November 1st, 2009

Holiday Gift Guide 2009: Digital Media Players

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 9:20 pm

Categories: Apple, Gadgets, Holiday Gift Guide, MP3 players, Microsoft, Portable gaming, Sony, Zune

Tags: Device, Apple iPod, Archos, Microsoft Zune, Apple iPod Nano, Apple Inc., Video, Archos 5 Internet Tablet, Pixel Resolution, Sony X-Series Walkman

For this Digital Media Player Holiday Guide we will be taking a look at the best devices that offer a complete music playing and video watching experience. There are still some devices that specialize in one or the other, but the capability has improved in most of them so that both types of media content can be enjoyed. Last year we looked at both MP3 players and portable digital video players in two Guides, but are merging them this year since most perform both functions well. Some of these devices can be used for web browsing, 3rd party application usage, and gaming, but we will focus on the music and video support while mentioning some of these more advanced capabilities.

You will see some of the same brand names in this Holiday Guide, but you will also see that updated models continue to improve on the media experience and for the most part you can’t go wrong with these players. You will see that the Guide is arranged in order from highest price device to lowest price device since price is a major factor when you look at one of these media players to purchase.

Archos 5 Internet Tablet

The Archos 5 Internet Tablet is powered by the Google Android operating system and is focused on the media experience with Internet browsing also being a prominent feature. Archos has been know at excelling in portable video playing capability and the Archos 5 continues that tradition. You can view HD video content and photos on the 4.8 inch 800×480 pixel resolution display. The Archos 5 Internet Tablet supports the following video formats; MPEG-4 HD (up to 720p), MPEG-48, H.264, WMV, MKV, and M-JPEG. Supported audio formats include MP3, WMA, AAC+, Ogg Vorbis, and Flac. There are some optional plug-ins available to further enhance support on the Archos 5.

In addition to the various hard drive capacities, the Archos 5 has a microSD card slot with support up to 32GB, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, FM receiver with RDS, and FM transmitter. There are a couple additional accessories to extend the functionality of the device to your TV as well.

With the Google Android operating system you will find that many third party apps seen on Google Android smartphones also work on the Archos 5 Tablet.

Price: $499.99 MSRP for 500GB unit, $399.99 for 160GB, and $379.99 for 32GB Flash drive

[Check out review pages for the 500GB and 32GB models]

Go to the next page »

October 27th, 2009

Roku adds 2 new players, including the HD-XR with 802.11n support

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 5:33 am

Categories: Apple, Gadgets, Mobile software, On the road, iPhone

Tags: NetFlix Inc., Player, IEEE 802.11n, Roku Inc., Roku HD-XR, Wireless LANs, Wi-Fi, Tv & Home Theater, TVs, Wireless And Mobility

I have been a Netflix user for some time, but a few months ago I discovered the Roku player that lets me stream “Watch Instantly” Netflix content to my TV and jumped on the $99 device. There is no additional cost to you to stream this content to your TV with your compatible Netflix account. I was then able to downgrade my Netflix account to one DVD out at a time and my family has been extremely pleased with the Roku functionality. The Roku is dead simple to hookup and operate while giving you access to Netflix streaming content and your Amazon Video on Demand content. Last week I was sent a new Roku HD-XR box that adds 802.11n (the previous Roku had 802.11b/g) and a USB port (for future use).

Here is a breakdown of the two new Roku players added to the existing Roku HD player:

• Roku SD player (new): $79.99, connects to your TV via composite video outputs with L/R RCA audio. An ethernet port is present, along with 802.11 b/g WiFi.
• Roku HD player: $99.99, product that is currently shipping today w/ HDMI, component, composite, s-video and L/R RCA and optical video outputs along with Ethernet and Wi-Fi b/g. This model supports HD streaming from partners, currently including Amazon Video On Demand.
• Roku HD-XR (new): $129.99, same video and audio outputs as Roku HD player that also includes Wi-Fi n/b/g and a USB port for future use. The Roku HD-XR is the first Netflix streaming device to incorporate 802.11n connectivity protocol.

802.11n gives you greater range and better signal strength than 802.11b/g, but there shouldn’t be much of a difference in speeds since content partners have limits on the streams. Fortunately, my main 37 inch LCD TV is in the next room only about three feet from my WiFi router so I have never had an issue with signal strength.

All the Roku players have the same black box dimensions, with different ports on the back that set them apart.

I understand Roku is working with more content providers and we should see some interesting additions in the coming weeks.

iPhone app: While the Roku is not necessarily a mobile device, it is very compact and something you may want to travel with to enjoy your Netflix content in hotel rooms on a larger display rather than your small laptop screen. I also found a 99 cent iPhone application  (seems there are really apps for just about everything today) called DVPRemote (iTunes link) that gives you a full Roku remote control right on your iPhone/iPod touch so you can use it to control your Roku device.

After installation of the app, you simply make sure WiFi is enabled and then tap the button to discover your Roku player. You can then name your Roku player and give it a location (such as the home theater room). After saving this setup you can then control your Roku player and leave the included remote control in the drawer.

If you want to use a Roku player on a TV that is far away from your WiFi router then you might want to consider upgrading to the HD-XR. We don’t yet now what the USB port is for, but maybe it will be used to let you access content stored on a hard drive. Remember that you will also need to have an 802.11n router in place and last weekend I tried a Belkin one that didn’t work out. I may pick up an Airport Extreme router or some other model soon to try out.

My family thoroughly enjoys the Roku HD player and if you are a Netflix subscriber I highly recommend you pick one up to enjoy. There are actually hundreds of movies and TV shows that are available and my Instant Queue is much larger than my physical DVD Queue so content is not lacking.

September 21st, 2009

Review: iPod nano 5th generation gives you 16 video recording modes

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 5:17 am

Categories: Apple, Gadgets, MP3 players

Tags: Apple iPod, FM-radio, Apple iPod Nano, Video Camera, Video, Camera, Music, Corporate Communications, Digital Music, Digital Media

Apple recently rolled out their latest iPod lineup and IMHO the most interesting device announced was the new 5th generation iPod nano. I had no plans to purchase a new Apple product, but couldn’t pass up a few of the new key features of the nano, including the pedometer, FM radio, and video camera. The new nano is available in nine different colors and I went with the orange one since I wanted a color that stood out a bit from my other devices. You can check out my image gallery, along with a video walk around the device and a video that includes each of the modes in the video camera.

	Image Gallery:Check out some product photos and a comparison of the iPod nano 5th generation with the 2nd generation iPod and Zune 4GB.

Available options and box contents

The nano is available in nine colors in both 8GB and 16GB capacities. The 8GB model is available for $149 and the 16GB is $179 so for just $30 more you get double the capacity.

Inside the box you will find the nano, stereo earphones, USB 2.0 cable, dock adapter, and Quick Start guide. The box is clear plastic and is the minimum size needed to hold the nano and accessories.

Initial impressions

The iPod nano comes in polished anodized aluminum and feels great in your hand. It is lighter than I thought it would be and I like the tapered edges that make it feel smaller than it actually is. Before I loaded any music on the device I plugged in my headset and Read the rest of this entry »

September 17th, 2009

MobileTechRoundup show #182, Moto CLIQ, ZuneHD, iPod nano, HP Envy

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 8:21 am

Categories: Apple, BlackBerry, MP3 players, MoTR podcast, Mobile software, Zune

Tags: MobileTechRoundup, Apple iPod, Hewlett-Packard Co., Opera Software ASA, Apple iPod Nano, Opera Mini 5 Beta, Digital Music, Digital Media, Personal Technology, Consumer Electronics

Listen here (MP3, 35.2 MB, 38:20 minutes)

Subscribe to the show with this link (RSS)

We missed recording last week due to the Mobilize 2009 event so MobileTechRoundup show #182 is a bit longer than normal as James, Kevin, and I chatted about mobile tech products. James and Kevin had a chance to play with the upcoming T-Mobile Motorola CLIQ Google Android device that will be tough for me to resist. I talked about my new Zune HD and iPod nano and then I learned about Opera 10’s Turbo Mode on a PC. Opera Mini 5 beta is out for Java-enabled phones and adds some great new features, all for FREE. James also had a chance to swing by the HP offices and play with the new Envy notebooks that have features you may envy, but at a price you may not.

September 14th, 2009

Shortcovers has ePub ebooks for reading enjoyment on several platforms

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 12:56 pm

Categories: Apple, Gadgets, Mobile software, Palm, Smartphone, ebooks, iPhone, mobile services

Tags: Shortcovers, ePub, E-books, Personal Technology, Matthew Miller

While there are now thousands of applications for the Google Android platform, one area that has very few alternatives is the ebook reader category. Several months ago I did find the Shortcovers application and ebook store. At the time I tried it though you needed a connection to read books on the Android since only a certain number of pages were available. That has appeared to change now with downloadable books, but even better for me personally is that I read on MobileRead that you can now browse, purchase, and download books in ePub format for the Sony Reader and several other dedicated ebook readers. To compete with Amazon, Shortcovers even offers many of the latest and greatest books for just US$9.99 and I think I have found my new online ebook store to use across multiple platforms.

Their ePub books can be loaded onto the following devices using the Adobe Digital Editions free software from your Mac or PC:

• Sony Reader (PRS-300, 600, 505, 700)
• Asktak EZ Reader or EZ Reader Pocket Pro (see my review)
• BeBook (One, Mini)
• Bookeen (Cybook Opus, Gen 3)
• COOL-ER Classic
• Elonex eBook 600
• HanLin eBook (V3, V5)
• REX Digital Reader 1000S
• Neolux NUUT2

You can also read these ePub title on your PC or Mac using the same Adobe Digital Editions software that you use to transfer the books to your dedicated reader. As you can see the folks at Shortcovers want to enable you to read your ebooks on just about any platform available, unlike the Amazon Kindle format currently just for Kindle devices and iPhones/iPod touches.

In addition to the ePub formatted books for download and installation on your ebook reader, they currently have mobile clients for the iPhone/iPod touch, BlackBerry, Google Android, and Palm WebOS platforms with clients for Symbian and Windows Mobile under development.

August 4th, 2009

Tablet devices suck, so why does Apple want to make one?

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 7:08 am

Categories: Apple, Gadgets, On the road, Rumors, Tablet PC

Tags: Apple Inc., Tablets, Notebooks, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Matthew Miller

The rumors of an Apple tablet/large screen iPod continue to live on, along with the possible upcoming Crunchpad device. After reading Jeremy Toeman’s latest article titled, The Tablet That Nobody Really Wants…, I have to say I think he put into words perfectly what most of us have been thinking. Wired posted an article stating that 2010 may be the year of the tablet, but I respectfully disagree and don’t think any year will be the year of the tablet. People rarely write with a pen and paper anymore and I don’t think they will go back to handwriting, especially on an electronic screen that cannot compete with a nice sheet of paper.

I have tried different tablet devices in the past and I see very little benefit from them for the majority of people. The iPhone/iPod touch seem to be just about as big as you need for a productive web surfing and media consumption device and a tablet Apple really does not make much sense to me.

I do think the handwriting recognition found in Windows Tablet PCs is actually extremely accurate and quite remarkable. That said, I am still way more accurate and productive on a QWERTY keyboard and find little benefit in handwriting on a computer screen. The convertible Tablet PC devices do give you a full notebook experience along with a tablet experience, but these have never seemed to sell that well and are priced quite high compared to a comparable netbook.

Does anyone think a tablet device doesn’t suck?

July 22nd, 2009

Will pre-teens really adopt the new iPod touch as a VoIP phone?

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 7:39 am

Categories: Apple, Gadgets, Rumors, VoIP

Tags: VoIP, Phone, Apple iPod, Apple iPod Touch, VoIP Phone, Digital Music, Digital Media, Telephony, Telecommunications, Personal Technology

I generally agree with my friend Andy Abramsom and greatly respect his opinion. He posted today on why he thinks the upcoming rumored iPod touch will be huge for VoIP and multimedia, but I don’t think it will have as big of an impact with the teen crowd as he indicates. This new device is rumored to have an integrated microphone, digital camera, and 64GB of memory. I agree that the savvy traveler may desire to use this new device to connect via WiFi and place and receive inexpensive VoIP calls. However, this same traveler can do this now with the iPhone and SIM card removed so I don’t think there will be a huge impact in iPod touch sales due to the microphone.

Andy sees disruptive uptake in the pre-teen who needs a phone, but cannot afford a contract. As a father of a couple of teen daughters, who have cell phones and an iPod touch, I honestly cannot see an iPod touch serving as a phone replacement for a couple of reasons. My girls text 90% of the time they use their phone and the only time they really place calls is to me and my wife. Also, in order to use the iPod touch as a phone they would have to be connected to a WiFi hotspot and the only place they really have that access is at home where they can just connect to their IM client and chat today. I would like to hear more about the basis behind Andy’s belief that pre-teens will use the iPod touch via VoIP. Another issue is the training and education needed to enable VoIP, but I suppose this can be a simple experience through applications like Truphone and Skype.

Given how much fun my daughters have with the Nintendo DSi’s rather limited camera, I do think that the addition of the camera can have a huge impact on iPod touch sales for those younger consumers. I imagine Apple or third party developers will also come out with software similar to what we see on the DSi so that people can have a lot of fun manipulating photos and video footage. We may soon see some crazy videos on YouTube, but I think it is also important for parents to keep an eye on what is being posted for the world to see from their kids. It looks like the iPod touch could add another item to a parent’s list of things to closely monitor as they seek to keep their children safe.

July 13th, 2009

Can Apple launch a tablet device and do what it did with the iPhone?

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 12:21 pm

Categories: Apple, Gadgets, Rumors, Tablet PC, UMPC, Ultra portable PC

Tags: Apple iPhone, Apple Inc., Tablets, Notebooks, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Matthew Miller

Both Andrew and Jason posted the news about the latest Apple tablet computer rumor that has the 9.7 inch device slated for an October release for $800. As a guy who tried a few Windows Tablet PC devices in the past, but rarely even used the touch screen functionality of the Tablets I at first just kind of shrugged off this latest rumor. Then I paused and thought a bit more about what Apple did with the smartphone market after launching the iPhone and now I think there are some real possibilities here for Apple to again demonstrate how something like a large screen tablet can be done right.

We have had Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Nokia, and Palm smartphones around for years when the Apple iPhone was launched. Those of us in the mobile industry and those in corporate environments were fairly familiar with wireless data access, but it seems that very few consumers fully understood what a phone could do for them. Apple changed the game with the iPhone launch and their huge marketing campaign that made people aware of what these devices could do. I actually think that Apple and the iPhone probably helped out every mobile operating system as it brought a level of understanding to the entire mobile phone community and then people started realizing there were more choices available.

The Tablet PC and UMPC market never really took off for Microsoft and was a pretty niche market with a few selected areas of industry (primarily healthcare and field workers) that embraced the technology and devices. Netbooks swooped in at low prices and in form factors that people are used to working with and I think essentially killed off any possibility of Tablet PCs ever taking off. Tablet PCs and UMPCs were priced too high for consumers at $1,000 to $2,500+ with little real advantage over a much cheaper notebook.

If Apple can launch a tablet form factor device for $800, people may find a way to afford it. Apple is going to have to “tell the story” (something my buddy Michael Gartenberg likes to say) of why and how this tablet device can improve your life and be an enjoyable product. Apple will probably sell at least a million right off the bat to Apple fans, but they also need to go beyond that base to have a successful product. Given what Apple has done with the iPhone and the App Store I am actually excited to see what that looks like in a device of this form factor.

I don’t think they can just release a MacBook without a keyboard and a touch sensitive on-screen keyboard and have a product that everyone wants to own, which may be why it is taking so long to come out with a tablet Apple device. Will we see some new text input technology? Will we see some new way to manage and use your media content from the Apple tablet? Will social networking, Internet browsing, and sharing media with family and friends have a whole new look? There are some cool things Apple can do here with this form factor and we will just have to continue to wait and see if this rumored device ever appears.

May 12th, 2009

Microsoft finally shows why the Zune stands out against the iPod

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 7:03 am

Categories: Apple, Gadgets, MP3 players, Microsoft, Zune

Tags: Apple iPod, Microsoft Zune, Microsoft Corp., Digital Music, Digital Media, Personal Technology, Consumer Electronics, Matthew Miller

I’ve written a few times about the Microsoft Zune and why I think the subscription model is a better value for all of us who have small personal music collections. When Microsoft changed their subscription policy and started giving you 10 free tunes a month as part of your $15 monthly fee it became a no-brainer to sign up for the Zune Pass and start to create or add to your personal music collection. Andrew posted on the new Zune ads that pit the Zune Pass against iTunes and clearly shows the significant price advantage of the Zune Pass.

While the $30,000 number may be a bit of an exaggeration, it is tough to argue that the Zune Pass is not a good deal. Assuming each song costs about $1, you are only paying $5 for the ability to listen to all the music you want each month while getting to buy and keep 10 songs to have with you forever. You could pay $10 on iTunes and get 10 songs, but that is all you could listen to for that price. I understand there are people with huge collections already, but for new digital music player fans and younger people just building up their collection, the Zune Pass is really the way to go.

I have also heard many iPod fans agreeing that the Zune desktop software is better than iTunes so what is the real advantage to the iPod and iTunes? The iPhone and iPod touch stand apart, but for dedicated music players I prefer the Zune devices over iPods because I find the navigation controls to be better and the hardware of the new Zune generation is solid.

April 25th, 2009

MobileTechRoundup show #170, Viliv S5, Quickoffice for iPhone, 1 billion App Store downloads

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 4:09 pm

Categories: Apple, Gadgets, MoTR podcast, On the road, Ultra portable PC, iPhone

Tags: MobileTechRoundup, Apple iPhone, James, Netbooks, Nettops & MIDs, Hardware, Matthew Miller

Listen here (MP3, 29.4 MB, 32:00 minutes)

Subscribe to the show with this link (RSS)

Kevin and I both have the MSI Wind netbook and don’t agree with Apple’s statement about them being junky, nor do millions of others, as we talked about at the start of MobileTechRoundup show #170. James has been looking at the Viliv S5 ultra portable and his articles have me quite interested in the device. He actually found it so impressive and useful that he decided to buy on for himself. We also chatted about QuickOffice for the iPhone along with apps that each of us use on each of our iPhone devices every day. Apple passed the 1 billion application download mark this past week too, which is quite an accomplishment no matter how you look at it.