The Deals are out for Touch Tablets, and the war begins!

The New Boxee Box is here finally!

      Well its finally here after a long drawn out wait for it, the boxee box made from d-link. There are good things about this media box for the living room and then there are bad ones, big ones too. Although the interface seems to enjoy the same ease of use that has made boxee a success among many of us lazy media browsers on both Mac and PC's there are some differences in presentation that we all are a customer to. 

Review of the Roku Box from Netgear!

    

 This is my attempt to review the new Roku box that are available right now at some of the local retail stores as well as various online web sites like the manufacturers, Roku.com. First factor that impressed me was the price for what it offered in comparison to other living room type of media boxes using the internet as its primary source. I purchased mine at a local Best Buys (didn't want to wait in the mail for it and no extra savings doing so) and chose the elite model for $79.99. I was surprised to see just how simple this device is to setup and that it came with built in wifi abilities allowing me to just about locate it anywhere in my home but the cable connect was available and does provide for a better viewing experience. With the ability (the model I chose) to play 1080P video from various sources (paid or free), I was amazed just how good it performed, the easy and small remote control similar to appleTV's.  This device is a real threat to the boxee box, AppleTV, GoogleTV and others trying to work their way into the living room entertainment business model. I have always enjoyed boxee app on my mac-mini but I could not justify paying so much for the external box created by D-Link for the Boxee group. I still think that the Boxee model is the one to fear and emulate especially since it works so well on mac's PC's. Boxee's owners could take over the market if it just lowered the external boxes price to a reasonable one that competes against the other contenders. So I give it 4 stars out of 5 for the Roku box only lacking in its applications list providing both youtube and  integration with a local PC or Mac for media files to display in the living room or where ever its located. Maybe we will see an app for that on the Roku box soon, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Review of the Roku Box from Netgear!

     This my attempt to review the new Roku box's available at some local retail stores and online as well.

Roku's WebSite

Scripted MacMini Dilema Support

It's been just about over 2 years since I made the leap to a Mac (Mac-Mini) after getting tired of having to diagnose and re-diagnose mostly software conflicts in my previously owned PC's. All I wanted to do is really get some work done on my computer and have it work when I needed it to do so in an application. Many will say that any and all issues can be addressed with the PC if directed to the right place but who exactly knows what that means after all I'm no newbie at this. I have been involved in electronics since 1975 and personal computers since they first starting appearing as toys on the market, yes toys not taken seriously. So looking at the specifications of the Mac-Mini and its ability to use MS Windows OS as well to make the transition easier, I made the leap at a relatively low cost (almost, less then $1k and thats without a monitor). I was surprised to see that this ignored computer by most was really quite good and very functional and a whole new world opened up for me in computer use. Mind you I had tried previous versions of the Apple computers in the past but none seemed to satisfy my need or hunger as a enthusiast in electronics to own, let alone the pricing of this very poorly market supported device (little software and or games). Many will recall and even today just how few software title there are for the Mac as compared to the PC's but quantity doesn't always transform to usability or stability. The PC compatible Microsoft OS based realm was (and still is) unstable at the very least but it is getting better. Most enterprises still use PC's and there preferred OS from Microsoft so they will not disappear anytime soon but they suffered in the last few years this and other flaws.

I made sure that my newly purchased memory matched the specifications required (bus speed, type) and I also rechecked it through the 3rd parties online seller utility plus descriptions (supplier has a good reputation of supplying memory for all types of computers including many Mac's). The new OS recognized it, identified it and passed it in its pre-boot test process and OS. The only place where I saw that memory was not being recognized was in the "Activity Monitor" application built-into the OSX. It reported a total of 3GB for use, missing 1gb. The other day I called into Apple's support system to ask a very logical question about memory usage or recognition on my Mac Mini I upgraded to improve the performance. I saw no logical reason to believe it would not be recognized properly but that did not happen. What I got from Apple's support system at the other end was a scripted tech response locked down to illogical conclusions and useless chatter even though it was politely done. I explained that I went from 2GB of ram to 4GB and that the old and the new OSX recognized it as being there and functional (pre-boot testing). The representative still insisted that my Mac Mini model would not function or recognize anything higher then 2 gb but he was wrong. The 1GB, a major loss and what poor reflection on the claims of 64 bit performance advantages as described online at Apple's web site.

My newly installed memory is working somewhat properly with the exception of what I explained but I saw no real reason to believe the new memory was either bad, incompatible with the computer or the wrong type for it. The Apple representative refused to acknowledge the OS & devices acceptance of the hardware upgrade discounting it to be a fallacy or lie on my part. The last advise I got from Apple representative was to buy a newer Mac Mini or an Apple computer that would accept more memory, of course through Apple only with a pricy tag (bad economy, don't have money to waste besides my Mac is still good or maybe they just want to stop supporting it like my old IPhone 2G, phasing them out). I decided that I'm not going to spend any more money in another Apple product (for now) and it really puts into question whether or not I should even invest in the future in any Apple product if this is the approach they will take. It almost appears like an orphaned group of products being abandoned by Apple's hierarchy. Customer service is lacking a bit right now or support depends way too much on reading a scripted screen for support answers but I'm hopeful it will change and more experienced logical thinking staff are hired soon to answer the phones of serious customers with an IQ higher then a chimpanzee, we can only hope.

The new evolution of the Internet!

It has come finally to the attention of some of the media savvy or so called experts in technology to proclaim that an unavoidable clash between the cable providers and online streaming with the Internet will happen soon. I have for some time now been saying this conflict can't be avoided. We are in a time that our elected officials see the possibilities of this happening and the advent of future technologies on the web to produce what is not yet possible due to limiting red tape and binding crippling laws that they are now willing to change in order to allow the web services to grow (I hope so). Of course the company Blockbuster had a leg up on this at one time as opposed to NetFlix but we now know that this is no longer is the case. We should ask ourselves exactly why this happened and where was the geniuses of Blockbusters been while this was going on? Well it's pretty simple really they just did not want to see the needs of their consumers but rather the bottom dollar abusive practices that the car manufacturers have been doing for years and drove them to bankruptcy. When will they ever learn that the customer comes first and that a small percentage gain is more reliable in time then any fast action abusive financial practices these companies wish to do. I'm amazed by the longevity of some companies through hard times like IBM and others and despite their short fallings they still exists today rather then others who tried to get fast easy money at the expense of customers, you and me. So will they finally learn a lesson or will they continue to try to ream their customers for all they can? We will have to see just how stupid these so called talented CEO's do in the future especially in these hard times we are in today.

It isn't enough that some companies live in the past and wish to impose (sometimes by law) their antiquated practices by way of providing poor or limited services and or over charging us for it (by force), but they also now want to cripple the very technological advances that could propel the internet into a new evolutionary phase of existence for the better good of us all. The cell phone industry is also going this route and just about all media is hanging on for dear life as the Internet evolves into a consumer choice of services on demand or another cable provider that the consumers can control at their whim. If these companies would just get their fat heads out of their A holes and start thinking with reason they will see many opportunities that are available to gain their so called bottom dollar within reason, if they do not I'm sure the foreign markets will. Technology will not stand still and wait for a few mentally challenged CEO's in the industry to finally wake up, it will go on and evolve many services like it or not by the industries involved. Today Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter and others are the stars of the Industry but it may not be that way in the not too distant future especially if there are talented kids in a garage inventing the new hot services or items to come to light. After all didn't most of our now top dogs start out in one form or another that way? So I say to the industry now to start putting the consumer first and stop abusing them with higher and higher fees unjustly. Take a smaller steady percentage so that you may last longer in the tech world to come and make products and services that the consumers really want not like some of these crippled devices that exist today. It's within their grasps to do so, or not it's their choice.

VRPCWORLD 1st Podcast

Just the 1st of many videos/ podcasts so keep checking out the YouTube account at: http://www.youtube.com/vrpcworld