64GB SDXC card, but was able to use a 16GB SDHC.  I used this card to transfer all of my Wii content over to my Wii U.

Wii Transfers

Transferring games/saves/Miis/points from the Wii is accomplished by downloading a ‘Wii U Transfer Tool’ channel on both the Wii and the Wii U from the Wii Market.  Starting with the Wii U, you will prepare the card for transfer, insert it into the Wii where the data is transferred (progress is indicated with a bunch of Pikmin type characters transporting data through halls/subways and into a rocket) and finally back into the Wii U (where the rocket lands and the Pikmin characters transport the data down ramps/hallways/etc. and into the Wii U memory). 

This action is one way and will remove all transferred data from the Wii.  My entire transfer took about 10 minutes- and the animations are entertaining enough to make it not seem all that long.  :)

Note that if you traded in your Wii already and were hoping to recover from the SD card/Club Nintendo account, you are screwed as all of your Wii content is still associated to the old console and cannot be recovered.  I had a design for the Nintendo 3DS XL- and lost ALL of my game purchases; after three separate and disappointing conversations with Nintendo support, I ended up with a ‘sorry, we cannot help you’ answer.  Nintendo has an ass-backwards way of license management.

Markets

The Wii U market appears to be separate from the Wii market; I have 500 points in the Wii market and $0.00 in the Wii U market.  :(

In the Wii U market, downloadable are the same price (or more) as retail versions; $59.99 for Assassin’s Creed III, Epic Mickey 2 or Darksiders II.  The irony in this model is the games are actually much less valuable in digital format as they cannot be traded with friends or sold.  Hopefully Nintendo will not go the route of Sony and insist on selling games at full retail for the life of the system (Darksiders II is already $40 on the PS3/xBox 360).

I am very interested to see how the downloads for this system work if you exceed the 32GB of the internal storage and a couple of 64GB USB Drives; I recently had to upgrade my 160GB PS3 hard drive as it was not sufficient for my game downloads (in retrospect, I should have went larger than 320GB for this).

If the licensing for the Wii U is the same as the Wii, 3DS and DSi, I will NOT be purchasing any digital games from Nintendo; the licenses for those three devices are tied to the actual device- so if the device is lost/stolen/broken all of your content is also lost!  As mentioned before, Nintendo licensing is pretty archaic and not very end user friendly.

Conclusions

All said, I am so far not very impressed with the Wii system software.  It is nearly identical to the old Wii console save you can have two different views of the main actions- one of the screen and one on the gamepad.  These can be flipped, but the same basic grid with apps is very reminiscent to the old Wii. 

The touchscreen gamepad is pretty neat, but I see products like Microsoft xBox Glass offering similar functionality that can work on a variety of devices.   The button layout is different (right analog is above the buttons, so he thumb must traverse downwards to hit a button) and the gamebad is fairly comfortable in the hands.

Single player games seem to be Ok; hopefully multi-player games are much more involving.

One big grievance for me is that leaving any application and returning to the home screen takes 30 seconds; i.e. you won’t be jumping around the menus and options making changes. The original Wii menu was MUCH more responsive than this (up to 7 seconds) and I am expectant of the the xBox 360 and PS3 with their near instant return to the dashboard.  I hope that a soon-to-be-released Wii U update resolves this.

I feel like Nintnedo released the initial batch of Wii Us to continue their beta testing; some features are not yet available, the system seems sluggish and just doesn’t seem very interesting.  Hopefully future updates will improve performance and add features- otherwise it does not feel like it is not really much of an upgrade from the regular Wii.  :(

Blasts from the Past

This weekend GoG has Dungeon Keeper, SimCity 2000, Populous, Ultima IV, Crusader No Remorse and Wing Commander titles from $2.39 each…

I think they use a DOSBox variant to make therm run on Windows, and some of them are also Mac compatible!

I just dropped $25 that I probably didn’t need to spend… :)

More info over at gog.com…

Nintendo’s Backwards Digital Licensing

For those of you that aren’t aware, digital purchases made on a Nintendo DS, 3DS or Wii are tied to the serial number of the device on which they are purchased.  If you lose/destroy/trade-in your old hardware your purchases are lost.  Transferring physical media is Ok along with the game saves (that have been transferred to the SD card).

Nintendo requires that you must have a working device in-hand and do a transfer licenses to another system; if this cannot be done Nintendo support will inform you that you are fucked:

“I’m sorry to hear about your situation. I know this isn’t what you were hoping to hear, but transferring content from one Nintendo 3DS to another requires the use of both systems. Therefore, without access to the original system, it’s not possible to transfer your eShop account to a replacement unit. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding.”

After hearing of this practice with 3DS licensing, I inquired if this archaic licensing scheme was the same on the Wii system as I am planning on purchasing a Wii-U.  Nintendo support responded:

“We are planning on a way to transfer Wii Shop Channel purchases to Wii U. However, this process will require access to both systems to perform the System Transfer. I have included all of the other information we have about the transfer process below:

. Wii U owners can wirelessly transfer content such as Miis, and WiiWare and Virtual Console games to their Wii U systems.

. Both systems will need to be connected to the Internet and the Wii U will need an SD card to facilitate the transfer.

. Transferred Wii content is accessible and can be played through Wii Mode, an application on the Wii U’s main menu.”

Not only will I need my Wii system to transfer my purchases (i.e. no systm trade-in possibility at GameStop) but Nintendo hasn’t yet worked out a final process for game transfers to occur- i.e. this may not be possible for some time after system launch!

Perhaps Nintendo thought it would be a grand idea to attach digital licenses to a peice of hardware -instead of looking at Microsoft/Sony/Apple/Android/Steam’s proven practices of using a user account.  However, if this device is lost/stolen/damaged, then the consumer is shit-out-of-luck and they should understand that any/all of the games they once purchased on their old 3DS/DS/Wii should now be re-purchased.  

Or perhaps Nintendo is trying to prevent trade-in/resale of used Nintendo systems; but it can a boon for the used system customer to log into the eShop and see if there is any ‘free’ games associated with their ‘new’ used purchase.

Nintendo is the new kid on the block for digital purchase and, obviously, they have a lot to learn; I will personally shy away from any digital purchases with Nintendo until they can bring their digital licensing into the 21st century.  

…and don’t get me started on their clumsy and annoying ‘eShop’ process; they are even worse than Sony!

Phone Swap Fun!

The Galaxy Nexus has been my primary phone for just over a year (it launched on Verizon in August, 2011); it is still a great phone but I find the Samsung Galaxy S III has some improvements over it’s ancestor. It was decided to test out the Galaxy S III to see if it merited an upgrade.
It appears that Sprint’s coverage in metro Atlanta can be very spotty- and Sprint’s 4G coverage is almost non-existant (save for a spot around Cumberland Mall in Marietta).  Slightly better than GSM speeds were my primary experience on both Sprint’s 3G and 4G networks (tests ranged from 150Kbps to 500Kbps).  Perhaps my home and office are both in realitively bad coverage zones for Sprint?  The speeds were disappointing, so the Sprint Galaxy S III went back to the kiosk 6 days later.

T-Mobile also offers the Galaxy S III- and their 4G coverage in Atlanta seems much better.  In about 90% of the places I have visited, I have had a decent 4G coverege- and speeds seem to stay in the 14Mbps range.  After a few days, the number port request was submitted to T-Mobile and my Verizon account was cancelled.
All said and done, the Galaxy S III cost me about $350 ($150 to T-Mobile and $200 to Verizon for early cancellation) and I get a much cheaper plan and better data throughput (Verizon can be very slow at times as well)- and I still have a fairly decent Galaxy Nexus that I can resell for around $200 to $250 (with the extras I have purchased).
I should be able to get leave Verizon after a year with no real financial loss. :)
Why did I not just stay with Verizon?  There are a few reasons.

1. I was not eligible for an upgrade until August 2013; the Verizon Galaxy S III would cost me $600.
2. If I was eligible for an upgrade, a subsidised phone would force me to abandon my unlimited data plan and pick one of the overpriced Verizon data tier plans.
3. Verizon (and AT&T) plans are very expensive; about $140/month for unlimited everything; Sprint is $110 and T-Mobile is $90 for the similar offerings.  (the T-Mobile rate includes a $20/month payment arangement for the full cost of the phone- the acutal unlimited 4G plan is $70)
4. Verizon (and AT&T) no longer offer an ‘unlimited everything’ plan; $100 will buy me 2GB of ‘shared’ data with unlimited talk/text.

It is ironic that unlimited cellular minutes are rapidly becoming dirt cheap while the data plans are becomong more expensive- even though they are both across the same data network.
Getting the Galaxy Nexus ready for resale has been pretty easy thanks to the One Click back to Stock application from the XDA forums; 15 minutes later my phone is back to the stock Android 4.0.4 with a re-locked bootloader.
My Galaxy S III is now running an early release of Jelly Bean and rooted.  My old number was ported over today and all is well in gadget land!  :)
Also interesting to note is that you can have an AT&T iPhone unlocked via eBay for $15-$20; T-Mobile is revamping thier network to support LTE and same HSPA+ frequencies as AT&T (namely 1900Mhz), which should allow them to offer 3G/4G connectivity with an unlocked AT&T iPhone 3/3GS/4/4S/5!

WhisperSync for AudiBooks- Not Such a Great Deal…

 

Amazon Prime and Audible are among my two favorite items; The new Kindle Fire HD event introduced the idea of WhisperSync for their Audible audio book content with a matching Kindle eBook from Amazon. 

Today I received an email re-affirming this interesting product: WhisperSync for Voice-ready read-along will work on my current Kindle Touch.  Sounds cool; let me check it out:

It appears that in addition to the audible version I have already purchased for $23.39 I must also purchase the Kindle eBook version for an additional $16.99.  i.e. To use this new feature, I must purchase two different formats of the same book; That makes the entire WhisperSync sound a bit unappealing.

I am sure this would be very beneficial for Amazon, book publishers and authors- but it makes a book that costs $11.60 in paperback run a total of almost $40 for a read-along option.  Not very appealing for the customer.

Interesting idea Amazon, but no thanks.  :(

Sony Tablet S Review

A few months ago, I sold my Motorola Xoom to a friend as I determined that I really don’t use the tablet enough to keep it around (it was sitting locked up in my fire safe for months on end).  Last week, I was trying for find a decent way to view comics on my iPad- and realized that it just cannot display a readable page unless I zoom in; I think it is a combination of the aspect ratio and lower resolution that makes it just uncomfortable to read full screen (perhaps that will change with the iPad 3?)- so I decided that I ‘need’ another Android tablet to do this and other things…

My three choices were the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, the Transformer Prime and the Sony Tablet S.  The Sony Tablet S won out due to it’s form factor and features, such as:  IR transmitter for remote control, ability to pair with a Sony PS3 Sixaxis controller and the very nice way it acts like a big-ass Chumby when docked (there is an included Chumby app).

I used the Sony for about a week and I have been fairly happy with the performance- but not so happy with the ‘portability’ options.

The system is fairly responsive and battery life is very good- I would estimate I can get 4-5 days of normal casual use out of the tablet; checking gReader a few times a day, checking email, surfing the web, and occasional Netflix movie, etc. Leaving the unit in standby doesn’t seem to drain the battery life at all. Granted, it doesn’t have iPad battery longevity, but it lasts a hell of a lot longer than my Motorola Xoom did.

The screen is very nice; sharp and clear, nice color, and the perfect format for reading comics or magazines. Resolution is the typical 1280×800 found on most tablets and the viewing angles are pretty good.  With ComicRack for Android I was catching up on my comics and a few magazines I have neglected for the past few months.

The remote control is pretty nice but lacks several devices (or at least ways to find such devices- such a the Popcorn Hour C200 and the Sony NSZ-GT1 Google TV/Blu-ray player) but it can learn them one button at a time form the old remote.  I also had more than one occasion where the remote would stop working for one device (my C200) and would not return control until I killed the app and restarted.

The form factor is very comfortable to hold; it is like a rolled over magazine providing a good grip and always giving the proper orientation to find the power & volume buttons (on top if holding thick part in left hand). This can however cause some issues with generic cases designed for flat tablets.

The included Crash Bandicoot game is pretty fun when using a Sixaxis controller.  Gameplay is decent (dual core Tegra 2 CPU) albeit it felt a little laggy at times.  NES/SNES emulators are also enjoyable (once you get the controls configured for the Sixaxis).  To pair the Sixaxis, you will need to purchase a microUSB to USB A female cable (such as the Sony SGP-UC1 for $14) to pair the controller; the cable can also be used to connect other USB devices (keyboard, storage, etc.).

Memory is one down-side of the tablet; the 16GB version has 8.92GB available for storage (music, movies, etc.) and 3.94GB allocated to Android application space -leaving about 3GB dedicated to system use.  It does have a SD card slot (yes- full sized SD Card- not microSD), but this can only be used as storage for transferring music/videos/eBooks/etc. into the internal memory; When a SD card is inserted a ‘File Transfer’ program pops up.  This behavior is also true if a USB storage device is attached to the ISB host port. Looks like I won’t be putting much of my FLAC music collection on the device…

The main issues I have with this tablet are the accessories options:

I was able to find only a single slipcover specifically designed for the Tablet S; it is made by Sony and it is $100.  Let me say that again- there is a slipcover case (i.e. it doesn’t even hinge to hold the tablet) and it costs one hundred fucking dollars…  I expect to see these on closeout for $30 in the next few months.   There are other 3rd party cases can be used (such as a generic neoprene slipcase for $15) but I am astounded that Sony would only provide one $100 option for protection of their tablet.

EDIT: looking at Sony’s accessory website, there does appear to be a new offering for ‘STM Skinny’ case for the Tablet S- along with two offering from Targus.

Sony managed to create an extreme proprietary (*surprise*) power connector for the tablet and it utilizes an in-line power brick for power- making it pretty much useless for travel.  A spare/replacement power brick costs $40.  The optional dock for the Tablet S provides charging via this odd connector, but the dock does not come bundled with a power supply -and also costs another $40.  These prices are somewhat on the high end with similar offerings for other tablet devices, but the connector choice makes the only charger option very bulky when compared to the ‘wall wart’ charging common to other tablets (and makes a generic or USB powered option impossible).

The power connector is very reminiscent of the old power connector used on the Sony Clie line of Palm PDA devices from about a decade ago.

I have not seen an automotive charger option for this tablet; a power inverter could be used, but this adds additional bulk for a portable device.

 

All said, the Sony Tablet S is a very good Android tablet; it has several features that others do not and its unique shape is comfortable to hold for reading.  However, the charging options make this device much less attractive for use when travelling- so my tablet is going back to the store tomorrow. 

I will likely try out one of the Samsung Galaxy tab options and see how they fare for portability.  I would prefer an Asus Transformer Prime option, but these devices are sold out in almost every store (Frys, BestBuy and MicroCenter) and as well as Online (including a vendor that is charging $50 over MSRP).

Some pics of the Tablet S:

Tablet in dock running the ‘Cassandra’ application

Sample page from ComicRack

Sony Custom application drawer.

View of gReader for Android (but nothing is quite as nice as Flipboard- when is this coming to Android!?!)

Jailbreaks and DirecTV App

I have been a fan of the DirecTV app for iPad for some time; it allows me to setup a list of channels I frequent (TLC, Cartoon Network, HGTV, Science Chanel, etc) and it will present a list of shows that are currently playing on those channels. I can then tap a show for more info or have my DirecTV receiver tune to that channel. This saves countless time scrolling through the 100s of channels or tuning to each of my eight favorites on the receiver to find the same information.

The jailbreak for iPad 2 running iOS 5.0.1 was recently released, so I immediately tried it out. The jailbreak works great- but the DirecTV app now states it will not work on a jailbroken device:

While I can perhaps see DirecTV adopting this stance as they must protect the video content that can be steamed to the iPad, I don’t understand their actual reason for streaming to the iPad- I must be on the same wireless network as the DirecTV receiver- i.e. I will be at home where there is a much larger screen than 10.1” attached to my DirecTV box. DirecTV should abandon its failed attempt at offering streaming video and allow the app to work as what it works best for- an interactive remote control program.

On the positive side, here are ways of bypassing the jailbreak restriction: In Cydia, add the resource ‘http://n00neimp0rtant.dyndns.org/repo/’ as a source repository. The repo info will download and you can find and install the xCon anti-jailbreak app. After an automatic springboard restart the DirecTV app will be able to launch again.

PlayerPro for Android and AE2i

I have always been one that thought the price of the Bose headphones was insane- $150 for a pair of headphone?  They must be crazy!  But lately I have been seeing the ‘Beats by Dr. Dre’ headphones- and those are just fucking stupid in price- $500 for a set of headphones?  Kids these days…

Long story short, I actually tried on a pair of the Bose AE2i headphones- and I was pretty impressed with the sound.  Since it is return season (xMas holidays have an extended return period) I decided to purchase a pair of the Bose AE2is- and I am now actually considering keeping them…

Over the past few days, I have spent many hours re-ripping all of my music in FLAC format and then converting to Apple Lossless so I can play on my iPod.  After wasting a bit of time doing this, I realized that my Samsung Droid Charge can play FLAC music natively with the built-in Samsung music player (also works with PlayerPro and PowerAmp)…

I purchased a 32GB MicroSD a few months ago, and I believe I will be able to fit a bit more than 1/2 of my music library when most of it has been converted to FLAC format.

I really started using PlayerPro– and I am very impressed with this software; this makes my phone one of the best MP3 (and FLAC) players I have ever used- iPod Touch/Zune/Sony/Sansa has nothing on this App.  If you download this software, make sure you play with all the settings- specifically the lock screen settings/widgets- and the headphone controls/volume button overrides…

I think what I really like about this program is that is can change any/all of the functionality of the Android OS- something that Apple and others strictly forbid when working on their hardware.  :)

Ya Gotta love technology!

Kinect and Move USB Extensions

I don’t think I am alone in the way I have my TV mounted to one wall and my game console not just sitting on the floor beneath it- in fact, my game consoles are in the other corner of the room (in my stereo rack).  Having the TV mounted about 12’ away from the consoles can make the newer accessories for either a bit hard to connect.

Wii is easy- there are numerous wireless sensor bars that can be put anywhere; but the Microsoft Kinect and the Sony PS3 Eye (used with the Playstation Move controllers) can be a bit more challenging. 

Monoprice has a 10M USB 2.0 active extension cable for $8.46- which is considerably longer and less expensive than the Microsoft official 10’ Kinect Extension cable that is going for about $50.  The big difference is that the Kinect cable is designed to plug into the special port on the back of the xBox 360 slim and provide additional power.  If you (like me) purchased the Kinect separate from an xBox bundle, you also received a USB to Kinect power injector- and this when used with the 10M USB extension cable works perfectly!  :)

The PS3 Eye worked with the 10M extension cable- no problem.

I now have both USB cables ran in my walls and through my attic- so there are no cables to see save for the power plug for the Kinect power injector. 

Life is great when shit works!

‘Tis the Season for Inexpensive Games!

I posted a few days ago about some uber-cheap closeout game deals at Target.  Black Friday came and several other places have sals started selling games at near-crazy prices; make sure to check out:

Steam’s Autumn Sale – Deals change daily at 1PM EST.
I picked up Portal 2 for $10.79 (sale has expired), the Oddworld Box for $3.74 (expired), Orcs Must Die for $3.74 (expired) and Two Worlds 2 for $13.74 (yep- also expired).   Check back after lunch to se if there are any deals you can’t pass up… :)

Amazon’s Black Friday Sale – Deals on all kinds of games and accessories for the three day weekend:
So far, I found Duke Nuke’m Forever for $6.79 and The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings Digital Premium edition for $16.00; these deals are still rolling as I write this… :)

Kindle Fire

I received my Kindle Fire today (I missed the UPS driver yesterday).  It is a fairly nice device: very responsive virtual keyboard, friendly interface and fairly responsive.  The Kindle Fire plays a decent game of Plants vs. Zomies as well…
It is, however, pretty thick- I assume this is to allow for a larger battery- but this can be over looked.
One feature that really annoys the Hell out of me is the lack of physical volume control buttons; I do not like scrambling to find the soft menu volume controls when an app/game volume is much too loud.
I can definitely say that this device will NOT be a suitable replacement for me as an e-book e-ink device; scrolling down a zoomed in page in a magazine is way too jerky- the image tearing reminds me of a video game that has v-sync turned off.
For some reason the Kindle Fire is a 16×9 screen format- and none of the books or magazines in the market are natively this size; makes me wonder why Amazon didn’t go with a 4×3 screen format… I mean this was primarily designed to be an ebook/magazine reader, right?
About an hour after I opened the box, I became bored and figured out how to root it…
After that I installed the Google Apps and fixed the Android Market, I installed ADW launcher to replace the Kindle Desktop.
Just for the irony, I also installed the Nook reader…
In summary, the Kindle fire is a decent Android tablet, good for games and web browsing, terrible as a book/magazine reader.  For the $200 price, you will be hard pressed to find a similar device- unless you look to the Pandigital devices. 
Personally I am seriously considering returning my Kindle fire and picking up a HTC Flyer from BestBuy for $100 more…

Apple Airport Express and Comcast

I have been using a D-Link DGL-4500 for a few years as my home router.  I have tried many different models from Cisco, NetGear, D-Link, Buffalo, Belkin and Asus looking for a better router, but the DGL-4500 has been a very solid performer and has features that I want/need- such as DHCP reservations, specific port forwarding and port translations.  Tonight I gave the Apple Airport Express a try- and so far it looks pretty good.

One issue with the Airport Express is that it does not do MAC address cloning- which is fairly useful for carriers such as Comcast that cache the MAC address and tie it to to the provided Internet IP address.

I have a Motorola Surfboard SB6120 cable modem and I found that it has a standard IP address of 192.168.100.1.  Putting this address into a web browser brings up some interesting information about my cable connection- including a ‘Reset All Defaults’ option that should clear the MAC address that is bound to the CPE (Customer Premise Equipment) info for the modem.  I say ‘should’ as it did not appear to actually reset when I tried it.  Instead I found a way to have the modem recognize a new MAC address.

• Unplug power from the cable modem and the router (Airport Express)
• Disconnect the Ethernet cable between the modem and the router
• Plug in both devices, letting them boot independently and complete their startup (look at the lights on the modem/router to see when it is done).
• After the Cable modem is done, wait another full minute.
• Plug in the Ethernet cable between the cable modem and the router broadband connection

If all works like it did for me, the cable modem should recognize the new device and use its MAC address for the new CPE.  It takes about a minute to reconnect to the internet, but it should complete.  If not, then you will probably need to call Comcast tech support and tell them you have a new router and they can clear the CPE info remotely.

To setup the AirPort Express, you will need an iPod/iPad or a Mac with the AirPort Utility.  This will be detected in network settings on an iOS device, or it is under Applications –> Utilities under MacOS.  If you are using a PC, you will need to download the Windows Airport Utility from Apple before you start trying to configure this new Internet connection.

I have been fairly impressed; the AirPort Extreme allows for separate private & guest networks, has a decent DHCP reservation system and has a pretty intuitive port forwarding setup.  Fore example, I was able to create a forwarding rule that forwards TCP 80, 21, 3550, 4550, 5550, 5511 and 8866 in one statement (these are used for GeoVision remote monitoring). 

Range seems pretty nice on the Apple device; I will try it out for a few days and see if it is really worth the $180 Apple is asking for it… :)