September 2008 Archives

It's been years in the making, literally. Sling Media announced the Slingbox Pro-HD and the Sling Catcher at CES 2007, and then again at CES 2008. A product pairing so exciting, it deserved to be announced twice!

Well, the Slingbox Pro-HD arrived in the house of Toyman yesterday and was up and running within ten minutes. Partially. I was able to hook up the box to the Tivo HD and home network within five minutes, but that's where the ease of setup stopped. After downloading the Mac SlingPlayer software, I was able to get a video and audio signal on my computer, but that's all. I couldn't setup the virtual remote to control the Tivo HD, which makes the Slingbox useless.

It wasn't until 20 minutes had passed that I discovered that I needed to run the Windows SlingPlayer to complete the setup. There is some kind of glitch in the Mac software that was preventing me from configuring the video/audio inputs. Thank goodness for VMware.

But my problems persisted. I still couldn't remotely control the Tivo HD. No changing channels, no pausing, nothing. The Sling Media support site is rather sparse, but I did find tips on how to check if the IR blaster was working correctly, which it wasn't. The cable is defective and requires a replacement. In the meantime, I've jerry-rigged a temporary fix that involves a paperclip and scotch tape. Didn't you hear? My other nickname is MacGyver.

Now that things are working, albeit a temporary fix, I'm very impressed with the video quality on my computer. Now I just need to wait for the second piece of the puzzle: the SlingCatcher.

CLO Software's $1.99 Traffic is one of my new favorite iPhone apps. I find myself using it almost every day commuting to and from work. Yes, Google maps has a traffic overlay, but Traffic shows you a listing of traffic conditions in your area. As the iTunes description states, "Traffic makes location-based traffic reports simple and convenient." I agree.

This is why I bought an iPhone: $301 to play a classic hand held game from the 70's. I can't tell you how much time I spent playing that game as a kid, but I still see those red LEDs in my dreams.

Macworld LED Football review.

I had such high hopes for the Kodak Zi6: small, portable, high quality "HD" video. The Kodak Zi6 hits two of those three requirements perfectly. Where it falls drastically short is the video quality. If you're recording a static object, the video is breathtaking. But try recording something that is in motion and everything goes to hell. Now take into account that there's no image stabilization on the camera. Makes it kind of hard to take still shots without the use of a tripod.

• Large, bright view screen.
• Easy operation.
• Uses AA batteries, so you'll never be without power.
• Standard SDHC slot for additional memory cards.

• This is a big one: jerky/blurry video!

I've returned my camera to Kodak and ordered a Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1000. It's not as affordable as the Zi6, but I'd be surprised if the video quality isn't ten times better.