D-Link DIR 655 Extreme N Gigabit Wireless Router (Video Review)

Super Fast Router with Printer and Hard Drive Sharing

I recently wired up my whole house with full gigabit ethernet ports in all of the rooms. The only problem is that my router, a five year old Belkin Wireless G router does not support gigabit networking or fast wi-fi speeds. To compound things my routert has been dropping my internet connection a lot lately, so I decided to upgrade the heart of my home network.

What I needed from a router

I had a few big requirements from my new router:

• The wired ports had to support gigabit data transfers (1,000 megabits per second)
• The wi-fi format had to be 802,11N
• Support for External USB Hard Drive networking

I did all of my research at Newegg.com and decided on the D-Link DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit Wireless Router. This router met all of my requriments for around $90.

Networking Setup – I just unplugged my old router and plugged this in and I had no problems.

USB Sharing – This was a little more tricky. There is a CD that comes with the router that lets you install a utility on Windows machines in a snap. The drive just shows up like a USB drive plugged right into my machine. The software for my Mac was not quite as effective, You have to do some crap from the command prompt and it doesn’t exactly work well. Oh joy, more fiddling. Linux is just as flakey.

Performance – I have not dropped the internet yet and my speed seems to be pretty good. The speed inside of my network is where this thing shines. I ran a backup of my Windows machine to the USB Hard drive and the transfers seemed really fast. I can’t wait to stream video to my TV.

Reccomendation

If you need a really fast router that allows you to plug in a USB drive or printer and don’t mind spending close to $100, then you should definitely take a look at the D-Link DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit Wireless Router. If you have more modest needs, head over to the Networking section at Newegg.com. and see their huge selection.

See the Video Review Below

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The BlackBerry Storm is Terrible

It Ain’t No BlackBerry and it Sure Ain’t No iPhone

This weekend my wife needed a new cell phone.  I’m on AT&T and using an iPhone. She’s on Verizon and will not consider changing. Since she likes my phone , but wants to stay on Verizon, the obvious answer is a BlackBerry Storm .

I was kind of excited because it would be cool to compare and contrast the iPhone and Storm.

Off to the Verizon store…

They actually had 3 working Storms to demo (nice!). She picked on up and started uncomfortably fiddling for a few minutes. All the while I’m hanging over her shoulder trying to help her find/do things. She was having such a terrible time of it and not mincing words. I just figured that it was all her.

Is it all Blackberries or just this one?

Since she wanted a Smartphone I recommended I suggested a traditional BlackBerry with a keyboard. We both tried a BlackBerry Curve 8330 . What a difference! It was smooth, stable, and easy to figure out. It just worked. This is what the old Palm Operating System should have become.

While she spends 20+ minutes with the sales representative I decided to give the Storm a shot (and see if it was just my wife’s fault).

What a craptacular user experience. Nothing is easy to find or do. Nothing behaves intuitively or smoothly. Menus jump around and wiggle away from your fingers. It’s super slow and clunky too.

I thought that the one I was using might be defective so I tried another one. Nope, still garbage. The BlackBerry Storm has the worst interface and most frustrating user experience I have seen on any consumer electronics device not manufactured by Sony.

The other BlackBerries have really nice interfaces that are so easy to use. RIM obviously knows how to make a good interface, so what happened here? Did they outsource the design to an out of worm American car designer? This thing is pure doo-doo. I would rank it far behind ant Windows Mobile, Nokia Symbian, and LG phones that my wife and I have had. Don’t even bring up my iPhone or the BlackBerry Bold.

Before you say “typical iPhone fanboy”, I would can tell you 20 things that suck about my iPhone. The problem is that I found about a hundred of them in 20 minutes on the BlackBerry storm.

What do you think?

Are there any BlackBerry Storm users who can point out what I’m missing? Maybe I missed something. Please let me know in the comments.

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Kodak Zi6 Pocket Video Camera – Product Review

Small Price, Smaller Camera, Mixed Results

I wanted a small portable video camera to carry around with me. There are currently a few decent options in this category:

• Kodak Zi6 Pocket Video Camera
• Flip Video Minio HD Camcorder
• Handycam Camcorder
• Kodak Zi6 Pocket Video Camera

I chose the Kodak Zi6 (around $150.00). Kodak uses the phrase "Catch Life as it Happens" as a tagline for this camera. I think that just about sums it up. It’s a great little camera for sticking in your pocket and taking anywhere to save your memories. The camera is fun, convenient, and simple (with just a few minor glitches).

Category	Rating	Comment
Fit and Finish	3.5 Stars	Overall nice, but a few flimsy spots.
Usability	4.5 Stars	Easy as pie.
Video Quality	2.5 Stars	Good in Daylight, Bad in Low light
Included Software	3.5 Stars	Good, not great
Convenience	5 Stars	You’ll take it everywhere and film everything
Value	4 Stars	Super value
Overall	3.8 Stars	Nice little point and shoot, take anywhere video camera.

What’s in the Box?

You get a nice collection of accessories to accompany your video camera:

• Carrying case (not particularly sturdy)
• Two rechargable AA batteries
• Battery charger that does AA and AAA batteries
• Standard definition TV cable Hi Def TV cable
• Video editing software

See the slides below:

Fit and Finish

3.5 out of 5 stars

The Kodak Zi6 looks like a gadget that would cost a lot more. It has a nice feel in my hand. The battery door opens a little too easily and the USB connection is also a kind of flimsy. Nothing jumps out at me as cheapish, but it does not have the feel of an iPhone or a Canon.

Usability

4.5 out of 5 stars

Open the box, grab the manual and throw it in the trash. You won’t need it! There are about 4 buttons on the whole camera and you will them figure out in 10 seconds. What a pleasure to use. Press one button to turn it on One more to start and stop recording One more to play back Three whole clicks to delete an unwanted clip Press another button to pop out the USB connector and load videos to your PC Press one more button and you’re on the YouTube You cannot make a device easier to use.

Video Quality

2.5 out of 5 stars

The videos are saved in Quicktime (.mov) file format. If you’re shooting in (very) good lighting conditions, the videos come out surprisingly good. If you are shooting in low light, you probably won’t be crazy about your results. There is no image stabilization built into the camera, which further complicates low light shooting. If you have to shoot in low light, try t
o use a tripod or brace yourself for best results. The microphone is also very sensitive and picks up wind noise outdoors. Stick to shooting in well lit areas. Try making one of these makeshift pocket sized tripods to cope with the lense shake issues.

Software

3.5 out of 5 stars

The included software is Arcsoft’s MediaImpression. The software is contained on the camera’s internal memory so that you can install it on any computer. The software does a nice job of importing, organizing, and editing your videos and images. If you want to do any serious editing and production, you’ll probably want to use something a little more sophisticated.

[caption id="attachment_698" align="alignnone" width="512" caption="Arcsoft Video Editing Software"][/caption]

Convenience

5 our of 5 stars

What it lacks in video qaulity, it more than makes up for in convenience. It seems as if every decision that Kodak made while building this centered around convenience. The software is loaded right on the camera The USB connection is built right into the camera You can upload your videos directly to YouTube with one click It fits in your pocket to go anywhere (just ask my irritated family) Easily playing your videos on your TV directly from the camera You will just love using this camera. It just works!

Value

4 out of 5 stars

You can buy this for $150.00 +/- on Amazon.com and have a pocket sized camera that shoots decent quality video. It does a lot for that amount.

Product Name Rating	Price Product Link
This is some more final analysis of the product. This is another some final analysis of the product. This is some final analysis of the product.
neg – This is the negative Review it should appear at the bottom.
pos – This is the positive review. it should appear above the negative one.

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iPod Touch One Year Later

Has Apple Done Enough to Overcome My Doubts?

The iPod Touch has been out for just about a year now (September 5th, 2007). When it came out last year, I wrote an article (Who Else Wanted More from the iPod Touch?). I thought that it was a very promising device, with several flaws that prevented me from pulling the trigger.

Well, there has been a full hardware upgrade released and several firmware releases since then. So how has Apple done to address my laundry list of wishes?

Wish List	Actual	Result
Realistic Storage	Slight Upgrade (Not even Close to enough)
GPS	Yes
Bluetooth	It’s there, BUT Apple has purposely made it unusable.
Third Party Applications and Games	Free and Paid through iTunes Store
Skype	Available with Fring Application

What’s Still Missing?

They’ve done a mediocre job of addressing some my big concerns, but what issues still need addressing?

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