Spotify

Spotify Pricing Plans

Ubuntu 11.04

Here's a brief screencast that I did going through some of the basic features of the newest Ubuntu release (Natty Narwal).

Overall, I feel that this is the most accessible linux distribution for the Mac and Windows set. It comes bundled with a great productivity suite that is compatible with the MS Office suite, offering enough functionality for all but the most discerning Office power user. Evolution e-mail is the equivalent to MS Outlook, and other than the somewhat spartan look, it offers up a majority of Outlooks features. I like my Outlook add-ins (like Evernote), but probably not a big deal for most users if your looking for a highly functional mail client. Here's a link to a bit more info regarding LibreOffice.

Ubuntu also integrates socially with an excellent chat client (Empathy) as well as a social broadcasting client for Twitter. In particular, I like the notification system employed by Ubuntu. I find it to be a more elegant solution than many of the Windows clients.

The aspect of this latest release that seems to be the most divisive is the Unity user interface. Mac and Windows users will feel right at home using this, although a quick search through any of the forums will show that it is either loved or hated.

Overall, if you are looking to give something new a try, or you are looking to extend your hardware's lifecycle a bit, give Ubuntu a shot. It's easy to install, fairly lightweight, boots quickly, and offers a robust set of features. The only (minor) downside is that while there are access to many great programs (free and paid), if you really need to run a Windows program, there is some extra effort required. When my windows 7 laptop draws near the end of it's lifecycle, I plan on installing Ubuntu and giving it to my Mother, who has been using an Ubuntu netbook that I built for her for a few years.

• Overall: B+
• Ease of Use: A
• Features: B

Angry Birds Chrome

Is it so wrong to love Angry Birds on a 23in touchscreen? Angry Birds Chrome

Google Music Beta

It's been a few days since I got my invite, and I've had enough of a chance to make a general first impression of Google's Music Beta Service.

After receiving the invite while I was away on business, I promptly followed the instructions and downloaded the Music manager while at the hotel. After installation, it told me that I had > 1000 songs and began uploading them to the cloud. I left my laptop running overnight and voila, the upload was finished before I left for work in the morning. So far, great stuff. The UI is simple and easy to navigate (see pics below). I also downloaded the app for the phone and was promptly able to start streaming a playlist that I had created with no issues whatsoever. The UI on the phone app could be a bit more intuitive, but that's a matter of taste and space constraints. I'd also like to see the instant mix feature improved a bit. If you take a look at the picture below, you can kind of see the "odd" mix it created. Kudos for the feature. Hopefully it will improve as we move out of beta. Also, as an IE9 user, if they could make it more usable as a pinned page, it would be nice. Speaking of pinning, the ability to pin songs and make them available offline is definitely a welcome feature.

Upon returning home, I repeated the same process on my home PC. Here's where the service starts to earn it's "beta" tag. I repeated the same steps that I had taken for the laptop, and my library was uploaded in a few hours. The first thing that I noticed was that if there were duplicate songs on both machines, they were uploaded twice. In some cases, they loaded under the same album, but in some instances, a new album was created. This typically happens when there is a mismatch in the metadata, and can be easily corrected by editing the metadata. This isn't really the greatest user experience, but this is part of the problem when you use multiple methods to get content on to your machines as opposed to a single method like iTunes. I had ripped older CD's using Windows Media Player, newer content was purchased and managed through Rhapsody. Also, what I noticed, was that my older content had been ripped at such a low bit rate, that it was almost un-listenable. Most of this content was purchased when my media player was a 512MB Creative USB media Player stick. What a long way we've come!

When I re-ripped all of my older content at 320kb/s (Google plays at a max bit rate of 320 kb/s), the Music Manager re-imported all of these songs. After severl hours of "cleaning up" my content on the machines, in Rhapsody, and in Music Beta, I've been trouble free ever since. Again,I don't truly think this is a Google issue. This would have been a much smoother experience is I had been a better organized keeper of my content. I probably should have done this clean-up when I purchased my desktop.

That being said, they could probably provide tools to help improve the experience, since this is supposed to create a single repository for your content. Maybe when we come out of Beta? The biggest issue I see is that they have no way to purchase new content. That is a MAJOR roadblock on the path to becoming a mainstream service. Only time will tell if they can move past that hurdle. Maybe Google Music "Powered by Rhapsody"? I can dream can't I?

Overall, I like the service, but it's inability to purhase new content from within the service is really holding it back. I'll be following as it evolves.

• Set-up: B
• Interface: B+
• Overall: C

Ubuntu 11.04

Finally got Ubuntu running on my desktop, and I have to say, it runs great. It also supports touch :)

I'll get a screencast up as soon as possible.

Docks

If you're anything like me, I've had Mac dock envy for ages. Then, my Dell came pre-loaded with the "Dell Dock". It didn't really have the same feature set as a Mac dock, but it was a fairly elegant way to organize your desktop.

The Dell Dock doesn't have all of the functionality offered by the taskbar (some would argue that the Mac's dock doesn't either), but I don't think it really needs to.

As for how the Taskbar stacks up against the Mac dock, I don't use a Mac enough to see enough of a difference to complain about. The biggest drawback with the Dell Dock is that it can only be installed on a Dell (duh). Not good news for my HP PC.

That being said, I finally found a free solution that I like as much as the Dell Dock...Rocketdock. With the addition the stacks docklet, it's almost identical to the Dell Dock. It may be a little bit of a pain to set up, but it meets my criteria (free and offering the same functionality as Dell Dock).The dock and info for the stacks docklet can be found here.

Seagate GoFlex Home review.

OK. I've centered my digital life around a desktop. I've even managed some basic content management across machines with the help of some batch files and the cloud. Now it was time to add some NAS. I went with the Seagate GoFlex Home 1TB.

Set up was relatively easy in the sense that my machine recognized the NAS immediately. It also installed the Memeo crapware immediately. Memeo uses an active backup that runs in the background to backup your PC. I was unable to launch the Seagate dashboard referenced in the instructions. It didn't really matter, since I had intended to use Windows 7 backup anyhow. I was still able to access the NAS from the web interface, which is more my cup of tea.I like the web interface, as it allows streaming on the home network and access to the drive when not on the home network.

Which brings me to my next issue. Aside from the crapware, the Windows backup to the drive kept failing at about 90%. After calling Seagate support and being told that they don't support Windows backup and that I needed to use Memeo, a little Googling yielded the results I was looking for. It appeared to be a permissions issue, which was remedied by logging on to the Seagate as a root user (the Seagate runs linux)via Putty. The article that pointed me in the right direction can be found here. One I followed the steps presented by one of the posters, backups are working flawlessly. This is a major issue to me. Why do I need to root my NAS in order to backup the way that I want to?

• Overall : C+
• Hardware: A
• Software: F
• Suitability for intended use: C+

My new obsession with something old

Now that I have centralized my digital life on to a desktop, there are a few issues that came up. Like how to manage content across a desktop, two laptops, a smartphone, and pmp's.

There are current cloud based solutions, like dropbox and sugarsync, but unless you plan on paying, it's unlikely that they will handle all of your needs. Neither will Skydrive. Homegroup may give me access to files on other PC's while on the home network, but that does nothing for me when I'm not home.

My solution has three parts, taking a little bit of old with some new. For work releated items, I use Windows Live Mesh. Because I love me some Office, I take full advantage of Office Web Apps. I just set up the sync in Mesh, and I'm all set. With a current limit of 5GB, I felt the need to split out my solution. If they had more space available, this would probably be my only solution.

For *some* pictures and video, I use dropbox. I put all of my baby pictures, cake snapshots (for my Wife's business), phone snapshots, and phone video into my dropbox folder. Dropbox is great, and I have it installed on every PC/Laptop (including my Ubuntu and XP VM's).

Finally - Pictures and Music. Easily my two largest libraries at around 60GB, this is where I am still in flux. I use Rhapsody, so I can stream on all my devices without issue, and I can download items to any machine as needed for offline playback. The issue is syncing previously purchased content across machines. This is the promise of iTunes in the cloud and Google Music. I'm sure that iTunes will be flawless right out of the gate (other than the fact that it's iTunes) and I'm still waiting on my invite to Google Music. There is also Amazon's cloud player. I really wish that Rhapsody would get on this bandwagon, but with rumored FB integration coming, maybe they don't feel the need.

I basically created several batch files to move my files around as needed. I scheduled the batch files to run with Windows Task Scheduler. For example, every day, a batch file runs that copies media moved from my HTC EVO into a folder up into the standard Windows pictures and videos libraries. This runs on all laptops and the PC. Every Fiday at 5:00, another scheduled batch file copies my libraries from all laptops and PC's to my GoFlex Home. It's like a dropbox folder, except done the (really) old fashioned way ;) As soon as a single provider can fire up an elegant, cross-platform solution (editing all doc tyes, streaming of images and music), I'll be the first to hop on board. Automating this is why I am re-obsessed with my .bat's all over again. Sample below.I used quotes in my folder path because some folder names have spaces. For help with any of the batch commands, open a cmd prompt, type the command, and then "/?". Hit enter.

rem sample copy/move script
move /Y "C:\from folder path\*.jpg" "C:\to folder path\folder"
move /Y "C:\from folder path\*.3gp" "C:\to folder path\folder"
xcopy "C:\from folder path" "C:\path to dropbox folder" /S /E /Y
if exist z: (
xcopy C:\Users\XXXX\Music Z:\Music /S /E /Y
xcopy C:\Users\XXXX\Pictures Z:\Pictures /S /E /Y
xcopy C:\Users\XXXX\Videos Z:\Videos /S /E /Y
) else (
echo Backup drive not found
pause
)

HP Touchsmart 600-1390

I bought this giant slab of PC as an open box special. I'm not sure I would pay full price for an all-in-one, because they aren't as upgradeable as the more tradiotional PC form factors. Specs here.

All of that being said, I think this is a great looking PC. The I really enjoy the form factor. Some may argue that it is an aging desing (it is), but I actually prefer it to the newer design of the 610 series. Some may argue that the 610 is more ergonomic with it's swivel stand that lets you bring the screen almost flat when needed, but for me that's just not how I work with the machine.

The sleek minimalist design and discreet soundbar are really pleasant to look at. And the soundbar produces lovely sound. I have it paired with a set of Bose Companion 3 Series II PC speakers, and the sound is great. The little touches, such as the backlight (above the soundbar) are appreciated. The monitor itself is great. With great colors, sharp and clear pictures, and great viewing angles, it's like a 3rd flat screen.

The included wireless mouse is strictly average in form, but built well. As for the wireless keyboard, it's a sleek modern affair, but it is the best keyboard that I have used (disclaimer - I'm not a gamer, and I type like a 5 year old). It's just got a really nice tactile feel that works for me.

For now, the touchscreen is more gimmick than feature in a lot of ways. While Windows 7 supports touch, it wasn't really built with a "touch first" mentality". So for now, you have settle for layers like HP's Touchsmart on top of Windows. I'm pretty sure that this will change when Windows 8 (or whatever it is eventually called) rolls out. I've heard that there are leaked pre-betas out, but as soon as the public beta is out, I'll give it a try. In the meantime, Touchsmart will have to do :)

That's not to totally dismiss HP's Touchsmart software, it's just that it really doesn't live up to the promise of the fast and fluid touch experience we are used to on our Android and iDevices. There are hits: the recipe app (worthy of it's own review), the note app, and the painting app come to mind. But overall, the apps built for touch on the PC need to mature. For example, the Touchsmart Facebook app cannot even connect to Facebook. And the Rhapsody app requires that you have the premier account with up to 3 mobile authorizations, as the Touchsmart app is considered as a device. Boo.

Getting back to setting up a digital hub for myself, this machine is perfect. Once I moved over my digital libraries and set up my Homegroup, I was off to the races. With 1TB on board, plus another 1.5 TB of NAS, this machine has taken everything that I have thrown at it without skipping a beat. Everything streams flawlessly. And with it's mid to higher end hardware, this will serve as my digital hub for a long time to come.

• Overall : B+
• Hardware: A
• Software: B
• Suitability for intended use: A

Upcoming reviews

As soon as I get a chance to breathe, I'll have write-up's for the following:

• SeaGate GoFlex Home 1TB
• HP Touchsmart 600-1390

HP Touchsmart 600 - 1390

Ahh a good sale. Everyone loves one, myself included. For years I have had this niggling little voice in the back of my head. It was telling me that I needed a hub. Not a hub in the networking sense....but more like a hub to my digital life.

Which brings me to the sale. Microcenter had 40% off on an open box special for a HP Touchsmart 600-1390.Sold!

Once I've got everything set up, I'll write it up :)