The Hardware

The HP Mini 311 features an 11.6″ LED HD BrightView widescreen display, Nvidia’s ION gfx chip, a 160GB HHD, 2GB of DDR3 RAM, an HP Broadband Wireless (3G) modem, and 802.11a-n WLAN. The specs on this little machine are impressive, for such a small package. The device, which measures in around 11.5″ x 8″ x 1.25″, features a stylish design with a wide range of ports on both sides. For me, the best thing about the HP Mini 311, is the beautiful high-definition screen, which is paired with the Nvidia ION. The screen on this device is great for watching movies through iTunes, via DVD, or through many of the HD video (non-Flash; more info in the Software section) sites that are on the net today.

The ports on this device are another strong point. On the right side of the device, you have an Ethernet port, VGA, audio out, two USB 2.0 ports and a media card reader. On the left side, you have the security lock, power connector, one USB 2.0 port, and one HDMI out. Yes, you read it right: This netbook features HDMI out, which is an impressive feature for a device in this genre. I tested the HDMI output and was very impressed with the quality.

The Nvidia ION gfx chip and the 11.6″ HD screen are impressive, but there are a few hardware aspects that affected my review in a negative way. First, the touchpad on this device is made of the same material as the rest of the body with no texture difference. I found this very annoying, and I much prefer the textured style touchpad that comes on the unibody MacBook Pro. The second negative I came across with the HP Mini 311 was the keyboard. I found the keys to be to be very cheap feeling, and they wiggle a bit when you touch them.

The Software

The HP Mini 311 comes with Windows 7 Home Premium and all kinds of HP software pre-installed. The software that comes pre-installed on the device is what turned me off from this device completely. First is the HP software products. I don’t know why hardware developers feel the need to fill their machines with horrible clunky software that ruins the usability of the device. When you start up the device, you are prompted with five — yes, five — popups asking you to activate and pay for something, register something, or run something in the background. The HP assistant software that tells you if your computer is “healthy” or not pops up and scans for a few minutes every time you wake the device.

The Verizon Wireless VZAccess Manager, which is the software you use to connect to the Verizon Wireless 3G network, is very bulky and slow-moving. When you open the software, it takes 45 seconds to a minute before you can do anything; then there is another 15 to 30 second wait while it “detects devices”??? While the software does what it is supposed to, it also takes over control of your WiFi connection. My contact described this as a convenient feature, but I found it more annoying and somewhat inconvenient. I would much rather just use Windows 7’s built-in WiFi controller.

Flash performance on the device was not great either. I found Flash video playback from sites like Hulu and HBO GO to be very choppy and unwatchable. I did some research and found that this occurs partly because Flash did a hack job at integrating with the NVIDIA ION chipset. I also think the bulky, memory-hogging HP software played a part in the poor Flash performance.

The Verizon Network

This section is where I have to cut my review short. Halfway through my review of the device, the Verizon 3G network started giving me authentication errors, which hindered my ability to fully review the 3G performance and run speed tests. I reached out to my contact at Verizon, who was unable to assist me with this issue.

Final Thoughts

The HP Mini 311 features a very impressive set of hardware specs for a netbook device. The HD BrightView screen is one of the best I have seen on a laptop computer, and the addition of HDMI is a very welcome component. The software is where this device takes a turn for the worse. The HP pre-installed software is annoying and bogs down the performance of the computer. The VZAccess Manager from Verizon Wireless, is very slow-moving and not the most user-friendly mobile connect software package I have worked with. My final verdict for the HP Mini 311, is SKIP IT!

Have you ever used a Netbook? Which one did you use, and was it a favorable experience?

Unboxing

The Hardware

The Pogoplug in all its pink glory is a pretty slick looking device. One of the complaints people had with the first generation was that it was pretty ugly, and only offered 1 USB port. Well, both of these worries are no more in the second generation of the device. The Pogoplug features 3 x USB 2.0 ports, 1 gigabit ethernet port, and a 100-240v power port on the rear of the device. On the front of the device, you will find 1 additional USB 2.0 port and a status light that will let you know if your Pogoplug is online. It is hard to explain how the device looks just in words, so be sure to checkout the pictures throughout this article. Essentially, the device itself floats on a pink plastic stand, that doubles as a cable management system. While this device looks odd hovering like it does, you will find, that this hover design allows for 360 degree airflow, which keeps the device nice and cool.

my.Pogoplug.com

Maintaining your Pogoplug is easy and is all done from a web interface at http://my.pogoplug.com. When you first login, the website will detect a Pogoplug on your network, and will automatically sync it to your account. If it doesn’t automatically detect it, it will ask you for the unique ID located on the bottom of the device. Once the device is setup, you will see it appear on the website and its contents will appear in a very typical folder thumbnail style. You can browse your files, view them right there on the web, and share them.

My.Pogoplug.com also analyzes your content and organizes it into a series of media folders: i.e. Movies, Photos, Music, Slideshows. As it analyzes your content for the media folders, it also zero’s out any video files and transcodes them for over the website viewing. I found this to be an awesome feature. When I host my entire home media server on my Pogoplug, this functionality will allow me to view all my movies and TV shows from my home media server via the internet when I am away from my home network. The video that is seen through my.Pogoplug.com is the degraded transcoded video, but when you watch video via the Desktop software, you will see the original quality. The transcoded video just makes it website friendly and is show in a typical flash player. I would love to see my.Pogoplug.com take advantage of HTML 5 instead of Flash, but that is just a minor concern.

Desktop Software

The Pogoplug also offers desktop software for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. Essentially what this software does, is allow you to display your Pogoplug drive as a typical attached USB hard drive. You just load the application, login with your my.Pogoplug.com credentials, and up pops your Pogoplug wireless drive in Finder and/or My Computer. The application features a few options: Remember me on this computer, Automatically start Pogoplug drive on login, and enable multi-drive support. Along with those few setup options, you have the option to setup Active Copy which is essentially, a way for you to sync directories on your computer to a directory on your Pogoplug. I found this really handy by sharing my pictures directory, so when I add new pictures, they are automatically available on my Pogoplug for sharing.

One problem I had with the desktop software (Mac Version), is there is no running in the background. You have to have the Pogoplug application fully running and in your dock. I don’t want something that has to be open up all the time sitting on my dock. That is what the status bar is for, and yes there is a status bar icon, but there is no way to close the application and keep it running in the background with just a status bar icon.

Content Sharing

Another great feature of the Pogoplug is the ability to share hosted content. You can select to share any folder on your Pogoplug connect hard drive. Sharing is done through my.Pogoplug.com. They offer a ton of ways to share your content, ranging from emailing a private link, to opening it to the public all together. They also allow you to share content via all the major social networks and via an RSS feed. This is great, because now I can share my entire pictures directory with all my relatives. I can even set it up to notify people when I add new images to the folder.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I am very happy with the Pogoplug and the my.Pogoplug.com website. The ability to connect multiple USB 2.0 hard drives to the device at one time, the transcoding of videos for easy online viewing, and the ability to share content really makes this device a winner in my eye. My only issue with the device is the desktop application. They need to address the running in the background issue and I would like a few more options to control the desktop software and the Pogoplug attached drives, but those are just minor issues compared to all the positives the device offers.

What’s New at ATLChris.com

As many of you know, for the past year, I have been a huge fan and supporter of the Disqus commenting system. The main reason I started using Disqus because I technically didn’t know how to code a kick-ass commenting setup via Wordpress. Well, now that I am professionally developing Wordpress premium themes, I have grown my knowledge of the Wordpress code base, and decided to take it on myself to develop my own custom Wordpress powered comment setup. Well, I am proud to premier my 100% custom Wordpress comment setup TODAY! I hope you all like it. The new comment setup offers threaded replying and jQuery & cookie supported UI interactivity. You can now hide the comment form, the comments themselves, and the trackbacks and pingbacks individually. ATLChris.com will remember what components are show and which are hidden when you return to the site in the future.

One hiccup I have with the new comment setup, is that threading will not display on comments made prior to today. This issue is the result of importing the Disqus comments from the past year in to the Wordpress database. I wish Disqus would offer better exporting tools, but they don’t because they don’t want to make it easy for you to leave. Moving forward though, threading is fully supported!

I have also redesigned the footer that appears at the bottom of every post. The new post footer offers better sharing options, a more professional look, and through the use of Wordpress’ custom fields functionality a better looking disclaimer for donated or loaned product reviews.

I have also worked very hard to rewrite, clean, and optimize my themes code. Along with some visual tweaks to help increase readability and decrease eye strain, I have minified some code and optimized my theme to take better advantage of Wordpress’ built in template tags. I have also optimized my jQuery code to make sure no javascript conflicts occur. What this all means is ATLChris.com will now load faster and run more smoothly. My CSS code is 100% valid CSS 3, and I am working to make my xhtml code 100% valid.

I hope you all like the new changes. My goal for 2010 is to increase my post-per-month average, achieve 30k unique visitors in one month, and try to develop more of a community around the blog through the use of comments and article discussion. Please help me reach my goals by subscribing to my RSS feed, posting comments on my articles, and/or share my articles via Facebook, Twitter, and Digg.

Thanks again everyone for a great 100 posts. I look forward to taking this site to the next level and I hope you all will join me.

Andrew Kippen, a representative of Boxee sent out a press release with some statements to clarify the remarks Mr. Zucker made on C-SPAN. Andrew’s remarks are below.

I’d like to set the record straight regarding Boxee’s access to Hulu. Boxee uses a web browser to access Hulu’s content – just like Firefox or Internet Explorer. Boxee users click on a link to Hulu’s website and the video within that page plays. We don’t “take” the video. We don’t copy it. We don’t put ads on top of it. The video and the ads play like they do on other browsers or on Hulu Desktop. And it certainly is legal to do so.

Above, Mr. Zucker says the original decision was made by Hulu’s management. That is correct, but as Jason Kilar (Hulu’s CEO) wrote in his post, the request came from NBC. “Our content providers requested that we turn off access to our content via the Boxee product, and we are respecting their wishes.”

…

Mr. Zucker says they always said they are open to negotiations. That has not been our experience, but at this point, we will take Mr. Zucker’s offer at face value and will contact him. We are eager to work with both Comcast and NBCU to bring more content on more devices to our users. We believe the Internet represents a great opportunity for content owners and we hope that current artificial barriers put on distribution over the Internet will be taken down.

I can personally vouch for what Andrew said above, Boxee did nothing more than link directly to the Hulu content, including the ads. While it was originally removed, the new Boxee beta has brought back Hulu content. The new method of displaying Hulu content is nothing more than the ingenious use of an internal browser and automatic full screening.

Features

• Complex CMS Functionality.
• Full widget support.
• Support for the post thumbnail functionality built into Wordpress 2.9.
• Custom theme options panel.
• Unlimited color combination’s; fully customizable via the themes options panel.
• Advanced contact form with full customization options.
• jQuery powered image slider.
• Search engine optimized design and code to help you increase search engine rankings.

Screenshots

Purchase

The Simply Business Wordpress theme can be purchased at ThemeForest.net for only $25.00!

I recently had a chance to review the Kodak Zi8 ($179.00 on Amazon) high definition pocket video camera. This camera falls in the same category as the Flip Ultra and Mino HD cameras, which is what I currently own. I was particularly excited to review this camera as it is something I have been in the wall about buying for some time. I currently own a SD Flip Mino, and am ready to upgrade to HD!

Features

The Zi8 boast a wide range of features, some of them are very common in other pocket cameras, and some of them aren’t! The Zi8 offers 5 different capture modes, 1080p, 720p at 60 f/s, 720p at 30 f/s, WVGA, Still Image. All video is shot in a 16:9 widescreen HD format and still images are taken in a 5 MP format. The Zi8 features a 2.5 color LCD, swivel out USB arm, SD/SDHC slot, and external microphone jack, HDMI output, built-in image stabilization and a micro/macro view switch.

A lot of people were excited about the external microphone jack, but I was unable to reviews this feature as I do not own an external microphone. If you would like a review of the external microphone feature, browse over to my buddy, Paul Stamatiou, review of the Zi8. One feature in particular, that I liked is the landscape/macro switch which allows you to focus in on close items if you need to.

Review

The Zi8 is a great camera for the price. The video quality is great, but I did find that the Zi8 has pretty significant issues adapting to low light situations. It performs well in low light, but has a issue switching between non-low light and low light situations as you will see in the example video I embed below. The lack of any internal memory was kind of a let down, but SD memory is getting super cheap these days so I didn’t find this to be a real issue. I do wish though, that at least a 1GB or 2Gb SD card was included in the box. If I bought this retails, it would be a big let down to get home and realize I can’t use it because I have to go back and pick up memory for it. The extra features like the built-in image stabilization, landscape/macro mode, HDMI output, and the external microphone jack are all welcomed features to the pocket camera family, and I found they all to perform well, except the external microphone jack which I didn’t test.

Test Footage

Test Footage courtesy of Paul Stamatiou. Read his review of the Zi8 at his blog: PaulStamatiuo.com.

Final Thoughts

The unit I reviewed was a 2-week loaner which I had to return, so, will I buy the Kodak Zi8? Yes, it is a great pocket video camera that boast a wide arrange of features, so of which are not available on other pocket camera’s. I love my Flip Mino, but it is not high defination. Do I recommend it to you? Yes, if you are on the wall about purchasing the Kodak Zi8, I say go for it, it wont let you down, just remember to pick up a SD/SDHC memory card along with it.

Other Resources

• Paul Stamatiou’s Review
• cNet Review
• Gizmodo’s Review
• Amazon.com – $179.00

Well, today, I am proud to announce that my first theme, Simply (Colorful), is now available for purchase through ThemeForest.net for just $20.00! This is the first of many themes that I will be producing and selling through ThemeForest.net.

Features

• Custom admin options panel.
• Unlimited color combination’s; fully customizable via the theme’s options panel.
• Support for the post thumbnail functionality built into Wordpress 2.9 for all site thumbnails.
• Customizable contact and archives pages all done from options panel.
• jQuery powered featured section and jQuery powered pre & code field expansion.
• RSS reminder to help you increase your subscriber count.
• Search engine optimized design and code to help you increase search engine rankings.

Screenshots

Purchase

Simply (Colorful) can be purchased at ThemeForest.net for only $20.00.

Trash Bin

I am sure it has happened to you before. You accidentally delete an entire post you just typed up. I know I have done it. Well, this is no longer a problem because Wordpress has added trash bin functionality. Now, when you delete something, by default, it will stay in the trash bin for 30 days. You can configure this time frame by adding the following code to your config.php:

define('EMPTY_TRASH_DAYS', 10 );

Image Editor

One of my personal gripes with Wordpress, has always been their media section. While I am still not a fan of the built-in media area, it has been improved slightly in 2.9. Wordpress has added a image editor that will let you make simple changes such as cropping, rotating, scaling, etc. to your uploads. Just click the “Edit Image” button when uploading a new image.

Post Thumbnails

The trend in Wordpress theme design recently has been to add a post thumbnail, or featured image to make your sites layout prettier. In the past, this has been done through the “custom fields” section of Wordpress. Well, with 2.9, they have made it a little easier, with built-in support for what they are calling a “Post Thumbnail.” You must have a theme that supports this functionality for it to be visible on the edit post screen. You can add support to your theme by adding the following code to your theme’s function.php

add_theme_support('post-thumbnails')

Once you have enabled it, insert the following code where you would like your post thumbnail to appear on your site:

the_post_thumbnail('thumbnail');

oEmbed

Also new in Wordpress 2.9 is oEmbed which is new video embedding support. It allows you to embed a video from Wordpress’ whitelist of sites by simply entering the URL of the video on it own line. The supported sites are: YouTube, Vimeo, DailyMotion, blip.tv, Flickr (both videos and images), Viddler, Hulu, Qik, Revision3, Scribd, Photobucket, PollDaddy, Google Video, WordPress.tv (only VideoPress-type videos for the time being)

Batch Plugin Upgrading

This is a minor one, but defiantly a welcomed addition. On the plugins page, you new have the option to select which plugins to upgrade, or upgrade all available. You can find this feature under Tools > Upgrade.

Should You Upgrade?

There are a bunch of other new features and bug fixes that I wont get into, but I will say, if your are on Wordpress, make sure you upgrade. Wordpress 2.9 is a solid upgrade and I recommend it for everyone.

The Motorola Droid, is a beautiful phone, it has some great features that I love, but it also has a handful of negatives. The first great feature I love, is the integration of first-party apps with the phone itself, and the ability to run apps in the background. Ones of the worst parts of the iPhone is the limitations on applications. I wish I could accept a phone call while my GPS application keeps running in the background. Another great feature to the Motorola Droid, is the Google Navigation application. This GPS app works great, it lacks some of the common features found in other GPS applications, but the positives defiantly outweigh the negatives. If this app is released on the iPhone, it will instantly become my main GPS navigation application. I also very much enjoyed the ability to mount the device as a mass storage device on my Mac. This allows me to drag over all kinds of content on to the phone. The combination of third party players and the ability to mount the device allows me to view tons of different types of video content, and not be limited to what Google or Motorola says is ok. The final positive to the device, is the screen, this screen on the Motorola Droid is beautiful, it put all other mobile screens to shame (Yes, even the iPhone!) The combination of brightness and high resolution, really makes for a pleasant experience when using the phone.

The negatives of the device are both hardware and software related. First, is the quality of the Android Market and the third-party apps that are available. Yes, I know it is newer than the iPhone and the iTunes app store, I am just saying, developers don’t need to port apps over to Android, they need to focus on developing for Android. I ultimately think the limitations of the iTunes App Store are what will eventually lead to the end of the iPhones reign over the entire mobile phone industry. The second major negative is the physical keyboard. The physical keyboard on this device was not designed well at all, the keys are to flat and are not comfortable on your fingers. I found my typing to be more accurate on the virtual keyboard than the physical keyboard. The final negative I want to touch on, is the Verizon Network. Yes, Verizon has a ton of 3G coverage, but did you also know, that you can’t use the data connection if you are on a phone call, or vice-vers-a. That is a horrible limitation. CDMA (Verizons Network) is an older technology than GSM (AT&T,) and it has a bunch of nasty limitations. Did you also know, that a Verizon (CDMA) phone will not work internationally? With GSM networks, all you have to do is change out your SIM card and you can be up and running on another network internationally.

Overall, the Motorola Droid is a nice phone, it has some great positives but also has a bunch of negatives. For now, I will be staying with the iPhone. If the Droid fixed the keyboard and the third-party-apps became a bit more advanced, I would highly consider switching, but for now I am happy. If you need to be on the Verizon Network, the Droid is defiantly the phone to go with, but if you have network freedom, I still recommend the iPhone 3GS as the phone to get.

This article is Part 4 of my full series of reviews of the Motorola Droid. Below are links to the other parts of the Motorola Droid Review:

• Part 1: iTunes App Store vs. Android Market
• Part 2: Motorola Droid Review: The Hardware
• Part 3: Motorola Droid Review: The Software
• Part 4: Motorola Droid Review: Summary