Tag: Reviews

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Review: Ryobi One+ 18V Cordless Combo Kit

About a year ago, I wrote about getting the Ryobi One+ 18V Cordless Lithium-Ion 4-Piece Combo Kit. Once I got the kit, I put the tools to the test and was very pleased with it. I used the reciprocating saw (much larger than the 12V version) and the circular saw (again, larger than the 12V version) to remove a tree. Both tools worked acceptably. However, the circular saw started making a grinding noise, so it went in for service.

I’ve used my tools on and off since then and recently bought 2 more tools that go with the Ryobi One 18V line and am more than happy than the line of products. They aren’t the most expensive products and aren’t professional quality, but this kit has everything I need to do projects around the house. A few weeks back, I used a number of the tools to build a stand for our clothes dryer; I never had a circular saw before and never had a drill with so much power.

Pros

  • Powerful tools for home use.
  • Easy to swap batteries.
  • Fairly long lasting batteries.
  • Reconditioned saves a few bucks and probably doesn’t make a big difference in quality.
  • Magentic screw tray on the drill is handy.

Cons

  • Flashlight is kind of pointless.
  • Quality is questionable; the tools won’t hold up on a job site.
  • Circular saw is a little small; a 5 1/2″ blade will barely cut through a 2×4. If you accidentally lift the saw, you won’t cut through the bottom of the 2×4.
  • Extended use of drill may give you blisters; the drill is a bit heavy and the grip could be more comfortable.

Summary

While I was originally just trying to replace my old cordless drill, I now realize that by not having the right tools, really hampered my ability to do projects. This combo kit provides the right pieces for a homeowner that needs to do small, weekend projects. There are more expensive kits and tools, but they may be overkill for people like me that occasionally do home projects. If you’re in the market for a cordless drill, definitely consider a kit that has options for other tools. (I bought a jigsaw and a finish sander to go with the tool line.)

I know that Ryobi isn’t the most trusted name in tools, but the versatility of the product line and low cost of this, make it a winner in my book.

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Review: BusyCal

When the folks at BusyMac showed BusyCal off at Macworld Expo, I was excited to see an iCal replacement. Unfortunately, at the time, it didn’t handle CalDAV and we were using CalDAV at work. So, I didn’t have a use for it. The BusyMac folks do great work and I’ve known John and Dave for years. Now that BusyCal has been released, things have changed for me. I’m not using CalDAV at work (some people are, but some are now using Google Apps for Your Domain). I downloaded BusyCal, installed it, and within about 10 minutes, purchased it!

While on the surface, it looks like just an iCal replacement, it isn’t. It integrates with Google so well, that it simplifies my calendaring tremendously. I have 3 calendars I use for work, and 3 for home. All of the calendars are on Google in 2 separate accounts. I’m not really sure what to say about it, but it is much more pleasant to use than iCal; iCal feels like a dog compared to BusyCal. iCal’s CalDAV syncing (to Google) is problematic and has many quirks. For instance, if I receive an ics file sent to one account that is forwarded to another, iCal won’t let me add it. If I do the same thing with BusyCal, it lets me add the event without problems. In addition, I trust that the BusyMac folks will listen to feedback and make more frequent updates than iCal.

I’m not going to go in depth here as the trial version will give you the opportunity to test drive it in the comfort of your own home.

Pros

  • Excellent syncing with Google.
  • Ability to add .ics events without strange error messages.
  • Easier setup for Google syncing than iCal.
  • Responsive tech support.
  • Weather icons are a nice touch and saves me from having to watch the weather on the news.
  • The details for calendar events is much easier to use than iCal.

Cons

  • It’s not cheap at $40 per copy.
  • Doesn’t handle CalDAV calendars like iCal does.

Summary

If you use Google for calendaring, this application is a must have. If you have BusySync, it’s only a $10 upgrade, so it is definitely a no brainer. If you don’t have BusySync, but want easy calendaring, I don’t think you’ll regret this purchase. Go grab the trial and give it a whirl. If you’re like me, you’ll be hooked pretty quickly!

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Review: Ooma

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the promise of Ooma. I received the Ooma box soon after I wrote that and tested it. While the installation wasn’t hard, my first night I played with it, I ended up packing it up and almost writing it off. My biggest problem with how I hooked up the Ooma box was that I put it in front of my router as was recommend; that created a double NAT such that I had one internal network running inside of another internal network. For most people, this might not be a problem, but double NAT sometimes causes problems with VPN connections, iChat video sessions, and connecting back to my internal network using software such as EyeTV’s iPhone application.

So after the first failed attempt, I decided to give it another try the next day. This time, I just plugged the box into my switch. I have no idea if the Airport base stations support QOS, but my initial tests showed that downloading files didn’t affect voice quality. After my initial tests, I decided to call forward our home phone to the Ooma number, re-route some wires to have our cordless phones connected to the Ooma and I was off and running. The first time my wife tried to use the phone, she said that there was music on the line; I think my son had pressed one of the buttons and called voicemail. After I assured my wife it was fine, she made a call or two. While I was bathing my son, I heard my wife making a call and saying “can you hear me?” and basically apologizing because “her husband was doing something with the phone”.

After my son went to bed, I immediately disconnected the box, unforwarded the phone, packed up the system and prepared to return it. My wife said there was an echo on the line and she said there was a delay; both common issues with VOIP systems. So, my Ooma experiment was a complete failure.

Pros

  • Lots of features.
  • Low cost.

Cons

  • Poor voice quality.
  • Yearly cost for basic service has gone up due to changes in terms of service.
  • Unsure of viability of company.
  • Company ethics may be questionable; initially the company used “peer-to-peer” telephone which used your phone line for other people’s phone calls to save on termination costs. They have since stopped that practice.

Summary

Ooma and other VOIP systems have great promise and while I’d like to think that I’m willing to experiment with technology, messing with telephone service is bordering on crazy for me. Others that have used VOIP services and are pleased with them may like Ooma. For me, going from a landline to a VOIP system for my home phone just isn’t going to happen now. I’ll keep trying to get a cheaper phone service, but now isn’t the time to pull the plug on the old reliable phone company.

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Review: Squeezebox Duet

I’ve been a big fan of the Squeezebox music systems for a number of years since I installed a music system in our house. I had 2 of the Squeezebox Classic boxes (before the cool redesign). Last year I saw a special on a Squeezebox Duet, so I splurged and bought it.

We didn’t need the box and had controlled all our music using the web interface to the Squeezebox software, so this box was quite gimicky. One of the things that this gave us was a 3rd source to our music system so that we could easily switch between our son’s music and our music. We didn’t use the controller much and it sat on my desk for most of the last year.

In the last few months, our son has wanted to listen to more music and changes what he wants to hear quickly. This has made the controller not just ideal, but almost necessary. The frequent upgrades to the software have really refined the interface and it lets us control all 3 music sources running off the Squeezebox software.

If you don’t already have a music server or aren’t willing to leave a computer on all the time to run the Squeezebox software, the Squeezebox Duet is pretty useless. In addition, if you don’t have a distributed music system, it may also have limited utility. The system is a bit hard to grasp for non-techies, but once I showed my mother-in-law how it worked (and how our music system works in general), she basically wanted a system like it.

Pros

  • Easy to use.
  • Bright screen.
  • Controls other Squeezebox units.

Cons

  • Pricey. List price of about $350 is not for the faint of heart.
  • Squeezebox software requires a computer to be on most, if not all, of the time.
  • Not all that useful without a distributed audio system which makes it even pricier.
  • Battery life is not great, so we leave it in the charger most of the time.

Summary

You’re probably saying that I usually give high marks to things that I review. Well, you’re kind of right. I usually do a lot of research before my purchases, so I’m not disappointed. The Squeezebox Duet falls into the same category (initially it didn’t). If you have a music setup like mine, this device is almost a must have. It’s price is a bit of a stumbling block, but if you factor it into the cost of a full house music system, it is much easier to justify.

Note

While not directly related to the Duet, each time I upgrade the Squeezebox software, I have to wait for some nice person to update the XMRadio Plugin. While Logitech (they bought Slim Devices) directly supports Sirius, use XMRadio subscribers rely on third parties. I wish that Logitech would work with XM to directly support the plugin. XM and Sirius are now the same company, so it seems that there is precedent for online streaming.

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Review: Big Skinny Wallet

In a break from my normal tech reviews, he’s a review for the average Joe.

Before we left for New York, I emptied many items from my wallet and saw that cards became much looser, so I had to rearrange things a bit. While we were in New York (as seems to happen in most cities we visit), there was a street market with people selling all kinds of junk. We passed a few places selling wallets, but I couldn’t justify spending $10 on a cheap wallet when I had only paid $15 for my wallet at Mervyn’s (RIP).

On our way back, we saw another vendor selling Big Skinny Wallets, so we stopped. These wallets were different from the others we saw and my wife asked if the cards would fall out when there were fewer cards in it. The vendor said no and turned a sample wallet upside down. That was only the icing on the cake. He also had a comparison with a normal, leather wallet and the thickness difference was stunning. I asked the cost and he said $20. I was sold. My wife reminded me that I balked at $10, but jumped at $20. Oh well, the salesman was pretty good.

I’ve now had the wallet for about a week and a half now and I keep thinking I’m going to lose it because all my back pockets are stretched to fit my old leather wallet! While the salesman was good, I was a bit cautious in my enthusiasm when I bought it. Well, so far, I’d buy one of these wallets again without hesitation (provided it holds up).

Pros

  • Very thin
  • Cards stay in when the wallet is turned upside down

Cons

  • A little more expensive than the average wallet I’ve gotten
  • Unknown lifetime

Summary

I have absolutely no complaints with this wallet. Every time I pick it up, I’m amazed at how thin it is. I’m hoping that it lasts; all other reviews I’ve read have also given it high marks.

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New blog focus

As some of you may have noticed, I’ve started writing more reviews of products. While I’m not a huge fan of reviews that some people review (I don’t believe their unbiased or fair), I’ll let my readers be the judge of the value of my reviews. For the most part, people don’t send me products nor ask me to review software. These reviews are for products that I purchase; I do my own research and, of course, read other reviews before purchasing products.

If you have any questions about what I review, please ask and I’ll do my best to answer them. I’m quite critical of products as I don’t like wasting my hard earned money. If you like my reviews, please use the Amazon link on the right to make purchases.

If you think I own a product that you’d like reviewed, please let me know. I don’t review everything I own as I’d bore myself.

If you have a product you want me to review and aren’t afraid of my honest feedback, contact me and I’d be more than happy to review it.

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Review: PCT 4 port Coax Amplifier

I was having problems with my EyeTV recording digital channels and finally decided to give an amplifier a try. The EyeTV showed I had a signal strength of 20% which seemed low according to all the forums I read. After a bit of research I ended up with the PCT 4 Port amplifier.

It was fairly inexpensive from Amazon, but based on the reviews, I had high hopes for the little box. My only hesitation in getting any amplifier is that a cable tech had told me years ago that an amplifier put inline before my cable modem could cause problems. I received the amplifier about a week and a half ago and quickly plugged it in. EyeTV reported I had a signal strength of between 30 and 32%! That is about a 50% increase in signal strength; I had hoped for more, but that was a decent increase. So far, I have not had one recording that has been blocky and the EyeTV has been working quite well.

Pros

  • Inexpensive (a quality passive splitter costs about the same amount)
  • Easy to install
  • Excellent performance
  • Doesn’t seem to have affected my cable modem performance

Cons

  • I had to supply my own coax cable to connect the power supply to the amplifier; this would have been a problem, but I bought a few cheap coax cables recently

Overall

If you have to split a coax signal, I’d definitely recommend one of these. If you don’t have to split a coax signal and are having problems, this box is definitely worth a shot. However, as someone pointed out in a comment in another post, terminate all the ports that aren’t in use. In my case, all 4 ports are in use, so I didn’t have to terminate any ports.

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Review: Harmony 880 Remote

Never goto Costco when you’re hungry. The other day I went to Costco to pick something up and walked out with a Logitech Harmony 880 remote. I had a Harmony 520 remote before and wasn’t all that impressed with it, but it has been a few years, so I decided to give it another try. With my new media center and TV, I now have 4 remotes to deal with everything, so life is much more complicated. Prior to my new TV and media center, my TiVo remote controlled the TV and TiVo, so I wasn’t used to multiple remotes.

When I first started configuring the remote, I saw the awful desktop software that hadn’t really improved since the 520 I had before. After a lot of work, I managed to get the “Devices” configured and things seemed to work. Where I really got confused was the activities; I just wanted to replace multiple remotes with one and switch between them. After more beating my head against the computer, I finally grasped the “activities”. For me, the activities are pretty simple, Watch TV, Watch EyeTV, Watch TiVo. I wanted to use the TV volume and have the rest of the controls work for the TiVo or EyeTV. In my first full day of testing, I can say that everything is almost working, but I’ve had to tweak the settings a half dozen times.

Time will tell if this will work out for me and be a true replacement for the jumble of remotes. After I’m satisfied with it, the next test will be to see if my wife will accept the remote. She’s very reluctant to change and I still haven’t had her “run” the EyeTV.

Pros

  • Great physical feel; reminds me of the TiVo remote.
  • Handles multiple devices.
  • Nice color screen.
  • Rechargable battery.
  • Pretty much can be configured to work with any device.

Cons

  • Desktop software is horrendous to use. It tries to walk you through everything which makes it cumbersome. Furthermore, it is some type of web app and really only a shell.
  • I’m not quite used to the keys; they don’t quite map to my remotes so I have to use the “soft keys”.
  • Tweaking controls takes time. For instance, each time I hit one key for the EyeTV, it sent the command twice. I had to walk through the help to fix it.
  • Concept of activities is hard for me to grasp.

Overall impression

The jury is still out; since I bought it from Costco and it isn’t a TV/MP3 player, etc. I can return it when I’m done evaluating it and it doesn’t have to be within 90 days. I’m going to keep working with it and see if I can work through the quirks as it is highly configurable.

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Review: EyeTV

41+fCBQnIAL._SL160_.jpgNow that I have a high definition TV, I needed to find a solution to record HD content. We’ve had a TiVo for 5 years now, so watching live TV on a regular basis was not an option. After some research, I decided to turn a Mac Mini I had into a media center using El Gato’s EyeTV 250 Plus.

As I wrote before, the options for having 1 DVR that records analog cable and clear QAM channels are quite limited. The EyeTV handles this, so it is a huge plus for it.

The first thing I noticed after installing the EyeTV is that it isn’t a TiVo. Well, duh, it isn’t made by TiVo. The way I look at it, the TiVo is the gold standard in DVRs as the interface is easy to use, has Season Passes to record all episodes of a show and can be configured from a remote control. The EyeTV is a computer program and easiest way I’ve found to do the scheduling is to use Apple Remote Desktop to connect to the machine and use the program guide instead of being able to use the remote.

It took me awhile to figure out how to effectively use the remote control and on screen menus and last night was the first time I watched TV (I’ve had it for about a week now) using just the remote control and not using my MackBook Pro to control it. The quality is quite good and the on screen menus can be negotiated fairly easily (not as easily as the TiVo, however. Now that I’ve realized the limitation of the programming, I think I can live with it. However, it won’t pass the wife test; I’ll have to do the programming and show my wife how to view the recordings.

Pros

  • Ability to use an existing Mac to use as a DVR.
  • Easy to add drive space for expansion (add an external hard drive).
  • Records analog cable.
  • Records clear QAM channels.
  • Free TV Guide guide data for a year.
  • Record scheduling via TitanTV.
  • Ability to add commercial skipping (in recordings) using etv-comskip. This may be the killer feature of the EyeTV. In my testing, this has worked most of the time.
  • Recordings can be shared to other machines if they have EyeTV installed, or if they are exported to AppleTV and added to iTunes, or if they are exported to iPhone format and viewed over the web.

Cons

  • It isn’t a TiVo.
  • I haven’t figured out how to remotely schedule clear QAM channels.
  • Scheduling has to be done from a remote computer. A web interface (advertised via Bonjour) would be ideal.
  • On screen menus need work as there are far too many clicks to do anything. Take a look at the TiVo.
  • On screen menus seem slow.
  • Remote control is a piece of junk. It is far too light (in weight) and the buttons aren’t labelled to reflect what they do. I’ve had to look at the manual a few times and play around with it to figure out how to use it.
  • More needs to be done to allow full control via the remote control if El Gato wants to hits the media center market.
  • Toast Basic which is included is a waste as the only goal is to upsell you and while it is nice to have some kind of recording software, I don’t like getting slapped with “you can’t do this unless you upgrade”. El Gato might have been able to strike a better deal with Disco or just build in basic disc burning themselves. Mac OS X includes APIs for burning DVDs.
  • I haven’t found an option to automatically delete recordings after x days or when disc space gets slow.
  • No option to say how much disc space you want to devote to recordings.
  • No ability to stream live TV to other machines.
  • If recordings are shared for AppleTV (to share over iTunes), they have to be manually removed.

Overall Recommendation

I have a love/hate relationship with this product so far. I like being able to record HD and non-HD content using my setup without having to purchase more content. In addition, I like the commercial skipping (via open source software). The scheduling, however, is the biggest downside to making this a true TiVo replacement. In addition, the on screen menus need a lot of work. I’m definitely going to keep this and learn to use it more. However, I can’t whole heartedly recommend the EyeTV. It isn’t a product for the novice and won’t pass the wife test in ease of use. Some of the export options may make it more useful as I have a few trips coming up.

I’ll post updates as I learn more and possibly as the software gets updated.

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Review: PhotoLinker

As part of reviewing the i-Got-U GT-120, I searched for a Mac solution to handle geotagging of photos. There are lots of options on the Mac. I looked at many of them and GPSPhotoLinker worked quite well and was free to top it off. In addition, the interface was very Mac like. I liked what I saw, so I asked the developer for a copy of PhotoLinker, GPSPhotoLinker’s big brother, to review.

GPSPhotoLinker and PhotoLinker share a main purpose and that is to geotag photos. In both programs, you load in your track files. (Hint, create a folder on your hard drive and put all your track files there and keep them so that you can reference them later. Both programs link to the files and don’t copy them.) Both programs do their basic job well in that you load your tracks and pictures and basically click “geotag”. If all you need is geotagging, then I have to recommend the free GPSPhotoLinker as it worked well in my testing.

PhotoLinker starts adding bells and whistles that may make it worth $50 to prosumer or professional photographers.

PhotoLinker adds:

  • Cleaner interface. The basic PhotoLinker view puts the geotagging console hidden so that what you see are your pictures, a map, and tags associated with the picture. GPSPhotoLinker confuses the interface by having the first column be the area to geotag.
  • Ability to add EXIF tags outside of the standard geotagging information such as keywords, description, people shown, and event.
  • More customization in view options.

I put both products through some tests and the rest of this review will focus on the paid PhotoLinker product.

Pros

  • Easy to use.
  • Works well.
  • Clean user interface; very Mac like.

    There isn’t a lot to say as it does what it is supposed to do and does it simply.

Cons

  • Map choices aren’t all that useful; Google and the more mainstream maps aren’t options. The developer has indicated on his forums that this is due to licensing costs with the mainstream vendors.
  • No direct downloading of iGotU data. (The open source iGotU software is GPL licensed which would make it impossible without separate arrangements to integrate it.)
  • No AppleScript support. Normally I wouldn’t care, but when my end goal is to get geotagged files into iPhoto, automation would be most welcome.
  • Cost is a bit high.

Overall impressions

I really like the concept of geotagging my photos. I don’t travel all that much, but anticipate taking vacations in the future with my family (have you ever travelled with a 2 year old? It isn’t the most pleasant experience.) For basic geotagging needs, the free GPSPhotoLinker will handle all my needs. I can’t justify the $50 for PhotoLinker for a few user interface improvements. I don’t see myself using additional EXIF tagging, so that feature isn’t a key to me. PhotoLinker will have to add some real compelling features to justify the cost; I can’t think of any features right now, so I’m not much help to the developer. I’d be more than happy to take another look at PhotoLinker when improvements are made to see if my recommendation against buying stands.

GPSPhotoLinker ScreenshotPhotoLinker Screenshot