reviews

TiVo Slide remote

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I guess I didn’t write about the TiVo Slide remote when I first got it last October but after going without it for a few days recently I realized how much I like it.

The Slide is a combination infrared and Bluetooth remote that works with the TiVo Premiere, TiVo HD, and TiVo Series 3 (OLED) boxes. The remote is the same familiar peanut shape as TiVo’s previous remotes, but smaller and heavier. Its shorter length allows for easier operation without having to shift the remote up and down in your hand to switch between the navigation D-pad and number buttons (my daughter thinks it’s a “cute” baby TiVo remote). The back of the remote is textured so you can figure out which way is “up” by feel. It comes with a small Bluetooth USB dongle that you plug into the back of your TiVo and then pair it with the remote.

The primary feature of the Slide is the slide-out QWERTY keyboard, as shown in the photo. The keyboard makes it a snap to enter long strings of text when searching for shows, creating WishLists, etc. The fact that the remote uses Bluetooth also means it’s more responsive (read: faster!) than the IR remotes. This is great for me because I was able to stop using my slow (but functional) IR extender since my TiVo is in an enclosed media cabinet (no line of sight for infrared signals). The Slide is a learning remote, like the Glo remotes, so you can program it to control other components like your TV, receiver, etc. It obviously uses IR for that, not Bluetooth. The little LED on the top of the remote above the TiVo button flashes orange when sending IR and blue when sending Bluetooth.

If you don’t want to get a whole new remote but still would like easier text entry on your TiVo, try a wireless USB keyboard! There are quite a few shortcuts available for navigating the TiVo interface with a keyboard. Or, of course, there’s TiVo’s own iPad app (which currently works with the Premiere only).

So, why was I without my Slide for a few days? Let’s just say it took a few too many accidental drops on the tile floor and had to be replaced. šŸ™

WIJFR: FreedomTM

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The computer program Daemon has taken over the Internet, and millions have joined its virtual world. Now the effect is spilling into the real world as Daemon assumes control of financial institutions, and the programā€™s real-life converts flock to small towns to re-create a sustainable lifestyle amid the agribusiness monoculture of the Midwest.

During my trip to Arizona last week for Spring Training ’11 I finished “FreedomTM,” Daniel Suarez’s sequel to “Daemon.”

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WIJFR: Flashforward

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Nobel-hungry physicists conducting an unimaginably high-energy experiment accidentally induce a global consciousness shift: in an instant, everyone on Earth is “flashed forward” 21 years, experiencing several minutes of the future. But while everyone is, literally, out of their minds, their bodies drop unconscious; when the world reawakens, car wrecks, botched surgeries, falls, and other mishaps add up to massive death and destruction. Slowly, as recovery efforts continue, people realize that during the Flashforward (as it comes to be called) they experienced a vision of the future.

My latest read is Robert J. Sawyer’s “Flashforward” which inspired the short-lived ABC television series of the same name. I never watched that series but heard that the original novel was pretty good. The idea of everyone on the planet seeing two minutes of their future and how they would react to that was an intriguing concept and I wasn’t let down.

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WIJFR: The Foundation Trilogy

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For twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. But only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the futureā€”to a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. To preserve knowledge and save mankind, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empireā€”both scientists and scholarsā€”and brings them to a bleak planet at the edge of the Galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for a future generations. He calls his sanctuary the Foundation. But soon the fledgling Foundation finds itself at the mercy of corrupt warlords rising in the wake of the receding Empire. Mankind’s last best hope is faced with an agonizing choice: submit to the barbarians and be overrunā€”or fight them and be destroyed.

I just finished Isaac Asimov’s classic Foundation Trilogy which consists of three collections of stories: “Foundation,” “Foundation and Empire,” and “Second Foundation.” I’ve read a lot of Asimov’s work in the past (“I, Robot”, “Nightfall”, “Fantastic Voyage”, even “Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids” back in grade school) but somehow had never picked up this Hugo Award-winning classic series until now.

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A year of using Mint

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After using Microsoft Money for almost 14 years, last January I started using mint.com to keep track of our personal finances. I wasn’t looking to move my money management into the cloud but was forced to when Microsoft decided to discontinue the online banking portion of Money in February 2010. That pretty much forced me to look for alternatives and after trying out a few, I settled on Mint. It’s been a year … how has it been?

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WIJFR: Watership Down

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Set in England’s Downs, a once idyllic rural landscape, this stirring tale of adventure, courage and survival follows a band of rabbits on their flight from the intrusion of men and the certain destruction of their home. Led by a stouthearted pair of brothers, they journey forth from their native Sandleford Warren through the harrowing trials posed by predators and adversaries, to a mysterious promised land and a more perfect society.

It’d been a while since my daughter and I read a book together after I abandoned the Redwall series last year. I decided to introduce her to one of my favorite novels from my own childhood, “Watership Down” by Richard Adams, and we just finished it today.

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WIJFR: The Ringworld Throne

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The human, Louis Wu; the puppeteer known as the Hindmost; Acolyte, son of the Kzin called Chmeee . . . legendary beings brought together once again in the defense of the Ringworld. Something is going on with the Protectors. Incoming spacecraft are being destroyed before they can reach the Ringworld. Vampires are massing. And the Ghouls have their own agenda–if anyone dares approach them to learn. Each race on the Ringworld has always had its own Protector. Now it looks as if the Ringworld itself needs a Protector. But who will sit on the Ringworld Throne?

It’s been almost two years since I read “The Ringworld Engineers” and back then I wrote here that I probably wouldn’t bother with the remaining two books in the series. I probably should have listened to myself, but I just finished “The Ringworld Throne” … the first e-book I’ve read entirely on my new iPad.

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Apple iPad

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About a month agoĀ I got a 16gb (WiFi only) Apple iPad from work so I’ve had about 30 days to mess around with Apple’s “magical” tablet. If I had to sum the iPad up in one word?

Slick.

I’m not going to bother with the specs, or a general overview of the iPad here. It’s been out for about 8 months and you can certainly read/find all the technical details you want fairly easily (just typing ‘ipad’ into Google yields “about 123,000,000 results”). Instead, I’ll talk about how I’ve been using it, the apps I’ve installed, and my overall impressions.

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WIJFR: Makers

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Covering the transformation of Kodacell (formerly Kodak and Duracell) into a network of tiny teams, journalist Suzanne Church goes to Florida and the inventors behind it all, Lester and Perry, who have more ideas than they know what to do with. The New Work takes off, with a mini-startup in every abandoned strip mall in America. But suddenly, it crashes, and things get really interesting. Lester and Perry build an interactive ride in an abandoned Wal-Mart, a nostalgia trip through their glory days, that catches the eye of a vicious Disney execā€”and the old corporate giants fight their last battle against the new economic order.

Earlier this week I finished reading Cory Doctorow’s “Makers” (the e-pub version through Stanza on my iPhone). This is the sixth Doctorow novel I’ve read and the second one that has a lot of Disney stuff in it (the other being “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom“). Since I live near Disney World and tend to go there a lot (we’ve had resident annual passes for the past few years), it’s fun to read Cory’s books that involve a place he obviously has a thing for as well.

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