Technology catch-all thread

[TomPickle]

The new iTunes looks so bad.

 

[BigSqwert]

Well so far, I'd call Froyo an epic fail. After the update, my droid is slower, apps stopped working, and none of the things people have really complained about like battery life are not improved. More bloatware too - software you cannot uninstall in this case. And of course, you can't revert back.

 

Did people not learn anything from the debacle that was Vista? If you are going to add a bunch of new toys to a successful OS, you also need to invest in making sure you don't tank the OS performance. This upgrade has been a downgrade, and the message boards seem to have that as a theme right now.

 

I know we've talked about this before but I am taking the plunge and rooting my phone over the holiday weekend. I've been doing a ton of reading on it and I have yet to find someone that isn't much happier with their phone for doing so. It just sucks that you have to become a pseudo-hacker these days to get optimal performance out of your device. I'll give you a head's up on how difficult/easy it was to do and how the phone runs afterward.

[NorthSideSox72]

I know we've talked about this before but I am taking the plunge and rooting my phone over the holiday weekend. I've been doing a ton of reading on it and I have yet to find someone that isn't much happier with their phone for doing so. It just sucks that you have to become a pseudo-hacker these days to get optimal performance out of your device. I'll give you a head's up on how difficult/easy it was to do and how the phone runs afterward.

I'll definitely be curious to hear. I might have to do that as well.

 

[Steve9347]

The new iTunes looks so bad.

It looks mostly the same.

[TomPickle]

It looks mostly the same.

Yeah, it's pretty similar, but it just seems so drab now. They removed what little color there was.

[StrangeSox]

Yeah, I don't use iTunes that frequently but I don't notice any difference in that pic and what I've been using for years.

 

NSS, as for your Vista comment, I used that OS for the first time this week. I've been using XP for years and have had W7 on my work computer and laptop at home since January. There's so many half-figured out things in Vista and stuff that doesn't work nearly as well as it should (and does in W7). I'm glad I pretty much skipped over that OS as it seems like a poor bridge between what XP and W7 are.

[HuskyCaucasian]

Yeah, I don't use iTunes that frequently but I don't notice any difference in that pic and what I've been using for years.

 

NSS, as for your Vista comment, I used that OS for the first time this week. I've been using XP for years and have had W7 on my work computer and laptop at home since January. There's so many half-figured out things in Vista and stuff that doesn't work nearly as well as it should (and does in W7). I'm glad I pretty much skipped over that OS as it seems like a poor bridge between what XP and W7 are.

I 100% agree on the Vista comments. I skipped over buying Vista computers for where I work and just waited for W7 and I dont regret it one bit. W7 is impressive.

[Steve9347]

I 100% agree on the Vista comments. I skipped over buying Vista computers for where I work and just waited for W7 and I dont regret it one bit. W7 is impressive.

Yeah, I bought a laptop last year with Vista on it under the guise that I got Windows 7 for free when it came out. The upgrade was simple (insert CD, wait 15 minutes, insert new CD, voila new OS).

 

Windows 7 is so much better than Vista, and I don't really see how it could be improved upon.

[Y2HH]

I know we've talked about this before but I am taking the plunge and rooting my phone over the holiday weekend. I've been doing a ton of reading on it and I have yet to find someone that isn't much happier with their phone for doing so. It just sucks that you have to become a pseudo-hacker these days to get optimal performance out of your device. I'll give you a head's up on how difficult/easy it was to do and how the phone runs afterward.

 

It's very easy to root/jailbreak (whatever you want to call it), on iOS and Android devices, and there is nothing to be afraid of when doing it...it's safe. It's very easy.

[BigSqwert]

It's very easy to root/jailbreak (whatever you want to call it), on iOS and Android devices, and there is nothing to be afraid of when doing it...it's safe. It's very easy.

I'm not too worried about it. There are plenty of tutorials and youtube videos out there.

[StrangeSox]

Got a Barnes & Noble nook for my birthday (don't have it yet, will get it this weekend). Anyone know if it's worth rooting one of those? It uses the Android operating system.

[SnB]

The new iTunes looks so bad.

 

I love that there's a band called Abe Vigoda

[BigSqwert]

Got a Barnes & Noble nook for my birthday (don't have it yet, will get it this weekend). Anyone know if it's worth rooting one of those? It uses the Android operating system.

 

 

Found this: http://androidandme.com/2009/12/hacks/nook...-teardown-pics/

[StrangeSox]

I've read it's even easier now - software only. I was curious if anyone has any experience with one to know if there's really any reason to do it.

 

edit: following that link to the nook wiki, it looks like B&N released new hardware last month that bricks your nook if you install the firmware required to root it. Boo.

Edited September 3, 2010 by StrangeSox

[Chisoxfn]

What is the best e-reader to get on the market (factoring in financial costs as well)?

[StrangeSox]

It looks like the Kindle and the nook are the big two left on the market. Sony's is around but everything I read said it isn't as good as those other two. The price points on the nook and Kindle are within $10 of each other.

 

The Kindle has access to a lot more books on Amazon but it doesn't support some of the open-source formats. The nook doesn't have as many ebooks available through B&N, but there's a lot more public domain books you can get for it.

[HuskyCaucasian]

It looks like the Kindle and the nook are the big two left on the market. Sony's is around but everything I read said it isn't as good as those other two. The price points on the nook and Kindle are within $10 of each other.

 

The Kindle has access to a lot more books on Amazon but it doesn't support some of the open-source formats. The nook doesn't have as many ebooks available through B&N, but there's a lot more public domain books you can get for it.

I thought the Nook had more titles than Kindle. Maybe it's on old number i saw (or maybe I saw a Public Domain + B&N > Amazon store books number)

Edited September 3, 2010 by Athomeboy_2000

[StrangeSox]

Amazon has a lot bigger selection than B&N but you're limited to only Amazon for the Kindle. It's advertising, they play games with numbers just like Comcast vs. DirecTV for "HD content".

[BigSqwert]

So I went ahead and rooted my EVO over the weekend. So glad I did. The custom ROM I'm using now, baked snack, is so much snappier and I now have the free wifi tether app. It also breaks the inexplicably stupid 30fps cap that HTC implemented and has all the Sprint bloatware removed.

 

From what I've read this particular ROM is optimized for battery life and better performance. The performance I can immediately vouch for. It might take a few days for me to confirm the battery improvements.

 

EDIT: After only 2 days it's obvious that the battery is drastically improved.

Edited September 7, 2010 by BigSqwert

[Big Hurtin]

I love that there's a band called Abe Vigoda

 

Fish (Phish) was already taken.

 

[HuskyCaucasian]

Google Instant Search

[SnB]

finally breaking into the 21st century today and getting a smartphone.

 

Droid X or Droid 2? I did a little research and the only thing I could really come up with was, Droid 2 has a smaller screen and a physical keyboard

 

thoughts?

[lostfan]

So I used to have an addiction to gadgets/PC hardware upgrades that I thought I finally shook, I had to stop because s*** gets expensive. I think I'm relapsing though. I bought a wireless printer/scanner a month ago, okay, I needed that because my old one was from 2003. I want a solid state drive to boot and run programs from, ok fine I can deal with one more upgrade and this one would be a pretty substantial upgrade. But I can never do just one thing, now I wanna get a hexacore CPU and new motherboard even though I have no real need for it whatsoever... right now I have a quad core and 8 GB of RAM and there aren't any programs I use that actually tax my CPU.

 

Oh and I want a new graphics card too because the one I have is old. See how this goes? I used to do this once, twice a year, and my wallet hated me for it.

[HuskyCaucasian]

It’s Real: YouTube Debuts Live Streaming Platform With Two-Day Test

[HuskyCaucasian]

Was HDCP Just Cracked?

 

Potentially big news here with respect to DRM, our rights, donuts, etc. Supposedly the HDCP master key has been released. Effectively, that means the copy protection found in your HDMI connection (which prevents you from easily copying anything going through that HDMI connection, including Blu-ray discs, over-the-air HDTV broadcasts, and so on) has been cracked. Maybe—things are still a little hazy here.

 

So the deal is that a message on Twitter, always a reliable source of information (the fact that it’s from “IntelGlobalPR” should raise some eyebrows), claims that the master HDCP key has been released. With that, you can generate your own key, thereby authenticating your connection.

 

It sort of brings back the “analog hole” that we all loved so much.

 

I say, let’s let this story marinate for a bit longer so we can figure out what’s going here.