Just wanted to give an update on my last post about the Vais VML MultiMediaLinQ.
Over the last several months I've had a lot of different devices connected to it. I'm happy with the VML but I wasn't been able to find a storage device that works perfectly. All the mechanical USB drives I connected would occasionally go offline requiring me to unplug the USB cable to reset everything. Turns out those mechanical drives don't like speed bumps or cold weather. Who knew? Even thumb drives sometimes needed a reset (probably not due to speed bumps).
The most stable device has been the iPod which never needs a reset but the sound quality is degraded for some music. I'm not clear on technical reasons why that would happen but I suspect there is some issue in the conversion from digital to analog. I should mention that this is only true for my older 60GB iPod. Music from my iPhone sounds perfect. I would use my iPhone but I don't want to use up all the space on the device for music. I need to reserve space for taking photographs or videos of the kids. Also, I like to just start up the car and go so having to connect the iPhone is not ideal.
I've been waiting for a USB SSD solution to become available. I figured it was only a matter of time. I ended up getting the ADATA Nobility N002 USB 3.0/SSD 128 GB last week. Not really reasonably priced but it had all the features I wanted. If it didn't work well in the Lexus I wanted to be able to use it as a notebook or desktop drive. It has both a USB 3.0 and SATA II interface. It's packaged to work both internally and externally. It's got a USB port on the side so you can connect it to your laptop or desktop externally. It's also a normal 2.5 inch SSD so it would fit inside a notebook or desktop. Finally, it's a speedy SSD (meaning it's a really fast drive).
I loaded the ADATA up with 80GB of music and connected it to the VML. Tried to lower my expectations before I connected it to the VML USB port and waited for it to start up. In just a few seconds the music started.
After hours of driving (with some speed bumps) no resets have been required. I'm happy to report that the ADATA works perfectly with the VML.The VML also boots up quicker than it did with the mechanical USB drives, I think it may actually switch songs faster too.
(Update 12/13/2010: After more than 40 hours of driving the new ADATA drive is working perfectly. No resets required or any other problems to report.)
Monday, November 22, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Google Gives TV Bugs (Google TV Review)
Television used to be a bug free zone. Now it's a computer science problem complete with bugs.
I was reading David Pogue's review of Google TV. Having recently purchased one I can say that he is spot on with many of his points. In general, the usability of the device needs a lot of work. It's not just surface stuff either, it's deep and pervasive from the controller to the GUI.
The pain starts with the initial setup. Why? Because it is exactly like doing a Windows OS install. Several updates and reboots with a full set of wizards to run through. The updates took an hour on my relatively fast Comcast cable connection. I understand the need for updates but why can't the device start up and play while doing the updates in the background? This is a TV right?
By adding new unneeded buttons and interface conventions somehow Google managed to make the controller (which is essentially a full keyword and mouse) more complicated than a keyboard and mouse. It's got buttons everywhere like it will eventually be some kind of joystick type device but it gives no joy now. After having it for a couple of weeks I still don't understand the difference between a left and right controller button click. I think this confusion stems from the fact that they "could" add more buttons to Android so they did. The designers shouldn't have let that freedom get the better of them. Android will be a much more compelling platform if it works the same everywhere.
Also, as Pogue points out the claim that you can browse the web while watching TV is a farce. The video goes in and out as you navigate through various modes. The video also blocks content on web pages and Google TV's menus. Why the video couldn't be transparent or movable I don't know. It's like Google couldn't figure out what people were really going to do with the device so they didn't know what should have priority. Is it a TV? Is it a web browser? Ideally, it would be a blend of both. Right now it's one or the other with the TV or the web browser just tacked on like some bad fashion accessory.
Another big negative for me and other Xfinity users is that you can not get Xfinity on demand videos from the web. Not sure if this is just a programing glitch or oversight. I can make up reasons for Hulu and the TV networks not liking Google TV (crazy conspiracy type theories) but I don't understand why Xfinity wouldn't work since I'm already paying for that.
Surprisingly, even with all usability issues, there is a lot for a nerd to like about Google TV. What I'm enjoying most is that it can play most of the content on my Windows Home Server, Netflix streaming (not the new slick interface on the PS3 so finding video takes longer), and the couch potato mode on Vimeo. I also love that Google TV has Picasa web albums access so you can turn your TV into a giant picture frame. It also connects to Pandora so your slide shows have nice background music.
I would buy it again because I like the video streaming options, picasa, pandora, and I was really curious about Andriod on TV. Would I recommend it? No. Well, maybe, if you already have a lot of content on your home network and you use Netflix streaming and you don't already have a PS3 connected to your TV and you're an engineer. However, there are a lot of other non-Google enhanced TVs that do the streaming video thing... so, no don't buy it. Really, it's hard to justify the cost tradeoff versus say something like 3D and 240Hz refresh rate.
I was reading David Pogue's review of Google TV. Having recently purchased one I can say that he is spot on with many of his points. In general, the usability of the device needs a lot of work. It's not just surface stuff either, it's deep and pervasive from the controller to the GUI.
The pain starts with the initial setup. Why? Because it is exactly like doing a Windows OS install. Several updates and reboots with a full set of wizards to run through. The updates took an hour on my relatively fast Comcast cable connection. I understand the need for updates but why can't the device start up and play while doing the updates in the background? This is a TV right?
By adding new unneeded buttons and interface conventions somehow Google managed to make the controller (which is essentially a full keyword and mouse) more complicated than a keyboard and mouse. It's got buttons everywhere like it will eventually be some kind of joystick type device but it gives no joy now. After having it for a couple of weeks I still don't understand the difference between a left and right controller button click. I think this confusion stems from the fact that they "could" add more buttons to Android so they did. The designers shouldn't have let that freedom get the better of them. Android will be a much more compelling platform if it works the same everywhere.
Also, as Pogue points out the claim that you can browse the web while watching TV is a farce. The video goes in and out as you navigate through various modes. The video also blocks content on web pages and Google TV's menus. Why the video couldn't be transparent or movable I don't know. It's like Google couldn't figure out what people were really going to do with the device so they didn't know what should have priority. Is it a TV? Is it a web browser? Ideally, it would be a blend of both. Right now it's one or the other with the TV or the web browser just tacked on like some bad fashion accessory.
Another big negative for me and other Xfinity users is that you can not get Xfinity on demand videos from the web. Not sure if this is just a programing glitch or oversight. I can make up reasons for Hulu and the TV networks not liking Google TV (crazy conspiracy type theories) but I don't understand why Xfinity wouldn't work since I'm already paying for that.
Surprisingly, even with all usability issues, there is a lot for a nerd to like about Google TV. What I'm enjoying most is that it can play most of the content on my Windows Home Server, Netflix streaming (not the new slick interface on the PS3 so finding video takes longer), and the couch potato mode on Vimeo. I also love that Google TV has Picasa web albums access so you can turn your TV into a giant picture frame. It also connects to Pandora so your slide shows have nice background music.
I would buy it again because I like the video streaming options, picasa, pandora, and I was really curious about Andriod on TV. Would I recommend it? No. Well, maybe, if you already have a lot of content on your home network and you use Netflix streaming and you don't already have a PS3 connected to your TV and you're an engineer. However, there are a lot of other non-Google enhanced TVs that do the streaming video thing... so, no don't buy it. Really, it's hard to justify the cost tradeoff versus say something like 3D and 240Hz refresh rate.
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