In today’s connected home we take pictures digitally, listen to digital audio on our MP3 players, and download and watch digital movies on our HD TV’s.  All of these digital media files take up a copious amount of space and the growth of these files is outpacing our ability to store and protect them.  Thankfully, storage has become relatively inexpensive – a 1TB hard disk drive can be purchased for well under $100 and the pricing on 2TB hard disk drives is starting to move in that direction as well.  Not that I can tell the future, but I expect to look back on this article in a year or two and see a 3TB or a 4TB hard disk drive priced at the levels of a 2TB hard disk drive today.

Within the digital home you may want to share your media with others inside and outside of our homes.  To make this possible many vendors are offering home storage systems to store and protect your digital media lifestyle.  These devices connect to your home network and enable you to store and share your media with your family through PC’s and connected devices, such as home theatre systems, digital media extenders, xBox 360, PS3, the Apple TV, and even with friends and family outside of our homes through cloud based services.  Also, with several of the products you can backup your data to cloud based backup services so if there was to be a fire in your home, or a virus outbreak your precious data would be protected.   These services aren’t free, but when you think about your important family albums that are all digital what are they worth to you?  It is a small cost in those terms.

Another other use that I have found for these systems is sharing files between my various home PCs and Macs – instead of dumping files to a USB Memory Stick and Sneakernetting them from place to place I can copy files to my home digital media storage system (NAS Device) and share files among all of my computers.

Having used a number of these digital media storage systems over the past several years I have had to go through the buying process; working through my own requirements, researching and evaluating the options in the market, and finally selecting the right system for my usage.   In an attempt to make your purchase decision easier I wanted to share some thoughts on how to select the right product for your environment.  I am not going to attempt to recommend a specific product because your requirements will likely differ from mine, rather I am going to encourage you to explore many of them by taking a moment to think about what you want to be able to do today and in the future with your digital media.  From my perspective, the worst thing that you can do is buy a product that doesn’t fit your needs and then return it or use it only to have buyer’s remorse.  So, take the extra time and do the research;  laying out your requirements clearly and then buy what best meets your needs – take the time to read reviews online and download and read the product manuals – there are some real gems to be found within the product manuals as well as in the online communities and forums for these products. Unless you live alone you should also talk with your family members to understand how they intend to use the product.  For example, if I was buying something for my mother, it would have to be super-simple and seamlessly integrated with her computing experience as she is not a techie, not even close.  She would need the system to automatically backup her Mac using Time Machine and that would be all that she uses the system for – she rents her digital media through DVDs at RedBox and Blockbuster.

There are several considerations to think about when looking at digital media storage systems, including:

1. Who is going to, and how are they going to use the system?

If you are only storing pictures then you need one type of digital media storage product, like adding a USB connected hard disk drive to your wireless router, which is an option on many of the wireless routers on the market today.  If you are going to be streaming digital media as well accessing your pictures then you may need a totally different system.  Finally, if you are going to stream media throughout your house then you need to think about getting a system with multiple drives, a good bit of memory, and a fast connection to your network.  Now, you are going to ask why?   There are a few reasons why, including:  streaming media requires a good bit of consistent performance, more than you are going to get from a single drive system with a slow connection to your network.  A single hard disk drive can generate between 4-6Mb/s of consistent performance – that is from a SATA-2 drive.  While the vendors of the hard disk drives will claim higher levels of performance, these are usually burst modes and are not consistent, which is what you need to stream media.  Imagine you are watching a HD movie or streaming high quality audio, how much performance do you think that you need?   If you encode your video at 480p, standard DVD, then you are going to need approximately 3 Mb/s of consistent performance to replay the video.  Also, you need to make sure that your home network can support the performance of the streaming media.  Don’t rely on Wi-Fi alone, you may need to physically wire your components together with Gigabit Ethernet to get the best consistent performance.  And, if you are looking at streaming 1080P video then you need to look at 50 Mb/s of consistent performance, which means that you will need to look at striping across several hard disk drives in a RAID configuration.  This is what you need to stream HD quality video from your HD Video Camera or Blu-Ray quality video.

What is RAID?  RAID is an acronym that means Redundant Array of Independent Drives, in other words data is stripped across a number of drives and the performance of the drives is combined, thereby increasing the performance as well as providing resilience and reliability in the case of a single drive failure, using a parity drive.  This article is not about RAID, nor am I going to go into detail on parity configurations, but suffice it to say that many of the vendors that provide these systems have created their own RAID configurations that maximize the available amount of storage from the stripped drives as well as protect your data in case one of the drives fails.  Also, many of the systems offer hot-swap drives enabling you to replace a failed drive on the fly without shutting the system down and they will automatically restore the protection of the system while restriping the data onto the new drive.  While the restriping process is occurring the performance of the system will be degraded because the resources of the system are being used to restore the resilience of your data.  For larger hard drives this can take a day or more depending on how much data is stored on the system.  If you want to read all about RAID I would suggest visiting Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

2. Price

There are products available for under $100 to several thousand $ and everything in between.  And, what you spend depends on what you want the system to do.  Some of the sub $100 systems only use one hard disk drive which can be problematic if the drive dies and you haven’t backed it up.  Many of the systems will come with a single drive and several empty drive bays so you can customize your system based on capacity by adding drives.  Before adding drives to a system make sure that you check the vendor’s website to ensure that you are using tested and supported drives – don’t want to compromise your warranty, or more importantly your data.  Vendors test the drives to ensure that they are compatible and work with their suppliers to work out issues with the drives by upgrading drive firmware, or in some cases disqualifying a drive all together.

3. Physical size of system

Single drive systems are the size of a textbook from college.  You remember textbooks, right?  The larger systems with multiple drives will take up the size of a breadbox.  I always wondered how big a breadbox was and the answer is, approximately 12 inches by 6 inches high and deep – a bit bigger than a large loaf of bread (According to Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breadbox).  The size of the system from a physical perspective does not take into account the airflow that these systems need to ensure they stay cool, so make sure you read the manual and place the system in a location where it gets the proper airflow.  I put my system in my home office closet next to my network printer where it has a good deal of airflow and central access to power and networking connections.  Many of the systems have an information panel on the front of the system that will show you the status of the system as well as used and available capacity.  One other important feature on many of the digital media systems is physical security and many include a standard Kensington style locking slot.

4. Look and Feel

Now, I am all for aesthetics and I want my system to look “cool” , but that is something that is very personal and I am going to leave to each of you to determine what you think “cool” is.
The vendors have designed the systems to look like they would fit into any home technology environment – some of them even look like books on a bookshelf, while others look like small versions of servers.  Most of systems have access lights to show drive access as well as management displays on the front of the main unit so you can see what is going on in real-time.

5. Environmentals (Airflow, thermals, sound, and more)

This is an important part of selecting a system and I was surprised when I purchased my first system to find that the fan in the system made so much noise that I had to place it out of the way behind a door to ensure that I would not hear the sound of the fan.  Further, the system got hot, we are talking hotter than I thought it should and it would burn my fingers if I left them on the system for too long, so I had to put some insulation under it to keep it from burning the shelf that it was on.  I read online that these were known issues with the system, and I should have done more research before buying the system.  My second system was not only quiet, because I checked, it ran cool, and it used 1/10^ththe amount of power that the first system used.  So, in upgrading I not only got a better system in every way, I got a system that delivered on the environmentals.  Finally, one feature that I really liked on the new system was that it automatically shut down the power based on a user selectable calendar for each day of the week and weekend day, meaning it turns off automatically and drops from full power utilization to only a trickle when it is powered off, only to restart early in the day and be ready for my usage when I need it.   Also, the current system that I am using has the ability to remotely monitor a connected UPS.  What does this mean?  If the power to the system is interrupted and the UPS kicks in the system will monitor the UPS and before it gets powered down inadvertently the system will shut itself down cleanly.  By cleanly shutting down the system you avoid having to clean the file system, and no, I am not talking about taking about a toothbrush and some cleaner and physically cleaning the system, I am talking about the RAID program replaying a log to ensure no data was lost when the power was interrupted and market the file system super-bit clean.  Did I use enough techno-babble in the last sentence for you?  If you want to know more about this process you can look it up on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journaling_file_system

6. Capacity and Expandability

Most of the systems on the market today start with a single 1 or 2TB hard disk drive and can easily be expanded by adding multiple hard disk drives.  Adding drives is a simple operation of removing a drive carrier and installing a new hard disk drive per the vendor’s instructions and installing the drive back into the system.  The system will automatically recognize the drive and stripe the data across it, or you may have to configure the system based on the performance and capacity options that you want to have for your specific environment.  Usually, drives need to be added one at a time and the process of getting to the maximum capacity may take time and some of the systems on the market will right-size the drive based on the capacity of the first drive installed, so if you install a 1TB drive and then want to add 2TB drives, the capacity of the 2TB drives will only be seen as 1TB.  To fix this one would need to backup all of your data and then start with all of the same capacity hard disk drives.  Other systems on the market will take whatever hard disk drive capacity you throw at it and build a RAID configuration delivering the maximum capacity to you.

7. Integration-Interconnection

Most of the systems on the market today offer both Wi-Fi and Wired connections.  While Wi-Fi offers a simple connection without wires it sacrifices performance for that simplicity.  We have all read the performance claims of 110Mb/s for 802.11n Wi-Fi networks, but realistically the theory and reality are quite separate.  To really deliver the performance there is no way around a physical wired connection.  Sorry, you are going to have to deal with the harsh reality that technology companies don’t always tell the truth and that streaming media will take every Mb/s that you can throw at it to ensure that you get an entertainment quality experience in your home.  Also, you need to think about how many people are going to be accessing the system at the same time.  In my house we have three “Power Users” that all access streaming media at the same time.  My oldest son will be streaming media from Netflix on his Wii while my youngest is looking at pictures on my home media storage device and I am streaming home movies to my Mac.  I checked the network and we were pumping some serious I/O to the tune of 80 Mb/s.  Now, I wouldn’t say that every user in the house needed to be streaming media, but the idea is that I want them to have that capability and utilize the media when and where they want to.

The Netgear ReadyNAS also supports connecting an external UPS and monitoring it for a change in the status of the power coming into the system and will gracefully shut the system down if the power fails.  I have not hooked a UPS up yet, but am planning to do so shortly.

8. Backup – what is all of this I hear about backup?

In the 70’s and 80’s the number one concern that I heard from my parents related to their media was that they were afraid that their physical, analog home movies and pictures would get burned up in a house fire, or lost.  Thankfully, it never happened, but they made copies and stored them at another family member’s house just in case.

Today, all of those physical memories have been replaced by digital files that live on spinning media that is going to crash at some point and you will need to have a backup to ensure that you can still access your digital memories.  What are your digital photos worth to you?  Your memories?  So, why don’t you back them up?  There are many answers to that question it is too complex, or simply too costly, or I never thought about it, to name a few.  With many of the digital media storage systems on the market today they offer the ability to automatically backup the system to a cloud based backup service on the Internet.  This service is available for a fee and you can access your files securely from any other system that can connect to the Internet.  The fee is modest, under $100 per year for the average user and the pricing is based on capacity.  The system can be configured to only backup certain files or directories (folders) so you only pay for what you think is important, for example children’s pictures.  A word of caution, if you have a lot data, say 1,024GB, a full TB be prepared for a rather lengthy upload process.  You can do a quick calculation to figure out how long your upload will take by measuring the speed of your upload and then dividing your total amount of data to be backed up by the upload speed.  In most cases you are probably looking at least a week to backup a TB of data.  On some of the systems available on the market there is a USB port on the back of the system that enables you to connect a USB hard drive and backup the system.  This is a simple and inexpensive way to backup the system, but it requires you to manually backup the system and will not protect your system should you have a fire or a virus.

9. Sharing your media

Many of the products on the market today enable you to share your media, specifically your pictures, through a publishing mechanism.   By sharing a published link with those that you want to see the media they can easily and securely access the media on the Internet.  My current media storage system lets me share my pictures on the web to my family members who live in other states.   While the capability sounds great, the implementation is less than what it should be.  Picture sharing sites offer a rich experience and enable those who view shared media to order pictures and access the media in a simple and visually rich environment.  The implementations of the current media storage systems seems a bit archaic in comparison to the current set of web based photo sharing sites and I think it is a case of trying to be all things to all people instead of focusing on what they are good at and leaving the photo sharing to the photo sharing experts by creating a digital upload service where photos are automatically uploaded to the photo sharing site by the media storage system.

10. Protocol Support

For every type of media and streaming there is a protocol that you need to support it.  For iTunes, the media server needs to be able to act like an iTunes Server so iTunes clients, such as Macs and PCs can see and share all of the stored digital media.  Most of the media servers on the market today leverage open source technology to deliver many of the major protocols on the market, including those listed below:

• Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA): enables a DLNA certified device to access media on a DLNA certified server.  For more information on this process please visit http://www.dlna.org/digital_living/how_it_works/
• Time Machine:  In every apple Max with Snow Leopard there is a built in backup solution that enables you to roll back and find files in a simple to use interface and digital media systems that support the Time Machine protocol can backup Mac clients remotely and automatically on the network.  For more information on Apple’s Time Machine please visit http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427
• iTunes Server:  Instead of having to have all of your music on every system in your house you can use a digital media storage system with an embedded iTunes Server to share your music with all of the systems in your home.
• Windows Media Server:  With an embedded Windows Media Server you can stream Windows Media Files and MP3 files to any connected system.
• CIFS (SMB):  Allows you to share files between Windows and Mac systems on the network.
• AFS:  Allows you to share files between Mac clients on the network
• NFS:  Allows you to share files between Linux and UNIX clients on the network.

NOTE:  Files shared between CIFS and NFS can be seen by both systems at the same time and may leverage Samba file sharing technologies and include a locking mechanism so file ownership is kept intact and keeps you from overwriting one another’s changes to the file.

• BitTorrent:  For file sharing over the Internet a BitTorrent client is standard equipment on many PC’s – with a BitTorrent client embedded in the digital media storage system so you can offload the task of getting files off the Internet from your PC.

11. Support & Warranty

When buying anything in the technology market it is important to check out the support and warranty offerings from the vendor.  I checked through the knowledge base of the vendors that I have purchased from and found them to be chuck full of good information.  I did have a hard drive fail in one of my units and I called the vendor and they processed a RMA and cross-shipped a new drive.  Many of the systems offer three year warranties today and that is a good option to have, but you need to check on the specifics of the warranty and find out what is covered in terms of parts and shipping charges.  Also, I played “dumb customer” and called their technical support center to find out what kind of help I can expect when I have an issue and all of the vendors that I called were very supportive and knowledgeable.  As you know, calling support is the luck of the draw based on who is on the other side of the phone line, sometimes it is a great person, other times it is a newbie who is green behind the ears.  You may also want to check on how frequently the vendor updates their product’s firmware (OS platform) and how their product quality has been received by trolling through their knowledge base.  Most of the products on the market will support an auto-upgrade feature by downloading the latest revisions and installing them directly from the vendor’s website.  This is a good feature and keeps you from making a costly mistake by downloading firmware and then not upgrading the system correctly.

12. Hackability

For “Power-Users” that may read this and wonder if they can hack their systems and improve the performance, change a parameter, or add a new protocol?  The answer is most likely “Yes!”  Communities have sprung up around these media servers and offer the know-how and instructions to hack the systems, but be aware that doing so may void the warranty, or require you to reset the system to get support in case of an issue, which means that you may lose your data when you perform a system reset.  Again, read the directions on the system to know what you can and cannot do before you buy the system.

13. Simplicity-Complexity

All of the systems that I have used are relatively straightforward to setup and manage requiring a minimal amount of tech savvy.  When installed all of the ones that I have used automatically register with the DHCP Server and get an IP address.  From there, you configure the system on a management console that is usually web based.  In the case of my current system there is an application that when launched will find the media storage system and allow you to manage it securely.  All of the systems that I have used allow you to set an administrator userid and password to ensure that only you have access to manage the system.

Other Considerations: A word about copyrights; for those of you that copy music or videos that is the property of others please be aware that you are breaking the law and while I cannot condone your actions, you need to understand that your media is also property, your property, and should only be used by those that you want to have access to it or have copies of it.

So, What Were My Requirements and What Solution Did I Select?

NetGear ReadyNAS NV+ with four drives.

http://www.netgear.com/readynasvault

Other systems that I evaluated included the following:

• Buffalo Terastation
• Drobo – I could not purchase the Drobo due to budget concerns and the Drobo required an external box to connect to the network.  The initial design point for the Drobo was a better USB Storage System for Mac users doing animation and digital video.
  
• Iomega StorCenter – The Iomega seemed a bit clunky and inefficient, but did provide the best performance based on comments on the Internet.
  
• HP MediaSmart Server – This system is based on Windows Server – Home Edition and has a good deal of performance, but I wanted an open source solution so I could hack it.
  

Who is going to, and how are they going to use the system?

In my environment I have myself, a power-user who will stream media of all types, my oldest son who is getting into web development, and my youngest son who is mostly interested in streaming music.  Also, I have my parents and friends that want to see pictures of my family and significant events.    We needed a system that has multiple hard disk drives to support higher performance and delivery of media on the network and Gigabit Ethernet is a must have.  For streaming media alone we needed at least two drives to generate the performance that was required and having four drives gives me a bit of headroom when I go to a higher resolution video – not that I am going to be distributing 1080P video anytime soon – just too costly in terms of capacity and bandwidth at the moment.

Price

In 2009, when I decided to purchase a Digital Media Storage Server I had a budget of $500 for the system with all of the drives and I wanted about 4TBs of overall storage for my current and future digital media storage requirements.  This budget was based on buying a second hand system on eBay or Craiglist. If I was looking to buy a new system I would need to raise my budget a bit too around $750.  I have seen new systems that fit my needs on eBay for less that $500 and I bought my system on Craigslist with 2x500GB drives for $200.  That left me $300 to buy drives and I replaced the two 500GB drives that came with the system with 1TB drives and still have some change left over.  I bought the 1TB drives at TigerDirect, after checking the vendor’s website for supported drives.  The drives cost me $59 each and I needed four (4) of them.  So, I spent about $240 for the drives and had about $60 left, which I quickly spent to upgrade the system memory to 512MB, from the standard 128MB which resulted in an increase in performance of ~20%.  Today, you can buy 2TB drives for $69 each and double your capacity, provided they are supported in your system, which my system supports.

Physical Size of the System

This is an area where I am constrained as I needed to put the system in a closet in my office next to my laser printer.   So, the size is critically important to me as is accessibility to the hard disk drives and other parts of the system.

Look and Feel

This is an area where, admittedly, I have less of a concern as the system is going to be in the closet, but the Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ is a winner in my book as it has an industrial chrome-silver look that fits in well in my clost.  The current revision of the ReadyNas product has followed the pendulum swing back to black.  Thru the years I have found that the market moves from a gloss black outer to a more industrial look depending on what is hot in the Home Theatre market and today black is back.   The ReadyNAS has a great LCD display and four disk access lights on the front of the system that make understanding the status of the system as simple as looking at it.    The disk status lights also help identify failed drives, should a drive fail.  I would highly recommend looking at systems that show you the status of the drives and location so you don’t remove a good drive by accident and lose your entire data set.

Environmentals

I had owned a Western Digital MyBook World – 1TB NAS in the past and the single fan on the system was so loud that I had to keep the door closed on the closet that contained the system and I could still hear it.  I put some foam insulation around the WD product to help quiet it and it was still loud.  Several websites suggested replacing the main fan to quiet it down.  Instead, I sold the WD system and bought the ReadNAS NV+ which is very quiet.  With the door open I can barely hear the fans or the drives spinning.

The ReadyNAS NV+ also supports the automatic power down – power savings feature.  The system starts at 6:00am and shutdowns at 11:00pm every day.  Below is a picture of the web management tool that is supplied with the system showing the configuration screen for the automatic power down feature.

ReadyNAS Management Console – showing the Power Time for Automated Shutdown and Startup

Capacity and Expandability

I needed ~3TBs of storage for my needs today and for the next few years.  I should give you some background on my media needs.  I have about 25,000 songs, each ~1MB in size, a few hundred home videos consume between 100MB-1GB each.  Additionally, I create backups each few months of my personal and work data that comes ~80GBs for each backup.  So, today, I am consuming 1.3TBs of storage and expect to consume 750GB per year of capacity.  So, with four 1TB drives, I have ~3.4TBs of usable capacity of the system.  The 600GBs of capacity is used for RAID overhead and protects me in case a drive fails, which has happened in the past and I was protected and did not lose any data and when I installed a new drive the system immediately recovered and rebuilt the data from the bad drive. The ReadyNAS system uses a Netgear version of RAID called X-RAID that creates a balance between reliability and capacity which also supports automatic expansion of the system as one adds additional drives.  X-RAID is Netgear’s proprietary “patent-pending”  solution where the “X” stands for “eXpandable” as most traditional RAID environments can only extended by relaying out the data (restriping) requiring one to delete all of the data, while the X-RAID system automatically extends the volume when a new drive is added and restripes the data to take advantage of the additional capacity.  For more information on X-RAID please visit http://www.readynas.com/?cat=54

Integration-Interconnection

The ReadyNAS NV+ is well integrated into my environment as I needed to support streaming media to a variety of platforms including:

• Apple TV with Boxee
• LG LHB-975 supporting DLNA
• Apple Mac
• Windows PCs
• iTunes

Backup – what is all of this I hear about backup?

I use the ReadyNAS NV+ as a backup target for my system and I have yet to do a full backup of the ReadyNAS, other than my main files, which I backup to another USB Hard Disk Drive, so in theory, I am protected in case I lose one set by two backups.  Netgear offers a ReadyNAS Vault Cloud Based Backup Service, but, in my opinion, the pricing is off a bit from where I expect it to be, so I am not using a cloud based service.  Also, I would like to see Netgear, or the Netgear community, which I will discuss later, offer integration with other 3^rdparty cloud based backup services like Mozy, so I can affordably backup my data to a cloud based service.  This would need to be an unlimited capacity option for me as I have a lot of data and I put value on all of it, plus I really don’t want to go through all of my data and categorize what needs to be backed up and what does not need to be, much easier to backup my entire data set.   I expect to see the major cloud based backup services offer this kind of service and integration in the near future as the home market moves from dedicated PC’s to these shared digital media devices.  One solution is leaving a computer on and using it as a shim to move the data from my ReadyNAS to the online backup service, but this could prove to be problematic as the ReadyNAS will automatically power down in the middle of the backup operation and would need to be restarted the next day, over and over again.  With a 500Kb/s upload speed I am looking at a couple of weeks to completely backup my digitial media library.  All of a sudden the upload speed is critically important and the Internet Providers caring for download speeds becomes an out of focus discussion – I need a 10Mb/s asymmetrical Internet connection at the same price I am paying now for my 9Mb/s download with 500Kb/s upload speed.  This would cut down my upload by a factor of 20X – significant.  Integration would put the control of the entire operation in my hands and support the automated power-down and power-up and remember where the job left off so it can restart without having to do so from the beginning of the data set.

I thought of buying a 2TB hard drive in an enclosure for $100+ and use it as a backup target as the ReadyNAS has a one touch backup that works with USB hard disk drives and will backup the entire system to the USB connected drive.  A nice option, but doesn’t really work when you get over 2TB of stored media/data on the system.

Also, the system included backup software for your PC’s and Mac’s on the network that simply backups your data on a schedule to the ReadyNAS system.  I tried the software for a few months and then realized that I didn’t need it as I was backing up the same directory on my PC once a month and could manually handle the task with a quick automation setup in Windows.    For my Mac’s on the network I have Time Machine setup to automatically save their data to the Time Machine on the ReadyNAS – and it is super simple to setup  and I was able to re-purpose my USB Hard Disk Drive for temp space while I edit digital video.  For instructions on setting up Mac Time Machine with a ReadyNAS check out http://www.readynas.com/?p=253

Support & Warranty

The ReadyNAS system that I purchased had a three year warranty and the latest systems from Netgear and others come with a five year warranty.  I used the warranty once and found the support team at Netgear to be very knowledgeable and fixed my problem on the first call.  Also, the Netgear online knowledge base is very good and well categorized.  I was able to resolve several of my questions without having to call Netgear using their online knowledge base.

I would not say the same for the WD MyBook World that I purchased before the Netgear – their support site was very poorly categorized and their search engine was ineffective.  When I had a drive fail in my WD product it took over a week to get a replacement and the instructions for replacement were very poor.  Thankfully, the owners of the WD MyBook World came to the rescue as they had posted copious amounts of information on the procedure and what pitfalls to avoid when attempting the operation at home – as a note, some operations that you may want to do void the warranty, so check out what you are doing before you void your warranty.  Also, understands your level of technical expertise and don’t go in over your head as you can irrevocably destroy your data.  An example of an operation that I was concerned with was when I upgraded the firmware (Operating System) for the ReadyNas from a 3.x to a 4.x revision and the main password changed and I needed to reset it to get into the system.  The operation requires rebooting the system and holding the Power button down until one of the LED flashes and the Power button is released and the system re-installs the firmware thereby resetting the password and your data is kept.  If the LED flashes twice your data is deleted and the system is reset back to the way it came from the factory – suffice it to say that I was very patient when performing this operation as I did not want to reload 1.5TBs of data from my backup on a USB Drive.  The operation went smoothly and I was able to

Hackability

The Netgear ReadyNAS has an online community of users that support each other and share knowledge as well as a group of developers whom have built 3^rdparty applications that seamlessly integrate with the ReadyNAS platform.  This one of the main  reasons that I selected the Netgear ReadyNAS product.  The ReadyNAS Community is at http://www.readynas.com/and there are applications to manage and augment the ReadyNAS product, including iPhone Apps, Picture Sharing Apps, Management Apps, and much more – some 300 Apps in total.  Some of the Apps are from Netgear while the majority come from developers in the community.  One of the more interesting Apps available for the ReadyNAS is a TIVO App that enables you to store your TIVO recordings directly to your ReadyNAS, thereby saving precious space on your TIVO.  Check it out at http://www.readynas.com/?p=4324

Simplicity-Complexity

Setup and configuration of the ReadyNAS was another reason that I selected the product for my environment – it was a simple as plugging it into Power and the Ethernet and it automatically acquired an address from my DHCP Server and I ran the RADAR application on my Mac and it found the ReadyNAS and I was able to access it, setup my network shares for my PC’s and my Mac and I was off to the races;  adding digital media and accessing it from my media streamers and on my wireless network.

The web management utility that comes with the ReadyNAS is supported on all of the major Internet Browsers on the PC, Mac, and Linux, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Safari, which makes it perfect for mixed environments.

There are some setup options, which you need to read the manual for, but once the system is setup it is very simple to manage the system.  Also, the system automatically checks for upgrades and will download them and install them bringing your system to a current version – a nice feature for those that like to stay current – I must admit that I am more of a get it working and stable and leave it alone kind of guy – as long as it is doing what I expect it to do why change it, or as the old adage goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”

Filed in categories: Articles, Audio, Video, TV Gear, Desktop Computer Gear, Home Tech

Tagged: Entertainment, media, MP3, NAS, Storage, Utility

13 Things to Consider Before Buying a Digital Media Storage System originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 16, 2011 at 11:00 am.

Is there any tech company not making a media player?  This will be the fourth product of this type that I’ve reviewed for The Gadgeteer.  The main differentiating property of the devices, besides the price, seems to be the number of file types and codecs supported.  The MPLAY-HD has all the types I need and then some.

This unit is a stand-a-lone media player (no net access), so streaming isn’t an option.

Specs:

File types

- Video Files: MKV, AVI, MP4, MOV, XVID, TS, M2TS, RM, RMVB, DAT, MPG, MPEG, VOB
- Video Codecs: H.264/AVC BP/MP/HiP L4.1,MPEG1/2/4, DivX/Xvid, Real Video
- Audio Files: MP3, WMA, WAV, RM, OGG, AAC, M4A, FLAC, APE
- Audio Codecs: MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG, AAC, FLAC, APE, PCM, DTS, AC3, RA, AMR
- Photo Files: JPG, BMP, PNG, GIF, TIFF
- Subtitle: SUB, ASS, SRT, SSA, SMI, IDX+SUB
- Other: DVD VIDEO_TS with menu

Compatibility

- Video: HDMI 1.3, YPbPr/Component, CVBS/Composite
- Resolution: NTSC, PAL, 480i/p, 576i/p, 720p, 1080i/p
- Audio: SPDIF coaxial and optical, analog stereo
- Storage Interface: Dual USB 2.0 Host ports, SD/SDHC/MS flash memory card reader
- File System: FAT32, NTFS

Here’s what’s in the box:

- Micca MPLAY-HD
- IR Remote
- AV and Component cables
- 100-240V AC adapter

My first impression of the player was positive.  I especially like the coating on the housing which gives it a rubbery non slip feel.

The front panel is clean and the box sits unobtrusively near the TV.

On the back you’ll find most of the connectors.  There is a card slot on the right side.  You will have to provide your own HDMI cable though.  This isn’t a show stopper because I get mine for 99¢ online.  If you don’t want to spend the money, the component cables are more than adequate.

The remote is a small full unit.  Just don’t lose it.

Installation was a snap. Plug the MPLAYER into the TV using the supplied cables or your HDMI cable. Connect the power and turn the on/off switch on the back of the unit. Connect your media storage to either the usb connectors and/or the card reader.  Assuming you have the TV set to the correct input , you’ll get the Home screen above. All functions are activated using the included remote.

At the top right of the screen you will notice 3 small icons. They indicate which devices are plugged into the MPLAYER. The device depicted by a folder icon had me confused for a while. It’s not listed in the user manual and when I selected it, I received a no file found message. After about a week of playing around with the unit, I discovered that this indicates internal memory in the unit. It appears there is about 100MB available which allows one to copy from the other inputs. I don’t know if this is an unsupported feature, because it’s not referenced in the manual or the manufacturer’s web site. The middle icon depicts the 2 usb ports and the last one is for the memory card slot. These will be highlighted if a device is available on the ports.

In the center of the Home screen are icons which filter the media types on the storage devices. These filters can be changed by scrolling using the remote. From left to right they are; Movies, Photos, Music, Text, Flash Videos, and not visible in the photo, Files and Settings. They are mostly self-explanatory. When one of them is highlighted, only those types of files supported by the MPLAYER will be recognized and displayed.

Here’s an example displaying the contents of a portable hard drive connected to the MPLAYER using the Movies filter. Using the remote to select the folder or file will either begin playing the media or if a folder will drill down to the next level.

Once the media is playing, it can be controlled by the remote, or an on-screen bar can be activated using the display button on the remote. It has all the playback functions one would find on a DVD player. Depending upon the media type, background music can be added, sub-titles can be displayed and the image can be adjusted to fit the screen. I particularly liked this last feature because I can fit the image to the different types of TVs I have around the house.

The text file display utility is somewhat unique. I can’t see much use for it, but it does display .txt encoded data.

With the exception of copy protected media, I was able to play a selection of file types using different outputs to both a 720p and 1080p TV. However, comparing this unit to the other 3 I have reviewed does confirm 2 issues apparently inherent in these devices.

The first I define as sluggishness. Selecting an application with the remote takes patience. I found myself stabbing a button several times thinking I didn’t poke it, only to find out my inputs were buffered and when they were actuated I wound up several steps beyond where I wanted to be. I guess this delay it because of the disk access time through the usb ports. Now that I am aware of it, I expect it.

Secondly, the remote on this and other units appears to be extremely directional. Unless I’m pointing it within 20 deg of center, it doesn’t work. Again, I can deal with it now that I know. By the way, this device, as others, is dependent upon the remote. Lose it and you’re out of business. Aside from the power button on the box, there are no function buttons.

In the end, I like the MPLAYER. For less than the price of a DVD player, you have a unit that can play your backed up DVDs , music and photos. I no longer own a DVD player and use media players exclusively. The MPLAYER has been recruited for duty as the grandkids movie player. Because of its intuitive GUI and ease of use, it’s perfect for the younger set.

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

Tagged: Entertainment, HD, Media player

micca MPLAY HD Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 5, 2010 at 1:00 pm.

mSpot Movies lets you download and watch movies on your computer or on certain phones from the following carriers:  AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and T-Mobile.  You can watch movie trailers for free, rent a single movie for as little as $2.99, or get up to four movies for $9.99 if you join the Movie Club.  Not all movies are available in the Club offerings.  You can check to see if your phone is supported by watching one of their free movie trailers – if it plays, the phone is supported.  They also recommend that you change your phone data plan to unlimited before watching trailers or movies.  Check the FAQs for more information about roaming, etc.

Filed in categories: News

Tagged: Entertainment, Mobile movie service, Spotlight Gadgets

Watch Movies Anywhere with mSpot Movies originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 1, 2010 at 2:00 pm.

It seems like there’s a new media center/player introduced every week, so there must be some interest out there.  I had the opportunity to try out the Cirago CMC2000 TV Platinum unit, one of the latest offerings from this Company.  If you want to record video, stream music and photos or listen to Internet radio, this could be your unit.  We’ll give it a test drive and try to find the pluses and minuses.

Before we begin there are two things you should know;  this is NOT a DVR and there is a steep learning curve associated with the product.  Also, you may wish to reference John’s review of the CMC1000, a similar product in the same line.

Features:

• One button and scheduled recording in MPG format, from cable/satellite boxes through the AV input.  Time shifting function (pause)
• Video Playback supporting VOB, IFO, MPG 1/2, AVI MPG-4, DAT and Mpeg-2 TS: up to 1080i
• Music playback of mp3, OGG and unprotected WMA
• Photo supports JPEG and BMP
• Card reader support of SD/MMC/MS/MS pro
• Works as portable hard disk using USB 2.0
• Network via ethernet & Wlan streaming playback and NAS.
• Internet radio
• Built-in HDMI interface
• Either 500MB or 1TB hard drive (mine came with 500MB)
• S/PDIF Output
• Ethernet lan port or optional wireless USB adapter.

Upon opening the package my first impressions were very positive.  To begin with the device is solidly built.  It felt like it could take some abuse, which probably isn’t an issue in most households, but when you have twin 1 1/2-year-old grandsons running around, bullet proof is an asset.  Secondly, it comes with all the cables you’ll probably need.  Included are A/V, composite, HDMI and a USB cable.

The front panel of the device is aesthetically pleasing having only a power switch and slot for the memory cards.  This does however, point out a shortcoming.  The USB ports are on the back, making it cumbersome to insert devices.  I suppose it’s a trade-off between looks and functionality.  I’ll let you be the judge.  I found a couple of USB extension cables and used them to route the USB ports around the side of the unit.

With the exception of the memory card reader, all connections are on the back.  The mini USB connector is used when the device is accessed as an external USB drive.  The 2 USB host ports are used for external devices and the optional wireless dongle.  I didn’t check out the optical output because I don’t have anything that uses optical yet.

It’s important to understand how the hard drive in the CMC2000 is configured.  The above window is taken from my laptop which has accessed the unit from the USB device port.  Disk 1 is the CMC2000 drive as seen by the laptop and in this case shows drives E: and F:   Both of these drives are accessible from the laptop or via NAS.  The additional disk space is used by the CMC2000 to store recorded video from the AV port and is not accessible except by the CMC2000 during playback.  In order to use the recorded video on a PC or MAC, it has to be copied, via a menu function, to the Fat32 section of the disk.

As I said, this is not a DVR, because there is no tuner in the unit.  Because I don’t have a cable or satellite box at this house, I went into the archives and came up with a VCR, which has a built-in tuner.  I thought this would be great because now I had the opportunity to back up some of my ancient VHS tapes that were starting to deteriorate.  I plugged the AV out from the VCR to the CMC2000 and hooked the unit to the TV via HDMI.  And lastly, I attached an Ethernet cable from the device to my LAN.  The user interface won’t win any design awards.

I found my 1995 VHS edition of the Stars Wars Trilogy and fired it up in the VCR, pressed record on the CMC2000 and………COPY PROTECTED!  What the.. Apparently the CMC2000 has logic precluding the copying of purchased video.  To see if this was the case with DVDs also, I borrowed a player and attempted the same thing with a legally purchased DVD and again… COPY PROTECTED.

OK, so you can’t copy commercial videos, but it will copy videos you’ve recorded.  I gathered several tapes I had from my camera recording days, and easily transferred them to the hard drive.  The process involves selecting video in and initating playback on the VCR.  When playback begins, hit record on the CMC2000 remote.  Now you can turn off the TV or switch to a different input and watch something else.  To insure I don’t record a bunch of dead time, I use the OTR feature and press the record button several times incrementing the amount of time record will go on in 30 minute segments.

Using the VCR I recorded live TV.  The process is the same for recording from a tape, but in this case select a channel on the VCR and record continuously or set the number of minutes.  Remember, the CMC2000 will only record what is coming through the AV port, so if you change the channel on the VCR while recording the recorded material will change.

You can also setup to record at different times and days.  The CMC2000 will switch on at the correct time and date, but has no control over the input.  So, in my case, I have to ensure that the VCR is on and set to the channel I wish to record.  I believe cable/satellite boxes do have a timer function, so this would not be a problem.

After your video is recorded, there are several options for editing the file.  You’ll notice the Copy to FAT32 partition function I mentioned before.

The browse selection on the main menu enables searching through the internal hard drive, 2 USB attached devices, a memory card plugged into the front slot or via the lan to one of your attached computers.  When accessing a PC via the LAN, I played videos, photos and music located on it.  I did have some minor problems connecting though, but experimenting with passwords and firewalls allowed me in to all 3 systems.

The Internet radio feature of the device is probably the least useful.  Finding stations was a pain and the descriptions were useless.

The CMC2000 can be accessed as a USB drive and shows up as two devices, in the above case E: and F:.  This provides a fast and easy way to transfer multimedia content to the media center or use the device as external storage.

New to the CMC2000 is the NAS function.  Out of the box this feature is not available.  You are advised to download a utility at Cirago’s web site, but they failed to tell you the file name or where to find it.  I sent an email asking for help and after several days with no response,  I stumbled upon an .rar file, on their web site, that looked promising.  Not having an .rar decompressing utility, I had to find that.  Inside the file was a SYS folder which I put in the root of the HDD1 CMC2000 partition.  It seemed to do the trick.  I have noticed that recently Cirago has listed downloads under the CMC2000 product information and there is now a .zip file with the SYS folder.  Perhaps they read my email after all

After several weeks of using the CMC2000 I am both frustrated and amazed.  Frustrated because the documentation is sparse and the printed book that came with the device is unreadable.  The screen shots are for people with better eyes than me.  I suggest you give the printed manual a toss, and download the PDF from their web site.  It is more readable.  Plus there’s one issue that’s driving me nuts.  Apparently there is a conflict between my Visio TV remote and the CMC2000.  Toggling some buttons on the TV remote turns off the CMC2000.

I am amazed by what this device can do.  From the video recording and editing capabilities to the multiple ways of accessing the device.  I admit, it appeals to my inner geek and may not be suitable for everyone.  However, for about $173 you get a 500MB external USB hard drive that can record and edit video, plus it’s a network streaming device and acts as a NAS sever on the LAN.  The CMC2000 is the Swiss Army Knife of Media Centers.

Filed in categories: Reviews, Video Reviews

Tagged: A/V, Entertainment

Cirago TV Platinum CMC2000 Network Multimedia Center Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 11, 2010 at 11:15 am.

With all the entries on the media player market, a device has to distinguish itself to rise above the pack.  Seagate’s FreeAgent Theater does what the others do and then some.  If you’ve found shortcomings with other devices, this might be your choice.  I’ll take it through its paces and point out what I believe to be the advantages.

I was somewhat apprehensive about reviewing another media player after a previous review which colored my impression of these devices.  I was still looking for a solution to my requirement for getting media from my PC to the TV.  I have been using Windows Media Center with an extender, but with the end of most extenders, I needed a backup option.

Features:

• Dual Docking system limiting cable and connections
• Automatically syncs with PC content
• 1080i HD playback
• Digital 5.1 surround support
• Direct connect to some digital cameras, plus various usb drives

Specifications:

• Video Formats: MPEG-1, Mpeg-2 (AVI/VOB/ISO), Mpeg-4(AVI/Divx/Xvid
• Subtitles: SAM(smi), SRT and SUB
• Video Resolutions: NTSC 480i/480p; PAL 567i/576p, upscaling and HD up to 720p/1080i
• Audio: MP3, AC3(5.1 audio – Dolby Digital), WMA, WAV, OGG
• Photo: JPEG file up to 20 megapixels
• Supported file systems: NTFS, FAT32, FAT
• Video Output: Composite, S-video, Component
• Audio Output: stereo, coaxial S/PDIF

The most interesting spec to me was the ability to play VOB files.  I hoped that meant I could play a ripped DVD without having to run it through a converter.

In the box you’ll find:

• FreeAgent Media Player
• FreeAgent Go PC Dock with USB  cable
• Remote Control
• A/V cable
• Power Supply
• Software for the PC
• Set-up Guide

Set-up was a simple matter of connecting the player to my TV, however, I used a set of component cables I had, instead of the supplied composite cables.

The USB disk drive slides into the player, making for a very clean look.  Here it’s slid in part way to show how it is inserted.  The player and the drive are of very high quality and survived my flex test.  The player is enclosed in shiny plastic, which unfortunately is a finger print magnet.  A very big positive in my view is the fact that the player includes onboard controls that allow the unit to be operated without the remote.  So now when I lose the credit card sized remote, the unit won’t become a paper weight.

The next step is to hook up the PC dock to the computer via 2 USB connectors.  Regrettably this used my last 2 USB slots, but since I don’t leave the drive attached all the time, I just have to swap cables.

At this point I could have been finished, because to get files to the drive, it’s just a matter of drag and drop into a folder you create.  From experience I’ve found it a good idea to have some sort of naming system for the folders, so you can find files.

If you wish, you can install the synchronizing software.  This will either automatically or manually update a selected portable drive with contents from the PC.  The folders that are scanned for updates are selected via the application from the settings menu.

If you opt for the defaults the standard Windows media folders are scanned and created on the selected drive.  I have been using the software and do find it marginally useful especially when I can’t remember if I’ve recorded a TV show or an Internet stream.  By scanning the folder where these are saved, it will copy new files to the portable drive.  One thing to note, Seagate states that the application synchronizes the files between the PC and drive, however, I’ve found that if I delete a file on the PC, during the next “sync” the file is still on the portable drive.  The only way to remove it is to access the portable drive via windows explorer and delete the file.  Be aware that if you do accept the defaults for scanning, it will copy all your media in the those folders.  This could take some time the first time it’s done.

After loading up the drive with some media, I pulled it out if the dock (Seagate recommends that you safely remove the drive) and headed down to the main TV in the living room.

I slid the drive into the player, fired it up and switched the TV to component video.  The main screen comes up almost immediately, but it took about 30 seconds before the FreeAgent GO selection was highlighted.  At first I thought there was a problem, but after checking the FAQs, I found this was acceptable behavior.   You’ll notice there is a selection for external storage.  The player will accept a USB drive that’s formatted to the player’s specifications, so you’re not stuck with only using Seagate FreeAgent Go drives.  I did plug in several different disk and thumb drives and it worked fine, but I preferred to use the Seagate drive because it was a much cleaner look.

Selecting the FreeAgent drive then steps you through the folder hierarchy.

Although my root folder is further divided into sub-folders to make it easier to find things, you could put all your media into one folder and then filter it by using the selection filters on the top of the page.

With the exception of DRM protected files, all my music played fine and with Mp3s, it displays the ID3 tags.  It even played ASF streams I had saved.  You have all the standard controls such as repeat, shuffle, etc.

When in the folder that has the pictures, highlighting the file will display a preview.  This can then be made full screen by selecting it.  There are options to allow you to run a slide show, with a music in the background.  The photos can be zoomed and reoriented and there are several different transitions available.

If your digital camera has a USB connector and is recognized as a drive on a PC, you can plug it into the front panel USB connector on the FreeAgent Theater, and it will display the photos.  Unfortunately I couldn’t test this feature because my Cannon SD400 is not compatible.

If there are many photos in the folder, you can ask for a thumbnail display and select your shot from those displayed.

The music and picture features are standard stuff and not very exciting.  I have the ability to stream music several different ways and there are many ways to get photos displayed on a TV.  What intrigued me about the FreeAgent Theater was its ability to play its portfolio of video files.

I scoured up several different type of video files including mpg, avi, Divx and they all played flawlessly.  I doesn’t play Window Media Center DVR-MS files, but I haven’t found many devices that do.  When the file is highlighted it runs a small screen preview with sound.  Double clicking the selection enlarges it to full screen.  Controls available are up 32x fast forward/rewind and zoom, start, stop and pause.  What is missing is the ability to bookmark a program to come back to later.

All is not lost though, because you can search to a time in the program.  This works well as long as you remember where you left off.  I’ve taken to having a notepad near the TV.

One of the shortcomings of these media players is they are not able to play archived DVDs.  The instructions for the FreeAgent Theater said that if I pressed the select or play button on the remote when selecting a folder that contained an ifo file for a ripped DVD, it would play.  I did it and it worked!

The resultant video operates exactly the same as the DVD except that to my tired old eyes it seemed of higher quality.  This may be because the device does up-scaling up to 1080i and even though my TV has a max resolution of 720p, the difference was notable.  I was unable to verify that the sound was 5.1 Dolby as specified because my ancient home theater doesn’t have a coax S/PDIF input.

I’ve been using the FreeAgent Theater on a daily basis and am very impressed with the quality of the device and especially the quality of the video images.  I did find the remote to be annoyingly directional, but was able overcome that issue by using my Harmony remote which already contained a template for the FreeAgent Theater in its database.  Like one commenter said in response to another review, “this is a keeper”.

Filed in categories: Audio, Video, TV Gear

Tagged: Entertainment, Video

Seagate FreeAgent Theater Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 27, 2009 at 3:54 pm.

I recently moved to a new home that is in a communications dead zone.  There’s no cell access, OTA TV and most troublesome, I cannot receive antenna born FM radio.  Thankfully, VTECH, the cordless phone people have introduced the IS9181 Wi-Fi Internet Radio which gives me a choice of over 11,000 Internet radio stations, plus the ability to stream my PC music files to most of my property.

Features

• Stream music across the 802.11 b/g WiFi network. Broadband Internet service and a home WiFi network router are required
• Listen to Internet radio from the available 11,000 stations with no monthly fee
• Access Internet radio stations from our user-friendly online site or on the device itself
• Play music from any audio device (i.e. CD player, MP3 player, etc)
• Connect to any stereo system or powered speakers to access streaming Internet radio or music files stored on a PC or Mac
• Built-in FM radio tuner for local FM broadcast service. Preset your favorite stations
• Hi-Fidelity built-in 3W tuned stereo speakers and a 10W sub-woofer with class D amplifier for each speaker that can fill any room with dynamic sound
• Digital alarm clock radio-wake up to your favorite Internet or FM radio station or the internal buzzer.
• Automatic clock set and adjustment via the Internet.
• Battery-operated option allows you to take the device outside the home or office.
• Convenient remote-browse, select and control your music from across the room using the remote control
• Access local weather and 5-day forecast

Included in the box are:

• IS9181 radio
• User’s manual
• Quick start guide
• Power Adapter
• Remote control
• Auxiliary audio cable ( to connect Ipod/MP3 player)

When the radio arrived I immediately set it up using the quick start guide.  I was impressed with simplicity of installation.  It’s a matter of plugging the unit in and pressing the standby button.  From there the display will guide you through the screens to set up the wireless connection, the clock and weather settings.

To connect to your wireless network, you will have to know your SSID and password for any encryption you may be using.  It will automatically search for available networks or you can enter the SSID manually.   Next, you’ll want to set the clock, which can be done manually or it can be set via the Internet.  I chose the latter because if you’re running on batteries you will lose your time setting if the clock is set manually.  Lastly, you set your zip code to get the 5 day weather forecasts for your area.  That’s all there’s to it.

After initial setup, you can make changes to the settings from the main menu.  This is also where you setup the alarm and store your favorites.

The radio can be operated using the controls on top of the unit or via the included remote.  I found the controls to be intuitive and easy to operate.  The remote has all the features of the on-board controls, except that the rotary dial is replace by up/down arrow keys.

To select from the included list of Internet radio stations, you press the source button and get the above screen.  From here you can select the different sources and drill down through the menus using the select button.

The station list seems unlimited, but if you can’t find something, you can subscribe to a free account at Vtech and search the Internet for other radio stations.  These will be loaded down to your radio and are found under the My Stations folder.

Because the station listing is so large, you have the option of saving your stations to a favorites folders for faster access in the future.  There is a separate favorites folder for both Internet and over the air FM stations.  You must be in the selected mode to access the correct one.

If you can’t find enough to satisfy you on the Internet, the IS9181 can connect to your local network and play music files from your PCs or Macs.  This takes a little more effort to setup and it’s not as sophisticated as some streaming devices.  You’ll need to create a user account and password on your computer and may have to play with firewall settings.  However, I found that if I turned off my firewall while the IS9181 initially accessed the PC, it would see all my shared drives.  I then turned the firewall back on.

When the source is My Music to play computer files, you are limited to MP3, WMA, RA, RM, RMVB and ACC files that are NOT copy protected.  The only problem I had with this, is if there is a copy protected file in the folder you have selected to play, the IS9181 stops with a display annoncing the error.  You must reply by selecting OK before play will resume.  Also, files will play within a folder, but nested folders will not be selected.

To eliminate issues, I created a folder to play tracks I want to hear (like a playlist), minus any protected or non-conforming file types.

As mentoned, the IS9181 is also an FM radio, but because of where I live, I didn’t get much opportunity to check that feature out.  I was able to pull in the local NPR station and it seemed OK.

You can plug your MP3 player into the unit using the supplied cable.  This worked fine for me, but I rarely use the feature.  There are RCA jacks that allow you to hook the radio to a more substantial sound system.

The system can be run using 6 AA batteries, which makes it truly portable.  I find myself carrying the unit around the house to listen to PODcasts I have recorded, while working in the basement.  My wife and I listen to music in the kitchen family area and at night we plug it in by our dresser and use the alarm function to wake in the morning to internet radio.  The major down side to using battery power, is that the alarm function is disabled at that time.

The weather function displays 5 days of forecasts from weather.com.  It’s a nice feature to have, but isn’t what makes me like this radio.  What I appeciate is the ability to receive radio in my locally deprived area.  I realize that I could do the same thing using a PC and a service like Slacker or Radiotime, but I don’t want to be tethered to a computer all the time.  And while I’m far from being an audiophile, I find the sound from the IS9181 to be just as good as some much higher priced units I’ve listened to.  Lastly, it’s a good looking unit that blends in with the decor in my home.

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

Tagged: Entertainment, Internet Radio, Streaming

Vtech IS9181 Wi-Fi Internet Radio Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 14, 2009 at 8:11 am.

Do you have .99 cents jingling in one pocket, and an iPhone in the other? Do you also have a wacky sense of humor? Then you might want to check out the Singing Snowman and Singing Cat iPhone apps from Gigabyte Solutions. There’s nothing serious about these applications my friends, they are strictly fun little programs that will make you smile for a few minutes. Both apps do the same thing, they ‘sing’ along to music or mimic voices.

There is a snowman, a cat, a dog, a monkey and an orangutan character that you can choose from. I tried the snowman and the cat.

The snowman is very cute and looks almost 3D. It displays in landscape mode, so you have to turn your iPhone sideways to use this app.

The cat stays in portrait mode. The only options available for both characters is to disable sleep mode on the phone.

Both character’s mouths and eyes move to music or voices. I couldn’t get a snapshot of the cat’s mouth when open, but it’s kinda creepy because it looks like it has human teeth instead of fangy cat teeth

Here’s a short demo video that I made with the snowman singing an appropriate song playing through iTunes on my iMac…

One thing to be aware of is that you can’t play music on the iPhone and have the character sing along to it. That’s a somewhat unfortunate limitation of the program. So, you have to play music through another device and place your iPhone near it. The apps would be infinitely better if more than the eyes and mouth moved, but as is, these are goofy little applications that are fun to play around with for a few minutes. Kids will especially like them.

Price: $0.99

Pros:
Goofy
Fun

Cons:
Only mouth and eyes move to the music
Can play music on iPhone

Filed in categories: iPhone, iPad, iPod related

Tagged: Entertainment, Software

Gigabyte Solutions Singing Cat and Snowman iPhone Software Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 22, 2008 at 4:08 pm.

Astraware is one of my favorite software places but I admit that I have not popped by much recently. On my last visit, I noticed they had tweaked their prices, updated their PopCap Games Pack 1 to version 2.61 back in August, and are selling it for $19.95. This collection of popular Web games was a lot of fun when I first got it, so I decided to try it again- especially since my old registration code still works for them!

The star of the pack is the original Bejeweled, the classic game of swapping adjacent pieces to form collections of three or more in a row. The matching vertical or horizontal row vanishes, pieces settle to fill in the gap (and also vanish if a new group is made) and you keep on going. When this came out, Palm PDAs around the world developed little square patterns of scratches on the screen from people playing it so much. I think this game single-handedly fueled the screen protector market for a while! A great game for only $9.95 if you buy it by itself. It plays beautifully on my
Centro and is very stable, using about 1.4m with music.

alt=”BeJeweled”>

[The familiar Bejeweled game My next move probably would be the orange and blue gems in the second column, or the middle red and green in the 7th column. Maybe the...]

Alchemy lets you turn ‘lead into gold’ by placing pieces next to each other that match color or symbol. When you reach across the board, the row turns gold. The goal is to turn the whole board gold. There are, of course, a variety of additional elements- extra pieces, a place to toss unwanted pieces, nice sound effects, a great tutorial, several levels or ‘ranks’- all done to PopCap Game’s usual standard of quality. Everything looks good and plays nicely. I think it is a little too like Bejeweled in overall feel to add a lot of variety to the game pack, but it is fun to play. It is sold for $9.95 separately, plays nicely on the Palm Centro, and seems stable. Uses 697k. with music.

alt=”Alchemy”>

[Alchemy game in progress Yellow squares had already been 'turned' in previous moves.]

Atomica has one of those back stories that I think most of us read before we buy the game, and never pay attention to again. Here, you move colored pieces to make ‘molecules’ or squares of four matching atoms in Dr. Atomica’s lab. This is sort of a Bejeweled meets Tetris game where you move pieces to make the groups. More pieces appear (politely telling you where they will show) faster and faster. As the board fills up, it gets harder and harder to move the atoms to make the molecules. Good game- I like it better than Alchemy, and it only costs $4.95 by itself. It does well on the Centro, but I did have to reset the Palm once when it would not exit properly. 642k.

alt=”Atomica”>

alt=”Atomica 2″>

[Atomica The atom symbol is where the next atom appears.]

Mummy Maze is my second favorite game in the pack, after Bejeweled. You control an archeologist/explorer who is trapped in a maze with a mummy trying to kill you. All you have to do is get out through the inconveniently located exit. The thing is, you can only move one square at a time, and the mummy moves two. You don’t get a gun or even a whip to protect you- all you have is your wits. You see, the mummy is really dumb and will always move straight towards you in a predictable pattern. This means you can trap him behind walls or in in little alcoves. As the game progresses, you need to get more and more creative and more and more problems come up, like little booby traps. It costs $4.95, and uses 815k, but I cannot figure out how to exit the game on my Centro- I have to do a ‘take out the battery’ reset. Annoying. I seem to have the problem on many of the game packs I get- the Backgammon game on the old Handmark Classic Board Games did something similar on my Palm Tx.

alt=”Mummy Maze 1″>

alt=”Mummy Maze 2″>

[Mummy Maze mazes The stairs in the second shot are top center]

Seven Seas is the game I rarely played the first time around, but seems more fun the second time around. It is similar to Mummy Maze- you have a ship that moves a square at a time, and are being attacked by other ships. Some of these ships are dumb enough to crash into islands, skulls, and each other as they hunt you but some, the Pirate Captains, are pretty smart. You have cannons and transporting whirlpools to help you survive. Like Mummy Maze, it is $4.95 separately, under 600k, and like Mummy Maze, I have to reset my Centro to get out of it.

alt=”Seven Seas 1″>

alt=”Seven Seas 2″>

[Seven Seas White flag is you. Red sails are the Captains]

I did not see much sign of change in version 2.61, which turns out to be mostly the inclusion of an upgrade of Bejeweled- version 2.61- a changed menu choice, more sparkle and general overhauls for newer devices, language support, etc. The Game Pack installs as separate games and does not include any sort of package installer, master menu, etc. as do programs like Astraware Solitaire. At $19.95 it is a decent value if you enjoy the various games, which would run you $34.75 if purchased individually.

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Entertainment, Palm, Palm OS related, Software

PopCap Games Pack 1 – Palm OS Game Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 11, 2008 at 5:36 pm.

Electronic Arts continues to add to their already impressive list of applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch. They have just added Yahtzee Adventures to their line up of classics board games brought to your electronic device. My family and I are huge Yahtzee fans and regularly play the board game after dinner or on a rainy Sunday afternoon. When my wife and I found out it was available for our Touch and iPhone we jumped at the chance to try it out.

The graphics and overall look are impressive. Like the some of the other mobile games by Electronic Arts (EA), the load time and accompanying graphics keep you waiting a bit of time (10 seconds). However, I guess no more than many of the other applications/games available for the iPhone/Touch.

EA gives you the options to turn off the music, sound effects, tutorial, and adjust the shake function sensitivity. I have actually turned the shake feature completely off because it kept rolling for me before I was ready (now I guess I need to admit that I was walking between meetings when I was first trying out the game). The game also keeps track of players awards, biographies, challenges, and overall statistics. They also provide you with the rules to the classic game and those for the ‘Custom Play’ modes as well.

The ‘Play Now’ is the quick play, single player option. It is the classic game, playing for high score. The overall play of the game is great, you tap the cup and it rolls the dice, select the dice you want to keep then you roll again. On each roll, the game lets you know what are your possible options (and associated points) of locking in that turn. The game does a good job of helping you keep track of your remaining moves and scoring.

Here is where the ‘Adventure’ part of the game comes into play. To begin, your Sensei first assesses your ability then sends you off through the World to play against other Yahtzee masters. It appears that there are 14 ‘Challenges’/levels in the Adventure.

You start in Chapter One, The Roll of Destiny, facing Mai of the Great North and Flavius of the Gypsy Camp. Now I have not played the ‘Adventure’ to its end but I am assuming that as you progress through the storyline, your goal is to beat the others and collect awards, ultimately becoming a true Yahtzee Master.

Along with the ‘Play Now’ and ‘Adventure’ modes of the game, Electronic Arts has also included four additional ‘Custom Play’ modes to the original game; Classic, Rainbow, Duplicate, and Battle game modes. These tweaks are welcome and add a bit of spice to a fun and addictive game. While ‘Play Now’ and ‘Adventure’ are single player modes, ‘Custom Play’ in all the modes will let you choose between solo, computer vs. player, and pass ‘n-play. Pass ‘n Play let’s you play with 1-4 players where you take a turn, then pass the iPhone / Touch to the next player in line. I definitely agree with Julie in her review comments; all of the EA games really need a way to play others over WiFi (or better yet the internet).

Being the Yahtzee fan I am, it is hard not to completely ramble on about this game. That said, Electronic Arts has done a great job bringing a classic board game to your iPhone and/or Touch. They have included some fun and entertaining additions as well. For $4.99, it is a great buy as well. I have zero hesitation recommending this game.

Filed in categories: iPhone, iPad, iPod related

Tagged: Entertainment, iPhone, Software

Electronic Arts Yahtzee Adventures – iPhone Game Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 4, 2008 at 6:21 pm.

My favorite type of games to play are puzzle games. I’ve been a fan of Sokoban style games for years and have installed them on every PDA or smartphone that I’ve carried. When software developer Bas Tossings emailed to ask if I would like to take a look his iPhone / iPod Touch puzzle game called Loopy Laboratory, I said sure!

Compatible: Apple iPhone and iPod Touch
Requires 8.2mb space
Rated 9+ for the following: Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence

The premise behind the game is that a girl named Lara is being held captive in the evil scientist Dr. Heissenbad’s laboratory which is filled with all sorts of evil inventions and unethical experiments. It’s your job to help her escape.

The interface to this game is simple. You don’t have to worry about a lot of buttons, actions or gestures in order to play. All you have to do is collect all the batteries in the room and then walk through the portal to the next room. Sounds easy right?

There are 50 different rooms (levels) to the game. Using your finger, you swipe in the direction that you want Lara to walk. If you keep your finger on the screen after you swipe, she’ll keep walking in that direction. If you lift your finger off the screen with each swipe, she’ll just take one step in the desired direction. The minute I saw the game, it reminded me of an old favorite on my Atari Lynx called Chip’s Challenge.

As I mentioned above, the object of the game is to collect all the batteries in a room and then proceed to the next room. Of course, there are obstacles to make this difficult. One such obstacle might be a locked door, which requires a key…

In the room above, the path to the portal is blocked by a box. The only way to get rid of the box is to blast it by moving the prisms to locations that will allow the laser beam in the corner of the room to hit it.

In level 7, you’ll will notice that there is an icy path. To walk on it, you have to retrieve the spiked boot. Fun stuff.

Controlling Lara with your finger isn’t difficult, but it can take a little practice so that you don’t keep her walking in a direction that you don’t want her to walk. In addition to the swipe movement gesture, you can also tap the display with two fingers to allow you scroll around the display to see the whole room.

The graphics are just right. They are simple but fun and don’t get in the way of the game. I like the fact that you have unlimited lives to complete each room. I also like the background music for this game. It is enjoyable and didn’t get on my nerves at all. One thing this game could use is a level selector. You can cheat and skip a level, but you can pick a specific level to play.

I’ve only been playing Loop Laboratory for a few minutes here and there for the past couple of days. I’ve completed the first 7 rooms, which were simple. The 8th room is a bit more difficult and I’m sure it just gets harder with each new level. That’s the fun part though right? ) This is a fun little game that you can pick up and put down without hindering the game. It should keep you entertained and puzzled for awhile as you figure out all 50 levels. Here’s hoping that Bas adds even more levels soon!

Can be purchased through iTunes.

Filed in categories: iPhone, iPad, iPod related

Tagged: Entertainment, iPhone, Software

Loopy Laboratory – iPhone Game Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 11, 2008 at 6:15 pm.

New Palm games are getting less and less frequent. This really saddens me- I really love my Palm Centro and I get bored with games quickly, so constantly need fresh blood… er, I mean ‘games’- yeah, that’s what I meant.

Ashley Glenister wrote ‘The Belt: 2120′ in her spare time, and it compares nicely to games offered by many of the ‘big boys’.

I could describe The Belt as a space-based vertically scrolling shooter with elements of Asteroids mixed in, and that would tell you about 75% of everything you need to know. Toss in a couple of screen shots and you will instantly understand about 90% of the game.

[The opening screen and options menu have a comfortably familiar look and are nicely done.]

The Belt is one of those games that requires you fight through each level each time you play since there is not a save option. Because the levels do not seem to be quite as repetitive as some games in this genre, it is not as annoying as it usually is.

[You start in Earth orbit, and travel outwards, eventually passing the moon.]

I have not gotten very far yet. I don’t know whether it is intentional or a happy accident, but you need to learn some of the rules on the way. A quick example would be that the semi-stationary asteroids cannot be shot and cannot hurt you. The ‘Help’ screen is just an explanation of icons. I think I like this feature, but it means I am not advancing screens as fast as I may want. The first several plays (I refuse to reveal how many) did not go far with the dang hard-to-kill asteroids crashing into me all the time!

[A couple of examples of enemy ships and weapons. Weapons are always on auto-fire.]

Albyte’s The belt is available for $14.99 from PalmGear. It takes a little space- 1.77M, but runs nicely on my Centro without any glitches. The author hopes to release a Windows Mobile version as well as additional levels, etc. I like The Belt so I wish her the very best of luck! As I have said before, I like scrolling shooters (if they are configured well for the screen and controls on the device I am using, as The Belt’s are), and I like Asteroids, so it is probably not surprising that I like this crossover.

(Hmmm, thinking of crossovers… what about a Frogger game that arms the poor frog so it can defend itself? Put some kids in school buses that lose you points if you shoot them, and replace some of the gators in the river with, say, manatees or otters you should not shoot… If anyone makes this into a real game, be sure to let me try it out!)

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Entertainment, Palm, Palm OS related, Software

Albyte’s The Belt 2120 – Palm OS Game Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 23, 2008 at 7:30 am.

This review was not on my to-do list. But I thought this iPhone application was so imaginative, well thought out and useful (at least to me) I had to write a quick review on it. My wife and I enjoy trying different wines, rarely focusing on any particular one. And as the story goes, we can never remember what we have and have not tried. And on those rare moments we do, we have no idea whether we liked, loved, or hated it.

Well, Jeff Kunkle has released a very useful and imaginative iPhone application/database that enables you to keep track of all the wines you taste. Wine Log allows you to archive those wines you try and record not only the details of the wine but your thoughts and a picture of the label as well.

The entries in the database included: name, rating, variety, winery, region, and vintage. Once entered you can search the database by name, rating, type, and variety.

During the process of entering the wines info, you can also take a picture of its label, adding it to the databases record.

Conclusions

I love the fact that when my wife and I are searching the wine shelves or wine tasting somewhere, we can now look up whether or not we have tried a certain one and more importantly liked a wine before buying. Or if we are wine tasting somewhere, we can record our ‘must buys’ for when we are ready to purchase.

Wine Log is a great, inexpensive iPhone application that fills a useful niche. And at $2.99, its priced at a point that any wine drinking, iPhone owner should give it a try. I really do recommend this application.

Filed in categories: iPhone, iPad, iPod related

Tagged: Entertainment, iPhone, Software

Wine Log – iPhone Software Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 10, 2008 at 5:15 pm.

This is not the game I planned on reviewing. That was going to be Astraware’s Westward, but I was beseiged by demons while trying it out (named Small Screen, Bad-Eyes, and Lotsa Rulez) so it will have to wait.

I was excited to discover, however, that what I have long believed to the The World’s Greatest Palm Freeware App: Trivia Category has been updated since I last saw it- Steve Litchfield’s (3-Lib’s) Trivopaedia.

Trivopaedia is ‘just’ a list of trivia subjects, organized neatly for quick reference, available in several formats- Psion, Pocket PC, Smartphone, iPod, and, of course, Palm. Within the Palm world, you can get it in Plucker, PalmReader, Doc, and Memo formats. This review will focus on the v2.0 Palm Memo format, although the newest version for Palm is v2.3 in iSilo and MobiPocket versions.

‘Just’ a list. And the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 is ‘just’ a car. Trivopaedia is not the fastest trivia list on Earth, nor is it heavily appointed with German engineering- although the design team IS British! (Which explains the odd spelling and UK-heavy content.)What Trivopaedia is is just plain cool.

alt="Trivia List 1"/>
alt="Trivia List 2"/>
alt="Trivia List 3"/>

[Sample "Trivopaedia" Lists]

Like any good compilation of trivia, most of the stuff here has almost no real value. Lists include:
- Airline Codes and Apollo Missions
- Artifical Languages and Beer Measures
- A dozen different lists of things in the Bible
- Lists of natural features, geological ages, cities
- Lists of movies, kings and queens, inventors
- Lists of weird British stuff, like Wombles and UK Sea Areas
…for a grand total of some 237 lists (with about 15 more in v2.3)

It is astounding how far-flung the lists are- Wacky Racer cars and Star Trek movies… the Seven Dwarfs and the ‘Seven S Business Model’… Santa’s Reindeer and the Scart Lead Connections. The lists make nice little quicky ‘did you know’ games, are helpful in settling arguments, make for interesting quick reads, and they are still looking new input.

alt="Sample List 1"/>
alt="Sample List 2"/>

[A Couple of Random Lists]

By the way, didja know…
…the 1900 AND 1924 Summer Olympic Games were held in Paris?
…the top adult fears are public speaking, getting fat, and walking alone at night?
…the Latin abbreviation of D.V. means Deo volente or ‘God willing’?
…the daily naval toast for Friday is ‘a willing foe and sea room’?
…a water polo ball weighs 400-450 grams?

These are Memo lists- so they take almost no memory, can run on all Palms, and have no issues with crashes or hangs, etc. Installation (as a Palm Memo) is a tiny bit different in that you have to ‘Import’ it into Memos after loading it- but the Readme is very helpful.

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Entertainment, Palm, Palm OS related, Software

Trivopaedia – Palm OS Game Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 20, 2008 at 9:40 pm.

Astraware have been long known for making great games for both Palm and Windows Mobile. Now they are bringing their eye catching graphics and addictive entertainment to the iPhone and iPod Touch with GTS World Racing.

GTS World Racing has been available for while now on Windows Mobile and Palm OS devices, but this new version for the iPhone and iPod Touch takes it to the next level…

There are 4 play modes: single race, challenge cup, grand tour, and championship. Depending on which mode you choose, there are up to 16 locations and 64 tracks that you can race on.

You get your choice of three vehicles: coupe, sports car or a formula racer. The choice of car isn’t just for looks, each one has a different horse power and maximum speed rating.

The controls for this game are what makes it so much fun. First of all, you don’t have to remember what buttons to press to accelerate and which ones steer. Nope… Thanks to the built in accelerometer, you just hold the iPhone or Touch in landscape mode between your hands like a… steering wheel. Turn it clockwise to go to Right and counter clockwise to turn Left.

If you want to speed up, tip the device forward and if you want to slowdown or brake, tip it backwards. Could anything be more intuitive than that? I think not ) Playing this game just feels so natural. Even my roomie, who can never seem to get the knack of playing video games, had no problems at all with this one. When I asked her what she thought of it, she said “I’d play that one!”. For her, that’s high praise ;o)

This game is quite easy and does become repetitive after awhile though. It would be nice to have more cars to choose from. Even better would be the ability to race another player via WiFi.

The graphics are pleasant and the music is pretty good. One nice feature is the ability to play your own tunes in the background.

GTS World Racing is an easy to learn fun game that is enjoyable to play and also to show off to your non iPhone and Touch owning friends. The $8 price tag isn’t too bad either.

Filed in categories: iPhone, iPad, iPod related

Tagged: Entertainment, iPhone, Software

Astraware GTS World Racing – iPhone Game Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 10, 2008 at 12:15 pm.

Electronic Arts has brought Scrabble, the classic board game to the iPhone and iPod Touch. This word building game has been around since the 1930′s and is fun for kids and adults alike. Let’s see if see how EA’s version translates to the iPhone.

The opening splash screen and animation are nifty to watch for the first couple
of times that you launch this game. But after that, you’ll probably become
annoyed at the 20 second wait for it to finish each time. Unfortunately, there
doesn’t appear to be a way to speed up the loading of the game. Once it’s loaded
though, you’re presented with an menu that allows you to pick a Quick Play or
Custom Play game. Quick Play is computer vs. player mode. Custom will let you
choose computer vs. player, solo and pass ‘n-play. Pass ‘n play let’s you play a
1-4 player game where you take a turn, pass the iPhone / touch to the next
player and so on. What this game really needs is a way to play another player
over WiFi.

If you’re not familiar with Scrabble, it’s a game where you have seven letter
tiles that you use to build words on the game board. Certain letters have more
points associated with them and certain game board squares enable higher
scoring. To win a game, you have to create words that earn you a higher score
than your opponent.

To place your tiles on the game board, you hold your finger down on a tile until
it turns dark and then you can drag it up to the desired location on the game
board. The game board zooms in when you’re in the placement mode. The only issue
I seemed to have with this method was that my fingertip made it a bit difficult
to see where I was trying to place a tile.

To help you figure out what words that your tiles might be
able to create, you can either press the shuffle button, shake your iPhone /
Touch or use finger to rearrange tiles. You can also swap out a completely new
set of times by tapping the Exchange bag in the lower Left corner. However,
doing so will also cause any word entered for that round to be scored as a zero.

If you’re really having a heard time figuring out a word, you
can press the heart button. This will place the best word possible given your
set of times. You can only use this feature four times per game.

Sometimes you’ll receive a blank tile that you can use as any letter you wish.
When you tap that letter, a special window will popup that you can use to select
the desired letter that you want to play.

This game is easy to learn to play and definitely fun for two to four people. I
do wish that it had a built in dictionary so that you could see the definition
of the words that the computer sometimes creates. But as it is, Electronic Arts
has done a very nice version of this game and it’s one that I wouldn’t hesitate
to purchase if I was a fan of vocabulary building games.

Filed in categories: iPhone, iPad, iPod related

Tagged: Entertainment, iPhone, Software

Electronic Arts Scrabble – iPhone Game Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 21, 2008 at 12:30 pm.

Sudoku is a hugely popular puzzle game that I’ve admittedly really never given much of a chance. When
Electronic Arts asked if I would like to review their new iPhone and iPod Touch Sudoku game, I knew that If I agreed, I’d finally have to try to get into this game in order to give the review a fair shot. Let’s see if this game has turned me into a Sudoku fan.

I found the opening splash screen animation and background music to be relaxing and inviting. I took a quick read of the help screen to remind me of the rules of the game and then checked out the two game play options. Regular game play consists of 1000′s of grids supplied by Electronic Arts. While Newspaper mode allows you to enter grids from newspapers, magazines, or to create your own.

Whichever mode you pick, Sudoku gameplay follows the same basic principles. You have a large game board that consists of nine 3×3 grids. You insert the numbers 1 through 9 in these 3×3 grids so that each number only appears once in each grid, as well as only once in each vertical and horizontal row across the game board. Sounds easy right? It can be… but it can also be quite puzzling. Which is the whole point I suppose. ;o)

To place your numbers in the squares, you just tap an square with your finger and then tap the appropriate number from the popup number list at the bottom of the game board.

There are several options to help you fill the game board correctly. If you press the question mark button, it will fill one square on the board with the right number. You can also press the grid button in the upper right corner to fill empty squares with ‘candidates’. These small numbers show you the numbers that can fit in each square. If you’d rather the computer didn’t give you all these hints, you can add them yourself using the pencil button in the number popup list. Once you do use the candidate auto-fill or do it yourself, you can’t turn them off… which I find a little annoying.

Another feature to help you complete a grid is that you can tap a number and it will light up all the occurrences of that number on the game board. There’s also error checking, if turned on, it will not allow you to enter a wrong number in a square.

Whether or not you take advantage of the help features or not, playing the harder levels of this game can be challenging and I’ll admit – fun. This version of Sudoku by Electronic Arts, is enjoyable to play and look at. While I’m still not a huge fan of this particular game, I will keep it on my iPhone and touch for those times when I feel like my brain needs a little exercise.

Filed in categories: iPhone, iPad, iPod related

Tagged: Entertainment, iPhone, Software

Electronic Arts Sudoku – iPhone Game Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 21, 2008 at 9:30 am.

Electronic Arts is one of the mainstream software companies that have contributed to the initial selection of applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Let’s check out their take on the classic brick stacking game Tetris.

If you want an easy game that doesn’t have a learning curve, this is the game for you. You get two game types. Marathon and Magic. Marathon is the classic style of the game, with 15 levels which you can play in any order you choose. The idea is to keep stacking and removing bricks until the stack reaches the top of the playing field, at which point the game ends. Magic plays the same way, but each level requires you to clear a certain number of rows. The main difference though with the Magic game is that you can earn some extra tools to help you out.

Regardless as to which you choose, Marathon or Magic, the main game play fundamentals are the same. The idea is to stack the Tetriminos (bricks) so that you create a solid row. When this happens, the row is cleared. Bricks are different shapes and can be rotated by tapping on the display with your finger. Tap on the Left side the screen to rotate the brick Left and the Right side, to rotate it to the Right. To drop the brick, just flick down with your finger. It’s easy and intuitive.

As a brick falls, you can see a ghost image of it at the bottom of the display. This shows you how the brick will stack up with the rest of the bricks. You can also send a brick to the hold area by tapping the Hold area in the top Left corner. This is helpful if you see that the next brick in line is a better fit. When you want to swap out the brick in the Hold area with the current brick, you just tap the hold area again.

I like the Magic game better than the Marathon game because you can earn five tools to help you as you play. Each tool has a special function and as you earn them, you are given information on how to use the tool as well as the option to watch a short video tutorial on it. The tools that you can earn are:

Minimizer – Squeeze the currently falling brick into one tiny block by pinching it with your fingers.
Bubble Wrap – Turns all the bricks on the game board into bubbles that you can pop by tapping your finger on them.
Magic Crayon – Draw the shape of the brick that you want to turn the currently falling brick into.
Wrecking Ball – Shake your iPhone or Touch side to side to break bricks with four iron balls.
Smashdown – Shake your iPhone or Touch to slide the bricks around causing a cascade.

Since installing Tetris on my iPhone and iPod Touch, I’ve wasted, I mean enjoyed several hours playing this classic game. The only annoyance that I’ve noticed with this game is the slow start up time. You have to wait around 25-30 seconds every time you launch the game before you can play it. That said, it is easy to play and can be picked up anytime for a quick diversion. The graphics and animations are great and the background music is pleasant. I’d buy it again.

Filed in categories: iPhone, iPad, iPod related

Tagged: Entertainment, iPhone, Software

Electronic Arts Tetris – iPhone Game Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 21, 2008 at 8:00 am.

As I was a cruzin’ for new games, I found that eSoft Interactive, the home of one of my ‘All Time Favorite’ games, Traffic Jam, had several titles I had not seen before, including the previously reviewed Traffic Jam 2. I also asked for codes for a couple of other games that looked interesting- Earth Day, and Spot!, They were kind enough to provide codes for all of them.

My momma always said ‘if you can’t say anything nice about someone, don’t say anything at all’. Thankfully, there are nice things to say about these two programs- they look really cool! On most Palms, especially those with larger screens, they really look great. Now, on to the rest of the story.

Spot! is a ‘spot the differences’ game, which is a bit limited by the small screen and resolution of a Palm. You really cannot make a ‘Where’s Waldo’ kind of game on this small field, so what we have is basically 2 small screens with nearly identical images. Each image appears to be in three layers- a background n(such as large, translucent watermelons), a foreground (like dozens of nearly identical pieces of pie), and a mid-ground where the items that are different hide (maybe some green apples). You have a strictly limited time to locate all of the items in the midground of the lower image and tag them.

alt="Spot 1"/>
alt="Spot 2"/>

[Seeing and tagging differences- the heart of the game.] Note the timer on the top edge- .06, counting down to .01- tight time limits are a big part of the challenge.

Spot has three ‘different’ games, and several fields. I leave it to you to determine how different everything is:

alt="Spot 3"/>
alt="Spot 4"/>
alt="Spot 5"/>
alt="Spot 6"/>

[Game Selection, and sample screens.]

A lot of work went into this game, but I am not sure who the audience is. It does not motivate me to try to win, my teens won’t bother with it, and younger kids seem frustrated by the time limits. I want SOOOO badly to end this by quoting Mary Poppins- “Spit Spot!” even though it does not quite make sense… but I am not sure the game does either.

Earth Day got my hopes up, but a.) I found it annoying to figure out the settings and controls, and b.) I’ve played this game before. It is basically a clone of Asteroids, with a bit of some other games that got into the teleportation chamber and fused their DNA together. “Help me!” indeed! (Yeesh. I am really going for the dorky movie quotes today, huh?)

alt="Earth Day 1"/>
alt="Earth Day 2"/>

[Point at'em and blow'em up]

This is not a bad game, just nothing that caught my attention in a good sense. The main thing I noticed was that the controls felt annoying no matter how I tried to reset them. Both games occasionally hung my Palm Tx up as well- but the poor Palm was already dying when I was trying the games, so it might not have been their fault.

alt="Settings"/>
alt="Control Panel"/>

[The control panel I never mastered]

Maybe it was just me, maybe I am too far outside the target audience for these games, but I was almost glad to see…

alt="Game Over"/>

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Entertainment, Palm, Palm OS related, Software

eSoft Interactive Spot! and Earth Day – Palm OS Game Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 8, 2008 at 8:19 pm.

Astraware’s Platypus ($19.95) is a side-scrolling shooter. Yeah, I know, *Yawn*. If you’ve seen one shooter, you’ve seen them all, right? As usual, Astraware ups the ante.

Graphically, the game is amazing. The images were made by actually creating each scene from clay, giving the scenes a movie-like feel that is unlike anything else we have seen in Palm games. The back story is about a planet made from clay where one country decides to invade another. The peaceful defenders use the ‘Platypus F-27′ as their main weapon against the hordes of evil devices the wicked invaders employ. (I think it is interesting how much the Platypus looks like the Viper from the original Battlestar Galactica- but I am sure that if it is somehow based on the Viper, it is in the spirit of ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’.)

alt="screenshot"/>
alt="screenshot"/>

[Gooey explosions and great graphics!]

(In the interest of full disclosure, I need to point out that that screenshots used are from Astraware’s site. I used all of my free games trying to get my screenshot program to work.)

Strategically, many of us play scrollers by hanging out against the ‘back wall’ to maximize maneuvering space. The bad news here is that the bad guys often attack from the rear in big, tough to kill ships. The bad guys also attack in waves that are harder to just ‘sit out’, requiring you to be rather active during most of the game.

Playability on my Palm Centro is a bit awkward, but that is the Centro’s fault. The combination of small screen and small 4-way navigator button makes it hard for me with my poor eyesight and big fingers to play the game smoothly. The game hangs up periodically- but that may also be a Centro issue, and I cannot figure out why the firing sometimes acts automatic and sometimes requires triggering (there is an ‘autofire’ setting but it seems inconsistent). I appreciate the tribute to the game’s classic roots in the Commodore 64-like music- a nice touch.

I am trying the demo version, and I find it an enjoyable game. The little details like ships that ‘pop’ in a cute burst of colorful clay instead of exploding are classic Astraware. I enjoy scrolling shooters and this is a fun one that I would buy if it played better for me on my device (and I will point out that my teens do not have a problem playing it on my Centro.)

I do sort of wish there was more of a ‘WOW!’ factor here, a higher ante, something that really shook things up I also wish I knew why some power-ups were flying fruit, or why a world made of clay makes any real sense but looking for logic in video games is a dangerous thing!

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Entertainment, Palm, Palm OS related, Software

Astraware Platypus: Palm OS Game Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 5, 2008 at 4:17 pm.

While the life of a Palm Software Reviewer at a prestigious site like The Gadgeteer may seem glamorous, in reality I have to wade through a lot of mediocre stuff to find something that rings my bells enough to write about it- whether it is because I love it or I hate it. Toyspring’s ‘Bike or Die’ ($14.95) is a breath of fresh air in what has been a rather tedious season.

alt="Opening Screen"/>

[Bike or Die- Part of the opening screen video]

Bike or Die is one of the rather new category of games based on physics simulators, like Line Rider or Crayon Physics. While a lot of the games in this group are not real fun to play, Bike or Die manages to combine several elements to make it a very playable game. I think I have spent more time trying to break to new levels on this game than I have on anything in a very long time!

The basic idea is almost too simple. You are riding a bike. Pressing UP pedals, DOWN brakes. LEFT leans left (backwards or forwards depending on which direction you are facing) and RIGHT leans right (as with left.) Then, you are presented with a landscape to conquer with your bike. The landscapes are increasingly difficult and like all good tutorials, you are challenged to learn a new skill each time to win.

alt="My Game Play"/>
alt="My Game Play 2"/>
alt="My Game Play 3"/>

[Going, going... gone. I wipe out a lot in this game.
- The little icons on top are speed, elapsed time, and how many red flags you've collected.]

It is the ‘other touches’ that add some of the pizzazz to this game. The bike is elastic- you pedal and it compresses then rebounds. Small bumps create waves of motion that you can use in your favor or that can throw you out of control. Gravity behaves in a realistic manner (unless you create a world with different rules- more on that later.) The program measures mechanical stress on the bike and impact on the rider- exceed the
acceptable levels and you die and your bike breaks up. Even the blood droplets behave as they should!

alt="Options 3"/>

[The basic rules- simple, huh?.]

I’m on Level 4, still trying to learn to jump over a stupid little barrier, and I watch videos on their site of people doing some sort of rolling jumps effortlessly and without exploding into a spray small red dots. Wow. It is one of those things that impresses you, spurs you to greater efforts, and kinda bums you out at the same time.

I am using the free demo of the game, so am somewhat limited in what I can do. The full version includes what looks to be an impressive level editor that allows you to manipulate gravity itself. Even in the demo game, the control over gameplay and appearance is impressive and intuitive. Blood drops bother you? Turn them off.

alt="Options"/>
alt="Options 2"/>

[Some of the options you can set,]

The look and sounds of the game are simple enough- a stick figure over a plainish background, to simple sound effects. The simplicity allows the game to run on most Palms and lets it run smoothly and safely. After a series of high-rez glitchy game trials, I really appreciate this aspect of the game.

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Entertainment, Palm, Palm OS related, Software

Toyspring’s Bike Or Die: Palm OS Game originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 24, 2008 at 11:22 am.

The Death of a Good Idea, A Cautionary Tale

Once upon a time, a perfectly nice little company had a perfectly nice little game- eSoft Interactive’s Traffic Jam, based on a board game with the same name. It used few resources, was stable, intuitive, attractive, and fun. I would stack it up against any other company’s offerings for its price of $9.95.

alt="eSoft's Traffic Jam"/>
alt="eSoft's Traffic Jam solved!"/>

[eSoft's TRAFFIC JAM- a solidly written, fun game!]

The original Traffic Jam is a great game- I even like the cheerful little car horn when you finish the level. A nice little reward.

eSoft decided to update Traffic Jam by making it 3-D. On the surface, this does not seem like a bad idea, but…

alt="Traffic Jam 2 Opening Screen"/>

[The Wait Screen. Get familiar with it. It takes forever to load (and crashes about every 5 tries on my Palm T/X).]

alt="First Screen"/>

[The playing field is smaller. See the overhead view in the upper left? You'll need it.]

alt="Making moves"/>

[To move, you tap the vehicle, which shows a box around it, and the square you want to move it to. It took several taps to move this truck one square.]

alt="Hidden Pickup"/>

[Trying to tap onto this pickup and then move it was incredibly tough, requiring many, many taps.]

I have played Traffic Jam (the original board game and the first Palm version) for hours, even though I am not a big fan of sliding block games. Traffic Jam 2 is frustrating enough that it has taken me a few weeks to play it enough to review it. One hint for anyone thinking about trying it- make sure your screen is well-calibrated!

OK, something nice to say, something nice to say… surely there is SOMETHING? Well- it only costs $9.95, and I would bet that it is more fun to play the PC version. In fact, I sort of suspect that many of the problems I found vanish with lots of memory, a bigger screen and mouse controls.

Traffic Jam 2 also has more interesting vehicles- buses, fire trucks, and so on. They are oddly pixilated compared to the rather smooth images in the original game, but they add a certain touch that I appreciated. Bottom line- I think the best thing about Traffic Jam 2 is that the original is still available.

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Entertainment, Palm, Palm OS related, Software

eSoft Interactive Traffic Jam 2: Palm OS Game originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 25, 2008 at 5:00 pm.

Suit of the suicide king in a standard deck?

Body of water where the Republic of the Maldives is located?

Don’cha love trivia? I love trivia. I played Trivial Pursuit
when it came out in the early 80′s and routinely beat the pants off so many people that no one would play with me anymore. In hindsight, I am not sure if it was their humiliating defeats, or my winner’s dance that they objected to the most, but I digress.

I have tried many trivia games for the Palm, and I find that they tend to either be rather ugly and clunky- but with cool questions (like the freeware Quizzler), or slick and pretty but rather simplistic (like the $20 Trivial Pursuit for Palm). Triv
from Robert Jen is clearly an ugly, clunky program with a lot of cool features and question sets. (Why do so many great programs look like they are designed for a grade school market?)

alt="Triv Main Screen"/>
alt="Triv Question Screen"/>

[Triv Main Screen and a Question Screen]

For $15, you get a program that can present itself in several ways-

alt="Triv Pizza"/>
alt="Quick Quiz"/>

[Trivia Pizza, a 'Trivial Pursuit clone and Quick Quiz, a basic trivia game]

alt="Triv Grid"/>
alt="Triv Tac Toe"/>

[Triv Grid, a 'Jeopardy'-like game and Triv Tac Toe, a revival of 'Hollywood Squares'!]

alt="Trillionaire"/>

[Trillionaire, an ironically cheap form of 'Millionaire']

Personally, although I doubt they could have designed it any uglier, it is nonetheless a lot of fun to play! The questions are challenging, and there are a lot of question sets to choose from. The basic program only uses 180kb of memory, but there are about 3M worth of other question sets over a nice variety of categories. While most are multiple choice, some are short answer (and it would have been nice to see that in the list name somehow.) You also get TrivWriter to create your own question sets and TrivFind to search the question sets.

alt="Question Set"/>

[Some of the Question Sets]

So maybe I should just judge it on the questions and ignore the interface. The demo version limits you to 36 questions per set, while the unlocked version runs over 20,000 questions. That is a lot of questions to work through- or to write! I am very impressed with the questions so far. The author has done a lot of work with this and has a clear love of trivia based on his other offerings at his website.

Oh, did I mention that you can play Triv with up to four players or teams? Or that you can tweak many aspects of the way the program looks and plays? Sweet game. (Oh, the answers to the opening questions? Hearts and the Indian Ocean.)

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Entertainment, Palm, Palm OS related, Software

Triv: Palm OS Game originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 12, 2008 at 2:31 pm.

I love Games Magazine, but generally not every game in the magazine. I feel about the same way about Simon Tatham’s Puzzles Pack. (Thanks to The Gadgeteer Forums poster Mark Reid for the heads-up on this one!) Some of the 27 games in this freeware collection are pretty cool (Black Box, Guess, Map, Same Game, Unequal and Tangle so far are favorites), several are variations on the theme, and a couple I still have not figured out.

alt="Puzzles List"/>

[Simon Tatham Puzzles List]

The puzzle pack takes up 618K of memory on my Palm T/x, and runs pretty well, with an occasional start-up pause. Since it is freeware, the price is definitely right! I also have to give big kudos to the thought and programming behind these games. Even though several are variations of others rather than new games, it still took a ton of work to do all of this.

alt="GUESS Game"/>
alt="Guess Game Instructions"/>

['Guess', a Mastermind clone, and instructions]

On the other hand, it was originally done for Windows and other OS, and ported over to Palm OS by James Harvey. Not being a native Palm program, there are some ‘interesting’ elements. For example, the instructions for the games generally are written for using a mouse or other input system, there is usually no on-screen button to call up the menu, and some things do not show up as nicely as they might on a different screen. (The lack of an on-screen menu button seems a rather petty complaint, I know, but it really bugged me after a bit.) The graphics also usually look rather primative. Certainly better graphics would have taken more memory, more programming, and more resources to run, and the graphics do not affect game play, but in my mind there is a difference between the Palm Zen simplicity and blah.

alt="Another Game"/>
alt="Yet Another Game"/>

['Black Box' and 'Inertia' Games]

In the interest of full disclosure, I have not played a full round of every game. Some did not grab my interest, some made no real sense, and some just do not interest me. However, having a variety of games available that I can try or ignore as the spirit moves is nice. I also know I get tired of games rather easily and keep looking for new ones- so here are 27 I can carry without thinking about it… until I need them. Sweet!

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Tagged: Entertainment, Palm, Palm OS related, Software

Simon Tatham Puzzles: Palm OS Game originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 10, 2008 at 8:38 pm.

Dear Santa

What I REALLY want for Christmas is to get this review done. Maybe I bit off more than I could chew- reviewing a list of good Palm games, after all, is a tough thing to do, especially since a lot of my favorites are now discontinued! Let’s try to move on, however.

Here are some of the games I go back to over and over, that do not take a long time to learn or play, and that do not chew up a lot of system resources.

ASTRAWARE

Several of my favorites come from this powerhouse of a company:
- Bejeweled 2, a previously reviewed and very addictive game for $19.95.
- Sudoku. This is a feature-rich version of the popular number game if you like this sort of thing as much as I do. For me, it was well worth the $19.95. I tried many of the freeware versions, but this version offers a lot of flexibility, downloadable puzzle packs, and several levels of helps that you can avail yourself of. Besides, when I do the ‘paper and pencil’ version, things get messy- the e-version is always nice and clean.
- Bookworm is a ‘Boggle’-like game for one person that has several interesting twists- exploding letters, bonus words, an extensive dictionary, and a somewhat ‘Tetris’-like flavor make it a pretty unique game. $19.95.
- Text Twist is almost a cross between a word jumble and hangman- make as many words as you can from the selected letters in a fixed amount of time. No big bells or whistles other than a button that mixes up the letters to help spur your thought process. Great brain-stretcher for $19.95!
- Traffic Jam. A well-done version of the sliding block game ‘Rush Hour’. You jockey cars and trucks around to free your car. Several levels and simple rules makes this a great game. $9.95.
- Farkle has been reviewed earlier as well. $14.95
- Mars Needs Cows is a rather dumb litle game for $9.95 in which you set objects in the barnyard to ‘bounce’ animals into the alien’s abducting beam. They have a shopping list and you help them get what they need. The first few levels will suck you in to the point that the premise almost makes sense!

I would have listed Insanaquarium, Hellfire, Cake Mania and more (I could pretty near cut and paste their entire product list here!), but they either appeal to more specific tastes, use more resources, or take longer to play, etc.

FREEWARE

As a life-long cheapskate, I love freeware. In fact, in some cases, I prefer the freeware version to commercial versions! Some titles I would like to share here include:
- Vexed, a nicely done combination of a sliding block puzzle and Tetris. Quick, simple gameplay with a nearly-endless increasingly challenging levels. If you like Bejeweled, give this a try! This is one of those gems that is better done than many commercial programs.
- Backgammon 3.1 is a slick little Backgammon game that I prefer over most commercial versions. However, it is old (2001) and hard to find now. A good commerical version is Handmark Backgammon, or you can try one of the many other versions that are available.
- PilOth and StaBu are Othello/Reversi clones. Each has a few weaknesses but still manage to beat my pants off me most of the time.
- Mirek’s YahDice is a simple but well-done version of the classic game ‘Yahtzee’. Perhaps it gives a few too many of the high-scoring ’5 of a kind’ rolls than real die would, but I’m not complaining!
- DopeWars. One of those vaguely ‘guilty pleasures’ I have. It is a quick version of a trading game/business simulator with a somewhat reprehensible theme. However, it also includes a smaller number of variables compared to other versions like ‘Space Trader’, which befuddle my poor, aged brain.
- Pyramid Solitaire only takes a few minutes per hand but is as challenging as Freecell or Spider Soliaire. Another nicely done freeware program!
- The Prison. A ‘Breakout’ clone that has been reviewed earlier.

There are a gazillion other freeware games worth at least an honorable mention here: Bomb Canada, Towers of Hanoi, Matchsticks, and others that may lack a polished interface, or that loose their appeal once solved, or that are glitchy on newer Palms, but I have to get this wrapped up, so…

OTHER GAMES

Some of the other games I recommend include:
- Pocket Mobility’s Quizzler. This is a freeware ‘Reader’ with a commercial ‘Pro’ and ‘Maker’ versions and a library of free and for pay quizzes. You can also create your own quizzes for fun or education. I could wish that the interface looked a little more professional, but it is a nice pack with plenty of free quizzes to get you started. So far, few of the other trivia or quiz games I have tried come close to being as good as this one, with the exception of the commercial version of ‘Trivial Pursuit’, which is actually a very different sort of program.
- Palm Guy’s Ten Thousand. A share-ware version of ‘Farkle’ that I prefer to the commercial version, and only $5.95!
- Landware’s Shanghai. The Palm version of the old Windows’ ‘Mah-Jong’ is slick and plays well. Some of the characters are a bit small on the screen, but you have access to dozens of character sets- dinosaurs, math, space, and more. Every version of this game has certain quirks and their own take onsome rules, so it is not exactly like the Windows version, and every now and then it has programming glitches- like a semi-transparent piece that lets you click on the one under it- but overall it is a nice game for the $14.95 asking price.
- Wolcott’s Picture Logic, the ‘fill-in-the-blanks’ art puzzle, is a nice challenge. Buy the main program for $12.00 and find hundreds of free puzzle packs on-line.
- Red Mercury’s Acid Spider Solitare and Freecell. Yeah, there are other good versions out there, but I am partial to the layout and features of Red Mercury’s versions. For $9.95 (on sale now) each, I get hours of time-wasting…, er, I mean ‘time-filling’ entertainment!
- Stand Alone’s Crosswords for Palm Straight-forward crossword game that can download new puzzles from several sources. A good selection of helps and features can help speed things up if desired.$19.95.

Well, Santa, I hope I have done my part to help you find the right program for the Palm users on your list! Now- maybe you could do ME a favor… Have you seen a good Palm version of any of these games?
- ‘Hexxagon’? The 7-Up company had a cute version called ‘Spot’.
- ‘Laser Tag’- any of a dozen programs in which you position mirrors or barriers to lasers. I especially like the versions in which you have a small laser tank to try to shoot a designated target.

Filed in categories: Articles

Tagged: Entertainment, Palm, Palm OS related, Software

Palm OS Games Wish List 2007 originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 11, 2007 at 7:41 pm.

Aspirin. I know I have aspirin around here somewhere. Man, what a headache.

Ok, I’ve just been playing Astraware’s Hidden Expedition: Titanic, and I have a massive headache. Actually, I have a couple of them.

alt="Titanic Opening Screen"/>
alt="Titanic Opening Screen"/>

[Hidden Expeditions:Titanic from Astraware- Opening Screen and a sample screenshot]

(In the screenshot, can you find the diver’s suit, key, stamp, butterfly, surgical clamp, life jacket, pipe wrench, watermelon, an old fashioned can opener, and the oxygen tank (which gains you more air)? What else do you see? What is that thing hiding in the air duct?)

Hidden Expedition: Titanic is a game wherein you are going to dive and explore the wreckage of the Titanic. The backstory is that you are looking for a fabulous treasure and artifacts. Because of the danger, you can keep any gems and other valuables you find, and you will also find some additional oxygen tanks, etc. while down there. Oh- the oxygen. Did I mention that you have limited oxygen for each dive, and doing things like tapping on the wrong things and asking for hints uses your limited air quicker?

This game reflects Astraware’s attention to detail, wonderful graphics, good game play, good demo policies, etc. For $19.95, you get 17 rooms to explore, puzzles and challenges to solve, and a game that can reconfigure itself so even re-entering the same room can be a fresh challenge.

alt="Titanic Diver's Suit Found"/>
alt="Titanic Rooms to search"/>

[Here we see the diver's suit preparing to float away after being found, and some of the rooms to explore available at this stage.]

The gameplay is intuitive- tapping, basic joystick/D-Pad movement, simple interface. Rock solid gameplay- one of Astraware’s hallmarks. OK, so it is sometimes a little slow to load, and once froze my PDA. This is neither a surprise (considering all of the graphics involved), nor really one of the headaches.

Headache 1 is the screen and graphics. This is, at heart, a hidden picture game. Some items are “hidden” in plain site. Some are camouflaged by surrounding items. Some are partially hidden by other items, shadows, doors, etc. Some look a lot like other things- a metal diamond and a protractor look like natural parts of a metal fence. Some are hidden by sheer virtue of all the stuff on screen- and tapping wrong items costs you oxygen! Dang!

alt="One Puzzle"/>

[Introducing an early puzzle- you have to find each of these items in the next room]

alt="Annoying Page"/>
alt="Annoying Page 2"/>

[Some of the headaches- a screen that comes up at the beginning of each dive, and the all-too-frequent 'oh, oh!' screen]

To pack all of the detail needed to make this work and to keep it a high enough level to excite most Palm users, the screen is pushing the resolution of my Palm T/X. I had to take off my glasses and hold the screen close enough to get nose prints on it. I was also angling the screen all over the place to try to resolve some of the images, especially darker things. I hate to think what someone with a smaller-screened Palm would have to do! I truly got a headache playing the game for more than a few minutes. (Oh, and make sure your touchscreen is properly aligned!)

Headache 2 is trying to explain what I feel about the game. It’s addictive. Every time I got a screen up, I had to play it off even as my eyes were crossing trying to find a fishing lure or a tennis racket. I was annoyed by the oddness of some of the items (green plants and lizards in an old sunken ship? Shades of SpongeBob!) It drives me crazy. How in the HECK was that fishing lure hiding THERE the entire time? I really hate having to hit “help”, but I needed it a couple times. I handed it to my teens to try to find stuff, and I did not get my Palm back for several minutes as they worked away.

Not quite the addictive force of Astraware’s Bejeweled or Text Twist, and not quite the challenge of Astraware Sudoku’s higher levels, it is nonetheless a solid game and the hint of more in the series is intriguing. Oh well, pass me the aspirin and let me get back to the ship!

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Entertainment, Palm, Palm OS related, Software

Astraware Hidden Expedition: Titanic : Palm OS Game originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 13, 2007 at 4:21 pm.