Magellan

TomTom

I don't have an iPhone because they aren't on Verizon yet but I do have an iPod Touch that I wanted to try turn-by-turn GPS on. So I purchased apps from Navigon, Magellan and TomTom. Then, since the iPod Touch doesn't have GPS built-in, I had to purchase car mounts that do have GPS receivers.

I purcahsed the Magellan Premium Car Kit for iPhone and iPod Touch on April 15th for $130 and the TomTom iPod Touch Car Kit (there is a seperate one for the iPhone) on May 1st for $150.

They both work as advertised but the TomTom side of things has more cons. For example, the TomTom app only works with the TomTom mount. Software prevents the app from working with the Magellan mount. Furthermore, you must remove the cover/case on your iPod Touch to use the TomTom mount.

Both mounts allow the iPod Touch to access GPS signals. Google Maps and every location aware app can use the information. The Magellan, Navigon and TomTom turn-by-turn GPS apps work great with the TomTom mount as mentioned above. All apps work with the Magellan mount too except for TomTom's app. Thankfully, the Magellan mount doesn't require you to remove your cover/case from the iPod Touch.

Each mount supports Bluetooth and they both sport an extermal speaker. The speaker on the Magellan is on the bottom and the TomTom speaker is on the back. Both mounts can be rotated into a landscape position as desired.

I purchased this tiny Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n wireless access point/router back on April 30th from Amazon to use on trips to places with wired ethernet.  Dispite the fact that it literally has no manufacturer name, I took a chance on it for $40.  I'm personally just going to use it as an access point and to that end it delivers.  I've kept security off on it to make connecting devices to it ultra quick and easy.  My iPod Touch loves it at 150 mbps (max) using the optional antenna on the go.

This travel size gadget has a sliding switch to go from AP, WDS (bridge + repeater) and client modes so there is no need to make changes in a browser while connected to it.  There is one additional ethernet port on it which makes it a router when used in conjunction with the wireless.  Security includes: WEP 64/128, WPA, WPA2 mixed, 802.1x and 802.11i.  It even has wireless QoS, 802.11e, WMM and WPS support.

I've beening using an iPod of some sort or another for a few years now to enjoy my favorite tunes.  Before my iPod era, I spinned CD's and before them cassette tapes.  I only handled a few 8-track tapes when I was very, very young but they weren't mine.

Now streaming radio music is about to overthrow everything that has come before (for me anyway).  I can actually see not buying as much music from iTunes for sure.  Even a collection of my favorite music has become stale over time and newer music costs money.

Of course the best versions of streaming internet radio cost money too.  I'm currently using Slacker Radio Plus for $47.88 a year ($3.99/month).  The "Plus" adds the following features over the "free" version: ad-free listening, unlimited skips, mobile station caching and complete lyrics.  The key feature for me is the mobile station caching.  During the night or anytime, I can have the mobile app version of Slacker Radio (not the iPod Touch version yet) download a number of stations: as much as my phone's memory card can hold.  The next day, I can go anywhere and play the stations back without a Wi-Fi connection or a cellular signal.  All the while, I'm discovering new songs without having to pay for each and every one of them.  There is even a search to go straight to a particular song or artist.  Also, unlike radio I can sneak a peek of what each next song will be if I want and there is the skipping song feature I mentioned early.

I've tried Pandora Radio, Last.fm, Rhapsody and others but to me Slacker Radio is the best.  I'm not interested in listening to news or sports on the radio (I have the internet) so even Sirius XM is going away.  I've beening using Sirius XM's mobile app on my iPod Touch to stream their stations over Wi-Fi but their monthly price is too high.  I have a XM Radio satellite antenna and receiver connected to my A/V system but don't see any reason to keep it because I can simply connect my iPod Touch with Slacker Radio app to it instead.  Oh and my Sony BDP-N460 Blu-ray player has Slacker Radio on it too.

Try the free version of Slacker Radio and you will not be disappointed.

RECOMMENDED

May 1, 2010

• Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
• Avatar
• Collateral
• District B13 / District B13: Ultimatum
• Dune
• Elizabeth
• Elizabeth: The Golden Age
• Fantastic Mr. Fox
• Fist of Legend
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
• Iron Monkey
• Jet Li's Fearless
• The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy
• The Men Who Stare at Goats
• Minority Report
• Red Cliff
• The Relic
• Saving Private Ryan
• Sherlock Holmes
• Tombstone
• Toy Story
• Toy Story 2
• Twilight: New Moon
• Where the Wild Things Are
• Whip It

April 30, 2010

• 2012
• The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
• Astroboy
• The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day
• Clash of the Titans (1981)
• Dirty Harry Collection
• Funny Farm / Spies Like Us
• Gentlemen Broncos
• Grumpy Old Men / Grumpier Old Men
• Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths
• Ninja
• Ninja Assassin
• Planet 51
• Ponyo
• Possession
• The Princess and the Frog
• Shrek the Third
• The Vampire's Assistant: Cirque du Freak

  Death Watch (22 HD DVD titles to be replaced by Blu-ray)

• American Gangster
• Babel
• Balls of Fury
• Blades of Glory
• Breach
• Dante's Peak
• Disturbia
• Evan Almighty
• The Frighteners
• The Good Shepherd
• The Jerk
• Knocked Up
• Mr. Bean's Holiday
• Mystery Men
• Notting Hill
• Nutty Professor II: The Klumps
• Shooter
• Sleepy Hollow
• Stardust
• Streets of Fire
• What Dreams May Come
• White Noise 2

Invelos Software has released an update for DVD Profiler, the program I use to catalog all of my movie titles.  The latest version is 3.6.1 build 1392 and includes several new features listed here.

To view the entire CHT movie archive, click on the Movies (Invelos) link to the right underneath Navigate.

For the price and the tagline above, Mobile Air Mouse Pro is a bargain and works well to control my HTPC.

Features

• Accelerometer based mouse
• Trackpad with vertical and horizontal orientation
• Media keys with volume and eject controls
• Web keys
• Application switcher/launcher
• Application notifications
• Unlimited custom media and web remotes with scripting capabilities
• Remote keyboard with modifier keys
• Function keyboard with arrow keys
• Oversized numeric keypad
• Programable hotkeys (can be set to run a program or keyboard combination)
• Scroll pad
• Multitouch gestures (supports scrolling & right click)
• Remotely wake up and put your computer to sleep
• Password protection
• Custom sensitivity settings
• Foreign language keyboards
• Supports Bonjour or static IP
• Works over Bluetooth PAN (requires carrier support, currently not available on AT&T)
• No screen size limitation. Works with multiple monitors
• Works over WIFI, no line of sight limitations
• Built from the ground up for Mac and Windows

RECOMMENDED

Playlists, play counts, ratings, etc. were all recovered as they were meant to.  They didn't show up until the finish of the very last disc.  Syncing the iPods took so long because they can only be synced to one library at a time.  So they both had to be erased completely by iTunes and "rebuilt" from the ground up.  Finally, after about 11 to 12 hours everything was done.  Or so it seemed.

The Genius Mixes are not working.  I'm going to try to delete them and create new ones.  Also, the art work of several albums were lost.  I have entered several pieces of album art myself during CD imports over the years that are still there but some just don't stick around.  I'll have to download and install them again.

I will be looking into getting a Blu-ray burner for future backups.  Hopefully it will only require 4 to 5 discs per backup.

Note the one HDMI output below.  Amazon's picture shows one too but their product description mentions 2 outputs twice.

The lovely new Graphical User Interface.

iPod/iPhone connection cable included (no dock) like the VSX-1020-K.

Features:

• 120 Watts x 7 channels (20Hz - 20kHz @ 8 ohm w/ .08% THD)
• Direct Energy Configurable Amplifier with Surround Back
• THX Select 2 Plus Certified
• Advanced MCACC with 9 Band EQ, PQLS - Multi-Channel
• Auto Level Control & Advanced Sound Retriever ASR - both Multi-Channel
• 6 HDMI 1.4 inputs (including 1 front in), 1 output supporting 3D, Deep Color and X.V. Color
• Maybe 2 Outputs? (instead of just one)
• Marvell 1080p Video Scaler
• Analog to HDMI Video Conversion
• HDMI to HDMI 1080p Scaling
• Audio Return Channel
• PC Control, Full Color GUI, 9.1 Channel Pre-outs, RS-232, Detachable Power Cord
• Component Video: 2 in, 1 out
• Audio Codecs Supported: DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Pro Logic IIz (or B Speaker) with Pre-out
• Audio Modes Supported: Multi-zone (7.1, 5.1 + 2)
• Video Modes Supported: 1080p and below (no word on 24p but is should be a given)
• Digital Formats Supported: JPEG, MP3, WAV, WMA
• Internet Radio
• "Works with iPhone" Certified (iPod Digital USB / USB Memory Audio)
• Learning Remote
• Pioneer AS-BT100 Bluetooth Adapter (sold separately)

Really, the only hold up for me on this receiver (besides it being up for pre-order and not for sale) is finding out if has an Audio Return Channel so I can eliminate an optical cable in my setup.  I don't need the 120 Watts per channel, RS-232 control, pre-outs or detachable power cable of the more expensive Pioneer VSX-1120-K.  Furthermore, this receiver has everythng the Sony STR-DN1010 has as far as I can see except for possible SACD DSD support.  My SACD DSD dream may die with the Pioneer.  Lastly, 2 more HDMI inputs go a LONG way for me.

 Features:

• 110 Watts x 7 Channels
• High-Power Discrete Transistor (HPDT) multi-channel amplifiers
• Bluetooth Ready (with adapter)
• USB / iPhone Certified
• Internet Radio
• Sirius Satellite Radio
• iPhone Remote App (iControlAVR)
• 6 HDMI 1.4 inputs (1 on front), 1 out with 3D, Deep Color and X.V. Color Support
• Audio Return Channel (pending, waiting on Pioneer's response)
• Full Color GUI
• Anchor Bay and PureCinema video processing
• Component Video: 2 in, 1 out
• Advanced MCACC (Multi-Channel Acoustic Calibration) - includes mic
• 9 Band EQ, Auto Crossover Setting, USB to PC Graphs
• PQLS - 2 Channel, Auto Level Control - Multi-Channel
• Sound Retriever ASR - Multi-Channel (makes compressed audio and Satellite Radio sound better)
• Audio Codecs Supported: DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Pro Logic IIz with pre-out, more
• Video Modes Supported: 1080p and below
• Analog to HDMI Video Conversion
• HDMI to HDMI 1080p Scaler
• Audio Modes Supported: Multi-zone (7.1, 5.1 + 2) - Multi-Zone A/V Pre-out
• Digital Formats Supported: JPEG, MP3, WAV and WMA
• "Works with iPhone"-certified
• 14.9 x 16.6 x 6.2 inches
• 27.3 pounds

WANTED

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Booting up Windows 7 and checking the memory revealed that 3GB (out of 4GB) is now available instead of just 1GB (out of 2GB).

Based on a previous power-on clicking issue I had experienced with the HDTV that required replacing two capacitors on the main power supply board, I pulled and inspected the power supply.  Sure enough, there were now four more blown capacitors.  The two I had replaced back in February of 2008 were still fine.  Also the four, now bad, capacitors were all ok two years previously.  I guess it just took them two years longer to go bad.  My theory has been that Samsung received a very large batch of bad capacitors from one of its suppliers.  Other capacitors on the board from the same company are all ok to this day.

Of course I didn't have the correct replacement capacitors just lying around so I had to order them from Parts Express which is were I ordered the original replacements back in 2008.  Once I received them on January 29th, I followed the general capacitor replacement procedure outlined in the AVS Forum thread covering the Samsung HLS-5679W.  Now I can't do the best soldering/desoldering in the world but I made it through ok.  After about 20 minutes, I had the caps replaced and the board back into the HDTV.  The whole process was faster and much easier the second time with my past experience.  I fired it up and it worked again!

It's great having the HDTV working again of course but I also hope to give it to my brother onced I get a new 3D HDTV and I really wish it doesn't give him any trouble.  I need to have something to watch until I get the new HDTV of course too.

I've posted (#2592) the following pictures within the AVS Forum thread: Six New Capacitors, Bad Capacitors - Top, Bad Capacitors - Bottom, Samsung HLS-5679W Power Supply (a schematic I created detailing which caps I replaced and what I replaced them with).