Anthony's FRESH PLASTIC

CTRL + T = No new tabs for me...

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:56:10 +0100

I love opening new tabs when surfing the interwebs. The invention of tabbed browsing has to be up there with the discovery of fire and the invention of the wheel. My own "discovery" of the CTRL + T keyboard shortcut was a landmark development - not for mankind, but for me.

Oh well, my days of using CTRL + T on the laptop I'm currently typing this on are over (it's a Toshiba A200-1YO for what it's worth, running Vista, urgh!).

Why? Well, I foolishly decided to install ASUS's software for their MyCinema U3000 mini (catchy, huh?) digital TV dongle. Previously I'd only been using the TV stick on my Linux-flavoured Eee PC (completely different software required for that so completely different set of problems). Why would TV software affect my browsing experience? It's to do with my keyboard shortcut of choice - now when I do CTRL + T the TV software starts up instead of a new tab opening... argh!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

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

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

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...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Comparing the size of one's dongles...

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:33:51 +0100

Here's two dongles, USB dongles to be a bit more precise. These dongles are primarily designed for laptops but can be used on desktops too. The dongle on top is for digital TV, the dongle down below is for mobile broadband. Because of the size at the sides, trying to insert each into adjacent sockets might be a squeeze (certainly on the Eee PC).

Broadband and digital TV - side-by-side dongle comparison

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Digital TV on your Eee PC: A mixed bag

nobody@vox.com(Ant UK) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:02:14 +0000

I've just thrown up a tonne of photos of my ASUS Eee PC hooked up to an ASUS My Cinema U3000 Mini (just rolls of the tongue that one does, doesn't it?)

Haven't got time to do a full review or upload video of it in action so just check out the pictures (there's more in my collections if you really feel the need...)

One thing I will point out is the amazingly bad build quality of the device. Mine came pre-broken (plastic case-wise) but as it was so cheap I figured it would be more hassle sending it back for a replacement. It's gonna get battered anyway.

U3000 mini next to stuff

U3000 with antenna extended

U3000 with antenna not extended

U3000 in action

It's really using an external aerial

Yeah, er, reception isn't really great on the tiny supplied antenna. But that's to be expected. The surprising thing is sometimes (in some places) it does work.

U3000 Mini: Brian and Stewie like it

03032008509

U3000 channel selection

PiP action... well kinda

Read and post comments | Send to a friend