Software
I’ve been blogging about the WiDi Home Theater experience off and on. Last night, I was checking something for a friend and and realized that the Netgear Push to TV site pointed to updates for both the Intel WiDi driver and the Netgear Push to TV device. For some reason, these don’t appear for me on either the laptop vendors support site or the Intel support site, including when I use the Intel utility to scan for updates. An new version of the WiDi driver IS offered by Intel, but it isn’t as new as the one Netgear offers. It’s important to do this update first and then get the second one (more at the end of this post) which adds functionality that some folks might find useful. The second updates adds the ability to resize the picture, select whether to hide the Intel Wireless Display Applet itself after connecting and offers additional mouse behavior options (including not showing the pointer on the TV)
The Netgear site http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/13206 indeed has totally accurate instructions that work as advertised. I updated the laptop, rebooted, launched the utility, accessed the check for updates and the PTV1000 updated beautifully.
As you can see from the screen shot above, you can watch the progress of the Push2TV device upgrade on the laptop. It took about two minutes.
Similarly, the connected TV shows that the adapter is being updated.
When complete, you will need to re-associate your laptop with the adapter just like you did when you first setup the pairing. If you’re just buying this gear, chances are that it will have the original firmware. You will need to set up the pairing with your TV prior to updating and then re-pair.
Once completed, I recommend you grab the even newer Intel My WiFi on the Netgear site and apply it for increased behavior control including as well:
Microsoft WHQL Certified Release
Fast Cursor
Support 1366×768 Display Resolution
Dynamic Wireless Status (More Frequent)
Prompted Firmware Update
Extended Desktop & Remote Only Display Modes
Automatic Microsoft* Firewall Approval
Support for Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 1000
Switchable Graphics Interoperability Support
This has been one of those strange weeks where nothing has gone as planned but has ended up in the right place. Through some strange alignment of the planets, I’ve ended up with the beta of Comcast’s myDVR, which lets you schedule recordings on the web (and a whole lot more) through Fancast on your Comcast DVR. Comcast has had an iPod app for a while, and updated the version yesterday to be more iPad friendly (yes, push now works for notifications). Most markets don’t have this rolled out yet. And no, this is not the app Brian Roberts showed off at the Cable Show this week for the iPad.
The current iPad/iPod app really made me sit up and take notice. It’s really slick. And it works as advertised. I had created a favorites list of channels that I record from all the time (movies mostly) and can easily access my favorites lineup and schedule recordings on either of my two Comcast DVRs, make changes, and everything syncs up quickly with the schedule on the physical boxes. Way to go, Comcast. (Microsoft, if only you could think a little more outside the box and offer this kind of functionality for Windows Media Center. You once had MSN Remote Record and blew your chance at evolving from that very early start. Yes, there are third party apps, like Remote Potato, but it doesn’t come close to the elegance of the Comcast app. And with what Brian Roberts demo’d, I’d say that Comcast has won the slingfest…)
The Comcast App does more than Video, it does email, voicemail, and on the iPad, this is quite usable for me. First, I went to http://www.fancast.com to activate the myDVR application. Since I’ve used the Fancast site before, I’d already specified my channel lineup.
To get to the schedule, just tap The Guide.
Ok, it hasn’t been a happy holiday season this year. I find myself looking for work as my entire department was eliminated. A few days before Chanuka and two weeks before Christmas. I’d been at Comcast 12+ years.
So, I found myself assessing the tools I need for job hunting (it’s been a while since I was at Comcast 12+ years). My Xerox Personal Copier (circa 1994) needed a drum/cartridge (approx $100) and my 8 year old fax machine (a $129 Brother) was sending stuff that was unreadable. True, I don’t use a fax much anymore, but there are a few non tech entities that still don’t understand email and scans. I had a scanner that went in the dumpster about 10 years ago that I never replaced. It lasted just long enough to digitize my heirloom family pictures and my own film prints and negatives.
Staples had this HP 8500 Pro 909g printer/fax/scanner/color copier which, with a printer trade in rebate, was $249.98. And there is a $50 mail in rebate on top of that. OK, $200 to replace my all dead and dying Jurassic period home office communications/imaging devices seemed like a good deal. C|Net liked this printer, too.
I had an 8 year old printer to trade, and a friend to carry equipment up and down stairs for me. I played with the printer at Staples for quite a while and liked what I saw.
Hardware setup was quick and easy. I have no complaints there. Then I installed the printer driver suite.
Imagine my displeasure when, at the end of the install, I launched IE and I noticed the Yahoo toolbar had been silently installed without my permission. And IE immediately crashed. Way to go, HP. I re-opened IE and disabled the Yahoo toolbar add-in, closed the browser and was greeted with a second “Internet Explorer has stopped working” intercept. Opened IE and found some additional HP Browser helper objects (BHO’s) in Manage Add-ons and disabled them. Closed the browser. Uninstalled the Yahoo toolbar. Back to normal.
I then decided to contact HP Support to complain about foisting this crap on unsuspecting consumers. The first email response was from a delta semi moron who told me to contact Microsoft for Internet Explorer support in uninstalling the Yahoo toolbar. I emailed my reply and heard back from a different support rep. Apparently HP has so many complaints about the crapware they install that they have a permanent FAQ that includes the language “ ..special offers at HP Deals “. The installer also PINS two icons to the Windows 7 Start menu.
OK, I’ve vented. I feel better now.
I’ve been a Quicken user since the beginning of time. DOS version 3 I think. I’m sad because competition is always good. Anyway, C|Net states notices will go up on the MSFT web site within the next 24 hours. Support for existing Money users will end in January 2011. Fortunately, Quicken has always had a good conversion program for people switching from MS Money.