This week, I upgraded to TiVo Desktop Plus. I had planned this a few months ago. One of the benefits of TiVo is the TiVo Desktop software, which allows you to transfer your recordings to another device (desktop, laptop, Mac.) I’ve used this in the past so I could archive or watch television upstairs at my desk. It’s not the greatest software, but it works decently enough. I wish the video content transferred faster — even on a 802.11g network, it’s gonna be 60 mins for an hour-long show. At least it’s free.

Now, if you want to watch on a mobile device, you need to upgrade to TiVo Desktop Plus. For $24.95, it automatically converts and can drop the resulting file into your iTunes library location. Do a quick sync in iTunes, and theoretically have your content ready for viewing on your iPhone, iPad, or other device ready for you on the morning train ride. As a test, I transferred two episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Star Wars: The Clone Wars to my iPhone 4. See a screenshot below.

It’s a little tricky to fast forward and rewind with your thumb on the tiny slider, but it’s good enough. My actual objective is to transfer movies and video to a future iPad for short and long trips — Pixar/Disney movies, Sesame Street, and content for grown-ups too.

It’s probably odd that I’m strategically plotting, but that is basically what I’m doing. I can’t do everything at one time. I was waiting on a new desktop PC first, so I can easily manage video content. The iPhone is good enough for use now, but I have my eye on the ball for additional uses for my future iPad.

World domination will have to wait.

Times sure flies. It’s been over two years since Verizon flipped on our FiOS service in 2009. Apart from the initial hiccups, it’s been smooth sailing, and I don’t believe we’ve an outage since ’09. We’ve had the Triple Play package (TV, Internet, phone), and it has worked out pretty well. I do wish they would add more HD channels on a more regular basis — one new channel a year isn’t that much to gloat about.

Since 2009, we have been upgrading our Internet speeds. We initially signed up at 10 Mbps downstream, 2 Mbps upstream. A few months in Dec 2009, I schmoozed a Verizon rep and got them to agree to upgrade us to the then-current 15 Mbps, 5 Mbps base speeds.

A year and a half later, we’re out of contract, the price lock has ended, and our rates went up about $20. Oye ve. I called Verizon to inquire is there anything we can do to lower the bill — do nothing, renew our contract for another two years, etc. Is there even a contract, similar to wireless / cell phone contracts? After a nice heart to heart, we renewed for another two years. In return, we’ll save $5 a month (ooooooh aaaaaah), our Internet gets upgraded to a symmetric 25 Mbps up and down, and we’ll get a $300 gift card if we pay our bill on time for the next two months.

Happy happy joy joy. Check out the point-in-time Speedtest.net results below from earlier today. What are we going to do with our new-found bandwidth? Hmmm, something illegal. Just kidding. Maybe. Depends on my mood. I could upload a lot of video of myself dancing to Al Green.

Recent Speedtest.net check on Jan 28 2012 after our FiOS upgrade

Sample TiVo v20.2 Guide screenshot

Regular readers will know that I’ve had a love/hate relationship with the TiVo Premiere since we got it December 2010 (for my Christmas present, actually.) My wife and I weren’t particularly happy with the Verizon-supplied Motorola 6400-series STB/DVR we were renting. It had enough quirks, that it became frustrating over time. There was a much-promised IMG v1.9 update coming with a new Motorola DVR (with additional capacity), but many months passed while the new 7200 series DVR was in “testing” phase.

So my wife took the bull by the horns, and upgraded us to the TiVo Premiere. It was basically a Series 4, and had owned both a Series 2 and a Series 2 DT (dual-tuner) back in the day. I had been tracking the TiVO Premiere, including the many complaints about the product — sluggish, unstable, etc. Hmmm, not sounding good. However, the Premiere showed up under the Christmas tree. Sometimes you just gotta close your eyes, and jump in the pool. Was it perfect? No, not at all. My nemesis was the sluggish interface and the green spinning wheel of death. I also wasn’t a fan of the half-updated HDUI and disabled 2nd processor core. Why would you release an incomplete product? While many customers complained about the lack of updates and bug fixes over the course of 2011, TiVo was silent. Absolutely silent. No news, no schedule of bug fixes and patches. Nothing. Argh.

Slowly though through 2011, TiVo released v14.x type patches, and v14.9 enabled the 2nd processor core. Not a dramatic increase, but even a small performance enhancement was welcome. In addition, Margret Schmidt [VP User Experience] began interfacing and responding to customers. You could contact her at her @TiVoDesign Twitter feed, and she would answer back! She informed customers what updates would come and when. Go on the Tivo Community forums, and people love Margret Schmidt. And you know what? I don’t blame them. I love Margret too. Somebody at TiVo woke up, was interacting with the customers, answering questions, and giving us information on upcoming updates.

This month, TiVo released v20.2 for the TiVo operating system. With the past few updates, TiVo has upgraded more screens, improved the performance, and made the Premiere much better than it was a year ago. It took a year, but I’m much happier now. Frankly, it’s about time

The new Noctua indeed arrived as expected. I opened the packaging, read the minimal instructions (just a simple picture on the box), and opened up my PC case.

To recap, there are four fans:

• the CPU fan
• the power supply fan
• the front air intake fan
• the rear exhaust fan

I quickly unscrewed the rear fan screws, and replaced the fan with the brown Noctua fan. The fan comes with regular metal screws, and also rubber “vibration” connectors, which look sort of like brown pawn chess pieces. Supposedly, I can use these instead of the screws to minimize the vibration and noise. Well, I’m game. Replacing and securing the new fan with the rubber thingies was a breeze. I decided to test it out at the stock fan speed initially. I can always swap out and switch it to a lower RPM later.

Verdict? It works, and it’s much quieter. Problem? Now the front air intake fan is noisy in comparison. I checked it out, but couldn’t figure out to adjust and lower the fan speed. There should be a switch, but I couldn’t find it. Since the front fan is only optional, I disconnected it. So far, the PC internal temperature is running cool at around 38 degrees Celsius, and the PC is now whisper quiet.

Eureka!

Let me take a few minutes to talk about the new PC. As you may have read, I recently got a new PC on the last day of 2011. It took a while, but it’s finally here. I brought it home Saturday evening, and spent New Year’s Eve watching Crazy Stupid Love and backing up (and later transferring) my data to the new PC. What’s the verdict so far?

Well, it’s pretty good. I like having a fast, responsive machine. Four CPU cores, 8 GBs of RAM, and a super-fast video card helps, of course. However, I must admit that the whole experience doesn’t feel quite right though. I’m missing a few things.

• I want my new desk. With large tracts of land. I know it is at IKEA, but I just need to get it.
• I want my big 24″ monitor. I’ve narrowed down the future monitor to either the Dell UltraSharp U2412M or Dell UltraSharp U2410 monitors. Both have good review, plenty of ways to adjust them, and I get an employee purchase program discount through work.
• I want a new keyboard and mouse. My long-lived Logitech Cordless Duo MX isn’t compatible with 64-bit Windows 7 . The keyboard is working, but I’ve swapped in a [gasp!] corded Logitech mouse. Not ideal, and it is irking me.
• Our long-lived Epson Perfection 1660 flatbed scanner isn’t compatible with 64-bit Windows 7 either. It’s currently unplugged, awaiting eventual replacement.
• While I’m glad the PC runs cool due to all the fans, the rear exhaust case fan is LOUD. I like a quiet PC, and this sounds like jet engine.

So let’s talk more about the loud case fan. I’ve got four fans in the PC, but the rear fan is the loudest. I considered living with it, but it’s annoying me too much. Way too much. I did some research this morning, and ordered a Noctua case fan that runs quiet (adjustable with 3 different speeds.)  It’s an Austrian product, and a weird brown color, but I don’t care. I want a quiet nexus to my digital life. I ordered from my favorite retailer Amazon.com, and it’ll be here by tomorrow. Egads, they’re fast. Wednesday night, I’ll be replacing the fan, and hoping that this improves the situation.

The new PC, circa 2012

The Noctua NF-S12B case fan: silent but deadly

Anybody using Hulu Plus? I’m testing it out this week during an initial 1-week trial. A year later, why am I finally trying it? Well, my wife and I want to catch up with episodes from this season of The Good Wife. We don’t want to purchase more episodes from Amazon.com, so streaming from Hulu seemed like the best solution.

We normally use the PlayOn media server client to stream my the desktop PC to the PS3, but I couldn’t get it to work last night. I figured to use the trial version of Hulu Plus, since we could then stream directly from the Internet to our TiVo Premiere.

Well, setting it up was easy enough, but here comes the rub. No Good Wife. Apparently, from what I read online, content available for Hulu is separated for PC, Mobile, and TV. Content that is tagged for PC-only won’t be available for watching in your living on your tv.

That blows. I’m canceling this Hulu Plus trial. If I’m going to pay $7.99 a month, I want all the content available to be through any medium.

Did you ever notice that GPS / Google Maps can behave a little strange sometimes? Most of the time, it can be accurate, and I wouldn’t want to go without it. However, other times, you gotta wonder what the hell is wrong. Case in point:

Today, I had to run to a local CVS during church to get a picture developed, then get some coffee for my wife. While I was standing in line at the single CVS cashier line, I checked Yelp for nearby coffeehouses or coffee shops. In luck, there was a yelp.com entry for a nearby coffeeshop called Rockin’ Joe’s Coffeehouse and Bistro, and it’s right on Rt. 27 where I was, maybe 0.1 miles away. Nice!

I look closer at the map, and I get befuddled. See below. I’m supposedly at the red dot, but also at both blue dots. The coffeehouse is at the green dot, or is it closer than that? I ask the slightly-flaky CVS cashier if she knows where this Rockin’ Joe’s might be, but not holding up much hope that she knows. Luckily, she does know where the coffeehouse is. In fact, it’s in the same strip mall — I just have to walk to the left a few stores.

Nice job, Google Maps.

Google Maps can act a little bizarre

I’m glad management recognized that they screwed up. It’s one thing to raise the subscription fees by 60%, because naturally customers are going to hate it. I dislike it, but I still perceive a value in the service. To raise prices, and then decide to screw around further to make the service harder to use and more inconvenient for customers? Mutiny.

Obviously, online streaming is the future for the company, as the greater convenience to stream to a multitude of internet-connected devices, and the lack of waiting for a new disc, are win-wins for customers. However, Netflix’s online catalog is lacking.

MSNBC.com – Netflix drops Qwikster plan, says it moved ‘too fast’.

Good bye, broken iPhone 4 backplate. You can see it below. The much-needed mini Philips #00 screwdriver came in the mail today, and immediately stared working on replacing the backplate. True to the video online, it was surprisingly easy, and I only ran into difficulty getting the new backplate seated properly. Eventually, it got it right, and my iPhone is brand new again and unblemished.

The cracked backplate to my iPhone 4

Grrrr.

As I previously mentioned, I accidentally dropped my iPhone 4 last Saturday afternoon, but all was not lost. I found out that replacing the front and back plates is not impossible, Nd relatively inexpensive. I ordered a replacement backplate and cover, and a mini Phillips #00 screwdrivd, and all three arrived this week.

Unfortunately, it’s the wrong screwdriver. Apple irritatingly doesn’t want people to muck around inside the products that we customers purchase and own. They use obscure screws to discourage people from opening them up. Why? I don’t have the foggiest. I ordered a mini Phillips #00 screwdriver (it’s teeny tiny), but they sent me a “Pentalobe” version instead used for many other Apple products.

After a fruitless search at Lowes, Radio Shack, a Rite Aid pharmacy, and a supermarket, I gave up and ordered another screwdriver from a different Amazon affiliate vendor for $2.50. Should be here in a few days. In the meantime, at least I have 2/3s of the solution in my hands.