Posts Tagged “review”

While the world waits for Apple to release official news about their new tablet computer, a few smaller (and lesser known) companies are releasing their own touch screen tablets.  Archos has a few models out, there’s the viliv, and then there’s the whole CrunchPad thing which is now called the JooJoo.  And I’ve never played with any of them.  I have however been (for some reason) drooling for an iSlate for the past year or so.  And in my impatience I prematurely ordered a Camangi WebStation and am ready to report the bad news…

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It’s no secret that I have a movie theatre for a television and that we enjoy watching movies at home. But I’m also the parent of a small child and we have a fairly strict policy of what we allow our child to view. Still, we enjoy getting cozy on the couch for a good family movie. So the issue becomes WHAT to watch. The challenge is to find movies that are clean and appropriate for her while at the same time are able to hold my interest.

As I said, we’re careful about what television shows she sees. I’ve even vetoed some Blue’s Clues episodes because of the way they often handle conflict, encourage entitlement, and promote drama and whininess. And don’t even get me started on The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and how they routinely teach ’scientific’ principles that defy the laws of physics.

Everything she watches is played off TiVo, giving us the ability to skip over commercials. Although I must admit that it is mostly so we can avoid her falling for kids advertising and wanting every cheap toy that is pushed in her face. So we simply remove the pushing. We also don’t watch any non-kids shows when she is around, which basically amounts to ‘when she is awake.’ And if the TV is playing live-tv, it’s always on the food channel – which has proven to be a completely kid-safe channel.

For movies, as a general rule I believe in the MPAA rating system. G-rated movies are probably fine for her.  PG, or Parental Guidance, means that it might or might not be appropriate – and we need to pre-view the movie to know if it’s cool before she sees it. And I figure she can probably watch PG-13 movies when she’s 13 – but we’ll see when we get there. With only G movies to choose from, the short list gets stale fast. The problem with the PG rating is that it’s too wide a range – movies can be fine for 6 year olds or barely appropriate for 12 year olds. Overall I think there is a serious shortage of good family movies. And it’s a genre that is not target by indie film makers, which is why I have a passion to try to eventually fill that gap.  But I digress…

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TLP001 – In the premiere episode of “The tomorrowland.com Podcast” I review the Promise SmartStor NS4600, and discuss setting it up, using it as a media server, and explain how to set up a dynamic dns so that you can access it remotely and stream videos to your iphone over the net.  Click Podcast in the header bar to watch the episode here in HD!

In 1986 I went into my local Atari ST store and was furious to find a cheap Othello-type game selling for $30 – which was like 100 bucks in ‘86.  Why sooo serious?!  Well, because in my opinion it was a total rip off.  First off it showed no creativity – the graphics were just black and white circles for game pieces.  And second, it should have been free out of a magazine (back then you’d just type in the code).  It was a total rip off.  So I set out to write my own version of the game, and mine looked more like a 3D game table.  The rest of that story another time.

To my point, a similar thing has certainly happened to the makers of the iPhone app Bang!Bang! and Boom!BOOM! Shotgun Free (iTunes links).  They had what they thought was an original idea. They set out to make it professional, using realistic graphics and hollywood sound effects, and they worked it through the iPhone app approval process.  Only to find out that Apple was approving several ‘gun’ apps all around the same time.  No proof of this of course, but I suspect that Apple might have held theirs back to time the releases closer together. I believe theirs did hit the store first, but others soon followed, including what can only be described as an extremely cheap knock off called Shotgun Pro.  But plagiarism is the best form of compliment, right?  And competition is what makes this country great.

But still, the idea that Shotgun Pro had made it to #2 on the Entertainment charts got under their skin a bit.  And to be honest it also makes me scratch my head as it is a somewhat un-inspired soundboard app.  So to combat it they too set out on a mission, to ‘pop a cap in the arse’ of the competition.  Take the jump to read on and see the video…

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This week I sold my old G5 along with a 23″ Cinema Wide Display, a BlackMagic card, Sonnet Tempo eSata card, and a Sonnet Fusion 500P populated with 5 x 500GB hard drives. It was a complete edit system including lots of fast storage, but as part of my “out with the old – in with the new” theme, it all had to go.

Hindsight certainly is 20/20 and I like to review technology after the fact to reflect on how well it worked. Overall my G5 was a great machine and it was difficult to let it go. But a couple of the components were very hard to let go: the monitor, and the storage…
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For a while I’ve been promising to do a review of a product called Paint On Screen. The idea behind it is that rather than buying an expensive projection screen you get the same results by painting a wall with their special paint. Actually, in some ways you get a better result. I’ve already explained in detail why I don’t believe in “real” home theater screens for front projector systems – and I stand by it. There are many practical reasons why a wall is better than a screen.  Mainly because it is larger and more flexible.  It is not limited to a set aspect ratio, it costs much less, and in my install it helps deliver a real movie theater experience. My screen is massive.

What I set out to do was to test their $200 product against a $30 Dunn Edwards house paint to see if theirs really is any better. The Paint On Screen products start with a silver base, which make them reflect better. Certainly it’s a more professional way to go.  But how well does it work?

Well, the review process got complicated and the result isn’t simple either. Overall I am recommending this product, but it comes with several caveats and some advice. All of which requires some explanation and visual aids to understand. This review has been a grueling month in the making. So grab a red bull and hit the read link for all the gory details…

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I think it’s safe to say that a large percentage of geeks and nerds have cats. Personally, I have a love/hate relationship with both my cat and my dog. On one hand they give you unconditional love. But on the other hand they can be extremely annoying, noisy, chew your stuff, puke on things (or on you), and then there’s the whole issue of where they do their business.

When I first got my cat, my wife explained scooping the litter box in the best possible light.  She described the task as being like a prospector sifting for gold. Sounds almost fun when you put it like that. But over the years I’ve come to HATE the chore. I’ve also acquired an allergy to the cat box – the dust and the urine. I am very sensitive to smells and certain scents will throw me right into a migraine. For the past few years I’ve been thinking that the modern house should have a bathroom receptacle for pets. Why can’t there be some sort of toilet for cats that flushes away the waste?  And for a while I’ve been fantasizing about designing and building such a device. Hey, these are the things I think about people! I’m a nerd, what can I say… Read… »

As I said in my post on Upgrading to 7.1, a few weeks ago I set out to upgrade my amplifier and speakers to 7.1 – hoping to keep it under a grand. Initially the amp I was looking at was the Sony STR-DG820 which retails for $399. I considered Sony because my Projector is a Sony and they were advertised to work well with each other. Luckily, I’m somewhat of an impulsive shopper and when Best Buy didn’t have the Sony on hand, I started looking at alternatives. 30 minutes later I was driving home with the harman/kardon AVR254. Read… »

Here is my bottom-line advice on home theatre projector screens: depending on your setup you’re probably better off not having one. Save your money! When I wrote my review of the Sony Bravia SXRD 1080P VPL-HW10, I knew my opinion on projector screens would draw some criticism. I only covered it briefly in that post, but I’ve decided to talk about it in more detail today.  Read on and get ready to have some intense debate… Read… »

Yesterday in Part 1 I covered the unboxing and reported that the HW10 is awesome. Today I’m going to continue the review and talk about my home theatre setup and show some high quality photos of the amazing 1080P picture projected on my wall. Read… »