Samsung UN32EH5300 LED 1080p Smart HDTV Review

I purchased a Samsung UN32EH5300 LED 1080p Smart TV (HDTV) approximately two weeks ago and after using it I decided to write my review of this television.

This is actually my second Samsung television. I was happy with my first Samsung HDTV purchase (although my first Samsung HDTV purchase was not a Smart TV and was the B2430HD) so when my old CRT television broke, I replaced it with the Samsung UN32EH5300 which was on sale.

This television measures ~32" diagonally. I didn't want a television too large so it was either getting ~32" television or ~40" television. I opted to go for the ~32" television mainly because it was on sale at the time that my old CRT television broke.

It also has 3 HDMI ports, 2 USB ports (one rated as 0.5A and the other rated as 1A), component in, digital audio video out, and an ethernet port.

I wanted a smart television that had Netflix on it since I watch a fair amount of Netflix movies. For my non-smart televisions such as my Samsung B2430HD, I use the LG Smart TV Upgrader Box ST600 or I use my Rikomagic MK802IIIS Android Mini PC (HDMI stick). I felt that having Netflix built into the television would be great.

When plugging my Samsung UN32EH5300 LED Smart TV into the AC outlet and connecting it to the internet, the first thing that it did was upgrade the system software. I liked the fact that it allowed upgrading the system software over the internet as opposed to upgrading it via USB stick. Configuring the television to access my wireless router was simple. The television has a RJ45 network jack but since my wireless router wasn't close enough to the television to connect a network cable, I opted to connect it to the internet using the wireless network.

The television gets the date/time from either manually setting it or from the broadcast stations. Since this television can connect to the internet, I was disappointed that it didn't get the date/time via an NTP server.

To begin with, I only installed 4 applications onto the television. I installed Netflix, NFB (National Film Board), YouTube, and the Accuweather application. I configured the Accuweather application for my home city. It gives the current temperature/weather along with a 6 day forecast (including today). I don't like how the search feature works on the NFB application. To search, it uses the remote control similar to how people would used to enter SMS using an old non-smartphone.

To access the regional settings for the Samsung UN32EH5300 LED Smart TV, I managed to access the country settings in order to get the proper Samsung Apps Store, using the remote control, I pressed: », 2, 8, 9, « (fast forward, 2, 8, 9, rewind). This gave me the country listings and I selected Canada to get the Canada specific applications.

To log out of Netflix, since I could not see the gears/settings icon, I used the arrows on my remote to enter the following sequence: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, Up, Up, Up, Up. After doing this, I selected Deactivate. I was then given the option to sign in as a different Netflix member. This is also good to do before selling the television to someone else (otherwise the buyer will use your Netflix account on the television).

With Netflix, I initially had a few issues configuring it with my account but I think that the reason for this is that I was using Unblock-Us and the region I set was neither the US nor Canada. After setting Unblock-Us to Canada, I was able to configure Netflix with my account based on my Netflix e-mail address and my Netflix password. After Netflix was configured, I tested Unblock-Us by switching the country to the Netherlands and unlike what happens on my LG Smart TV Upgrader Box ST600 where Netflix wouldn't work if I selected a country other than Canada or the US, the Samsung UN32EH5300 was able to play my Netflix selection from the Netherlands as well as any of the other Unblock-Us countries. Barring any internet connection/speed issues, I was amazed by the the video quality and sound quality of Netflix.

If you are looking for a television that fully supports Netflix with Unblock-Us, you shouldn't have any issues with the Samsung UN32EH5300 and the Unblock-Us service.

I'm not sure if this is the same for other Smart TV brands/manufacturers but I find that it takes a long time to switch from watching television to one of the Smart TV applications.

One of the things that I found annoying with the television is that by default when navigating via the remote control, the television makes a noise (like a "clicking" sound). Removing this "clicking" sound was not intuitive in the menu since it did not appear in the Sound menu.

One of the things that I like about the remote control is that the buttons can light up. Pushing the "light" button on the remote causes the remote control buttons to light up for approximately 1 second after each button is pushed so that it is easy to view the buttons in the dark.

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Blackberry Playbook Review

I've had my Blackberry Playbook for awhile but since I don't really use it much I never really wrote a review on it. I purchased it at a good price from a RIM emploee when RIM (now Blackberry) was trying to offload them without completely abandoning it (unlike HP which completely abandoned their HP TouchPad line). I thought that now that I upgraded my main e-mailing/texting phone from the Blackberry Bold 9700 to the Blackberry Q10, I should write my thoughts on the Blackberry Playbook.

When I got the Blackberry Playbook, the OS that it shipped with was a version of Blackberry Tablet OS 1.0. In my opinion, it was lacking a lot of features (like a standalone e-mail client, standalone contacts, and standalone calendar). Even though I had a Blackberry Bold 9700 and linked my Blackberry Playbook with it, I wasn't really using my Playbook a lot when compared with either my HP TouchPad or my Acer Iconia A100 Android tablet. The reason for this is that even though I found the browsing experience (and the battery life) to be quite good on the Playbook, the lack of applications was a major factor in my decision. Also, Adobe Reader for the Blackberry Playbook didn't render my PDF documents/files properly (or as nice as) on my HP TouchPad or my Acer Iconia A100 Android tablet (and one of my main uses for my tablets even though I have a Kobo Mini e-reader is that I use them to read PDF books/files).

With Blackberry Tablet OS 2.0, the Playbook has incorporated a lot of other features but the main feature that most people will notice is that it now has a standalone e-mail client, standalone contacts, and standalone calendar program. I find these to be good and easy to set up with my Google account.

The Blackberry Playbook integrates/links with a Blackberry phone very easily and even if your account or your phone doesn't have tethering enabled, you are still able to use the Playbook browser when linked to your Blackberry in order to browse the web. However, you won't have full internet access unless you use tethering.

I find the screen on the Playbook to be very good and vibrant. I also like that it has a micro-HDMI port so that I can plug it into my HD television if I so choose. One of my colleagues at work also has a Blackberry Playbook and uses his mainly to watch movies. I tried watching a movie on it and the movie played without any issues.

I find the virtual keyboard on the Playbook to be "better" than my experience with the virtual keyboard on my HP TouchPad or my Acer Iconia A100 Android tablet. I'm not sure why that is but it just seems more fluid and I make less mistakes using it.

The one thing that I find lacking on the Blackberry Playbook is the lack of applications that I would normally use. According to the statistics that I've looked at, there are over 24,000 applications for the Blackberry Playbook. There are fewer applications for my HP (WebOS) TouchPad but I find that I use my HP TouchPad more often for both the contact/calendar/e-mail applications as well as the browsing and PDF reading ability (because the HP TouchPad renders PDF documents better). Just like the HP TouchPad, the Blackberry Playbook uses Bing Maps instead of Google Maps (I have a preference for Google Maps).

At the discounted price that I purchased my Blackberry Playbook, I find that it is useful for browsing (the browsing experience is very good) and for the occasional watching of videos. I also like the size when compared to my HP TouchPad (which I find a bit too large) and the battery life is also very good. In terms of whether I would recommend getting a Blackberry Playbook, it would depend on the price and what the person plans on doing with it.

I'm hoping that now that I upgraded my main e-mailing/texting phone to a Blackberry OS 10 device (Blackberry Q10) and Blackberry OS 10 is rumoured to be coming out for the Blackberry Playbook, I'll be using my Blackberry Playbook a bit more. Currently my Blackberry Playbook is running 2.1.0.1526.

I've read a few forums showing how to load an Android virtual machine onto the Blackberry Playbook but for the time being, it isn't something that I've tried.

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LG Nexus-4 Review

I managed to get my hands on a LG Nexus-4 a few days ago and decided to write my review this week on my experience and my thoughts on it.

For the last few years, I've been skipping at least one generation in terms of phones instead of getting each new upgrade that the phone manufacturer comes out with (which I was doing with the Handspring/Palm line of products... Handspring VisorPhone, Treo 600, Treo 650, & Treo 680). My Android phone of choice a few years ago was the Samsung Nexus-S. There was nothing really wrong with my Samsung Nexus-S but it was starting to show its age (1 cm scratch on screen, battery not lasting for an entire day based on my limited usage, and it being somewhat sluggish) and when the opportunity came for me to get the LG Nexus-4 at a good price, I went for it.

I like the Nexus line because it is pure Google Android without any bloatware from either the carrier or the phone manufacturer. I didn't get the HTC Nexus-One, purchased the Samsung Nexus-S, skipped the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and purchased the LG Nexus-4. The Nexus line also comes factory unlocked regardless of which carrier you purchase it from which is another thing that I like about it.

There are a lot of reviews that compare the LG Nexus-4 with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Since I never actually handled a Samsung Galaxy Nexus but did read about it, I won't be comparing the LG Nexus-4 with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

What I like about the LG Nexus-4 is that it is fast. I probably find it fast because I skipped a generation in terms of the Nexus line so the speed improvement and the responsiveness of the operating system is definitely the first thing that I noticed when I started using my LG Nexus-4. In fact, if possible, I find it a bit too responsive/fast. The Nexus-S had a single core processor whereas the Nexus-4 has a quad core processor.

The screen resolution is very good (1280 x 768 compared with 800 x 480) and I find that the camera takes very good pictures (8 megapixel compared to the 5 megapixel resolution of my old Samsung Nexus-S). I didn't really use the front facing camera on my Samsung Nexus-S but the LG Nexus-4's front facing camera is also better.

Something that was introduced in the Nexus line with the Galaxy Nexus is the ability to unlock the phone using the front facing camera (Face Unlock). This is something that I find amazing and use to unlock my phone. As a back-up in case the camera doesn't recognize the face of the owner, it can be set to unlock either via PIN or via pattern unlock. Just in case someone tries to use a picture of the owner in order to unlock the phone (or unlocking the phone while the owner is asleep), the phone also has a setting requiring the owner to blink before it will unlock. I find the face recognition to be very good. I set the phone to unlock only when I blink and I find that the blinking is a hit-or-miss in that the phone will sometimes not detect whether I've blinked or not and will not unlock.

Something that I like about the LG Nexus-4 is that it is pentaband 3G (850, 900, 1700, 1900, & 2100) and quadband GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, & 1900). In Canada, this means that unlike the Samsung Nexus-S where a Videotron/WindMobile Nexus-S would not work on the 3G network on Rogers/Fido (but would work on the 2G network to make/receive calls as well as data) and would not work at all on the Bell/Telus network, the LG Nexus-4 will work on whichever Canadian carrier (Rogers, Fido, Chat-r, Bell, Telus, VirginMobile, Koodo, Videotron, PetroCanada) regardless of which carrier you originally purchased it from. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus was also pentaband 3G so in Canada, it would work in the above SIM operated Canadian wireless provider's network regardless of which carrier the phone was purchased from (especially since as mentioned above all Nexus phones are sold factory unlocked). What I'm not really crazy about is that it doesn't use the mini-SIM card (like the older phones and like my Samsung Nexus-S) but uses the micro-SIM card. The other thing that I find lacking in the phone is that it doesn't support LTE when most of the new phones coming out support LTE.

Something else that I like about the LG Nexus-4 is that it has Gorilla Glass whereas my Samsung Nexus-S didn't which is why it probably has a 1 cm scratch on the glass.

The LG Nexus-4 doesn't have a user removable battery unlike the Samsung Nexus-S which is somewhat of a drawback. However, I've been using my iPhone 3GS and didn't have any problems with wanting to change the battery or swap the battery. In my opinion, having a user replaceable battery would still be good and it is somewhat of a drawback that the LG Nexus-4 doesn't have this.

One somewhat annoying thing for me (but it probably wouldn't bother most people unless they switch SIM cards a lot) is that the SIM ejector hole requires a very thin ejector tool (included). The edge/end of a paper clip won't fit into the SIM ejector hole and neither will the iPhone SIM card ejector tool (at least with the tool included in my iPhone 3GS and the tool from an iPhone 4). The Nexus-4 does include the special/thin SIM card ejector tool but for someone who switches SIMs a lot, it is an annoyance that I can't easily eject the SIM card with a paper clip like I can for my iPhone 3GS.

If you have any comments/questions regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section below. Please note that the comments are moderated and an comment containing a URL link (whether embedded or not) will automatically be flagged as spam and will not be posted.

D-Link SharePort Go Mobile Companion DIR-506L Review

I had the opportunity to test out the D-Link SharePort Go DIR-506L a few days ago and I thought that I would write my thoughts on the product.

The SharePort Go Mobile Companion is portable and slightly larger than a deck of playing cards. It is powered through USB port (mini-USB) or by battery with the included removable proprietary battery. Included with the unit is a USB cable, the battery, and a very small instructional booklet.

I charged the unit using an AC to mini-USB cable from one of my other devices for a few hours. According to the documentation, it takes ~4 hours to fully charge using the USB cable when attached to the USB port on a computer. Charging it fully via my AC adapter was obviously a lot faster. According to the documentation, the battery lasts for 4 hours on a single charge, however like with all electronic devices this number probably depends on how the device is used.

The unit configures via either a WPS set-up button, by connecting to the device via http://192.168.0.1 (either wirelessly or wired), by using an Android/iPhone application. Not being a real fan of WPS since I prefer to configure my wireless devices manually, I configured the device using the free Android application. I also wanted to try it also using the iPhone application but unfortunately, the application only works with iOS 4.3 and above and my iPhone 3GS is still at iOS 4.01. The configuration was straightforward on the free Android application (called QRS Mobile) for basic set-up. The only problem that I experienced was due to the fact that this device's internal IP address matched the internal IP address of my existing wireless router.

Because my home network isn't very straightforward and the very small instructional booklet (Quick Installation Guide) was written for very basic network configurations, I had to download the user manual from the company's website to get some added information about setting up the device as an Access Point. At the same time, I checked to see if there was any firmware updates on the company's website and applied the latest firmware on the device.

Accessing the device's configuration directly via a browser allows for more advanced configuration options. The options available when configuring the SharePort Go Mobile Companion are similar to most advanced router configurations including MAC address filtering, opening network ports, etc.

The company's video below from YouTube outlines some of the features of the device.


I tested to see whether the device would charge my iPhone 3GS and my Android phones (Samsung Nexus-S & LG Nexus-4) and according to the phone display, it was charging without any issues. It was unable to charge my Blackberry Bold 9700 but then again my Blackberry Bold 9700 will sometimes charge using some cables and sometimes it won't charge using the same cable so I'm not sure whether it will charge Blackberry phones. I didn't let the device fully charge my phones, I just looked at the message or icon on the phone to see whether the phone was actually charging.

I tested the device's SharePort capability by plugging in my USB memory stick (with some photos on it) and I was able to watch them without any issues on my Android tablet with the free SharePort Mobile Android application. I also tested it with some MP3 files and didn't have any issues either. Unfortunately, I didn't have any quickly accessible videos in MOV or MP4 to test.

I find the device good and useful but here are my negative comments about the device:
1) Even though I like the fact that the device has a removable/changeable battery, I would have preferred it if the device used standard batteries or batteries used by some other devices (like camera batteries) but then again, the required voltage/amperage probably makes this very difficult.
2) Unlike a laptop which can be powered with an AC adapter without having the battery plugged into it, the device requires the battery in the unit even when it is being charged/powered by an AC adapter (similar to how cellphones behave). For users who don't need a battery powered device, the non-battery powered SharePort DIR-505 might be a better option.
3) Since most cameras use SD memory cards, having an SD/SDHC/SDXC card slot would have been nice (but I basically have a USB SD card reader stick so it isn't really a big deal).
4) Only supports USB devices that are less than 500 GB
5) I find the video file format that the unit supports limiting. However since I believe that the primary market for this device is for users/consumers to share videos taken from their digital cameras, this might not be a big issue for most people.

All in all, even with the negative comments mentioned above, I like the D-Link SharePort Go Mobile Companion DIR-506L device and don't have any issues recommending it for any user who needs the functions of such a device.

If you have any comments/questions regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section below. Please note that the comments are moderated and an comment containing a URL link (whether embedded or not) will automatically be flagged as spam and will not be posted.

Dell Vostro 2420 Review

I've been taking care of a bad cough which is one of the reasons why I didn't write a blog entry last week. I'm still coughing but it isn't as bad as it was last week so I've decided to resume my blog entries.

A friend asked me to install Windows on his Dell Vostro 2420. The version that he purchased had Ubuntu 11.10 pre-installed on it. I got the chance to test it out for a few hours before reformatting it and installing Windows on it.

Hardware-wise, the Vostro 2420 sports a 14" screen and is about twice the thickness of my Samsung Chromebook. It is roughly the same thickness as my Acer Netbook (but obviously larger). It has a full-size keyboard (minus the numeric keypad). I find the keyboard to be quite good and I like the fact that it is easy to clean since the space between keys is "filled" so hair and dirt/dust can't easily slip inside the keyboard (and it is just a simple matter of vacuuming the keyboard). The trackpad is also very responsive.

The Dell Vostro comes with an HDMI port, 3 USB ports, a VGA port, and ethernet network port, a DVD-RW drive, an earphone/microphone jack, a built-in webcam, and an SD/MMC/MS memory card slot. I tested out the HDMI port on my HD television and it works very well, although with the resolution set on the laptop, part of display didn't appear on my television set. I've also tested the wireless connection and I found that it worked very well. The version that my friend purchased came with an Intel Core i3 CPU so it was relatively fast with Ubuntu 11.10 as well as when I reformatted it and installed Windows 7 on it.

The system boots up fast in Linux. I didn't get a chance to test out all the features of the Ubuntu 11.10 operating system but I didn't have any issues with it nor did I have any issues configuring it to work with my wireless router.

When booting up the system initially, it would go through a set-up and then prompt you to save a recovery disk. I opted to do this onto a USB thumbdrive and found that it worked well. I tested reformatting the machine with the USB thumbdrive and didn't experience any problems.

After trying the Ubuntu 11.10 for about 1 hour, I reformatted the laptop and installed Windows 7 onto it. The Windows 7 installation was very straightforward. After the system rebooted with Windows 7 installed, it didn't detect a few of the devices (video adapter, sound card, network card, wireless, & chipset). This was all available on Dell's website. For this laptop model, Dell has the drivers for Windows 7 (32bit & 64bit), Ubuntu, and Windows 8 (32bit & 64bit). The entire installation (with the drivers) took under 1 hour. What took long was downloading all of Microsoft's updates (I didn't time this and it would depend on the network speed as well as the version of Windows 7 that is being used for the installation but I would estimate that it took 1.5 hours to download/install all the Microsoft updates).

I used the laptop for a few hours with Windows 7 installed on it and I found it to be very fast/responsive. Since there was nothing installed on the laptop (excluding the operating system, the drivers, and a few standard applications that I installed for my friend (Adobe Flash, Acrobat Reader, HP Officejet Pro 8600 drivers/files (since he has the same printer as I do), and Google Chrome), I didn't really expect it to be slow.

In the short time that I used the laptop, I find it to be very good. I don't know how much my friend paid for it but the price will determine whether I would recommend it or not.

If you have any comments/questions regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section below. Please note that comments are moderated and any comment containing a URL link (whether or not it is embedded) will automatically be flagged as being spam and will not be posted.

Kobo Mini Review

I purchased a Kobo Mini on sale during the Black Friday weekend sale last week and I've been using it for a few days (enough so that I can write a review about the product). Even though I use my various tablets (Android tablet, Acer Iconia Tab A100 Android tablet, & HP TouchPad) and my various phones to read my PDF documents/books, I heard good things about the dedicated e-readers so I decided to purchase the Kobo Mini when it went on sale.

Since I had a lot of PDF documents/books, I wanted to be sure that whatever e-reader that I purchased would accommodate the PDF file format. The Kobo Mini specifications mention that it does support PDF.

After charging my Kobo Mini, when I turned it on, the first thing that it asked me is what language I wanted. It then asked me whether I wanted to configure it using a computer or whether I wanted to configure it using the wireless connection. I opted for the wireless connection. It then asked me to configure the date/time/timezone and then prompted me to connect to my wireless network. Because of the added security of my wireless network, I did have some problems with connecting to my wireless router but most people won't have an issue. The one thing that I did find difficult was typing my password on the Kobo Mini touchscreen. The touchscreen is not particularly sensitive (not as sensitive as on any of my smartphones or my tablets) and it sometimes required pressing the screen multiple times for a single letter.

After connecting to my wireless network, it automatically detected that there was an update available and it proceeded to download the update and update my device. The entire update process took ~15 minutes. Once it finished updating, my Kobo Mini rebooted and I was prompted again for whether I wanted to configure the device using the wireless connection on via a direct connection to my computer. I opted again for the wireless connection and I had to re-enter my wireless connection password. Although I only had 2 books available to me on my Kobo account, I then connected to my Kobo account and the 2 books downloaded via wireless to my Kobo Mini.

In order to transfer my PDF documents/books to my Kobo Mini, I connected my Kobo Mini to my computer. The Kobo Mini then appeared on my computer (similar to an external hard drive) and I dragged/dropped my PDF documents/books onto my Kobo Mini (without placing them into any subdirectory). After doing that, I "ejected" the Kobo USB device from my computer and removed the USB cable from my computer as well as from my Kobo Mini. The Kobo Mini then processed the files that I dropped onto it and within a few seconds I saw my PDF documents/books on my Kobo Mini's home screen.

The Kobo Mini displays the 2 Kobo ePub books from my Kobo account very well. The font is large enough to be readable. However, I find that because of the size of the Kobo Mini, it doesn't really do that great of a job with my PDF documents/books. The font size is extremely small. Even though I can still read it without magnifying the font/page (which the Kobo Mini does allow you to do), I prefer reading the PDF documents/books on my HP TouchPad because of the larger size or on my Acer Iconia A100 Android Tablet.

In proper lighting (similar to the amount of light you would need to read any real book), the Kobo ePub books are extremely easy to read and easy on the eyes because of the e-ink.

I find the speed at which the pages turn on the Kobo Mini to be somewhat slow. It is faster with the Kobo ePub books than with my PDF documents/books but I still find it to be somewhat slow with both.

The Kobo Mini also has 3 applications in the "Extra" menu within Settings (a sudoku game, a sketch pad, and an extremely limited web browser). I can't really recommend any of these. The browser is extremely slow and limited to the point of being frustrating since for example, it required me to entire the URL for my blog about 10 times before it finally went to my blog. The sketch pad will allow you to draw/doodle on the Kobo Mini's touchscreen and save what you've done but once saved, the only way of deleting the PNG image is to connect the Mini to your computer and then manually delete the file using your computer. I can't really comment on the sudoku game since I don't play sudoku.

All in all, I would say that the Kobo Mini is okay for the Black Friday sale price that I paid for it. I would not purchase the device at its regular price of ~$80+taxes. The 5" screen is too small for reading of PDF documents/books but fine for the Kobo books that I've previewed. The Kobo Mini is extremely light (obviously lighter than my ~10" screen-size of my HP TouchPad or the ~7" screen-size of my Acer Iconia A100 tablet). It is also lighter (or feels lighter) than any of my smartphones. The battery life is also very good. The 2 things that I find lacking is the speed of the device and the responsiveness of the touchscreen when using the virtual on-screen keyboard.

If you have any questions/comments regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave your question/comment in the comments section. Please note that the comments are moderated and any comment that contains a URL link (whether or not it is embedded) will automatically be flagged as being spam and will not be posted.

HP Touchstone Charging Dock (for the HP TouchPad) Review

I managed to pick up an HP Touchstone Charging Dock (for the HP TouchPad) at a deeply discounted price during this past weekend  ("Black Friday" weekend sale) in Canada. Considering that the HP TouchPad was discontinued a long time ago and I still use mine mainly for reading PDF documents and checking my e-mail/Facebook (and watching YouTube videos), I didn't mind spending some money to get the HP Touchstone. I believe that the manufacturer's suggested regular price for the HP Touchstone Charging Dock when it was originally released (and HP had not decided to stop producing/selling their HP TouchPad) was $40.

The HP Touchstone Charging Dock looks like a typical stand for any tablet but it includes a USB cable which plugs specifically into the HP USB AC adapter (cylinder-shaped adapter). The USB cable must be plugged into the HP USB AC adapter and not to a computer or a laptop's USB port.

The charging unit works using a method called inductive charging. In order to charge the HP TouchPad, all the consumer has to do is place the HP TouchPad on the charging dock. You don't have to "plug" the HP TouchPad onto the HP Touchstone Charging Dock. Once the HP TouchPad is firmly on the HP Touchstone Charging Dock, the HP TouchPad will start to charge and within a minute or so, the date/time will appear on the HP TouchPad's display screen. There are 3 date/time themes so you can pick the one that you prefer.There are other themes that can be selected like a Facebook collage or for your HP TouchPad to scroll through pictures/images from your device.

In the short time that I've been using the HP Touchstone Charging Dock, I haven't tested whether the HP TouchPad takes takes longer to charge when it is on the dock as opposed to when it is plugged in directly to the USB cable. If it does take longer, it isn't a lot longer.

Having a charger at home (charger that came with my HP TouchPad) and having a charger at work (the HP Touchstone Charging Dock) is a big convenience since I use my HP TouchPad to read PDF documents/books.

If you have any questions regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section. Please note that the comments are moderated and any comment that contains a URL link (whether or not it is embedded) will automatically be flagged as being spam and will not be posted.

Netgear Universal WiFi Range Extender (WN3000RP) Review

I got the opportunity to test the Netgear Universal WiFi Range Extender (WN3000RP) and since there were a few deadspots within my place and slightly outside of my place, I decided to give it a try. This universal WiFi range extender supports B, G, and N routers.

To configure the device you have to locate (or roughly locate the half-way point of the range for your wireless router) and plug the extender near this "half-way point." You would then connect to the extender and configure it to access your router. After doing this, you can then configure your devices to access the Netgear Universal WiFi Range Extender either via the 1 ethernet port on the device or via WiFi. I've tested it using the network cable (hard-wired) connection and I found that it was "okay" (not great but not what I would consider bad either).

My problem with the device isn't really a problem with the device itself but my place doesn't seem to be ideal for such a device. The reason for this is that there is no power outlet at the half-way point between where my wireless router is situated and where I have a very weak wireless signal. As a result, I have to plug the WiFi Range Extender somewhat close to the wireless router. Because of the distance between the WiFi Range Extender and my wireless router is only about 5 feet, the improvement in the wireless signal near my deadspot/weakspot is not that big of an improvement.

The extender documentation mentions that if both the extender is detected and the wireless router is detected by your wireless device (and the wireless router signal strength is decent), it is preferable to connect to the wireless router since the speed of the extender is slower than the speed that can be obtained from the wireless router.

In terms of whether I can recommend this device, I guess it would depend on whether you have a power outlet near the half-way point of your desired deadspot/weakspot and the wireless router. If you do have a power outlet located in the proper place, I think that this device is a good buy if you can find it on sale.

If you have an questons/comments regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section. Please note that comments are moderated and any comment that contains a URL link (whether or not it is embedded) will be automatically flagged as being spam and will not be posted.

HP Officejet Pro 8600 e-All-in-One Printer Review

I had an ink jet printer (Canon) over 15 years ago and after using it for about two years, I stopped using it since at the time I had access to a laser printer and was using that. Eventually, the inkjet printer nozzle got clogged since I wasn't using it and after fixing it one year, I eventually sold it.

I found myself needing a printer again recently and decided to purchase an all-in-one printer. For me, I didn't really care about faxing (although it would be a nice feature to have) and I was interested mainly in printing, scanning, and copying. I did some research on the internet and solicited some advice from friends on my Facebook. It just so happens that one of my friends had purchased an HP Officejet Pro 8600 e-All-in-One Printer and he had very good comments about it. One of the things that he mentioned was that it uses less ink than the other ink jet printers and he personally vouched for this since after a few months of printing every day, he was still using the original ink cartridges that came with the printer. He mentioned that there were 3 HP Officejet 8600 printers (Pro, Plus, & Premium). I opted to purchase the Pro version since it was the one that my friend had, it was the least expensive, and the additional features in the Plus & Premium version although nice to have, I didn't consider the additional price to be worthwhile based on my usage.

First of all, the HP Officejet Pro 8600 e-All-in-One Printer is considered to be a home-office type of device so it is somewhat more expensive than a lot of the entry-type (home) all-in-one printers on the market. It is larger/bulkier and seems more sturdy than the other printers that I saw while I was shopping for a printer in the store.

What I like about the printer is that it is wireless and supports both wired and USB connections. Since the printer is away from my computer (and away from my wireless router), I opted to use mine in wireless mode.  According to the documentation, it supports B, G, and N. I had no problems connecting to any one of my three wireless routers using WPA encryption. Another nice feature that I like is that the printer can upgrade/update its own internal software/firmware without the need of a computer. This is different from updating the computer's printer software drivers/application.

One other thing that I like is that it has an enclosed paper tray as opposed to some of the other inkjet printers where you put the paper standing up into the paper slot. I'm not sure how much paper it accepts into the tray but according to the documentation, it says that it supports 250 sheets.

It supports direct printing from memory card (SD/MMC, MS/DUO) as well as USB memory stick. There is an LCD display touchscreen which is used to preview images as well as to navigate through the menus.

The Pro version (which is what I have) supports automatic duplex printing. Unfortunately, it doesn't support automatic duplex copying (the Plus & Premium versions support this along with some additional features).

The HP Officejet Pro 8600 has 4 independent/separate ink cartridges so that if one of the cartridges runs low, all you have to do is replace that one cartridge as opposed to replacing a cartridge that has all the colours. The cartridge types that it uses is 951 (or 951XL) for Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow whereas for Black it uses 950 (or 950XL). The XL cartridges print ~2x more pages. For example, whereas according to the specifications the HP 950 ink cartridges prints up to 1000 pages, the HP 950XL ink cartridges prints up to 2300 pages.

This printer also supports HP's ePrint and Google Cloud Print. What HP's ePrint allows you to do is to print certain types of documents (mainly Word, Adobe PDF, Excel, JPG, and PowerPoint) from any internet device that is capable of sending an e-mail since the printer is assigned a unique HP ePrint e-mail address. I've tested the ePrint feature (printed a photo while I was at work to my home printer) and it works very well. After adding the printer onto my Google account as a Cloud Printer, I was also able to print from Google Chrome on my PC as well as on my Chromebook to my HP Officejet Pro 8600 at home while I was physically at work.

I tested the scanning, printing, and photocopying and they all performed relatively well. Printing is relatively fast although I'm not sure about quoted/documented speeds of 13 to 32 ppm depending on print quality. I tested the printing a picture to the printer and to be honest, I was not overly impressed with the colour print quality for pictures. However, perhaps this was due to the paper that I was using. Another thing to mention was that when the picture print-out came out of the printer, the paper was not "flat" and the shape and texture was similar to a piece of paper being sprayed with water and allowed to dry. This obviously was not the case when printing regular printouts where the colour/ink does not encompass every square centimeter of the paper.

The device scans in either JPG or PDF and will either store the files onto a computer (where the  HP Officejet Pro software is installed) or it will store it onto a USB memory stick. I did have issues scanning directly from the printer onto my computer but I believe that it is probably a problem with my computer as opposed to the device (since my friend who has the same printer informed me that he did not experience this issue). The error message that I would receive on the LCD display would be a connection issue even though my computer was connected to the same network/router that the printer was connected wireless to. I would also occasionally get a small warning on the task bar indicating that the connection to the scanner was lost but then it would reconnect a few seconds later. When scanning from my computer using the HP Scan software, I didn't experience any issues.

I downloaded a copy of the user guide (which describes some of the HP Officejet Pro 8600's features as well as troubleshooting instructions) and stored it *HERE*.

All in all, I'm satisfied with my recent purchase of my new HP Officejet Pro 8600 e-All-in-One Printer. The only thing that I would have liked is that if it had some of the features of the Premium or Plus versions at the price of the Pro version. I also find the ink cartridges to be a bit expensive but I'll see how long the current ink cartridges last (since the printer is supposed to use ~50% less ink and most of my copying/printing is mostly in draft mode).

If you have any questions/comments regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section below. Please note that comments are moderated and any comment which contains a URL link (whether embedded or not) will automatically be flagged as being spam and will not be posted.

Google Play Store selling Nexus-7 Tablet to Canadians

I was looking at the upgrade for my Samsung Nexus-S (Galaxy Nexus) at the Google Store and noticed Google is accepting orders from consumers who want to purchase their new tablet the Nexus-7. Surprisingly when I went to the Google Play Store, I noticed Google was actually shipping this product (once it is available) to Canadians as well as to some other countries outside the US. This is somewhat unusual because generally a lot of the other products that Google releases isn't available in Canada (ex: Chromebook, Google Voice, Google Music, etc.)

I already have an Acer Android 7" tablet (Acer Iconia Tab A100) that I use but having something that is pure Android (without the customizations of the manufacturer) is something that is appealing to me. The Acer tablet doesn't have a lot of Acer customizations but I prefer using devices (cellphones, tablets, etc.) that don't have the carrier add-ins or the manufacturer's add-ins. It was actually one of the reasons why I opted to purchase a Nexus-S as opposed to purchasing another Android phone.

The Google Play Store seems to be using UPS to ship the item to Canadians and if the item is actually being shipping from the US to Canada using UPS, I will definitely not purchase it because of UPS's high brokerage fees when receiving items that were shipping from the US.

I'll continue to read the reviews about the Nexus-7 before I decide whether to purchase it or not. The hardware specifications look very nice and are better than my current Acer Iconia Tab A100 but then I've never really ran into a problem with my Acer Iconia Tab A100 (except that I consider the battery life to be somewhat on the weak side). The expected battery usage for the Nexus-7 seems good but normally I don't trust the values posted by the manufacturer since I often find these values don't represent real usage. If I do manage to get my hands on one either as a testing unit, I'll probably write a blog review on it.

If you live outside the US and you're interested in purchasing the new Google Nexus-7 tablet when it becomes available, check it out the Google Play Store. They have 2 models (8 GB & 16 GB). In my opinion, the price point for the 8 GB model ($210+taxes) is also good.

If you have any questions/comments regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to place a comment in the comments section. Please note that the comments are moderated and any comment that contains a URL link (whether or not it is embedded) is flagged as spam and won't be posted.

Acer Iconia Tab A100 Android Tablet Review

I got my hands on an Acer Iconia Tab A100 Android tablet a few weeks ago and since that time, it has received approximately 2 official updates. Originally, if I remember correctly, the Acer Iconia Tab A100 out of the box came with Honeycomb (3.2.1). The first update brought it up to ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich) and then a few days ago there was another update that brought it to 4.0.3. I believe that the first update brought it to 4.0.1 if I'm not mistaken.

The Acer Iconia Tab A100 is a 7" Android tablet with a resolution of 1024 x 600. Mine is currently running 4.0.3. I had previously rooted it when it was running Honeycomb since it was so easy to do with this tablet but since upgrading it to ICS, I haven't rooted it yet because it requires the use of a computer to root it. With Honeycomb, it didn't require the use of a computer. All you needed to do was get ~3 files onto your tablet and then run a command. Since I only use 1 program that requires root access, there is no urgent need on my part to root it.

Previously, I was using a no-name resistive touchscreen Android tablet which I found to be okay but didn't like the fact that it was slow and that the screen was resistive (and not multi-touch capacitive). For anyone unfamiliar with resistive screens, they require pressure on the screen in order for the system to register that you want to do something. Because of this, they are usually slower and don't allow for the "2-finger zoom". I didn't really mind the size (it was ~10") and I did like the Android OS so when I received the A100 at a deal too good to pass, I got it.

I use the Iconia Tab A100 most of the time to read PDF documents/books. I find that it works very well for this because of the size. It is also very responsive. I also use it for the occasional browsing, Slingbox viewing, Netflix viewing, Facebook access, etc.

The battery life on this tablet is what I would consider as "okay". I can watch an entire online/streaming movie from Netflix and still have enough power to do other things before requiring a charge. I say that the battery life is not as good as the HP TouchPad tablet that I reviewed earlier *HERE* but it is still good.

It also connects to my all various routers without any issues. The A100 has a dual core CPU but at times I find it very sluggish. Excluding the sluggishness, I have not had any major issues with my A100 such as random reboots.

The A100 has a slot that supports a micro-SD card and it also has a micro-HDMI port. I routinely connect my Acer Iconia Tab A100 to my HD television in order to watch Netflix using a micro-HDMI to HDMI cable and never had any issues.

The unit comes with a front facing camera (2 MP) as well as the main back camera (5 MP). I really haven't used either of the cameras often so I can't really comment on the quality of the pictures. Suffice it to say, if you wanted to take a very good picture, you wouldn't use a tablet to take that picture.

I'm not sure if this is Acer's customization of ICS since there is no such feature on my Samsung "true" Android Nexus-S but there is a setting for encryption that allows you to encrypt the entire filesystem. Once you encrypt your filesystem, you will need a password or PIN every time you power it on (separate from the screen password/PIN if you activated this). I encrypted it a few days ago and didn't notice any issues with speed or performance. The only thing is after encrypting it, I'm not sure if you can unencrypt it without wiping out the system since during my brief look at the setting menu options, I don't see an option to unencrypt the filesystem.

One negative comment that I have regarding the Acer Iconia Tab A100 (excluding the sluggishness which I've already mentioned) is that it charges via a what appears to be a proprietary charger. For me, I would have preferred it to charge using a standard micro-USB (or any type of USB) cable.

Another negative comment that I have regarding the Acer Iconia Tab A100 is that even with ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich), it does not allow you to transfer applications to an external microSD card. In order to do this, you will have to root your device.

There is not much I can say/write about the Acer Iconia Tab A100 tablet since it functions to my expectations and the Android applications that I use with it work relatively well so if you have any questions/comments regarding this review, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section. Please note that comments are moderated and any comment that contain a hyperlink will be flagged as being spam and will not be posted.

HP TouchPad Review

I've had my HP TouchPad for almost 1 year now and people have asked me what I thought about it and why I haven't written anything on it

I wasn't planning on getting an HP TouchPad when it first came out. After it came out for a few months, because of the dismal sales, HP decided to abandon the product and sell it at a huge discount ($99.99 for the base 16GB model compared with the original price of ~$499.99 for the same unit).

Even though it quickly sold out in stores across Canada and the US when HP discontinued the product and slashed the price to $99.99 for the 16GB unit, a friend of mine who worked for HP managed to get me one. From what I know, they were allowed to purchase 2 at the heavily discounted/discontinued price.

As of the date of this blog entry, the current firmware/OS on the HP TouchPad is v3.0.5. The tablet runs HP's webOS (which they purchased/got when they purchased Palm).

For me, the price that I paid for the HP TouchPad is probably the highest price that I would pay for it considering that there is very little application support/products for this tablet. I use this tablet mainly for quick browsing to check various news stories, check my e-mail, get PDA (calendar/contact) information, and read my PDF documents.

One of the things that I like about this tablet is that it supports Flash videos so I am able to watch videos from various news sites (CBC, CTV, etc.) on it. It also plays YouTube videos very well.

One of the things that I don't really like about this tablet is that the included Maps program is Bing maps and not Google maps. Google Maps does work on the tablet but this is obtained using the browsing experience and not a separate application. The tablet does support Google synchronization for contacts, calendar, and Gmail which I find to be very useful since I store my contacts and calendar items using Google and it synchronizes across my various gadgets (Android phone, iPhone, Blackberry, & Android tablet).

I find the battery life to be okay and based on my usage, I need to recharge it every 2 days or so. As I mentioned, most of what I use it for is to verify my e-mail, check my Facebook account (maybe update the status using it), get PDA information, and read my PDF documents.

The HP TouchPad charges using a standard microUSB cable but this cable must be plugged into a special adapter (roughly the size of a D-type consumer battery). The HP TouchPad won't charge by plugging it into most standard USB chargers that I've tried.

About 2 months after I purchased the HP TouchPad, I hacked it to increase the speed (overclock it) and disable some features that made my HP TouchPad seem snappier. However, earlier this year, I decided to revert back to using it non-hacked since I has having problems updating the firmware/OS.

I am currently considering putting Android on my HP TouchPad. There is a lot of information/instructions on the internet on how to do this and as long as it is stable and most of the HP TouchPad's hardware (Wi-Fi, speakers, etc.) still works properly, I would prefer using an Android device over a webOS device mainly due to the lack of 3rd party applications.

If you have any questions/comments regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section below. Please note that comments are moderated and any comments that contain a URL link or hyperlink will automatically be flagged as being spam and will not be posted.

Netflix on LG Smart TV Upgrader Box ST600 (Part 2) Review

With a few topics/reviews that I wanted to write about this week, I wasn't sure what topic I should pick. Rather than pick a new topic/item to write about, I've decided to write some additional comments that I had regarding watching Netflix using the LG Smart TV Upgrader Box ST600.

I could have modified my first blog entry on this topic but thought that it was a better idea to create a new blog entry this week for it. You can click *HERE* for the first blog entry/review that I wrote about using the LG Smart TV Upgrader Box ST600 to watch Netflix.

As of the date of this blog entry, the firmware on the LG Smart TV Upgrader Box ST600 is current (up to date) and is at ST.8.79.202.

One of the problems that I've been noticing a lot lately regarding using the LG Smart TV Upgrader Box ST600 to watch Netflix is that when watching television episodes, sometimes the program will not be available for viewing. This generally happens after I've watched a few episodes from the program already.

Previously, to fix this problem, what I did was I simply rebooted/restarted the LG Smart TV Upgrader Box and the problem would go away but now (or at least with this current firmware), restarting the unit more often than not does not fix the issue. The only time that I've noticed that this problem will go away is by waiting a few days (or sometimes weeks).

What appears on the television screen during this Netflix episode "weird" state is when the television program is selected, the option to play the television episode will show a strange message such as "Resume episode undefined." Also, the number of episodes will not be displayed for the particular problem television series and you will also not be able to go through the television episode listing.

The problem only seems to happen when using the LG Smart TV Upgrader Box to watch Netflix since when I use my phone (iPhone 3GS or Samsung Nexus-S) as well as my computer, I'm able to watch the program/episode without any problems. Since I have access to two LG Smart TV Upgrader Boxes, I wanted to see if it happens with both boxes and when the television series is in this "weird" state where you can't watch it, it seems to be account related because on the other LG Smart TV Upgrader Box, the particular television series experiences the same issue.

If you have any comments/questions regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave a comments in the comment section. Please note that comments are moderated and any comments that contain a URL link or hyperlinks will automatically be flagged as being spam and will not be posted.

YouTube on LG Smart TV Upgrader Box ST600 Review

I've decided to make another blog entry about the LG Smart TV Upgrader Box ST600. This time I wanted to write about the/my YouTube experience using this box.

When I first got the box and used it to watch some YouTube clips/videos, I was not overly impressed with it. The videos would pause/buffer often even when I was sure that my internet bandwidth was more than sufficient to support the stream because I didn't have the same pausing/buffering experience with watching NFB videos or Netflix videos using the same box (and the same internet connection).

However, after upgrading the firmware to ST.8.79.202, I would like to say that I'm satisfied with the video/audio quality that I'm getting when I'm watching YouTube videos with the box.

The YouTube screen has a menu on the top of the screen which shows 8 options: Featured, Recent Videos, Most Viewed, Top Rated, Search, History, Sign In, and Local Site.

I don't spend a lot of time using my box to watch YouTube videos. I will do the occasional search on a specific video or topic such as "Nikon D5100" and I will watch a few videos on the topic. The video and audio quality that I've experienced with the box and the ST.8.79.202 firmware update is very good. It used to buffer/pause a lot with the older firmware but now, the buffering/pausing that I used to get is as rare as what I see with NFB or Netflix. You can either watch the video fullscreen or using ~40% of the screen where the remaining 40% of the screen is the video description with 20% of the screen shows some of the LG Smart TV Upgrader box's menu options and titles/headings).

I've tried to watch some of the free movies available on YouTube that I've seen on my computer using the LG Smart TV box but these movies are apparently not supported since they don't show up when I try to search for the movies. The pay movies also don't show up in the search.

I've logged in using my YouTube account (actually using my Google account) and it doesn't seem to give me any additional functionality except to give a different history list. The videos that I watched on my computer were not reflected in the history list on on the LG Smart TV Upgrader Box even though I was signed in using the same account. The only thing that I think that signing in might allow for (although I haven't tested it) is the ability to watch videos that have a more mature rating.

I've also changed the Local Site setting from "Worldwide" to "Canada" and I didn't notice any difference in the menu or the items found in the search or videos selected in the other menu options.

Overall, I would say that I'm satisfied with watching YouTube videos using the LG Smart TV Upgrader box (although as I mentioned, I don't use it a lot for watching YouTube videos).

If you have any comments/questions regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section below.

National Film Board of Canada on LG Smart TV Upgrader Box ST600 Review

I've decided to post another review (3rd review as of the date of this posting) about the LG Smart TV Upgrader Box ST600 but this time dealing with using it to watch material from the National Film Board of Canada. The first review that I posted was a general overall review and the second review that I posted dealt with using the LG Upgrader box to watch Netflix content.

Please note that I am basing this review from Canada so depending on your location, the LG Smart TV Upgrader Box might not allow you to access material from the National Film Board of Canada.

As of this review, the firmware/software on the LG Smart TV Upgrader Box is ST 8.79.198.

Before getting an account on Netflix, I used the LG Smart TV Upgrader Box to watch material from the National Film Board of Canada.

In terms of the video and sound quality, I find it to be very good. I would say that it stops/buffers less than both Netflix (which rarely stops/buffers) and YouTube. I believe that all the material available on the National Film Board of Canada's website is available using this box.

I've watched mainly political documentaries but there are also a lot of cartoon shorts including the famous "The Sweater" by Sheldon Cohen which is a cartoon from Quebec about a boy much to his dismay whose mother buys him a Toronto Maple Leafs sweater to replace his Montreal Canadiens sweater. Something that I was surprised to see was "Hitman Hart - Wrestling with Shadows" by Paul Jay.

If you enjoy content from the National Film Board of Canada, you shouldn't have any issues with using the LG Smart TV Upgrader Box to watch the content. My main negative comment is only the amount of content available and the type of content available. However, it is the same negative comment that I had regarding using the box to watch Netflix Canada content.

I find the NFB search feature of the LG box to be very good. It is much better than what is available with the box for Netflix content. The NFB search on this box will search keywords whereas the Netflix search feature using the same box doesn't do this.

All in all, I'm very satisfied with the video/audio quality that I get with the LG Smart TV Upgrader Box when I am using it to watch material from the National Film Board.

If you have any questions/comments regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section.

Samsung Series 5 3G Chromebook Review

I've been using/testing a Samsung Series 5 3G Chromebook for a few months and decided to post a review of it after a few of my friends asked me about it.

In case you haven't guessed based on my other blog entries, I'm located in Canada and as of the date that I'm writing this blog entry/review, the Samsung Series 5 3G Chromebook is not widely available in Canada (it is actually not being sold in Canada unless you can find it through private sellers). I managed to get mine during a recent trip to Las Vegas.

The first thing that needs mentioning is that in order for the Chromebook to be useful, it absolutely requires access to the internet. There is very little that can be done with the Chromebook if it is not connected to the internet either via WiFi or via the carrier's data network. The Chromebook that I purchased is the 3G model which includes 100 MB per month of data from Verizon Wireless in the US and it also has a 3G SIM card slot (carrier unlocked) in case the owner travels outside the US and/or wants to use a SIM card for data.

The premise behind the Chromebook is that most users use their computers/laptops for internet use whether it is to check their e-mail, browse the internet, access their social media accounts like Twitter, Facebook Google+, etc. or watch online videos.

The first thing that I like about the Chromebook is that it boots up almost immediately (under 10 seconds). After logging onto to the Chromebook (using your Google account), the user is presented with a Chrome browser (similar to what you would get on a Microsoft Windows machine). You then use the browser as you normally would to access the websites that you would normally access. I didn't have any issues accessing most of the websites that I would normally use.

You will notice in the specs that the Chromebook does not have a very large capacity in terms of the hard drive. The reason for this is that it assumes that all documents that you would create will be stored in the cloud (Google Docs).

In terms of what you can and can't install on the Chromebook, you can install Chrome applications/extensions (web applications) from the Chrome web store similarly to what you can do with Chrome on a Microsoft Windows based machine.

If you are someone who uses Google products a lot (Gmail, Google Docs, Google+, etc.) and the majority of what you want to do is web based, I believe that you might consider getting a Chromebook. I've tested Netflix on the Chromebook and it works very well. SlingPlayer also works but requires a workaround (you have to go through Facebook).

The negative things that I want to mention about the Samsung Series5 3G Chromebook is that the battery is non-removable and the memory can't be upgraded. Also, I find that the default setting for the touch pad is not as good as the ones that I've used on other netbooks/laptops. After configuring the touch pad based on your Google account, it functions a lot better but the moment you log out, it reverts back to the default settings until you log in again.

Another negative aspect that I've noticed is that because the Chromebook requires internet access, it can sometimes have problems accessing public hotspots which require you to agree to certain conditions found on a webpage before internet access is granted. The way that you are supposed to do this if the Chromebook is powered on from a powered off state and not in suspend/sleep mode state is that you must first access the Guest account and then use the browser within the Guest account to agree to the WiFi hotspot terms/conditions. After doing this and verifying that you have access to the internet with the Guest account, you would then log out the Guest account (making sure that you don't shut down the Chromebook) and log in with your personal Google account. However, as mentioned, I've sometimes experienced issues doing this. To solve this issue, what I normally do is that I keep my Google account logged in and leave the Chromebook in a standby/suspend state. When I lift up the lid of the Chromebook, I will log into my Google account with the password from the suspend/sleep state. From the power-off state when you turn on the Chromebook, it will try to authenticate your Google account and will fail because you don't have access to the internet before you accept the hotspot terms/conditions whereas from the suspend/sleep state, it is only using your password to unlock the screen and doesn't immediately require access to the internet.

The things that I like about the Chromebook is that it boots up very fast and the battery lasts longer than any of the laptops/netbooks that I've used in the past. When I want to do something fast (like check a website), I will normally use a tablet but now with my Chromebook, I find that I'm using my Chromebook more than my tablet. The ChromeOS also updates automatically in the background and after an update, you only have to shut down the computer or reboot the computer in order for the update to be applied.

It is very unlikely that the OS in the Chromebook gets corrupt but in case you want to reset the Chromebook back to factory defaults, it is very easy to do this and the instructions can be easily found on the internet (a blank USB memory stick is required to do this).

For Samsung's usage guide to the Chromebook, you can click *HERE*.

If you have any questions/comments regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to write them in the comments section below.

Netflix on LG Smart TV Upgrader Box ST600 Review

There seems to be a lot of interest on the LG Smart TV Upgrader Box ST600 based on the number of hits I'm getting for that particular blog entry so I thought that I would write a few separate blog entries for each of the services that I use it for... and even though I have a few electronic gadgets that I've tested/used, I'm at a lost of topics to write   ;-)

As of this review, the firmware/software on the LG Smart TV Upgrader Box is ST 8.79.198.

One of the main reasons that I purchased the LG Smart TV Upgrader Box was to try Netflix and after trying it, I can definitely say that Netflix works very well with the LG Smart TV Upgrader Box. With my internet connection (the speed varies dramatically but the average speed is ~2 Mbits/s download), the pausing/buffering happens very rarely once the movie or television show starts.

After selecting the movie or television show, the video starts after approximately 30 seconds (based on the internet connection speed) and rarely buffers/pauses during playback of the video. Based on my experience, I would say that it pauses less than 5% of the time which is far better than the results that I've gotten with using this box to watch some YouTube videos.

The Netflix's video and audio quality using this LG box is very good. Since I have an unlimited download/upload internet connection, I set my Netflix video/audio settings (done on the account settings page after logging onto your Netflix account on your computer) to "Best quality (up to 1 GB per hour, or up to 2.3 GB per hour for HD)". I've seen some of the Netflix offerings in HD and the video/audio quality is very good with this box.

Excluding Netflix content (which has nothing to do with this box), I only have 3 negative comments regarding using the box to watch Netflix content. The first negative comment that I have regarding watching Netflix on the LG Smart TV Upgrader Box is that the search feature is very limiting. You can only search based on the title of the television show or movie. You cannot do a search based on the actor or actress. The second negative comment that I have regarding watching Netflix on the LG Smart TV Upgrader Box is that sometimes you will not be able to watch a particular television show since the entire episode listing for the television show will be blank. I'm not sure if this is because Netflix is doing an update but within a few hours, the television show episode listing is back to normal and you will be able to re-select the episode that you want to watch. The third and final negative comment that I have regarding using the LG Smart TV Upgrader Box to watch Netflix is that sometimes after stopping, you will not be able to continue from where you left off and you have to start at the beginning of the video again. This seems to happen more with television show episodes than with movies. It is a minor inconvenience since you can easily fast forward to the point where you left off and continue watching from that point onward.

Speaking about fast forwarding, when fast forwarding, you get a preview of the video (no audio) so you are able to estimate where you want the video to start. You also get a "time bar" on the bottom of your screen so you can also use this to estimate what point in the video you want it to start.

The interface when selecting a movie or television show using the LG Smart TV Upgrader Box is very similar to what appears when you select a movie or television show on your computer. You are presented with what you recently watched, the top ten items that Netflix assumes you will like based on what you've previously watched/rated, some of the genre categories, some selections based on particular movies that you've liked, etc.

All in all, I'm very satisfied with the video/audio quality that I get with the LG Smart TV Upgrader Box when  I am using it to watch Netflix.

If you have any questions/comments regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section.

Vonage Mobile Review

I've been using Vonage Mobile on my iPhone 3GS and on my Samsung Nexus-S for a few weeks (after it started being available to Canadians) and I thought that I would write a mini review of the application.


The application does not require that you are a "regular" (landline VoIP) customer. For both applications, you install the program from either the Apps Store (iPhone) or the Android Market (AndroidOS).


For both platforms, after the Vonage Mobile application is installed, the user is required to accept the terms of service. You are then prompted to enter the phone number that you want to associate with the program (in terms of outgoing call display). The default phone number is the phone number for your mobile although you can change the number to another mobile or a regular landline phone. After entering the phone number, the Vonage system sends an SMS to the phone number with a 6 digit confirmation number which you are prompted to enter into the appropriate box. If you don't receive the 6 digit confirmation SMS for whatever reason such as if you decided to use a landline phone number, you are prompted to have the Vonage system call the phone number and give you the 6 digit number. This is what I did for my landline phone.


After confirming the phone number entered for the Vonage Mobile application, the program imports the contact list from the phone. In my case, the contact list is from Google contacts for all my devices. This makes it easier for me because I only have to change/add/delete a contact in one of my devices (or directly on Google Contacts) and the devices will automatically get the updated information. Because I'm using Google Contacts for my phone's addressbook, this is where I noticed a difference in how the program worked on my iPhone 3GS and my Nexus-S. For my iPhone 3GS, only the contacts which were directly listed in my iPhone 3GS were available to me on Vonage Mobile's contact list. However, for my Samsung Nexus-S (and I'm assuming for all AndroidOS devices), Vonage Mobile's contact list not only included the contacts which I saw on my phone itself (which are imported from Google Contacts "My Contacts") but also included the Google Contacts from "Other Contacts". Some people might prefer that the "Other Contacts" is imported but for me, I didn't like it.


I tested the call quality over WiFi and 3G/3.5G/4G (I'm not referring to LTE) and I would say that the call quality is decent (I would say comparable to Skype). I would use the program for short calls (under 5 minutes) over the cellular data network but I would not use it longer due to the latency which can sometimes get annoying. Over WiFi, I find the call quality to be a lot better. Vonage Mobile's call quality (like all VoIP) is largely dependent on the quality of the internet (speed, latency, etc.). Because of this, depending on your cellular network carrier's data network, the latency problem might not be as annoying to you.


The outgoing call display number does work (and displays the phone number that was confirmed initially).


Please note that Vonage Mobile does not allow for the accepting of calls. You can only use this program to make calls and to send messages to people who have this program on their device. The messages sent use the data network (or WiFi) and does not use the carrier's SMS network which can save costs for people who don't have SMS/text plans.


As of the date that I'm posting my review, Vonage Mobile offers 3000 minutes per month for free to call landlines and mobiles in  Canada, the US, and Puerto Rico. I'm not sure how long this offer will remain but it is probably a good idea to give the program a try given that it is currently free and you can make 3000 minutes per month in free calls (whereas Skype charges per minute unless you have a Skype monthly plan).

If you have any questions/comments regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section.

Samsung Nexus-S Review

I've been using my Samsung Nexus-S for approximately 1 year now and here is my thoughts on it. When I purchased it, I had used a Sony Ericsson x10 mini so I was familiar with the Android OS and interface. At the time that I'm writing this review, my Nexus-S is running Android version 2.3.6.

The first thing that I like about the Samsung Nexus-S is that it is factory unlocked regardless of which carrier it is purchased from. That means as long as the carrier supports the band for the particular version of the Nexus-S, you can insert the SIM card into it and it will work.

In Canada, there are basically 2 versions of the Nexus-S so you have to be careful when purchasing one. If you purchase one from Fido (like I did), it will fully work with Rogers, Bell, Telus, Koodo and any of the MVNOs that use their networks (such as Petro Canada Mobility which uses the Rogers network). If you purchase one from Videotron or Wind, it will work with Fido, Rogers, Bell, Telus, and Koodo BUT the data will max out at EDGE speeds since this model doesn't support the 3G network that Rogers, Bell, Telus, & Koodo use. That being the case, if you purchase one from Rogers, Bell, Telus, Koodo, or Fido, it will NOT WORK on Videotron or Wind at all except in roaming mode because Videotron and Wind don't have a 2G network to fall back on.

I find the Samsung Nexus-S to be very responsive. During the 1 year that I've been using it, it has never rebooted on me. I rooted it initially but then after accepting an update, it obviously returned to the unrooted state and because I was only using 1 program that required root, I never bothered to root it again.

I find that the back facing camera takes pretty good pictures (better than my Blackberry Bold 9700 which I use primarily as a data device). It connects to my wireless routers without any issues. If you like Android, chances are, you will like this phone. I've never used my front facing camera so I can't really comment on it.

The only negative comment that I have about this phone is that the earphone jack is on the bottom of the phone. I guess that it could be worse... it could have been on the side of the phone (like it is on my Blackberry Bold 9700). The good thing about it being on the bottom of the phone is that when I place it in my pocket, the bottom of the phone is at the top and when I remove the phone from my pocket to make/receive a call, it is at the correct orientation to do so. With my iPhone 3GS, when I remove it from my pocket, after listening to music, I have to flip the phone somewhat. I guess this is why Samsung decided to have the earphone jack on the bottom of their phones including the Nexus-S. For me, I have a belt case for my phones and I just like the earphone jack to be on the top of my devices. For people who put their phones in their pockets, I think that that earphone jack on the bottom works out better for them.

All the programs that I've tried on my Nexus-S work properly and without any problems. The 2 programs that I use the most on it is "Netflix" and "SlingPlayer Mobile". Both work seamlessly on it. I've also used "Beautiful Widgets" and this also works very well on it as does "Angry Birds".

If you have any questions/comments regarding this blog entry, please don't hesitate to leave a comment in the comments section.