The ColorTouch from Venstar looks like the ultimate gadgeteer’s thermostat. First of all, it is compatible with Apple iPhone, iTouch, iPad, Blackberry, Android, Mac and PC devices, which allows you to easily change settings remotely. Who knew that the ability to customize your home thermostat was important to people. It must be because the ColorTouch has interchangeable faceplates and the ability to change the color background wallpaper with both AM and PM images. It also has screensavers that turn it into a clock or a digital photo frame. Of course it also has a touch screen that you can use to easily schedule up to 4 temp changes per day. It even offers a wireless outdoor sensor so you can see the temp outdoors with a weather display and an energy usage information report that lets you see how much energy has been used to heat and cool for the past seven days. The ColorTouch residential thermostat with Skyport Wi-Fi Key is priced under $300 but the main gotcha is that you can’t just walk into Loews or Home Depot and buy one. It looks like you have to have a Heating and Air Conditioning company buy and install it for you. I still want one. I hate my programmable thermostat. I installed one myself to replace an old mercury switch style unit. It’s a real pain to program and change settings. I’d love one of these. Anyone out there have a ColorTouch?

Filed in categories: Home Tech, News, Wireless

Tagged: WiFi

Forget About the Nest Thermostat, Check out the ColorTouch from Venstar originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 18, 2012 at 2:14 pm.

Small and light in-ear isolation headphones with Bluetooth connectivity, the  Backbeat Go from Plantronics weigh in at only 13 grams. Charging via micro-USB, the headphones will give approximately 4.5 hours of sound, and there’s even a battery power indicator on your iPhone or iPad or Android 3.0/4.0 devices. Included are three sizes of cushioned eartips and two stabilizers for customised fitting. Inline controls let you pause music to take a call, change volume, or skip tracks.

Available from Plantronics for $99.99

Filed in categories: Bluetooth Gear, News, Wireless

Tagged: bluetooth headset, Headphones and earbuds

Plantronics Backbeat Go – Tiny Bluetooth Headphones originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 17, 2012 at 10:00 am.

Every day we use WiFi on our notebooks, phones, tablets, routers, TVs – in fact it’s estimated that there’s around 3 billion WiFi-enabled devices worldwide. Who out there knew though that WiFi is actually an Australian invention?  Developed by Australia’s national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) , it was patented in Australia in 1992 and the US in 1996. More information after the break:

The invention came out of CSIRO’s pioneering work in radioastronomy. That work involved complex mathematics known as ‘fast Fourier transforms’ as well as detailed knowledge about radio waves and their behaviour in different environments.

Indoor environments are particularly difficult for the rapid exchange of large amounts of data using radio waves. The CSIRO team solved the main problem of wireless networking, called reverberation, where the radio waves from the outgoing signal bounce around the surrounding environment causing an echo that distorts the signal.

CSIRO solved these problems in a unique way at a time when many of the major communications companies around the world were trying, but with less success, to solve the same problem.

A decade after the patent, many manufacturers launched wireless devices using CSIRO’s technology and fought to have the patent invalidated.  After a long legal battle, in April 2009, the CSIRO settled with a number of companies including 3Com,  Apple, Asus, Belkin, D-Link, Dell, Intel, Microsoft, Netgear, Nintendo, SMC and Toshiba ending in a result of a $200m settlement.

Just last week the CSIRO received another $220m windfall from AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA. These companies join a group of 23 companies — or more than 90 per cent of the industry — who currently pay patent fees to the CSIRO.

It’s worth noting that this crucial patent expires at the end of next year, at which time it’s estimated there will be around 5 billion WiFi enabled devices.

Aussie…..Aussie…..Aussie……

Filed in categories: News, Wireless

Tagged: WiFi

Aussie CSIRO WiFi Windfall of $220 million originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 10, 2012 at 9:00 am.

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to be implanted with that chip people keep talking about because I want to be always connected.  Until that day, I have to find other ways to keep myself connected.  It seems most every device now offers a cellular option for 3G (or even 4G) connectivity, but the problem with that is that data plans are expensive and often even require a contract.  And what do you do when you have a phone, tablet, and a laptop that you may want broadband for, but you don’t want to have separate contracts for all three?  DataJack offers a line of broadband products that can get you connected at home or while you’re out and about, and that can let you connect only one device or multiple devices.  Best of all, DataJack offers contract-free service plans that let you select the amount of data you need.

With DataJack, you first choose the device that best suits you.  Select from a broadband USB modem for your laptop ($70), a MiFi 2200 Mobile Hotspot ($90) to connect up to five devices to 3G, and even a 2550M Broadband professional-grade, mobile broadband router ($190) that lets you connect up to 256 WiFi-enabled devices at once.  Next, you choose the service plan.  There are no questions, no credit check, no activiation or early termination fees, and no contract.  Plans start at 200MB for $9.99 up to 5GB for $49.99 (30-day usage period).

The DataJack network offers secure nationwide 3G coverage at home or on the go, without roaming fees.  Their Data Usage Calculator lets you determine the amount of data you’ll need for the amount of emails, surfing, streaming music and video, and gaming you typically do in a month.  If you miscalculated, you can change plans whenever you like.

Keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming DataJack review at The Gadgeteer.

Filed in categories: News, Wireless

Tagged: 3G mobile broadband

Stay Connected Your Way with DataJack originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 2, 2012 at 2:04 pm.

Remember back in the day when NetZero offered free dial-up service and the only thing you had to suffer through was seeing advertisements?  Well NetZero is back to offer free mobile broadband*.  Yes, the asterisk is placed there on purpose.  So what does that asterisk mean?  The free version of NetZero Mobile Broadband is the plan that offers 200MB monthly data.  This free plan is only valid for 12 months and cannot be renewed.  You cannot go back to the free plan again if you decide to upgrade to the paid plans.  You need to either purchase a $49.95 USB modem or the $99.95 Hotspot.  Monthly plans range from the free plan to $49.95 Platinum Plan.  I just ordered one for myself for emergencies.  I opted for the $50 USB modem on the Free Plan.  Shipping was $19.95 and tax was $4.89.  So it will cost me a total of $74.79 for 12 months of emergency 200MB/month, which is a great deal if you’re stuck without WiFi.

Filed in categories: News, Pocket Gear, Wireless

Tagged: 4g, hotspot

Remember NetZero? They’re Offering Free Mobile Broadband* originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 21, 2012 at 8:00 am.

Once upon a time, a locomotive train ran through my son’s bedroom and he didn’t wake up.  Well, maybe not.  But if a train ever did run through his room he wouldn’t wake up.  Perhaps you have a family member who would fall into that category because they sleep so hard.  We have tried a dozen different types of clocks, including those that speak to you to wake you up, in hopes of finding a clock that would actually wake him up every morning.  Nothing has worked. He simply doesn’t hear them, yet it wakes the whole house up.  So it was with great anticipation that I agreed to review the TCL 200 Digital Alarm Clock with Wireless Vibrating Pad from Amplicom because of a few key features that might, just might, be able to wake the sleeping giant.  Did the Amplicom work?  Did my son finally make it to school on time?  Let’s find out!

Features and Hardware

Before I tell you the results of our tests, let me go over the features of the clock and show you some pictures.  The clock comes with a power charger, a phone cord, a user guide (yes, can you believe it?), a wireless vibration pad (more on that soon) and a cable that connects from the vibration pad to the clock for charging. The clock also runs on batteries (door on the bottom of the clock) in the event that the power goes out.

It has a bunch of buttons on the front and even more on the back, and I honestly had to read the user guide to figure out some of the functions.  I guess you could consider that a pro or a con, but it’s a pro for me because I like User Guides.  For this clock you need to hold onto the manual because in 6 months when you need to figure out how to do something, you are gonna need it.

On the back is where most of the action is, so let’s talk about some of these buttons. At the bottom is where you plug in the power cord, the charging wire for the wireless vibration pad, and the phone cord.  If you connect the clock to a phone jack in the wall then when the phone rings in the house the clock will act as an amplifier. This could be good, I suppose, for a person who was hard of hearing and needed to know when the phone was ringing.  On the back you also get to adjust the dimmer setting, the snooze duration, the volume of the alarm, the pitch of the alarm, and which signal (out of 5) that you want for your alarm.  The alarm signals range from just a constant beep to a series of beeps, to longer tones, etc.  It really is a personal preference as to which one you choose.  You also get to choose if you want the alarm to make a sound, just vibrate, or both.  With one of the switches on the back you also get to decide if you want the display on the clock face to flash when the alarm goes off, to add to the probability that the person will get  up.  And a nice touch is that you can set 2 different alarms and each one can be set to go off every day of the week, just on the weekend, or just M-F.

On top is the snooze button and on the right side is a really big knob that turns the alarm off and on.  One of my biggest gripes with alarm clocks in general is that the on-off buttons are small, and on most clocks the labels on the buttons are hard to read.  Not so on this clock.  That on-off knob on the side is not only clearly labeled, it is probably the biggest on-off switch I have ever seen.

On the front are indicator lights to tell you which of the 2 alarms are active and if the M-F setting is active.  On the front you will also find the buttons for setting the time on the clock and setting the alarm settings that you prefer.  Also, an interesting feature of the clock is that you can set the time to be announced in English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish.

The 2 main reasons why I wanted to try this clock were the sound level and the vibration pad.  The alarm volume on this clock can be adjusted up to 90 dB.  How loud is that? Loud.  I have read online that 90 dB is the equivalent of a police whistle, a lawnmower, a power drill, or a circular saw. Needless to say, this clock is loud.  The vibration pad is round and semi-flat with a non-slip grip on top and bottom. The on-off switch is on the front and the battery indicator light is located right above the switch.  It has an 800 mAh battery that is supposed to give you up to 80 hours of charge, and it charges by plugging it up to the back of the clock.  The best way to use it is to slip it inside the pillow cover so that it doesn’t fall off the bed.  If you have the clock set to include vibration in the alarm and you have the vibration pad turned on, then when the alarm goes off the vibration pad will start vibrating. The vibration is similar to the vibration on your cellphone, only much stronger.

Final Results

So did my son make it to school on time?  Oh yes. We had hoped that the vibration pad would do the trick to cause him to wake up. But the truth is that he didn’t need the pad to wake him up. This clock is so loud that it wakes him up without needing the vibration pad.  We finally found a clock loud enough to rouse him from his slumber.  Thank you Amplicom.  And even though I consider the price of this clock to be a little high for an alarm clock, it is a no brainer. If you need to get someone up in the morning, look no further than the Amplicom TCL 200.

Filed in categories: Home Tech, Reviews, Watches and Clocks, Wireless

Tagged: Alarm Clock

Amplicom TCL 200 Digital Alarm Clock with Wireless Vibrating Pad Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 12, 2012 at 11:00 am.

Epson recently introduced three new wide-format printers to their WorkForce business-class printer lineup.  The WorkForce WF-7520 ($299.99) and WF-7510 ($249.99) all-in-ones and WorkForce WF-7010  ($199.99) single function inkjet printer are all designed to print papers up to 13″ X 19″.  The two all-in-ones have a maximum 5760 x 1440 dpi print resolution and 2400 dpi maximum scan resolution with the 11″ X 17″ scanners.  They use up to 70% less power than laser printers, and they connect to your network through either wired or wireless connections.  The WF-7010 single-function ink jet printer has two storage trays for different paper sizes, and it has built-in Ethernet for easy sharing.  All printers use DURABrite inks for water-, smudge-, and fade-resistant prints.  These new WorkForce wide-format printers are available at many retailers and at Epson at the above links.

Filed in categories: Gear, News, Wireless

Tagged: all-in-one printer, Wireless printer

New Wide-Format Epson WorkForce Printers for Business originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 11, 2012 at 10:00 am.

We have been promised a paperless office for years now. Perhaps it will never happen. With the iPad, I have found that many of the documents I used to print out I now carry on my device or store online in a service such as Evernote or Dropbox. But, on occasion, I’ll want to print something from my iPhone or iPad, and there’s no AirPrint printer available, or I really just want to send a screen shot to my Mac. How do I do it? Printopia, a Mac application from ecamm, to the rescue!

The software installs as a Preference Pane, which, for those who don’t know, is similar to a Control Panel in Windows. You open System Preferences, and there it is. When you click on it to activate it, you have a few interesting settings:

All of the printers on your Mac will show up, in addition to Dropbox, Evernote, and an option to send documents to your Mac. Any items can be activated or enabled by a simple check box. Once this is done, any iOS device on the same WiFi network as your Mac gets the chosen options in the Print… dialog box in any app that accesses the built-in AirPrint printing routines.

If you’ve despaired over having to add the cost of a new AirPrint-capable printer to your network with the purchase of an iOS device, this little gem is a $20 wonder. I cannot get across to you in this review how cleanly and easily everything transfers. Printing to the Mac from any app will send the image in the most logical format: a web page is printed as a multipage PDF, and just pops open on your Mac in your default PDF reader. A photo comes across as a JPG (if it was from the camera) or a png (if it was a screen shot). It’ll open in the default apps for those document types. All documents are put into a Printopia folder that is created on first transfer in your document folder.

Not only is simple printing enabled, but you can also create workflows within the PrefPane to have PDFs sent to other apps on your Mac for annotation, storage, or other processing. The “+” button on the settings pane reveals many options:

The first three options are obvious, but the PDF workflow one is amazing. Every app on your Mac that can process a PDF is enabled to receive a PDF from any iOS device. Using Fliq, for example, I can send the document from any iPad to my iPhone via my Mac without having to open/transfer it. I just have to say “yes, that’s OK.”

There are other equally impressive apps available from ecamm, but this one, if you’re a Mac and iOS user, is by far the most useful! Five stars.

Filed in categories: iPhone, iPad, iPod related, Reviews, Wireless

Tagged: data transfer, iOS, mac, printing

Printopia 2 for Mac Mobile Printing Software Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 25, 2012 at 5:45 pm.

I’ve been looking for some way to occasionally watch TV on my bedroom TV without the monthly expense of a cable hookup and digital settop box in there.  I’ve tried an antenna that worked great for local HD stations, and I’ve tried a wireless transmitter that worked great with my Blu-ray player but not with my cable box in the living room.  Although the antenna works well, I’d still like to be able to watch recorded programs on the living room cable DVR in my bedroom.  I was happy to be selected to try the HD 1080p Digital Wireless Audio Video Sender when Nyrius offered one to The Gadgeteer.

Most pictures can be clicked for an enlarged view.

Nyrius markets the HD 1080p Digital Wireless Audio Video Sender for these main uses:

1. To eliminate the need for a lot of cables running to a wall-mounted flatscreen HDTV.
2. In rooms where the cable box, Blu-ray player, PS3, or other HD component is located on the other side of the room from the HDTV.
3. For HD components in one room of the house and the HDTV in another room (just like my situation).

HDMI cables max out at about 15 feet, and cost can be prohibitive for the longer cables.  Long cables can also degrade the HD signal.  You’ll also need to deal with draping long cables through your house,  or you’ll need to run them through the walls or under the floors.  Using the Nyrius video sender system eliminates the need for these cables, and it will broadcast “crystal clear digital sound and razor sharp 1080p video without latency.”

In the Box

• Digital wireless HD transmitter
• External IR remote extender
• Digital wireless HD Receiver with built-in IR remote extender
• 2 100-240V AC power adapters
• 6-ft HDMI cable
• Stands for supporting the boxes in vertical orientation
• Instruction manual
• 1-year warranty and lifetime live customer support

Technical Specifications

• Supported video resolutions: 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 720i, 576p, 576i, 480p, 480i
• HDMI interface: Supports HDMI 1.3 Video Audio format and HDCP 1.2 with video encryption
• Transmission distance: 100ft (30m) Line of Sign (LOS)
• Operating frequencies: 5.1~5.9GHz (with DFS function)
• Bandwidth: 40MHz
• Frequency stability: +/- 4ppm
• Transmission power: >=12dBm | >=17dBm
• Receiving sensitivity: <=-75dBm | <=-65dBm
• System latency: < 1 ms
• Antenna: Omni-directional internal antennas
• Supporting link speeds: Up to 2.5GBps
• Compatible TV Systems: NTSC, PAL
• Certification: FCC, CE, ICES-003
• Regulations: WHDI 1.0

The two boxes are made of black plastic.  They measure about 5.5″ X 3.5″ X 0.75″.  They have rubber feet on the bottom, so they can lay flat (left), or use the included bases to stand them vertically (right).  Each box is clearly marked with a white sticker to indicate which is the receiver and which is the transmitter.

The transmitter has three green status lights on the front: link, video, and power.  All three will be on and steady when a connection is established and a signal is being transmitted.  The USB port is used for software updates or for attaching a keyboard or mouse.  It cannot be used for attaching an external hard drive.

The back of the transmitter has a connector for the IR remote sensor, the standby button, HDMI socket, and the power socket.  You can save about 2.5W of power by putting the unit into standby mode when it’s not in use.

The front of the receiver has the same three green status lights as the transmitter.  There’s also a USB port for software updates or attaching a USB keyboard or mouse.  Not visible is a window for the built-in IR sensor located between the power light and the USB port.

The back of the receiver has standby button, HDMI socket, and power socket.

I didn’t have a  lot of hope that I could transmit my cable signal to the bedroom.  I had tried another video transmitter system that had worked with my Blu-ray player, but it wouldn’t work with my particular cable box.  That system had an internal signal splitter on the transmitter, so I could both run an HDMI cable to my living room TV and transmit the signal to my bedroom TV.  My cable box detected this splitter and didn’t send a useable signal to the transmitter box; it protected its signal from being used on multiple TVs.

The Nyrius transmitter box was different than that other system’s transmitter.  The Nyrius only has an HDMI input; there is no HDMI out to hook up the living room TV, too.  That means I’ll have to be switching the HDMI-out from the cable box between the TV and the Nyrius transmitter if I keep using this system.

Setting up the system is easy and takes only a minute.  I started in my living room.  I plugged the power in to the transmitter, plugged in the IR extender and positioned it in front of the IR sensor on my cable box, then plugged in the HDMI out of my cable box into the transmitter.

I moved to my bedroom, and plugged in the power to the receiver and connected it to an HDMI input on my HDTV.

Lights blinked for a few seconds on both boxes, and then they finally came on steady, indicating a connection had been established between the two boxes.  Instructions warn you not to move either box after the connection is made, so of course I moved one to see what happens.  The lights started flashing to indicate the pairing had been broken, so I unplugged both units from the power, replugged, and established a new connection.

Once the connection was re-established, I turned on my bedroom TV and had an absolutely beautiful picture with clear sound!  Obviously, my cable box doesn’t care how I send the signal to a TV so long as I send it to only one TV.  I’ve watched 15 or so hours of TV on the bedroom TV now, and the Nyrius system has never faltered.  I haven’t had a single jitter in the video or heard the slightest noise in the sound.  The IR sensor on the receiver box in my bedroom gathers the signals from my cable box’s remote (being used in the bedroom) and sends it to the transmitter box in the living room, so I can control the cable box in the living room from the bedroom.  I had placed the IR extender in front of the IR sensor on the cable box, so the remote control commands get sent from the bedroom to the cable box.  There’s a tiny delay during the signal transmission, but it’s no more than I’ve experienced when using activity macros with some universal remotes.

The Nyrius video sender system works well with my Blu-ray player, too.

The Nyrius HD 1080p Digital Wireless Audio Video Sender does exactly what I need it to do.  It sends the output from my cable box to my bedroom TV.  I’ll be able to watch live cable programming and programs recorded by the box’s internal DVR on either my living room TV or my bedroom TV. The picture is as clear and the sound as good when transmitted to my bedroom TV as it is on my living room TV.  The Nyrius HD 1080p Digital Wireless Audio Video Sender is now a permanent part of my A/V setup.

I’ll have to switch the HDMI cable from the living room TV to the Nyrius box, but that can be pretty easily done if I use the HDMI input on the side of my living room TV.  Switching a cable is a small price to pay to have exactly what I want, don’t you agree?

Filed in categories: Audio, Video, TV Gear, Reviews, Wireless

Tagged: Video Streaming, Wireless

Nyrius HD 1080p Digital Wireless Audio Video Sender Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 12, 2012 at 9:00 am.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a home body. I’d rather be home than anywhere else in the world. Sometimes I think that I would be perfectly happy as a hermit. Of course I’m not a hermit and I don’t keep myself barricaded in my house 24/7. I go to work every day, go on vacations, etc. For those times when I’m away from home, I like to be able to check up on things remotely. I want to know if my cat Max is up in the windowsill when he’s not supposed to be. Or if the Fedex guy dropped off a package. Wireless network cameras like the D-Link Wireless N Day/Night Home Network Camera (DCS-932L) let me do that with a computer or a smartphone.

Note: Click the images in this review to see a larger view.

Package Contents

D-Link DCS-932L camera
Ethernet cable
Mounting screws
AC Adapter
Installation Guide
CD-ROM with D-View Cam Software (Windows)

Hardware Specifications

Built-in Network Interface – 10/100Base-TX Fast Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n WLAN
Wireless Connectivity – 802.11b/g/n Wireless with WEP/WPA/WPA2 security
Video Codecs – MJPEG, JPEG for Still Images
Resolution – 640 x 480 at up to 20 fps, 320 x 240 at up to 30 fps, 160 x 120 at up to 30 fps

This D-Link camera is very similar to the Dropcam Echo wireless camera that I’ve been using for over a year now. The main hardware difference is that the D-Link camera has night vision.

The camera itself is made of white plastic. There’s a small LED below the lens that lights up Green when you’re connected to the network and Red when you’re not.

The camera is connected to a base that can be mounted on a wall or any other flat surface. It’s not necessary to attach the base to anything though as it is heavy enough to stand on a table or shelf.

On the back of the camera is the power connector, Ethernet jack, reset switch and a WPS button. WPS stands for Wi-Fi Protected Setup. Some routers have this feature to allow you to easily setup the D-Link for wireless viewing. Sadly, my older Linksys doesn’t have this feature, so I had to go through a little more work in order to get the camera to work wirelessly.

The camera comes with a CD for Windows users, but I had to download the setup app for my Mac from D-Link’s site. The setup wizard allowed me to easily get the camera up and running as long as it was connected to my router with an Ethernet cable. I had to go into the advanced options to set it up for wireless use. This wasn’t difficult, but the instructions do not mention how to do it or where to look for the settings.

One thing to note is that once the camera has been setup, you don’t have to have any computers on to use it. As long as your router is powered on, you’ll be able to access the camera from the web or your smartphone.

As part of the setup procedure, you create a free mydlink account. With this account you’ll be able to remotely view your camera and change the settings. I found the mydlink web interface to be a little slow to load. It installs a Java applet every time you login, which can take a few seconds.

From this web interface you can watch live video, digitally zoom in and listen to audio through the microphone built in to the camera. Video quality isn’t bad, but it’s a little fuzzy and the audio quality tends to have a lot of static / white noise. You can hear things, but the static in the the background gets annoying quickly, so I almost always turn it off.

Advanced settings allow you to adjust various options for image quality.

By default, the video size is set to 320×240 medium quality. I adjusted it to be very high quality which improves the slightly fuzzy image quality.

Motion detection settings give you the ability to mark areas of the image to watch for changes. By clicking squares on the grid, the software will keep an eye on those specific spots and will notify you via email when motion is detected. You can set it up to send you one image or have it send 3 images before the motion was detected and 3 images afterwards.

You can also specify the day and time period that the software can send email notifications.

The great thing about the D-Link camera is that you don’t have to pay a monthly fee for the email notification feature.

By default, the camera will automatically switch back and forth between day and night vision depending on the level of light. But if you would like to manually schedule when the camera will switch between the modes, you have that ability.

In addition to viewing a live feed from your camera on any web enabled computer, you can also view the feed with your Android or iOS device.

Here we see the free mydlink lite iOS iPhone app. It has a simple interface that loads quickly (much faster than the web browser viewer). There’s also a 99 cent mydlink+ version for the iPad that is full screen.

Turning the phone to landscape orientation provides a larger view. As you can see, the image isn’t exactly crystal clear. It is noticeably fuzzy. It’s not as bad as some network cameras I’ve tested, but isn’t as good as the Dropcam.

Tapping on the display will bring up a few options such as the ability to take a snapshot, toggle sound, and zoom. Like with the web viewer, audio through the smartphone app has static.

This is what the picture looks like when the camera is in night vision mode.

Here’s an example of what the camera shows in a normally lit room. This happens to be my utility room, which has florescent lights in the ceiling. I had one set of lights turned on when I captured this image with the iOS version of the mydlink app.

This is what the camera shows when all the lights are off and the door is closed. The room is in almost complete darkness. The image turns black and white, giving it a Ghost Hunters vibe. The D-Link uses infrared (IR) illumination for night vision up to 5 meters (16.4 feet).

You can also record video via the D-ViewCam interface if you have a Windows PC. At this time, there isn’t a Mac version of the D-ViewCam software. I tried to test D-ViewCam on the only Windows machine I have (an HP Mini netbook), but didn’t have much luck because it requires 1024 x 768 resolution which the Mini can’t quite do.

That’s one feature that the D-Link lacks, a DVR feature built in to the mydlink web portal. Dropcam has this, but they charge you a monthly fee for it.

I wish the picture was sharper, but all in all, the D-Link Wireless N Day/Night Home Network Camera (DCS-932L) is a good choice for an easy to use wireless networked camera. It’s not too expensive and offers decent control over motion detection and email notifications without having to pay a monthly fee.

Filed in categories: Home Tech, Reviews, Wireless

Tagged: Surveillance

D-Link Wireless N Day/Night Home Network Camera (DCS-932L) Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 6, 2012 at 11:00 am.

If you have a house with multiple TVs, you’re faced with providing content for each of them.  With my cable company, I have to pay for extra lines, plus an extra charge for a cable box and remote control for each line.  I’ll need to buy DVD players for each, too.  With the the MyWirelessTV Multi-Room Wireless HD Video Kit, Actiontec promises I can stream full HD video from the programming source in one room to the TV in another room without having to run wires.  I don’t even have to worry about connecting it to my home’s wireless network, because the MyWirelessTV boxes are paired to use their own wireless 802.11n connection. 

Some pictures can be clicked for an enlarged view.

The MyWirelessTV can stream 1080p60 full HD or 3D video to a second TV up to 150 feet away.  You simply connect the transmitter to any set top box, gaming console, DVD player, or other device and connect the receiver to any HD display in any location in your home.  You won’t need to run wires, drill holes in your floors or walls, or pay the cable company to install an extra line.  You won’t even have to worry about connecting it to your wireless network, because the MyWirelessTV boxes are paired together on their own proprietary connection straight out of the box.  Actiontec says they use “standards-based compression, transmission, and transport protocols to securely and reliably deliver HD video throughout the home.”

100% Standards-Based

• No interference with existing wireless networks
• Compression: Standard H.264 codec
• Transmission:Wireless Standard 802.11 WiFi
• Content Protection: Standard HDCP 2.0 Encryption

The MyWirelessTV consists of a transmitter box that you’ll attach to your cable box, DVD player, or other source and a receiver that you’ll hook to the HD TV you want to send signals to.  As you can see, the boxes are clearly marked so you don’t have to guess which is the receiver.  The boxes are approximately 4.4″ X 4″ X 1.25″, and they are made of black plastic.  You can see the top has grids for cooling.

The front of the receiver box (on top) has some LEDs to show power, wireless signal, and connection status.  There’s also a USB port on the front that is used for firmware updates.  The transmitter box (bottom) also has the same status lights, and it also has a sunken reset button.  The transmitter has a miniUSB port; you’ll need to use the included USB-to-miniUSB adapter to install firmware updates.  Both of these boxes have a sync button.  They come paired from the factory, but this can be used to pair up an extra receiver (optional purchase) with the existing transmitter so that you can transmit the same signal to multiple TVs in your house.  You can also pair a receiver with multiple transmitters if you have multiples in your home connected to various media sources.

You’ll notice that the back of these boxes are again plainly identified so you don’t have to waste time trying to get things hooked up only to later realize that you had hooked the receiver to the media source.  The receiver has the reset button on the back.  You’ll also hook up the AC power adapter (included) and IR blaster receiver here.  You’ll also notice that the only output is through an HDMI cable.  You’ll be surprised to know that Actiontec actually includes two HDMI cables with the MyWirelessTV.

The transmitter also has connections for the AC adapter and an IR transmitter.  (You’ll notice the receiver’s connector is surrounded by a green box.  One of the IR blasters has a green plug, so you’ll know which blaster goes with which box.)  Again, only HDMI connectors are used.  You’ll connect the HDMI cable out of your cable box, DVD player, or the like to the HDMI input port.  If you have a TV located by the media source, you can also connect the HDMI Out to TV to your local HDTV.  The box will pass signals through to the local TV with this connection.

If you are installing the transmitter and receiver in the same room – say the living room with the TV above the fireplace and the cable box in the shelving in the corner – you won’t have to use the IR blasters.  They are needed if you are installing the two boxes in different rooms.

The backs of the boxes have a lot of cooling grids.  You’ll also notice rubber feet that keep the box raised off the table and some slots that can be used with screws (not included) to mount the boxes on the wall.  Installation instructions say to avoid putting these boxes on top of devices that generate a lot of heat on their own.

The MyWirelessTV comes with two IR blasters, 2 HDMI cables, two AC power adapters, a miniUSB-to-USB adapter, and a remote control.  This is not a universal remote control; it only allows you to access setup features with the receiver box.  There’s no setup functionality for the transmitter box.  Anything that needs to be done is accessed through the receiver.

I wanted to try the MyWirelessTV because I have a house with three TVs but only two cable connections.  I don’t have a cable connection for the TV in my bedroom, and I don’t want to pay for a third line.  I started out by hooking the transmitter box to the HD cable DVR in my living room.

Setup was very simple.  I connected the transmitter to the power, attached the HDMI cable coming from the cable box to the HDMI Input connector, and the IR blaster.  Because I do have a TV in the living room, I used one of the supplied cables to connect the HDMI Out to TV to my living room TV.  When powered up, the power status light started blinking and eventually came on steady.

I next went to my bedroom and hooked up the receiver box.  I used the second supplied HDMI cable to connect the box to an input on my TV.  When I powered the box up, the power light blinked then came on steady.

I wasn’t quite finished with the installation yet.  I had to position the two IR blasters.  Actually, Actiontec calls the green-tipped one the IR extender.  It will collect signals from the remote control and send them to the IR blaster connected to the transmitter.  These little devices have sticky backs, so they can be “glued” in place.  Instructions said to place the IR extender connected to the receiver beside the IR receiver on your TV.  I didn’t want to do that, so I attached it to the leg of the TV stand I’m using in the bedroom.  You can see it just under the MyWirelessTV box in the above picture.

The IR blaster attached to the transmitter has to be placed so it’s facing the IR receiver on the front of my cable box so it can shoot the signals I send from the bedroom to the cable box.  This was a bit difficult to do.  I finally had to attach the IR blaster to the inside of the glass doors in my media cabinet.  I don’t care for this look – it looks like a bug is on the glass of my cabinet door.

As I mentioned earlier, the included remote is only for accessing setup functions for the MyWirelessTV.  I had to bring the cable box’s remote control into the bedroom.  I turned on the cable box, turned on my bedroom TV, and selected the proper input.  I immediately had a sharp, clear picture.  The TV in my bedroom is only 720p and the cable box is 1080p, but the video worked.

You’ll notice I said the video worked, but there was no sound whatsoever on my bedroom TV.  There was also a picture on my living room TV, but it also had no sound.  It would also sometimes display an error screen about an unsupported video format.  The troubleshooting information in the installation brochure didn’t help, so I went online for help.  The FAQs at Actiontec said that installing the most recent version of the firmware to both the transmitter and the receiver might help.  I updated both boxes and tried again.  I still had a picture but no sound.

Further investigation at Actiontec revealed this info:  “Certain Cable/FiOS Set top boxes and DVR boxes are limited to only 1 downstream HDCP (high-bandwidth digital-content protection) device that they can connect too.  This means that devices like MyWirelessTV, A/V Receiver, or Google TV, (HDMI repeaters/switches) that are strictly adhering to the HDCP requirements cannot legally pass video to the display. You can call your Service Provider and describe the “HDMI repeater/switch” related issue, and request a free firmware update.  Or “As an alternative” you could also request that the Service Provider replace the HD Cable or FiOS STB/DVR box, with a model that can support repeater mode.”

Apparently my cable company doesn’t see the need to support me streaming their content to another TV for free, because nothing I could do would allow my bedroom TV to receive both a picture and sound.  I don’t have a DVD player connected to the bedroom TV, so I decided I’d try the MyWirelessTV with the Blu-ray player in my living room setup.

I just switched the HDMI cable from my cable box with the HDMI cable coming out of my Blu-ray.  I decided I’d recycle the power on both boxes, too.  After the handshake between the boxes was completed, I had the home menu from the Blu-ray showing up on my bedroom TV.  So I had a good picture, but I had that before.  I started the disk playing, and I was very happy to hear sound, too!

I watched 2012 on Blu-ray, and I watched carefully for glitches during playback.  I didn’t notice any problems with the video, but I did hear a couple of audio glitches that lasted a fraction of a second.  Most of these occurred after the bedroom door was closed.

I have a small house, so there’s no way I could put the two boxes 150 feet apart.  However, my house has very thick plaster walls with wood lathe and metal mesh under the plaster.  My interior walls are about 3.5″ thick.  I had placed the two boxes almost as far apart as they could go in my house, since the living room is in the front left corner of the house and my bedroom in the back right corner.  I was very pleased with the quality of the transmitted signal.

I have had to recycle the power on the two boxes a couple of times to re-establish the connection, though.  Not during playback, but on different days.

As I mentioned, there are setup functions available on the receiver.  There aren’t many functions, though.  The Select Source box can be seen in the previous picture that also shows the main menu from my Blu-ray player.  If you have multiple MyWirelessTV transmitters in your house, you can select the desired one from the list.  I have only one transmitter, so I don’t need to use this function.  If you do have multiple transmitters or receivers, you use the Configure menu to connect them, and you can give them a name to make them easier to recognize in the list.

In general settings, you can select the menu language.  Although the units are paired, you may find their selected channel interferes with something else in your house/setup, so you can have the units select another channel in here, too.  You can also choose a latency mode.  To quote Actiontec again, “MyWirelessTV is based on Cavium Network’s Super Low Latency (SLL™) technology, which offers the industry’s lowest compression latency for full HD 1080p60 H.264 encode and decode. The result? You can enjoy superb quality, interactive HD applications throughout the home. For example, watch live TV, share a multi-player game between rooms, or surf the Web on any display no matter where the computer is.“.  You can see on the screen in the above picture, Theater Mode prioritizes video quality while Game Mode prioritizes speed.  I am not a gamer, so I chose Theater.

As a note about gaming, you can use a computer with an HDMI output as the media source for the MyWirelessTV.  You’ll be able to use the HDTV as a monitor while you surf or game.  I didn’t try this out, as I have absolutely no interest in using my TV as a monitor.

The last menu in the setup screen is Advanced Settings, where you can see information about both your receiver and transmitter box.  You’ll also find the “reset to factory settings” option here, too.  At the bottom, you’ll see a bar chart that shows signal strength.  This is very convenient for fine-tuning the placement and orientation of the boxes.  You can adjust them to improve your signal strength using this graph as your guide.

I like the Actiontec MyWirelessTV.  It didn’t work with my cable box, but it’s not at fault for my cable company crippling output from my set top box.  It worked great with my Blu-ray player, and it was nice to watch a movie in there.  It’s the only way I’d be able to watch a DVD in there, since I really don’t have room for a player in the bedroom.  I would be happiest if it would work with my cable box and with my DVD player, but as the Stones said, “you can’t always get what you want”…

Filed in categories: Audio, Video, TV Gear, Reviews, Wireless

Tagged: Video Streaming, Wireless

Actiontec MyWirelessTV Multi-Room Wireless HD Video Kit Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 11, 2012 at 1:00 pm.

With the playGo USB, you’ll be able to wirelessly send music from your PC or Mac to your powered speakers, stereo receiver, or even your headphones.  The playGo USB transmitter plugs into your computer’s USB port, and it uses its own wireless protocol to send music to the receiver up to 75 feet away.  It doesn’t even require software.  It’s made of white or orange Corian.  It normally sells for about $450, but Curisma is selling it as their weekly deal for $299 for a limited time.

Filed in categories: Audio, Video, TV Gear, News, Wireless

Tagged: Wireless

Wirelessly Transmit Music from Your Computer to Your Speakers with playGo originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 15, 2011 at 8:00 am.

Because of recent updates to the OS, it is possible to print from your iPhone or iPad directly without having to first transfer your document to a computer, but only to certain Airport printers.  There are apps that will let you print to other brands, and that’s fine for home use where you likely have only one printer.  But what about a business environment that has a variety of printers from different manufacturers – some of which don’t even have a print app available?  The xPrintServer from Lantronix makes it possible to print from your iOS device to any networked printer, regardless of brand and without special apps.  Simply connect the small iPhone-sized device to your network via an Ethernet cable, and the xPrintServer will find all networked printers, even older models.  Within a few moments of connection, you’ll be able to print from any iPhone or iPad to any printer on your network, without having to load up a bunch of apps.  The xPrintServer is $149.95 and is available for pre-order now, with shipping expected in January 2012.

Filed in categories: iPhone, iPad, iPod related, News, Wireless

Tagged: iOS devices, Wireless printer

Print to Most Any Printer from Your iOS Device with xPrintServer originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 13, 2011 at 1:00 pm.

Everyone occasionally wanders into a situation where they want or need to have an extra set of eyes watching their stuff.  There are a number of ways to do this by setting up a webcam, but getting a webcam where you need it can be difficult, and not everyone has the patience or know-how to configure such a thing.  Intellinet Network Solutions has what could be the solution to this problem in their NSC11-WN Network Camera.  But is it all it’s cracked up to be?  I got the opportunity to try one out and find out.

There isn’t much to the NSC11-WN upon opening the box.  Aside from the camera unit itself, there’s a mounting bracket, an AC adapter, a CD containing the admin software, and a user guide.  Setup is relatively easy; just install the admin software, plug the camera up to your network via ethernet, and then configure the camera’s wireless adapter to communicate with your wireless network.  Once that’s done, the camera can be accessed and configured in your web browser directly via its local IP address.  I had no trouble getting the review unit set up, and it was able to maintain a wireless connection throughout my home with no issues.

The configuration options are actually quite generous.  In addition to being able to have the camera’s image emailed or sent via FTP on a schedule, one can also configure it to email or FTP the image only when motion is detected.  Further, you can set up multiple “regions” of the camera’s field of view to watch for motion;  in this way, you can watch only certain areas of a room, so that, for example, it doesn’t trigger when curtains blow in the breeze from an open window or when a pet walks across the floor.  Unfortunately, this is about where the options end.  There is no local storage, nor is there any option for simply saving off photos or video to a network location, so if you will be saving lots of data locally, you will have to look into setting up an FTP server on your local network.

The included administration application lets you identify cameras on the network and find their IP address.

The image quality of the camera is nothing to write home about, sadly.  The camera is equipped with a sub-megapixel sensor, so even with the maximum image size of 640 x 480, images are anything but crisp.  In my tests, identifying faces was pretty difficult at anything more than fifteen or twenty feet away from the camera.  While this might be sufficient to identify if someone has been in a given place, it’s not going to be clear enough to identify who it is, unless they’re getting really close to the camera.

The web admin console allows you to specify regions for motion detection, but only in Internet Explorer. (Click to enlarge)

Aside from the image quality, I do have one major gripe with this product.  While both the website and the product packaging cite support for OS X, as well as the Firefox, Opera, and Safari browsers, neither the website nor the packaging indicate that you have to be using Windows and IE in order to get the most out of this camera.  The admin software is Windows-only, so unless your network configuration leaves the camera’s default IP address unused, you’re going to have a tough time during the initial setup.  Likewise, many of the features of the camera’s web console (saving photos/video directly to disk, setting up motion activation regions, etc.) are available only in IE, leaving OS X users in the cold.  Fortunately, Mac users can get around this by running Windows either in Boot Camp or in a VM (for the purposes of this review, I used Parallels), but that’s beside the point.  If a product states that it supports OS X, and no caveats are given, I expect to get all of the features available under Windows.  In this case, I feel sorely misled, and I’m not terribly happy about it.

A live view via the web console allows you to check in on things at your leisure, but the image quality is far from stellar. Here, we can sort of make out my dog taking a nap.

All in all, this is a decent product if you just need to stick a webcam somewhere that you can’t normally reach with one, but don’t really need much in the way of resolution or clarity, and as long as you have a Windows machine on your network, or a Mac with a Windows VM.  I suppose that the image quality is fairly appropriate for the price, but if I was in need of a wireless webcam, I’d certainly prefer to pay another $50-$100 for a camera with a higher-quality sensor and optics.

Filed in categories: Home Tech, Reviews, Wireless

Tagged: network camera, security camera, Wireless

Intellinet Network Solutions NSC11-WN Network Camera Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 9, 2011 at 11:05 am.

A good headset makes an already incredibly useful device – the cellphone – even more useful by adding hands-free features. The new SoundID SIX Bluetooth headset has several interesting features that promise even more usefulness.

The SoundID SIX is…

• Smal l- 1.875″ x 0.6″ x 0.375″ (48 x 15.4 x 9.5 mm)
• Light - Weighs less than .30 ounces (8.6 grams)
• Well-powered – ‘Advanced Lithium Polymer battery’ gives 4 hours talk time and 75 hours standby
• Clear – using Bluetooth 2.1, EDR, and eSCO standards with a 33 foot range
• Comfortable – with three sizes of ‘Real Comfort’ earloops and an ear clip and padding options
• Convenient – with a standard micro-USB and an included charge/sync cable and AC-USB ‘wall wart’ (one of the smallest I have ever seen.)
• $129.99 MSRP

Packaging, minus the cover and clip that holds the headset in place for sale

Beyond the basics, it also brags about some special features…

• EarPrint 3.0 app for most smartphones to customize and control the unit
• 3x Noise Cancellation, using three microphones to minimize wind and other background noises
• Active Connect connects up to two Bluetooth sources for calls, music, and other audio HD
• SmartTouch Sensor controls all features in a single smooth controller.
• PassThru Mode amplifies background noises when not taking a call or playing music
• Caller ID and Voice Prompts enhance the hands-free experience
• Voice Menu offers up to five voice-activated commands
• Text to Speech reads SMS messages for you.

Everything in the box- headset, power adapter, earloops, manual, and cord

To begin with, let’s check out the basic functions. I did all tests with a fully-charged SIX headset paired to my Samsung Epic 4G phone, playing music with the PowerAmp app.

SET-UP was a piece of cake. The instructions are pretty minimal and better info is available on-line, but the unit was easy to charge and pair up. I did have one issue after about a week of no use in which it did not pair and I ended up having to dismount the SIX from my phone and start it over again but it has been fine since that.

RANGE was about normal for a Bluetooth device. They claim 33 feet which generally means ‘line of sight’. In my older, wooden framed house, I was fine when I could see the phone but turning any corners resulted in minor ‘popping’ (very brief loss of signal that comes back suddenly at the etc. volume, making a ‘pop’ as it does.) Going out the nearest door, or downstairs resulted in more frequent and/or longer-lasting ‘pops’ until I crossed the imaginary boundary and lost the signal. There was never any real static or loss of quality.

BATTERY LIFE is about as described. After an hour of use I was at 90% (as per the ‘Battery’ feature of the EarPrint app). It was at 60% at two hours, and under 10% at almost four hours of continuous play.

Charger and charge/sync cord- so small!

COMFORT is trickier for me. I’m a big guy and a lot of things don’t quite fit right (“One size fits all” is such a lie!) I tried all three sizes of earloops and the included over the ear clip and padding. Each felt fine for the most part, but each allowed a different corner of the very rectangular SIX to touch- just a little bit- which ranged from minor irritation to pretty annoying over time.

You insert the unit by choosing the correct earloop and popping it on – which is quite easy – then setting it to a pointer for the left or right ear. Place it in the ear with the unit held so the microphone tip points down, then rotate it in place. I tried wearing it in each ear. It was more comfortable for me in my left ear, but more convenient and felt more natural in my right.

Shown in use (I did you all a favor and used someone besides me as a model!)

Another view

CONTROLS are simple. There is a charging port on ‘top’, a on-off slider on the side, and a featureless front. Tapping the top of the front answers or disconnects calls. Touching and holding brings up the voice menu, and tapping during the recitation activates that option, and sliding on the front changes volume. I found the controls to be pretty easy to use, although the volume slide sometimes seems to lag, but that may be the app I was using.

CLARITY is pretty good, considering. Music sounds a bit hollow and dull. You can improve the tone in the EarPrint app by sliding a control that acts like a single-point equalizer but the tiny speaker cannot really deliver good bass or treble.

Voice quality is good on both ends. My callers sounded a bit echo-y, but not to the point of distraction, and they report that everything was pretty clear on my end. They reported that some background noises did intrude, but I do not know how the noises would have differed compared to the speaker phone option or normal phone use.

So far, we have a perfectly good headset. But the SIX still has features we have not considered.

The EarPrint app for Android offers several functions:
- Personal Sound acts as a personal equalizer. Dragging a target around the screen adjusts bass, treble, etc. in a smooth, intuitive manner.

Personal Sound app- one-touch equalizer

- Level is a simple decibel meter that only works when not listening to music or calls to help you determine how loud you are speaking (or the background noises are)
- Tools let you tweak a few settings including…

•  Turning on the ‘Pass-Thru Mode’. This option amplifies the background noises when not streaming music or listening to a call. You can select ‘surround’ or ‘focused’. The surround setting seemed to make all noises a bit ‘brittle’ somehow. I found the ‘focused’ setting to be slightly better for me – although with a strong tendency to sound like I am holding a shell to my ear. Both can be tweaked at the ‘Personal Sound’ screen.
• Activating the ‘SMS to Speech’. The program uses a female voice and does a good job figuring out what you said. When ‘on’, it will automatically read incoming SMS, or you can hear the last SMS with the touch of a button.
• A ‘find my headset’ feature that makes your headset give off a LOUD beep if it is lost. Very handy! The sound starts low and gets really loud over about 9 seconds.

- VoiceMenu tunes your Voice options and sets up caller IDs so the phone will let you know who is calling.
- Battery shows your current charge level.

Other EarPrint apps- Battery, Tools, Level

EarPrint makes the unit much more flexible and user-friendly. It is also nicely designed – bonus! This app and the features it works with make the SIX a great headset!

Filed in categories: Bluetooth Gear, Reviews, Wireless

Tagged: bluetooth headset

SoundID SIX Bluetooth Headset Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 7, 2011 at 11:00 am.

There’s a lot of web-based multimedia content that you can display on your TV, but different services usually require different set-top boxes.  While an individual box might be inexpensive, buying a collection of them gets really expensive.  With the VStream Wireless USB PC to TV system from DIAMOND Multimedia, you can stream a variety of HD video and other internet content from your PC to your TV.  You can stream content from Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Boxee, and iTunes to your HDTV in full 1080p resolution, and you can stream photos, music, and internet radio content to your home theater, too.  Simply connect the transmitter to your PC and the receiver to your TV with the included HDMI cable.  You’ll be able to multitask on your computer while you enjoy your programming.  The VStream Wireless USB PC to TV system is $129.99 from DIAMOND Multimedia; check their website for other vendors.

Filed in categories: Audio, Video, TV Gear, News, Wireless

Tagged: HD media player, TV accessory, Wireless

Stream Multimedia Content – Including HD Video – From Your PC to Your TV with DIAMOND VStream Wireless originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 5, 2011 at 12:49 pm.

Doesn’t everyone have a few USB Memory Sticks or a USB hard drive that they want to share their content with their family and friends?  Personally, I have a 500GB USB hard drive and a couple of 8GB Memory Sticks that I and my children constantly move from computer to computer to share content.   I have tried a couple of other proposed solutions, which I reviewed for The Gadgeteer.  None of the proposed solutions have panned out.  When I asked LaCie to review their latest addition to their portfolio of USB and NAS storage devices, the LaCie LaPlug, I had very high hopes that the product would deliver where others had failed.  The LaCie LaPlug is a tiny device that sits on your network and allows you to share up to four USB 2.0 devices with any computer on your network or the Internet, effectively building your own network attached storage device.  You will have to read on to find out if the LaCie LaPlug was able to satisfy my needs, or if it ended up in my Gadget Graveyard.

The packaging for the LaCie LaPlug is simplicity at its best, with two finger-pull out cardboard packages that contain the unit itself, power adapter, Ethernet cable, CD with software, instructions, and a few international power connectors.  This was a first in all of my reviews, a fully international-ready product right out of the box.  The team at LaCie decided to deliver a power adapter, aka power brick, that can have its power connector swapped out for the right one based on your global location.  A very nice touch that I am sure adds to the cost of the unit while making it available as a single part number globally.

Measuring in at a tiny 119 x 119 x 37 mm / 4.7 x 4.7 x 1.5 in. and weighing 300 g /10.6 oz. the LaCie LaPlug is the size of several CD cases stacked one or top of each other.  With its small form factor I placed the LaCie LaPlug in my wiring closet to be closest to my router.  I know, some people like to show off their technology, while I prefer that my technology is hidden away.  The unit is finished in a glossy black plastic which makes it a bit of a fingerprint magnet, but it is not going to be handled often, save for the initial setup. I flipped the LaCie LaPlug over to see the bottom of the unit and saw something new and different; product certifications were embossed in the rubber feet of the unit.  I can tell that design is of critical important to the LaCie team and I, for one, appreciate the close attention to detail.

On the front (shown above) of the LaCie LaPlug is a single USB 2.0 port and a blue LED placed strategically under the unit that shows a blue glow reflecting off of the surface it is placed on when operational.  One can disable the light on the LaCie LaPlug through the web-based management console for the product, a nice feature for those that will place the LaCie LaPlug out of sight.

On the back of the unit there are several connections and the power switch.  The ports on the back of the unit include the following:

• Three USB 2.0 ports
• Ethernet (10/100/1000Mbits)
• Power Connector

The USB 2.0 ports are arranged in a welcome configuration, with two stacked vertical on top of each other on the far right and a third flipped horizontally between the Ethernet jack and the two right side USB ports.  Again, the designers at LaCie understood the market and delivered a product that supports a number of USB devices while making it simple for the user to work with.  This level of design is something that the rest of the home media device producers could learn a thing or two from.  Some consumers might complain that LaCie did not include USB 3.0 ports, but, in today’s market how many USB 3.0-compatible devices are available?  Adding to that is that they are expensive.  I picked up a 8GB USB 2.0 Memory Stick for $20 this past week as well as a 1TB USB 2.0 Hard Disk Drive for $80.

Internally, the LaCie LaPlug supports 802.11 b/g/n as a client only.  This is not a server in the traditional sense, but it does serve as a NAS server connected as a client to the wireless network.  I am not sure why LaCie delivered a wireless-n class client as the USB media sharing devices that do not have multiple disk drives or a significant amount of memory that serves as a cache are not able to deliver over 10Mbits performance and wireless-n is really overkill here.  With that said, wireless chipsets come by default supporting b/g/n so the team at LaCie probably only had this configuration as a choice for the LaPlug.  More on performance and why is it important later.

Testing the LaCie LaPlug involved connecting a variety of preformatted USB Memory Sticks and USB Hard Disk Drives.

Management of the LaCie LaPlug is accomplished through the LaCie Network Assistant that installs from the LaCie-provided CD.  I tried both the Mac and Windows 7 applications and found them simple and intuitive to use – reminiscent of the Apple AirPort Extreme configuration tool.  On the Mac, the LaCie Network Assistant installs as a Toolbar item.

One can also manage the LaCie LaPlug using the web browser interface.  I could not find any good documentation on the LaCie website on how to manage the LaPlug using the web interface, but anyone familiar with any of the major branded network devices should be able to manage it quickly.  By default, the FTP and Media Services are disabled.  I always find it interesting that many companies provide their devices with the services disabled by default.  I have not figured out why as of yet, but I can make some assumptions with regard to performance of the device being degraded when it is running multiple pieces of software, but that would only be an assumption.  I enabled the media and FTP services so I could access my content on my USB Memory Stick that was soon to be connected to the LaCie LaPlug.

Once the LaCie LaPlug was installed on my network, using the default DHCP setting, and with a mount point established, I was able to view and share content on my 8GB Memory Stick.  The standard DHCP client will get an IP address and content to your network.  You need to go into the LaCie LaPlug web management console to set the Time Zone and other services to “on” or “off”.

To start the testing I copied one of my 480p home movies to the LaCie LaPlug and then played it back on iTunes, both connected locally on my own network and remotely in a café close to me.  The performance and quality on my home network was very good – no sign of lag or phase issues, meaning for basic standard definition content the LaCie LaPlug could keep up.  At my local café  I could browse the content and play back the video, but it was a bit shaky at best.  I copied the file from the LaCie LaPlug to my local disk and a 700MB file took over an hour to download over the Internet.  This is pretty standard timing given the speed of the Internet connection that I was on.  The limiting factor in many of these tests is not only the speed of the network device, but the bandwidth available to the user on the Internet.  In the case of my testing at the café, I was limited to a 1Mbits connection.

My next test was adding a 1080p high definition video.  This is where the LaCie LaPlug faltered, or should I say, the USB Memory Stick coupled with the LaCie LaPlug faltered.  1080p content is pushing a 1920×1280 image at 24 frames per second across the network requiring a good deal of performance on the network device to be able to deliver and keep up the streaming.  My network at home is a 1000Mbits network composed of wired and wireless devices.  The wireless portion is dual band g and n wireless where I can push over 30Mbits over the wireless connection using my home Network Attached Storage device, which has four 1TB SATA drives in it.

LaCie includes a simple web-based File Explorer that can be accessed on the local network, or via the Internet.  The look and feel is reminiscent of the PogoPlug powered Buffalo CloudStor that I reviewed on The Gadgeteer in August.  The first time I logged into the web browser-based management interface ,I had an alert waiting for me to upgrade the firmware, which I did without any issue.  There was a short period of downtime, which is to be expected.

Support for UPnP is included as well as iTunes Server support so the LaCie LaPlug can be used to stream content to any UPnP device on your network ,including many Blu-Ray players, xBox 360, PS3, and many other devices.  As well, the LaCie LaPlug can be used as a backup target for any standard backup software and Apple’s own Time Machine.  (I may sound like I am standing on a soap box here, but backup your content often using whatever your favorite tool of choice is.  There is nothing worse than losing your precious memories or last year’s tax returns.  Ok, I am getting off the soap box now and getting back to the review.)  Setting the Media Services to on requires one to setup a “Master Volume” on one of the LaCie LaPlug-connected USB Memory Sticks or USB Hard Disk Drives.  While not the most intuitive nor well-documented process, I figured it out in less than a minute by going between the LaCie Network Assistant and the web browser-based management console.  I would suggest to LaCie that they create a common tasks page on the LaCie Product and Support web pages that lists how to do these simple tasks to avoid any confusion on the part of the consumer.

I did not test the USB Printer Sharing capability of the LaCie LaPlug, but I expect it to perform well as USB printer sharing has become a science more than the art it was a short five years ago.

The LaCie LaPlug is going to avoid the gadget graveyard – getting the opportunity to live on as one of my daily-use gadgets.  The LaCie LaPlug is a simple and affordable way to share USB Memory Sticks and USB Hard Disk Drives with your friends, family, and colleagues.  What it misses in performance and detailed instructions it more than makes up for in the design and capabilities.

Filed in categories: Reviews, Wireless

Tagged: Network Storage

LaCie LaPlug Product Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 27, 2011 at 10:16 am.

Powerline Ethernet may be the least understood and used technology for networking.  It’s a shame because it’s so easy to use and is more reliable than WiFi.  The good news is that there are more vendors offering products in the space, Intellinet being the latest.  Their Powerline AV500 Ethernet Adapter  provides a true plug and play implementation.  If you stream video or transfer files on your LAN and want to save the cost and hassle of running cables, Powerline is the way to go.

Here’s what the product says it will do:

• Network computers through existing AC power lines
• Up to 500 Mbps network data rates and data security through 128-bit encryption
• Enables high-quality video streaming, VoIP and gaming over a home network
• Provides network access for computers, HD media players and gaming consoles
• Plug and Play (no drivers required)
• Software-free security configuration with a simple push of a button
• HomePlug AV compliant
• Compatible with Intellinet Powerline AV/HD200 Ethernet Adapters
• Can co-exist with HomePlug 1.0

For your first Powerline installation, you’ll need a starter kit.  It consists of two adapters and hopefully ethernet cables to connect your devices.  The Intellinet starter kit had everything needed.

On the bottom is the Ethernet connector, a button for changing the password and a hole for inserting a paperclip to reset the device.

The backside has the mains connector, which is not polarized.  This allows it to be plugged in different orientations.

And here it is plugged into the wall socket.  The indicator lights show connection to the LAN, relative throughput and link status.

This isn’t my first Powerline review, and I’ve had the technology running successfully for several years.  Before this review I had 4 nodes connected: 1 for my Ooma VOIP; 1 for a Cirago media server; 1 adapter with a 4 port switch for a Roku, media extender, and another Cirago media server; and then of course, the main adapter that connects to the router.  The current adapters are AV200 devices and are HomePlug AV compliant.

To test out the AV500′s HomePlug compliance and to check how idiot proof these devices can be, I didn’t read the installation instructions and just plugged both adapters into a couple of power sockets.

Within seconds the two Intellinet adapters were recognized on the LAN.  The above screenshot is from the firmware inside the Plaster Networks adapter connected to my router.  The last 2 entries are the AV500 devices.  The Plaster Networks firmware only works if their adapter is connected to the router and unfortunately it is no longer supported because they appear to have gone out of business.  To get the maximum throughput between the AV500 adapters, I later had to reconfigure so that one of the AV500′s was connected directly to the router.  The maximum throughput on the LAN is the lesser of the ratings between two nodes and in the above case that would be 200 Mbps.

OK, so now I determined that the AV500 really is conforming to HomePlug specs, I rummaged through my closet to find some devices I could hang on the adapters for some stress testing.  I pulled out an unused PogoPlug device and connected a disk to it.  I then connected it via an adapter.  I also moved my OB100 from the a router port to a Powerline adapter.  This gave me 6 Powerline adapters of different brands: 2 Netgear, 2 PlasterNetworks and 2 Av500.  I also installed the included Power Packet Utility to monitor what was going on.  Installation of this software is optional and probably most users won’t bother.

In the above screen shot my local device or the one plugged into the router, is Plaster Networks.  It is rated at 200Mbps which makes that the fastest throughput between it and the other nodes.  Here devices 3 and 6 are the Intellinet AV500′s.  You’ll notice that device 3 shows a throughput of 194 Mbps and device 6 shows only 100 Mbps.  Be aware that the throughput will vary depending upon the distance between devices and the condition of your home power wiring.  I’d be surprised if anyone got the stated speed and my experience has been anywhere from 70% to 25% of rated throughput.  You can move the adapters to different circuits looking for better throughput and monitor the results using the Power Packet Utility.

To see if I could get near 500 Mbps, I replaced the Local adapter with one of the AV500 devices.  Illustrated above, you can see that device 3, the other AV500 is now screaming along at near 500 Mbps, but that’s partly because it’s plugged into the same AC circuit as the local adapter.  It’s less than 15 feet away.  I wouldn’t recommend buying Powerline equipment for 15ft when you could run a cable more cheaply.  You’ll also notice that Device 2, which is connected to my Ooma box, is running very slow.  That’s because there’s something amiss with the line on that breaker.  I haven’t figured it out yet, but the speed is sufficient for VOIP.  Another downside of Powerline is its susceptibility to electrical noise.  In my house, I have some under cabinet LED lights that when turned on cause so much electrical noise that my Mbps drops by 50% on all my circuits.

The Powerline adapters come configured with a common password for the 128 bit encryption.  This could cause a problem if you’re thinking of using them in a multi-unit building.  It would be possible for a user on the same electrical panel as you to be connected to your LAN.  This is taken care of in two ways.  By pressing a button on the adapter hooked to your router and then, within a certain time, pressing the buttons on the other adapters, a random password is generated  for those devices.  The password can also be changed by using the utility. For those of us living in a detached home, we can just use the devices right out of the box with the default password or one could use the utility to segment the LAN by assigning different passwords to devices.  This way an adapter could only communicate to devices with the same password.

I make good use of Powerline in my home.  I stream HD video from my PC, connect my VOIP boxes where I want them and attach my Roku to the Internet without having to run cables or settle for the vagaries of WiFi.  I also have a Laptop running Ubuntu connected via an adapter.  For my uses a 200 Mbps device is sufficient.  Even when the quality of the signal is low, I’ve had no problems streaming data over the LAN.  For those who need higher throughput, the Intellinet AV500 would be an excellent choice.  It’s a no-brainer to install and there’s no maintenance.  It’s truly Plug and Play.

Filed in categories: Audio, Video, TV Gear, Reviews, Wireless

Tagged: A/V, Networking

Intellinet AV500 Powerline Ethernet Adapter Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 17, 2011 at 11:00 am.

Logitech is one of the premier manufacturers of technology peripheral devices. They make some of the bestkeyboards, mice and their Harmony line of remote controls is fantastic. One of their newest products is the Logitech Wireless Headset. I’ve spent the last few days using the headset with a variety of devices and it has performed quite well.

While the headset was formally introduced as the “Logitech Wireless Headset for iPad” it works as audio headphones with every Bluetooth-enabled device I’ve tried. I actually found it a better PC/Mac peripheral than I did with mobile devices. I may not have been the only one to discover that as it appears that the Logitech marketing people have dropped the “for iPad” from the official name.

I did encounter one problem throughout my testing involving mobile devices and the microphone that relates to the wacky world of Bluetooth standards (or non-standards), protocols, stacks and drivers. I tested the headset with two Lenovo ThinkPad laptops (running Windows 7), an Apple Mac Mini (OSX Lion), Apple iPad (iOS 5.0), Apple iPod Touch 2G (iOS 4.21), Samsung Galaxy S WiFi 5.0 (Android 2.2.2), T-Mobile G2 phone (Android 2.3.4) and an Asus Transformer tablet (Android 3.2.1).

The Logitech Wireless Headset paired quickly with every device used for testing and the headphones worked well. The sound quality was good, better than I expected. The high-end was okay albeit a bit clipped, midrange not too bad, and while the lows were a bit lacking and a tad muddy at times the sound was very reasonable for this type of device.

Volume level was also okay, although even with full volume on both the source and the headphones I wasn’t able to get things really “cranking”. In all cases the sound quality was far superior to that produced by the internal speakers on the iPad, iPod Touch, and Android devices, but nowhere close to that of my Grado SR 225 or even my Grado SR 60 wired headphones. Logitech doesn’t list the audio specifications for the headphones (frequency response, impedance, distortion, etc.), and if that’s what is important to you I’d suggest looking elsewhere.

On the other hand, Ray Charles’ “Georgia” sounded like Ray Charles, Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” sounded liked Freddie Mercury and Queen, Eric Burden and War’s “Low Rider” sounded like Eric Burden, and Whitney Houston’s “Didn’t We Almost Have It All” sounded, well, like what Whitney Houston used to sound like. I listened to several hours of random music (classical, rap, country, pop, and rock) and throughout I found the sound to be good and not tiring.

I’m not an audiophile and my ears have been through way too many concerts where the amplifiers were cranked to 12. So, as with any review of a speaker/headphone if that’s really important you need to try a pair and listen for yourself.

I was also pleasantly surprised by how comfortable the headphones were. When I pulled them from the box I thought they were a bit cheap feeling and stiff. They’re very light (3 ¾ ounces/105 grams), made of plastic and are the “supra-aural” style (foam earmuff). After several hours though they still hadn’t become bothersome to wear, perhaps a benefit of their low weight. The headphones adjust with a “ratchet-style” slider and fit over my large melon as well as my wife’s much prettier head. They were even usable on my six-year-old’s head although they’re really sized more for teens through adults.

I also put them through a bit of stress test, folding and unfolding, stressing and twisting them and didn’t hear any “creaks” or groans nor was there any signs (visual or auditory) of damage. It would be nice if Logitech included a second set of foam ear pads as I have no doubt their lifespan is going to be limited.

Battery life is stated to be approximately six hours. While I didn’t run a dedicated battery test my experience gives me no reason to doubt that number. Charging the lithium-ion battery is done with a USB cable (included). I was able to charge the headset from a computer or any phone charger that had a micro-USB connector. The device charges quite quickly. The headphones do not come with their own charger, just a cable.

The headset will remember pairings with up to eight devices, but will only connect with one device at a time. The first time you pair the headset you just turn it on and its ready to connect, after that it’s a typical “Vulcan” button press procedure (hold mute and volume up until the power light blinks rapidly) to initiate the process. This isn’t difficult, but it does mean you have to remember which keys start pairing.

Back of the right ear-piece contains the power switch, mute, indicator light and charging port. The volume is controlled by pressing the top or bottom of the ring on the right side.

So far all good stuff for the Logitech Wireless Headset.  I then began testing the microphone functionality. As I stated earlier, I don’t think many are going to buy this headset purely for its audio qualities. You buy this because you want a headset (headphones and a microphone). This means you should be able to use this with applications like Skype, FaceTime, standard phone calls, game oriented communication like Ventrillo or dictation/voice recognition apps like Vlingo (I don’t have an iPhone 4S to test Siri), Dragon Dictation and, of course, audio recording.

The “boom” noise-cancelling microphone is attached to the right earpiece (not reversible) and rotates down to run along the right side of your face. Much like the headphones, if you’re planning on heading into a recording studio to belt out an aria you’ve got the wrong device, but they did a good job with standard speech and didn’t do badly at ignoring background noise. Everyone I called with Skype using the device agreed that they could hear me clearly. Most commented that while the audio quality was fine they would have preferred I hire someone more pleasant to perform the testing (I get no respect).

I was able to successfully use the device on the Windows and Mac machines for any software that needed a microphone. The problem came into play when I started trying to do with the same with the iPad, iPod, and Android devices. Once again, I don’t believe this is the fault of the headset at all. It’s a problem inherent with the Bluetooth technology and implementation within these devices. I’ll list some of the devices and the issues I had. I believe the problems are going to be different depending on the device you’re using, what version of its operating system you have and the application you’re trying to use.

iPod Touch 2G: This iPod Touch doesn’t include a built-in microphone like later versions, but it is possible to use applications like Skype if you plug a standard headset in (like the iPhone earbud/microphone). Unfortunately, when I tried a few apps like Skype and Voice Recorder neither of them recognized the microphone on the device.

iPad 1G: Pretty much the same results here although it was harder to tell as the iPad does have a built-in microphone. After isolating myself (standing in the bathroom while the iPad was in my office) with the headphones on I was convinced that neither Skype, NetTalk, Glee (game), Dragon Dictation, Vlingo or Voice Recorder was recognizing the microphone on the headset.

Android Devices: My experience here was a little better, but that’s only because it’s possible to download apps that specifically look for a Bluetooth-enabled microphone and then will work with it.  I was able to get the microphone to work with apps like Bluetooth Recorder. Skype would only use the device’s internal microphone. Vlingo not only didn’t seem to pick anything up from the headset’s microphone it became unresponsive until I shut it off. Google Voice Search seemed to listen to both the internal microphone and the headset, the same goes for SwiftKey’s vocal input.

When paired with my Android-based T-Mobile G2 phone the headset did work properly. To answer an incoming call you press the mute button, disconnecting was accomplished by holding mute for three seconds. I couldn’t find any button that would allow me to initiate voice recognition on my phone. It also served as a media headphone allowing me to listen to the audio from Pandora, Netflix, Crackle, etc. As with the iOS and other Android devices I had problems using the microphone with some apps.

Logitech states that the headset will work for FaceTime calls with the iPhone 4+ iPod Touch 4G and the iPad 2. I would suggest that unless an app specifically tells you it works with the specific Bluetooth microphone that you have don’t expect it too. The Bluetooth drivers that are available for Windows and MacOSX won’t have any problem working with the headset.

The documentation included with the headset is really quite minimal. It’s a Bluetooth headset so it really shouldn’t need all that much more than pairing/connecting information, but during my testing I noticed the power/status light in several different modes and while some were mentioned there are still some that were a mystery. I’d also like to know how to reset the headset to factory condition and remove all previous pairings.

All in all, the Logitech Wireless Headset is a nice, relatively inexpensive product ($69 MSRP) that does what it says it will do and quite a bit more relatively well. It’s not a great set of audio headphones, but it’s not bad. It’s not a great microphone, but if you’re working with a PC it’s more than adequate for gaming, VOIP, voice commands, online conversations and the like. It’s lightweight, and comfortable to wear for long periods. The battery life, standard micro-USB charging port, and ability to fold up make it a solid choice for travelers.

Update 10/27/2011: It has been about a week and I’ve used the headset off and on with a 2011 Mac Mini. After a few days the headset stopped connecting with the Mac Mini and re-pairing the device wasn’t helping. There wasn’t much help available in the Logitech forums on this headset aside from one rep suggesting that it wouldn’t work with anything but the iPad or iPhone. I decided to try deleting the device entirely from the Bluetooth settings on the Mac and completely repairing and that seems to have worked. If you just try to re-pair without deleting the old profile the Mac states that it will delete and re-pair, but its possible that isn’t happening. I then went back and re-tested it with a number of my other devices and all went well. I’m not sure if the loss of connectivity is a Mac Mini Bluetooth issue (The Mini is running the new 4.0 version of Bluetooth) or an issue with the headset. I will update this review if I have any further issues or discover what may have caused the problem in the first place.

Filed in categories: Audio, Video, TV Gear, Bluetooth Gear, Gaming Gear, iPhone, iPad, iPod related, Reviews, Wireless

Tagged: audio gear, bluetooth headset, iPad accessory

Logitech Wireless Headset for iPad Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 4, 2011 at 2:00 pm.

Do you check the local weather on your smartphone or computer before you leave for the day?  Or maybe you turn on the TV to watch a meteorologist’s broadcast. Have you ever wondered why weather people called meteorologist’s? They don’t study meteors… Anyway, most of us like to know what it’s like outside so that we can dress appropriately for the day, or just crawl back under the covers when it’s dumping rain. The WMR86 Backyard Pro Wireless Weather Station from Oregon Scientific gives you all the weather info you need including temperature, wind speed and rain fall. Let’s take a look.

Note: Click the images in this review to see a larger view.

Package Contents

Base Station
Wind Sensor with mounting hardware
Temperature & Humidity sensor with mounting hardware
Rain Gauge with mounting hardware
Instructions
Batteries

This kit comes with everything you need (except for a screw driver) to setup on the inside and outside of your house.

The temperature & humidity sensor (top sensor in the image above) is powered by 2 AAA batteries and is easily attached to the outside of your house using the included plastic snap in holder and screws. There’s a small LED status indicator on the outside and a Celsius / Fahrenheit temperature switch in the battery compartment.

The wind sensor is powered by 2 AA batteries and comes with a plastic bracket and mounting hardware that will allow you to screw it into a flat surface or attach it to a post like I’ve done.

There are two parts of the wind sensor that move. On the top is a flag shaped arm that swivels to capture the wind direction. Note that after I took the picture above, I noticed that I had the sensor pointing the wrong direction. The instructions say to make sure that it’s pointed North and I had it pointed South…

The part on the bottom with the three cups rotates to record wind speed, so it’s important to locate the wind sensor in a relatively open area away from trees and other obstructions.

The other outdoor sensor is the rain gauge, which is powered by 2 AA batteries. The instructions advise you to mount it in the open 3 feet or so from the ground. I ended up mounting it on a bench on our back patio that we never sit on.

Inside the gauge is a little cup that collects rain water and automatically dumps it out when it gets full. In my infinite brilliance, I didn’t realize that the cup was taped to keep it from flopping around in shipment. I kept wondering why the gauge wasn’t working and finally took it apart to discover the tape. Moral of the story… even when you think you’re too smart to read directions, do it anyway

After all of the outside sensors are installed, you’re ready to start viewing their data on the base station.

The base station has a large LCD display (2.75 x 4 in) that includes a backlight button that lights the display for 5 seconds when pressed. The display is separated into 4 sections. The top section has a large graphic that represents the current weather status. As you can see, when I took the image above, it was a rainy day. Below the weather graphic is the current temperature and the humidity level. The arrow buttons cycle through channels 1-3 if you have additional temperature sensors. It will also allow you to see the indoor temperature and humidity level. Small arrows on the display next to the readings tell you if the temp/humidity levels are going up, down or remaining the same. In the image above, you can see that the outdoor temp is going down, but the humidity level is steady.

Below the temperature section of the display is the wind sensor area where the current wind direction, speed and wind chill info are shown. Pressing the Min/Max button on the base will also toggle between the last minimum reading and maximum reading, with time stamp.

Below the wind sensor section is the rain gauge section that displays the last 24 hours of rain fall data, barometric pressure readings and the last 10 hours of UV index info. Pressing the mode button cycles through these 3 screens in that section of the LCD display. I find this section the hardest to read because the graphs use a very small font to label each axis.

The bottom section of the LCD is reserved for the clock / calendar and moon phase display. The time and date are automatically via radio reception to an atomic clock which automatically adjusts for time zone and daylight savings. You can cycle through 3 ways to view the time/date. Next to the time is a graphical representation of the current moon phase.

I don’t have any complaints about this setup other than the rain gauge graphs area  bit hard to read on the mono LCD because they are so small. I’d love a full color LCD, but then the batteries would need constant changing.  Speaking of batteries, there is an indicator in each sensor section of the LCD when one of the outdoor sensor batteries is low. That’s a nice touch.

The Oregon Scientific WMR86 Backyard Pro Wireless Weather Station is easy to setup and easy to use. I like the large display that provides all the weather info that you need at a glance. I also appreciate the fact that all the components are powered by regular alkaline batteries that are readily available. Nothing irks me more than gadgets that use expensive and / or not so easy to find odd batteries. Now that Winter is almost here, I’m sure I’ll be consulting this device before I leave for work each morning so I’ll know if I’ll need gloves and a scarf.

Filed in categories: Home Tech, Reviews, Wireless

Tagged: weather, Wireless

Oregon Scientific WMR86 Backyard Pro Wireless Weather Station Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 4, 2011 at 11:00 am.

I have been a mouse guy my whole life. I have had a contentious lifelong relationship with the touchpad on my laptops and have always gravitated to the mouse. I tried several trackball devices over the years thinking that perhaps I was missing something.  But the mouse always tugged at my heartstrings and pulled me back. My current mouse that I have used for over a year, and which I love, is the Microsoft Natural Wireless Laser Mouse.  This is the mouse that all others will be judged by in my opinion, so when I was sent the Wireless Touchpad from Logitech to review I looked at it much like an old man looks at kids who are playing in his yard. Was I going to be won over?  Let’s go see.

I don’t know what I was expecting but the box looked awfully small to me when it showed up. When I took it out of the box I was taken aback. Wow, this thing looks really nice.  It’s got curves, and honestly, it looks like an Apple product.  Now, the plastic construction will tell you that it’s not an Apple product, but it isn’t poorly built. Quite the opposite. It is nicely put together and the plastic makes it light and easy to transport.  And the small rubberized feet on the bottom keep it steady on my desk as I swipe my fingers hither, thither and yon.

On the back is the on-off switch, as well as the battery compartment, which I discovered already contained 2 batteries. Nice touch, Logitech.

On the top of the device is the 5-inch touchpad area surrounded by about a 3/4 inch frame all the way around it. There are slightly viewable lines on the surface of the touchpad that designate the corners of that 5 inch touch area, but you can’t really feel them when you are using the Touchpad because the active surface is smooth all the way across.

At the bottom on the front are 2 mouse buttons that cover the entire width of the device, with an indicator light in the middle.

The USB dongle that comes with it is Logitech’s “Unifying receiver” which is a pretty cool little trick if you use all Logitech products. That little dongle will allow you to connect up to 6 Logitech wireless devices and only use 1 USB port. Nice. You can see in the picture that the dongle is about the same size as a dime, which means you better watch it or you’ll lose it!

Now let’s look at one more picture of the device before I yell at it to get off my lawn.

As I slowly moved my mouse over to the side to make room for the Touchpad, I felt a pang of guilt. ‘I’ll be back’ I silently told my mouse. And I hesitantly began to use the Touchpad. I don’t know why the experience is so strange for me because I have a touchscreen smartphone, and 2 tablets that all use 100% touch for their interface. So why is the thought of using touch so weird on my laptop? Perhaps it is the presence of the keyboard? You know, like peanut butter and jelly, a keyboard just goes better with a mouse. Mac users are publicly mocking me at this point while pinching and zooming on their Magic Trackpads, but I can take it. Mac users just can’t help themselves. But I digress.

Here is what I like:

I like that the Touchpad is so much bigger than my laptop touchpad. The 5 inch touch area is monstrous compared to my laptop touchpad, and the large buttons on the Touchpad are solid and responsive.  I love the shape and the angle of the Touchpad. It fits perfectly for my hand as I use it sitting on my desk. The gestures available on the Touchpad are responsive and easy to use. Once you learn them, it is second nature.  For everyday computer use… email, surfing, etc, the Touchpad is great. And the price ($49.99) is right for me.

Installation was crazy-easy. Plugged in the dongle and in about 20 seconds I was ready to go. Turn it on and I am in business. And it looks really, really nice. Dare I say it looks sexy? Well, maybe not Apple-sexy, but Windows-sexy. There you go.

Here is what I don’t like:

There aren’t enough gestures. What is the first gesture that comes to mind when you think of a touch device? That’s easy… pinch to zoom… spread to zoom. Well, that’s missing on the Touchpad. I suspect that has to do with the limitations of Windows 7 and I feel sure that Windows 8 will address that.  But for now, it aint’ there.  There are good gestures available, but I felt limited in what I could do. You can use the traditional 1-finger tap for things.  You can use two fingers up and down for scrolling. You can use 3 finger swipes left and right for advancing back and forth in the browser. And you can use 4 finger swipes left and right to tab between open apps, and up and down swipes to get to the desktop and back to your apps. But I want more. There’s also no turning your fingers to rotate things in the apps that would support it, like photo apps or graphics editing apps.

The only other thing I didn’t like was the fact that there is no tactile feedback when you have left the 5-inch touch area. Aside from the lines that appear on the surface that show you where the touch area is, there’s nothing that tells you have ‘left the area’. And of course, you aren’t looking at the device when using it so those lines on the surface are basically useless. Occasionally one of my fingers is outside the area and I don’t know it and my gesture isn’t what I want to accomplish because of that.

Bottom line

I have tried to become proficient with the Touchpad in Photoshop, which I use daily.  I can’t quite get comfortable with it because the detail work requires me many times to get down to the pixel level to manipulate images.  I jump back to the mouse to accomplish these types of tasks.  But for general computer use the Touchpad is great. Logitech says the batteries last 4 months, and if that holds up then that isn’t bad. The Magic Trackpad is probably the ruler by which other touchpads will be judged, and it does have more gestures, higher quality materials, and of course is Apple-sexy. But you must have a Mac to use it, and with the Logitech you must have a Windows computer to use it. So perhaps it isn’t fair to compare the two.

So if I had to give the product a rating of 1 to 10, I would give it a 7.  With this thing I won’t use my built-in touchpad on the laptop, and that’s a very good thing.  I don’t hate Touchpads quite as much now. Maybe I’ll let the kids play on the lawn after all… but just for a little bit.

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Reviews, Wireless

Tagged: magic trackpad, Mouse, TouchPad, Wireless

Logitech Wireless Touchpad Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 19, 2011 at 3:00 pm.

You’ve got a ton of mobile gear – tablet, smartphone, laptop – that’s supposed to unchain you from your desk.  You should be able to do business anywhere you find yourself with all this mobile equipment, but there’s one small problem.  You can’t do anything without an internet connection.  Buying service plans for each and every mobile device gets very expensive, so you may decide to just make use of Starbuck‘s free WiFi.  Public hotspots present their own set of problems – slow connections, time limits, and difficulties getting connected.  Plus, it’s not secure – do you really want to conduct business over a public hotspot like that?

What you need is a fast, secure, personal hotspot.  Clear Internet, the leader in wireless internet connectivity, has the best service and the strongest signals of any MiFi network.  Clear Internet is the best solution in the 4G MiFi field.  With a mobile plan from Clear Internet, you’ll have unlimited data on their 4G network. With your own personal MiFi hotspot, you’ll be able to conduct business anywhere, on a fast, secure, and reliable connection – and no sharing with a roomful of coffee shop customers!

Go to the Clear Internet site to learn more about their plans and learn how they can help keep you connected with your customers no matter where your day takes you.

Filed in categories: News, Wireless

Tagged: WiFi

Tired of Hunting for WiFi Hotspots? Clear Internet Has What You’ve Been Looking For. originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 12, 2011 at 12:00 pm.

The Pantech Breeze III and Persuit II phones are two low-end GSM phones available on the AT&T network for under $100 (currently and often just under $50 with rebate) for new customers with a 2 year term. While both offer decent (and different)  functionality, they have significant limitations when compared to current and last generation smart phones at similar price points.

Breeze III

The Breeze III is a throwback to the golden age of flip phones, with a decent QVGA display, and a full set of basic phone features.

In the box you’ll find a thick manual, the phone, a USB charging & PC connection cable, and AC adapter. The phone accepts a full size SIM card.

The hardware

Even with the battery, the Breeze III is light as a feather, coming in at 3.6 ounces. Even though it’s essentially all plastic, it feels reasonably solid in the hand, and the textured back allows for decent grip.

Above is the Breeze III atop an iPhone 4. You can see the volume controls on the left side.

The front display is pretty spartan, giving you just the date and time. Three icons are stamped into the top, for Messages, Phone, and Battery. Oddly enough, those are actually indicators, with LEDs under them that blink if you’ve got a message, or missed a call, or your battery is low.

Flipped open, you’ve got three “quick launch” buttons you can assign to apps on the top half of the phone, the bottom has a pair of menu buttons, a d-pad, dedicated voice command and camera buttons, and the basic phone keys you’d find in any flip phone.

On the back is the speaker (for speakerphone, tones, rings, etc.) and the 1.3MP camera.

The Software

Using the Breeze III reminds me of the flip phone I had in 2003, with a much better screen and slightly more feature rich software. It has two modes – the “Breeze” mode is a simplified menu system:

Selecting an option leads to a sub-menu, which has a subset of all the options you’d find in advanced mode. Advance mode gives you the grid of icons look:

Which has essentially the same applications – the difference being that when you select one of these you get additional sub-menu options. In either case these are pretty basic applications and navigating them (let alone entering anything at all with the dialpad) is fairly cumbersome. No worse than any other flip phone, but I’d really not want to do anything more than basic calling on this thing. Here’s the web browser (which is pretty slow, even given Edge speeds:)

The 1.3MP camera takes decent fixed-focus photos, which can be emailed, or sent via MMS with ease.

The phone includes voice control, which worked fairly well for starting applications, and fair for voice dialing. The included PC-Suite software works with either phone, I’ll cover it at the end of the review.

Conclusion

I’d personally never be able to stand the Breeze III as my daily device, but if all you need is basic voice capability, or you want a nice light flip phone, it could work. The voice quality (and speakerphone) are quite good, but choosing this device certainly is not a selection you’d make based on cost – there are full touch smartphones in the $50-$100 range that are more capable (and easier to use) than the Breeze III.

Pursuit II

The Pursuit II is a QVGA touch screen Brew-based phone with a slide-up keyboard. It looks at first blush like it could be a fair “simple” touch screen phone, but the phone software is cumbersome to use, the device is infuriatingly slow to use, and the touch screen’s responsiveness is poor. The keyboard does work well for text entry, at least.

In the box you’ll find a thin Quick Start guide, the phone, a USB charging & PC connection cable, and AC adapter. The phone accepts a full size SIM card.

The hardware

With the battery, the Pursuit II is fairly light at 4.9 ounces. Like its flip-sibling, it’s all plastic but feels reasonably solid in the hand. The back’s “dumbbell” shape gives you something to hang onto when holding it, and it has two rubbery strips that help hold it in place when you set it down to type on it.

You can see above that it’s smaller but thicker than an iPhone 4, but overall it’s quite pocket-able.

The front has the QVGA touch screen with dial, back, and hangup hard-buttons on the bottom.

The left side has a volume rocker.

The right side has the USB port, a hold button, and a camera button.

The back is smooth, but has a nice recessed center area and the 2MP camera. The speaker grille is somewhat hidden in the upper grove where the rubber grip lives, on the right side.

Under the covers, you can see the the SIM slot above the battery, and on the right side is a micro-SD card slot for up to 32GB of external memory.

Pushing up the top, it slides nearly halfway up revealing a reasonably usable keyboard.

The Software

The Pursuit’s Brew-based OS seemed to be trying to be a mix of Symbian and iOS, with some throwbacks to even older interface behaviors. It looks pretty clean and nice at first blush, but just poking at it for a few minutes, you’re greeted with endless lags, spinning wait cursors, and menus that look like they’d be at home on the Breeze.

The lock screen looks promising, and sliding it reveals a very nice grid of icons:

However, let’s look at the web browser:

Ok, that’s looking very Breezy! However, that keyboard makes all the difference when trying to enter in a URL, or punch in a facebook status, or even take some (brief) notes.

Here you see the problem of a tiny 2.8″ QVGA screen. Trying to do any serious browsing of “full sites” is an exercise in both patience (due to Edge speeds, on top of the pedestrian phone speed) and dexterity (attempting to hit a tiny link with my gigantic finger) which provided some fun and then the realization that this thing isn’t for people like me.

The 2MP camera worked well enough to snap photos and upload/mail/mms them around. Like the Breeze, the voice quality (and speakerphone) are quite good on the Pursuit II.

Conclusion

The Pursuit II is a capable touch/keyboard Brew-phone, but like the Breeze III you’d be picking this phone for some reason other than price, or functionality. With full-blown HVGA or better iOS, Android, or WP7 phones out there at the same price point, I’m at a loss to understand the market for this device. Perhaps you’re looking for a limited device specifically to limit what the user can do – perhaps a first phone for a child.

PC Suite

Both phones use a Windows-based app (freely downloaded from Pantech’s web site) called PC Suite to do basic phone sync to the PC. Installing the app, and connecting either phone, you’ll be able to sync the phone, edit the address book, and copy files (such as music or images) in or out of the phone.

The main screen is:

Clink on any of those, with a phone connected, and you’ll get the following screens. First up, the contact manager:

This would be the best way to get contacts in, if you don’t have an existing address book. If you do, then the Sync option is far better:

It looks like the sync tool supports Outlook, or Outlook Express. Assuming that’s what you’ve got, you’ll have your address book, calendar, and notes synced up in moments.

Lastly is a file browser/mover:

Overall, enough power to get the basic job done.

Uber-conclusion

These two phones, along with the sync software, are capable enough at what they do, but they’re definitely trailing edge technology, with a few updates to more modern components and capabilities. With the immense downward pressure of smartphone prices it’s hard to see who the target market is for them, but if you’re looking for something like this then they sure seem as capable as anything else in the same class.

Filed in categories: Reviews, Wireless

Tagged: Basic Cell Phone, Brew Phone, Flip Phone

Pantech Breeze III and Pursuit II (AT&T) Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 10, 2011 at 11:00 am.

Would you like to extend the range of your wireless network?  Do you have WiFi dead spots around your house?  Do you have an Internet capable TV that only has an ethernet port and your computer is in another room?   Maybe you don’t even have a WiFi network in your house and need a way to connect the new laptop you just bought or would like to add a wireless access point to the broadband connection in your hotel room.   Diamond Multimedia believes they have  what you need to address your issues.

In  my house the broadband modem is on the second floor in what I call the computer room.  My wife uses her laptop on the main floor at the extreme other end of the house.  Because of the distance and number of walls between the router and her laptop, we sometimes lose connection or at best the transfer rate slows down.  Also, we’re unable to get a wireless signal in the basement where we both have our personal work spaces.  For these reasons, I’ve been on the hunt for a device that would boost the WiFi signal and not require a rewiring of the house. With the WR300N,  I’ve found a solution.

WR300N 3 in 1 Device

• Wireless Range Extender
• Wireless Access Point
• Wireless Bridge

Features:

• Supports Wireless N Standard up to 300 Mbps
• MIMO technology
•  WEP, WPA and WPA2 security
• User friendly GUI for setup
• WPS Protected setup
• Plug and Play
• Can use any operating system to configure

There’s not much to it.  The CD has the extended manual and a PDF of the Easy Start Guide.  The ethernet cable is used to set up the device and can be used for the wireless bridge configuration.

On the front are several indicator leds that you’ll probably never look at, at least as long as the device is working properly.

On the bottom or top if you install it upside down, is the ethernet port.  You’ll notice that the prongs on the AC plug are not polarized allowing one to plug it into a wall socket in either orientation.

The first thing to do in the setup is to read the quick start guide.  I used my laptop for the configuration, but didn’t disable the WiFi before connecting the ethernet cable from the WR300n to the laptop.  Nothing happened!  After shutting off the WiFi, the laptop got an ip address from the device and I opened a browser to point to 10.0.10.254.  After logging in to the device configuration page, I began the setup.

There are several screens, but the most pertinent one is the above.  I clicked the Scan Wireless Networks button and selected the one I wanted to extend.  In this case it is called billnjan.  I selected the security type to match my wireless router config and entered the WEP keys.  After punching the apply button, I shut down the browser and removed the cable and unplugged the WR300n.  If your equipment uses WiFi Protected Setup (WPS), then setup is a matter of pressing a couple of buttons.  I then placed the WR300n midway between my wireless router and the farthest point in my house.

Here are the results.  I made the measurements using my laptop at the furthest point in the house.  Row number 2 is for the SSID that is NOT repeated.  Row number 1 is the repeated SSID.  You’ll notice the increase in signal strength.  Row number 3 is the second SSID from my wireless router and is not repeated.  Now that my signal is repeated, I have noticed that I don’t get any “connecting messages” from either my WiFi enabled Internet radio or photo frame.  Both of these devices were at the limit of my non-repeated signal.

To check out the wireless bridge capability, I plugged an ethernet cable into the WR300n and connected it to my laptop and established connection via the ethernet port. It works as advertised.  This feature would be perfect for those who have a device such as the Roku that doesn’t have WiFi.  Plug the WR300n near the Roku box and you’re all set.

The WR300N can be used as a wireless Access Point.  It is set up in the same way as the repeater, the only difference is that the user will define the SSID and encryption type.  Once setup, it can be connected to an available port on the modem-router.

Although not a big issue, reconfiguring the WR300N can be a chore.  Accessing the configuration screens via a browser pointing to 10.0.10.254 is not possible after the initial setup, unless you configure your computer to a fixed ip.  This is no small task and the instructions for doing so are in the extended manual from the supplied disk.  Of course, after you’ve reconfigured the device you’ll have to return your computer ip back to its original state.  My work around is to stick a straightened paper clip in the reset button of the WR300N for 5 seconds which brings the device back to its initial state.

The WR300N works for me.  I’ve been able to use my laptop at distances from the router that I wasn’t able to before.  It’s easy enough to set up and simple to install.

Filed in categories: Reviews, Wireless

Tagged: Wireless

Diamond Wireless Range Extender WR300n Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 1, 2011 at 11:00 am.

Researchers have used rapid pulses of light to transmit information at speeds of over 500 megabytes per second  at the Heinrich Hertz Institute in Berlin. Dubbed Li-Fi (not to be confused with Light Fidelity) is this a viable competitor to conventional wifi ?

“At the heart of this technology is a new generation of high-brightness light-emitting diodes” says Harold Hass from the University of Edinburgh ”Very simply, if the LED is on, you transmit a digital 1, if it’s off you transmit a 0. They can be switched on and off very quickly, which gives nice opportunities for transmitting data.”

It is possible to encode data in the light by varying the rate at which the LEDs flicker on an off to give different strings of 1s and 0s. The modulation is so fast that the human eye doesn’t notice.

“There are over 14 billion light bulbs world wide, they just need to be replaced with LED ones that transmit data”.

This may solve issues such as the shortage of radio-frequency bandwidth and also allow internet where traditional radio based wireless isn’t allowed such as aircraft or hospitals. One of the shortcomings however is that it only work in direct line of sight.

More information at New Scientist

Filed in categories: News, Wireless

Tagged: Internet, Wireless

Li-Fi – Internet at the Speed of Light originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 29, 2011 at 9:00 am.