Paul's Time Sink

11 Apr, 2009

The USASpec adapter was included as part of the iPhone dock install.  The USASpec adapters have several ways of accessing the music on the iPod or iPhone.  You can access the media either by:

• Direct - where you need to select the music to play on the iPhone/iPod
• Folder - where you can browse the music collection by Artist or Album
• Playlist - where you can preselect some number of playlists that will be easily playable on the headunit

I decided to use Playlist mode, as it also offers the ability to play 6 playlist, also "all songs" and a direct mode.  For the six playlist, it looks for playlist named HONDA1 - HONDA6.  If not all six are found, then it will randomly pick other playlists to fill in the missing spots.  If the adapter is connected to the radio through the XM interface, the playlists are accessed by tuning to channels 1-6.  When using CD changer interface, the playlists appear as CDs.

In addition to playing user playlist, number 7 is used to play all tracks.  And number 8 is for direct mode.  (This is the mode that is used if you want to play Pandora.)

 (More)

Technorati tags: USASpec, dock, iPhone, iPod, iTunes

10 Apr, 2009

I have been using My Movies for a while now.  I am using the Windows Home Server version.  My Movies for Windows Home server allows you to keep all of your movies on the server, and play them back in Windows Media Center.  This has been working great.  I have been having problems with playing the movies on the Media Center Extenders

The first problem is that the cover art doesn't appear.  Then when attempting to play the movie, an error would appear that the file could not be found.

This thread on the My Movies forum describes the steps needed to fix the thumbnails on the extender.  I found a similar solution that fixed the video files.  I RDP'd into the Home Server and then went into the "Sharing & Security" setting of the share that has the movie files.  In that setting page I made sure that both "Anonymous Users" and "Everyone" has read access to that share.  Once I did that, everything works great.

Technorati tags: MyMovies, Windows Home Server, Windows Media Center, Media Center Extender

10 Apr, 2009

I have been wanting to get better integration with my iPhone in my car.  Normally I would just connect my iPhone to the line-in jack of my radio.  The problem with this is that, if I want to skip songs, I need to wake the iPhone, enter the password, then select the skip track button.  This is pretty dangerous while trying to drive.  So I have been interested in getting a solution where I can use the controls on my head unit to control playback from the iPhone.  In addition to controling the iPhone, I wanted a solution that would look stock in the car.

2point5 is a company that specialized in custom installs of iPhone and iPods.  They took this experience and now sell docks that are custom made for various cars.  In addition to the docks, they also bundle the needed adapters for the various manufacturers' radios.

I bought the spec.dock package HONFGV2IPKG. This package includes the USASpec PA15-HON2.  This adapter can be connected to either radio's XM or CD changer interface.  When connected to the XM interface, song meta data is shown on the radio's display. Unfortunately, the XM interface doesn't work with the Honda headunit that has navigation, so the CD changer adapter was used.

I like the way the dock fits into the car.  It really looks good.  Also the integration with the radio controls works very well.  I would recommend the spec.dock. Here is an album with some photos of the install.

Technorati tags: spec.dock, 2point5, HONFGV2IPG, USASpec, PA15-HON2

7 Jan, 2009

In this post, I mentioned that Audi and Nissan are working on navigation systems that will give fuel effecient routes.  Garmin is also doing the same thing for their portable navigation units.  They are adding an ecoRoute routing type.  Navigation units with ecoRoute will have a setting that lets you specify the type of car you have. Then it can provide you with an effecient route.

The best thing about this is that they are making this available for all compatible devices.  I need to download the web updater to see if this will be available for our Nuvi 680.

[via CNET's CES blog]

Technorati tags: GPS, navigation, Garmin, ecoRoute

3 Jan, 2009

We bought a couple of of Kodak EasyShare W1020 picture frames for gifts.  These are 10" picture frames that can, in addition to displaying photos from memory cards, can display photos from flickr and KodakGallery. We wanted to use these frames as a way to share pictures with family members.

The initial setup of the frame was pretty straight forward.  Once you turned on the frame, it detected all of the wireless networks.  When you select one, and enter the password, it waits for a PC or Mac that has the Kodak software installed.  When you install it, you will be able to configure various channels.

The problem that I had was getting flickr to work.  The firmware that was initially installed has support for rss photos feeds.  I was never able to get any of the rss feeds from my sets to work.  But the built in flickr feeds worked fine.

I noticed that the frame tried to update its firmware, but the upgrade failed.  There isn't a menu option to manullay upgrade the firmware, so I just tried to power cycle it.  On the next boot the firmware upgrade was successful (version from 10/2008)

 (More)

Technorati tags: Kodak, EasyShare, W1020, picture frame

3 Jan, 2009

A while ago, I mentioned that it would be good if a GPS device would give navigation directions that would maximize fuel effeciency.  It looks like Audi and Nissan are working on something like this.

Technorati tags: GPS, navigation

6 Nov, 2008

This is pretty funny.

 

[via EngadgetHD]

6 Sep, 2008

The two Squeezebox Booms that I ordered arrived a few days ago, and I have to say that they have lived up to my expectations.

When you open the box, the first thing you see is a velvet-like bag, containing the Squeezebox Boom, that has the Logitech logo on it, and an orange tag that states Sqeezebox.  When you take the Squeezebox Boom out of the bag, I noticed that it has a solid feel to it.

The setup of this is exactly the same as the other Sqeezebox devices.  Once configured for our wireless network, it automatically saw the install of SqueezeCenter running on our Windows Home Server, and was able to play the music.

 (More)

Technorati tags: Squeezebox Boom, Squeezebox, Logitech

1 Sep, 2008

So my wife and I joined the crowd and got iPhone 3Gs.  Now that we have them, we are enjoying them, but it was a pretty big hassle to get them.

I got to the Apple Store pretty early in the morning, and there wasn't a line for iPhones.  An Apple Store employees got the two iPhones and started activating the first.  The Symbian device lost connection to the service, but after the AT&T Wireless account was created, and after the phone number port started, but before the number was added to the account.

When he got another Symbian device, further attempts to continue the setup kept failing.  It looks like Apple's system to register iPhones will only work if the device actually does the registration, and will not work if the phone is configured via the phone with AT&T support.  We were on hold with AT&T for over 2 hours, talking to 7 different people at AT&T.

Finally we got the phones registered.  What we had to do was add the iPhones to the account with new phone numbers.  Then with the AT&T support rep on the phone, the numbers were switched to the numbers that were were attempting to port.

I do appreciate the time that the Apple Store rep spent with settiing this up.

One other problem arose.  The microphone on my wife's iPhone didn't work so I took it back to the Apple Store and they did replace it, without too much hassle.

Technorati tags: iPhone 3G, iPhone, Apple, Apple Store, AT&T Wireless

30 Aug, 2008

A while ago, I wrote about how I would love a Squeezebox that is integrated with speakers.  This would make it a perfect solution for our kids rooms.

Squeezebox/Logitech just announced the Squeezbox Boom, which is exactly what I want.  With this, we don't have to deal with playing cds that skip because the kids have scratched them.  I am definitely ordering one of these.

 

Technorati tags: Squeezebox Boom, Squeezebox, Logitech

23 Aug, 2008

I am thinking about installing Microsoft Windows Vista Media Center on our Mac mini, espcially since our Xbox 360 is doing everything that the Mac mini used to do.  I am planning on keeping the Mac mini in the closet, near our Windows Home Server, and then I would view this content on the Xbox 360 through Windows Media Extender.

There are several things that I would be able to do with this setup:

• Install TVTonic to have access to "Internet TV" and video podcasts  (The 2008 Olympics is available this way)
• Play ripped DVDs that are hosted on the Windows Home Server (1, 2)

 (More)

Technorati tags: Xbox, Windows Home Server, Xbox 360, Windows Media Center, Media Center Extender, Mac mini, TVTonic, podcast, video

29 Jul, 2008

After talking to some friends at TiVo, it looks like my Series3 was not getting the 9.4 update.  So I guess that the drive just failed enough to cause this problem.  I am going to get a new drive for the box, and hopefully that will solve the problem.

27 Jul, 2008

I belive that my TiVo Series3 was upgrading to the new 9.4 version of TiVo's software.  The problem is that the upgrade was not successful.  The message on the screen states something like "The DVR has detected a serious problem....  This will take about three hours...."

Since I used to work at TiVo, I know what state the TiVo must be in for that message to appear. (And in fact, in a internal development build, I did have a bug in my code that caused this problem.)  Unfortunately, it looks like the TiVo does get past that error, and then reboots, but then gets back in that state.

 (More)

Technorati tags: TiVo, Series3

11 Jul, 2008

Since is is now a requirement to use hands-free devices for use in cars, I started to look for a solution for our van.  I wanted to find something that would connect to the main headunit, where it would automatically mute the audio, to allow the call audio to be heard.  Also, I wanted the device, when installed, to look releatively stock. The Parrot 3200-LS looked like it would work perfectly.  

I had it installed a few weeks ago, and the install looks nice.  It was easy to configure with my Samsung iSCH-760.  On the Parrot, I went into the setting menu for pairing, and selected Windows CE, and the Parrot displayed a password.  Then on my phone, I searched for Bluetooth devices, and then selected the Parrot 3200-LS.  Once paired, the phone numbers on my phone automatically appeared on the Parrot 3200-LS, so I could select phone numbers directly from the Parrot's interface.

 (More)

Technorati tags: Parrot, 3200-LS, Bluetooth, Palm, 750wx, Samsung, iSCH-760

1 Jun, 2008

My wife and I are thinking of switching to AT&T for cell phone service, when the 3G iPhones come out.  When we switch, I was thinking about getting the HTC Touch Dual.  This looks like a pretty nice phone.

Technorati tags: HTC Touch Dual, Windows Mobile, AT&T