Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category

Hulu preview invite


30 Jun

Hulu has announced its pay service “Hulu+” . The service will allow you to use Hulu on an iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. The Hulu.com website states that the app will work on WiFi and 3G.

Request a Hulu Preview Invite here

Get the Free Hulu Plus app here. 

Unlike the normal Hulu on a computer you can Watch every episode aired from the current season of top shows from ABC, NBC and FOX. Never miss an episode throughout the season.

Stream thousands of episodes from hundreds of current and classic TV shows to your iPad, iPhone 3GS iPhone 4, 3rd generation iPod Touch, computer, TV, and other devices with a Hulu Plus subscription.

• Watch every current season episode of top TV shows from ABC, Fox, and NBC like Family Guy, Modern Family, Glee, 30 Rock, Saturday Night Live, The Office, The Simpsons, Grey’s Anatomy, and more.
• Enjoy full series runs or back seasons of classic shows like The X-Files, Arrested Development, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Desperate Housewives, Roswell, Miami Vice, Angel, Saturday Night Live, Law and Order: SVU, Ally McBeal, Xena, Quantum Leap, My So-Called Life, and more. Thousands of episodes from hundreds of titles.
• Enjoy up to 720p HD resolution with multi bitrate support for an optimized viewing experience for your screen resolution and network connection speed.
• Search and browse for shows and videos directly from your iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch.
• Resume play from where you left off on other Hulu Plus devices including your computer and select mobile phones, internet-connected TVs, and Blu-ray players.
• Manage your queue directly from your iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch.
• Watch over WiFi and 3G (on your iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and 3G iPads).

I personally think the service should be free but they charge $10 per month for the Hulu plus service.

Hulu opening page

 

Hulu plus menu page

The app seems to be buggy. It crashed a lot while I was trying to access it.

The Hulu+ app is a great idea but it needs to be refined and it needs to be a free service and a  paid app.

Top 10 apps for iPad


04 Jun

Here are my top 10 favorite apps for the Apple iPad.

1) Air Video
This app allows you to play the videos from your computer directly on your iPad. You don’t even have to convert them to a format that the iPad will normally play. This app will play avi, mpg, mkv, and mp4 video files on your iPad without taking up storage space on your iPad.


2) Perfect Browser
The perfect browser is a web browser for the iPad. This app allows you to have tabs on the top of the browser to let you toggle between web pages.


3) Mobile Mouse
Use Mobile Mouse as a wireless remote for your PC entertainment system. It has native controls for Windows Media Player, Hulu, and much much more.

4) Ambiance
Sometimes you just got too much on your mind and you can’t sleep. Ambiance plays different sounds like wind chimes, wind, rain, etc. These sounds will prevent you from thinking and makes you sleep. Set the app to automatically start and set the timer and 1 button will put you fast ton sleep.

5) Office2 HD
Open, edit, and email word, excel, and PowerPoint files on the iPad with the office2 HD app.

6) ColorSplash
Edit your favorite pictures directly on your iPad with ColorSplash. Change colors, make black and white pictures have a touch of color or just give your pics that professional touch.

7) ABC
Catch your favorite ABC episodes of Dancing With The Stars, Flash Forward, Cougar Town and more on the ABC app for the iPad.

8) Teleport
Control your home MAC or PC from the road with Teleport on your iPad. Some software can’t be installed on your iPad but you can still access the programs from anywhere with Teleport.

9) Analytics HD
For all of you that have your own websites you can monitor the traffic, keywords, page views and much more with Analytics HD for the iPad. Just input your Googke analytics account info and monitor it with this easy to use app.

10) Text+
This is a no brainer. Text+ is a free app that let’s you text from your iPad. I love my iPhone but texting is a pain because of the small keyboard. If your like me you take your ipad everywhere. Now you can text from the larger iPad screen and keyboard with unlimited free text messaging.

Now I just need a way to tether iPhone 4 to ipad by the iphone4 release date.

iPad blogging


14 Apr

I’m writing this from the word press app for the iPad. For all you bloggers with an iPad go to the app store and download this one (It’s FREE). It will allow you to easily access all of your wordpress blogs from an easy to use application.

This is a must have app for iPad bloggers.

Tether your iPhone to your iPad and you can blog from anywhere. if you want tethering instructions just let me know.

Netgear vs Belkin wireless router


16 Mar

Netgear WGR614 Downloaded at 11.13 Mbps and the
Belkin Wireless G Router Downloaded at 26.49 Mbps.

Netgear vs Belkin wireless router
This week Best Buy has the Netgear WGR614 and the Belkin G wireless router for sale for $39.99 each.
I tested both out today and the Belkin was much faster.Here are the wired speed results from the 2 routers. The wireless speeds had similar results.
Netgear WGR614
Belkin Wireless G Router

I was really suprised at the difference between the 2 routers. If your thinking about buying a router this week from Best Buy make sure you get the Belkin. If you tell them it’s online for $34.99 they should even give it to you cheaper then the store price of $39.99.

iPad the Laptop replacement


31 Jan

iPad
A large, high-resolution LED-backlit IPS display. An incredibly responsive Multi-Touch screen. And an amazingly powerful Apple-designed chip. All in a design that’s thin and light enough to take anywhere. iPad isn’t just the best device of its kind. It’s a whole new kind of device.
LED-Backlit IPS Display

The high-resolution, 9.7-inch LED-backlit IPS display on iPad is remarkably crisp and vivid. Which makes it perfect for web browsing, watching movies, or viewing photos. With iPad, there is no up or down. It’s designed to show off your content in portrait or landscape orientation with every turn. And because it uses a display technology called IPS (in-plane switching), it has a wide, 178° viewing angle. So you can hold it almost any way you want and still get a brilliant picture, with excellent color and contrast.
Multi-Touch

The Multi-Touch screen on iPad is based on the same revolutionary technology on iPhone. But the technology has been completely reengineered for the larger iPad surface, making it extremely precise and responsive. So whether you’re zooming in on a map, flicking through your photos, or deleting an email, iPad responds with incredible accuracy. And it does just what you want it to.
Thin and Light

One of the first things you’ll notice about iPad is how thin and light it is. The screen is 9.7 inches measured diagonally. So overall, it’s slightly smaller than a magazine. At just 1.5 pounds and 0.5 inch thin,1 you can take it anywhere. And a slight curve to the back makes it easy to pick up and comfortable to hold.
Up to 10 Hours
Battery Life

To maximize battery life, Apple engineers took the same lithium-polymer battery technology they developed for Mac notebook computers and applied it to the iPad. As a result, you can use iPad for up to 10 hours while surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching videos, or listening to music.

Wireless

With built-in 802.11n, iPad takes advantage of the fastest Wi-Fi networks. It automatically locates available Wi-Fi networks, which you can join with a few taps. iPad also comes with Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, letting you connect to devices like wireless headphones or the Apple Wireless Keyboard.
3G

iPad will also be available in a 3G model with superfast data speeds up to 7.2 Mbps.3 So if you’re traveling or you happen to be somewhere without a Wi-Fi network, you can still get a fast connection for surfing the web, downloading email, or getting directions.

Performance

The A4 chip inside iPad was custom-designed by Apple engineers to be extremely powerful yet extremely power efficient. The performance is unlike anything you’ve ever seen on a touch-based device. Which makes iPad fantastic for everything from productivity apps to games. At the same time, the A4 chip is so power efficient that it helps iPad get up to 10 hours of battery life on a single charge. And iPad is available with a choice of 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB of flash storage4, giving you lots of room for your photos, movies, music, apps, and more.

All of the built-in apps on iPad were designed from the ground up to take advantage of the large Multi-Touch screen. And they work in any orientation. So you can do things with these apps that you can’t do on any other device.
The large Multi-Touch screen on iPad lets you see web pages as they were meant to be seen — one page at a time. With vibrant color and sharp text. So whether you’re looking at a page in portrait or landscape, you can see everything at a size that’s actually readable. And with iPad, navigating the web has never been easier or more intuitive. Because you use the most natural pointing device there is: your finger. Scroll through a page just by flicking your finger up or down on the screen. Or pinch to zoom in or out on a photo. There’s also a thumbnail view that shows all your open pages in a grid, to let you quickly move from one page to the next.
See and touch your email in ways you never could before. In landscape, you get a split-screen view showing both an opened email and the messages in your inbox. To see the opened email by itself, turn iPad to portrait, and the email automatically rotates and fills the screen. No matter which orientation you use, you can scroll through your mail, compose a new email using the large, onscreen keyboard, or delete messages with nothing more than a tap and a flick. If someone emails you a photo, you can see it right in the message. You can also save the photos in an email directly to the built-in Photos app. And iPad works with all the most popular email providers, including MobileMe, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, Hotmail, and AOL.
With its crisp, vibrant display and unique software features, iPad is an extraordinary way to enjoy and share your photos. For example, the Photos app displays the photos in an album as though they were in a stack. Just tap the stack, and the whole album opens up. From there, you can flip through your pictures, zoom in or out, or watch a slideshow. You can even use your iPad as a beautiful digital photo frame while it’s is docked or charging. And there are lots of ways to import photos: You can sync them from your computer, download them from an email, or import them directly from your camera using the optional Camera Connection Kit.
The large, high-resolution screen makes iPad perfect for watching any kind of video: from HD movies and TV shows to podcasts and music videos. Switch between widescreen and full screen with a double-tap. Because iPad is essentially one big screen, with no distracting keypad or buttons, you feel completely immersed in whatever you’re watching.
The YouTube app organizes videos so they’re easy to see and navigate. To watch one, just tap it. When you’re watching in landscape, the video automatically plays in full screen. And with its high-resolution display, iPad makes the latest HD YouTube videos look positively amazing.
With the iPod app, all your music is literally at your fingertips. Browse by album, song, artist, or genre with a simple flick. To play a song, just tap it. iPad even displays album art at full size. Listen to your music with the powerful built-in speaker or with wired or Bluetooth wireless headphones.
A tap of the iTunes store icon lets you browse and buy music, TV shows, and podcasts — or buy and rent movies — wirelessly, right from your iPad. Choose from thousands of movies and TV shows (in both standard and high definition), along with thousands of podcasts and millions of songs. Preview songs before you buy them. Or just sync iPad with the content you already have in your iTunes library on your Mac or PC.
iPad runs almost 140,000 apps from the App Store. Everything from games to business apps and more. And new apps designed specially for iPad are highlighted, so you can easily find the ones that take full advantage of its features. Just tap the App Store icon on the screen to browse, buy, and download apps wirelessly, right to the iPad.
The iBooks app is a great new way to read and buy books.* Download the free app from the App Store and buy everything from classics to best sellers from the built-in iBookstore. Once you’ve bought a book, it’s displayed on your Bookshelf. Just tap it to start reading. The high-resolution, LED-backlit screen displays everything in sharp, rich color, so it’s easy to read, even in low light.
Finding your way is a completely new experience on iPad. Tap to view maps from above with high-resolution satellite imagery, up close with street view, or with topography in a new terrain view — all using Google Services. Search for a nearby restaurant or landmark, then get directions from your current location.
With its expansive display and large, onscreen keyboard, iPad makes jotting down notes easy. In landscape view, you see not only a note-taking page but a list of all your notes. iPad even circles the current note in red, so you can see where you are at a glance.
iPad makes it easy to stay on schedule by displaying day, week, month, or list views of your calendar. You can see an overview of a whole month or the details of a single day. iPad even shows multiple calendars at once, so you can manage work and family schedules at the same time.
The Contacts app on iPad makes finding names, numbers, and other important information quicker and easier than ever before. A new view lets you see both your complete contacts list and a single contact simultaneously. Need directions? Tap an address inside a contact and iPad automatically opens Maps.
The Home Screen gives you one-tap access to everything on iPad. You can customize your Home Screen by adding your favorite apps and websites or using your own photos as the background. And you can move apps around to arrange them in any order you want.
Spotlight Search allows you to search across iPad and all of its built-in apps, including Mail, Contacts, Calendar, iPod, and Notes. It even searches apps you’ve downloaded from the App Store. So no matter what you’re looking for, it’s never more than a few taps away.

OEM 12 volt to 5 volt adapter.


05 Nov

OEM 12 volt to 5 volt adapter. If you have a factory system that has the 12v charging for the ipod you can plug this connector in to use it on the new iPods and iPhones.
12v to 5v adapter

Review: Dice Electronics i-Honda R3


14 Sep

Accord 2005Review:

    Dice Electronics i-Honda R3

Car 2006 Honda Accord
Retail price $169
Today I tested the DICE Electronics i-Honda-R3 Honda iPod integration kit in a 2005 Honda Accord with sat button *2 and without navigation display*1. The kit is made for 2003-2009 Honda Accords and it was very easy to install.
In the package was a Honda interface unit, a wire harness with a Honda Molex plug, an iPod docking cable, and a user manual. I used a 160 GB iPod Classic and 32 GB iPod Touch to test the unit.

    The installation steps

1) Locate radio code in case you have to disconnect power plug
2) Remove plastic trim around the shifter
3) Remove the “not an ashtray” pocket
4) Unscrew the 2 Phillips head screws under the large pocket
5) Configure dip switches for car I used Honda Sat emulation (both dip switches off)
6) Configure dip switches for iPod I used smart mode(switch 1 off and switch 2 on)
7) Plug in the DICE Honda Sat plug into the head unit
8) Route the iPod cable and drill small hole in the center console pocket for the iPod cable
9) Connect the cables to the control unit
10) Test the unit
11) Re-install the factory parts

    Operation

1) Use the sat button to activate
2) Tune buttons change tracks
3) Preset buttons change mode.
a. 1 is for Track mode
b. 2 is for Playlist mode
c. 3 is for Artist mode
d. 4 is for Album mode
e. 5 is for iPod or Aux mode
f. 6 is for Text Scrolling options
4) Display Mode button toggles between text fields
5) Scan button enables or disables shuffle

The I-Honda-R3 works with a large variety of vehicles.
Honda
2003-2009 Accord
2006-2009 Civic
2005-2009 CRV
2003-2009 Element EX\SC
2005-2009 Odyssey
2006-2009 Pilot
2006-2009 Ridgeline
2004-2009 S2000
Acura
2005-2009 MDX
2007-2009 RDX
2005-2009 RL
2004-2008 TL
2004-2008 TSX

    Pros

Controls from the head unit
Works with iPod Touch FW 3.0
Great sound quality
Charges the newer 5v iPods
Text display information on the head-unit makes it very user friendly
“Smart Mode” enables selectable controls through head-unit or iPod
Allows factory steering wheel controls to operate the iPod functions
Extra 1/8th” Aux input

    Cons

There are a lot of features so the learning curve takes longer than normal
No mount or cradle
To use the controls on the iPod Touch I had to slide to unlock the unit before I used the controls on the iPod in “Smart Mode”.

*1 If the radio comes with navigation then use the i-Honda-r4
*2 Factory head-unit must have SAT button to use SAT mode and factory Sat cannot be retained

Here is the installation guide and user manual
To purchase the unit contact an authorized DICE Electronics dealer
Perfection Audio
(310) 327-4900

or call DICE directly at 1-888-342-3999 ext 131

DICE Electronics i-Toyota-r


08 Sep

DICEl-02-01The I-TOYOTA-R Silverline Edition by DICE electronics is an advanced CD Quality iPod Car integration kit that is compatible with the factory stereo system in Toyota, Lexus and Scion vehicles. This Direct Connection Adapter Displays iPod Text on the factory radio and even allows you to change songs on the iPod using the factory radio and steering wheel controls. There is no better way to use an iPod in the car. The new units also have 5V charging for the newer iPods.

The DICE Electronics i-Toyota-r is compatible with
4-Runner 2002-2009
Camry 2003-2009
Celica 2003-2005
Corolla 2003-2009
Echo 2000-2005
FJ Cruiser 2006-2009
Highlander 2002-2009
Landcruiser 2002-2009
MR2 2000-2005
Prius 2004-2009
Rav4 2003-2009
Sequoia 2001-2009
Sienna 2003-2009
Solara 2003-2009
Tacoma 2002-2009
Yaris 2007-2009
Tundra 2002-2008

Purchase this unit from Perfection Audio in Gardena, CA (310) 327-4900.

DICE Electronics i-FM-RDS


08 Sep

DICEl-02-01Dice Electronics offers an iPod integration kit for all car radios. Unlike FM ‘transmitters’, Dice’s FM kit connects directly to your radio antenna input to provide interference and static free, crisp enjoyable music from your iPod. See the song titles on your radio! Radios supporting RDS will display song information from your iPod onto your radio’s display. A clean factory looking installation is possible with their sleek iPod cradle and hidden installations can be done with their docking cable. The I-FM-RDS kit connects directly to your radio antenna port. The DICE module transfers information between the iPod and radio through a dock cable or dock cradle.

Purchase this unit from Perfection Audio in Gardena, CA (310) 327-4900

Review: iPod Tube pre-amplifier itpa-220


28 Aug

Review: iPod Tube amplifier itpa-220
itpa220
I’m going to be testing the iPod mounted tube amplifier and speaker system. I’ll be giving my review this coming up week.

In the box

- Vacuum tube pre-amplifier, with dual 6N3 vacuum tubes (1)
- Powered speakers (2)
- Audio connection cable (1)
- RCA to 1/8 inch audio cable for AUX connection (1)
- Remote control (1)

If you already own one please let me know what you think.
itpa220 1

Live iPhone

Everything you need to know about the iPod, iPad, and iPhone