Geeky Nano

Well this review is going to start as a funny story, for starters, I never actually bought this gadget, I actually won this gadget via a Twitter contest, yes a Twitter contest, and a month later Amazon announce the new Amazon Kinlde DX, but since I didn’t spend a single cent on this gadget I didn’t feel bad about it. There now you why this review is happening.

Lets beginning, and my review of the Amazon Kindle 2 starts like this, I live in Puerto Rico, and… Amazon doesn’t ship the Kindle to Puerto Rico, so I had it ship to my Florida house, and then down to Puerto Rico, almost a 2 months wait till I really got it. Now… buying books on the Kindle or/for the Kindle, another EPIC fail, I needed to setup one-Click buying with my Florida address. and I also need a USA base credit card, Come on! Amazon… I got Sprint back home, no need to make me jump so many hoops.

Om to the device itself, the Amazon Kindle 2 its pretty small and thin, but very very tough, feels firm on the hand. WhisperNet thanks to Sprint in Puerto Rico works great, I got a Edge connection almost everywhere, and some 3G speeds in some places, pretty cool. Book reading is also EPIC, books load fast, switch pages nicely, and the Text-To-Speed is a huge plus. Sound quality is great, and picture quality is perfect. Experimental services like a built-in HTML browser and MP3 play back work, with a few glitches, but Hey! Experimental means Beta.

Bottom line, I won this gadgets, Amazon lowered the price recently, and with my minimal experience with eBook reader, Hell! I’m not a big reader. I think this is the best/fully feature eBook reader on the market right now. If you want a eBook reader, forget the Sony one, go for the Amazon Kindle 2, or the DX version. Go to Amazon.com for more info.

More pictures on my Flickr Amazon Kindle 2 set.

Amazon, Kindle, Review

About four months ago, I bought this Hi-Def Digital TV ready LCD TV, mainly because I needed a new TV for my Blu-Ray ready Sony PS3, and because I really wanted something small for my bedroom.

Trued be told I don’t watch much local or cable TV, nor do I spends tons of hours playing games on the PS3, on that note, I do watch movies from time to time, and the added value of having the fastest Blu-Ray player in the marker, the Sony PS3, made me want to buy some of my favorite movies on Blu-Ray, *wink* *wink* Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy” and The Dark Knight, when talking about games I mostly play Guitar Hero/Rock Band series games, with a occasional MLB game here and there.

Now… since now you have a picture of my typical use for my Vizio HDTV, let me tell you a bit about performance and picture quality. Setting up the Vizio was as easy as snap the stand on, and plugging it in, once on the menu setup is as straight forward as it can be, an auto scan will occur, and it will name out the Digital channels, once the scan is over, you got nothing else to do than watch TV. Manually scanning channel is kinda a pain, pretty slow for the picture to come one while flipping back and forward.

Picture quality is EPIC, most channels look great, live TV sometimes looks kinda grainy. Blu-ray movies on the Vizio look amazing, because of my PS3 and my Vizio set the Blu-Ray format has found a new fan. Since both the Vizio and the PS3 support 1080p, games on the Vizio looked awesome, when I play a MLB game I feel like I’m watching a real game. Sound quality is also amazing. most of the time when I’m watching or playing on my Vizio the sound is set at level 5, yes level 5. level 15 sounds killer, so you don’t want to know how will it sound on sound level 55.

The 19″ Vizio HDTV comes prepare with pre-set preferences, like Wide, Fill, Letter, or Standard size screen, and Games, Movie, and Standard view picture quality. The remote control also comes fully features will all the pre-set preference set with a one button push. Changing channels or volume control sometimes is confusion but with time you get use to it.

Bottom line, when you ask someone to recommend you for a good HDTV LCD, the first thing that comes to everyone’s mind is Vizio, and if you are looking for a budget, small, but fully feature HDTV the Vizio is the way to go.

More pictures on my Flickr Vizio HDTV set.

Blu-ray, Review

When I wrote my PS3 review I left out pointing the price range between the Sony PS3 and the Microsoft Xbox 360, mainly because I wanted to do a in-dept price comparison between the two consoles, where both consoles can be comparable with each other feature wise.

Sony PS3 -

• 80Gb System with Blu-ray playback capabilities, Wireless Rechargeable Controller and Charging Cable. $399
• Extra Wireless Rechargeable Controller $45
• Bluetooth Headset $45

Grand Total. $490 without any local tax.

Microsoft Xbox 360 -

• 60Gb System with Non-Rechargable Battery Powered Controller, Wired Headset, and Ethernet Cable. $299
• Extra Non-Rechargable Battery Powered Controller. $40
• Two Xbox 360 Play & Charge Kits (Rechargeable Batteries for Wireless Controllers). $40
• Xbox 360 Wireless Network Adapter (make your Xbox 360 WiFi enable). $99
• Xbox 360 Live Subscription Gold Card (Years worth of multi-playing capability). $50

Grand Total. $530 without local tax, and without the added fact that the Microsoft Xbox 360 doesn’t have Blu-ray playback capabilities.

In the end Price wise, the Sony PS3 is the right choice for a casual gamer, like myself. You make the choice, what type of gamer are you?

Articles, Games, PS3, PSN, Review, Xbox 360

Lets put a side the fact that we know the Sony PS3 is the fastest and cheapest Blu-Ray player in the market right now. The UI if you have ever use a Sony PSP before there interface are exactly the same, but not as easy to use as the Sony PSP one, meaning the Sony PS3 doesn’t have a on board card reader, so you can’t play movies or music off them, like the Sony PSP does. It does read usb drivers, but to me it doesn’t feel the same.

It’s has Media Server capabilities but I haven’t even took the time to figure out how to setup this feature, all I know it lets you see content on other computers in your home network.

Hardware wise it has two usb ports in the front, none in the back HUGE minus for me, it has a HDMI port in the back and no power brick and is WiFi enable so BIG plus for Sony PS3 in this case, no need to buy an external wireless adpater. The controller is much like the one on the Sony PS2 but the ones for the Sony PS3 are only Wireless, battery like is awesome I get almost a week of causal gaming.

It plays DVD’s great, CD’s haven’t tried but I figure it should play them as great, like I previously mention Blu-Ray read time is awesome.

Game wise, the Sony PS3 doesn’t have a great selection of exclusive games, hence LittleBigPlanet, Resistance, Killzone, MLB: The Show, but most must have games available for the Microsoft Xbox 360 are also available for the Sony PS3, hence Grand Theft Auto, Call Of Duty, BioShock, Guitar Hero. Graphics wise, the Sony PS3 game graphics, coming from a PS fanboy, I have to admit aren’t awesome but they are bad neither, Microsoft Xbox 360 has better graphics but only by a slim margin.

Feature wise, the Sony PS3 comes with a HUGE HUGE HUGE PLUS, a built in web browser with all the usual JavaScript Flash stuff enable, meaning Hulu.com on the Sony PS3 is a must, getting free streaming movies and TV shows gets huge props from me. Much like the Microsoft Xbox 360, the Sony PS3 also has an Online Store, as part of the Playstation Network, which unlike Microsoft Xbox 360 where you have top pay in other to play multiplayer games and/or get streaming movies via Netflix (which you also have to paid), you can play multiplayer capable games at no extra charge. On the minus side, two HUGE ones I must say, the Playstation Stores doesn’t have an extensive library of Demos like the Micosoft Xbox 360 Live Store has, but buyable games add-ons are perfectly balance between Sony PS3 and Microsoft Xbox 360. Secondly Playstation Store updates don’t come as often as you should like.

In the end for a causal gamer, like myself, which has found the use of being able to access Hulu.com and view Video Podcast like Tekzilla, Diggnation and TWiT Live on the HDTV, with the add fact that the Sony PS3 is the fastest and cheapest Blu-ray player in the market, I find it is a great buy, which I give it 8 stars out of 10 ********, because of the lack of must have exclusive games and the good, instead of awesome, game graphics.

NOTE: I didn’t mention Playstation Home (Virtual Social Network) because it’s in beta and I don’t trust betas.

Now a couple of pictures I took of my new Sony PS3:

More pictures on my Flickr account Sony PS3 set.

PS3, PSN, Review, Sony, Tech

Oct 15, 2008 very important day for me in my live, that was the day the iPhone 3G was officially release in Puerto Rico, and the day I stood in line for about 3 hours to get my iPhone 3G. Now AT&T has me for 2 years and is bleeding me dry with there expensive data/voice plans, but who cares, I’m a Apple fanboy.

Both my father and uncle have the EDGE iPhone so I had have a little bit of experience using the iPhone, meaning I know what I had to do when I had it in my hands. Must say huge difference between the EDGE iPhone and the iPhone 3G, not only the download speeds, but the iPhone 3G is a bit smaller in size and weight, the color black is beautiful and it matches my Black MacBook, at lest I think I look cool.

About everything else it almost the same, I think the iPhone 3G has better battery life than the EDGE iPhone, but it is almost the same thing in that respect, features are the same, all the standards apps come stock in both of them, video play back is amazing both iPhone and the iPod Touch, the iPhone built in speaking sound great (for a phone), Mail, Safari, Photos are the stock apps I use the most, the camera is not great but at the same time is not bad, it takes decent picture, but want puts the iPhone above all other phone are the Apps, the Apple Apps Store, has tons of great apps, from Facebook, and Twitter apps, which are the once that I use the most, to location base apps like Loopt which is tons of fun. I know I’m just a big Apple fanboy, but I feel the iPhone is here to stay.

Here a few pictures of my iPhone 3G, more available on my Flickr iPhone 3G set.

Apple, Mac, Review, Tech, iPhone

Don’t ask me where, or why, but somewhere on the net I saw it and I just had to have it. What I’m talking about? simple the Flip Video Ultra, the concept is unique, full feature for the size, but with tons of room for improvement.

The video quality is great, the file sizes for video recorders are good, it comes with built in software so no need to instal anything, one click import to YouTube button is great, pre-set preferences to get the best quality video for YouTube, smaller than expected, like I said it has tons of room for improvements, mainly because it runs on two double A batteries, it doesn’t have support for SD or microSD card, and the memory capacity can’t be extend, so does are some minor flaws, but price $180 for a hour of continues video, for the size, it is a steal for Video podcast, and casual video recording.

For more pictures check out my Flip Video Ultra Flickr set.

Review, Tech, YouTube

After years and years of using crappy iPod earbuds headphones, I pucker up and bought myself some awesome In-Ear Headphones, mostly because a co-worker lent me hers to use them, once I hear the sound difference I was hooked, but I also went down to my local Bose Store and test then out. And after a little bit of web research and reading Amazon.com reviews, I started my search for a sales deal.

The Bose In-Ear Headphone, the sound is amazing, and it really shuts everything out from the outside, you feel like you are in your little own world. It comes with a carrying case, interchangeable silicon tips, smalls, medium and large, and the headphone cable itself is fairly long to fit all sizes. I use the medium silicon tips, I see all the complains on Amazon about them failing off, they never did to me, at first it takes time to get use to them, give it some time you will love them. Price range from $80 to $120, so keep a eye on online sales. Very much recommended for people who work on noisy places or with co-works that talk a lot (my situation).

Bose, Review, Tech

My first taste of the Apple switch to Intel was a MacMini Intel Core 2 Duo, which I still use, before it I had a G4 iBook, which is long gone now. After a couple of years of wait for the ultimate update to the Intel MacBook line, I finally gave up and bought a now 6 months old Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook, and of course I payed the extra price to get the beautiful Black one.

My 13 inch Intel MacBook came stock up with 2Gb of RAM, Core 2 Duo 2.40Gb processor, and a wooping 250Gb hard, which makes this a awesome entry level to the pro world of Mac. Performance is basically fast, extremely fast for day to day stuff, which I include burning CD and DVD, battery life is amazing. I get around 4 to 5 hours of battery life with WiFi on, running Mailplane, Firefox, iTunes and TweetDeck most of the time. The screen is beautiful colorful, great to edit pictures and see movies. It came stock with iLife 08 and I bought iWorks 08 just because Keynote is the winner when it comes to presentations.

For more pictures of my Black Intel MacBook check out my Flickr set.

Apple, Mac, MacBook, Review, Tech

My first entry level digital camera was a Sony Cybershot DSC-P32, and I’m talking about 6 years ago now. Now I got a Canon Powershot SD1000 very powerful, very slim, very compact, and sleek.

Intuitive user interface, most setting can be set by following the easy step by step instructions. The pictures are extremely clear and beautiful. Controls are easy to use, and the huge LCD screen is perfect for us the casual photographers it lets us preview if we got the shot that we wanted. Video recording is a big plus, the audio is great, Price at $250 which make for awesome entry level digital camera.

More pictures taken with my Canon Powershot SD1000 on my Flickr account.

Review, Tech