Sprenzy Shopping Blog

In the last two months, I’ve traveled to the UK and Italy. I’m going across the pond again to Switzerland in a couple of weeks. Before each trip, I search for the appropriate plug adapter. I have a drawer filled with random adapters and other cables. Many years ago, I purchased a universal adapter but it’s big and bulky. And the outlets in Europe always seem to be in difficult to reach places, making it hard to plug in a big adapter.

Fortunately, I stumbled upon a compact and lightweight adapter, the APC Universal Plug Adapter. It’s small (1.02” x 1.96” x 4.21”) and is stored flat, which makes it easy to pack. So the next time you travel abroad, ditch the bulky adapter kit and travel lightly with the APC Universal Plug Adapter.

 

Wired magazine recently released their 2006 gear and gadgets guide with the reviews available online for the first time. I’m a big fan of Wired and always enjoy reading the gear guide issue. The last paragraph of the editor’s note is quite amusing.

“Sure, there are other gear mags, but many of them don’t spend any hands-on time with the products they write about. In our world, that’s a catalog, not a guide. At Wired Test, we used everything we rated. If we say a product sucks, it does. And if we say it’s amazing, it is.”

This year, the gear guide has over 300 product reviews across 11 categories. The ”Best of Test” in each category are:

• Mobile Phones - Motorola Q

• Digicams - Pentax K100D

• Videocams - Canon HV10

• Televisions - Sony TAV-L1

• Video Gear - Tivo Series3

• Portable Audio - Toshiba Gibabeat MES30VW

• Home Audio - Tivoli Audio Music System

• Household - Black & Decker Infrawave Speed Oven

• Laptops - Apple Macbook Pro 15-Inch

• Gaming Gear - Nintendo Wii

• Automotive - Lexus GS 450H

I own the Motorola Q and it’s perfect for my needs. I’ve been longing for the Tivo Series3, but I’m still waiting for the price to drop. There isn’t enough HD programming currently (I’m a Comcast customer) to justify the $700+ price tag.

The gadget on the Best of Test list that intrigues me the most is the Black & Decker Infrawave Speed Oven. I actually own another infrared oven, the Flavorwave Oven. And believe it or not, it works pretty well. I’ve roasted chickens, made prime rib and bbq ribs in the Flavorwave, and it produces good food in half the time of a conventional oven. I still prefer using a normal oven but if you are time constrained, an infrared oven will definitely save some time.

Getting back to the B&D Infrawave Speed Oven, I like the toaster oven form factor, which makes it more versatile than a Flavorwave Oven. The idea of heating up leftovers in half the time of a normal oven without the microwave soggy food issue sounds very appealing. I think I’m going to retire my toaster and replace it with a Black & Decker Infrawave Speed Oven. Sorry toaster, but I don’t eat enough toast to warrant your counter space.

I’ve noticed a lot of Slingbox and SlingPlayer Mobile television commercials over the last several weeks. So I’ll add my two cents on the Slingbox. What exactly is a Slingbox? Well, a Slingbox allows you to placeshift your TV signal. A simpler answer is a Slingbox allows you to watch and control your TV from anywhere. Anywhere there is a Windows PC (Mac support coming soon) and a broadband connection.

Here are a couple of good reviews I found that go into the details of setting up a Slingbox and its pros and cons.

• Techlore.com review
• PC Magazine review
• Digital Trends review

The reviews were written last June when the Slingbox first debuted but I think they are still useful.  Since last year’s release, the folks at Sling Media have released a couple of software and firmware upgrades that have improved the Slingbox video quality. More importantly, Slingbox prices have dropped below $175, and you can get it at Amazon.com for $160.

The diagram above is a simple network diagram, which shows where the Slingbox sits on your network. As long as you have a TV source (cable box, DVR, satellite box, TV, etc.) that can be controlled via an infrared (IR) signal, a broadband internet connection and a Windows PC, you’ll be able to watch and control your TV from any location. Setup is quick and easy as explained in the reviews above.

The Slingbox is a very cool device that allows you to watch TV in another room in your house, at work or while your traveling. I think it’s great if you are traveling and can’t get a certain channel. For example, if you are on safari in the Serengeti the month the World Cup is on, you won’t miss the matches if you have a laptop and a high speed internet (HSI) connection. Good luck finding an HSI in Tanzania and if you are on safari you should be trying to find and watch the big 5 (lion, elephant, Cape buffalo, black rhino and the leopard) but in theory a Slingbox would allow you to watch the soccer matches at night.

 Before you purchase a Slingbox, there a few things you should consider.

• TV source IR code support - make sure the Slingbox supports your source’s IR code. Most devices are supported.

• A universal plug and play (UPnP) router - check to see if your router supports UPnP, which makes set up easier if you are not comfortable with router configuration. If your router is non-UPnP, you can configure it yourself if it has port-forwarding. I prefer using port-forwarding so I can set my own Slingbox port rather than using the default port.

• Good upstream bit rate for remote viewing- depending on the type of programming you watch, you want to check the upstream/upload bit rate at your home. The Speakeasy Speed Test is an easy way to check your upload rate. Slingbox recommends a minimum 256 Kbps upstream rate. This is adequate if you are watching a regular TV show. However if you are watching sports or any high action programming, 360 Kbps upload rate will be ok but there will be fuzziness and pixelation. 600 Kbps upload would be much better and 1 Mbps would be ideal. Here’s a screenshot of the SlingPlayer during a football game at approximately 360 Kbps. It’s adequate and better than not being able to watch the game at all. If you are watching within your home network, then there shouldn’t be any issues and the video quality is very good.

• Limited to one connection - a Slingbox will allow only one connection at time. You can setup multiple PCs or Smartphones but only one connection is allowed at a time.

• Firewall issues - if you plan on using the SlingPlayer at work you should buddy up with the IT guy who controls the company firewall. Believe it or not, there’s a dedicated Watching TV at Work help forum on the Sling Community Site. The Sling Community forum is a great place to find answers, troubleshoot issues and find out how/what people are slinging. Another helpful resource is DynDNS, which allows you to alias a dynamic IP address to a static hostname.

My only complaint with the Slingbox is the lag to control the TV source. Since there is a several second delay in transmitting the TV programming remotely, there is also a delay in changing channels or fast-forwarding/rewinding a DVR, which can be annoying.

If you purchase a Slingbox before September 16th, you’ll receive the SlingPlayer Mobile software for free. The software allows you to watch TV on your Windows Mobile Smartphone or Pocket PC device. I watch TV on my Motorola Q occasionally. It’s more of a cool, geeky thing to show off because the speed of the EV-DO and Edge networks are not sufficient/reliable to support a quality video signal. The sound quality is excellent so it’s great if you want to follow a game or listen to the news. Here’s a video from Qusers.com showing someone slinging their Tivo to a Motorola Q Smartphone.

Overall, the Slingbox is a relatively cheap device that allows you to placeshift your TV programming. For regular TV shows, the video quality is sufficient at the minimum 256 Kbps upstream rate but for high action programming you’ll definitely want a higher HSI upload rate at home. I still prefer watching my TV programming in high definition, but if you are traveling or when you can’t miss a show, the ability to placeshift and timeshift your TV programming is pretty amazing! And at $160, it’s one of the cheaper tech toys you can get!

There are other placeshifting options available such as Sony’s LocationFree TV or Orb, which requires a PC with a TV tuner card. However, the flexibility, simplicity and value of the Slingbox make it the best placeshifting solution available right now.