Author: Scott Gruby

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Review: Viewcon Active USB Extension

One of the features of my Ooma system is the ability to add a Bluetooth Adaptor
so that I can use a Bluetooth headset with it. I bought the Bluetooth adapter and started trying out headsets. Unfortunately my Ooma box is in one room and my office is in the next. Despite getting a 10 ft. USB cable, I couldn’t get the Bluetooth adapter close enough to have a clear connection.

Not being deterred by this setback, I started poking around Amazon and found a Viewcon USB Active Extension. This is a USB to Cat5 adapter that can transmit a signal up to 150′. I was a bit skeptical at first as I knew that adding latency to the connection could degrade the signal. However, for $19 it was worth the risk. I chose this connector (there are a number of them) as it came with a power adapter which could come in handy to boost the signal.

Setup of this was quite simple. Since I already had Cat5 running from our TV room (where the Ooma is and is the center of my network) to my office, I just plugged the adapter into the Ooma, ran Cat5 to the wall and then Cat5 from the wall to the Bluetooth adapter. I did a few tests and was absolutely amazed that it worked without problems. Luckily the Bluetooth adapter was USB 1.1, so high speed transmission wasn’t a problem.

If you need to run a USB device from a different room or a long distance, this adapter is a dream.

Pros

  • Easy to setup.
  • Inexpensive.

Cons

  • None.

Summary

This device easily solved my problem at a reasonable price. There are lots of options out there and I just got lucky that on my first try, I got one that worked. The reviews for this and similar devices were very mixed, probably because people had much higher expectations; my needs were quite simple and this adapter met them.

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A nightmare shopping experience

Despite my wife warning me to not go shopping today, I decided to leave the house to look for a Logitech h800 wireless headset. I checked Best Buy’s website and saw that they had the headset in stock. (I wanted to get it locally in case I needed to return it.)

After a quick trip to Costco (it wasn’t too bad despite being this time of year) and Target, I headed to Best Buy. Parking was easy and then I went into the store to find the headset. It was a complete zoo, so I started looking for the headset. First I saw headsets in the PC area. They had some Logitech wireless headsets there, but not the h800. So I went to the mobile phone area and there were more headsets, but not the h800. Onto mp3 players to find more headsets, but not the h800.

So, I asked a sales person and he said to check over by the home stereo area as I had said “wireless headphones”. Nope, not there. Someone else suggested gaming. There were headsets, but not the h800. By this time, I was about to lose my mind. I tried to use Best Buy’s mobile website to verify that the store had it, but the Find in Store option kept spinning and didn’t show me results.

I went to one of the cash registers (they have them scattered throughout the store) and asked the guy behind the counter to look it up. He looked it up and the computer said they had 7 of them. He went into the back (I thought I’d never see him again) and when he came back maybe 10 minutes later, he said that they were unloading a truck and that they were probably in the shipment. However, he didn’t stop there and asked someone else who said that they wouldn’t have them listed in the computer unless they were already unloaded. The very helpful guy went with me looking for it. First was gaming to double check, then he said “let’s try wireless mice”. Presto, the headset was next to the wireless mice. I’m not sure I would have been able to find them without help. I profusely thanked the man and went on my way to pay.

So Best Buy has headsets in no less than 6 different locations in the store! I’m not sure that anyone there would have been able to find it on the first try. This was an exercise in frustration and a valuable lesson; shop online, it’s easier and faster!

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The value of hotel WiFi

It now seems that hotel WiFi is the norm with many places I stay having free access. However, sometimes even at free, it just isn’t worth it. At times, the speed can be so slow and problematic that it is more frustrating than anything to use. Up until May, I had a Sprint MiFi 3G router, so having poor hotel WiFi wasn’t an issue and for the most part, I didn’t even use the hotel WiFi. However, it is now important if I have any hope of getting something done in my hotel room.

In my last 3 trips to Portland, the hotel I’ve stayed at, Hotel Monaco, has WiFi that is a) free and b) works quite well. I’ve been able to stream Netflix, download apps, upload things, and even carry on FaceTime calls with excellent results.

I wonder if there is a site that rates hotel WiFi. Does good WiFi matter in a hotel room? With our always connected society, it almost might. I can do many things on my iPhone over 3G, but having WiFi is so much nicer.

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Review: The Oona

When I work, I put my iPhone on my desk next to my computer. Sometimes I pick it up or use it to make a phone call and thought that having a stand for it would be it more convenient. There are lots of stands out there and I didn’t get around to buying in until I saw a Kickstarter project called The Oona. I thought it looked neat and pledged some money towards it. The cost was a little expensive, but I was willing to give it a try.

All the updates sounded promising as the makers were testing different suction cups and designs.

After many delays and lack of communication, my product finally arrived. I set it on my desk, put my phone on it (my phone has no case or screen protector, so the suction cup was attached to the bare phone) and within a few minutes, my phone slid off the suction cup. I kept trying to get it to work and finally gave up. I wasn’t even going to attempt to use it in a place where my phone was more than a few inches off a surface as I don’t trust it.

The product had promise, but is a complete failure. I saw a deal come across for a plastic stand called The Jack and bought it. It was far cheaper than The Oona and actually works.

Pros
None

Cons

  • Expensive
  • Doesn’t work

Summary
Don’t buy it. This product is a complete waste and isn’t useful at all. The designers need to go back to the drawing board and work on the suction cups.

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Finding the right earbuds

I’ve used the earbuds that came with the iPods, iPhone, etc. for a long time and have been generally pleased with them. However, they just aren’t very reliable. I got one pair replaced in June because one side failed. This was a pair that I just used for phone calls and occasionally listening to music. I didn’t mistreat them, they just stopped working.

Since I managed to accumulate a bunch of the earbuds, I used a pair for running. Sweat really kills them, so I bought knockoffs that fared just as well as the Apple branded ones. The microphone, volume controls, or the speakers stopped working which has become increasingly frustrating.

So now I’m searching for the right earbuds for me. Actually, I’ve broken up my use of earbuds into 3 categories, each with a different pair. The first category is for when I fly. This year, it looks like I will have gone on 9 trips, and I’ve found that noise canceling earbuds make the trip so much nicer. I’ve been using the Audio-Technica ANC23 earbuds for a few months now and find them to be holding up well. I don’t like using these for phone calls as the noise canceling makes me sound strange when I talk. Also, they wouldn’t hold up for running and these don’t have a microphone or 3 button remote.

A few weeks ago, the Apple earbuds I use for phone calls stopped working. I went on a search and ended up with the V-MODA Remix Remote Headset and they seem to be working well. I like the 3 button remote and the sound quality is pretty good. My wife is going to get a pair as they have interchangeable inserts for different size ears.

Next up are earbuds for running. The reviews I’ve read about sweat proof ones have not been good. I want the 3 button remote with microphone so that I can control Siri and talk on the phone, if need be (I’ve only taken 2 calls while running this year). I might just have to bite the bullet and buy one or more pair to try. They aren’t cheap, however.

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Hell has frozen over

Earlier this year, a friend of mine that I’ve known for over 15 years told me that he bought an iPad. Normally I’d think nothing of it, but this friend has been writing Windows code (Windows desktop, mobile, embedded) for a long time and never came close to a Mac or Apple products. Then in October, he told me he got an iPhone 4S after liking his iPad. Oh no, what was next?

A few weeks back, he started asking me how hard would it be to learn iOS development. I told him it would take a little bit of time and that I’d help him if needed. One of his clients was interested in having him do some iOS development.

Today, he let me know that the 13″ MacBook Air that his client sent had just arrived. In less than a year, he now has basically a complete line up of Apple products (save for the Apple TV and some lesser used items). Will he come over to the Mac and iOS? I just read an article this evening about a former Microsoft Evangelist quitting his day job to write iOS apps. Maybe this will happen to my friend as well; it will give me something to pester him about if he does. “Why did it take you so long to wake up?” 🙂

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Review: Klein Non-Contact Voltage Tester

I’m not much of a tool person, but have my collection of tools and occasionally pick up something that looks like it could be useful. After one of my last projects doing electrical work, I picked up a Klein Non-Contact Voltage Tester from Home Depot. The concept is pretty simple, turn it on, wave it near a wire, electrical outlet, light switch, etc. and it will beep if there is electricity flowing. I’ve used it a few times mainly just to see how cool it is.

This past weekend, I discovered that the motion sensor in an outside light wasn’t working, so I needed to fix it. The problem was that since it wasn’t working, I didn’t know which circuit breaker to turn off and just relying on the light switch was potentially dangerous. While the switch was in a box with 2 other switches, I could hope that they were all on the same circuit, but given my luck, someone probably went against code and wired it such that 2 circuit breakers controlled the box.

I remembered that I had the Klein tool and pulled it out. With the breaker on, waving the tool over the switch showed electricity flowing. While I went outside to the breaker box, my wife, used the tool and let me know when I hit the right breaker. I was pretty confident that I wasn’t going to get shocked, so I took the light off the wall, used the tool again and verified that I wasn’t going to get zapped.

This tool is absolutely a tool that should be in every handyman’s (or handywoman’s) toolbox. It’s relatively inexpensive and saves you the trouble of getting knocked on your rear when you touch the live wires.

Pros

  • Relatively inexpensive.
  • Uses standard batteries.
  • Easy to use.

Cons

  • After changing the batteries the button gets stuck a lot requiring some wiggling to get it to work.

Summary

I definitely recommend this product. I’m sure I can resolve the hiccup with the switch by rubbing a little bar soap on the places that the button rubs. I wish I had gotten this years ago as I’ve gotten zapped at least twice because I wasn’t careful enough; I do test every outlet, but made assumptions because outlets in the same room were out, but not the ones that zapped me. This tool would have immediately told me to stop; it’s easier to use than a standard 3 prong tester or a regular test meter.

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Are you my neighbor?

When I went to walk my dog this evening, I found a present at the end of my driveway.

IMG 0767

With neighbors like these, who needs enemies? I did clean it up after I got back, but I find it very rude that some people don’t pick up after their dogs.

(My wife thinks it could be from a coyote, but I don’t think so. We live near a canyon, so it is a possibility.)

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Working with blocks

In Mac OS X 10.6 and iOS 4, Apple added blocks to Objective-C. When I first started looking at them because various APIs used them, the syntax confused me, and I pretty much ignored them as I was still doing work that ran on iOS 4 and Mac OS X 10.5.

This spring, all my projects moved to iOS 4 and Mac OS X 10.6 as the minimum requirements, so I took another pass at learning blocks. This time, however, I could actually use them and read all I could about them. The more I started looking at them, the more I became enamored with them. I started using blocks in my own APIs and just finished rewriting a significant chunk of code using blocks. Using blocks has made my code more readable and has greatly simplified certain aspects of our app.

One of my co-workers cautioned me to not use blocks just because they were the shiny new tool which I admit was what I was looking at doing. However, after using them, we found that using blocks was pretty much vital to making our code more readable.

For developers that aren’t familiar with blocks, I’d suggest learning them. With most iOS apps having a minimum OS of 4.0, there is no reason to avoid them.

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Siri and a 4 year old

I’ve been playing a lot with Siri on my iPhone 4S and am finding it pretty neat. I add reminders when running and when in the car. I’m also asking it the weather, temperature, etc. My 4 1/2 year old son saw me asking it “What’s the weather?” and he tried to do the same. Unfortunately he doesn’t enunciate well, so Siri gets very, very confused. He’s managed to get Siri to respond to something this evening; he asked it “What’s the weather in San Jose?” and it responded correctly.

So, while Siri works pretty well for me, I wonder how well it works for people that don’t speak clearly, have speech impediments or have thick accents. I know that Apple is still working on it, but right now, don’t expect Siri to work for a 4 year old!