D-Link Rangebooster Dual Band Wireless N Router Impressions

For background information we have set up two routers in the basement of a three story house. A 2Wire Wireless G network router/modem and the D-Link Rangebooster Dual Band Wireless N Router.

Our main goal in this experiment was to see the distance at which the G router would go and the distance that the N router would go, along with some basic speed tests. To make this test even more interesting, three wireless USB adapters were used 802.11B, G, and N.

2Wire Wireless G Router/Modem
Initial tests for the B adapters with the 2Wire produced a weak signal for computers on the top level of the house. Though PCs still got connection, it would blank out or get a limited or no connection throughout the day.

The G adapters were not much better. The signal from the router was not strong enough to maintain a connection like the B adapters. But when working, transmission speeds were faster.

The N adapters got signal, but still received some choke in gaming.

D-Link Rangebooster Dual Band Wireless N Router
The N Router got signal up to the B adapters and were transmitting at full speed capability of the adapters.

The rest was history. With the B adapters working, the G and N adapters worked efficiently on the top level of the house.

Wireless 802.11N is now the standard in our house.

Cheers.

Top 10 Free Native Apps for the iPhone Part2

So lists have been popping up everywhere for top iPhone Apps.

Well I've noticed that most of them are a blend of free and paid apps. Since I'm the cheap Free App only blogger. I'll post my top 10 apps on my iPhone, and this is part two.


6: vSnax
YouTube is great on the iPhone, but sometimes people get the urge to watch something professionally done and vSnax is your portal to uploaded portions of CBS News, VH1, Celebrity news, Ripe TV, Spike, Game Trailers, and more. It's interface is nice and uses the accelerometer nicely.

7. Jamd
Okay, you want your latest breaking news on entertainment and celebrities, but you don't have time to watch a video. Jamd brings to you the information in seconds. The interface is simple and clean and this app will bring you all the necessary rumors and news that you can handle until you can get time to watch.


8. Stanza
Well, books are definitely out. However, eBooks looks to be sticking around for a long time. Stanza gives you the ability to take eBooks with you on the go with your iPhone. It seems that this app has a free books database where you can find some classics that you have always wanted to read. Brought to you by feedbooks.com and LexCycle the people behind the universal e-reader devices.

9. Remote
Who can forget Apple's own? Ever wished you could control your iTunes from anywhere in your house? (if your wifi reaches your entire house) The remote will let you change songs, adjust volume, fast forward to your favorite part, pause, or your occasional switch from Rock to Easy Listening playlists. Remote will also be able to control your Apple TV.


10. Pandora
Online radio streaming that caters to your music choice and offers you a mix of what you already know with artists and songs that it thinks will fit your music choice. Pandora is now in your iPhone and it will take your music collection to new heights. I've been using the web version of it for years now and it has enlightened me to new and old artists.


11. Yelp!
Okay, so I couldn't help adding one more to the list. Yelp! is a location services based app to find local reviews on restaurants, good eats, and etc. It will find your location and give you reviews from fellow dining experts such as your next door neighbor or someone who lives in the area of the restaurant. Real experiences, real reviews, real fast to your iPhone. It's helped me dodge a shady place and found gems in some areas. (iPhone Gen 1 here folks) Let me know if it works for you 3G/GPS people!

That's all, of course notable mentions might be blogged soon.

Top 10 Free Native Apps for the iPhone Part1

So lists have been popping up everywhere for top iPhone Apps.

Well I've noticed that most of them are a blend of free and paid apps. Since I'm the cheap Free App only blogger. I'll post my top 10 apps on my iPhone.


1: Twinkle

The widely popular "jailbroken" iPhone app has been brought to the app store and let me tell you that it is great. At first it seems like the standard twitter flow that you would get from any twitter app, but then you have a tab for nearby tweets which would not be special if it wasn't for the location services usage by the app. You see, it scans your area and automatically posts it to your tweet.
Along with that you have your standard profiles, messages, follows that all twitter apps have. The interface is fun and it's by far the smoothest I have used on the iPhone.

2. Facebook
At first this app was struggling with features. It lacked a wall view and it seemed mostly there for chatting purposes. However, it has been updated and the new version is a lot better. So much better that I have stopped using the web app for Facebook. Wall posts, photos with tags, and much more are included this time.

Its time to check it out again.

3. Aurora Feint
This game has so much potential and execution that I am 100% endorsing it. It mixes elements of puzzle, rpg, and even a little MMO in it. The graphics are excellent and the game play is addictive with the implementation of the accelerometer and multi touch. Some of the larger bugs (though there are very few bugs altogether) are going to be fixed in an update releasing as soon as today or this coming week.
The best free game on the iPhone? Currently a resounding YES.

4. Jirbo Games
Okay it's not 1 app. Its like 6, but these free games will take your mind off of something for a short while and are graphically pleasing. Simple match games or simon says kind of games are their forte.

5. Shazam
Ever got jealous of those Verizon phones that could hear music and identify it for them? Well this app does exactly that. Once activated it will scan the music to a set amount of time which will then search the database for that particular song. It will then provide links to the video, information on the artist the song version and even let you purchase the music.
Next five coming up soon.

A sinking "Flagship"? Flagship Studios lays off most of their employees

* Image from Pacmanpolarbear of Photobucket.com

After the epic fail at launching Hellgate London (HGL), Flagship has officially announced in a short press release that they have laid off most of their employees. Along with that announcement, they also stated that they are unwilling to take new subscribers for any of their games and have also told current subscribers that they will not be billed for the service.

What this tells me is that Flagship Studios has lost so much money and have generated such bad publicity that they are indeed about to shut their doors. Rumors have it that Hanbitsoft in Korea will take over HGL and possibly the much anticipated Mythos.

With Blizzard announcing Diablo III, one has to wonder if the once disgrunted Blizzard North employees are heading back to Blizzard. It certainly might help Blizzard with their recent controversy of art direction that has drawn a online petition from fans of the franchise.

Heck, if I was in charge of Blizzard I would definitely find out why the franchise was a success from the actual people who worked on the project.

Good luck to all you former Flagship Studios employees.

Cheers.

iPhone Exchange is Working Great For Me

So after a little tweaking with the domain name and the user name, I finally got it done. I have my work email coming to my iPhone and all the calendars and contacts are updated instantly.

It's nice to know that I will be able to work and play with my phone now.

I have 4 pages on my iPhone UI filled up. Mostly native apps now.

Has anyone had any problems? Let me know I'll try to help you out.

Cheers.

Mission Complete after 3 hours and 41 minutes.

iPhone Software Update 2.0 finally finished installing, I still have all my email accounts, contacts and web apps on my phone. Now I just need to go home and sync the music.

Horray! But first download all my apps muhahah!

Cheers!

Still no luck

Well, it's been 3 hours since the initial install and there has been no movement on getting connected to iTunes.

I have a scary hypothesis. Care to hear it?

The iPhone Software Update 2.0 installs the OS first then reactivates it through iTunes. Now all the iPhone 3G users are buying their phones and getting them activated at the store. If the activation for both phones are on the same server, then we are in for some trouble.

There are an estimate of 6 million users of the Gen 1 iPhones, and who knows how many iPhone 3G have been sold? With all these people trying to get on the same server we have the reason why the servers are down.

cheers..

My iPhone Bricked

Software Update 2.0 for the iPhone rolled out this morning and as I eagerly pressed the check for update button in iTunes I completely forgot that the rest of the world was probably doing the same thing.

With over 6 million users clamoring up Apple's update servers, it ultimately timed out. Now reports are coming in all over the world that there are millions of unhappy first gen iPhone owners.

What to do? After a brief call to Apple's customer service (by brief I mean the actual talk was short but the wait time was horrendous) I found out what we "bricked" users need to do.

The answer? Keep trying.

Cheers...

Goodbye Yonex. Hello Wilson.

{K} Blade Tour
Head Size:93 sq. in. / 600 sq. cm.
Length: 27 inches / 69 cm
Strung Weight: 11.8oz / 335g
Balance: 8pts Head Light
Swingweight: 323
Stiffness: 65
Beam Width: 20 mm Straight Beam
Grip Type: Wilson Leather
String Pattern:18 Mains / 20 Crosses

I started playing tennis quite some years ago and have always strived to improve. After playing with several different Yonex racquets, I have decided to demo as many player's sticks as possible to find the right one for me.

And here it is. The Wilson {K} Blade Tour. When I first demoed this racquet, it was like a dream come true. I did not have to worry about taking a full swing at a ball and have it landing far behind the baseline. Better yet, my serve (weakest part of my game) improved with each ball I tossed up.

Hitting from the baseline I could hit the lines whenever I chose and depth was easy to come by.
Volleys were nice too, because of the racquet's weight I could still maneuver it with ease.

In any case, I like it, you should try it.

Cheers!

iPhone owners GoogleTalk is now available.

Straight from the GoogleTalk blog, iPhone users will be able to use GoogleTalk on their iPhone by a web app interface.

Does anyone have GoogleTalk that would like to chat with me?

Cheers!

It's that time of the year again! (Orlando)

We are going down to Orlando for some theme parks early tomorrow morning. This time it will be quite different. We have over 12 people going, some family came all the way from Hong Kong to join us.

While packing I noticed something interesting. My life is too structured. We go down to Orlando every year with family and tend to stick to a particular schedule for every work week building up to it.

I think everyone should deviate from time to time to enjoy the finer things in life. And enjoy more of what this world has to offer.

So, now I am planning to go somewhere this winter with Yumi.

I hope all of you can take a step back and realize something about yourself.

Cheers!

Are you a blogger using Digg or Entrecard?

Well I joined Digg per Entrecard's advice and I am enjoying the amount of exposure this is creating. Entrecard has a full write-up of how to go about doing this. Entrecard's community has also been very accepting and I highly recommend you all to check it out.

Funny thing though, Digg got my mailbox bombarded by 50+ emails about new friends and fans. So I had to turn off the email notification. (I can't stand my iPhone beeping with the incoming emails 10 times.)

As a PR professional, I believe that these types of social media and communities can provide a outstanding way of building a more word of mouth brand building and information distribution.

In any case, where would you find 50+ people in the middle of the night?

Cheers!

Diablo 3 is officially announced.

For those of you PC gamers out there, I am sure you must know the classic, Diablo I & II.

And the anguish of waiting for a new part in the series. It has been almost a decade since we first stepped foot in Tristram.

But alas evil rises again! Diablo's evil stench is eminating from the cathedral's gates after a large meteor, or so we believe, crashed through its roof late in the middle of the darkness one late eerie night.

Diablo III is official.

Cheers!

Why force yourself to be social?

There are times in a person's life that one starts to drift away from all that is comforting, and then there are times that they start surrounding themselves in comfort.

Five years ago, if you saw me lounging somewhere near the dirty streets of Downtown Atlanta near Georgia State University, you would have said to yourself, "Hey, that guy seems to be enjoying his time with all of his friends."

Typically, I was surrounded by at least 4 friends at all times. I had lunch dates, basketball 5-on-5s, billiard buddies, and never once was I truly alone.

That was before, this is now.

I tend to stay at home on the weekends. Play some tennis with my brother, sometimes with other family relatives and/or my girlfriend. Go on the PC for a good 5-6 hours. That's pretty much it.

This is not the first time that I have been loner-ish. Before high school, I never went out. Didn't know anyone or try to maintain friendships. I was on America Online, you know, the massive chat engine that promoted social networking before web 2.0 was even imagined.

I guess I could say that I regressed, but I think it's a kind of self awareness that has developed over the course of the past few years and the experiences that I have accumulated.

Believe it or not, I am very comfortable right now.

Cheers!