Anthony's FRESH PLASTIC

Gave up on Slingbox because of the difficult set-up? I know I did!

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:57:28 +0100

When I could get Sling Player working on my phone it was great. Unfortunately it wouldn't work with my replacement wireless router. Oh well, I thought, I'll just have to plug the wired one back in again. Still couldn't get it to work. Tried really hard, did everything I could think of and wasted a lot of time. In the end I figured it just wasn't worth it and my Slingbox is just sitting there months later with blinking lights and no way to communicate with the outside world.

I could've just checked which WiFi router Sling Media recommends and gone out and got one but I just don't have the money to waste on another dud and there's no way of knowing if that wouldn't cause some other problems somewhere else.

I can no longer use Sling over 3G on my phone anyway as I've since dropped my X-Series service (from 3 mobile) down from Gold to Silver. Saves me £5 p/m and really, was a non-working Sling Player really worth £5?!!

Anyway, it now appears that Sling have made what amounts to be a fool-proof Slingbox - the Slingbox is the modem, it plugs straight into a cable connection. It really should be plug and play. Initially US cable TV only.

Found via Electricpig

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Spreading the 3G love via WiFi

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:11:12 +0100

UK mobile operator 3 are looking at spreading the HSDPA (3.5G) love all around your home with a special wireless router. I like this idea, I like this idea a lot. Right now I'm on 3's mobile broadband in an abode that doesn't have ADSL or cable. Only the laptop I'm typing this on can use the connection and that is a bit of a pain. I've tried setting up an ad-hoc network using the Windows' Vista networking wizard and despite connecting, there's no connection (ie the other devices see this laptop but can't use its connection).

A company called DOVADO advertise a mobile broadband router here and it even supports the E169G that 3mobilebuzz supplied me with. That's kinda handy as the E169G can't be used on my Eee PC without a lot of hoops to be jumped through (more than this blogger thinks he can manage!)

Eee PC 901 out June 3rd, priced at £325, where?

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:26:25 +0100

According to DigiTimes the latest Eee PC, the 901, will be coming out on the 3rd of June. It'll be priced at $650 (£325) or below - but where? I seriously doubt it'll be that price in the UK. With the added features/benefits (including Atom processor and Bluetooth) I'd imagine a premium on the 900 (which retails at around £330 in the UK)

The DigiTimes article also mentions that the Linux version will have more software applications added to it. Hopefully the likes of Miro and Google Earth as they are two of my favourites and really showcase how competent the previous Eees are.

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Stick 'em up: I don't like things jutting out to the side

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Thu, 15 May 2008 18:13:26 +0100

Why don't they make USB dongles like this?

The picture above shows (a rather grainy) image of a 'One For All' AV sender. The SCART plug (for those of you outside of Europe, it's the part with silver pins) simply fits into the back of a TV and the rest of the device bends up until vertical.

In my opinion this is how USB 'dongles' should be made. It makes far more sense than jutting out to the side and needn't get in the way of typing. I'd imagine if done right, it'd be less prone to accidents than one that sticks out to the side. With a hinge (like on the One For All above) it could still be used horizontal if need be.

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Video of TeeeVeee on the Eee PC and that bloody dead pixel!

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Wed, 14 May 2008 23:12:30 +0100

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Digital TV on an Eee PC... 900: Big screen action!

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Wed, 14 May 2008 21:43:06 +0100

Previously on Fresh Plastic... Anthony had an Eee PC 701, a USB digital TV receiver and posted an article showing the two working together. Meanwhile the Eee PC decided to split, the USB dongle lay dorment and ultra tiny laptop TV seemed a long forgotten memory.

Well, those days are long gone and I now have an Eee PC 900 and she ain't going anywhere (fingers crossed). She has a much bigger screen but housed in almost the same sized case (although she's a tad bit heavier, psst - don't tell her that!) So I introduced her to the digital TV dongle and, after a lot of matchmaking, they got it together!

Getting them working together really was a hard task. ASUS has made it even more difficult than before. A lot of head scratching, a lot of Googling, a lot of reading and re-reading of the forum posts on eeeuser.com and a hell of a lot of trial and error. Got there in the end though - check out the pics below...

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N95 8GB doubling up as games console complete with wireless controller and big screen hookup

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:38:21 +0100

How not to demo something

The picture above is rubbish and wasn't planned. At the time I was trying to operate a Lumix and it was meant to be in video mode. Clearly it wasn't! I did eventually make a half decent video but it was just too damn good for Vox's upload system. So I thought I may as well show you folks this picture to illustrate what I'm about to type...

Underneath that rather hairy arm and grabby hand is a Bluetooth keyboard. It offers remote contol of my Nokia N95 8GB. The N95 8GB can be hooked up to a TV and has a bunch of half-decent 3D games. By now (if the title itself wasn't enough) you can see where I'm going with this... NOKIA PHONE + WIRELESS KEYBOARD + TV-OUT = GAMES CONSOLE! And, whereas you can't put an XBOX or PS3 in your pocket, you can put both the N95 8GB and the iGo Stowaway keyboard and video cable in them - well, if they're large enough!

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My Eee 900 has a dead pixel! As does the Toshiba I chose for parents...

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Wed, 14 May 2008 10:34:03 +0100

No pictures at the moment, but I've got a really annoying dead pixel on my Eee PC 900. Bright white and very noticeable.

Just a week earlier I chose a Toshiba satellite laptop for my parents and it too had a dead pixel, although that was right in the corner and far less noticeable - so we decided not to bother exchanging it.

So two laptops bought in just over a fortnight and both have dead pixels. Don't the manufacturers check for these things?

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Boost your mobile broadband with 'Blu-Hack'

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:06:52 +0100

I've been using 3's Mobile Broadband extensively since Saturday. As a trialist I can use it as much as I want, it's truly unlimited! In the real world, 3 offer packages of 1GB, 3GB and 7GB (Lite, Plus and Max respectively) - unlike their handset-only offerings such as X-Series, there isn't the option of unlimited ("fair use" or otherwise).

I've taken advantage of the unlimited-ness to download a whole bunch of videos using Miro. So much so, that I'd have easily used up all of the 'Plus' allowance in one day! Not something I'd recommend paying customers do.

The fact that I can so easily download that much over the mobile network in a matter of hours is kind of amazing considering what speeds were like just a couple of years ago. Even though I can't get the the 2.8 Mbps speed that the service goes up to in Turbo coverage areas, I'm still getting speeds comparable to what a BT landline offers in this area. And as this neighbourhood doesn't have cable, it's a welcome choice over ADSL.

As I had Miro downloading videos constantly and consistantly for a couple of hours, I was able to see where best to site the laptop and sit, myself. The garden turned out to be the best place - but it didn't improve speeds as much as you'd imagine. Taking the USB modem out of the port, Blu-Tacking ('Blu-Hack') it to the top of the laptops screen and connecting it back up via the supplied USB extension cable - is by far the easiest and most effective way to boost your broadband. This worked better than the 'garden' method on it's own. Even the 'upstairs room facing 3's nearest mast' method (which incidently is very, very near*) isn't good enough on it's own.

Blu-Hack up close

Googling without me dongle in

Faster web - an elegant solution

Dongle? Put 'em high

*Thanks to OFCOM's Sitefinder (it's useful but rubbishly implemented!)

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Uploading a 50 meg video via mobile broadband... possibly not a good idea!

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:54:21 +0100

Currently trying to upload a quicktime video that's a tad under 50 meg to Vox. It's taking a while, and I'm in a HSDPA area (in the garden, with me dongle high up in the air and sitting within spitting distance of the network's nearest mast)!

The interesting thing is how much the upload speed affects the download speeds. I'm currently browsing whilst typing this (I like to multitask and have a wandering mind!) and it's at a complete and utter snail's pace! It's barely usable.

To be fair, most people, most of the time, don't want to send 50 megs out to the interweb via a mobile connection. I'm not most people though and I'm giving this mobile broadband a thorough going over!

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