I got in the box with a three day express DHL delivery which was perfectly on time. For 60 KD I got it the fastest way possible, and I got it out of the shipping box to find this nice HP Box inside. HP 5101 is a nicer then I expected, I think HP learned from their previous editions and improved on it. The laptop feels extremely well built and clean, the keyboard is spacious and the 10.1 inch screen is very nice. At low screen brightness I can get about 6 hours and 23 minutes out of the 6 cell battery and it doesn’t protrude out of the laptop. I went ahead and replaced the ram from a 1GB chip to a 2GB chip which was shipped separately, that was extremely simple with a small panel in the back and its easily replaceable. I currently have XP Home on this little machine, I installed the usual applications to start off with, my intent is to format it and install XP Pro which has a few extra networking features that I usually use but for now I’m going to use it as is and see how it goes.
I have the mobile broadband module installed in the 5101, and I inserted my MTC/Zain chip, I just have to see if it can work with it. I don’t have an Ego subscription and its asking me for a username and password which I do not have, so I’m going to take a sim card from my friend who has an ego subscription and try it out, if not Zain, then wataniya, and if not them then Viva to see if it works. Having a built-in broadband internet into the laptop with access to 3G services of one our providers in Kuwait would be fantastic so thats something I just have to work out. The quality of the laptop is great, a glossy black behind the screen looks very nice but pron to finger print smudges, and the whole laptop is built from a nice rubbery plastic which has a nice feeling to it when you have your hands on it or when your carrying it, just the right amount of friction. It has ports galore, 3 USB, VGA, and SD/MMC slot. Overall I think that HP has built a quality netbook laptop which is on the more powerful side of the netbooks, after using it for a few days now I managed to get a decent 6 hours and 35 minutes out of the laptop which is pretty good for a 6 cell battery that doesn’t protrude. My first impressions is that this is a very good netbook and I’m going to enjoy using it, but I’m going to it through its paces for a longer review.
Sony comes out of the closet and anounces the release of the Sony PS3 Slim, coming out in the september. For $300 you get the 120GB slim with all the bangs and whistles of the normal PS3 but about a 1/3 smaller. After all this time without a PS3, I have decided to go ahead and purchase this one when it comes out, after all that Sony has worked out this is one cool looking machine and now I can get to enjoy the games that Sony has available.
Link: Engadget
I tend to buy a majority electronics or any other item online through Amazon, for the simple reason of convenience and consistency. Even with dealing with outside vendors you can take a look at there feedback through Amazon and decide if you want to buy through them or not, and they make the whole process very easy. There are some sites that I would like to purchase from them but two things come up, either they don’t ship to mail forwarder or the shipping address has to match the address on the credit card.
One thing is that I tend to buy certain hardware directly from Amazon for the sake of their return policy. They have the easiest non-hassle return policy I have seen from any company, you just click return item, then you specify which item you want to return for a reason, you get to choose a replacement for it or a refund, a refund takes some time but the replacement is instantly sent out. In my case I ordered two Western Digital 2 TB drives, one was faulty and one was fine, so I asked for a replacement and its already shipped out, same thing happened before and they shipped it out, they asked the damaged item be sent back within 30 days or you would be charged for the replacement. This happened before and the process was perfect, the only cost is the cost of sending the item back from Kuwait.
Its annoying when customs go through this loop, I don’t think there is anything that passes through customs these days without it being opened. I have been waiting for the Flip Ultra HD for some time now, I ordered it from Amazon with my Barney book, the Bro Code. It got stuck in customs for three days because they didn’t like that the there were was a quantity of two from the cameras, even though I said its for personal use.
I had to wait for Aramex to clear it, I gave them my civil ID and I gave them the go head, it cost 10 KD more for them to clear it but I didn’t feel like going and deal with those guys. First thing I did was unpack one of the Flip Ultra HDs and I started flipping through the Bro Code. You know in TV shows when somebody is thinking something and there is a picture of a person talking above his head and you can see him and hear him, when I was reading the Bro Code I could hear Barney Stinson talking and telling me the importance of the Bro Code, and I couldn’t stop laughing at all the different Articles, this is going to be an easy and entertaining read.
Meneghini refrigerators and freezers are best described as Italian Antique Modern in aesthetics, with brass handles and hinges, glass shelving, and various other pleasing details like portholes and clawfoot legs to distinguish themselves from their utilitarian counterparts.
I never thought that I would refer to a fridge or freezer as sexy but I have now. Meneghini have designed refrigerators and freezers that can flow with an type of furniture, and almost any type of funish you are looking for. This is probably the ultimate fridge a man can ask for, and a starting price of $10’000 its surroundings must match this unique piece. It seems to be made by an Italian Designer with German manufacturing for its freezer and fridge internals.
Link: Unplggd
After all these years you’d think that every vehicle manufacturer would have some sort of iPod integration. Not every car has the perfect integration, some cars do have issues but they do have integration. Apple has the market cornered and I’m too happy but its a great working product with amazing sound quality. Some have direct integration into the sound system, some have other solutions.
There are a few options for iPod integration, some cars have auxiliary input, and if you have nothing the best quick solution is an FM Transmitter. FM Transmitter is the simple but annoying solution but the only one that really works is the Griffin transmitter and all the others don’t work. Tape deck is only for those cars that have tape decks but very few cars have them anymore. Getting a new deck doesn’t really work for new cars because it really ruins the look but still their are other solutions. Right now I’m looking at the DICE solution for my little problem, because getting used to the iPod in a car every day and then not having it is like going through an addiction withdrawl.
Alternative Solutions:
- FM Transmitter
- Tape Deck
- Auxiliary Input
I’m always looking for these pocket cams, and I have a Flip UltraHD on the way, but the Zi8 from Kodak seems to top it with a matching price. It has yet to be tested and I’m pretty happy with the Flip Cameras but there is always room for improvement but tough to keep it in the same price range. I do like that it has an external microphone jack so you won’t hear the air if you can place a microphone somewhere else when your recording a moving vehicle.
Features:
- 1080p Recording
- Electronic Image Stabilizer
- SDHC Card Slot
- External microphone jack
- 5 Megapixel Stills
- Track Faces of Subjects and “more details and accurate colors in low light”
- List Price $180
Link: Gizmodo
I have been on a downloading rampage and the results are aparent, I pretty much forgot about Hazmat Windows Home Server since upgrading it to 14 TB in May. It didn’t take long to fill it to capacity and with only 70% duplication for a few folders. Its really not recommend to reach that high a capacity with all the hard drives, they balance each other and right now very little data can flow between the hard drives to spread the data. So now I’m running on suicide watch, keeping an eye on the server to see if anything goes wrong right now, one of the hard drivers required to be repaired because the data was slighlty inconsistent. I stuck with my other WHS since I think the Motherboard died and I knew it was on the verge of giving up but I have been too damn lazy to perform the transplant. So I have jumped the gun for a quick solution, I ordered a Sans Digital Sata 8 TowerRaid which will connect to the other two eSata connections on the PCI-X card in Hazmat Server. I’m crossing my fingers that the Tower Raid gets here quickly.
I have been through a lot of external hard drives, mostly because people ask me to fix them or recover data when they are broken. Or when they are asking for media, tv shows, anime, or movies. I have had some experience with some of these drives and after all the failures I have suffered with externals, I have come to the conclusion about a few drives. Never buy generic drives such as simpltech because you don’t know what your getting on the inside, and I have never had a healthy Maxtor External drive, for some reason they always act up and a majority of Western Digital externals have had issues. Its either the ones that come to Kuwait have issues, they a little too many bumps on the way, or its just been bad luck. Overall I know which external is my favorite and those are the Seagate external drives. Those are just excellent drives and out at least 10 only one was has failed, compared to the others its extremely better. And these drives in the pile up around going out to pasture, I have dissected a few to see what makes them tick and what make them fail and its always fun taking things apart when you don’t have to put them back together.
The Pileup
- Simpltech x2 – 160 GB- Lasted One Day
- Maxtor – 160 GB – Lasted a month
- WD – 320 GB – Last one week
- Seagate – 160 GB – Lasted Four Years
I have to say that I am very impressed with the Popcorn Hour A-110, it is a little more advanced then most people think and can even output the right audio to heavy duty A/V equipment. I have had it for over a year now and put it through its paces. Most people are in search a decent and simple media player that will play all the different encodings of stored video and audio, and I think that the Popcorn is the solution. We had to upgrade to higher end Onkyo A/V so that it can recieve the decoded audio through the HDMI wire but that isn’t a shortcoming of the Popcorn, I think its great that it can output all forms. I’m not going to go over all the technical details of the product you can see it here.
Pros:
- Simple operations
- Can attach multiple hard drives
- Outputs Analog and HD to any TV/Projector
- Compact and simple to transport
- Analog/Component Video/S-Video/HDMI Video output
- Connects to the network, and you can manually connect
- Decent price for product that can cover all the different encodings
Cons:
- Sometimes you have to manually map the location of hard drives or shared folders.
- Issues with subtitles when watching Japanese Animation
Link: PopcornHour
Price: $215
Rating:
