MobiMadness

Slingbox Solo – Nightmare on DishNetwork St.

Daniel Black — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 14:09:25 +0000

I’ve been salivating over the Slingbox devices for quite some time now and yesterday I took the plunge. If you aren?t familiar with Slingbox, well they are a company that makes a device that you connect to your cable or Direct TV satellite receiver and it transmits the show to any PC on the web and even to some mobile devices such as the iPhone, iPod, Android and Windows 7.

To start off with I really like the look of the actual Slingbox device. I found that it goes well with my other black devices on top of the widescreen. From the box picture I expected it to be much bigger, but in actuality it’s not any bigger than it has to be.

The first part of the installation was fairly straightforward. By “the first part” I mean the simple act of plugging it in to my Dishnetwork VIP722 DVR and the wall. Now here comes the first major hurdle you have to jump when it comes to the SlingBox. How to get it on your network. Sure if you live in an apartment then your router/wireless access point is probably close enough to run a cable to the back of the Slingbox, but if you live in a two story house then you can forget about the whole direct cable thing. I say cable because wireless isn’t built in which I think is a major oversight on the part of Slingbox. Luckily for me, I put together a wireless bridge using an old Cisco Wireless Router and some hacked code from the internet. So after plugging it into my hacked router/bridge hybrid I went upstairs to my nerddom and setup a new account on Slingbox.com. You have to do this so you can view the box from the internet from anywhere and it was fairly easy as easy goes. I did a test view and watching TV through the Slingbox web interface, which routes through Slingbox.com is ok. Not fantastic, just ok.

I then downloaded the desktop software which was supposed to hook directly to my Slingbox device using my local network. Sure it seemed to install and find it quickly enough, but honestly I didn’t see a marked improvement of quality. One note to mention at this point. If you are thinking you will be watching TV full screen on your 22″ LCD computer monitor then think again. The bigger the picture the more bandwidth you need and even though I have a monster network pipe here at the office, the picture didn’t look very good once I got past having it take up about 1/4 of the screen.

Now comes the nightmare part. This thing is out of control, literally. I have the Dishnetwork VIP722 DVR and I love it like it was my 4th child. Honestly if you don’t have a DVR to record, pause, and replay recorded shows, then you aren’t living. That having been said, the new addition to the family, the Slingbox, doesn’t like my DVR. I will go a step further, it hates my DVR! Specifically when it comes to controlling it. The Slingbox software comes with a really neat control that automatically downloaded and mimics the actual controller that I use with my DVR. The problem is that when you click on the virtual controller nothing happens and I mean NOTHING. Why? Because TV1 on the DVR is controlled by IR (infared) and TV2 is controlled by UHF (ultra high frequency) which means the little IR adapter sent with the Slingbox is completely useless. So I figured this must be some sort of mistake right, Slingbox has a fix. WRONG! Calling them was a complete waste of time and their only advise was to call DishNetwork. So I called DishNetwork and their answer was to go to RadioShack. And yes, I’m completely serious. I spent 20 minutes setting up the Slingbox and another 5 hours trying to find a solution for this nightmare. Since both Slingbox and DishNetwork proved to be equally useless, I turned to the internet and found other controllerless souls echoing my frustration. It seems DishNetwork used to make a solution and for some unknown reason quit making them. I’m speaking of the TV2 IR to UHF converter with the words “DishNetwork” stamped on it. Well I finally found a company that says they sell them still and I’m having one sent over. As a note this “solution” cost me another $48 which just added fuel to my pissed off fire. I will update this post when it arrives.

What makes matters worse is that Sling Media the makers of the Slingbox are now owned by DishNetwork. And yet they let this sort of issue go on without addressing it?

No related posts.

iPhone Jailbreak PDF Patch via Cydia

Daniel Black — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 17:43:57 +0000

Are you one of those iPhone owners that likes the additional functionality that jailbreaking it allows? Well recently this has been made much easier through and exploit with PDF handling. Apple quickly released a fix, but if you have a jailbroken phone and attempt to load this, it will effectively eliminate the jailbreaking. Now thanks to the good folks at Cydia, you can plug the hole without falling under the hammer of Steve Jobs and Apple’s draconian controls. Just open Cydia and search for “PDF Patch”. A few seconds later and a restart and your secure again. Enjoy!

MobiMadness Blocks Traffic from China

Daniel Black — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:55:02 +0000

Unfortunately the high volume of hack attempts originating from China has forced us to block all access from the country. This bad behavior has gone on for several years and now we have taken steps to eliminate the threat. According to several articles on the internet (http://www.china-defense-mashup.com/?p=5728) there is growing evidence that the government of China not only turns a blind eye to this conduct, but may in some cases be supporting it. This also is unacceptable and if you also host any sort of web site, I strongly encourage you to blacklist them as well. For a complete listing of IPs originating in China, visit http://www.ipdeny.com.

Firefighter Review of OtterBox Defender Case for iPad

Daniel Black — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 21:38:37 +0000

We were recently sent an OtterBox Defender series case for the Apple iPad and I gave it to a local Firefighter to review. Below was his feedback regarding the case.

Hi Daniel,

Nice to meet you the other day. I have had my Otter Box Defender for a week now and love it. I am a Firefighter and bring my I Pad to work regularly. The Defender keeps my baby nice and safe. The defender is streamline yet rugged enough to take a beating and still protect my I Pad. Now I will definitely take my I Pad on calls as resource because of how well it is protected. The weight of the Otter Box Defender is a non-issue and a small tradeoff for protection. The ports are easy to access and the Defender acts as an I Pad stand. I have had people comment about how good it looks. It really finishes off the I Pad look. I would rate this 5 out of 5. Thanks so much for turning me on to such a great product. You can use and edit this testimonial as you wish.

John Richitelli
Sent from my iPad

Special thanks to John for the excellent review!

BlackBerry Torch More Like a Smoldering Match

Daniel Black — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:48:23 +0000

** 08/18/10 ** Update: Wow I thought my assessment was harsh, but Mark Raby at Tom’s Guide just threw a bucket of water on the Torch. Read it here: http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Blackberry-Torch,review-1573.html

Research in Motions latest addition to the BlackBerry family the Torch was recently announced and before it’s even released I’m going to do a bad thing, I’m going to bash it. Why you might ask? Simple, RIM had a shot here to actually revamp a brand that was already sinking faster than the Titanic and yet the Torch is a complete swing and a miss.

Battery life was one of the gems of the BlackBerry line and yet the reported talk time of 5.5 hours of the Torch is even less than the power monger iPhone 4 at 7.0 hours.

The screen is another disappointment. Why in the world would RIM use a screen with a resolution of 480×360 on the new phone, when most new phones have 3 times that number of pixels? Simple, the outdated operating system that resembles DOS, probably works best at this resolution, which leads me to the last nail in the Torch coffin, the operating system.

Sure the Torch is supposed to come with the fancy new OS 6, but let’s be honest here. It’s just a glorified version of it’s antiquated black and white screen from the past. Seriously the BlackBerry screens remind me of the days of Wyse Terminals that were all green. Sure some things are cool when they are retro, but a phone screen?

Then, as if you might have forgotten, do you remember the last two dismal attempts at a touch screen on a BlackBerry? The Storm and it’s even more fail big brother the Storm 2, have left us shuddering at the memory of these poor attempts at an “iPhone Killer”.

Dan Frommer over at Business Insider, has actually had his mits on one and called it, “clunky”.

OK, the sentimental part of me that used to be tied to my BlackBerry wants this to be a great phone guys and gals, but from what I’ve read it will likely be the final hooray of a dying brand and company.

Research in Motion Takes First Step Toward New Browser for BlackBerry

OtterBox like Body Armor for iPad

Daniel Black — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 03:12:54 +0000

You wouldn’t think of going into combat without body armor, so why would you put a cheap flimsy case on your iPad? The simple answer is don’t! The folks at OtterBox were kind enough to send us two of their brand new line of cases for the Apple iPad, the Commuter and the Defender series. We have demoed other OtterBox cases in the past, namely for the iPhone and BlackBerry smartphones and in fact I still have my beloved iPhone wrapped in its protective Defender series OtterBox case, so my expectations were high.

The two cases both offer excellent protection from the common hazards one might expect from a portable device like the iPad. Of the two, the Defender series is by far the ultimate in protection for your iPad. The Defender series has a hard inner shell that get wrapped with a rubber outer shell to form an impact and spill resistant barrier. It even goes a step further with a hard plastic cover that doubles as a stand for the iPad when in use. The only downside is that the Defender case does increase the overall weight of the iPad but with this sort of protection that is to be expected. I would say that this case is perfectly suited for any person in a job that involves hard day-to-day usage, such as a Firefighter, Police Officer, Military, etc.

The Commuter series case also offers excellent protection, but just not as robust and does not come with the snap on cover to protect the screen of the iPad. It is also about half as heavy as the Defender series.

Both cases are over engineered which is typical for the OtterBox line of cases. What I mean by this, is that the cases are well made and fit together perfectly with whatever device they were made for. The iPad cases are a breeze to install and really help protect the iPad from common everyday accidents or scratches, which gives you peace of mind with carrying it around.

Another interesting fact about the OtterBox cases is that they are both black in color and this really enhances the look of the iPad on the screen side. It’s hard to explain but it just makes the screen, which is already really good, just that much nice to view.

The price for the OtterBox cases are very reasonable considering cases that offer a lot less protection are going for about half the cost of an OtterBox one.

I highly recommend the OtterBox Commuter and Defender series cases for anyone who is serious about protecting their iPad.

MobiMadness Shifts Focus

Daniel Black — Tue, 25 May 2010 05:05:41 +0000

This may come as a huge surprise to my faithful followers, but I have made the decision to shift our focus here at MobiMadness away from the BlackBerry platform and instead write about news and reviews that pertain to all the latest type of smartphones, with an emphasis on Droid and iPhone.

We will however continue to support all of our games and themes for the BlackBerry, but we have no plans to develop on the BlackBerry platform going forward.

Warm Regards,
Daniel Black
President/CEO
MobiMadness, Inc.

BlackBerry SuperStore Arrives!

Daniel Black — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 13:55:16 +0000

Today MobiHand released a vastly improved version of their native appstore for BlackBerry. They call this new store design a “Superstore” because it’s essentially four stores in one. Within the Superstore there are dedicated stores for apps, games, themes, and accessories. With a single click, customers can enter their store of choice and see deal-of-the-day, bestsellers, specials, new products, browse by category, and search. So, for example, great themes no longer compete with apps and games for the customers attention. Now it’s even easier for Customers to discover and compare similar products while developers increase their opportunity for appearing in top-seller lists, which are a huge driver of sales.

And every product that appears in each store is compatible with the customers phone. We’ve also added, for each product type, a new “top grossing” product list – so higher-priced products that sell relatively fewer units can earn a spot on the top-sellers lists.

In addition to the new store design, we’ve greatly improved the store performance to speed page downloads and responsiveness.

To celebrate the Superstore grand opening, MobiHand is giving away a 32GB Wi-Fi Apple iPad, 5 Blueant V1 Bluetooth Headsets, or one of 25 copies each of BerryBuzz, Druglord Wars, and iBerry – all top-selling apps. The contest runs from Tue, March 30 through Mon, April 5 at 12:00pm CST.

There are two ways for users to enter the contest:

First, you can visit: http://store.mobimadness.com/appstore and download the Superstore.

Note: For users to participate in the giveaway they must utilize the email option on that page.

Second, we’d also like to create some Twitter buzz about the new superstore. So, if you’ll retweet the following on your Twitter account, you will be entered as well.

@MobiMadness celebrates BlackBerry Superstore #storelaunch. Win an iPad + more. Details at http://bit.ly/a5brb8. RT to enter.

In addition, from now until April 5, all software purchases (apps, games, and themes) are 20% off in either version (browser or native) of the Superstore. Customers just need to enter coupon code, “super” during checkout.

LinkedIn for BlackBerry Arrives

Daniel Black — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 13:38:39 +0000

Only 18 short months after the LinkedIn app was released for the iPhone it is now available for the BlackBerry smartphone as well. The reason for the delay, as reported by LinkedIn, was so they could perfect the integration with the BlackBerry functions, specifically Calendar, Contacts, and Email.

LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. As of 11 February 2010 , LinkedIn had more than 60 million registered users, spanning more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.

The app is free and you can find out more by going to http://www.linkedin.com/blackberry

As a note, you must have at least OS 4.3 on your BlackBerry smartphone, but will need OS 4.6 for full integration of LinkedIn.

BlackBerry Tour Lego Style

Daniel Black — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:33:21 +0000

If you haven’t seen this one yet, Engadget is reporting that Lego artist Nathan Sawaya was commissioned to produce a giant BlackBerry Tour made out of Legos. Add in the fact that it has a working screen and the cool factor is doubled.

[source: Engadget]