Archive for July 2010

Samsung late last month announced their new Samsung SH-B123 Blu-ray Disc internal drive and lucky for me I was able to get my hands on one to test out, and I have to say I am pretty impressed by the drive. 

Installing the drive is simple anyone with basic computer knowledge can install it with no issues. What is also cool about the drive is it comes with a feature called BD Advisor, which will let you know if your computer can handle Blu-Ray content. If it can not it will inform you what needs to be upgraded on your system. But people you all should know ahead of time if your system can handle a product like the SH-B123 before you buy it. 

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Recently my moms desktop stopped working, after trying to diagnose the problem I saw that the bios did not detect a hard drive I concluded that the hard drive was bad. Easy! 

Lucky for me is that Samsung had sent me their Spinpoint F4 HD322GJ Internal HDD to test out and so I figured I should test it out on my moms system. So I used it to replace the bad drive on my moms system. The HD322GJ has 320 GB of storage, 7200 rpm / 16MB buffer serial ATA. Making it a large enough drive for her and rather fast hard drive. 

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Consider this posting a PSA. I often get complaints from friends and family that they have a virus. They swear to me that they didn’t go to any bad websites etc. They swear they have been following all of my advice of how to stay safe when browsing the web especially on websites they are not familiar with.

However while they may be following my advice, they do let their guard down when they search the web. Regardless if the website is a legit site or not if it appears within the first 10 search results on Google, Bing, Yahoo or where ever they may be searching. They click on it and that’s where their problems begin. While the search providers are doing their best to get rid of these bad results, the websites pop up so often and so fast it’s hard to maintain a clean database when search is so dynamic. 

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As you may already know, Logitech and Google have teamed up to bring you the Logitech Revue with Google TV. They running a contest where three winners will be selected to host a party in their lofts in Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco, and guess what you will be paid for it!

The contest is located on their facebook page so click here to check it out and good luck!

I have reviewed Samsungs External DVD writers before and when they announced that they redesigned them and improved upon them I definitely wanted to check them out again. 

First the new design for these external writers are 100 times better than the previous version, they have a more stylish and elegant look. The previous version was square and sort of looked like something that belonged in Battle star Galatica. 

Installation is simple, you simply plug it into what ever desktop or notebook you are using. I have tested it with both PC and Mac and it works fine. 

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Fabulis, the online social network for gay men today has launched a free iPhone app so that their members can have a sleek and easy to use mobile experience when on their iPhone.

With the App users of Fabulis can browse members, view their followers and who they are following. There is even a shake feature similar to the shake feature in the urbanspoon app but instead of resturants it shows members near you.

You can also check and respond to messages in real tme. To get the app from the iTunes store click here.

Over the past three weeks I got my hands on an HP Z400 Workstation and a MainGear XCube, which I unboxed. I thought it would be easier to just post one entry about the two unboxing instead of two. Then I thought it would be easier to upload the pictures of the unboxing to the forum which I did!

Check out the unboxings here:

Z400

XCube

For the past few months or so ever since the consumer electronics show (CES), friends have been telling me about this great company called Drobo short for DataRobotics. Some would tell me they have the greatest NAS product ever created, others would insist it isn’t a NAS product but a Storage Array.

Some people would say its expensive, as the Drobo S has a starting price of $799 with no hard drives and the Drobo FS which I have had the pleasure of testing out starts at $1149.00 with 4.5 TB of storage.

I for one live by a Spanish saying that goes “Lo Barato Sale Caro” which translated means, what’s cheap ends up being expensive. While that may hold true most of the time there are exceptions. When I received the Drobo FS for review I needed to find out if it was worth its weight in gold or if it was the exception to the saying. In other words is the Drobo a Mercedes or a Kia. 

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Seagate last month announced their new GoFlex TV the latest version HD Media Player that works with their new GoFlex Portable hard drives and essentially replace their Theater offering.

The new GoFlex TV will not only work with GoFlex portable Hard drives from Seagate but will also connect to your home network and will allow you to display its content, videos, music and pictures on any television. You can also connect two additional hard drives via two USB ports located in the back and side of the GoFlex TV.

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I recently got a TiVo premiere and quickly ran into a problem. I was recording so many programs that I was running out of space fast. So I got my hands on the new Western Digital AV DVR Expander. It allows you to give your DVR an additional 1TB of storage.

The Expander is compatible with TiVO Series 3, TiVO DV HDRs and Dish Network, DirectTV and Scientific Atlanta 8300 HD DVR box which is commonly used by cable operators. I have a TiVO premiere which is Series 4 and it also works well although WD does not have it listed as compatible. 

I am extremely picky when it comes to what electronics are near my television, I like everything to match and with the black piano finish that the WD Expander has it matched my television and TiVO box perfectly.

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