Justin Garrison

I have always had a bad relationship with wallets. It was just one more thing I had to carry because there was no way to keep IDs and money organized in my pocket on its own. After one of my wallets wore to the point of me actually throwing it away, I decided I’d try to make the most efficient wallet ever. Not with leather or Duct Tape, but with something that could do the job of holding my cards/cash together without getting in the way of me trying to get things in and out of it.
I started with a rubber band (in a cross shape) holding my cards together. Thus was born the band wallet v0.1, at least for me, I didn’t know about the money band until writing this article. This worked pretty well but every 3-4 weeks I’d have to replace the rubber band because it would wear out and break. No big deal because rubber bands cost almost nothing.
The breakage wasn’t a big deal but I decided there had to be something stronger, something that would last longer. I found hair ties (the cloth bands with a fixed metal clasp) to not break like rubber bands and could typically last 4-6 months. This was a huge step in the right direction and the cloth band was easier to move out of the way than rubber. (band wallet v0.3)

I used this wallet for 2+ years. It was great and I told everyone about it. I had convinced a couple friends to also use it as a wallet and after about 3 months of my friend using it he made an additional tweak to the design by putting the band over two corners which helped in getting cards in and out. He also used a thick rubber band instead of a hair tie or thin rubber band which let the wallet last for 6+ months. (band wallet v0.5)

The latest incarnation of the band wallet takes another step forward for efficiency and also another step for longevity. It was discovered, by another friend, that not all rubber bands are created equal. Produce rubber bands are made out of a more durable rubber and are the perfect size for holding cards. The band wallet has now reached version 1.0 thanks to some crowd sourcing and design tweaking. It also has gone from something that I’d have to replace 1-2 times a year (and possibly pay for) to something that, so far, hasn’t been replaced once and hasn’t cost me an extra penny. The single wrap around the cards also helps with getting cards/cash in and out.

So what do I put in my band wallet? Here’s the quick breakdown because I have found this combination to be very efficient for everything I need.

• Drivers license and work ID
• Payment cards (debit and credit)
• Insurance cards (health and auto)
• Proof of car insurance (good to have if you drive a friends car or a rental)
• Whitelines A5 Squared paper*
• Toool lockpick set

*I love Whitelines paper because it works well when photographing and emailing the pages. In my wallet I carry 5-10 sheets of squared paper cut to roughly card size. I use this for ideas and notes I want to write down when I’m out and also use it for business cards if someone needs my email/number. I also carry one full size A5 sheet of paper (folded) for notes that won’t fit. I highly recommend carrying paper around if you often get ideas that need pictures or diagrams instead of just text.

The post The Best Wallet Ever appeared first on 1N73RNET.

Google has a cool feature to let you sign into multiple accounts at once, but in practice it really sucks. Here’s why, and also a better way to manage multiple Google accounts.

It Sucks Because

• You have no easy way to manage what account links will open with (mailto, calendar, docs)
• You can’t (easily) have to inboxes open at the same time from different accounts
• All of your bookmarks, history, open tabs, plugins sync no matter what account you’re using
• Every account is subject to the same browser plugins permissions
• You are limited to a single private browsing window
• This method doesn’t work for all Google services

How to Make it Better

Chrome and Firefox have the ability to set up multiple user profiles. In Google Chrome go to the settings and click add a new user.

Once you do you’ll have new icon in the top left corner (at least in Chrome) with the icon for the new user. Click this drop down to select your new users and you’ll be prompted to sign into your Google account to start syncing your data. Each profile will be able to sync bookmarks, open tabs, search engines, passwords, and extensions individually so you don’t have to worry about opening your browser at home and seeing all your research tabs from work.
Using multiple profiles allows you to have multiple windows open each with their own Google profile signed in. Any mailto, calendar, or docs links will open in the browser window (and Google profile) of the last active window.
You now have the ability to also open multiple private browsing windows (one for each profile) for testing websites without cache, and logging in with additional credentials. Don’t want to test a new browser extension with your Google Apps domain admin user? Test it, and its security, on your personal account first without worrying about it stealing confidential information.

Why It’s Still Not Perfect

• No way to set a shortcut to control which profile opens initially (opens last used profile)
• No ability to selectively sync content between profiles*
• Multiple users are not supported on mobile browsers
• Switching users/windows may get confusing if you have a lot open

I have been using this method of managing my browsing habits and Google accounts for about a year now and I would never go back to the old multi sign on method. Got any tips for Google account management and browser syncing? Please leave them in the comments.

*I am able to sync selective content by using 3rd party services for my passwords and bookmarks. I use LastPass and Diigo under a single account and just install the extensions in each browser profile.

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A while ago a friend of mine set out on a quest to make a 3D map of my work. At first the process seemed really easy. Just import some blueprints into Google SketchUp, export that into Valve’s Hammer, tweak some spawn points, and BOOM you have a Counter-Strike map. The process obviously wasn’t that easy and after 2 years of painstakingly editing textures, walls, and even the sky, the Azusa Pacific University (APU) Counter-Strike map was born compiled.

The map is a model of APU’s west campus. It is not accurate to measurements and many things have been modified to better suit game play. Surprisingly offices and cubicles aren’t as much fun as you’d think. You should also look out for things like false walls, hidden trap doors, climbing rope, and teleporting towers.

Download and Install

To download the map you’ll need to download the zip file attached below and copy the two cs_Library* files into your counter strike maps folder. If you’re using Steam the path in Windows will be
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\<YOUR STEAM USERNAME>\counter-strike source\cstrike\maps
If that folder doesn’t exist make sure you have Counter-Strike Source installed and run it once to create the folders. After you copy the cs_Library* files, restart Counter-Strike and select the new map from the menu.

Click This Picture to Download the Map

<– Click Freddy Cougar

*Disclaimer I did not create this map (I’m not that talented and don’t have that much time) but I think it is a amazing display of engineering, creativity, and persistence and would love to see someone else make even more awesome maps or modify this map for other games (Left 4 Dead especially). If you are reading this and you have other Counter-Strike maps inspired by real places please let me know it the comments. I’d love to see it!

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I was going to write a full review of the Surface RT but I just couldn’t bring myself to write a review for a device a have no reason to use. Here’s a quick rundown of my thoughts after having the device for a week.

Pros:

• Feels nice in the hands (you have to use 2 hands)
• Touch is really responsive
• Good screen (angles and colors)
• Free RDP app (this was the only reason I used the device)
• Touch cover trackpad was actually good
• Touch keyboard was more usable than I expected (more on it below)
• Full size USB (although what do you use it with?)

Cons:

• Lack of good apps. Lots of apps, but most of them suck. Coming from iOS I feel like Android apps are 2nd class citizens (especially tablet apps). Windows RT apps are even worse
• Too big/heavy/awkward to be mobile with it. After using a Nexus 7 for so long this feels huge. And compared to the iPad 2/3/4 it feels too wide and thick.
• No easy way for video out which makes it hard to use as a full time computer (microHDMI doesn’t count)
• Lack of Google ecosystem integration. I don’t use Skydrive, Outlook, Office, etc. This made me just use IE10 which isn’t that great when you can’t have any plugins. It also would not pull up the virtual keyboard inside a google doc no matter what I tried.

Conclusion

I came to the realization that the Surface was designed by CEOs and directors who spend all day in a board room. The device is too hard to use anywhere else. At a desk, with the keyboard and if you have Citrix or RDP it can be very functional. Outside of that, I never chose to use this over my phone, Nexus 7, or laptop because the apps suck, the hardware is too heavy, and the ergonomics are not good. I wish the keyboard cover was detachable so I could at least set the Surface further away from me so the screen would be at the proper angle (the kickstand is not adjustable). Or it would have been nice to not have the keyboard at all so then I’d use the onscreen keyboard more (when it works). I don’t think the Surface Pro is going to solve any of these issues because the device will be even thicker, heavier, and get worse battery. For $800, the MacBook Air (or almost any other ultrabook) is a much better device plus it has a better keyboard/trackpad.

Anyone out there have experience with a Surface RT or any other Windows 8 (RT or Pro) tablet. I’m curious to hear your thoughts.

The post Microsoft Surface RT Review appeared first on 1N73RNET.

Yay! Another year and another post for my technology predictions. Last years predictions went about 50/50 with what I got right but I also was a bit aggressive with what I thought hoped would happen. Check out my predictions for what will happen in 2013.

Computers and Mobile

1. First of all, I really really hope that the Apple mania that has been going on for the past few years will finally die off. I don’t think it will though only because Microsoft seems to have shot themselves in the foot with Windows 8 being nothing that consumers were asking for.

2. Speaking of Windows 8. This year Windows RT will finally become a viable tablet solution. It will only happen though because Microsoft will throw billions of dollars at developers to write software, manufacturers to make hardware, and advertising. There will be no real compelling reason to buy Windows RT over another tablet because Microsoft still won’t figure out how to make a compelling ecosystem. They also will come out with a new version of the tablet OS that will run on smaller screen devices which will allow hardware to drop to the sub $500 range. Of course, the smaller tablets won’t do anything that you really want because Microsoft will artificially limit their capabilities so you’ll buy a more expensive tablet.

3. Smartphone hardware will start to level out this year and the spec race will turn into an ecosystem/software capabilities race. 3rd party manufacturers (HTC especially) will realize their limitations of not being a 1st party manufacturer. Apple, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft will all have their own hardware that can and will do things 3rd parties fail at. Because 3rd parties won’t have the benefit of making money from a robust ecosystem, they will either die or be absorbed into the main players.

4. Google will continue merging Android and Chrome OS but their focus this year will be on making hardware. Making and selling their own phone, tablet, media streamer, Google TV, DVR, router, Android at home, Google glass, and laptop will be too enticing for them. It will also help them sell more ads and know what your are doing 24/7.

5. Google glass is going to be a huge nerd success while the general public will just think WTF. But then, another company (not Apple or Microsoft) will come out with a less obtrusive wearable computer (probably a watch or clothing) and everyone will think it’s amazing! Apple’s and Microsoft’s wearable computers won’t come out till 2014-2015.

Software and Web

1. Startups will fail left and right. It will become a crashing reality for everyone trying to make it as a startup. There will be very few that are purchased by big name companies and the rest will fail. This will cause a slow down in web innovation as fewer people are willing to take a risk and lose everything.

2. Ecosystems will become more segregated and users will have to choose their alliance. Companies are finally realizing what Apple knew years ago. Lock-in not only generates sustainable money, but it also makes it hard for users to leave. Microsoft, Amazon, and Google will continue to try to lock users into an ecosystem that is not only complete (music, movies, TV, OS) but also doesn’t work well with others.

3. Facebook will also expand their ecosystem but their efforts to make money through Facebook specific promotions (gifts, perks, etc.) will ultimately drive users away from the service. Not that they will care if a million users leave the service, but there will be some out cry for people to stop using it.

4. A new company will offer a non-tablet data only (LTE) mobile device with no voice calling. No carrier will allow it on their network because they won’t make money off of it and the new company will go under. Then in 2014 Apple will have an LTE iPod touch and everyone will say “Why didn’t anyone do this before?”

Video Games

1. Indie consoles everywhere! The Kickstarter fad is going to generate a lot of small consoles that will plug into your TV that will use your phone as a controller (via Bluetooth) and they will all kinda suck. They will all run Android or Linux and none of them will have compatible app stores. They will be super cheap (~$100) but won’t catch on because there will be so many terrible knock-offs that no single console can be the winner.

2. Steambox will be the best new console! Although Steam Valve isn’t really new to the video game world, their console will be a huge hit. It will be announced at E3 and be available by Christmas. It also will cost less than a PS4 and probably the same as a Xbox 720. It will run Linux customized Ubuntu, have a limited number of games available, and have a vibrant hacking community. Ultimately the console will be better for Linux than it will be for Valve.

3. PS4 and Xbox 720 will both come out this year. Am I the only one who is over big name consoles? Until the consoles have portability or virtual reality I think I’ll stick to casual gaming on my phone and computer.

Other

1. It’s no secret that movie theaters are struggling to keep attendance. This year I suspect they will start to get creative and try to offer things that people can’t get at home. Two years ago it was 3D, this past year it was IMAX and 48 fps, in the 1920s-1930s it was widescreen video. Next year I suspect they will have some new gimmick that won’t enhance the viewing experience. Arguably not everything movie theaters come up with is a gimmick, but I have a feeling whatever they come up with next will be.

2. Likewise there will be more of a push to bring theater release movies to people’s homes. They will be outlandishly expensive but at least it will be something possible. In the next 5-10 years this will cause most movie theaters to go the way of the video arcade.

3. Self-driving cars will be a consumer reality. For the states that have approved laws, car manufacturers (not just Google) will begin testing self-driving cars. The won’t be available to the public until 2014 but if you live in one of the few states that allow it you may see them on the road.

4. The maker revolution will continue to grow. People making their own stuff and figuring out how things work has been driving a lot of innovation and next year it will only grow stronger as 3D printers become more accessible and information sharing grows. I suspect there will be a ~$250 3D printer that comes out and any company that encourages hardware modifications will be a consumer success even if most people don’t make any modifications at all.

5. Someone will succeed where Boxee failed this year with an unlimited DVR. I have a feeling it will be Amazon. They will offer a set top box that is capable of watching live TV and they also will make “recordings” available through prime instant video for prime subscribers. They will be competing mostly with Hulu but they will make the STB so cheap that it will actually catch on.

The post 2013 Technology Predictions appeared first on 1N73RNET.

Google has search appliances available for enterprise customers to house in their data centers to take advantage of Google’s searching and indexing abilities for web services and intranet resources. One such device is called the Google Mini. Unfortunately, the Google Mini was also end of life’d as of July 2012. No big deal, it was replaced by better and faster appliances. Besides, the Google Mini is now 7 yeas old so it was about time.
I happen to come across a Google Mini that was being retired so I took it upon myself to investigate what was inside. I also thought it might be fun to repurpose for a project or two.
So let’s take it apart and see what’s inside. So far as I could tell the EULA didn’t completely forbid this so long as the drive was wiped.

The Externals

The Google Mini isn’t super special outside from the fact that it’s a 1U server with a big blue sticker on top and the rest of the outside painted blue. There are also a lot of security bits that prevent normal users from opening them up.

The sticker prevents you from opening the lid so we’ll need to peal that back if we want to see what’s inside.

Here’s one of the security screws

And here’s the master key we’ll use to get inside.

The Internals

Once we get past that we can open up the lid by sliding it back and revealing the insides.

Let’s start by looking at the main components. The CPU heatsink is under the plastic shroud with just a single fan cooling off the entire server. The heatsink below the CPU is for the north bridge which handles communication from the CPU to the RAM. The black heatsink on the top right is for the PCIe controller.

The ports on the server are pretty standard for any desktop/server. An added benefit being this comes with dual network interface cards (NIC) which can allow for more advanced system management.

The server comes with 2GB of DDR2 RAM which you can easily see here.

The server has 1 PCIe 16x slot and 5 PCI slots. Not that you could use them in a 1U case though.

It also has 4 SATA controllers, 1 IDE hard drive controller, and a floppy controller. There is also an IPMI slot which is used for out of band management (OOBM). The slot is missing the OOB network card. You can also see two headers for optional case-mounted USB and some jumpers labelled JWD which stand for Jumper Watch Dog. These jumpers allow the machine to automatically reboot if a software hang is detected.

You can also see the Intel ICH6R south bridge for communication handling to the accessories. The chip near the top right of the picture contains the BIOS and the two pads on the bottom right of the south bridge allow for clearing the CMOS settings when jumped.

On the other side of the case are some more jumpers. These are labeled JPWAKE1 and JPUSB1. Both of these pins allow the server to be woken either by USB or PS2 keyboard/mouse input.

Along the rear of the case are also the two network controllers for the Broadcom network cards. This picture also shows us that the motherboard is manufactured by Supero and the model is a P8SCT. A quick Google search turned up the user manual which proved to be very helpful when identifying some of the chips and jumpers.

The power supply is standard but to be thorough I might as well take a picture of that too.

When taking out the hard drive there are 4 screws on the bottom of the case that hold the damper screws to the hard drive. Luckily they’re labeled so it makes finding them easy.

Once you take out the screws the hard drive slides out. There is also a little air dam that keeps air flowing over the hard drive on it’s way to cool the CPU.

Just to be overly thorough of the motherboard, here’s a component layout from the user manual.

I hope you enjoyed the teardown. Just for comparison, AnandTech their own teardown in 2005. The internals on that Google Mini looked quite a bit different.

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It’s not very often that I am so excited for a product that I go get it on launch day. Usually I am a skeptic who waits at least for a few reviews to come out before rushing out to get whatever it is. The Boxee TV however was one of those products I had very high hopes for and wanted to spend as much as it would take to try it out for myself (I had $325 saved up just for this). I have debated for the past year to buy the original Boxee Box +live TV tuner but after years of using an HTPC and cable DVR I couldn’t bring myself to live by TV schedule anymore.

Here is how I feel about it after my short period of time with the device. Sorry for the length of this review, but I really wanted to discuss all of the pros and cons I found with the device.

Intro

First of all, if you’re not familiar with the Boxee TV you should really just go to Boxee’s website and read about it for yourself. Basically the device is an internet set top box (STB) that also plugs into your unencrypted cable or over the air (OTA) antenna for live TV. The Boxee TV has internet apps like Netflix, Vudu, Youtube (and I’m sure many more to come).

The killer feature that sets it apart is of course its live TV (dual tuners) and cloud DVR. The DVR functionality stores your recordings in Amazon AWS and allows you to have unlimited recording space (so long as you subscribe for $14.99 /mo) an also allows you to place-shift your recordings while you’re not at home.

Hardware

The Boxee TV hardware is smaller than I expected. It’s about the size of a VHS cassette (if anyone remembers how big those are) and HDMI, power, 10/100 ethernet, 2 USB, and 1 coax input. There are no buttons on the front and once the device is plugged in it automatically gets powered on.

The remote feels a little cheap but gets the job done. It has a normal d-pad with center select button, a play/pause button at the top, a home, back, …, and dedicated Netflix and Vudu buttons on the bottom.

With a STB that is designed to watch and record live TV I found it strange that a remote would be missing a dedicated record button. I supposed it could be added in the … menu but still not quite as intuitive for less technically savvy.

I did have one problem with the remote an that was that it doesn’t work with my Monoprice IR blaster. I reached out to support (more on that later) and found that the Boxee TV uses RC-MM for its IR protocol. This protocol, however, is not very common in the IR Blaster world because it is fairly new so you may have problems getting an IR blaster to work. Tom helped me out and said I should look for an IR blaster that works with AT&T U-verse because they use the same remote protocol.

The second thing I noticed about the hardware was it got really hot when watching TV (or recording). So hot that I couldn’t swap out the antenna because the plug was too hot to touch. I grabbed an IR thermometer and read 144 F which was pretty shocking. Because the device doesn’t work with my IR blaster, I just have to make sure no one accidentally touches it while it’s out on my entertainment center.

Setup

Setting up the device was mostly uneventful. I did however run into two problems. First, I could not get the Boxee TV connected to my wifi. It could see the network just fine but would not accept the WPA2 password for access. Once I plugged in ethernet the device was fine. I haven’t attempted to connect to my wi-fi after the software update, but I’d recommend if you have ethernet near your TV, use it because this thing uses a lot of bandwidth.

Second problem was the fact that the setup code provided to me would not work. You are shown a code and then instructed to go to boxee.tv/setup to register the box for your account. I went to the site and my login wasn’t working. Then I realized that OLD Boxee accounts (for the Boxee Box and legacy Boxee software) don’t work with the Boxee TV. I made a new account and still couldn’t register. I ended up restarted the device 4 times until a code let me register on my newly created account.

Once registered it was time to scan for channels. I tried two different scans, one with the antenna that came with the device and one with the antenna I have installed in my attic. I knew my attic antenna would get better signal but I wanted to try both anyway.

If you have the option to use a better antenna, you probably should. With my attic antenna I got 26 of the 27 broadcast channels available (although CBS is useless). With the included antenna I got 17 out of the 27 broadcast channels.

I will note that the channels scans were incredibly fast (faster than my typical HTPC tuners) and faster than any TV’s ATSC scan I’ve used.

Software

The software feels a little sparse. Not only were there only a handful of apps, but the recordings and live TV functionality seems very lacking. Let’s start with live TV and recordings.

There’s no traditional guide layout, while you do get guide data from Boxee, not everything has information or nice cover pictures. Popular TV shows do but with only a couple dozen channels, I expected to have more information filled out.

The guide is broken up into on now, and then as you scroll down you can see what’s on in 30 minute chunks. This interface was neat for thinking outside of the box, but is no where near as efficient and a traditional grid. And when I want to see what’s on at a glance, the 30 minute rows showing 5 channels at a time took a while to get an idea for what is on for the next hour.

Looking ahead to what is on TV doesn’t matter all that much though because even if you did find something you want to watch, there’s no way to record the show from the guide. You have to go to your computer, log into the Boxee website, find the show on the grid, and start your recording from there. Hopefully that gets fixed in the future but as I said before, if I were to give this system to my parents, a dedicated record button on the remote would be better.

Once watching a show, channel changing was really fast but currently you can’t pause live TV nor can your skip back/forward in a show. From the popup it appears this functionality will be coming, it’s just missing in the initial release.

You can pull up the un-handy guide with the left/right arrows and find something new to watch if you no longer want the channel you’re on, but I couldn’t find a way to see what’s on next.

One weird thing I couldn’t find was a way to stop live TV playback. If I push home or back the home menu would just overlay on top of the playing show. The only way I figured out how to make the TV stop playback was to go into one of the apps or hit the dedicated Netflix or Vudu buttons. This however sometimes had undesired results with an error message displayed on the screen.

Recordings worked well but there is a lack of settings that will drive any HTPC user mad. First of all, you cannot set a beginning or end time for recordings. This led to more than one show having the beginning or end cut off. I can’t even imagine how bad that would be for people who record sports regularly.

Second, as I mentioned before, all recordings are done via the web page which is not a great experience and down right terrible from a phone or tablet (I used the Nexus 7). If there were a mobile app to manage this it could help quite a bit. The web interface has a better grid style guide but only has about 2 days worth of data so if the show you want to record isn’t coming up soon, you may have difficulty finding it.

The search is less than stellar, but if you type in the exact query, you shouldn’t have too much trash in your results. The below example of New Girl returned 388 results.

Most of the time the streaming recordings look fine going back to the Boxee TV but I did have a couple occasions when playback looked particularly bandwidthy. I’m sure trying to show this fact in a scaled down image taken with my iPhone in less than optimal lighting will be hard to convey, but I can guarantee you Fox never looked this bad while viewing live TV.

Because the recordings are constantly being uploaded/streamed I would never recommend the Boxee TV to anyone who did not have fast internet or had bandwidth caps. I have FiOS (15/5) and most of the time I’d say the playback quality was higher than Netflix (not all that hard to do) but below what Vudu HDX usually has.

Here is an average month of internet usage for me (I stream a lot of Netflix).

And here is my same internet on drugs with a Boxee TV.

In the month of October I uploaded 16 Gb of information. That’s a lot. In 2 days with the the Boxee TV I uploaded 81 Gb!

Moving on to the apps, I only played with Netflix, Vudu, and YouTube. There are others, but more importantly are some that I find missing. Amazon VOD is absent, probably because Walmart owns Vudu and is partnering to sell the Boxee TV, and so is NFL Sunday Ticket, NHL GameCenter, Hulu Plus, and Revision 3. I know most people probably don’t care, but I regularly watch Revision 3 and thanks to a friend, watch NFL Sunday Ticket most every Sunday. I’ve already reached out to Revision 3 and I’m hopeful they’ll come to the platform. For now I satisfy my Rev3 and Verge video feeds with the YouTube app.

Speaking of which, the three apps I did try are almost identical to the PS3 apps which is both a good and bad thing. It’s good if you don’t have a PS3, it’s bad if you do because the apps are redundant.

In all fairness the Boxee TV is much better and handling remote inputs (so long as you don’t need the IR blaster) and the PS3 is three times the price and you’d still want to buy a remote or $60 Logitech repeater.

I did find a couple things odd about the Netflix and Vudu interfaces when comparing the Boxee TV and PS3. The Netflix app seems to spread out the DVD icons slightly and everything was a little fuzzy. Mouse over the picture below to see what I’m talking about. Video playback in completely unaffected but the fuzziness was the first thing my wife noticed since she uses the PS3 more for streaming than I do. The second thing she noticed was that the audio on the Boxee TV “sounded like a tin can”. Upon further inspection it appeared that the Boxee TV had more weight toward the rear speakers and had an odd effect on the center channel to make everything a little more quite and echoy.

(Boxee TV app shown without mouseover)

The Vudu app didn’t have the same fuzzy quality. The screen is slightly zoomed but I had no problems navigating or reading text.

(Boxee TV app shown without mouseover)

Despite looking for differences, I couldn’t see anything different with the YouTube app and it worked just the same as the PS3 app including being able to sync devices (tablets and phones) for playback and control.

All-in-all, if you get decent TV signal, you may find that you don’t need some of the sports apps and if you subscribe to the DVR functionality ($9.99 /mo for now) you really should cancel your Hulu plus account.

Website

The Boxee website is key to the experience of owning a Boxee TV. Unfortunately, I found that experience to be lacking.

First of all, on a laptop it does great. The interface is a bit bare but works…most of the time. I had a few times of a simple loading screen and also had to disable some plugins (https everywhere and Lastpass autologin) to get into the site.

On mobile it’s a completely different site (actually it’s the same site it just didn’t work well for me on my iPhone 4S or Nexus 7). I tried to stream a recording while at work and got a loading screen for ~5 minutes, 10 seconds of playback, and then more loading.

Luckily, when I complained on Twitter Boxee employees were listening and care. Specifically I was shocked to get a reply from Avner Ronan the CEO and founder of Boxee.

BoxeeTV recordings streaming is worse than YouTube on dial-up

— rothgar (@rothgar) November 2, 2012

;

He quickly replied and we started emailing each other to try and improve my streaming situation. He also helped me get in contact with an engineer to discover the problem with my IR blaster. I have a couple outstanding support requests and I have no doubt that they’ll take care of my needs. In a world of eBay, Paypal, and Amazon, it’s nice to feel like you matter to a company.

The last things with the Boxee website were the Netflix credit was tucked away under settings ->; connected applications. You need to go here to redeem your free 3 months. The code generated for me didn’t work but I opened another support ticket to get that fixed.

And then I found this little gem buried in the settings talking about a free DVR service on the Boxee Box. I have no idea what the restrictions will be on the free service, but I am hopeful that it’ll open the doors for more users.

What’s Missing

As I was using the Boxee TV I was really excited for what it brings to the STB market, but I felt like there were some obvious things that are missing. Of course my ideas probably are not your ideas, but these are things that I think the Boxee TV should be able to do or at least areas they can improve on to add functionallity.

• LAN playback from CIFS/Samba shares The original Boxee Box did a great job at unifying all of my local and internet content. The Boxee TV takes a step backwards in only focusing on content I don’t own. I know there is USB file playback but if I wanted that I could still use my PS3 and put my pictures/videos on an external hard drive. It’s just not a practical thing to do. I’m sure the Boxee team knows about this limitation and are working on it, I just hope it doesn’t come in the form of a DLNA client.
• AirPlay/Miracast support For the brief time I had an Apple TV, the ability to control and send content to the screen was something I never realized I was missing. I would constantly play online video sources from my phone to my TV and it became essential in any new STB I buy (or build).
• Place-shifting live content Because Boxee TV is your gateway for live video content, I don’t know whey the couldn’t do what slingbox does and stream your live TV (not just recordings) to any device anywhere. I’ve always wanted a Slingbox but never wanted to pay the money for a single purpose device. If Boxee TV could do this multitasking it would be an easy sell at $99.
• Third party apps They have to know that their third party ecosystem was one of the biggest compelling reasons to buy a Boxee Box. Starting the ecosystem over from scratch with the Boxee TV was a big mistake for both users and content providers I hope they open the platform again, although I’m not sure they can.
• Universal search Once again, this was a huge selling point of the original Boxee Box and is completely absent from the Boxee TV. The fact that Roku just added this feature the week the Boxee TV came out made the Roku even more compelling.

Wrap-up

I had a hard time figuring out who the Boxee TV was for. I can’t say it’s for HTPC users who have a computer hooked up to their TV streaming all of their local and remote content. It’s not for users who just want live TV because every TV sold in the US today already has an ATSC tuner capable of viewing OTA and unencrypted content. The fact that the Boxee TV only has HDMI video shows that it’s not for people with older TVs because they may not have the right hook-ups to view live TV anyway, and it definitely isn’t for people who have an Xbox 360 or PS3 with more apps and added features (DVD playback, games, etc.). It’s also not for the TV downloaders out there who throw caution to the wind and download all of their shows with torrents/Usenet.

But who does that leave? It leaves people like my parents who don’t want to pay for cable but want a DVR. For my non-gamer gamer friends who don’t watch much TV but would like to turn on a sports game once and a while and make sure they don’t miss The Big Bang Theory. For people who don’t have time or knowledge to manage an HTPC but also aren’t in the Apple ecosystem. Of course any of these people need to have the bandwidth available to upload and download recordings without penalty.

For those people, the Boxee TV is a Godsend. Sure some of the the features may not be fully baked and some services don’t work 100% of the time. But unlimited recordings cannot be taken lightly, and a STB with this much potential is hard to ignore. In many respects, the Boxee TV DVR service can easily replace Hulu Plus without needing to worry about recordings expiring. A Hulu Plus subscription is $8/mo and for only $2 more you can have live TV, place-shifting, and streaming to any browser (not just any device with an app). For some, the Boxee TV is a gateway drug for a mostly extinct platform, the HTPC.

I want to warn you though, you shouldn’t buy it because of what it might be, but because of what it is. If the basic functionality cannot meet your needs, hold off until it does. You can’t guarantee that a feature will exist in 3, 6, or even 9 months. For right now, the Boxee TV has a unique position in the market and I have already found myself recommending it to some friends/family who fit the above criteria.

For my needs, however, it’s not good enough. I will continue to invest in my HTPCs, but will keep a close eye on the Boxee TV and gladly recommend it for anyone I think can benefit from its services.

The post Boxee TV Review appeared first on 1N73RNET.

I’ve been asked a few times why I like jailbreaking so much and I constantly am telling people what apps I use. Just to keep everything in one place. Here are my top apps/tweaks that keep me coming back.
These are listed in alphabetical order
Activator
Activator lets you customize any button push, gesture, etc. into something that makes sense to you. For me there are 4 shortcuts that I use frequently

• Hold volume down (while phone is on) = Compose new tweet
• Hold volume up (while phone is on) = Show contact favorites
• Triple press home button (while phone is on) = Open camera
• Triple press home button (while phone is locked) = Play/Pause

Here’s a quick video I found that shows some of the settings and how it works.

Browser Changer

Allows you to change the default web browser in iOS (Mine is set to Google Chrome)

Chromizer

Adds some gestures to Google Chrome

Data Monitor

Lets me see how much data I have used per day and per month on wifi and 3g connections.

F.lux

Changes the screen hue based on the time of day. You specify what type of lights you use and it automatically adjusts.

Five Icon Dock

This one does exactly what you’d think

FolderEnhancer

Puts folders on steroids and really customizable. This was the 2nd jailbreak app I bought.

iFile

Just a file browser, but if you pay for it you also get Dropbox syncing etc.

NCSettings

Like Android toggles in the notification center.

OneByOne Contacts

Lets you swipe to delete contacts like webOS used to.

PasswordPilot

Automatically enters your App Store password

PdaNet

PdaNet has been around forever and the only way you can get it on your iOS device is with a jailbreak. It’s a one time $15 fee but well worth it if you tether a lot and don’t want to pay the $15/mo charge to the carrier.

Pull To Dismiss

Gets rid of the keyboard when you don’t want it. Easier to explain in the video.

ShowCase

I just found this one and it fixes a HUGE annoyance I’ve always had with iOS. Check out the video.

Silent Rington

Give you a ringtone that doesn’t make any noise (just vibrates). It’s great for an alarm when you don’t want to wake anyone else up.

Siri Toggles

Turn on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc. with Siri. This functionality is built into iOS 6, but I’ve had it in iOS 5 for quite a while.

SmallBanners

Makes the notification banner smaller.

SMS GV Extension

This seamlessly integrates Google Voice into the default SMS app. Here’s the website for more information.

SwipeSelection

Adds gestures to the iOS keyboard that I wish every keyboard had.

SwitcherMod

Allows you to customize some features of the app switcher. I use this to always show the close X on apps.

Switchy

Makes the app switcher 2 rows high and adds other customizations

WiCarrier

Show’s your currently connected wifi network in the status bar. More info at iDownloadBlog

xCon

Hides your jailbreak status for some apps.

The post My Top iOS Jailbreak Apps appeared first on 1N73RNET.

I made this video for a promo Belkin was doing and I wanted to share the recipes I took to make the video in one place. Here are all the recipes in order.

First step is to tag a picture with #movietime in Instagram. This recipe uploads the picture to Facebook.

Next we make a text post on Facebook with a link to the picture.

Now we change our Twitter profile picture and tweet about the movie we are watching.

We also use the same Facebook post to update Tumblr.

Once the Tumblr post has been made we need to log the movie into Evernote.

We also create a calendar event for 2 hours on our Google Calendar.

And finally we turn off the WeMo light because of the Google Calendar event.

The post IFTTT Belkin Video Recipes appeared first on 1N73RNET.

I was on a mission to mount my new over the air (OTA) antenna in my attic, but I didn’t want to spend $50+ for a mount. In order to do it cheaply I recycled an old satellite mount which was left on my roof from the previous home owners. If you don’t have a satellite on your roof like I did, I’m sure you can find a neighbor or friend who does that would gladly give you the mount to take down the eyesore. Here’s what you’ll need to build the mount.

• Antenna
•  Old satellite mount
•  4 15cm (6″) hex bolts
•  8 washers
•  8 nuts
•  10″ punched flat metal strap

Now to put it all together:

1. Take the satellite off the mount

2. Put a washer on each hex bolt and put them on the antenna mount. Just to keep everything together I put a nut on the bolt to hold it to the mount.

3. Cut 2 15cm (6″) straps. I used tin snips

4. Put another washer and nut at the end of the bolt to hold the straps on

Climb into the hot, hot attic and mount the antenna to a 2×4

That’s it. If you need an idea for what to do with your old satellite might I suggest a Halloween costume?

The post Build an Antenna Mount for Less Than $7 appeared first on 1N73RNET.