If you’ve ever wondered how your gadgets talk amongst themselves to successfully play music from your PC through a media streamer, you’ll be interested in this interview with Dr Alan Messer, President of the UPnP Forum.

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is the standard by which IP networked gadgets advertise their services and intercommunicate. Formed in 1999, nearly all the big vendors are signed up with over 1000 members, the notable exception being Apple who tend to do their own thing. Think Intel, Samsung, Nokia, Philips.

The most common example of UPnP (AV spec) is DLNA-certification which governs media management, discovery and control and this effectively determines how music is streamed from one device to another. Set-top boxes know how to use different router ports based on UPnP techniques. Almost any consumer device attached to the network in the home will have some element of UPnP built-in.

(No, Andy, it’s not the ISA PnP but thanks for the trip down memory lane.)

Interview by Andy McCaskey and Courtney Wallin of SDR News and RV News Net.

Sony‘s CES focus this year is on electronics, content and network services combining to deliver high quality entertainment anytime and anywhere. Supported by a slew of product announcements, new connected devices range from TVs, Blu-ray players and A/V receivers through to tablets, smartphones and PCs and on to camcorders and mobile music players. Sony is combining these with online services for music, video and game delivery, creating a great user experience (as they say). TVs, PCs, smartphones and tablets are key to this experience as the four main devices used for entertainment.

“Sony is committed to designing technologies for every aspect of consumer entertainment – in or out of the home, on the go, in the air, at work, at play, or wherever life takes you,” said Kazuo Hirai, Executive Deputy President, Sony Corporation. “When these products are combined with Sony Entertainment Network (SEN), which offers innovative services like Music Unlimited and Video Unlimited, as well as PlayStation Network, the user experience is truly unmatched and only made possible by a company like Sony.”

The Bravia TV line has been expanded in all three areas; entry level BX, step-up EX and flagship HX. Brightness and contrast levels have been increased and picture quality improved with Sony’s X-Reality and Motionflow video technologies. In particular the latter helps to reduce blur caused by rapid camera movements which is often a problem with LCD screens. Sony is sticking with the Google TV platform with a new network player and Blu-ray player featuring Google TV. Certain Bravia models will link seamlessly to these devices to provide Google TV features directly on the TV.

Sony’s Vaio range of computers will continue to be updated with more entertainment feature and new designs that fit with consumers’ needs and increasing mobility. At CES, Sony will be demonstrating new technologies and prototypes for a range of technologies including glasses-free 3D.

In the smartphone space, the Xperia brand has done reasonably well, but increasing the smartphone share in North America is now one of Sony’s highest priorities. Sony Ericsson will be subsumed into Sony Mobile Communications and all new phones will carry Sony branding. The latest addition to the Xperia line-up is the Xperia ion, Sony’s first LTE smartphone coming with an HD 720p display and aluminium body. Also new is the Xperia S which comes with 3D image capture.

On the imaging front, no less than 13 new Handycam camcorders are being unveiled. A new image stabilisation system called Balanced Optical Steady Shot has been developed that controls the complete optical path from lens to sensor as a single floating unit. This reduces handshake blur by up to 13 times compared to the previous models. There’s a new camcorder model with a built-in video projector that has improved brightness and enhanced audio. The trusty Bloggie range now has a “Live” model which will live stream HD video over a Wi-Fi connection and there’s an unboxing over at sister channel TPN.tv. Of course, Sony has a bunch of new Cybershot digital still cameras.

Finally, it wouldn’t be CES if Sony didn’t announce a Walkman or two. The new Z series of MP3 players comes with an application interface and connectivity to both Sony’s Music Unlimited and the Android Market. Content can be played from Z series devices either wirelessly using DLNA or via HDMI to Bravia TVs. To further improve the audio experience, no less than eleven new Balanced Armature earbud-style headphones are now available as well.

That’s it – a quick overview of the products on show at CES by Sony and they all look like fun.

At CES in Las Vegas, Withings has announced its wireless Internet-connected baby and toddle scale, winner of a 2012 CES Innovations Award. Developed by the French company, the Smart Baby Scale incorporates WiFi, Bluetooth and the low power Bluetooth Smart connectivity and allows parents to accurately record their child’s weight from birth.

Using the Smart Baby Scale, parents can view the weight readings from any net connected device, such as PC, laptop, iPad, iPhone or iPod touch using the already available WiScale app. Parents can easily pass on their child’s weight profile to their doctor, family and friends and the scale can also update Facebook and Twitter. Messages can be sent to email addresses with new readings and, if desired, parents can put together a scrapbook with notes and photos to create a story of their child’s growth.

Cédric Hutchings, Withings co-founder says, “We are very excited to announce our Smart Baby Scale and offer parents an amazing new way to take care of their newborn or young child. The success of our WiFi Body Scale has proven the benefits of connected weight tracking on adults and we were eager to also bring these benefits to babies and children. We are thrilled that our Smart Baby Scale was awarded the prestigious CES Innovation Award and this further reinforces our vision of designing smart communicating devices that help families take better charge of their health”.

The Smart Baby Scale complements other Withings products such as the adult Withings WiFi body scale and the Withings Blood Pressure Monitor. Parents are able to monitor their child’s weight on the same dashboard they view their own weight and blood pressure. (Hmm, I wonder if parents are as inclined to put their own weight on Facebook!)

No news on pricing but the Smart Baby Scale will be available from Q2 of 2012. The WiScale app is available now for iOS devices from the App Store for free.

The sci-fi vision of the videophone being as commonplace as the telephone hasn’t materialised but Skype and Google+ Hangouts have made videocalls with webcams popular, especially with families who are a spread across the world. Having said that, it’s still not as convenient as picking up your phone and dialling a number.

Biscotti hopes to change that will their TV Phone, which has just been announced as a 2012 CES Innovations Honoree. It’s a small camera unit that sits on top of your TV, connecting to the TV via HDMI and to the network via WiFi, allowing owners to make high-definition video calls to other Biscotti owners and Google video chat users. After an initial setup which only takes minutes, the Biscotti TV Phone is ready to make or take calls.

The TV Phone uses a pass-through technology, meaning that there’s no need to change channels to receive a call. The TV Phone notifies users of incoming calls while they are watching TV via a pop-up message on screen. By using Google video chat, the Biscotti TV Phone can connect to any device that has a Google chat client, whether it’s Android, iPhone or a PC.

“Biscotti is designed for people who value real-life, personal interaction. It’s a single-purpose, dedicated TV Phone that’s always ready to connect, so you can make and receive calls without interrupting your lifestyle,” said Dr. Matthew B. Shoemake, Biscotti’s CEO and Founder. “HDTVs are selling faster than any other consumer electronics product on the market, fueling the demand for high definition video calling. By 2015, we’re predicting 25% of homes will be making high-definition video calls daily.”

If it’s as simple to use as they claim (and there are some videos here), it could be a little winner. The Biscotti TV Phone is now available for $199 and no monthly fees. There’s no word on a twin pack, which is what I’d be interested in to link granddaughter with grandparents.

If you want to catch up with the Biscotti TV Phone, they’re on display at CES in South Hall 1, Booth #21442.

Travelling by air can be pretty dull – you’re jammed into a metal tube with nowhere to go even if you could get out of your seat. Inflight entertainment has evolved from one or two screens for the whole cabin to multichannel personal media players in seat headrests, which certainly helps to alleviate the boredom. More recently and largely responding to the requests of business travellers, more and more flights now have Wi-Fi, bringing the Internet to your foldaway table, albeit usually at a price.

If you are lucky enough to be on a plane equipped with Gogo‘s inflight Wi-Fi connectivity, Ford has teamed up with Gogo to offer access to Ford’s Mustang Customizer and free access to Facebook for the rest of the flight. The Customizer is a notch above the usual car modelling websites where you can only change the colour of the paint and the interior trim. Starting out with Mustang V6, GT, Boss 302 or Shelby GT500, the Customizer lets you choose the exterior before tweaking under the hood and then placing the car in one of three backgrounds – dragway, cityscape or drive-in restaurant. Apparently there are over 78,791,049,216,000 combinations of vehicle to dream up.

Once you’ve got the car of your dreams, the picture can be downloaded as a background or posted to Facebook and entered into contests to see who has the best car. If you’ve cash to match, you can get a .pdf pricing out the components you’ve chosen.

“We are really excited to give Gogo users a chance to customize their very own Mustang while in flight,” added Brian McClary, emerging and social media specialist at Ford. “The Mustang Customizer has proven to be a great way for users to create their own Mustang and provides an interactive and immersive experience.”

Definitely of interest to bored petrol heads, small boys and Facebook junkies. The special promotion starts 21 October, 2011 and ends 18 November, 2011

Recently my wife volunteered me to fix her friend’s old laptop.  The friend is a teacher and had recently begun taking her notebook PC  to school with her, but couldn’t connect t the school’s wireless network.

Within a couple of minutes of booting up the PC the problem jumped out at me – the old Toshiba Satellite lacked a wireless adapter.  To resolve this I ordered the ZyXEL NWD2105 Wireless N Adapter from NewEgg.  It costs just $9.99 and I got free 2 Day shipping.

The Wireless N Adapter is tiny so it doesn’t get in the way.  It comes with a USB extension cord and an installation CD.  The installation CD may not be needed with Windows 7 (I can’t remember the last time I needed one), but I did have to use it in this case – perhaps because the notebook was running Windows XP.

Start off by installing then the device drivers and ZyXEL utility and then reboot the computer.  After restarting Windows you can plug the adapter into an open USB port.  Windows installed the new device and within a minute or two it automatically connected to my home wireless network.

My experience with this device was brief – I couldn’t do any extensive testing since I had to return the laptop to it’s owner, but it worked flawlessly upon installation.  $9.99 is certainly a small price to pay to, not just make an older PC more usable,  but get it right up to the latest WiFi standard of 802.11N.

Over this past weekend I ended up purchasing a $250 dollar Barnes & Noble “Nook Color” e-reader from a Best Buy store. It has a very bright, clear 7” diagonally measured widescreen capacitive glass touch screen display.

Barnes & Noble ships the Nook Color with a specialized, tightly locked-down version of Android that promotes access to the Barnes & Noble store content. It includes the Android web browser, along with a couple of games and the Pandora music service app. With the latest 1.2 version of Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color Android, they also give access to email and currently about 170 or so apps that can be purchased from the Barnes & Noble app store.

I’ll be perfectly honest here. What persuaded me to buy the Nook Color was watching a number of different YouTube videos of Nook Color units that had been hacked to run different versions of Android. As it turns out, the Nook Color is a very hacker-friendly device. The Nook Color’s WiFi radio contains Bluetooth, which Barnes & Noble’s Android does not yet take advantage of, though alternative versions of Android can and do enable Bluetooth on the device.

The Nook Color is manufactured by Foxconn, the same Chinese manufacturers that make the iPad, iPod, and many other modern consumer electronics devices. The Nook Color is a very nice piece of hardware. It has a 1.1 gigahertz Atom processor that’s backed down to 800 megahertz in order to help conserve battery life. Also when the unit is asleep very little battery power seems to be consumed.

There are several different approaches to be taken from outright replacing the Barnes & Noble Android, rooting it to allow the full Android store, to running alternative versions of Android from the included Micro-SD card reader slot built-in to the unit, leaving the Barnes & Noble Android intact.

After a weekend of experimental hacking, here are my conclusions. Though the Barnes & Noble Android is fairly limited, it offers quite a nice experience. I’ve determined that I want to keep that Barnes & Noble Nook Color experience untouched. It is quite valuable as an e-reader that offers multimedia functionality.

I can, and am, experimenting with a couple of different versions of Android running directly from a couple of different Micro-SD cards. I have a Micro-SD version of Android 2.2, as well as a version of Android 3.0. The Nook will automatically attempt to boot first from the Micro-SD reader, so when I want to boot into the built-in Barnes & Noble Android, I simply turn the unit off, eject the Micro-SD chip, and turn the unit back on.

While searching the Internet for information, I came across a website (http://www.rootnookcolor.com/)that is selling pre-configured Micro-SD chips running either Android 2.2, or Android 3.0. I ended up ordering a 2.2 version, which I won’t receive for a few days. These pre-built versions contain a boot loader, which allows the user to select which operating system to load without having to eject or insert the Micro-SD chip each time.

I am perhaps more of a unique case, since I spend most of my time in my truck. I already have the latest version of the iPod Touch, which gives me 95% percent of iPad functionality in a smaller package. When my truck is parked, my MacBook Pro is almost always online. The only use I could come up with for a tablet would be for use as a nice screen to watch video on, or an e-reader, since other uses are already covered between my iPod Touch, my MacBook, and my Sprint Evo Android smartphone. At upwards of $1,000 for a fully-configured iPad 2.0, that’s a price that’s just too steep for these functions. However, at $250 dollars for a very capable piece of hardware that can easily be made to do other things, along with something to experiment with, it starts to really become interesting.

Barnes & Noble should be commended for the Nook Color. As stated before, it is an excellent piece of hardware. It’s been a long time since I was in a Barnes & Noble brick & mortar store, and until now I haven’t felt compelled to buy any e-books from them online. However, now that I have the Nook Color I’ve started out an experimental subscription to Popular Science magazine. So far I’m enjoying the experience. The Nook Color uses the ePub format, and also uses Adobe technology to display color magazine and newspaper publications.

My hope is that since the Nook Color is so hackable, it will act as a doorway to reward Barnes & Noble.

Recently I received a review unit of the Netgear WN2000RPT WiFi Extender.  It’s a tool that I am surprisingly well qualified to test.  You see, we live in an old, restored Victorian and my office, and router, are on the third floor.  However, most life takes place on the first two floors, where a laptop, tablet, and smartphones are in use.  Connectivity is there, it’s just not great.  It’s a long way for a “G” router to throw it’s signal.

The WN2000RPT comes with a simple setup and simple controls.  There are 4 wired ethernet ports on the back, along with a power switch.  On the front, there are five indicators that show your current status.  Colors change from yellow to green based on connection.  Different indicators light based on what you are doing.  It’s very simple and straight-forward in use.  You can place it anywhere that you have at least a small connection to the router.

Find a place to put the extender, plug it in, and turn it on.  Once it makes a connection to your home network the LED indicator will turn green.  Use your device to connect to the extender.  Once connected you will need to open your web browser – it doesn’t matter which one you use, any web browser will work here.  It should open to the site http://www.mywifiext.net  From there the wizard will walk you through a simple set-up process.  Once finished, the network name will change to YourNetworkName-Ext.

Our laptop normally has one or two bars on the first floor – not exactly unusable, but it makes web site load times a bit slower than what they are on the desktop with it’s wired connection.  Of course WiFi can never match ethernet, but it can come reasonably close.

Once I reconnect to the Extender with the laptop I received four full bars.  Web sites loaded much faster – noticeably so.  The extender is sitting in the same room as the laptop – there was one bar when connected to the router, which is two floors overheard.  The WN2000RPT requires very little signal strength to get a foothold and boost the signal up.

To further test the difference the Netgear device could make I used an app on my phone called WiFi Analyzer.  I took a reading near where the laptop and extender were located.  The router is graphed in blue, while the extender if depicted in red.

The Netgear WN2000RPT retails for around $70 – about the same price as a good router.  If you have a relatively small home to cover  – say 2000 square feet – then it’s probably not necessary.  But, if you have larger space that you want to blanket with WiFi, and especially if your are slinging media around, then this is a must-have.  The additional signal strength this device provided was more than noticeable, as you can see in the pictures above.  It has made our first-floor devices much more useful now that we no longer need to walk around looking for the best spot for a signal.

The only drawback I found was with my phone.  While it can see, and “connect” to the extender, unfortunately Android does not support DHCP.  So, even though it “connected”, it could not use the connection.  Since the the laptop and tablet were the major devices involved in our daily home-use, this was only a minor setback.

[UPDATE: In fact, Android DOES support DHCP.  It seems that I needed to visit mywifiext.com with each device to enable, and the I was able to get it working flawlessly]

In the end the Netgear WN2000RPT proved to be more than worth its relatively minor cost.  It provided a significant signal boost and it could do so from almost nothing.  The connection was solid, never dropping out, as some WiFi can do.  And, you can pick one up online for $60-70, so it’s really a great little addition to any home that lacks a quality WiFi signal everywhere.

I’m one of a dozen people on my block who have wireless routers running in my house.  I’ve lived there eight years, and have had wireless almost the entire time.  I run a house full of computers from my router, including ones for the kids, my husband, a print server, a media server, and a handful of laptops.  From the first minute, my wireless has been locked down.  I recently had to replace my aging (and failing) Linksys, and had to reconfigure our SSID, passwords and the PXE firewall I’ve run.  I’ve never considered leaving that access point open for any reason.

Over the last five years, as more of my neighbors set up wireless routers in their homes, I found more and more ways to get on the Internet without using my own connection.  For me, it was just seeing if I could do it, then I’d disconnect and go back to my own router.  If I could identify the neighbor in question, I would approach them and offer to help them lock down their wireless so that it wasn’t open to anyone driving by or living nearby.  I tried my best to explain to them that having an open wireless access point was a danger to them and their families.  I usually got through to them, and now find very few of my neighbors with open wireless.  In fact, there’s only one, and I haven’t been able to figure out who it is.  The signal is pretty weak, which means they may not even be on my block.

For those that haven’t locked down their wireless, perhaps they need a more concrete example of why they should.  In New York, there have been several examples of persons with open wireless networks being accused of trafficking in child pornography amongst other things.  They were either frustrated at trying to set the security on their wireless networks, or didn’t know they needed to do so.  There seemed to be no reason to work at locking their networks down.  After all, they knew their neighbors, or thought they did, right?

It would be helpful if the process to lock down wi-fi wasn’t so complex, and if the instructions weren’t written in IT-ese.  Being a geek, I understand all of the mumbo-jumbo that comes in those instructions.  There is no consistent way to set the SSID and passwords/passcodes since there are so many different routers on the market, and for a standard user to have to open in a browser and type in a series of numbers 1xx.xx.xx.xxx to get to their router then pick a password and make it hard enough to not be crackable is just asking a lot.  I know some of the routers from AT&T (for their DSL service) come with the passcode on a sticker on the bottom of the router, and the user is supposed to use that.  Seems real secure in this day and age, huh?

Of course, there is always the neighborhood geek to do it for you.  Sometimes we’ll set your router up for you for free, or for a beer.  I know that’s my usual form of payment.  I feel it’s my duty to make sure my neighbors are protecting themselves when it comes to their technology.  I sure don’t want to see the FBI knocking down their doors in the middle of the night!  As a geek, are you helping your neighbors lock down their wireless?

Taiwanese Edimax has been making steady inroads at the cheaper end of the market with a range of products which typically undercut the market leaders on price. As with its Chinese sibling TP-Link, I’ve always been a bit wary of their products but recently I had the opportunity to try out the Edimax 3G-6200n, a 3G 11n wireless router and I was pleasantly surprised by the build standard and the features on offer.

To start with, the 3G-6200n cost £40 from Amazon. For comparison, the equivalent Netgear (MBRN3000) costs about twice as much. The Edimax device is quite an old device released in mid-2009 so the 11n is only of the 150 Mb/s variety and the LAN ports are only 100 Mb/s. The Netgear’s 11n runs to 300 Mb/s but still only has 100 Mb/s LAN ports. If you are only routing internet traffic, 150 Mb/s is going to be perfectly adequate.

On opening the box, there was the router itself, a PSU that usefully has an on/off switch, a short USB lead, various manuals and a CD. The router itself is plastic but it’s not really plasticky, if you follow. I’ve had Belkin devices that were worse. Interestingly, there’s a switch on the back that turns off the wifi – that’s not something I’d ever seen before.

Getting the basic router up and running was straightforward. Turn it on, plug one end of a network cable into a LAN port and connect the other to a PC or laptop.  Open a web browser with http://192.168.2.1/ and login into the router using the provided username and password.

As with all routers, there’s a plethora of sections to go through and configure – basic setup, WAN, LAN, wireless and so on. I’d say the device was well featured without being advanced. For example, the wifi only allows you to setup one SSID and there was no auto setting on the channels, but port forwarding and virtual servers are there too. After I’d set up the wifi, I was able to disconnect the cable and work wirelessly.

As you might guess, the main reason for getting this router was for its 3G functionality. Round the back of the router is a USB port into which a 3G modem dongle can be plugged in. Once connected, the router can share the 3G connection wirelessly. Helpfully, there’s a short USB cable included that can be used to position the dongle for the best reception.

How is this different from a “Mifi” or similar device? First, the Edimax is not battery powered, secondly it has LAN ports and finally it doesn’t have to use 3G all the time. It can be configured to use a DSL or cable modem normally and only fall back to the 3G modem when the modem connections fails.

In this instance I was only interested in a 3G connection. Unfortunately, you can’t plug any old 3G dongle into the 3G-6200n but Edimax provides a compatibility list (zipped pdf). I was using an Huawei E1550 which was listed as being supported and sure enough, it was.  To get the connection to work, I had to configure the APN, username and password for the mobile provider that I was using within the router’s web interface. These details are easily available from the internet via a Google search or the mobile providers website.

I was able to connect using both Three and Vodafone SIMs in the Huawei E1550. Download speeds were usually over 1 Mb/s and less than 2 Mb/s but it varied a good deal depending on how the dongle was positioned. I noticed that the router started and stopped the 3G connection as required so it wasn’t constantly connected. One minor issue with that was that sometimes an initial request for a web page was met with a timeout as the connection hadn’t been made fast enough. Upon refreshing the page, it would be served successfully. This only happened a couple of times and I suspect the problem is more with the mobile phone network being slow to respond than the router.

Overall, I was impressed by the Edimax 3G-6200n and at £40 I think it’s excellent value. If you do need to share a 3G connection, particularly when you need both wired and wireless connections, then this is a good solution. The only downside is that it’s not a portable solution. And finally, remember to check that your 3G dongle is compatible.

Today I took the CR48 out in the field. I went to my local coffee shop (not Starbucks) and got on the WiFi. It was no problem getting though their login redirect. Although the WiFi was really slow, I was able to do my normal web surfing and email. I wouldn’t want to try a youtube video on it at that speed. I was getting just 400k down and 128k up. (so much for “high speed” access which is what this coffee shop advertises on their window. Oh well, that’s not really anything to do with Chrome OS.

Then I tried the “free” Verizon EVDO 3G connection. I turned off the WiFi and clicked the little wrench icon in the upper right of the screen. I selected “internet” and then “Cellular”. It took about 3 minutes to connect to Verizon and then it brought up a form to fill out. That included a credit card number. I guess they have to have that to process the account signup. You get 100mb for free per month. They say they won’t charge you unless you sign up for a higher limit account. I’m not sure how they will inform you that you have used up your allotment for the month. I suppose I will find out. Once I was connected I did a speed test and had 1.4m down and 255k up. Exactly the same speed that my Droid was getting. I didn’t stay connected too long on 3G as 100mb isn’t much bandwidth, but it would be good in a pinch if you needed to do something online really quick.

The only other thing I tried today was loading pictures from my camera’s SD card. That worked well. What it did was bring up my Picasa account and loaded them directly online. It looked as though I could have moved them to the mystery “download” folder but I just picked Picasa. It didn’t look like I could get direct access to the card via Chrome, for what it is, it does work ok.

I didn’t spend much more time with the netbook today other then more surfing in the easy chair. On Friday, I’m going to get another opinion from a friend that is in town for the weekend. I’m going to let him take a stab at using it and see what he thinks. He’s like me, very connected with Google, so it shouldn’t be hard for him.

If you want me to try something in the next few days, drop a comment here and I will see what I can do.

Todd talks with Ernest Wolf, CEO of YooTechPros, creators of an Android-based tablet PC that actually looks quite good.

Using the same LG touch screen as the iPad, this tablet offers twin USB ports, a microSD slot, front- and rear-facing cameras and runs Android 2.2. It’s also slightly lighter and thinner than the iPad. Unfortunately, the model in the video is a non-working prototype but it does look good. $399 for the 16 GB, wifi version and available in the Spring.

For the germ-adverse of us, YouTechPros offers an antibacterial screen film for tablets called the iProtector for $19.99.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central.

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Steve Iommi chats to Todd and Tom about Somfy‘s new Tahoma system which takes home automation to the next level. It’s based round the concept of “scenes” – a scene might be “weekday-morning” which has certain set of actions, e.g. open blinds at 7.30am, whereas the “weekend-morning” opens the blinds at 8.30. With a whole a range of scenes, everything from blinds to thermostats can be controlled according to the day of the week and the activities of the owner.

As with all things these days, the Tahoma system is connected to the Internet via the homeowner’s Wifi, meaning that the owner can connect via a web browser back to the system to make any changes that might be needed, say, because of changes in the weather.

The underlying technology is the Z-Wave RF home automation wireless standard, so upgrading a home to for automation doesn’t involving lots of recabling. It’s simply a case of replacing the controllers with Z-Wave-compatible ones.

A basic Tahoma system can be professionally installed for under $2000.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central and Tom Newman of The Fogview Podcast.

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Steve Stanzione of D-Link shows off a couple of their latest products to Andy McCaskey, including the Boxee Box.

First up is the Whole Home Router 1000, an 11n wireless router with an interesting design – it’s a black cylinder. The design isn’t just a pretty face, it encapsulates six aerials that create a steerable array that can focus the wireless beam on the location of the receiving wireless device. Out in the second quarter of 2011.

Next is a wireless-n IP camera with IR LED ring for night-viewing. As with many of these devices, you can view the camera image via D-Link’s personal web portal and there are the usual smartphone apps as well for Android and iOS. Apparently IP cameras are selling well and surprisingly, aren’t being used for home security. Many are being used to keep an eye on the interior of homes, keeping track of children and pets or watching over babies.

Finally, Andy looks at the Boxee, D-Link’s flagship product. He reckons the Boxee’s best feature is the on/off button so that it’s not necessary to unplug the device to reboot it. This in some ways reflects the immaturity of all the media streamer products, not just the Boxee – I had an Archos device which was forever hanging on certain media and you had to unplug to restart. Anyway, the Boxee’s range of codecs and the innovative remote control generally set it apart from the competition.

Interview by Andy McCaskey of SDR News.

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Harry Diamantopoulos of HSTI presents the Wireless Media Stick™. The Wireless Media Stick™ is able to deliver to playback devices the files stored in PC, Mac and NAS (network attached storage) devices. For example, plug the Wireless Media Stick™ into your HDTV’s USB port and watch a movie or view digital photos stored elsewhere on your WiFi home network. The memory is on your network, not on the Wireless Media Stick™. The Wireless Media Stick™ sells for $119 dollars. HSTI has also announced an app that installs on Android smartphones that is able to connect with the Wireless Media Stick™ to enable instant, easy sharing of photos and videos from the phone.

Interview by Esbjorn Larsen of MrNetCast.com and Andy McCaskey of SDR News.

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Andy and Esby get the latest on Netgear from David Henry, Senior Director of Product Marketing for Netgear consumer products. There’s a range of Netgear products on show including their flagship wireless router, an N600 dual band wireless router with gigabit ports – the WNDR3700 ($169).

David covers some recent advances in router technology and how Netgear is making it easier for consumers to use what are now much more advanced products, whether it’s wifi, firewalls or routers. Frankly even I don’t understand some of the options on the more complex devices. The WNDR3700 uses push-button WPS to the get the wireless all paired up.

Many of you have wireless dead spots in your home, often because of the fabric of the building or else simply because of the location of the inbound cable or telephone connection. You also may not be able to replace your main router if that’s provided by your cable supplier. If you are in this situation, check out their wireless range extenders.

If wireless isn’t for you, David also covers the new 500 Mb/s Powerline (Homeplug) products and how to get your connected TV or media streamer wired up with network connectivity. For HD video, you need fast data rates and these will deliver the data rates you need.

Lots of great info here on what’s new from Netgear so give it a watch.

Interview by Andy McCaskey of SDR News and  Esbjorn Larsen of MrNetCast.com.

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An Oakland, California high school is receiving a gift of Cisco Valet Wireless routers and wireless adapters for its students.  The Valet Wireless Router, a new offering from Cisco intended for home use, purports to be one of the easiest to use and set up in the industry.

The purpose of the gift is to give students at the high-risk ARISE high school the access they need from their homes.  The ARISE program prepares low-income students to be the first in their families to attend college.  The graduating class of 2010 had a 100% college admission rate, which is phenomenal.  With the help that Cisco is now offering, it can only help to continue this high rate of transition to college.  Students with online access have a much better shot at success than those without, and Cisco hopes to breach this digital divide for the ARISE program.

What is unique about the Valet is how easy it really is.  As a person who has had to set up multiple home-based wired and wireless networks, I know what a pain it can be.  And after you’re gone, the client is left having to deal with the network and its complicated setup and potential issues.  No wonder many routers supplied by phone companies and other ISP’s have the SSID hard-set and the password printed on a sticker on the bottom of the device.  Really unsecure, but easier for the client to access and work with than some complicated setup a geek did for them.

Valet promises a 3-step setup process and an easy access system right from your computer to enable parental controls, open or close guest access, and add devices like the XBox to the setup.  Both the Valet and the Valet Plus devices offer four ethernet ports for expansion to non-wireless devices, as well.

The routers are a bit pricier than the Linksys model Cisco is known for, but still reasonable.  I paid not much less for my latest Netgear router, purchased because my six-year-old Linksys router box had finally failed.  I should have held out for the Valet.

Andy McCaskey interviews Ariel Garten, CEO of InteraXon – Thought Controlled Computing.  It’s no longer sci-fi, you can now interact with technology using the power of your mind (rather than your thoughts being controlled by computers.)

The system consists of a lightweight headset with two electrodes that detects brainwaves such as alpha and beta waves.  Different patterns are associated with different mental states, e.g. concentrating with beta waves and relaxed with alpha, so as your mind changes states an action can be taken. Trivially, you can link your concentration to a light, so while you are concentrating on reading, the light is on and bright, but as you relax and drift off to sleep, the light dims before finally turning off.

Obviously, it’s early days for the technology and Ariel likens the current state to that of voice recognition 20 years ago. Ariel believes that in the future this will be the main way that users interact with technology.

On show was a game called ZenBound 2 which is available for the iPhone and iPad. Normally, the player uses their fingers to manipulate a rope around a sculpture but with InteraXon the player can use their mind to control the game. You can see this in Andy’s video or the original is here. At the end of the game, you can get a report about how you were able to focus or relax.

Ariel also mentions some of the possible medical benefits which are potentially available now that you have a portable EEG system. It uses both Bluetooth or Wifi to communicate from the headband to mobile devices.

Interview by Andy McCaskey of SDR News.

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If you have a large area to cover with your WiFi router then you have probably experienced “dead zones” in parts of your home, or at the least, areas of low connectivity.  You may have looked into ways to solve this and discovered Repeaters, which can be finicky to get working correctly and compatibility with your current router can be problematic or non-existent.   Those problems may be solved by a new product coming out soon.  Among the things announced by Netgear at CES is the Universal WiFi Range Extender WN3000RP.

The WN3000RP is promising to eliminate “dead zones” and provide more network bandwidth for entertainment, gaming and social networking applications.  According to their press release:

If there are rooms in the house that have limited or no wireless coverage because they are too far away from the router, the Universal WiFi Range Extender boosts the existing WiFi signal in order to reach wirelessly to these ‘dead zones’ in the home. Consumers need to simply place the product between the router and areas of the home where additional WiFi access and bandwidth are needed for activities like video streaming on a tablet or smartphone.

Netgear is saying the Universal WiFi Range Extender is that it will be compatible with all existing routers – not just Netgear brand.  That’s a big leap forward over most existing Repeaters.  You can plug it into any standard electrical outlet in your home.  Even better you could move it around any time you need to.  It’s also compatible with all current wireless security methods.  Here are some of the hightlights.

• Extend Network — Extend Internet access throughout your home for wireless devices like iPads^®, iPods^®, laptops, smart phones, game consoles and TVs
• Enhance Existing Equipment — Keep your current equipment and improve coverage to eliminate wireless “dead zones”
• Plug-and-play — Sets up in minutes, no need to insert a CD or plug in Ethernet cables
• Push ‘N’ Connect — Push ‘N’ Connect using Wi-Fi Protected Setup^® (WPS) connects computers and/or routers to the Extender quickly and securely
• Optimal Coverage — Link-rate LED locates the best placement spot to provide optimal wireless coverage
• Compatible — Works with any wireless b/g/n router or gateway from NETGEAR and other brands
• Superior Security — Works with all security standards including WPA-PSK, WPA2-PSK, mixed mode and WEP
• Connect — Ethernet port allows the Extender to function as a bridge to connect to home theater devices
• NETGEAR Green features — Power on/off button, 80% recycled packaging

The Universal WiFi Range Extender should be available in March of this year for an MSRP of $99.99.  I have not yet seen any pre-ordering available, but it’s likely that Amazon and others will make that available soon.

At CES in Las Vegas today, TRENDnet will be showing off the first concurrent dual band wireless 11n router.  This is the first router on the market that can offer full 450 Mb/s by using both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radio bands.

With advanced MIMO (Multiple In, Multiple Out) antenna technology and three streams per antenna, the concurrent dual band technology can generate a maximum theoretical throughput of 450 Mb/s and much improved coverage.

The router also comes with gigabit Ethernet ports to ensure high performance on the wired connections, making this an ideal partner for high-definition video streaming from NAS.

“A true 450Mbps concurrent router will provide networking enthusiast with another great option,” stated Sonny Su, Technology Director for TRENDnet. “With the proliferation of so many wireless networked devices, performance matters more than ever before.”

Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) also makes connecting wireless devices straightforward.  Press the WPS buttons on each device and they connect up securely.

The TEW-692GR will be available this coming April for $249 from online and retail TRENDnet partners.

Side note: the Wifi standards 11b and 11g use the 2.4 GHz frequency and 11a uses the 5 GHz frequency.  However the latter never gained widespread adoption. 11n can use both frequencies, though until now most 11n wireless equipment used either 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz but not both.

In a little bit of a UK scoop, the folks at Buffalo lent GNC three of their latest wireless “n” products for a first review.  The three AirStation devices were announced and covered by GNC back in October, so we’ll skip the usual pleasantries and get down to business.

First up, was the AirStation N-Technology USB2 adapter (WLI-UC-GNM) which is as small as it looks in the picture.  Installation is very straightforward – run the installation CD first to install the drivers, pop the adapter into a spare USB port and job done.  I was able to connect to an existing 11g network and the 11n network without any problems at all.  There’s also a little application installed which allows selection between the 20 MHz and 40 MHz bandwidths which equates to the 75 Mb/s and 150 Mb/s settings.   There’s more on the real-world data transfer rates later.

Next was the AirStation N-Technology 150 Mb/s router (WCR-GN).  This is actually smaller in real life than the picture would suggest, being only 11 cm high, excluding the aerial.  After connecting the router to the network via an ethernet cable, the installation program allows the user to choose from two different possible scenarios – router or bridge.  Once selected, the installation program finds the router and configures it.  The user is asked to set a device password and to give the device an IP address.  Although a configuration program is included, I found it easiest to use the router’s web interface to set things up.

The configuration for the wireless side was pretty impressive, with support for multiple SSIDs, including one that was passed directly out over the WAN and was unable to access the LAN.  This caters for legacy devices such as media streamers or games consoles that only support unsecure WEP.

The WCR-GN supports WPS and AOSS, Buffalo’s equivalent. Frankly, I could never get the AOSS pairing to work. It’s so little effort to put in an encryption key, I’ve no idea why anyone bothers with these user-friendly time savers, because they never are and never do.

To give the 11n devices a proper evaluation, I carried out some data transfer rate testing using LAN Speed Test for TotuSoft.  The table below gives the nominal and measured data rates for different connection types.

Bear in mind that with all the encryption on the wireless transmissions, the measured data rate will be much lower than the nominal data rate.  These figures are broadly in line with other data rates reported on the Internet.  HD video requires a minimum sustained data rate around 25 Mb/s, so it looks to me that the 11n data rates are good.  Microsoft have an article on HD formats which is worth a read.

Finally, I got out the Nfiniti Dual-Band Wireless-N Ethernet Converter (WLAE-AG300N).  I was most interested in this as it promised to be convertible between an access point, extender and bridge, and a full 300Mb/s device.  The Converter has two ethernet ports meaning that things like Bluray players and IP TVs can connect through the bridge back to the Internet.

As before, the installation was a breeze and in the first instance, I set up the Converter as an access point.  This worked great and I was able to get data throughput in the 44Mb/s range.  Remember that although this was a 300Mb/s device, the USB adapter on the laptop was only a 150Mb/s device so the data rate was limited by the USB adapter.

Setting the WLAE-AG300N as a bridge back to the WCR-GN Router was less successful.  Although I was able to get the two devices to connect, I was never able to establish a 11n level connection; it only connected as if it were an 11g network and throughput was around 20 Mb/s.  I worked with Buffalo’s tech support to try and get a resolution but it wasn’t sorted by the time I returned the device.

Overall, the USB2 adapter and the 150Mb/s router worked well and I think they’re good value for money at RRPs of £19.99 and £29.99 respectively.  Judgement is reserved regarding the Ethernet Converter (£39.99) as it worked well as an access point but the bridging was poor.  If you were only setting up a 150Mb/s network, a pair of WCR-GN routers would actually be a cheaper way of establishing a connection from ethernet-only devices.

Thanks to Buffalo for the loan.

Facebook hit critical mass and managed to move into the mainstream and is now sucking in mass numbers of new users. Much of the value of a many goods and services revolves around mass adoption – it becomes beneificial for people to use Facebook simply because so many friends and family are already on it.

We keep hearing statistics about smartphone adoption rates. No doubt about it, smartphones are increasingly popular devices and are quickly moving into the mainstream.

How does this translate into the real world?

I came across a guy a few days ago that had recently gotten an iPhone 4.0 specifically so he could do Facetime chats with his brother. This guy was in his 50’s and had never owned a computer or dealt with the Internet in any way. I was surprised at how well he had learned to run his phone. He was clearly thrilled with the smartphone and what it was capable of. Even though this fellow had somehow managed to resist getting a computer and the Internet, the smartphone managed to pull him in. Furthermore, this guy was using a lot of data above and beyond WiFi and Facetime. Even as a novice user, he had already purchased a few iphone apps. Additionally he expressed a lot of interest when I was describing Audible.Com audio books.

There’s a segment of the population I run into personally that doesn’t like the idea of or see the need for or perceive any benefit from paying for mobile data connections. These are the people that are hanging onto more basic phone models. I suspect that these same people likely resisted the idea of getting a cell phone in the first place – in other words, they are late adopters when it comes to cell phone technologies and services.

We are now entering the phase of smartphone adoption of where mass numbers of people will get smartphones simply because everyone else has them. I believe smartphones are poised to outstrip even a service like Facebook with the total number of smartphone users.

These new smartphone users are likely to use mass amounts of data. Cell phone companies wanted people to have data plans because of the extra revenue from larger data-enabled bills – now they’d better be prepared to deliver on the promise.

Buffalo Technology has added three new wireless-n (802.11n) products to its AirStation range, including the N-Technology USB 2.0 Adapter, N-Technology 150Mbps router and the Nfiniti Dual-Band Wireless-N Ethernet Converter.

Starting with the AirStation N-Technology USB2 adapter, this is the smallest wireless-n adaptor I’ve seen – it’s more like the little Bluetooth or wireless mouse transmitters – but still manages 150 Mb/s.  It would be perfect if you’ve already got a laptop that only has 11g wi-fi and you want to upgrade.  At just £19.99, it’s a bargain!

And if you want to upgrade your whole wireless network, then you’ll need to take a look at the complementary router, the AirStation N-Technology 150 Mb/s router (RRP £29.99).  Finished in fashionable white, it draws design cues from the Link- and DriveStation range.  There are four 100 Mb/s LAN ethernet ports round the back for hard-wiring.  There’s a further single port for the WAN so note that this is a pure router – there is no modem; ADSL, cable or otherwise.  DHCP, NAT and SPI firewall features are built-in.

Finally, for those devices that have ethernet ports but don’t have wireless-n, then check out the Nfiniti Dual-Band Wireless-N Ethernet Converter. This plugs straight into a power socket and incorporates two ethernet ports for connections to games consoles, DVRs, Blu-ray players and so on.  Unlike the other devices, this converter can transfer data at 300 Mb/s and given that it’s likely to be used for streaming media, this is a good thing.  You’ll be able to pick this up for £39.99.

All the devices above use Buffalo’s AOSS (AirStation One Touch Secure System) which simplifies the process of wirelessly connecting them together.

With luck, GNC will be able to bring you a hands-on review of these in the next few weeks.

Buffalo have also released an application called “WebAccess i” for the Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch that allows owners of the Tera- and LinkStation NAS devices to download and upload files across the internet.  It’s available from the iTunes store.  (I’m told that it’s “really cool”, but I haven’t yet been able to test it.)

If you haven’t seen how small Shuttle’s XS35 series of ultra small PCs are, then you need to look more closely at the picture on the left.  The PC is the unit stuck to the back of the monitor.

The XS3510M is now available with a Blu-ray player making this a full hi-def media device.  Powered by Intel’s dual-core Atom D510 coupled with Nvidia’s Ion graphics, it’s capable of 1080p playback via HDMI.

At only 38mm thick, it’s just a little bit bigger than an external USB 3.5″ HDD unit and yet there’s both the Blu-ray / DVD writer combo drive and a 500GB disk drive (I assume that it’s of the 2.5″ variety) crammed in there, along with a 4-in-1 card reader on the front.  Round the back, there are four USB ports for your mice and keyboards.  11n Wi-fi is built in too.

Shuttle also touts the low power credentials, claiming a maximum of 29W, which would hardly get my standard desktop PC started.  Power is supplied via an external power brick, much like a laptop.

There are no fans in the XS35 series and all cooling comes from air circulating through the many holes in the case.  Consequently, the PC has to be stood upright, not on its side, but it makes the system totally quiet apart from the gentle whirr of the Blu-ray drive.

Windows 7 comes pre-installed with the XS3510M but the range has also been tested with Novell’s OpenSuSE Linux.

Prices start at £171 for barebones systems and around £650 for the unit featured above (depending on options, exchange rate, etc.)  Brochure (.pdf) available here.

All pictures courtesy of Shuttle.

I recently travelled from the UK to the USA for a holiday (or vacation). Prior to leaving, I checked how much data was going to cost on my Palm Pre when abroad.  It was an eye-watering £6 ($9) per MB. Yes, per MB.  Needless to say, I turned off data roaming as soon as I left the UK.

However, I wasn’t prepared for the sheer abundance of free wi-fi in the US.  Odds-on, if I turned on my Pre, I’d be able to find a free connection, whether I was in a store, restaurant, bar or tourist attraction.  And while the data speeds weren’t extraordinary, they were perfectly acceptable for email, web and downloading podcasts.  I was saved.

Here in the UK, free wi-fi is fairly rare outside of coffee shops. Usually you have to get the encryption key from the store or else sign-up for a user name and password.  In the US, the networks were unencrypted and at worst, you had to tick “Accept terms and conditions” before getting on-line.

So I’d like to give a big thank you to Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, McDonalds, Safeway, Phoenix Sky Harbor airport, Pancho McGillicuddys and the Grand Canyon Caverns for the use of their free wi-fi while I was out and about.

I’m particularly indebted to Safeway – I’d start off my podcatcher (drPodder) when I got my shopping trolley and by the time I’d finished getting the groceries, GNC and my other podcasts would have been downloaded.  Food for the mind as well as the stomach!

Wi-Fi

Actually, I stopped using hotel WiFi because of this, too. You end up getting speeds slower than a modem and sometimes you are paying $10-$15 a day for it.

However, with the cloud looming and people wanting to watch YouTube videos and doing live meetings like GotoMeeting, the average user’s need for better speeds is a necessity. The standard 802.11b wifi router in the office – 150 feet away from your room – just won’t cut it anymore.

Hotels like InterContinental are experimenting with Tiered WiFi. For $10 a day, you can get a speed to check your email and Facebook. However, for $15 a day, you get some better connection speeds. No word what the “Better” speed would be – I would hope it would be at least 2 down, 2 up.

Then again, with 3G and 4G connections getting better in the US, will hotels benefit from making a tiered connection?

When in Vegas last June, I rented a 4G connection. I didn’t use the hotel Wireless because the 4G had better speed and cost less. I could work in my room, in the convention hall, in the lobby or in another location alltogether.

I was even in the airport watching GNC’s live show while waiting for my flight.

Two things I can see using a tiered hotel plan. One is if you need even more speed than 4G – One machine can run on 4G while the other connects via wireless. The other reason is if your 3G or 4G is a limited plan and you don’t want to go over 2 GB.

For people like myself or Todd, we need a better connection just to keep up with our daily lives. Not everyone needs that – but for those of us who do, having the option will be great.

More bandwidth!  I want more bandwidth!  If I yell, can I get it?  No?  How about if I ask nicely?

Lots of us have yelled AND asked nicely.  And in a year or so, we might just be able to get it.  At least, another way of getting it.  The FCC is prepared to vote on the provisions associated with making so-called “white space” between broadcast channels available for use with super Wi-Fi, service that will be faster have more range, and be more robust than current Wi-Fi.  “Super” Wi-Fi should penetrate walls, as well, making the provision of this new Wi-Fi a huge player in the current broadband market.

It has taken two years for the FCC to complete the appropriate surveys of white space, and come to terms with broadcasters and wireless microphone manufacturers about how the space will be used and by whom.  With the new provisions approved, development can finally occur.  By 2011 CES, proof of concept devices should be on display, with actual primary devices becoming available within a year.

I, personally, can’t wait.  A wireless signal that can go two or three miles, and offer speeds of 10 to 20 mbps to the home or business?  No more worries about having to have fiber, cable, or copper installed?

Maybe I can seriously consider building that house on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere after all…

The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office has issued a press release on Google’s collection of WiFi data that was obtained by the StreetView cars as they drove round.

In what appears to be a holding statement, the ICO says that it has reviewed samples of collected data at Google premises and confirms that the samples do not include any “meaningful personal details“.  Additionally, the information cannot be connected to an identified individual and it is unlikely to cause any harm.

However, the ICO confirms that collecting the information was wrong but there is nothing further in the press release to indicate if any penalties will be levied against Google.  Apparently the Information Commissioner will be taking a “responsible and proportionate approach.”

I’ve been living with my HTC Evo now for a few weeks, long enough where I can make a few informed observations about the device.

The Evo’s 4.3 inch multi-touch screen is superb. I’ve been surprised by the brightness and readability of the Evo’s screen even in a vehicle or outdoors in sunlight. The screen is big enough to be useful, yet the device still fits into a regular shirt pocket.

The Evo is fast and responsive. It seems that no matter what programs are open, the Evo remains just as responsive — there’s no wait for programs or configuration screens to pop open. The other smart phones I’ve owned in the past are dog-slow and sluggish by comparison.

The HTC’s “Sense” user interface that sits on top of Android is a winner. Popular social networking sites are slickly integrated right into every aspect of the phone’s functionality, making it possible to share most everything you can think of with a couple of taps.

The WiFi hotspot feature is also a tremendous convenience. It does have its quirks though. I’ve found that if I have opened up a bunch of different applications in the course of using the phone, if I then open up the WiFi hotspot feature, something will go wrong after a few hours and turn off the battery’s charging circuit. Something I have installed and am running may be causing this to happen. If I reboot the phone and then run the WiFi hotspot feature, this problem doesn’t occur and the battery keeps charging when it’s plugged in to AC power.

The integrated GPS is able to quickly find a signal. There are two GPS navigation choices that are included – Google Navigation and Sprint Navigation. Both work exactly as expected. I find myself making the most use of Google Navigation and Google Maps. The ability to search for businesses in a local area based on the phone’s own GPS location is extremely useful and I typically find I use that feature several times a day.

4G is currently not a good reason to buy an Evo because 4G coverage is currently extremely limited. This situation is in the process of changing. In the meantime, I’m happy with Sprint’s 3G coverage. I knew about this 4G limitation going in to getting this phone, so it’s not a problem for me. In reality, it’s likely going to take two or three years before 4G is widely deployed. I’ve been a Sprint data customer for more than 5 years, so I’ve witnessed (and lived with) the process firsthand of them going from 1XRT service that was limited to the eastern half of the country to widely-deployed EVDO Rev “A” 3G service.

Android is light years better than Windows Mobile 5, 6 or 6.5. When Android needs to pull data from the Internet it quickly pulls it without fuss or muss. All the versions of Windows Mobile I’ve dealt with have a “Dial-up Networking” routine they have to go through just as if it was a desktop computer connecting via a modem, which is slow and sometimes prone to fail. Windows Mobile data connections must be manually closed when not in use or they can drain the battery. Android just does what you expect it to without jumping through a bunch of hoops.

The Evo’s main 8 megapixel camera is very good, and the interface allows instant uploading of photos to services such as Flickr and Facebook. The front-facing camera will work with a free program called “Fring” that will allow two-way video conferencing, but I’ve found Fring’s interface confused and somewhat unreliable.

Sprint appears to be blocking the uploading of videos recorded on the phone even through the phone’s integrated browser when signed in to YouTube. However, I was able to email a video as an attachment to my YouTube account.

The Evo’s “HD video” recording capability is not anywhere close to HD standards. Furthermore, the sound quality of recorded video and audio is quite poor. The Evo is not a replacement for a real video camera. It is only fair to note here that all iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads have superior audio recording capabilities. Also the iPhone 4’s HD video recording capabilities are obviously quite superior to the Evo’s.

Overall, I’m very pleased with the HTC Evo. That being said, keep in mind that it requires expensive voice/data plans if you wish to take advantage of all its capabilities. Furthermore as a two and one half year plus Sprint customer I’m satisfied with the quality and speed of the Sprint network.

Get your chance to win a copy of Dragon Naturally Speaking version 9.0 see bottom of show notes. Lots of content tonight and some great feedback and suggestions from listeners.

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