SigSays - All Things Reviewed

I haven’t had time to write a full review, but I did just get my SwitchEasy Nude case. Here’s a preview:

Also, it looks like I’ll be getting a MacBook this week, so look forward to a bunch of MacBook upgrades and software. I’ll try to get off my ass and get the case reviews soon

I had a spare HDD lying around, and was bored, so I decided to throw it in my EeePC and try to install OS X.

Well, to be honest, I’ve been thinking about it for a while, and I finally broke down and bought the Asus External DVD drive to facilitate the install.

For the most part, I followed this install guide and used iDeneb’s ISO (Which I won’t link to, since installing OS X is technically illegal on non-apple hardware. My install was obviously just for scientific purposes and will be destroyed immediately. Yeah.), but I have a few things to add.

First, my EeePC 1000H running Asus BIOS 2204 would not allow me to install the modded bios, no matter which install method I used. I tried using Asus Update. I tried using EasyFlash. I tried using AFUDOS. Nothing would allow me to install the modded bios. I either got “Not a valid boot block” or “Too old or incompatible”. I finally stumbled across a fix when I decided to see if I could downgrade to factory bios 1902 (Select Eee Family, then EeePC, then 1000H/XP) and to my amazement it let me downgrade. After downgrading I was able to flash the modded bios with no issues.

Having worked that out, I put the iDeneb disk in the DVD drive, restarted, and tapped ESC while it was booting to get the boot menu. I picked USB DVD, hit enter, and got the bootloader. (Sorry about the quality, cell phone pic)

I followed the guide mentioned above, and in a few minutes the installer was running.

I went through the initial setup, installed the kexts provided in the guide, and had 10.5.5 running on my EeePC. But being a nerd, I had to go and fuck with it, so I downloaded the iDeneb Combo Upgrade kit for 10.5.8 and ran it. It got me up and running on 10.5.8 without any issues at all.

As it sits now, my EeePC cold boots to OS X desktop in right over a minute.

Wireless works, video works, flash works, sound works, etc. The only thing I can’t get working is the battery meter. Here’s a few more screenshots.

Very fucking cool. Playing around with OS X is making me seriously consider a mac for my next computer. Give it a shot if you have some time.

Rating:

NY Post is reporting that the baby gorilla attempted suicide.

http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/stern_sidekick_in_suicide_try_5m9Hwhn1OvpONlzbsiW3oJ

Troubled comic Artie Lange landed in the hospital after stabbing himself nine times in an apparent suicide attempt, sources told The Post. Lange’s frantic mom called 911 Saturday morning after she entered his Hoboken apartment and found the bloodied funnyman, a law-enforcement source said. Lange sustained six “hesitation wounds” and three deep plunges. A source close to Lange’s management team confirmed that the Howard Stern sidekick stabbed himself, adding that his mother had come to visit him that day to drop off food. Surgeons managed to save Lange despite heavy bleeding. “We all have our demons,” Stern said on-air this week, referring to Lange’s past battles with addiction. “Artie has given this show tremendous moments of great comedy. He’s a tremendous contributor. He is a good man. Don’t forget how great he is.”

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/stern_sidekick_in_suicide_try_5m9Hwhn1OvpONlzbsiW3oJ#ixzz0buvPKLSy

First, here’s the Engadget Article.

From Engadget:

• Yeah, it’s $530 unsubsidized. Google’s not going to be selling the phone at cost, like so many people considered. They’re not going to save us from the “making money off of hardware” culture we’ve got right now, so this is basically just another Android handset, albeit a really good one
• If you want it subsidized, you’ll have to sign up for a 2 year mandatory contract and pay $180 for the phone
• There’s only one rate plan: $39.99 Even More + Text + Web for $79.99 total
• Existing customers cannot keep their plan if they want a subsidized phone; they have to change to the one plan, and this only applies to accounts with one single line
• If that doesn’t fly with you, you have to buy the $530 unlocked version—this actually might save you money over two years if you already have a cheap plan
• Family plans, Flexpay, SmartAccess and KidConnect subscribers must buy the phone unlocked and unsubsidized for $530
• You can only buy five Nexus One phones per Google account
• There is language in the agreement of shipping outside the US
• Google will sell it at google.com/phone, which explains what they were doing with that page a few weeks ago
• Google will still call it the Nexus One apparently, and not the Google Phone

And here is a big one:
• If you cancel your plan before 120 days, you have to pay the subsidy difference between what you paid and the unsubsidized price, so $350 in this case. Or you can return the phone to Google. You also authorize them to charge this directly to your credit card.

I gotta say, I’m disappointed. And I’ll admit off the top to that position being unfair. In all fairness, remove all the hype and hold this phone to the standard others are held to and it’s pretty good. If the current best guess at the specs are accurate, it’s a pretty impressive phone. The problem is, I expected more from Google.

Since the rumblings started about a google phone, people were speculating about it being sold direct through google at or below cost, especially with the activity at google.com/phone. Hopes were high that Google would make good on it’s overarching message of openness espoused since Android was in the early stages of development. Hopes were high that they would roll out a real iPhone competitor, devoid of the almost schizophrenic control Apple is known to hold over the iPhone. A phone that, at the very least, had full functionality on the two US GSM Carriers, T-Mobile and AT&T.

Turns out this isn’t the case. The Nexus One will technically work on both AT&T and T-Mobile, but due to a difference in the frequency used on their respective 3G Networks, it will only have 3G speed on T-Mobile. Meaning you’ll be limited to EDGE on ATT. For an entry level handset, this isn’t a big deal. For a full featured media phone like the Nexus One, iPhone, etc. It’s a deal breaker. Let’s do a test on my iPhone 3G.

First on 3G. 1.86Mbps down, 0.21Mbps up

Now on EDGE. 0.03Mbps down and 0.10 Mbps up.

Needless to say, the real world speed difference is astounding. On 3G, it basically loads pages as fast as the phone can render them, and file downloads are generally limited to the server’s speed. It’s comparable to your average DSL connection. On EDGE, you’re basically going back to 56k speeds, if that. This is pretty much a deal breaker for those of us not willing to break a contract and go with T-Mobile, assuming they even have 3G coverage in your area (And odds are they don’t).

From T-Mobile’s site:

As you can see, their 3G coverage leaves a lot to be desired. While AT&T has been chastised for lacking in 3G coverage, even they blow T-Mobile away.

That pretty much immediately removes it from the running for my sole mobile device, but had they done something like the speculation that they would sell it at or below cost directly, subsidizing the cost via advertising in the built in browser/email app, or some similarly innovative business model, I could have easily justified paying $200-300 for a device that works very well most of the time, and keeping my iPhone 3G in my bag for travel, tethering, etc. At $530, that’s not an option.

I’m guessing, and it’s just that, a guess, that the decision to use a radio compatible with T-Mobile’s 3G network was made to avoid a perceived snub, as they worked with T-Mobile for the original Android Device, the T-Mobile G1 , but I feel they’re limiting themselves in an attempt to maintain a good relationship with T-Mobile. The obvious aim of the device is to take some market share from the wildly successful iPhone line, but the problem is that the vast majority of iPhone users are on AT&T’s network and under contract. While AT&T’s network is far from perfect, it’s still better than T-Mobile’s, as evidenced above. Not many iPhone users are going to be willing to jump ship to another carrier, especially one with worse coverage, and especially given the cost of breaking a contract, around $200, last I checked.

Hopefully an AT&T 3G compatible iteration arises soon, and hopefully their press conference on the 5th still has surprises in store. Maybe they have something big up their sleeves, and I will be forced to eat my words, but as it stands, I feel they’ve failed to deliver on their promise to revolutionize wireless devices. The Nexus One and associated business model, at least based on the information available as I write this, is evolutionary at best.

If you recall, I bought a Tech21 iBand for my iPhone 3G. It supposedly makes your iPhone/iPod touch nearly indestructible. The problem is, it renders it useless too, since it covers every button on the device except the home key. My original review is HERE.

I emailed them about it, and they told me to boil it. Yeah. That’s right. Cook it.

This is not a standard product and you have to use the iBand for a few days to allow the d30 to get softer and then you will have full access to the mute and volume buttons.
This process can be speeded up slightly by gently stretching the iBand or placing it in boiling water.
The iBand is not a normal case it is a highly shock absorbing case which offers extreme impact protection for your iBand.

Of course, while saying that there was nothing at all wrong with the design that doesn’t let you use any of the buttons, there’s a new model coming out with cutouts for the buttons!

I am happy to say that since the launch of the iBand 1st generation we have already had our engineers work on a new iBand (2nd Gen) which will have all buttons exposed, it will also have d3o up each side of the cut’s still allowing for maximum protection.
Working with d3o is not as easy as you may think it is a 3 stage moulding process, and takes a lot of time to integrate the material.
We take customer feedback very seriously and have addressed our customers concerns with the new releases.

Right, there’s nothing wrong with the design, that’s why we changed it!

At any rate, I decided to cook my phone case, and see if it helped.

I boiled some water.

Dug out the iBand

And put it into boiling water.

Since the recipe was kinda vague, I only left it in there for a minute or so, i didn’t want to overcook it.

It looks the same, but I’m not really used to cooking my iPhone accessories.

I set it out to dry/cool.

And put it on my phone…

(The reflection looks really odd there, but my screen isn’t broken).

And…*drumroll*…it sucks cock. It might suck a little less cock, as it did seem to be a little easier to hit the lock/unlock button, but it’s still far from usable. The very fact that they have come out with a new version with cutouts for the buttons is pretty much an admission that the original design is terrible and worthless. If they had any goddamn dignity, they would send the people who bought the first (worthless, beta) version a second gen in which the hardware buttons can, you know, be used. As it stands, I’d rather put a lit emergency flare in my ass than buy anything they make. Buy a Capsule Neo or Capsule Rebel instead.

Rating:

So you’ve got a netbook that came with Windows XP, and you want to put Windows 7 on it, but it doesn’t have an optical drive. You could buy Asus’ External DVD Drive, which is pretty slick, but if you only need to install Windows, there’s a way to do it without dropping the money on an optical drive. Pick up any 4GB or larger USB thumb drive, if by some chance you don’t already have one. I  used an 8GB A-Data Drive I had lying around. Get your copy of Windows 7. If you downloaded it, you’ll need to find where the ISO was saved on your computer. If you’re using a disc, put it in the disc drive on your other Windows based computer, but don’t run it, obviously.

Stick the USB drive into your windows based computer, and disconnect any other external drives, just to be on the safe side. You need to make your thumbdrive bootable and format it. Luckily you can do this with a program built into Windows.

Click start, and select “Run”. A box will pop up asking you what you want to run. Type “cmd”. This will open a command prompt.

Type “diskpart” (without quotation marks) and it will open the command line program DiskPart. You’ll use this to prepare your thumbdrive.

First, type “list disk” and press enter. This will bring up a list of the volumes connected to your computer. You need to determine which is your thumb drive. It should be pretty easy based on the disk size. In my case, I have two 100gb HDD’s, a 2GB SD card for a camera, and the 8GB thumb drive. The thumb drive is disk 3. Use whichever disk your thumbdrive is, and type “Select Disk X”, with X being the number of your drive. This is vitally important. We’re about to format the volume, which will erase everything on it. If you select the wrong disk, you’ll lose all the data on the disk you select. Be EXTRA sure you pick the volume number that corresponds to your thumb drive, and if you fuck up, don’t come bitching to me.

Ok, now we’ve selected the thumb drive. Type “clean” and then hit enter. This will clean the volume.

Now type “create partition primary” and hit enter. This creates a primary partition on your thumb drive.

Now “active” and press enter. This marks the newly created partition as active, so that you can boot from it.

Finally “format fs=fat32″ and press enter. This will format your thumbdrive using the FAT32 file system. It will probably take a few minutes, depending on the size of your drive. Here’s a screenshot of the whole process, so you can compare.

Now you can close diskpart. The next thing you need to do is extract your windows file to the thumb drive.

You’re gonna need a program to extract the files, and the best one I know of is 7zip. 7zip is free, open source, and multiplatform. Download and install it from 7-zip.org. It installs like any other program, so I’ll let you handle that.

Once you have 7zip installed, Hit “Start” and “My Computer” or “Computer” depending on your version of windows. Navigate to where the Windows 7 ISO is located. If it’s on a disc, it will be in your disk drive. If you downloaded it, it will be where ever you saved it.

Right click on it, and you’ll see a new menu option, “7zip”. Hover over it, and another menu will pop up. Click on “Extract Files”

Once you do, you’ll get a popup menu with options to extra the data from your disc image file (ISO). Click on the ellipses (…), and click “Computer”. Navigate down to your thumb drive, and select it as the location to put the extracted files. Should look like this, except with the drive letter of your thumb drive, if it’s different from mine.

This might take a few minutes, depending on the speed of your computer and the speed of your USB drive. You should end up with a USB drive that looks like this.

Now “Safely Remove Hardware” and remove your USB drive. You’re ready to install.

Shut down your netbook and stick the USB drive in it. Boot it up, and go into boot options. On an EeePC, you just tap ESC while it’s booting up and you’ll get a menu. On others, you might need to go into BIOS and change the boot order to make USB first. Select the USB drive from boot menu, and hit enter.

It should start loading windows setup as normal, and from there it’s all the same as installing from a disc.

Enjoy your new windows installation!

Buy Windows 7

And strangest xmas present goes to…the Orca Oven Mitt. I have to admit, I’m afraid of it.

Feed me, Seymour.

Aside from being scary looking, the Orca Silicone Oven Mitt actually works pretty well. The fact that it’s 11″ long and goes up to around my elbow actually really comes in handy when reaching into a hot oven. It’s dishwasher and washing machine safe, supposedly good to 450°F continuous, and 480°F for up to 1 minute, and it’s set up in a “Pinching” configuration, so grabbing stuff is easy. Supposedly it’s even OK for grabbing stuff out of boiling water up to wrist depth, though I have yet to try that feature.

It’s not without downsides though, it’s not as flexible as you would think, so any motion other than simple pinch and grab is kinda difficult, but not impossible. Also, it’s fucking creepy looking, like a cross between a lambchops sock puppet and a Tim Burton movie. The Nightmare Before Dinner.

Overall, I like it, but I wouldn’t provoke it.

Check it out on Amazon

Rating:

Everyone knows the best part of the brownie is the edge, so Baker’s Edge came up with a way to make a whole pan of “All Edges” brownies, the All Edges Brownie Pan.

I picked one up recently, and decided to give it a go.

I poured in my brownie batter:

And tossed it in the oven for about half an hour, then pulled out this:

Also included with the pan is this nifty spatula for cutting/serving the brownies.

I used it to cut a brownie and serve it up, works very well and stores in the pan.

End results were nice:

Overall, I’m impressed. The build quality is excellent, I was amazed at how heavy this pan was. It seems like it will last a long time. If you like brownies, pick one up.

Buy it on Amazon

Rating:

I checked on EeePC car chargers before, but didn’t think I would use one enough to justify $50. I checked again the other day and saw This One for $15 and free shipping with Prime.

I used it this morning, plugging my EeePC into it and tethering my iPhone for internet.

What can I say? It’s a charger, and it works. It’s $15 shipped. Not a whole lot of reviewing to be done here, it either works or it doesn’t. If it stops working, I will change the rating to zero stars. For now, it gets five.

Buy it on Amazon.com

Rating:

I actually upgraded my EeePC SSD from the factory 4GB to a Super Talent 16GB unit a few months ago, but I finally got around to doing a how to. As such, I didn’t actually swap anything, the SSD is the same in all the pics.

First, break out your new SSD.

Power your netbook off, and remove the battery. The right side slider should flick to the right and stay there.

Slide the left one to the left, hold it there, and pull the battery toward the rear.

Toward the bottom, you’ll see two phillips screws. Remove them both.

Pry up a little on the access door, and it will pop right out. The SSD is at the top, the ram is at the bottom.

On the right side of the SSD, you’ll see two more phillips screws.

Remove these, and the SSD will pop up, like so:

Slide it out to the right.

Now slide the new one in, and reverse the steps above. Once you get everything buttoned up, install your OS from a thumbdrive or external DVD, and you’re good to go.

Enjoy your extra storage space

Super Talent SSD on Amazon