Firefox Addon: Ookong!

Hardcore Amazon shoppers rejoice! If you are a frequent Amazon hunter like I am, you would know that prices for items can fluctuate over time. You're probably then asking yourself how in the world would you know if you are buying an item when it's at its lowest price point? Or more importantly, are you buying that item when it is at its peak price point? By default, I believe Amazon does have give you a heads up for item prices that have changed for items you put in your cart in the past but I'm not exactly sure how it works. However, you can take the guesswork out now by using the Ookong Firefox browser add-on!

A lot of people think I am really cheap person because I always try to look for the lowest price for items I purchase online. However, that's not really the case. Now, I'm not a rich person by any means but I'm not exactly poor either. There's just a satisfaction a lot of shoppers get when they know they bought their items for as low of a price as possible. Hunting for deals online is considered a challenge and actually fun for many people believe it or not. One of my favorite places to shop online is none other than Amazon. I have been a loyal shopper for about 6-7 years now and I've racked up a lot of Amazon points on my Amazon credit card (which I highly urge anyone to get if you are a frequent shopper like I am).

To get to the point, the Firefox addon Ookong allows you to track item price history on the Amazon webstore. Once installed, every item you visit will have a new Follow This Item button which will tell Ookong to keep tabs on the item pricing. The best part? Well of course price difference notification! When an item in your Ookong list drops below a certain percentage or amount, Ookong will then notify you of the price change.

Ookong

You can download the Ookong Firefox addon from here.

Once installed, you'll notice the little Ookong icon in the lower right corner of your browser.


Simply head to Amazon and continue browsing the site like normal. When you stumble upon an item of interest and want to either track or look at it's price history, simply click on the Follow This Item button.


To view your item list under Ookong, simply click on the icon and select Following List from the menu option. You'll then be taken to your Ookong page where it will give you a view of all the items you are currently tracking with Ookong. From there, you get to see the pricing history for each of your product. You get to see the product's highest price point, the lowest price point and what the current price is at. The other important part you shouldn't miss out on is the graphical chart. Although very simple, it sort of gives you a picture of when (if any) the price changes have occurred over the month. It's a really broad overview but something is better than nothing right?


When Ookong detects that a price drop has occurred for a item in your watch list, it will prompt you with a nice message:


Sadly, Ookong doesn't have web login access to sync your item list so if you are using more than one computer, you'll have to manually import your Ookong list from a file. Fortunately, Ookong makes this really easy. You can export your Ookong list on your current computer and configure other settings by clicking on the Ookong browser icon.

If you aren't fond of installing yet another Firefox addon, you'll be glad to know that you can also see item pricing history directly from Ookong's website as well. Strangely, you can create a web account with Ookong and from what I'm guessing, be able to save your item list. Not sure why that feature isn't integrated with the Firefox addon but I'm also guessing it will be implemented in a future update.

Also, if anyone has other methods of keeping tabs on Amazon product pricing changes and whatnot, please do tell!

In the End...

While I don't particularly dig the name, I do admit Ookong will help me a great deal when snooping around Amazon for the cheapest deals on products of interest. For some Amazon items, they already list the old price, which is grayed and slashed out, with the new and lower pricing. In those situations, Ookong doesn't really do much. For the many other times though, Ookong will give you a pricing history and you get to decide for yourself whether you should wait out a bit more for it to drop in price or just pull the trigger since the price history shows no sign of change for the product or the price is at its lowest point. Ookong isn't a fortune teller so you shouldn't treat it as one. It can't tell you when the next price change will occur, or if it ever will drop again. It is just a simple tool to help you see the pricing history for your product on Amazon, nothing more and nothing less. You can hope for a price drop to occur by looking at the graphing chart for a trend but again, nothing is guaranteed. As with all things, you could keep waiting and waiting and waiting for that perfect price drop to happen but by the time that happens, a better product will most likely replace it or you'll find a better product. Long story short, be decisive but smart at the same time on your purchase decisions!

Happy shopping!


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Book Highlight: The TCP/IP Guide

Did you ever wanted to learn how computers actually communicated? How it can be possible for millions and millions of people around the globe to utilize one of the biggest network which we now call the Internet to do almost everything from e-commerce, communication, video gaming to streaming movies? With the TCP/IP Guide by Charles Kozierok, you'll get your answer and then some. Make no mistake about it. If you needed to learn about how computers communicate with one another on a network, The TCP/IP Guide is your one-stop-shop. Be prepared though because at over 1600 pages and weighing in at almost 5lbs, this book is for the most dedicated of readers. It might be a little pricey for some but the information and knowledge you'll get from this book however is truly priceless.

This book is so big, I don't even know where to begin my take on it as a whole. At the heart of modern networks you'll find a protocol suite that stands out from the rest and that is TCP/IP. You've no doubt heard that term at one point or another. This book will show you how it is computers use this TCP/IP protocol suite to communicate with other computers and devices on a network. Think of TCP/IP as a language used by computers. In order for computers to successfully talk to one another, these computers must be able to communicate in the same language otherwise just as in real life where one person speaking French is trying to communicate with another person who only speaks Chinese, the end results would be horrific to say the least. As with a human language, there consists of many rules and procedures that needs to be universally understood by all communicators in order for it to have any meaning or structure. This is no different with the TCP/IP computer language. Also, just as with learning to speak let alone master another human language is difficult, fully understanding TCP/IP and how it operates is not something you hear a computer geek boost about everyday. It's really challenging. The TCP/IP Guide however will attempt to be your teacher through this special journey should you make an attempt.

The author did a good job writing this book because for a topic as complex as TCP/IP and networking in general, the book is still pretty easy to read and follow along. Of course, there will be times when you read about something you have absolutely no clue on what it is but the point I'm trying to make is that the book doesn't frustrate you. The author gives a lot of examples or comparisons to make things a little easier on you. Even times when you really can't understand something, you can't blame the author too much since like I've said earlier, TCP/IP is just really complicated to begin with.

The book covers many, many topics ranging from the OSI model, networking standards, data representation, ARP, NAT, routers and routing protocols, network encryption, ICMPv4, ICMPv6, message formats, Mobile IP, IP security, TCP/IP and the list goes on and on. Trying to go over everything this book covers is plain suicidal because of its sheer size and volume. I'll put it like this so everyone understands: if something, anything, has to do with network and computer communications, this book will most likely cover it in detail. That's how special this book is. You might be thinking this book is outdated when looking at the year it was first published but that's not generally true. TCP/IP has been around for a long time and will continue to do so. You thought you knew everything there was to know about network communication but I can almost guarantee you right now that you couldn't have been any more wrong. You thought you mastered TCP/IP just because you figured out how to configure your IP address settings or that you've successfully configured your wireless router. But once again, you have no idea how deep that rabbit hole actually goes. Pick up this book and find out for yourself!

The author of The TCP/IP Guide actually set up its own dedicated website for this book and can be found here. You can do everything from purchasing the book, read testimonials, sample the book and to even contact the author himself.


You can also purchase The TCP/IP Guide here from Amazon.

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Patriot Box Office Media Player

A couple of weeks ago, my precious PS3 gaming system malfunctioned and long story short, I now have a very expensive paper weight. Not only did I use my PS3 system to play video games and watch awesome Blu-Ray movies but it was also my main media streamer. I used it to stream a lot of movies from my laptop onto my big screen HDTV. In fact, I wrote about how to do just that in this article here. Needless to say, I needed another way to stream my movies onto my HDTV otherwise I'll go crazy. After doing a lot of research on stand-alone movie streaming devices, I've picked a winner. Say hello to my new Patriot Box Office!


The digital media streaming market has blown up. There are tons of devices in the market (as evident by Amazon) that all aim to do one thing: to easily bring your media from your computer onto your big screen TV with as minimal hassle as possible. Here are just some of the devices I've looked over:

Western Digital TV Live


Asus O!Play


Seagate FreeAgent Theater


Popcorn Hour A-200


Brite-View BV-5005HD


Hopefully, you get the idea. I had a really hard time deciding which one to purchase because a lot of them are actually very similar in what they can do. One important factor I had to look at was the media file types the device was capable of playing. Another factor was network support. With the PS3, I couldn't just load my movies onto a USB thumb drive, plug it in and expect to play them. The PS3 cannot play a lot of movies because it doesn't support the codec or container type. With these media players, that problem has been eliminated. A lot of the devices allow you to hook up a simple USB stick or external hard drive into one of their ports and play your movies directly off of them. It is a very simple and handy way of doing things. Some other media players, like the Western Digital TV Live, even give you the capability to view online sites like Youtube directly from the device! If a perfect day for you consist of laying on the couch plowing over Youtube videos, than that device is perfect for you!

Patriot Office Box

In the end, I went with the Patriot Office Box. Some of you may be familiar with the Patriot brand because if you recall, these are the guys that makes memory (RAM) modules. Yeah I know what you're thinking, why would they jump into the media player market? The correct question is why not? Almost every household has a HDTV and a computer with Internet connectivity and so these people must want a way to watch media on their TV rather than on their computer screens right?

Patriot Box Office


Here is a actual screenshot of it:


Here is a picture guide detailing all the ports and switches on the device:


Setup could not have been any easier. If you can set up a VCR, you can set this little bad boy up. I just stick in the HDMI, optical, Ethernet and power cord, turn on the power switch, turn my HDTV on to the correct HDMI input and I was in business. The unit itself is really small. It's actually smaller than your regular computer CD/DVD drives. The unit also feels very sturdy and doesn't feel like its going to fall apart after a few months. Anyways, point is, if you wanted something low profile, the Patriot Box Office got you covered. Simply hook it up, place it someplace discreet (make sure it has room to dissipate the heat though and you can have direct line of contact with it for working the remote) and no one will be the wiser.

Another good news is that the device just works! So far, I've tested about a dozen of different files on it ranging from a host of different file types and codecs. Every movie played back without any problems. This little device have no problem handling any High-Definition files as well. In fact, you would think that it will need some time from when you press play until you you actually see something on the screen due to processing and whatnot but that doesn't happen here. Movie playback was almost instantaneous! Even when I threw it a 9GB 720p Blu-Ray MKV rip, I felt the device almost laughing at me thinking is this all you got?! Picture quality was absolutely stunning with no major pixelation (which sometimes can happen when you transcode the video on the fly for streaming). Audio was also superb. I'm not a big audiophille but I've got a 5.1 setup and one of the HD rips I've played rocked my house. Audio was super clear too. If you watch a lot of shows with subtitles (anime for example), than you'll be glad to know that the Box Office supports all types of subtitles as well. Also, the subtitle can be adjusted a great deal as well like font size, color, placement etc. I was so happy for this feature because I'm a big anime fan and when I stream my anime to my PS3, the subtitles would show up on TV either really big or really small and it took forever for me to adjust it each time. With the Box Office, it was really easy to adjust everything.

The device can also play music and photos. Also, because it has networking capabilities, you can stream movies from your laptop/computer to your Office Box as well. However, as of right now, it doesn't work quite well with Windows 7. A future firmware update should take care of it though. All I'm doing is dumping what I want to watch onto a simple USB stick and then playing it that way. The Office Box also allows you to install a internal hard drive in it! This is useful if you want a quick way to view and store all of your most important media without having to turn on your computer or plug in any external hard drives.

Well, I didn't mean for this to be a complete review of the Patriot Office Box but there are so many cool stuff about it that I just couldn't hep it. A lot of similar devices like I've said earlier can most likely do the same things the Office Box can do as well. One thing that sold me on this device was the RMVB and the Real Media format support. I was really close to picking the Western Digital TV Live media player when I found out that it didn't support the Real Media media format. I watch a lot of Chinese drama shows and movies and they usually come encoded with Real Media. The Office Box came to the rescue and it was one of the main reasons why I chose it over the others. However, that doesn't mean that the Box Office is flawless. For example, even though it has networking support, it can't access any websites or have any built-in third party services to utilize that capability. Being able to browse Youtube like the Western Digital TV Live media player would be an awesome feature. How about Hulu? Netflix support? Well, I can't entirely put the blame on Patriot because the other third party services have to agree to it as well. All I'm saying is that having networking support is awesome to stream movies from your home network but other than that, it doesn't do much. The browser interface of the Box Office needs some work as well. I'm willing to let the issue slide since I won't be spending too much time in the menu interface.

Here are some actual sites with way more review details on the Patriot Office Box:

TweakTown's Video Review



Hardware Secret's Review

MaximumPC Review

AnandTech Review

In the End...

This little media box did everything I want it to do. I'm finally able to watch movies on my big HDTV again. While the menu interface needs a little work, it's not really something that would completely ruin the experience. I mean let's be honest, once we find our movie in the browser interface and hit Play, that's pretty much all there is to it. A lot of people seem to be complaining about the small lag time (1-1.5 sec) when scrolling through each movies in a folder and I tend to agree. It does get irritating especially if you want to watch a movie stuck right in the middle of a couple dozens of others. Hopefully they fix this with a firmware upgrade. Other than that, I can't complain much about it. As long as the device lasts, I'll be a happy camper. I'm just waiting to see when will future media players hit the market with more integrated Internet capabilities.


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Microsoft's Windows 7 Anti-Piracy Update

Microsoft just released a new Windows update for people currently using Windows 7. What does the update do that will no doubt garnish so much attention the next couple of weeks? Well, it must have something to do with anti-piracy technology, don't you think?! When Microsoft first introduced the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) anti-piracy system, let's just say that not a lot of people were happy about it. Depending on who you were, WGA either was just another minor Windows update being installed on your computer or something you had to defeat and circumvent. I'm sure you guys know what I'm talking about. One of the main reason for deploying WGA was to minimize (I didn't say stop) piracy of the Windows operating system. With the update to Windows Activation Technologies to Windows 7, Microsoft once again will try and help you determine if the copy of your operating system is legit or not.

Windows Update KB971033

For users who are using a pirated copy of Windows 7 (whether knowingly or not), you might find a little surprise waiting for you if you went ahead and installed the KB971033 update. From Microsoft's support website:

Windows Activation Technologies helps you confirm that the copy of Windows 7 that is running on your computer is genuine. Additionally, Windows Activation Technologies helps protect against the risks of counterfeit software. Windows Activation Technologies in Windows 7 consists of activation and validation components that contain anti-piracy features.

* Activation is an anti-piracy technology that verifies the product key for the copy of Windows 7 that is running on your computer. The product key is a 25-character code that is located on the Certificate of Authenticity label or on the proof of license label. These labels are included with each genuine copy of Windows. A genuine product key can only be used on the number of computers that are specified in a software license.

* Validation is an online process that enables you to verify that the copy of Windows 7 that is running on your computer is activated correctly and is genuine.

Furthermore, here is a little description of what will happen if the update finds that you are indeed running a pirated copy of Windows 7. This excerpt is taken from the Windows Genuine Windows Blog:

Once installed, the Update protects customers by identifying known activation exploits that may affect their PC experience. If any activation exploits are found, Windows will alert the customer and offer options for resolving the issue – in many cases, with just a few clicks. Machines running genuine Windows 7 software with no activation exploits will see nothing – the update runs quietly in the background protecting your system. If Windows 7 is non-genuine, the notifications built into Windows 7 will inform the customer that Windows is not genuine by displaying informational dialog boxes with options for the customer to either get more information, or acquire genuine Windows. The desktop wallpaper will be switched to a plain desktop (all of the customer’s desktop icons, gadgets, or pinned applications stay in place). Periodic reminders and a persistent desktop watermark act as further alerts to the customer.

The good news for some people is that this update is completely optional. That's right. You can choose to hide the update if you so desire. Head into Windows Update and find the appropriate update. Right click on it and choose Hide Update from the menu. Just like that, you will never see it again. Basically, if you have a store-bought computer like Dell, Sony, HP or from one of the other big PC manufacturers, you have nothing to worry about. If on the other hand your computer has been in the hands of technicians or other computer repair shops, you might want to run this update.


Before you start complaining about how Microsoft is trying to ruin your life or trying to spy on you and whatnot, take a deep breath and try to see this from another angle. A lot of users will automatically see any type of anti-piracy technology as something that is unnecessary. If everyone buys a computer from the store which is usually pre-loaded with a Windows operating system, why on earth would they have to 'check' on me one more time to be sure? Well sadly to say, that only happens in a perfect world and our world as of right now is far from perfect. Piracy is a huge issue and because of it, Microsoft as a company is losing a lot of money. You may think why would they care since they have so much money anyways? Well, that is beside the point. The main point is that a lot of computers are using a pirated version of some type of the Windows operating system and that is illegal, PERIOD. Now the next question you might have is how does this effect me? Well, in the last article, I wrote about PC technicians and the reformat technique. I basically talked about how a lot of PC technician now days perform a reformat of your entire computer no matter how small or big the problem is. While there is technically nothing wrong with doing so, you have to realize that not all technicians and computer repair people you meet are honest individuals. Long story short, they sometimes help you install a pirate copy of Windows onto your computer and proceed to charge you whatever fee it is they charge. When you realize the problem (usually when you are home), it's too late. This brings into focus the other 'angle' I mentioned earlier.

By deploying some anti-piracy technology, users will be able to check whether their copy of Windows is indeed legitimate. I don't know about you folks but if I had a reformat done on my computer by some random technician (or even brand name companies for that matter), I would want to know if they did everything 'by-the-books'. But like I've said earlier, we don't live in a perfect world and so neither is Microsoft perfect. WGA had some issues back then with false positives which drove some users insane. Basically, legitimate copies of Windows were being flagged as illegitimate/pirated. That never happened to me before but if it did, I'll be furious as well no doubt. Hopefully, Microsoft has learned from their past mistakes and have improved this new anti-piracy technology for Windows 7. Judging by the excellent job they did with Windows 7 itself, I have a lot of faith in them to get it right this time.

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Computer Technicians and Reformats

If you have troubleshooted computers in the past (or present), either for a paycheck or as a hobby, you've more than likely performed a complete system recovery or full reformat. The question is, "When is the right time to perform such a procedure?" Do you usually hit a special road block before considering the reformat or do you use that method the first chance you get to save you any headaches? The reason I'm exploring this issue is due to how so many so called 'professional' technicians out there who love to use this method to repair all of their clients computer systems. Although it gets the job done in most cases, it can mean a lot of headaches for the end user if the communication isn't there. I'll take to look at the issue as both a technician and as a end user.

Say What?

If you aren't familiar with what a system recovery or system reformat is, well, basically it is similar to giving your computer a complete fresh start. By that I mean performing one of those procedures will erase your hard drive and that includes your operating system, documents, photos, music, applications and pretty much everything else you got stored on it. With a factory system recovery, you are allowed to restore your entire computer to the state it was when you first turned it on the day you bought the system home from the store. Remember all those commercial applications and all the other crapware that plagued your system? Well, they all return once again to bug you when you perform a system recovery. With a manual operating system reformat, you get to start the computer again with a bare bones install of the operating system as if you installed it for the first time. The former usually applies to systems you bought from the store and are from big name PC manufacturers like Dell, Sony, HP, Toshiba and Gateway. The latter option applies to users who most likely have a custom built PC and have purchased a retail version of their operating system of choice.

Please Get to the Point..

Alright, so while most technicians and other veteran users already know this stuff, for the casual readers out there, you'll want to pay close attention because although you may not think of it, this could affect you dramatically especially if you pay others to have your PC troubles removed. In the computer technician field, performing a complete system recovery or reformat is similar to admitting defeat (although this is not always the case as you'll see later on). When you bring in your computer to a technician, you obviously have a problem with the system and want it repaired. As the technician, you might have one or an array of problems to tackle depending on the situation. The problem could range from a simple driver reinstall to a full blown virus and malware infected system. By invoking a system recovery or reformat, you can usually fix the problem because you're basically starting from scratch! Everything gets wiped out and you get a fresh start. The question is when is the right time to perform such a delicate procedure? The answer to that question isn't as simple as one might think.

The Problem

As with a lot of things, fixing computers is like an art. Everyone has a different skill set and knowledge to work with. So, that means that many technicians have their own 'style' when it comes to troubleshooting computers. Some take it more seriously than others and it is this note that everything revolves around. I take computer repairs very seriously, no matter how small or big the problem is. I take my time to troubleshoot and research the problem, take caution before installing or removing anything and do a lot of testing to see if the solution implemented really works or not. For many others however, everything revolves around a system reformat. Why? Because this is the easy way out of a problem. Like I said earlier, performing a system reformat will wipe out everything, which will most likely include the problem itself. As you can see, it is very tempting to immediately pull out the 'reformat' card once someone comes to you with a computer problem. In fact I am sure that a lot of computer repair companies out there which heavily rely on the 'reformat' procedure to get the majority of their systems fixed. Usually, they will also charge you an arm and a leg to perform the procedure. In a way, you really can't call this computer repair but if you look at it from another angle, it can be labeled as such because technically, they got the computer fixed and more than not, the computer problem is no longer persistent. I don't want readers to think that I'm against the reformat procedure because that's certainly not the case. It has saved my butt more times than I can remember but I consider doing so only as a last resort and this is where everything gets a bit more blurry.

How it Affects Technicians

A lot of techies love to perform a simple system recovery because it could be one of the easiest solution. For more thorough technicians, it could also mean it is also one of the most painful one's as well. It is easy in a sense that no troubleshooting or researching of the real problem is involved. Simply nuke the computer and start over. It is one of the most painful solution in that you need to make sure most, if not all, of the user's data is backed up. One important piece of advice I can give is to always communicate with your clients! It's really not that hard to go over some of the important details that goes with performing a system recovery to the end user. I mean it is their computer at the end of the day so they have a right to know exactly what it is you'll be doing with it once it is in your hands.

How it Affects Users

One of the biggest headache that comes with a full system recovery or reformat is backing up your data. Everyone uses a computer differently than the next person and so when you perform a reformat, you better know what data you consider important and where it is located! If you fail to backup important data, you can expect to never see them again. This is the point that I can't stress enough. Whether you are bringing your computer to a local mom-and-pop repair shop or to a big name company, you better make sure that if they do have to perform a system recovery, they need to notify you first and if possible, get your consent. It surprises me how so many times a hot shot technician just goes ahead and performs the reformat without notifying the client first. You can already imagine how the user will react once he/she gets the computer back. Sure the computer is fixed and whatnot but now you are missing some or in worst case scenario, all of your data. If you didn't keep a backup copy, you can kiss everything goodbye. The technicians excuse: "Because your computer was really screwed up and it was the only way". You laugh but trust me, I've heard it one to many times. If you find out that they will be performing a full system recovery, you better ask them how they plan on backing up and restoring your data. Sometimes, a technician will assume that you store data in the default folder locations like My Documents, Pictures, Music, Downloads, Desktop etc. If you store data elsewhere, you better let them know about it. To minimize the damage (if any), please do yourself a huge favor by backing up all of your important data prior to bringing your computer to a computer repair technician if possible. If you can't boot to your operating system, you can create a simple Linux rescue CD following the instructions here. Hell, if you can at least create and boot into that Linux rescue CD, I'm sure you'll be able to perform a system recovery yourself!

So When is the Right Time to Perform a Reformat?

This issue certainly needs to be looked at on a case by case basis. As the computer user, do you want to to have a fresh start? This means having to install and configure all of your applications once again. On the bright side, if your computer was behaving strangely, a system recovery might be the cure. There are times when a computer is infected so badly with malware that it doesn't make sense to not perform the recovery and reformat. Even if you could get rid of the malware on the system (or so you think), can you honestly trust that system again? I'm not as paranoid as to suggest a full blown system nuke everytime your computer catches some piece of malware but it's just something to think about. As a technician, you have to ask yourself (honestly, hopefully) if there are any other methods or solutions to the problem besides performing the recovery. Are there any workarounds? Have you talked to your client about the risk of performing a full system recovery/reformat?
At other times, a system recovery or reformat might not be the best option. If a technician can repair the main problem at hand, then doing so can usually avoid the reformat route. Not to be rude or anything but if the first solution you think about is to simply reformat a computer without even looking into the problem, you're either pretty lazy or not well versed in the art of computer troubleshooting. Of course I'm taking to other technicians here and not to the average people. If we simply spend some time to actually dig into the problem, a lot of times we can save the computer without having to erase everything.

In the End...

I know this has been a long read but I really wanted to get some stuff off my chest and be able to explain it to you folks in the best way possible. Some stuff I said probably didn't even make any sense but I thank you nonetheless if you have read this far! Performing a system recovery and reformat is not a shady practice and even casual users do it from time to time. The problem I have is when users actually spend money to have someone simply perform the procedure without doing any prior troubleshooting. As a casual user, you really need to think hard the next time you bring your computer in to a repair shop (no matter how small or big the company is). Is that all they'll be doing to your computer? How much are you paying them to do that? Could you have simply done the procedure yourself and save a bunch of money? Performing a system recovery is very simple as most of the newer computers you buy in the stores have the system recovery data stored on a hidden partition on your hard drive. You simply need to press a specific key during computer bootup to invoke the restore process. Did you just pay a computer technician $200 just to do that? Hopefully not.

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iPhone/iPod Stuff: Use SharePod and Ditch iTunes!

My love for iTunes have grown only a little since it was first introduced. I'll have to admit that the program can certainly do a lot of things when it comes to managing our media content on your PC's. One of the best things I love about it is being able to easily browse the hundreds, if not thousands, of audio and video podcast out there on the Internet. A lot of people I know of thinks that the only way to actually manage their audio and video contents on their iPhone/iPod is through iTunes. Well, they are wrong. If you dislike iTunes but still want to be able to sync and import your multimedia files to your device, there are many alternatives out there. I'll go over one that I'm especially fond of in this article.

I'll start off by saying that if you are happy with the way you are syncing your media to your iPod or iPhone as of right now, there really isn't much reason to switch to another method. However, you'll still want to read on because I'll show you how you can actually transfer your music from your iPod/iPhone back onto your computer.

One of the main reason I dislike iTunes in general is due to the way it syncs media to your device. Apple recommends that you sync your iPod or iPhone with one and only one computer. Reason being that if you sync with more than one computer, the device thinks that you'll want to get rid of and delete the media you currently have on the device for the media on the second computer. Now I'm not a expert on this issue so that's the way I think it works. What I do know is that basically, the damn device isn't smart enough to employ different sync profiles without doing some serious tweaking. That means that when you have a iPod or iPhone synced with your music library at your home computer, you better think twice the next time you plug in the device into another computer (your friends computer for example) and sync some songs to it because you might find out the hard way that all of your media will actually be erased instead. The reason I say 'might' is because your results may vary. Some of you might know that there is an option in iTunes to 'Manually manage your music and videos' and in some cases, it works. Once the option has been turned on, you'll be allowed to simply drag and drop music from your computer directly into your iPhone/iPod device under iTunes.


If that actually worked everytime, I wouldn't have written this article. Just earlier today, a friend wanted to sync some music from my computer to his iPhone. I checked the same option under iTunes. However, it presented me with a dialog box asking me if I was sure I wanted to manually manage the content on the device and that doing so will erase the media on that device. Needless to say, I hit OK and everything got erased. When I tried turning on that option on my own iPhone, I wasn't presented with that same dialog box which leads me to believe that the option should be applied on the user's own computer. Whatever the case maybe, it's a hassle. I totally forgot about performing the manual sync on his iPhone with Sharepod and so that is why I'm writing it here.

SharePod

Sharepod is a neat little utility that allows you to 'truly' manually manage your iPhone/iPod. The beauty of using this utility is that it doesn't matter how many computers you plug your device into. As long as you are using SharePod, nothing will get deleted via a error sync with iTunes and whatnot. You get to actually select what music and/or videos to sync to your device. Going with the earlier example, if I remembered to have use SharePod on my friend's iPhone, we could have avoided the multimedia content deletion on his device. SharePod is lightweight and is a self-executable so you can bring it along with you on a USB thumb-drive or store it directly on your iPod/iPhone as well. The next time you want to import some media to it, simply fire it up and pick the files you want. That's it. No more syncing (in a iTunes sense), no more headaches. The best part is that SharePod is a two-way street. If you want to dump the songs from your iPhone/iPod back onto your computer, that can be done as well! If your computer suddenly crashed or if your music library accidentally got erased, fear not. Simple use SharePod to copy the songs back onto your hard drive. Let's see iTunes do that for you!

Before proceeding on how to use SharePod, I want to make a quick note. SharePod is not a iTunes replacement. What I mean is that SharePod is not a multimedia manager like iTunes or Windows Media Player. It simply offers you an alternative interface to interact with your iPhone/iPod. It is a manager in that it can only manage the media content on your device only. If all you ever wanted to do was find a hassle-free way of getting music and video onto your iPhone/iPod, give SharePod a try.

1. You can download SharePod from here. Extract the SharePod executable and place it in a folder. After you finish using SharePod, it will dump some configuration files in the same location as the SharePod executable.

Although chances are slim, SharePod might be able corrupt your media library on your device. I will not be held responsible if you happen to be the few unlucky individuals.

2. Connect your iPhone/iPod to your computer. If iTune starts up, simply close it out. In fact, I don't think it is recommended that you have both utilities open at the same time. Now, open up SharePod by double-clicking on its executable. SharePod will immediately search for your device. Once found, it will then give you a view of all your media files stored on it. As you can see in the second screenshot, my iPhone is completely empty. But that will soon change.


3. To simply add music or videos to your device, click on the 'Copy to iPod' button at the top. You can either add individual files (great for importing a select list of media content) or choose to add a entire folder (great for importing complete music albums). Click on the appropriate button. A familiar dialog box should pop up asking you to browse to the location of the files/folder you wish to add. Do so and then click OK. Repeat the procedure until you have all the folders or files you want to add. Hit the OK button one more time and SharePod will then begin adding your files to your Apple device. You can see the import progress of each file in a new window. If you try to add incompatible files, SharePod will let you know. To successfully add videos, you should convert them to MP4 first. You can use Format Factory to perform the conversion. Sadly, you can't import photos to your Apple device using SharePod but only being able to export them.


That's it! You have now successfully added media files to your Apple device. Wasn't that painless? To delete media files, simply highlight them, right click, and then choose 'Delete from iPod'. That's it. Your MP3s and videos should now show up in your library (under the iPod app if you are using the iPhone). If you are a big Coverflow fan, you'll be disappointed because your album cover pictures don't get synced when you use SharePod. Therefore when in Coverflow view, you will not be able to see your album cover arts, although you'll still be able to browse through your albums. Good news however is that if you properly tagged your individual MP3 files with cover art, they do show up when you play the song. I'm not sure if I'm doing anything wrong (it could be due to SharePod's inability to sync photos) but if someone knows the solution to the cover art problem, please do share!


4. You can also use SharePod to backup your media files. If you want to export a select number of files, first you highlight them in SharePod and then clicking the 'Copy to PC' icon at the top. You'll then get to choose a directory to copy those files to and SharePod also gives you the option to automatically import those copied tracks into your iTunes library. If you don't plan on using iTunes, uncheck this option. Next, you get to select how the music copied to your computer will look like. There are a couple of presets to choose from or you can customize your own setting. Hit OK and let SharePod go to work. Once the process is done, head over to the directory you have chosen and you'll see the exported media. Very awesome indeed.


5. If you want to create a full backup, select the 'Backup iPod' button instead. The procedure and interface is similar to the previous step but the main difference here is that every media file and playlist will get exported.

6. Seeing all of your media in one long list can be a nightmare to sort through. Because using SharePod means that we are now manually managing our media, we need some way to easily filter through our files and quickly find what we want. Luckily, SharePod includes a very handy search feature. Click on the 'Search iPod' button and you can filter your library by Title, Artist, Album and/or Genre.

7. Click on the 'Options' button if you want to configure how SharePod behaves. I've never had to change anything since using SharePod but your experience may vary.


8. Once you are done using SharePod to manage your iPhone/iPod, be sure to click on the 'Eject iPod' button before disconnecting your device from your computer!

In the End...

I wonder why couldn't iTunes make importing music into our device as easy as using SharePod. Sure, SharePod isn't for advance users and its options/capabilities as a whole can't be compared to iTunes but it at least doesn't frustrate me when all I want to do is importing media to my device (especially on different computers). I'm sure many people out there will disagree with me (and most will likely start listing all the awesome stuff iTunes can do). When it comes to other things, I like to get real technical with it but for some reason when it comes to my media players and devices, I like to keep it simple. If you like to import media from computers other than your own, SharePod is a must have.
While SharePod lacks many features such as not being able to import pictures and managing podcast subscriptions, it does what I want most and it does it in the most simplest fashion: import my media to my iPhone! The import speed isn't all that great either with SharePod but it's manageable. iPod and iPhone users who feels like being chained at the ankle to iTunes, feel free to try out SharePod. Granted, we all still need to use iTunes to import and manage our podcast subscriptions and not to mention to download/purchase/sync iTune applications but once someone comes out with a hassle free utility to do those tasks as well, we will be another step away from giving iTunes the boot.

I'm sure there are many other utilities and applications similar to SharePod so if are using one of those said programs, please feel free to comment and share your experience with them in the comments section below. What the heck, if you want to rag on me for dissing iTunes, you can do so as well.

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Time to Clean Those Monitors!

I'm not going to lie. I rarely clean my computer or laptop monitor screens. It's not that I'm too lazy or anything. It's just that I've never made it a habit or a priority to do so. As long as the monitor produce images on the screen, I'm satisfied and I'm positive many people agree to that thinking as well. However, there is one issue that many others have failed to realize...

Now you may be one of those people who will occasionally do a simple wipe down of your screen for dust and whatnot but that doesn't really do anything. Fingerprints and other grime build-up on the screen cannot be simply wiped down without some type of liquid cleaning solution. Here is where the issue lies that many others have failed to realize. By ignoring those dirt build-up, smudges and other dust on the monitor screen, it actually degrades the image quality your monitor screen produces! I know, you're probably thinking that much is obvious but trust me, until you actually clean your monitor with a liquid type solution, you'll never understand.

We spend a lot of money on computer monitors and on our laptops. It's our job to make sure they operate in peak performance by taking good care of it. Remember that day when you first got that computer or laptop and marveled at how awesome all of your videos and pictures looked on the screen? Over time, as dirt and dust starts to build up, it can degrade the image quality. Although you might not notice it and first, trust me when I say that you will notice the difference after you have cleaned it. Our monitor screen should be polished from time to time to give it that 'brand-new' look to it.

What to Use

I'm no expert on monitor screen cleaning but I have tried Monoprice's LCD Cleaning Kit and am amazed at the product. Monoprice is an online store that sells all types of computer/HDTV cables and equipments. What makes them so special is that they sell their products at almost half the price, if not more, than what you would have to pay at a local store. Their quality is top notch and rivals that of many brand name products. One very good example is when people need a HDMI cable for their newly bought HDTV. At the store, you would most likely have to pay anywhere from $60-$70 for a brand name cable. Buy it at Monoprice and you can get the cable for less than $10. It is amazing how much money you can save just by shopping at Monoprice.

They have their own brand of LCD cleaning solution which I have purchased and used on all my home computer monitors and laptop screens. Like I've said earlier, the end result was amazing. For less than $3 (yes, you read right, $3), you have a huge bottle of LCD cleaning solution along with a generously big microfiber cloth. I dare you to find a better price at your local computer shop. If you are in charge of computer hardware equipment at your company, you might want to give this a try as well. A clean monitor always gets the users more happy! Remember, you don't generally wipe down your monitor every single day so that makes this investment last that much more longer. Hell, you can even offer to clean all of your friend's monitors along with their friend's and their friend's! If you are a technician, cleaning your clients monitor screens can be a good way for them to remember your service the next time around. For such a small price, you've got nothing to lose!

How to Use

Using the Monoprice LCD Cleaning Kit is easy. It just takes a bit of care.

1. If your computer screen is really dirty, meaning it has accumulated a lot of dust particles, I would first recommend you to use a tissue or a small towel of some kind to gently (and I mean gently!) wipe away the surface dust. Do not apply pressure of any kind because we are not cleaning the screen with the tissue! We are simply preparing it by getting rid of some of the dust build-up and whanot. Usually, the edges of the screen will accumulate the most dust so gently clean that area as well. You're probably wondering why not just use the microfiber cloth including with the kit? Well, it is because we will be reusing the cloth for future cleaning and so we don't want it to be caked with dust and other dirty particles. We want to use the cloth to remove fingerprint stains and other types of smudges on the screen. I do want to point out that in the future, you can find similar microfiber cloths at your local electronic stores as well so don't stress about that.

2. Once most of the dirt and dust have been removed, it is time to use our cleaning kit from Monoprice. Turn off your monitor before applying the cleaning solution. Give the cleaning solution a good shake or two. The trick is to not spray too much on your screen. On a big screen monitor, I would recommend giving a good full spray on each corner of the screen along with a spray in the middle. On a smaller LCD monitors and laptop screens, you might want to skip the middle spray.

3. Grab your microfiber cloth and once again, very gently wipe your monitor screen. Almost instantly, you'll see a lot of the fingerprints and other smudges begin to disappear.

4. Just to be on the safe side, let your screen dry off for a minute or two before turning it back on. Enjoy your 'brand-new' screen!

In the End...

I'm positive that you will be able to see the image quality difference between a dirty screen to that of a freshly polished one. I remember the first time I used the LCD cleaning kit and I was literally blown away at how much difference it made. Honestly, the difference was night and day. The images on my screen was much more bright and livid. Basically, it was like starting up my computer for the first time! Happy cleaning!


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