XBox 360 Extends Windows Media Center To My Living Room

I told you how cool it is to use Windows Media Center and how I can record TV programs. It also lets me view all my photos and listen to my music files. So all that is fine if I want to do it at my computer. Sometimes though, you just want to relax in your living room or den and view or listen to your media there. I could burn a DVD from Windows Media Center and take it to the living room, but don't really want to.

Well, Microsoft offers a really cool solution that I currently use. I bought an XBox 360 and a wireless adapter. With a few simple setup steps, Windows Media Center shows up on my living room TV through the XBox 360. The XB0x 360 functions as a Media Center Extender. The wireless adapter for the XBox connects to my home wireless router.

I also got the XBox 360 Media Center remote which has the familiar Green Button that brings up Windows Media Center. I can watch all my recorded content on my living room TV and just relax. I can also view a photo slideshow or listed to recorded music. This really extends the range of function for Windows Media Center.

And I can play video games! What could be better than that? Anyway, this setup is very sweet. It is much nicer to watch my recorded shows and movies on my widescreen TV in the living room.

Windows Vista and Not So Annoyed

OK, so I told you about some of the things that annoyed me about Windows Vista. Now, it's time to tell you about some of the things I really like. Or at least the biggest thing I like. When my home-built PC was running, I was running Windows Media Center 2005. This was a special version of Windows XP that also contained several programs that allowed Windows XP to operate like a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) or TIVO when a TV card was part of the system.

I really like the DVR capability of my system, so when my home-built PC died, my replacement HP m7750n came with Windows Vista Home Premium and a built-in TV card. Windows Vista Home Premium contains the newer version of Windows Media Center. The guide for the TV schedule is downloaded over the Internet automatically when I boot the system. It stores 14 days of TV schedules matched to my cable channel listing. I just browse the schedule or perform a search, select the program I want recorded, then select record. I don't have to worry about what channel, what time, or anything like that. You can even search based on what actors, what director, keywords, or category.

Last TV season, I recorded Chuck, Heros, Journeyman, and many others. My shows were there ready to watch when I wanted to instead of when the TV programming schedule dictated. Windows Media Center in Vista also lets you view live TV just like TIVO. So, when you watching the game or the latest must see episode and the phone rings, don't worry. Just press pause, take the call, then when you are done, press play and it will pick up right where you left off. You never miss anything. Neat huh! Hey, I even added an additional TV card so I could record one channel and be watching another. With the 2nd TV card, I can also record two shows simultaneously, while playing back a recorded show.

OK, I've told you about TV, but that is not all that Windows Media Center is capable of. You can also download music files or rip CDs into it. Then setup playlists and listen to you music, all neatly stored on your hard drive. You can also burn a playlist to a CD.

And that's not all! Windows Media Center also catalogs all your photos so you can display a slideshow. And there is much, much more to Windows Media Center. You can find out much more at the Windows Media Center Overview. There is even a link to take a test drive over the Internet. Also, I forgot to mention that all the functions of Windows Media Center are controlled by a neat remote control or by the keyboard.

In the next post, I will tell you more about what I do with Windows Media Center. Let me know if you have any questions!

Amazon has Kindle'd a fire

Note: Photo is from Amazon's website.



Prepare to read books on your terms with Amazon's new ebook reader, the Kindle. I've took a look at my fiance's new Kindle and I'm impressed. You say this is a expensive gadget for reading books, why not just continue buying books?

For one, the Kindle introduces the green factor. No more killing trees to satisfy your need to read. All books, magazines, newspapers, and blogs are downloaded into your Kindle in digital form. Now think of all the books you've bought. How much space do they take up? The Kindle's built-in memory can hold hundreds of books. If that is not enough, you can add an SD memory card for more storage. And the Kindle only weighs 10.3 ounces. How much does hundreds of books weigh?

OK, another reason. The Kindle's paper-like screen looks just like a page from a typical book. Now, what if you buy a new bestseller, but realize that you have trouble reading the small typeface. You would have to purchase it again in the large print format. With a book in the Kindle, just use the dedicated font size button to increase or decrease the font size to fit your reading need. No need to purchase anything extra.

Probably the biggest standout feature is the Kindle's whispernet. This is a wireless service much like your cell phone service. It let's you browse Amazon's book selections for the Kindle, purchase them, and download them ready to read in just minutes, all without any monthly service fees. The books, magazines, and blogs you download are immediately available to read. You do not need to hook the Kindle to your personal computer to sync the books. Amazon is continually adding new books to the Kindle selection, so you should be able to find what you are looking for. Say for instance that you are on a business trip and see a book in an airport store that looks interesting. Just pull out your Kindle, browse for the title at Amazon, purchase and download. Now you have the book ready to read on your trip without the bulk of carrying more in your baggage. Most of the books are very reasonable in price. If you subscribe to one of the available newspapers, it will be downloaded to the Kindle overnight so that you have it when you get up in the morning.

You also get a special email address that let's you send your own documents to your Kindle. I'm looking forward to getting my own Kindle someday soon!

Windows Vista and My Early Annoyances

Well, after a long absence, it is time to let you in on what I've been working with. My home-built PC's motherboard died in February 2007, so I decided to just purchase a complete new system. I bought an HP m7750n desktop system with the 19" widescreen display. So far, I have been pleased with the system. It came with Windows Vista Home Premium and I will have to admit, I really wanted to post a blog and rant against Vista. I've since cooled down and the OS updates have solved the annoying problems I first had.

In defense of Microsoft, not all the problems were Microsoft's. Many of the vendors of the older equipment I tried to use with Vista were doing a "wait and see" when it came to providing drivers and console applications for their products. This caused Microsoft to be blasted for being incompatible with most existing equipment.

One example for me is my HP PSC1315 All-in-One printer. It had this neat little console application that allowed me to scan, print, and other things. There was no console program for Vista because HP had not developed one. One did not show up until late Fall 2007. So I could still use the printer to print, but could not scan. The HP support site recommended using the scan feature of Windows Vista, but that feature is only available in the Vista Business and Vista Ultimate versions. My system came with Vista Home Premium. Now that I have the new console program from HP, everything works fine.

Another annoying problem that Vista had was the extremely slow decompress time for unzipping zip files. When I would try to unzip a file with the built-in decompression software, the display would show a blazing 2 bytes per second decompression speed. Even relatively small zip files took days to decompress. I solved this by buying WinZip and associating it as my decompress software. I don't know if this has been fixed in any of the Vista updates.

And my last annoying problem was with a Simpleshare network storage drive. On Windows XP, I could connect to the drive using DNS naming which was neat because I did not have to enter the IP address for the drive to map it into Windows Explorer. Windows Vista did not allow DNS access to the drive at the time because the protocol that Vista used to connect to the drive contained a new layer of security. Sometime along the way with Vista updates, I did get an update that allows me to use the DNS method for connecting to the drive.

Overall though, I would say that my Windows Vista is running well now. It is different! The HP system I bought is not really a big honking processor with gigs of memory, but it still performs well with Vista.

iPod nano 2nd Gen

From my previous post, you can gather that I have an iPod nano 2nd Gen. I bought it last November and just now getting around to writing my review. Before the iPod nano, I was using an RCA Lyra MP3 player which worked good, but I was running out of song capacity and it did not provide playlists.

After much thought, I decided to get the iPod nano. I ordered directly from Apple because I wanted to personalize my nano with a laser etch (see picture). This was pretty neat. I ordered my nano on Thursday and it arrived to me from China on Tuesday. Pretty impressive logistics! I wanted to get an 8G nano just to make sure that I had enough room for my songs, but the 8G unit only came in black at that time, now it also comes in red. I still don't want black or red, so I got a 4G silver nano. The 4G nano will hold about 1,000 songs. I have over 800 songs on my nano right now.

Why did I chose the nano over the regular iPod? Mainly size, weight, and mechanical issues. Although the regular iPod has a much larger capacity (30G vs 4G), the iPod uses a small mechanical disk drive where the nano uses flash memory. The nano has no moving parts to wear out. The nano is also very small and lightweight so I can wear it on a lanyard around my neck. You can also watch video files on the regular iPod which I don't need to do. I just want to listen to my music, making the nano the logical choice. There is also an iPod Shuffle which is similar to the nano in that it is a flash memory based player. The Shuffle is even smaller and lighter than the nano because it does not have the display. The Shuffle also does not have playlists which I wanted.

You get your songs on the nano by performing a sync with iTunes, so I downloaded and installed iTunes, then started ripping my CDs. You can buy songs, audiobooks, and other items from iTunes store and sync them with your nano. I tend not to buy downloadable songs since once they are downloaded, I have to keep up with them. If my hard drive crashes, then so do my songs. So I still buy CDs and rip them into my system. I did buy a couple of audiobooks from iTunes which I loaded up and played. Worked great!

When I rip a CD, I have iTunes set to get the ablum artwork. The artwork gets store in my nano when I sync, so when a song is playing, the album cover is shown in the display. Pretty neat! iTunes also lets me put the lyrics into each song, so with a little web search, then cut & paste, I have the song's lyrics stored on my nono too! While the song is playing, I can select the lyrics display and use the scroll wheel to read the lyrics on the display.

Yes, I like my iPod nano. I have not tried the Microsoft Zune or any of the players from the other vendors, so I can't really give any comparisons. My iPod nano, however, allows me to personalize my music listening and I like that!

Griffin iTrip for 2nd Gen iPod nano

Just picked up a Griffin iTrip for my 2nd Gen iPod nano at BestBuy and took it on a little road trip to Asheville, NC. A very pleasant experience!

This iTrip is a cradle design that the nano slips into. This meant that I had to take my nano out of the silicone skin I had it in and slip it into the iTrip. The nano is then securely connected to the iTrip. No chance of it slipping out.

Setup was easy! The iTrip recommends 87.9 as the default station to tune your FM radio to (I spent about 5 minutes tuning a static station and ended up on 87.9 before even turning the iTrip on, Duh!). You can store up to 3 preset stations in the iTrip so you can change stations when driving through an area with a local station at your setting. Sound output was good and with very little interference (at least on that trip).

There is a mini-USB port on the bottom of the iTrip for supplying power which means for longer trips, I will have to get the Griffin 12V power adapter kit. So, overall, my trip with the iTrip was a pleasant experience.

A Library in the Palm of Your Hand

As I promised, here is another installment on how I use my Sony Clie TJ27 PDA. Another maker of PDAs is Palm, so PDAs are often referred to as a Palm. Palm developed a specification called PalmDoc which is a format for reading text files on a Palm. Many of the classic books have been converted to PalmDoc format and are usually available for free. You can find some of these and other formats at http://www.memoware.com.

Some of the reader formats are proprietary. You buy the reader and buy the books. I have the eReaderPro from http://www.ereader.com on my TJ27. I've purchased several books from eReader.com. So why did I say "a Library in the Palm of Your Hand", because currently here is what I have on my TJ27 in eReader format:

US Constitution
7 Habits of Highly Effective People Workbook
Boundaries
Checklists for Life
First Things First
Getting Everything You Can
Getting Things Done
Principle-Centered Leadership
Poems of Robert Frost
Sun Tzu's Art of War
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
The Jungle Tales of Tarzan
The Little First Aid Book
The Only Negotiating Guide You Will Ever Need
The Swiss Family Robinson
The Ten-Day MBA
The Time Machine
The Wind In The Willows
Write It Down, Make It Happen
Your Intelligence Makeover
Langenscheidts English-German Dictionary
Merriam Websters 11th Collegiate Dictionary
Merriam Webster English-Spanish Dictionary
Aesop's Fables
Agatha Christie - At Bertram's Hotel
Army FM21-76 Survival Manual
Around the World in 80 Days
Declaration of Independence
Jack London's To Build A Fire

The dictionaries are not small abridged versions, but the complete publications. And this list changes from time to time. Obviously, some of these are reference books which are only there for when I need to look something up. But some are for reading. Many would think the small display on a Palm type device would not be suitable for reading. I find it easy to read with. You can adjust the font size to make it more readable. And I find the portablility to be a big plus. I always have something to read if I'm waiting in line.