The new device is much different from the older models. It no longer has the e-ink screen but a full touch screen powered by Android. The new device is not just an ereader, it’s a tablet.

Listed below are the features of the new Nook Color.

The Ultimate Reading Experience:

• Stunning 7-inch color touchscreen
• Magazines & newspapers in rich color
• Kids’ books come alive
• Over 2 million titles at your fingertips
• Get social, surf the web, play games, even listen to music

I am an avid Netflix user and streaming video to my laptop is nice but watching movies on a television is a much nicer experience all around.

My Roku arrived this week and, unbelievably, I installed it on my lunch hour after I ate my lunch and I was not late returning to work! In less than thirty minutes I connected it to my television and the internet, registered my device with Roku, Netflix, and Amazon Video On Demand. It was an amazingly simple process.

I had been told that I would need to manage my Netflix queue via the internet to add movies for streaming, however Netflix has made some upgrades that allow you to search for movies via your Roku device making adding and deleting from the device is very user friendly. Download speeds are fast and I have not had any issues with any movies needing to buffer as I watched them. The only thing I found a bit awkward was scrolling through a video I just wanted to watch parts of, however if you pause during a movie and come back later to resume watching, it immediately goes to the point where you left off.

There are many options of channels you can add to your Roku device from podcasts to videos to photo sharing. Thus far I have added Mediafly, PodTV, woot!, Roku Newscaster, EZTakes, and USTREAM.tv.

I have found each of these applications to be very easy to navigate and use.

I have not found Amazon video on demand as simple to use though. I found their application to be a bit cumbersome and outside of a few current television show offerings, all of their content is available on Netflix, so paying for Amazon rentals is not going to be something I will do with any regularity.

For those interested in MMA, there are a couple of channels for viewing UFC which offers LIVE events and archived PPV events and classic fights and Midwest Cage Fighting.

It also has some internet radio channels, family channels with kid friendly content, some independent film channels, and several classic movie channels. In addition, in the few days since I have installed my Roku device, there have been several new channels added to the lineup, so I will be checking back often to see what else is new.

If you have been considering purchasing a Roku device, I would definitely recommend it.

Around February of 2005 I bought a G4 iBook. I loved it, and still do except for the screen resolution. It has always worked very well. I could easily take it to class and use it all day on a single battery charge. It is quiet and never overheats. As far as I’m concerned it has worked flawlessly, and I’d like to point out, it still does. The battery still keeps a great charge. The screen has zero dead pixels. It has held up perfectly. As I stated before it’s main downfall for “modern” times is the low screen resolution of 1024×768. It has a 1.33ghz G4 Processor, 1.25gb of RAM and runs the Leopard operating system. It isn’t fast compared to new laptops, but it is great for general internet usage, even still today.

In May of 2008 I purchased a 24″ iMac. At that point I became a full time Mac user at home. I loved it. And for $1800 I hoped it would last a long time. Fast forward to 2010 and now I know I was totally mistaken. The iMac, along with every other piece of Apple hardware over the last couple of years, has various flaws that Apple refuses to do anything about and they just don’t last as long as they should.

For one, they overheat. Apple seems to think that the more silent a computer is the better… No, that’s not the case. If I let the fans on my iMac run at stock speed, not only does the whole computer get ridiculously hot, but even the LCD screen burns in. In order to make my screen viewable after a few hours I finally figured out that I needed to remove the glass covering on my screen (it’s simply held in place with a few magnets) and use a program to control my fan speeds. Without the glass my iMac looks fairly bad, but if it helps the issue it is the only option I have. There have been various topics on the Apple forums regarding this issue and absolutely no solutions have been posted. Why? Because there are none. It’s a major design flaw. Nothing can be done to fix it other than what I have done, if you even consider that a fix. On a side note, other things have failed on my iMac also, including the Super Drive and the line-in jack.

Another problem is their operating system support. Snow Leopard is great, don’t get me wrong. But I am unable to upgrade past 10.6.2 on my iMac. Well, that’s not entirely true. I can if I want to have a completely unstable and unusable computer.

Starting with 10.6.3 and even in the current build 10.6.4, there is a major issue that causes the entire computer to lock up. The screen either gets lines all over it, or goes completely black, and the computer is unresponsive to all input. The only possible thing to do is to press the power button on the back of the iMac until you can restart it. This issue started all the way back in April of this year. It is now mid August. Once again, there is no response from Apple about the issue and they have no idea what to do. They released a so called “fix” for something but it had no effect on my computer. I am not the only one with this problem either. There are plenty of threads on the Apple forums regarding the same issue. I was forced to reinstall Snow Leopard and only upgrade back up to 10.6.2 to have a working computer.

Because I initially liked my iMac so much, I bought a first gen iPod Touch for a whopping $379. I absolutely loved it. It basically convinced me to cancel my Verizon contract and switch to AT&T to buy an iPhone 3g.

My phone has always worked fairly well. As a matter of fact, I still use the iPhone 3g. I have it jailbroken of course. But once again, Apple released their next great thing iOS 4. iOS 4 is totally useless on the iPhone 3g. My phone is already nearly 2 years old so the battery doesn’t hold a charge nearly as well as it did early on. iOS 4 absolutely destroys it, not to mention the fact that the useful features such as “background” apps aren’t officially supported on it. Needless to say, I am using the 3.1.3 OS, and I will never upgrade any higher. They don’t even support a wallpaper on the iPhone 3g. Amazingly, I have no issues with full themes while it is jailbroken.

I’m sure you can imagine where I am heading now with this, the iPhone 4 “antennagate” issue… I would love to buy a new phone. AT&T was even nice enough to allow me to do so early if I wanted to upgrade. Why would anyone even consider doing this? Yeah I know, plenty of people say they don’t have an issue. I guess Apple just decided to fire Mark Papermaster for no reason, right?

This entire umm, “made up problem” has made me totally rethink my entire stance on Apple as a whole.  I am about 95% certain that I will not buy another Apple computer. I am also about 75% sure that I will not purchase another iPhone, and the only reason I even say 75% is the fact that I have spent a good bit of money on applications for my current iPhone 3g. I don’t really want all of that money to go to waste and honestly it is the only reason why I would even consider staying with the iPhone.

I am starting to ramble now so I will finish off by discussing my main issue with Apple products, their price. As time goes by and technology is getting better and better, and the “computer user” is becoming more mainstream, prices have dropped drastically. Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t seem to care about this trend. Apple computers flat out are overpriced, more so than ever I think.

I recently purchased an HP Pavilion dv7t Select Edition laptop. I can admit it, I love Windows 7 and it is basically what will end my time as a primary Mac user. Here is a comparison between the HP laptop I ordered for $1150 and the 17″ MBP that costs $2350 (upgraded the HDD to 7200rpm to match the HP):

HP: Intel Core i5 2.40GHz, with Turbo Boost up to 2.66 GHz
MBP: 2.53GHz Intel Core i5
HP: 6GB DDR3 System Memory
MBP: 4GB DDR3 System Memory
HP: 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
MBP: 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
HP: 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 switchable graphics [HDMI, VGA]
MBP: NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR3 memory and Intel HD Graphics with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory
HP: 17.3″ diagonal HD+ High-Definition HP LED BrightView Infinity Widescreen Display (1600 x 900)
MBP: MacBook Pro 17-inch Hi-Resolution Glossy Widescreen Display
HP: Blu-Ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW Double Layer
MBP: SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
HP: One 6 Cell (standard) and One 9 Cell (over-sized) Lithium Ion Battery
MBP: Built-in 95-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery

It is totally unbelievable that you can buy 2 of the HP laptops instead of a single Macbook Pro. When you can buy literally 2 other computers for the price of one Mac then there is something drastically wrong. I could see if it was a far superior product then maybe it would be worth it. But the bottom line is Apple products are not superior at all to other manufacturers.

I could go on and on with this post, but I am going to end it here. To summarize, I used to love Apple products. Over the last couple of years many factors have swayed me away from their products. The most recent iPhone 4 disaster coupled with their inability to price their products competitively along with the drastic drop in overall quality are the main factors in my decision to no longer support the company as I once did.

So yeah, I finally made another blog post.

I used to take photos all the time. It really was a great hobby. Over the last few years I have moved away from all of that, but recently I decided to give it another go!

This past week I decided to make a light box. If anyone is interested I can make a blog post about how I did it, though you can find many ways to make one just by searching online. The first round of photos I took with it can be found in this gallery on my Flickr account.

Also, since spring has arrived I started taking some photos outside. I will be updating my Spring 2010 gallery on Flickr fairly often I hope, weather permitting.

If all goes well, I hope to keep up with this hobby again. It’s relaxing, and fun to do. I just rarely liked the photos I took, and that’s why I originally stopped taking so many. I seem to have gotten over that for the most part, and enjoy sharing my photos more than before. I hope everyone who visits here enjoys them.

Keep checking back for more! Well, if you like them that is.

Features

I will begin first discussing some of the features of the Playsport.
It is capable of 4 video modes, WVGA, 720p, 720p 60fps and 1080p. It is also capable of one still photo setting of 5mp.

I am sure the 1080p quality level of recording is a huge selling point, but I tend to use 720p for the most part. The size/quality ratio just seems to be better for 720p. I feel that if I use 1080p for most videos, it is basically overkill and will just fill my card much faster than necessary. The 720p 60fps mode uses the same storage space as a 1080p video, but when there is a lot of motion this mode is clearly the best. It is very smooth with little to no motion blur when recording at 60fps. It is great. Truely.

Unlike the Kodak Zi8, the Playsport does not have an external mic jack or a macro mode. But, the focusing distance on the Playsport is fairly short so the macro mode isn’t really a big deal. Also, like many other pocket video cameras the Playsport does not have an optical zoom, only digital. Digital zoom in my opinion is practically useless, but others might care to use it.

Build Quality

The best part about this pocket video camera is the build quality. As soon as I originally took it out of the box I knew it was built well. It has a nice weight to it and is very sturdy. It has a rubberized coating to make it very easy to grip. The rubber grip is needed for easy handling while the camera is wet, because after all the Playsport is completely waterproof up to 10ft.

Video/Photo quality

The video quality of the Playsport is great considering it’s price tag and general size. In low light, still photos and videos are fairly grainy, but I totally expected that to be honest. The video filesizes are fairly large, but once again, it’s expected when you are dealing with high resolution video files.

Below is one short sample video I recorded in daylight. This is not the best sample, because Flickr reencodes the videos, but it gives you a general idea of the clarity, and the EIS (electronic image stabilization). Also are 2 sample still photos. One was taken in sunlight, the other at night.

Sound Quality

The sound quality on the Playsport is average. It contains a built in mono condenser microphone. It picks up sound from a fairly decent distance, but if you are in any sort of wind forget about getting usable audio. Indoors it works fairly well because there shouldn’t be much wind, at least we hope so right?

Other Comments and Issues

Getting the files off of the Playsport on my iMac is fairly simple. All you do is connect the device via the included USB cable and it mounts just like an SD card reader would. There is one major bug though. When you remove the files from the device, it starts using the same filenames over again. This is a major problem if you want to put all of your videos and photos in the same folders, you might accidentally overwrite one of your older files. I hope a firmware update is released to fix this issue quickly.

Conclusion

Overall I am happy with my purchase of the Playsport. I also purchased an 8gb class 6 SDHC card to go with it. 8gb will get about 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours of recording time depending on the quality setting you are using. If you need more storage, it supports up to a 32gb SDHC card, but remember the battery will most likely die before you run out of storage if you have larger than an 8gb card. Fortunately, the battery is easily replaceable, so you can buy extra one for about $20 if you need more recording time.

Below are unboxing photos along with one sample photo taken by the Playsport itself. I will write a review on the product in a few days, but here are my initial impressions for now…

At first touch, I noticed the build quality of the Playsport is great. It feels very sturdy and actually weighs more than I thought it would. The initial turn on time is much shorter than I anticipated also. I am currently charging it because the battery was almost completely empty when I turned it on, but the initial boot up of the device was less than 4 seconds.

The menus are very simple to navigate. I was able to set the date and time with no problems, and like most people I didn’t bother looking at the book. Changing the video quality, or to still camera is very simple. You just press the left or right arrow buttons and it brings up a menu to select the quality or function.

Here are the unboxing photos I took with my iPhone. They are fairly low quality, but I will take higher quality shots when I write the full review. Also below is a sample photo. It is very overcast today, so this is the best I can do for now. Click the 6th image in the gallery for full size. (2.2mb)

Originally, it was scheduled to be released in April but today I received an email stating that Amazon would have them in stock much earlier.

Not only does it record 1080p (and 720p at 60fps) video, but it takes 5mp 16:9 digital photos.

Here is the promotional paragraph regarding the Playsport…

Heads up, adrenaline junkies. The Kodak Playsport has as much appetite for adventure as you do. And it’s not afraid to get wet. This audacious little camera can plunge up to 10 feet under water and capture the entire experience in full 1080p HD. And you don’t need to worry about blurry footage when things get a little shaky. With built-in image stabilization, the Kodak Playsport will stay steady as a rock. From the waves, to the slopes, to the mud-soaked trails, this baby was made for the extremes.

Not only does this camera have a much better build quality, but it is actually cheaper than the very popular Zi8. Many places sell the Zi8 for between $179.99 and $200. The Playsport HD retails for only $149.

For $149 you get “Everything you need to shoot, watch, and share 1080p HD video” which includes:

• KODAK PLAYSPORT Video Camera
• KODAK Li-Ion Rechargeable Digital Camera Battery KLIC-7004
• HDMI and AV cables
• Wrist strap
• User Guide
• ARCSOFT MEDIA IMPRESSION Software for Kodak (PC only)

As you can see, this is an amazing price for this type of camera and it’s accessories. These compact HD cameras are great quality for general use, just remember that these are really only made to have fun. Don’t expect broadcast quality HD at this price range, though the video quality is rather impressive.

Once I receive the camera I will write a full review. I can’t wait to try it out.

If you have an account on Last.fm please consider joining our group here http://www.last.fm/group/StevoFCdotCOM

And if you have never been to Last.fm before, I urge you to sign up.

Thanks everyone.

I contacted support via chat and told them about the problem. They told me they could “initialize” my box because it was possible there was some sort of programming error after the last firmware update. I said no problem and they told me to contact them again if the problem persisted because a replacement DVR would need to be sent. That same evening I contacted them again and told them the problem was still there and without any problems I was told a new one would be sent via UPS.

Since I contacted them on a Friday evening, the box wasn’t going to be delivered until Tuesday. I had no problem with that since the box worked for the most part. The signal was just lost occasionally. Tuesday came along and I got the box via UPS like they said.

My original DVR was a 7216, and I was happy to see that the replacement they sent me was a 6416-2. Even though the 6416-2 is older than the 7216, it seems to have many less problems. First off, I can actually use the HDMI connection now with my Samsung LCD. It did not wok correctly with the original DVR. Secondly, it makes much less noise. I would think the newer one would have been quieter, but that’s not the case.

I have not had a single problem at all with this replacement box. The entire experience is much better now. There were many more problems with my original box than I even thought. There was a lot more lag in menus and in general overall usage. I am quite happy of the replacement and support couldn’t have made it any easier. All I had to do was put the faulty DVR in the box the new one was shipped in and take two labels to the UPS store and drop it off.

Self activation was very simple. The whole process didn’t even take me 30 minutes and I had the new DVR up and running with all of the guide data. They give you a code and you have the option of calling a telephone number or entering it online. I did it through the page online. It honestly couldn’t have been any simpler than it was.

What I thought was the most impressive part of this whole situation was how willing the support staff was to believe that my problem was actually with the FiOS equipment. Not once did they ever try to blame it on my television. Back when I had Comcast, any time I had a problem the first thing they tried to do was blame the issue on something I owned. Verizon never once even questioned me.

Once again, I am very happy with the service I am receiving from Verizon.

9:42:28 PM: Spoiler Alert: I will be posting live results here on Twitter and on my blog. http://bit.ly/JXbOT

9:50:16 PM: If you aren’t watching the Ultimate 100 on Spike, they are about to show the top rated fight.

10:09:41 PM: Akiyama vs Belcher intro right now…

10:20:03 PM: Ouch, bad low blow right there on Akiyama.

10:24:12 PM: End of the first round. Great fight so far.

10:39:26 PM: The fight went all 3 rounds. Akiyama wins by split decision. I think Belcher should have won that fight…

10:43:47 PM: Henderson vs Bisping up next. The fighters are making their way to the octagon.

10:55:02 PM: Good first round for Henderson.

10:59:41 PM: Bisping just got knocked out in round 2.

11:07:15 PM: St-Pierre vs Alves intro playing right now…

11:19:18 PM: GSP is off to a great start…

11:29:21 PM: The second round definitely went to GSP.

11:35:12 PM: Wow, Alves is lucky that 3rd round ended when it did.

11:41:49 PM: 5th and final round coming up.

11:45:42 PM: 8 takedowns for GSP so far in the fight. 1:45 to go.

11:47:45 PM: Fight over. St-Pierre is going to win via decision.

12:04:54 AM: Mir is in the ring. Lesnar is on his way out now.

12:10:45 AM: Here we go… The fight just started.

12:15:45 AM: Fairly boring fight so far. Round 1 over.

12:19:37 AM: Wow. Lesnar destroyed Mir on the ground. The crowd is booing and he just gave them all the finger.

12:22:57 AM: Mir’s face looks horrible.

12:28:25 AM: Finch vs Thiago now. But that’s all for my live results.