The Consequences of Bargain Gadgets

This wasn’t the first bargain tech purchase my dad made. From previous experience, the reason these things are discounted are due to: open box with at least one missing accessory (instruction manual, power cable, remote control, etc.). Fortunately in this case, the only thing missing was the instruction manual, but who reads the instruction manual anyways?

Although there was probably an instruction manual floating out there on the web (I found a very helpful FAQ site), I decided to try messing around with the mv2010 sans instructions.

I found out that it could be interfaced through the web by entering its IP address into my browser. From that point on, I figured out the basics pretty easy. I was able to create new folders, enable streaming for selective folders, and set quotas. The web interface was pretty self-explanatory and being able to interface with it from any of the computers on my network was something I liked.

A screenshot of the mv2010 web interface

Time to Dig Around for Instructions

Although getting the core functionality of the network share was fine and dandy, I got the notion that there was more to this device when I spotted the 3 USB ports on it (one on front, two in the back).

A close-up photo of the front of the mv2010

Upon reading up on that dedicated FAQ site put together by the HP Media Vault’s own Systems Architect, Lee Devlin, I found out that this device could do a lot more as I suspected:

• I was able to hook up my HP laser printer and share it across the network pretty easily. The mv2010 also supports most printers although there are some it doesn’t support.
• I found out that by enabling streaming on folders that contained media, I could begin watching movies instantly off the mv2010 on my computers as well as my PS3! Unfortunately the PS3 doesn’t support the mp4 format made popular by iTunes but streamed DivX media just fine after a system update. Unfortunately, the Xbox360 cannot stream files from the mv2010 as it only supports a proprietary Microsoft streaming technology. Since most of HP’s products are Microsoft based, I kind of expected the mv2010 to support this, but it didn’t.
• You can install Firefly and turn it into an iTunes Music server.
• You can turn it into an FTP server. As far as I know, installing server software such as apache to serve up websites is not supported.

Upon further physical inspection, I also noticed an expansion bay. On Lee Devlin’s FAQ site, it seems that any SATA drive can fit in there, so once we’ve used up 300GB, we can add more capacity.

Would I Still Get Apple’s Time Capsule?

Frankly, I can’t see a need for Apple’s Time Capsule anymore. Since upgrading to Leopard, I’ve been backing up via Time Machine to a USB WD Passport and it’s been working so far. And although Apple’s Time Capsule can do a lot of the things the mv2010 can do, the mv2010 just seems like a much more open platform.

Also, having the NAS separated from the router is a plus. I am currently routing my connections with a Linksys WRT54G running DD-WRT firmware, and I don’t think I would get all the flexibility I have if I were to replace my router and the mv2010 with Apple’s Time Capsule.

In closing, I’m pretty happy with the mv2010, although there is a bit of a letdown; the write speeds seem a little sluggish, and from googling up this topic, others seem to agree. However, the streaming seems solid so far as watching DivX media streamed from the mv2010 is smooth.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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Ever since being spoiled by the high quality of audio put out by in-ear earphones such as the Etymotic Research ER-6is, I couldn’t go back to cheap earbuds. When my pair of ER-6is eventually died (even after I tried to salvage them), I had my eye on the Audio-Technica ATH-CK7s I came across on AudioCubes.

The ATH-CK7s are almost the same type of earphones as the ER-6is except they don’t go that deep into your ear canal. Due to this, you will be able to still hear outside sounds unlike the ER-6is who provided the best isolation I’ve ever experienced of an audio product besides noise-canceling headphones. I miss the absolute isolation from the ER-6is but I find the ATH-CK7s to be a lot more comfortable. This is a personal thing though as everybody has different ears, but I found I could listen to my music longer without getting that uncomfortable “itchy” feeling of having the earphones in too long.

So how do they sound?

I will have to say that the ATH-CK7s sound on par with the ER-6is, if not better. Initially I thought they sounded like crap because the sound seemed really muffled. However, after reading that it takes some time for these to warm up, I plugged them into my laptop while playing some music at a pretty high volume for an hour. When I came back and put them into my ears, the difference was like night and day, they sounded really good.

As with the ER-6is, these earphones sound great with the mid and high frequencies. In regards to the bass, the bass output by the ATH-CK7s definitely has the edge over the ER-6is. It makes the music sound much fuller and it’s something I really welcomed. I have a feeling that the bass sounds much better on the ATH-CK7s because the drivers do appear to be bigger.

Other physical features to note

The mini-jack on the ATH-CK7s bends 90º. This is something I welcomed – I think the straight jack design on the ER-6is is what lead to the fraying of the cord since I like to wrap my earphones around the iPod.

The earbuds themselves have an outer titanium casing which makes them feel heavy. I didn’t think too much of this, however this might be a purchasing factor for those who find in-ear earphones to easily fall out of their ears. Like the ER-6is, you can detach the rubber tips that go in your ears for cleaning and Audio-Technica has packaged the standard three sizes of rubber tips: small, medium and large.

One really nice feature of these earphones is the high elastic elastomer material used for the cord. They claim that it prevents tangling and it seems to work, I’ve found that I haven’t really had to untangle the cord unless the mini-jack or earbuds manage to do a couple of loops and make a loose knot.

According to the packaging, these earphones were apparently designed to also wrap around your ears if you feed the cord from your back rather than the traditional way of having the cord in front of you.

For regular use, I prefer to just wear these earphones the traditional way. However, when running, I found wearing it the way depicted in the diagram was great. Truthfully, wearing it that way could probably apply to most earphones, but I would have never thought of it.

Gallery

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A while back, I was browsing through the ‘Photos from your contacts’ on Flickr and stumbled upon a photo of Derek’s wallet which was later used towards contents of an interview for My Mint:

I saw a note for the earphones and when I read that they were the ER-6i’s, I recalled a post also from Derek which was aimed towards college students and his recommendations on necessary college gear. He mentioned the Etymotic ER-6i’s were great at isolating outside noise so I thought, hey I could use these during final exam study sessions.

First off, I scoured the net for reviews on these earphones after seeing the expensive price tag on the Etymotic Research website. If I’m going to invest a suggested $149 USD in a pair of earphones, the sound quality better be damn worth it. Reading review after review, it seemed there was going to be nothing another customer wrote that would change my decision on these earphones. I had to get them.

This morning they arrived in the mail and like a child during Christmas time, I ripped open the parcel and was excited to see what I ordered.

Inside the package were the earphones, 2 pairs of different size replacement flange eartips, 1 pair of foam eartips, 2 replacement filters, a filter changing tool, and a classy pouch to store everything in.

I immediately wanted to try them out. But once I saw how they were, I got the first impression that they were delicate. Not wanting to risk breaking these expensive earphones on arrival I wanted to be cautious. Then came the rare moment of me actually consulting the user’s manual before trying out the gadget.

The manual actually has some useful notes for using these earphones properly, but its nothing I didn’t already know. For those who’ve used in-ear earphones before, it’s likely you’re all too familiar that these need a deep seal in your ear in order for these to sound any good.

Achieving isolation is a strong point of these earphones. Other users weren’t kidding when they said that these earphones could be dangerous when used outside. When I had these on with no music playing, just to test how well they blocked outside noise, I couldn’t hear anything at all; this included water which was running from the kitchen faucet, and the microwave. Etymotic Research put a nice caution note in their user manual too:

ETYMOTIC Isolator earphones exclude most external sounds even at low listening levels. It is unsafe to use insert earphones while driving a motorized vehicle, operating machinery, bicycling, or jogging, because you may not be alerted to potential danger.

For a student however, these earphones are ideal. I take transit to school and the commute can range from 1-1.5 hours. It’s usually the only time I listen to my iPod and the buses are loud. I regularly have to turn up the volume much more than I need to so that my music can drown the mechanical noises of the bus, now I shouldn’t need to and it will be much better for my hearing.

With all the precautions out of the way, I hooked these buds to my iPod and decided to test these out with a little bit of Tiesto’s new album first.

The verdict? Wow, these earphones sound amazing. The biggest feature going for these earphones is their frequency response. The range of highs and lows these earphones can achieve is very diverse. I swear, if you compare the listening experience of a favorite song you’ve listened to many times on your iPod with the standard issue earphones from Apple — compared to these earphones, there will be something subtle that you’ve never heard before.

To nitpick at the frequency response some more, I’ve read reviews from users who’ve said the bass response from these earphones takes some getting used to as they don’t provide that typical ‘thump’ you would get from a subwoofer. I disagree with these claims. I think the bass response on these earphones are perfect, as the bass response is well balanced and doesn’t drown out everything else. I compared these to the bass response of my dad’s Sennheiser CX300′s. On a song with female vocals and deep bass, the Sennheiser’s bass output was drowning out the vocals. On the ER-6i’s the vocals were still strong, crisp, and clear.

However, the CX300′s beat these earphones when it came to the sensitivity (basically, which one is capable of sounding louder at max volume). At max volume, the ER-6i’s were weak compared to the CX300′s, but I believe there is a benefit to this. I won’t be able to damage my hearing as effectively as if I had the CX300′s. When I compared the size of their drivers, it was evident that because the CX300′s were capable of achieving higher sensitivity because of their much larger size.

To end the review, these earphones really are the best upgrade any student with an iPod should consider. It achieves great isolation and has great sound to boot. If you’re looking for earphones that can really give a good thumping bass though, consider the Sennheiser CX300′s, they’re usually advertised for cheaper and have better sensitivity than the Etymotic ER-6i’s.

Gallery:

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In my other post about the Sumo Omni, I said that I would write a review on it because I felt that I should have my 2 cents on this unique piece of “furniture”. Well the Omni arrived a week ago and I must say that I am very pleased with the quality and function that can come out of something loosely labeled as a beanbag!

To start the review off, the Omni is extremely comfortable. Because of the mechanics of how beanbags work, the Omni forms to whatever way you want to position yourself while sitting or laying down. The way it contours to your body allows you to stay in whatever position you want to relax in for a longer period of time than if you were sitting on a couch (well, for me anyways). Since it allows you to keep your position without feeling any soreness or strain, this beanbag is the perfect thing to sit on while doing something like a video game marathon. I think it’s pretty sure that I will want to lug this thing around to any future game nights when possible, it’s just that comfy.

Another plus about the Omni is that it is very large in size. I thought that I would be using this thing on my bed to help me lay against my headboard but the truth is that the Omni is nearly the size of my mattress! This thing is huge but is actually a perfect size for getting yourself comfortable in.

In regards to the construction of this beanbag — it’s a beast. I have to hand it to Sumo for the quality they put in the Omni. The Nylon is super tough and they even covered the zippers with an 1.5 inches wide of velcro. My mom was concerned that there was a chance this thing would rip and that the beans would spill all over the place, but I’m pretty confident it won’t. I wasn’t scared of abusing this thing on the first day, I jumped on it, it met some corners and it’s still in perfect shape.

To conclude this review, Sumo has created a demo video of the Omni. Although the beginning is very long and not quite related, it does give across the point of how excited you get when it comes in the mail.

Since visiting their website, it looks like they’re covering the shipping (which angers me a little since I ordered it just a while ago and paid for the shipping). Oh well, if you ever considered purchasing the Omni, now is an opportune time to act.

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I decided to buy it with the good faith I had in Square. I forked over my $15 and before I knew it, I’ve spent over 14 hours on the game and now feel that I got this game at a steal. Right after I purchased this, I checked IGN to see how the review was and it was rated 6.3 overall. Personally, I think this game deserves a higher rating and more attention. The gameplay is really fun (often described as a hybrid between Dynasty Warriors and Panzer Dragoon), which I found surprising since Square was notorious for creating horrible games outside the RPG genre. Perhaps the merger with the minds of Enix helped.

One thing I was disappointed with this game though was the cutscenes. The in-game cutscenes are basically 3d stills with the dialogue typed out at the bottom with some very fine voice acting behind it (no joke, it seems that Square-Enix has a lot of very talented voice actors at their disposal). The FMV (pre-rendered) cutscenes look outdated as well…I mean granted this game is set in medevil times but the CGI behind the pre-rendered cutscenes look like they were done with technology that was cutting edge 5 years ago.

Besides that disappointment in the cutscenes, I am really enjoying the game so far. The ability to hack and slash at hundreds of knights Dynasty Warriors style while being able to switch to another character in a snap as well as being able to call out your fire breathing dragon any time is good fun

Hopefully I finish this game before this weekend…school is approaching.

While on the topic of school, I also received my replacement battery from Apple today. I was worried I would have to go through the first few weeks of the upcoming semester without my laptop.

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Lately I’ve been playing with my PSP more, but it started to get boring with only two games: that Gretzky hockey game that came with the bundle and X-Men Legends II which my friends got me for Christmas. Since I got a credit card I figured maybe I’d try to find a fun game to buy to change it up a bit. I stumbled on Play-Asia.com and found saw Initial D: Street Stage for the PSP as #2 of the top ten sellers for PSP games.

I enjoyed playing Initial D at the arcades but never really got far into it. However I did go crazy with Maximum Tune as you can see with the status of my card below:

I easily have spent over $40 on that game. I beat it once already and am just one race away from beating it a second time (sad, I know), so I figured, maybe I’ll purchase Initial D for the PSP so I could get my drifting fix.

So I headed over to Play-Asia on the 20th and bought the asian version for $40, not a bad deal for an import.

Then today it arrived and I was a little nervous about opening it. Why? I wasn’t totally sure if it would work on a North American PSP. Still I was excited, so I opened the package and there it was. An original Initial D: Street Stage for the PSP in Japanese packaging:

So I put in the UMD into the PSP and booted it up. I was relieved to see that it recognized it:

Got a little scared when I saw this though:

Turns out it was just some warning screen. Darn my lack of Japanese comprehension

Since this game is hardly covered in any video game related site I’ve come across I’ll try to cover some of it with what I’ve went through so far.

• The game is pretty much a port of the arcade version, the gameplay is fun as the original but steering with the analog control on the PSP takes a little while to get used to
• The manual is in English! It’s really great because without it I wouldn’t be able to understand the menus
• In the arcade version there was a points system which you used towards upgrading your car. The PSP version uses a trading card system (refer to the manual on how to tune your car up, I thought that when you received the cards it automatically tuned it up but never realized my car was just as slow).
• Final note: Imported games work on any PSP

I took some snapshots of the intro which I’ve uploaded to Flickr, take a peek to see how great the graphics are:

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Except one really hot day after work, I decided I would drop by my local convenience store to pick up something to quench my thirst. No, I wasn’t after Gatorade, in fact a slurpee probably would have done the trick, but then I saw a can of this:

I was intrigued by the passive design of the can (it was hot pink!) whereas the other energy drinks I came across before looked really agressive. My adventurous mood that day spurred me to purchase one can of this chemically infused drink. I was shocked at the price as I left the store. I paid $3.00 for a 269mL can…not even the standard 355mL! I could have bought a huge slurpee for that price!

I soon forgot about the ridiculous price and flipped the tab and heard the fizzing and was hyped to finally hydrate myself after being outside in the heat.

Yuck.

I had high expectations for this drink, it was a product of the Coca-Cola Company! It was one really bland energy drink that tasted like diet cherry soda — wait, let me rephrase that, it tasted like club soda with a drop of cherry syrup. I know it says it’s a sugar-free energy drink, but even the flavored Aquafinas (which are also “sugar-free”) tasted better! If it weren’t for the scorching temperatures outside I probably would have chucked it but I figured I’d try and get as much of my $3.00 as I could.

At the end of the day, TaB energy was one of the worst energy drinks I’ve come across. Although the caffeine concentration of it is much like those of other energy drinks, it probably serves it’s purpose by increasing your attention and energy by the nasty taste and ridiculous price. If you’re ever shopping for a quick jolt, pick something else like Red Bull, SoBe A-Rush, or Monster, or even Bawls!. At least those brands taste better.