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EMINENCE LEGENDGB12812" BRIT GUITAR SPKR; 50W; 8 OHMS

Hot-rodded British guitar tone
Has a Private Jack flavor, but with improved definition
Coloration: Thick and smooth with lots of mids and a very tight top end
Lot of definition and crunch

No joking or exaggeration here. This is a fantastic all around british style speaker.

You could use this speaker in any amp or cabinet and it would work beautifully. It is very clear and musical. Strong and powerful sound with a touch of chime.

Plus, it is huge. A gigantic magnet and frame, produces 101 decibels of volume at just 50 watts.

I am using it in an extention cabinet and playing through a 15 watt AC15VR. It is definately louder than the 60 watt speaker in the amplifier. But at the same time, when I turn down the forward pickup it is round and clean enough for jazz and finger styles.

The tone is touch sensitive, you hear everything. Crisp lows and mids and singing highs.

This speaker has a wide usable frequency range, 80Hz to 5000Hz.

It picks up ever little articulation your guitar, pick and fingers make. Not the fuzzy, nasal brit "Greenback" type sound. But a more even, classic "Heritage" sound.

I have a Vintage30 speaker and the GB128 is better sounding with gain on blues and classic rock.

I could not find a bad review on it.

If you have a cabinet that is large and cant find a speaker that can push enough air, here it is.

I am using it in an open back cabinet.

If you need to get some volume over your band mates or just want too give some new life from your old amp, I definately do suggest the GB128. You cant beat the price either. Get four.

It would sound great with American amplifiers that use brit style speakers, too.

You will not regret it.

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First let me say that I have owned many, many guitar speakers. I actually owned a Legend GB128 years ago and being the tweaker that I am, sold it and went in another direction. I have tried several of the Eminence Red Coats (Governor, Wizard, Private Jack), Cannabis Rex, Texas Heat, Weber Blue Dog Alnico, Celestion Vintage 30, Celestion Gold just to name a few. This GB128 speaker is the most balanced speaker of them all in my opinion. I like mids and they are fat and present without being overbearing/shrill (Vintage 30). The mids are more of a low mid and not a high mid like a Vintage 30. There is just enough low and high end, but not too much. The cleans sound fantastic and overdriven, the speaker retains its clarity. For the price that this speaker sells for, there is nothing even close in quality. If Eminence painted this speaker frame and put some kind of catchy sticker/name on the magnet, it could sell for > $100 easily. I thought that's what they did with the Private Jack, but to me, this speaker is not only cheaper but better. Absolutely no dope on the cone, which might be part of the magic and the only difference between this speaker and the Private Jack outside of the color/name. Probably best in a low powered 1X12 amp where the speaker is not being pushed to the limit. Perfect for a Deluxe Reverb, which is what I have the speaker in.

This is the first time I have been inclined to review a product on Amazon. I'm not sure why Amazon has this speaker listed like it is some kind of generic, but if you are reading this, take a small chance on this speaker and get it.

Read Best Reviews of EMINENCE LEGENDGB12812" BRIT GUITAR SPKR; 50W; 8 OHMS Here

I replaced an Eminence Wizard in my Blackstar HT20 combo amp with this GB128.

I was looking for a great sounding speaker, which the Wizard was, but a little smoother on the highs. Not so forward sounding. Got what I wanted.

Using primarily a PRS Custom 24, a Fender American Deluxe Telecaster and a Gibson SG, all 3 guitars shine through it.

Overall smoother than the Wizard, which was more forward sounding throughout the whole spectrum, but retaining great definition. On the Blackstar amp, works well either with humbuckers or single coils.

Sound is absolutely subjective, so try it out because it is a great speaker, but if you are not happy just return it and keep trying until you find the one you like.

PS: also tried a Cannabis Rex, which was amazing, but coupled with my amp, which is already bass heavy, had too much bass.

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I play blues classic rock and country. My rig consists of a Gibson Les Paul with P90's, a now discontinued Peavey Classic 30 head and a matching Peavey 212 cab which came with Blue Marvel speakers made by Eminence. The factory speakers had a spike in the mid range that drove me crazy and after much research I purchased the Eminence Legend GB128 speakers. These speakers not only eliminated the spike but are without a doubt the best speakers I have ever used. They don't have a catchy name or come with a lot of marketing hype but believe me when I tell you that they are smooth, smooth, smooth. They don't require a lot of breaking in, have a later breakup and the tones a rich and creamy. This is not a heavy metal speaker though.

As the title suggests, I bought this speaker for my 2 year old Crate V-18. Now I like this amp, but it did have it's flaws, the most prominent being the fact that it can be very muddy, as well as having almost no clean headroom to speak of. The only thing I could do for it was use a Bad Monkey Overdrive as a treble/gain booster, but this effectively eliminated ANY chance of a decent clean tone. I liked the dirty tone, but that's all it's got.

I decided to try this speaker, and WOW, what a difference. With no other changes to the amp, it suddenly has a versatility it never had before. Turning the gain down actually results in a wonderful clean tone that isn't quite Fender and isn't quite Marshall, but is it's own lovely thing.

Now, the biggest surprise is that this not only improved the clean tones, it also dramatically improved the dirty tone. Where before I had to dial in a touch of dirt with the amp and push it with the Bad Monkey, now I have a full and rich range with the Gain knob all the way up the dial. It didn't change what I liked about it, but rather what I didn't like about it. Kicking in the Bad Monkey simply gives it another useful voice now.

Overall, the tone is tighter, a little brighter, and overall more useful and musical. The amp is still just a touch muddy, but now turning the bass down and the treble up actually DOES something. I suspect a change to good tubes will only make it better.

I'm not gonna blow smoke and say it turned this amp into a boutique-quality amp, but it did take it up several notches up the tone ladder. I would not have thought changing just the speaker could make such a phenomenal change, but it did.

Highly recommend the Eminence Legend GB 128

Homedics HX-B050 HMDX Quad Bedside Audio

Full-function dual alarm clock with Snooze, Nap, and Gradual Wake feature
Digital tune AM/FM radio with 10 station presets
Auto-set clock
USB port for charging your devices
Aux-in for connecting external music devices

I bought this clock for the dual alarm feature. The USB charging port was purely an extra bonus feature. That is pretty much the only good features of this clock radio. It has a unique design but the buttons on top are not intuitive you certainly need to use the instruction manual to figure out some things. The snooze button is not easy to find if you're a regular snooze-button-pusher. The gradual wake function is only gradual if you consider very quiet to screaming in your face radio within 10 seconds and my clock sits on the other side of my 250 sq. ft. bedroom. There is no way to not have a "gradual wake" radio. You are stuck with that or annoying beeping. The display is extremely bright even on the lowest setting (as others have mentioned). It is on the lowest setting and doesn't bother me since it is on the other side of the room. It does double as a good nightlight.

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This clock actually offends me on a deep level at how cheaply it is made and how poorly it works. It should not exist. I only get the strongest FM signals even though I'm in viewing distance of my town's radio transmitters. Even AM barely comes in! The sound quality is worse than a telephone. The speakers rattle loudly if you try to adjust the volume to a discernible level. The controls are very awkward and labeled with incomprehensible symbols. DON'T BUY THIS!

I made the huge mistake of ordering it from bestbuy.com. It was back-ordered so by the time I received it it was past the 30 day purchase date and they would not let me return it. I'm thinking of dropping it off a tall building so I can at least get some sort of satisfaction out of it. Beware of this company's products!

Read Best Reviews of Homedics HX-B050 HMDX Quad Bedside Audio Here

Auxiliary input is pretty useless since the speakers are so weak and sound poorly.

USB charging feature is really the only reason why I gave it another star.

Also, like others have noted, the display is very bright even dimmed to its lowest setting.

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I am disappointed with this product. I ordered it to my friend as a birthday present. When he unwrapped it he saw that alarm clock was dirty, with some wrapping materials inside and with little scratches. It looks like t's been used by someone else before.

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I bought this clock radio based solely on its look. I liked the hi-tech cube design. The actual product is smaller than I expected and feels somewhat flimsy. I still like the look of it, and am happy with it overall.

The good: Includes a USB port (for charging only) and audio in jack. These are great to have, and I now charge my phone through the USB port. It has an easy to access dimmer button that lets you turn the BRIGHT display completely off. Auto-adjust time, DST.

The bad: Flimsy, LED display is unbelievably bright. Even on the lowest setting,it lights up the room. I'm going to cover the display with some tinting film so I can sleep. The sound quality is terrible (to be expected from such small speakers). AM radio reception is poor.

Overall I got what I paid for: a cool looking clock radio with some bonus features.

Naxa NX-675 Detachable Stereo AM/FM Radio MP3/CD Player With ID3 Text Functio...

Installed mine--works as designed. It's the design I have issues with

1.) From USB or memory card, this radio can play thousands of MP3s. But it doesn't shuffle!

2.) It also fails to recognize folders. Put 15 albums on a USB drive, and there's no way to get to album 7 (unless you happen to remember that album 7 starts at the 67th song and you skip to that song)

3.) There are no AM or FM presets. All of your tuning will be manual.

4.) My last radio, a JVC, had a wiring harness that could connect to my car's wiring harness. Two harnesses plug into each other, no stripping or soldering. Not so here--you'll be stripping wires and connecting them if you want to install

5.) The FM antenna plug was on the other side of the radio than other aftermarkets I've bought (i.e., the plug is on the right hand side of the Naxa when you're looking at it from the rear). No big deal, just had to buy an FM antenna extension cord, but be aware of that.

This was a bargain unit which did exactly what it advertised, but it does not have the features I've come to take for granted on car radios in general.

RCA PCHSTAB2R USB Charging Dock with Device Cradle

By "it's like the lamp in most hotel rooms these days" I mean it's there to give you somewhere to plug devices into. I actually like the concept. Basically you plug this device into the wall and put the block on your desk and in doing so you turned one outlet at the wall into an outlet on your desk, plus you now have 2 usb charging ports.

First know that this picture, while "nice" is wrong. There is no actual 30 pin Apple device charger on the top as pictured. The only way I can see to make this happen... Drill a hole in the top of this, glue your own connector in place and runt the cord out the bottom then plug it in... Yeah, not build the way it's pictured.

What you DO get is:

1. On the top is a slot, no charging ports, it's just a plastic place to put your device.

2. On the back you get 1 electrical outlet, not grounded it's only 2 prong. This is fine, it' works just fine with my wifes netbook charger. It does NOT however work with my standard size laptop charger as it requires 3 prong outlets.

3. 2 USB ports on the back, one is strong enough for an iPad, or any other USB device, the other is a standard lesser voltage USB that will will charge.

In my application I found that I can put my android phone in upside down in the slot in the top, plug a usb cable into the usb slot on the back and into the phone and let it charge. Is this practical? Nope, because my android then is upside down and while the screen rotates, most apps including the clock app I use don't rotate 180 degrees... I sure wish they made an actual charging port on top. BUT for what I actually use it for it does work. And I like that I have outlets available to me.

I was going to buy one of those outlets you install in your house that converts a 2 wall outlet into a one wall outlet with 2 usb ports, however I decided to go this route as I wanted the usb ports to be easier to get to, and I like the portability of this. I just wish the top of this had a more practical use. For that I give it 3 out of 5 stores. I don't hate it, but I don't love it.

This charging station is a useful addition to either the home office or the office office. I set mine up at my office and it sits beside my computer where I can plug in my phone charger, rest my phone in the cradle and recharge it out of the way of all my other stuff. That makes it useful. There is both a standard plug from the back of the cradle, as well as two usb ports. The fact that it still requires me to lug out and hook up my cell phone charger prompted me to give the product 4 instead of 5 stars. Ideally, I could just place the phone in the cradle and walk away whil it charged. Regardless,this is quite a helpful device.

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While the picture looks like there is a connector built into the device, that is not the case. You need a separate charging cable and basically just put your device upside down and plug it in on top. That was quite a disappointment, to tell the truth, since I got this for someone who wanted to have their own place to plug in their ipod.

Still, we are using it for an ipod, and I have another charger plugged into the 3 prong plug on back, so I can use it to charge my tablet. But it is not what we thought it was. Caveat Emptor.

Read Best Reviews of RCA PCHSTAB2R USB Charging Dock with Device Cradle Here

The video pretty much shows it all, but here is a summary for those of you who don't want to watch the video ;)

PROS:

-large enough for the largest phones

-includes pads to put inside the unit, if you have a smaller phone, and you want a snug fit

-has 2 USB charging ports

-has a 2-prong "convenience" electrical port, for ... an alarm clock or lamp or something, I guess?

CONS:

-Cord is too low to the base of the unit, and arrives bent down, which means if you keep it at the edge of a table, moving it around is a bit of a problem

-the port for the phone is a LITTLE shallow, it could be a bit deeper for larger phones, especially since they include the pads for smaller phones

Overall, it is a nice little docking station though, pretty much what I was looking for in a phone dock.

4 stars.

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This item is pretty useless as it takes up desk space. The "cradle space" on top is pretty useless as you cannot charge your device unless you drill a hole thru the bottom of the unit to put your charging cord through there to reach one of the USB slots as there are no charging pins as provided with the other RCA PCHSTAB1R 30-Pin Charging Dock with Device Cradle which has much more functionality but only 1 USB charging port in the back of that unit, but alas you can charge your iPod or iPhone as it comes w/a removeable cradle to support either application when you put either unit in that cradle with the 30 pin plug in that cradle. If I could have given this one zero stars I would have. I was very dissapointed in this. Even though they give you 4 or 5 foam strips to adjust your Galaxy III smartphone in the cradle it still won't allow for any room to allow for you to run your charging cable that plugs in the "bottom" of the phone to run along "outside" the cradle to plug along in the BACK of this charging dock. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS!

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Westclox 1950 Big Ben Moonbeam Yellow Alarm Clock

Sure, it's just a clock. A reproduction of a 1930's clock. Jeez, it's analog in a digital world. It isn't uber-cool matte black or made of titanium. Besides accurately telling the time and having an effective alarm, its only other features are a flashing light and a battery back-up. Most would think "nothing special here." But, unexpectedly, there is something kind of special about this. There is some subtle set of elements that combine to please me whenever I look at this clock. Nothing spectacular or even all that explicable....the feeling evoked is just pleasant...like seeing a girl's ponytail jauntily bouncing, like your favorite coffee cup with filled with just the right temperature coffee, like a puppy rolling on its back to look at you. Kind of corny? Sure...but nice nevertheless.

These clocks are very nice looking, but their function leaves a lot to be desired. I purchased two of these. One in blue and one in yellow. So far the blue clock is still working. The yellow clock has to be returned. Quality control is abysmal.

The dial light in the yellow clock randomly stops working. I bought this clock to use at night for an easy way to check the time in the dark. When the dial illumination fails, the only way to restore it is to unplug the clock then plug it back in again. This restores the dial light until the next time it fails. Turning the dial light switch off and on again does not restore the light.

The problem got progressively worse. After the dial light was restored by pulling the plug, it would take several days before it failed again. Now it can fail again in a matter of minutes.

Very poor quality.

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This was a replacement for the same clock that broke. This one is lighter

in its construction. The light alarm is not nearly as bright in its flash

and the buzz alarm is an electric buzz instead of a bell. Liked the one

I bought 5 years ago much better.

Read Best Reviews of Westclox 1950 Big Ben Moonbeam Yellow Alarm Clock Here

Updated 8/30/11. So I recieved my refund. Less $8.31. Restocking fee? For a broken item that was owned less than a month? What a disappointment.

I liked this clock, but the alarm stopped working after 4 weeks. Now I am waiting for my refund. :(

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My wife has wanted one of these for years and finally got one for Christmas.

Within a day it had lost 5 minutes. The alarm time (as noted in other reviews) is only an approximation. Carefully set for 7:00, it buzzes somewhere between 6:45 and 7:15, and not consistantly. The alarm light does not work. Who performed quality control on this thing? We'll be sending this one back for replacement in hopes this example was a lemon.

My BIGGEST complaint is the clock comes with a big warning sticker telling you the setting knobs (both time and alarm) must only be turned one way, as indicated by the arrows on the back, to avoid damaging the mechanism. I don't know about you, but none of my old analog clocks required you to turn the hands one way only. In addition, I'm just lazy enough to want to reach around the clock and turn the adjustment knobs without looking at them. Gosh, I sure hope I don't inadvertantly spin them the wrong way and wreck the clock...especially at this price.

I note this clock is made in China and feels cheaply made.

Dave

UPDATE: We've had the replacement clock for about 2 months now, and it is acceptably accurate. I have upgraded this review to 2 stars as the clock still retains the cheap feel and restrictive alarm setting requirements; but more important, this has a most annoying alarm. For a clock designed to sooth you awake, this one makes you grind your teeth. My wife uses another clock as her alarm, but keeps this one on the nightstand because she likes the "retro" look.

Still only two stars, but that's a 100% improvement over my initial assessment.

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Sony ICF-C218 Automatic Time Set Clock Radio (Black)

Automatic time set
Automatic Daylight Savings Time
Battery backup ensures correct time
0.9-inch green LED display
Single alarm

Not the niftiest, nor the most elegant clock radio available but the price and features make it about as good a buy as you'll find.

All the important features battery backup, automatic time synch, intuitive alarm setting, good (but gentle on the eyes) time visibility.

There's a dual alarm version available for a few bucks more too.

We liked this one enough to buy another for our guest bedroom guests won't be befuddled by this model...

BTW, radio isn't high fidelity but its not bad, a good Sony quality product.

UPDATE 10/28/09: Two years down the road and the two of these radios we bought are still going strong. One of the things I failed to mention in the original review was that this unit does NOT, repeat, does NOT have a power brick just a nice old fashioned wall plug on a wire sweet. I take note of the comment by others about the intensity (or lack thereof) of the clock LED. Myself, and upon further inquiry, my wife find the intensity to be 'just right'. Perhaps there is some variation in the units or maybe its just a matter of your sleeping environment. We're former Sierra Nevada 'country' folks who now live on the edge of a small Ohio town. Between the street light, the neighbor's lights, the wifi router and a couple of those green 'limelite' nightlights we DO have sufficient ambient light at night to move around without stubbing the old toes. BTW, I've dropped both of our units more than once, and accidentally kicked one across our guest suite no discernable damage. Oh yes, the wife says that they'd show the dust less if they were white.

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I've had this for 3 days now, and i'm very happy with it...and i put alot of research in everything i buy. The Radio works perfectly, picks up all the stations clearly, the alarms sound starts out soft and gets progressively louder..so you will get up. The Built in battery is also a plus, that way i'll never lose track of time.

for this price this is a great product..and oh yes huge green lights for the display and many more features...wake up to the radio or the buzzer...

enjoy....

Read Best Reviews of Sony ICF-C218 Automatic Time Set Clock Radio (Black) Here

Unfortunately, I am not able to rate the Sony ICF-C218 as highly as my colleagues. Not that this clock radio doesn't have numerous good features. The radio got good reception and the sound was of better than average quality. The controls, as others have pointed out, are intuitive and easy to use even without ever resorting to the instructions. The alarm, as is common, can wake you up either with the radio or with a buzzer. The only missing feature that would have been nice would be a dual alarm, though for the price this lack cannot be complained of.

The problem with the unit, and it is a serious one, is the brightness of the display. Of the other two reviewers who've rated the ICF-C218 at three stars, curiously one complains that the display is too dim and the other that it is too bright. My experience agrees with the later. I didn't notice until I tried sleeping beside this unit, but once your eyes are accustomed to the darkness the nicely-sized display is simply far too bright. It casts shadows on my ceiling and was a distraction when trying to fall asleep; I was forced to angle it away from myself or face the opposite direction. This is simply inexcusably poor design in an alarm clock and is a deal breaker for me; I'm going to be returning my unit.

A more minor complaint would be the AM/PM indicator. Most clocks have a single light that is lit when it is post meridiem (or ante meridiem, depending on the model), but this one has two lights, one about 7 mm above the other, which indicate morning or afternoon. That's fine when the room is light and you can read the AM or PM text next to the two lights, but at night you'll simply have to remember which light is above the other one and how far each is from the top of the display. Not a big deal for most, but another small design flaw.

This isn't a bad clock for the price (Wal-Mart carries it for even less, $9.96) but the brightness issue makes it unusable for me. The addition of a dimmer switch, fixing the AM/PM indicator, and adding a second alarm setting would make this clock easily a five star item, even at a slightly higher price.

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The Sony ICF-C218 FM/AM Clock Radio is a capable and inexpensive clock radio that gets the job done quite nicely. It lacks some functionality such as a dimmable display but its ease of operation, decent sounding radio and overall ease of operation make up for any shortcomings.

It has a battery backup provided by a CR2032 battery and the clock is preset with the correct EST time. Just plug it in and you're good to go. If you live in another time zone, it's a simple matter to adjust the time zone to your zone by using the time zone button on the top of the unit.

I like that the FM antenna is within the power cord. There is no extra wire hanging out of the back of the unit like so many other clock radios seem to have.

Sound quality is quite decent given the small size of the radio. I also felt that the non-digital tuning was good and did not have any problems finding and locking in stations to listen to.

The alarm is nice in that it has a gradual ramping up of urgency. I find alarms quite obnoxious and an alarm that starts off slowly is preferred. That's what this alarm does and as more time elapses, it speeds up the frequency of beeps giving you plenty of time to turn it off before it reaches "full speed."

It's a great value and I like it. The only thing I would wish for is a display that has a setting to adjust the brightness.

By the way, I found this at WalMart for just slightly under $10.

I was so happy with this purchse, it really has a lot for such a small price. As soon as I pluged it in within seconds it had not only set the time but the date too. It small enough to fit on the night stand, easy to set for the alarm,and it has great reception on the radio. I live in an area where there are so many trees you have to go outside to get cell service. I have several Sony radios and cd players in the house and they are the only brand I have not had a problem in getting great reception on FM and AM, and they have such incredible sound......

COBY CRA108 Jumbo 2" Digital Alarm Clock with AM/FM Radio

FM reception is poor, even though I live in the middle of a large city. This clock radio uses a small wire for an FM antenna. I bought a Sony for $15 that uses the power cord for an antenna, and reception is much better.

XIOS DS Media Play ULTRA SLIM Smart TV Companion w/802.11n Wifi, Ethernet, USB, HDMI. The Official X

Powered by Android 4 ICS and team behind XBMC who brings you the Official XBMC development platform.
Built in 10/100 Ethernet connection and 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi connections for all your audio, video streaming demands from internet, networked or DLNA devices.
Get the latest Internet technology on your TV including a web browser supporting the latest HTML 5, Adobe Flash 10.x, Chrome V8 and Java support.
Support weather, calendar and hundreds of desktop widgets such as weather, calendar, clock, search, internet radio, photo album and hundreds more!
Supports a wide range of USB peripherals such as XIOS Sence wireless motion remote, wired/wireless keyboard, mouse, webcam, card reader, digital cameras, and more

Update 01/28: Netflix issues fixed for ICS, check yt v=hdCNZrStoYg

Update 10/09: Major updates for XBMC both Linux and Android, synced with XBMC mainline, most add-ons now work without issues.

Update 8/13: XBMC Linux port released

Update 8/6: Latest GB based released with support for Bluetooth devices.

Update 8/6: More elaborate review for XBMC (most recent version has compatibility for usb pointing devices), check YT video v=6SnPveEkNPc

Update 8/5: The wifi antenna reception issue fixed, check YT video v=cQysHr8mcJg

Update 7/14: Pivos got XBMC running on the XIOS-DS, check YT video v=y4o-k1DxF5w

Pivos just released an Android based super slim box to complement its successful AIOS HD Media Center, Full HD 1080p, Gigabit Network, USB 3.0 data, Flash Reader, 3.5" SATA 2 ? Is Android really the holy-grail of media players ?! well ... read on and tell for yourself.

Unboxing:

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Check my pictures in the gallery section, a DVD used to get an idea about the size of every thing in comparison.

The retail box: though small and humble is huge compared to how small the actual XIOS is.

Package contents: No quick start leaflet included, quick start guide printed on the inner box. You get an HDMI cable (for the only output port on the box), XIOS itself, an IR remote (modest with only few buttons to navigate, change volume and turn on/off the box) and the 5V/2A adapter.

The XIOS: 3xUSB, LAN, mSD slot, power button, firmware recovery/upgrade hole, and the ONLY output is HDMI.

XIOS .. the ICS update ..

-------------------------------

The box comes with Android GB out of the box, I am not going to even bother with that GB is not meant for a big screen display, ICS is already out (posted on the official forums) and takes about 10 minutes to apply, the rest of the review is of Android ICS running on the box.

XIOS .. The good ..

----------------------------

Once ICS is installed there was no issue running MKVs up to 1080p/11GB (over wired network).

After that size, things gets pretty unstable. The majority of my rips past that size are ISOs which isn't supported any way.

YT HD is running without any issue, Flash HD is running fine in Dolphin browser (stick the preloaded 10.2).

Wireless keyboard/mouse combo works fine with the box, but there is no way to turn the box off without the original IR remote (even the motion remote doesn't have a power button) unless you reach for power button the box itself (alternatively you can install widgets from the market to reboot and turn off the box right from the home screen).

ICS comes with the latest Google Play store, app visibility is on bar with all other android devices I have owned.

Experience is as rich as you expect from any ICS based device, Plex works mighty fine additionally there is reports about limited support for webcams and USB microphones.

XIOS ..The bad ..

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Couple of inconveniences, video playback apps doesn't seem to respect scaling settings, you wouldn't notice this issue if you have a display with no over/under scanning, in which cases you can use a "screen size" setting to adjust the output to your screen size, that said, once video app loads it will automatically revert to the original scale.

Another minor is windowed playback (YT or flash in YT app or web browser), once the video starts, it automatically revert to full screen then "crops" (not minimizes) back to window size, if you would then click on the full screen button at any time you would get proper image.

There is currently no multichannel audio passthrough support (DTS/DD and their HD versions are stereo downmixed).

Some reported issues with the ICS NF app (pausing for buffering after 5 minutes of playback).

XIOS vs. AIOS

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Android is what makes this box shine (and similar boxes), for example when you capture a picture/video with you Android phone while doing your grocery it gets automatically uploaded to your dropbox accounts which is then immediately accessible on your TV with your android media box.

Its not meant to be a power horse (thus lacking with higher bit rate files that the AIOS plays it without a problem), but its meant to offer a way better overall experience. Not to mention I was able to hit 13 mbps MKVs without a problem (which isn't even half bad).

So its a better device all around, but what can the AIOS do that the XIOS can't do ?..

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In a nut shell ?

Not enough power to process high bitrate MKVs (over the network XIOS panic at > 13 mbps while AIOS panic at > 25mbps)

No ISO playback support (Android thing).

No BDMV playback support (Android thing).

No DTS/DD/DTS-MA/DD-TrueHD passthrough/bitstreaming (Android kernel thing).

No output A/V outputs beside HDMI.

For those running the GB firmware and complaining about long strart ups, just move as many apps as you can from main storage to external storage.

Final words

----------------

Its really refreshing to be able to get Android on your big screen, compared to other GoogleTV devices the XIOS is priced right, comes pre-rooted with full Google Playstore access. True the ride is as rough as any other Android tablet/phone but its for sure a step in the right direction.

XIOS .. Set up .. (for the techies)

---------------------------------------------

Playback done over wired network.

Accessed SMB shares are mapped using the included CIFS manager.

All playback attempts were done using the moboplayer app.

========================================================

Sample video details of the 1080p rips that worked ..

----------------------------------------------------

Video

ID : 1

Format : AVC

Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec

Format profile : High@L4.1

Format settings, CABAC : Yes

Format settings, ReFrames : 5 frames

Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC

Duration : 2h 26mn

Bit rate : 9 205 Kbps

Width : 1 920 pixels

Height : 800 pixels

========================================================

Video

ID : 1

Format : AVC

Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec

Format profile : High@L4.1

Format settings, CABAC : Yes

Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames

Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC

Duration : 1h 17mn

Bit rate : 13.3 Mbps

Width : 1 920 pixels

Height : 1 080 pixels

========================================================

Video

ID : 1

Format : AVC

Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec

Format profile : High@L4.1

Format settings, CABAC : Yes

Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames

Muxing mode : Header stripping

Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC

Duration : 1h 42mn

Bit rate : 14.0 Mbps

Width : 1 920 pixels

Height : 798 pixels

========================================================

Video

ID : 1

Format : AVC

Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec

Format profile : High@L4.1

Format settings, CABAC : Yes

Format settings, ReFrames : 5 frames

Format settings, GOP : M=4, N=48

Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC

Duration : 1h 57mn

Bit rate : 9 169 Kbps

Width : 1 920 pixels

Height : 816 pixels

========================================================

Video

ID : 1

Format : AVC

Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec

Format profile : High@L4.1

Format settings, CABAC : Yes

Format settings, ReFrames : 5 frames

Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC

Duration : 1h 54mn

Bit rate : 8 020 Kbps

Width : 1 920 pixels

Height : 816 pixels

========================================================

MKVs that didn't work smoothly (some would require repeated buffering, others would cut and skip randomly)

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Video

ID : 1

Format : AVC

Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec

Format profile : High@L4.1

Format settings, CABAC : Yes

Format settings, ReFrames : 5 frames

Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC

Duration : 2h 34mn

Bit rate : 8 849 Kbps

Width : 1 920 pixels

Height : 800 pixels

========================================================

Video

ID : 1

Format : AVC

Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec

Format profile : High@L4.1

Format settings, CABAC : Yes

Format settings, ReFrames : 5 frames

Muxing mode : Header stripping

Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC

Duration : 2h 11mn

Bit rate : 15.8 Mbps

Width : 1 920 pixels

Height : 816 pixels

========================================================

Video

ID : 1

Format : AVC

Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec

Format profile : High@L4.1

Format settings, CABAC : Yes

Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames

Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC

Duration : 1h 27mn

Bit rate : 20.8 Mbps

Width : 1 920 pixels

Height : 800 pixels

========================================================

Buy XIOS DS Media Play ULTRA SLIM Smart TV Companion w/802.11n Wifi, Ethernet, USB, HDMI. The Official X Now

To be honest with you, I was waiting for the Apple TV Gen 3 to be jailbroken, so I could install XBMC on it. With the recent announcement of XBMC for Android, Apple's device can now be put where it belongs: A hard to use, locked down machine suitable only for playing iTunes stuff. Sorry Apple, but I've had enough fooling around with a Gen 1 unit to last me a lifetime, and your reluctance to make a device that's hacker friendly is understandable, but annoying as all get-out.

On to the Xios. It comes in a nice box with the player, remote, wallwart, and HDMI cable. Amazing it took this long for someone to include ALL the proper cables with a device, but there it is. Hookup is easy. HDMI and power to the box, HDMI to the TV, and you're off. It took me 15 minutes from UPS dropping the box on my door to playing a shoutcast stream on the TV.

While I have not had a whole lot of time to play with it, here are some observations:

A USB keyboard and mouse make things easier.

If you plan on using wired ethernet, turn it on in the settings first.

Set your TV resolution in the settings while you're there. If you don't know, leave it alone.

You'll need the mouse to accept the marketplace terms. I could not get it to work any other way.

And, link it to your current Android account (if you have one.) This allows your applications to sync.

I'm planning on playing more with it over the weekend, and installing XBMC on it as well. I'll report back when I know more.

Edit:

You have root right out of the box.

I deleted Facebook (ugh) and froze Crackle, as they wanted to run in the background all the time.

The ICS upgrade is available in the Pivos forums, but I have not applied it yet.

The remote is primarily for the media player functions; you really need a keyboard and mouse to use the desktop.

Update 1-19-2013

After playing with this box for a while, I decided to try the XBMC Linux build. It's easy to install, just drop the .img file on a small uSD card, insert it into the slot, and hold down the reset button (on the bottom) while applying power.

It's pretty much all you need. Now, I know this thing is kind of lo-powered these days, so mega-bitrate stuff may not play well. But, everything I currently have is SD, and it works great.

For anyone having trouble connecting a Synology Diskstation to one of these, either enable the uPnP media station features on the NAS (XBMC sees these no problem!) or the more tech minded can edit the userdata files in $home / .xbmc / userdata according to the methods laid out in the XBMC wiki.

Read Best Reviews of XIOS DS Media Play ULTRA SLIM Smart TV Companion w/802.11n Wifi, Ethernet, USB, HDMI. The Official X Here

If you only used the XIOS as it comes in the box, running Android 2.3 and a handful of pre-installed video players from the Google Play store, you could be forgiven for thinking it was awful. However all you need is an SDMicro card and an easily downloaded update file from PIVOS's website to turn this ugly duckling into a swan that lays golden eggs. Or is that a goose? Swans lay eggs too, though, so I'm going to let that mixed metaphor stand. Anyway, the update process takes no more than 5 minutes, and most of that time is just waiting for it to finish. The only effort is downloading a file and copying it to an SDMicro card.

Once you get the XIOS updated to run either Linux or Android 4.0, and then launch the XBMC program that is included with both, what you end up with is a stream box that can play just about any downloaded video file you can throw at it. It handles multiple audio tracks and subtitles with ease. It can work as an AirPlay target for your iPad or iPhone. It can index and catalog your collection of music, movies and tv programs. It can load files from USB devices or over the network from Windows, OSX and Linux computers. You can control the interface using a free app available in both the Apple and Google app stores. These are just the highlights, the device is capable of a lot more, both natively and through easily enabled plugins.

The WiFi performance is acceptable, and the wired performance is excellent for the 100mbit interface that it comes with. The device is so small and light that it can easily be tucked behind a wall-mounted flat screen or placed anywhere in your home entertainment center.

If you are looking for a set top stream box, and can download a file to an sdcard, you'll be very well served by purchasing this device and updating it. If you just want to open the box and have something that works straight away with no fuss, you might be better served by looking at another unit.

Want XIOS DS Media Play ULTRA SLIM Smart TV Companion w/802.11n Wifi, Ethernet, USB, HDMI. The Official X Discount?

My primary use is for XBMC. Before purchasing the XIOS DS I was using a laptop w/ XBMC. I was looking for something cheaper + smaller; did a lot of 'online' research of many different products, and chose the XIOS DS.

After I played with the Android GUI for about 5-10 mins (the unit came with v4.0.? installed) I dropped it in favor of Linux.

There are still bugs on the software side which is expected (it's still in BETA), however do not let that discourage you from purchasing; visit the Pivos forums a couple times and you'll see these issues are being worked on daily (there are also 'unofficial nightly builds' of the main codebase). For me it is 'exciting' visiting the forums and seeing a new build and the list of issues it fixes. For upgrading the software (and if you have a large library) I recommend purchasing a MicroSD card. Upgrading only takes about 5 mins. SSH and SCP can be used for direct management of the box and file transfers, however depending on your usage may not be necessary.

The provided remote is as described by previous reviewers (loud, sometimes unresponsive). I tested out my old Windows MCE remote and that worked better out of the box, however I still use the provided remote.

My library consists of MKVs and ISOs from DVDs and Blu-rays in my collection (sitting on a NAS box). This unit can play 1080p blu-ray rips just fine. All the video codecs I tried worked fine with the current exception of the VC-1 codec, but this is a known issue and a quick search on the forums shows the developers are aware and working on a fix. DTS HD sound is not supported (it does not say anywhere that it was 'supposed' to be supported so this is not an issue for me). DTS and less work fine.

Props to Pivos and XBMC on the XIOS DS + Linux port, this little box is great and I will be buying a few more.

Every Linux dabbler or pro will love this thing. Add a micro SD card and WinSCP into the thing and upload the latest beta linux firmware from the pivos forums then SSH into it using "root" "letmein" then "reboot recovery" and install the firmware. Then soft link addons and userdata to your micro sd card and it works great! Below is a script I made to make soft links easy. Enjoy!

========> Start copy below this line End copy above this line

Nokia 002L4D0 N86 Unlocked Phone with 8 MP Camera, Auto Focus, Flash and Carl Zeiss Optics - Unlocke

I am not an expert, just a regular guy who buys a new phone every year because I like toys.

This phone has all of the important features I need on a phone. I have had other Nokia phones and this combines all of the great features and adds some that were not present. For example:

1. 3.5mm Headphone jack. No more need for an adaptor for a 2.5mm.

2. Bigger screen. I guess 2.6 is not comparable to other phones like the iPhone's 3.5, but this does not have a touchscreen interface. I can still text without looking using the keypad.

3. The AMOLED display is rediculously clear and vibrant. My wife is using my Nokia E51 and the difference is stunning.

4. 8 gb of storage plus microSD. This is more memory than I could fill up right now.

5. This phone is also much faster than my E51. it takes less than 1/2 second to access any application once selected.

6. Scratch resistant screen.

7. The phone is well built, feels solid, a little heavy, but strong.

8. The battery life is exceptional. I have used the camera for three days taking pictures, video, listening to music while I run etc. and still have 2 bars left.

9. The speakerphone is LOUD. I can have my windows down on the BQE commuting to work and still here the callers over the traffic noise.

10. Font sizes are adjustable and can be made noticably larger. I hate phones with tiny fonts.

I can go on and on.

My only concern is the camera. The video capability is great but I have been experimenting with the image quality and I don't think it is as good as Nokia will have you believe. The 8MP camera takes 8MP pictures, but they come out dark indoors even at close range with the flash. Outdoors they are as good as you would expect from an 8MP camera , and hopefully they will release the firmware update enabling face detection that has been rumored.

Also, the notification light for missed calls, messages, and emails is kind of weak. My E51 would scream with vibrancy lighting up my bedroom at night, where the N86 is more of a whisper.

I would reccomend this phone for many reasons.

Well I just got mine today. Build quality is excellent, slider is solid, feels great in hand. Buttons are great, glass and metal/plastic case is top notch. OLED screen is also a winner, love the always on power saver clock. Overall, much improved over the N85. Phone feels snappy especially the camera, nokia messaging works well. Call quality is excellent. Pictures leave a bit to be desired, however I am used to this on early Nokia firmware. Shutter button is much improved over the horrible one on the N85. The flash is surprisingly good. The gallery and also photo viewer are still painfully slow to load the thumbnails, they stay blurry far to long, I don't understand this as my N95 had no problems here. FM transmitter is not as good as the N85, but still a nice feature. Cell and GPS reception are excellent, compass I am sure will prove useful eventually. Overall hardware wise the phone is near perfect! As I predicted this phone is the ultimate interpretation of the dual slider N series design. The firmware is surprisingly good for an early one. I think this phone will get a following with the N95 faithful and as a result will end up with an excellent firmware within the next year. I wish I never had to use the N85 for the short while that I did. If I had been going from the N95 to the N86 I would be overjoyed. As it is going from the N95 to N85 then to N86, I just feel as though Nokia cheated me on the N85.

I feel this is the true successor to the N95, I cant wait for the v30 or v31 firmware, when the software is perfect.

If you are looking for a powerful feature packed smart phone with an excellent camera, like typing without looking, one handed and don't mind that its not a flashy touch phone. The N86 is for you. Not to mention, you are free to multitask, don't have to pay for an overpriced data plan and it is a pocket camera/iPod replacement.

Buy Nokia 002L4D0 N86 Unlocked Phone with 8 MP Camera, Auto Focus, Flash and Carl Zeiss Optics - Unlocke Now

Definitely worth every penny and I recommend this to everyone! GREAT PHONE and is loaded with features, great camera and performance!

Read Best Reviews of Nokia 002L4D0 N86 Unlocked Phone with 8 MP Camera, Auto Focus, Flash and Carl Zeiss Optics - Unlocke Here

Got the N86 8mp from Amazon.com and it's a great phone (5 stars), but it's made in China. Why do I feel a little disappointed? The phone is as advertised and works great. How much more would it be if it was made in Finland? Now China makes some great things, like really long walls and tasty noodles. But my Nokia N86 too? Oh well, sign of the times I guess.

Want Nokia 002L4D0 N86 Unlocked Phone with 8 MP Camera, Auto Focus, Flash and Carl Zeiss Optics - Unlocke Discount?

To begin with I am guy who is all for the all in one phone. As a guy i put all my esential stuff in my pockets so it was very annoying for me to carry my wallet, keys, phone, mp3 player, and camera ... if you can imagine it was horrible. Having a phone that can take good pictures, plays my music all in one simplifies my life a lot. So I constantly look for a betteer camera phone. My first all purpose phone was the N95-3 phone and will be comparing it to the N86

To start with I will be writting about the things that the N95 is better at than the N86

The first thing i noticed was that the outer speakers for the N95 were a lot better than the N86. Before I was able to use my N95 as a music player everywhere, infact my phone could play music louder than my old laptop. However with the smaller N86 they made the speakers smaller, and as a result when you put the volume all the way up it doesnt sound as great as the n95s.

The second thing i noticed was that the n95 had two shortcut buttons at the top, one that would acces the camera and would be used to take pictures, and the other that was set to go to your images and videos. The n86 only has the camera button. Even though its not esential I found it very convenient to have that button so i could quickly access my pictures without having to go through the menues, or even looking at the screen.

The third thing i noticed is that the buttons on the front and keypad for the n95 are bigger and alot easier to press. the n86 buttons are kinda small and sometimes is hard to press if you have big fingers.

This one I am not entierly sure because i havent played with my phone a lot yet only got it for a day, but in the n95 camera before you could change settings to take pictures with different filters, like a black and white picture or enhanced color pic, but i havent seen it on the n86 yet.

Now for the things that the N86 is better than the N95

One difference is that the N86 is smaller, so espceially for guys it is not too bulky in your pant pockets. The n95 was a bit bigger and blukier, however i do prefer the squared edges rather than the rounded ones but that is just my preference.

the next most obvious difference and why a lot of people bought the n86 is the camera. The CAMERA IS AWESOME. The 8mp definately improve the quality of the pictures taken, the colors are better and resolution has improved. The dual led flash compared to the single flash in the n95 also helps take better pictures in dark room conditions or at night. There is also a focusing square that tells you were you are focusing at similar to that of a real camera. The n86 also has a sliding plastic cover that protects the lens from getting scratched a feature not present in my n95. (not the n95 original had a lens protector but was removed on the n95-3 which i have and the n95 8gb model)

Another cool feature in the camera is the panoramic mode. This mode allows you to take pictures of a large area. this is done when the phone takes several pictures at key points and crops them all together making it seem as if you had taken a picture of a really wide and large aread. The results are awesome. (MORE updates will come as i play arround with my phone, I have only had it for a day as i said before)

Another advantage of the n86 is that i has already built in memory and does not require a micro sd card. Although there is a micro sd card slot allowing you to expand your memory even more. this feature was not available in the n95-3 (only had micro sd slot) and i believe the n95 8gb only had the 8gb and no micro sd slot

They added a Fm tunner to the n86 that allows you to tune your phone to any radio which is useful when playing stuff from your car or anyother place.

There is a small stand at the back that allows you to place your phone on a desk and watch things, much essier on your hands when watching videos. before you would have to hold the phone and if the video was long your hand would get kinda tiered ... especially if you were showing someone a video

... I am sure there are more differences i just need to play with it more and will update more stuff later

My conclusion IF you want a really good camera phone THIS IS THE PHONE FOR YOU ... the difference in picture between the 5mp and the 8mp are easily seen at least for me.

UPDATE 1

so after using the phone more i got more updates ... btw ... i am not talking about the oled screen because you can find it in the description of the product ...

Ok back to comparing the n95 and the n86 ... so the n95 had the headphone jack on the side ... which was kina annoying if you were putting the phone in an armband to go work out and stuff cuz you couldnt fit it on the armband ... on the other hand the n86 the headphone jack is on the top making it easy to access and put on an arm band to go work out :)

further more sometimes when you plug the headphones in it automatically detects headphones while the n95 you had to tell it you were plugging headphones in.

also on the video format of the n86 there is a light option that will use the dual LED lights as a camera light allowing you to film at night a very very good function that the n95 did not have

more updates to come ... still havent fully figured out my phone yet LOL

Boston Acoustics Duo-I Plus iPhone/iPod Dock AM/FM Stereo Radio and Clock Functions (Gloss White)

Works with iPhone & Made for iPod
Integrated iPod dock with video output charges your iPod or iPhone
Precision AM/FM stereo tuner
Dual high performance 31/2-inch full-range speakers
BassTrac audio processing for clean bass at all listening levels

I bought the Duo-i because I needed something for my bedroom that served three purposes: a radio for general listening, a quality iPod player, and a set of good-sounding, external speakers for my 19" TV.

Positives:

The radio produces surprisingly booming lows for its size, and exceptionally detailed high end. The clarity of the speakers is stunning. The radio can easily fill a room with sound. Besides an iPod dock on the top, the radio offers two auxiliary inputs for flexibility. I use the rear aux RCA inputs for my bedroom TV, and the front aux 1/8" input will come in handy if I ever want to run my other MP3 players through the radio. The auto-dimming display is a novel touch, too.

The BIIIIIG negative:

The radio has booming lows and very clear high end, but there's not nearly enough in between. Apparently Boston Acoustics tried too hard to give this radio a big sound, and, in the process, forgot that a radio this size still needs a natural midrange presence. The radio seems to lack terribly in the 600Hz-3kHz range. Music is reshaped to sound like it is being run through a smiley-faced graphic equalizer. And to top it off, there's no mid-range level control.

As a result of this deficiency, all music, whether from your iPod or FM radio, is affected. The average person on the street probably wouldn't notice, but a discerning listener (like me... an audio engineer by trade) would notice. If you listen to pop, rock, dance, R&B, modern country, etc. then it may not be such a big deal. But of you listen to jazz, big band, classical, ethnic, etc., then you will miss the warmth this radio cannot provide.

Weak midrange means that dialog in television/movie audio lacks clarity. In order to get acceptable sound when running my TV's audio through the Duo-i, I have to leave my TV's cheesy, little, internal speakers turned on. They compensate by providing some of the desired mid frequencies that the Duo-i lacks.

But the biggest victim, believe it or not, is AM radio. It's rendered absolutely useless. The Duo-i simply doesn't possess any of the midrange frequencies in the AM radio bandwidth. As a result, talk show hosts' voices are nothing but boomy and muffled, even with the treble all the way up and the bass all the way down.

The low end is too loud relative to the rest of the radio's sound, so I experimented by loosely plugging the rear bass ports with my fingers. The bass response suddenly tightened up and became more natural-sounding. So my radio's bass ports are now permanently corked. (I even wrote to Boston Acoustics and suggested they begin shipping their radios with a couple different sets of "port corks" for discerning listeners.)

Summary:

If you always listen to your stereo with a smiley-faced graphic EQ, and you're one of those people who can never get enough bass, you'll probably love this radio. But, if you're a discerning listener who prefers a more natural frequency response and/or listens to AM radio, the Duo-i is NOT the radio for you.

Buy Boston Acoustics Duo-I Plus iPhone/iPod Dock AM/FM Stereo Radio and Clock Functions (Gloss White) Now

I recently purchased this product for use with my iPhone 3GS. The sound quality is superb, rivaling that of Bose systems. The alarm clock feature works brilliantly and the remote is the icing on the cake. I really enjoy the touch-sensor 360 Snooze Bar, an intuitive design that keeps you from smacking the dock when you want to snooze. There is even a plug-in slot on the back for a sub woofer upgrade, just in case the bass isn't enough for you. Oh, and did I mention? The display automatically dims according to the lighting in your room, and you can adjust the overall brightness to suit your liking in the dark. Genius! If you want a nice dock for your iPod/iPhone with second-to-none sound quality, the functionality of an alarm clock, and state-of-the-art features, then I strongly recommend this product!

Read Best Reviews of Boston Acoustics Duo-I Plus iPhone/iPod Dock AM/FM Stereo Radio and Clock Functions (Gloss White) Here

My first impression of the Duo-I Plus surprised me -it's impressively well-built, with a beautiful gloss finish, solid weight, stable rubber feet, and smooth rubberized knobs that don't wiggle (unlike a lot of competitor's clock radios). There is a nice long power cord with no "wall wart" power supply to deal with. It comes with a thin remote control, an FM antenna, a decent manual, and an assortment of iPod/iPhone dock adapters. The overall design is very well laid-out, with a recessed area on top to store the remote (in front of the ipod dock), plus a magnet on the back of the remote which allows you to stick it to the speaker grill. You can even special-order new grills in designer colors to match your decor. Even without the designer grills, it blends in very nicely in a bedroom or kitchen.

The first thing I did after unpacking the Duo-I Plus was to test it out in my living room with the iPod docked. The sound is truly remarkable for such a small stereo. Nice full bass and crisp highs. As some other reviewers have noted, there is not a whole lot of mid-range but the overall sound is still very balanced and natural. When I plugged in the FM antenna wire and tried the radio, I was surprised by the clarity of reception I got. Another nice touch for radio listeners is that the antenna jack can accept a coaxial TV cable for even better reception. There is also a wire clip for an AM antenna, though I don't listen to AM radio. On the front panel, there is an 1/8-inch auxiliary input and an 1/8-inch headphone jack; on the back, there is a stereo RCA second auxiliary input, a stereo RCA subwoofer output, and a single RCA video output. Pretty flexible for a clock radio!

Aside from five small radio station preset buttons and two small buttons for setting the alarms, all the stereo's functions are controlled using three digital rotary knobs; these knobs can also be pressed like a button to make selections. The largest knob in the middle turns the power on or off with a single press and controls the volume. The small mode knob on the left selects the input, as well as other functions: iPod, FM radio 1 (presets 1-5), FM radio 2 (presets 6-10), AM radio, Auxiliary 1 (front input), Auxiliary 2 (rear input), brightness, info, sleep, bass, treble, alarm 1 set, clock set, alarm 2 set; depressing the same mode knob will also cycle through all the available inputs. The small tuning knob on the right tunes the radio, changes mode values (brightness/info/sleep/bass/treble/alarm time/clock time), and skips ipod tracks backward or forward. The ability to skip iPod tracks with the tuning knob is wonderful, since it is often inconvenient to wake an iPod Touch or iPhone when it is docked. The remote control can skip tracks as well.

The small alarm buttons provide a quick way to change alarm settings without having to use the mode knob to select from a lengthy menu; there is a separate button for both alarm 1 and 2 -a single press sets the respective alarm to alarm mode, music mode, or off; hold the button down and you can change the respective alarm times backward or forward using the rotary controller directly below it. Changing alarm times has never been easier! Unfortunately, you can only wake to whatever music and volume level was last playing. This is a serious oversight on the part of Boston Acoustics' design team. Like many people, I go to bed with relaxing music but like to wake up to something more energetic. This is not possible with the Duo-I Plus. The alarm sound fades in after a few seconds, which is nice. I also love the snooze bar -just touch anywhere on the metal outer rim of the radio to sleep another ten minutes; hit the snooze bar repeatedly and it adds increments of five minutes to your snooze. I have not experienced any of the bugs with the snooze bar that other reviewers have reported.

The backlit display is probably the weakest part of the design of the Duo-I Plus. I wish Boston Acoustics had chosen a color besides cool-blue. Many reviewers found the display too bright even at the lowest dimmed setting. There is however a fix for this that is not mentioned in the owner's manual. If you unplug the unit and plug it back in while holding down the alarm 2 button, you can adjust the dimming sensitivity using the tuning knob. This allows you to turn the display completely off if you wish. The down side to this is that it makes it difficult to make selections using the mode knob because you can't see what you're controlling. The auto-dimming sensor, while wonderful for sleeping, only makes this problem worse. I still have not found a happy-medium that is dim enough for sleeping yet bright enough to control easily.

The other controls are fairly self-explanatory: info mode chooses what to display when the unit is idle; sleep mode activates a sleep timer in five minute increments up to 90 minutes; bass and treble EQ's the sound, plus or minus 7 steps. It's unfortunate that there is no midrange control since the midrange could really use a boost, but overall the controls are very usable. I have to say that, while I love the concept of the simple three-dial face, in practice it is a bit cumbersome to use. There are simply too many menu items, which makes navigating through them tedious. Setting the alarms, on the other hand, couldn't be any easier.

I have to say that despite a couple nit-picks, the design team at Boston Acoustics got everything right. I absolutely love my Duo-I Plus. Unfortunately, I ended up sending it back. Why? The unit I bought was used, probably an older model, and it would play but not charge my 4th generation iPod Touch. I doubt those who buy new units will experience that problem. In any event, if you're looking for the perfect clock radio, you will not be disappointed with the Duo-I Plus.

UPDATE: After sending my unit away for repairs, it now charges my 4th Gen. iPod Touch without any problems. Unfortunately, now the snooze bar doesn't work right. Sometimes, the snooze bar doesn't respond at all when I touch it; other times, it "snoozes" itself, incrementing all the way up to an hour for no reason at all. As a result, I don't trust the alarm to get me out of bed on time. Other comments after owning this for six months... The knob controls are the most annoying part of the interface. Trying to set the sleep timer function takes several precise knob turns, and if you miss the "sleep" setting (which is easy to do in dim lighting) you end up changing the input (FM/AM/aux) inadvertently. Very annoying when you do this every single night! Also, some users have complained of a low humming when the unit is on with no music playing, and I have noticed this as well. Overall, I really wanted to like this clock radio because of the sound quality, but for day-to-day use, it really falls short.

Want Boston Acoustics Duo-I Plus iPhone/iPod Dock AM/FM Stereo Radio and Clock Functions (Gloss White) Discount?

I purchased this item for my wife. I was limited in that it needed to be white, charge and play the iPhone (not just the iPod), have FM radio, remote, and small enough to fit in a book shelf. There aren't too many similar items with all of these attributes with an acceptable to great sound.

We are using it in a 20' x 13' family room. The sound is excellent. It can liven the room without appreciable distortion. The remote covers all corners of the room. Whether we want to play the iPhone music or FM radio, this little guy's got it covered.

I have owned this radio, purchased through Amazon, for about one year. It replaced a similar though somewhat less expensive HD radio that, even after replacement, had constant and vexing software problems. The Boston Acoustics Duo has had no such problems. It works fine, and it doesn't seem to mind power disruptions. In other words, it remembers all of my stations and settings even after electric power failures that last 2 or 3 hours (for some reason a frequent occurrence in the Washington, DC, metro area).

This iPod dock / tabletop radio offers remarkably good, crisp, mellow sound for such a small device. In my view, this is the #1 consideration when buying a tabletop radio I will listen to frequently. The BA Duo has good, though not outstanding radio reception and an up-to-date iPod dock. By that I mean that my brand new Verizon iPhone works without any difficulty, as do my older generation iPod Touch and iPod Nano devices. All get charged without problem, and none of the Apple devices complains that the BA Duo radio is not compatible with all the features of the Apple device. In contrast, less than two weeks ago I purchased a Sangean WR-5 iPod dock / tabletop radio. Although my older Apple devices work with the Sangean tabletop radio without problem, my new Verizon iPhone, when inserted in the Sangean iPod dock, gives the following message: "This device is not optimized for the iPhone. You may experience a decrease in cell signal strength." In other words, I may get weaker cellphone reception when my iPhone is inserted in the dock. The iPhone gets charged when inserted in the Sangean iPod dock, and the iPhone / Sangean combination delivers fine musical sound, but I do not know whether or not I'm missing some cell calls. There are no such problems with the Boston Acoustic Duo.

Let me make some comparisons of the BA Duo and the Sangean WR-5 iPod dock / table top radios. The Boston Acoustics Duo undoubtedly delivers better sound and offers a more up-to-date interface with iPod / iPhone devices. The BA duo and Sangean WR-5 offer approximately as good radio reception. The Sangean WR-5 has a smaller footprint and, because its iPod dock is more spacious, I do not need to remove the rubberized protective bumper from my iPhone before inserting onto the dock. (In contrast, the rubberized bumper must be removed from the iPhone before it is inserted onto the dock for the BA Duo.) Both devices accept input from a standard audio jack linking the radio with, say, a portable CD player. The instructional booklet for the Sangean WR-5 was worse written (I assume because its authors were Chinese rather than Americans), but the Sangean's set-up was faster and a bit more intuitive. I find that without wearing glasses it is easier for me to read, say, the time and radio frequency on the face of the BA Duo. That information is less clearly displayed on the face of the Sangean WR-5, and this may be an important consideration if you are using the device as an alarm clock.

The biggest difference between the two iPod dock / tabletop radios is the price. As of this date (late March 2011), the Boston Acoustics Duo costs about $250 on Amazon while the Sangean WR-5 costs $100. Determining whether the better sound and more up-to-date Apple docking of the BA Duo are worth the $150 price difference is obviously a personal matter. I like both devices and give both of them equal ratings (4 stars), but that is because the price differential compensates for the somewhat worse sound and more out-of-date Apple docking interface on the Sangean WR-5. For a number of years now I have noticed that I actually listen to music much more frequently through my tabletop radios than through my far more expensive sound system. The better sounding tabletop radio -the BA Duo -is in my kitchen where I listen most often to music. The Sangean WR-5 is in our bedroom where it doubles as a tabletop clock and Apple iPod / iPhone charging device. I suppose other people discovered this fact long before I did: The availability of these iPod dock / tabletop radios means that you never have to worry whether your cell phone or MP3 player has a charge. If you listen to music through these docking stations for about an hour or so a day, your Apple device is substantially charged virtually all the time -it gets a charge at the same time you are using the device for one of its main functions, namely, to play music. In addition, of course, both the iPhone and iPod Touch devices can be used to listen internet radio, Pandora, podcasts, etc., partly depending on whether you have a WiFi system in your home. This means you worry less about the quality of your local radio stations: The internet offers a huge number of attractive alternatives.

In sum: the Boston Acoustics Duo radio is a wonderful tabletop radio / docking device. The only reason I withhold a fifth star is that I anticipate the arrival someday of a similar device that is (a) a bit cheaper and (b) a bit easier to set up and use. Until that day comes, this is an excellent investment. If you're strapped for cash, the Sangean WR-5 is also a first-rate product.

HP DreamScreen 130 13-Inch Wireless Connected Screen

Enjoy music, photos and videos with easy to use buttons & screens
Control your digital entertainment in the palm of your hand with a simple, intuitive remote.
Enjoy music, photos and videos easily with the HP MediaSmart experience.
Built-in Wi-Fi connects seamlessly to your existing wireless home network, so you can access content on your home PCs and through the Internet.
The HP DreamScreen is a gateway to the Internet using your wireless network to access weather info, Snapfish and your favorite web destinations

Lets first just get some things out of the way before I talk about the quality of what the device DOES do lets talk about what it does not, yet claims to do.

Downright Lies

--------------

The following quotes are from the HP site itself:

"The HP DreamScreen is a gateway to the Internet using your wireless network to access

weather info, Snapfish and your favorite web destinations."

This is just untrue. There is no integrated web browser. It has three web `apps' on it: SnapFish, Pandora, Facebook. That's it. It does not read RSS feeds, or do much of anything you probably want it to do, simple things like display news or recipes.

"Stay current with social network sites like Facebook"

`Like' facebook? There is only Facebook: nothing else.

"Be organized with a built-in alarm clock & calendar."

This is laughable. Wondering how to sync the calendar with outlook or google or anything; maybe even just add appointments, I finally consulted their online documentation. Here, seriously, is the feature list for the calendar `app':

"View the current month, press right or left to view the next or previous month."

BWAH HA HA HA... *sigh*

"Touch-enabled controls--Get fast, easy access to information and entertainment with simple touch controls embedded in the display"

This is referring to some buttons around the bezel of the screen and is just so untrue they would have to change the marketing campaign in Europe or get sued. This does however remind me of the old In Living Color sketch where the handcapped superhero always says he is `not handicapped, but HANDY-CAPABLE!'.

"Videos--Watch home movies and video clips in full screen Its simple!"

It's as simple as taking your video, recompressing it to a supported video codec, resizing it to a specific resolution, and then physically transferring it ot the device -so simple grandma could do it! (with gordian knot, virtualdub, CCCP, and all those other video tools she has)

The Screen

----------

Resolution

The thing is a frickin' 300 dollar photo frame, but it's resolution is 800 x 480, this equates to 0.38 megapixels, at the time the frame came out, the average cheap point n shoot ranks 9 to 10 megapixels: this is well over twenty times the resolution of the screen!

Because of this, it can take 10 full seconds to load a photo and downsample it to 800 pixels from it's original resolution. This makes browsing photos a pain, and loading photos from your camera cards nearly useless. Power users will use photoshop or xnView to batch all their content to 800 pixels.

There is aliasing galore, as 800 pixels is the resolution of many phones and handheld devices, not 13' photo frames!

NOTE: The official specs on the HP website and elsewhere say the DreamScreen 130 is 800 x 480, however, it's own documentation on the CD is came with claims a resolution of 1280 x 800. I called HP and they confirmed the lower resolution for the DreamScreen 130. There may be a middle road as some sites report: "13.3' Widescreen800 x 480 pixels upscaling to 1280 x 800 pixels", which would mean you purchased a 1280×800 screen and they didnt feel like making the software go higher res for the more expensive display. Jesus.

Color Reproduction

It is a cheap TN panel, the gamma of your images widely fluctuates depending on the angle they are viewed. I would be ok if they had a low resolution but used a nice IPS, SIPS, or OLED panel, but this is just unremarkable. The black point is a dark shade of grey, in all seriousness, the panel quality seems on par with something like the panels they use in the dashboard of a Prius, or other industrial UI readouts.

Streaming / Network

Streaming requires lots of Microsoft Windows Media software and services running on a PC server in your house that is always on, they relied on this instead of doing the footwork themselves. If you were under the impression from their marketing that it could read files off samba shares or work with Macintosh, you would be wrong.

Software / User Interface

The software is pretty terrible. It is very clunky and unresponsive. Many times it does not recognize that physical media has been inserted and must be rebooted. The UI graphics themselves show terrible compression artifacts.

When you bring up the on screen keyboard to type in, say, the name of the device, it clearly shows buttons like [HTTP://], [www.], [.com], and others to make it easier to browse the web, however there is no web browser! There are other places in the print ads and UI itself that refer to features the device just does not have!

"Touch Screen"

The device claims to have a `touch sensitive screen', and IT DOES! A small area around the bezel of the screen has botons that can be pressed/touched! This product is in NO WAY a touch screen device, and has no touch sensitivity, other than the buttons on the bezel, the marketing is a lie.

Open Source?

On the CD that ships with it, they have a ton of readme files showing they used a lot of GPL'd code, however the source installer did not work on my windows 7, x64.

Conclusion

Pros:

* They used Linux and GPL'd code so they will have to release theirs soon, hopefully it will be taken under the wing of the open source community and all these issues can be fixed by hard working college students and kids in their spare time.

* The packaging/box is very high quality with a great look and feel

Cons:

* The screen is low res and low quality

* The device is way overpriced for the quality of it's screen and software

* The docs and UI refer to features that just do not exist

* No battery, it must always remain plugged into the wall

* Super-glossy, all you may be seeing is windows!

* Software-wise, the average cellphone is vastly superior in extensibility and quality (browsing photos, playing mp3s, videos...)

* The UI looks like a rip of cell phone UIs, but only in pictures... There are no smooth animated transitions, nothing in common with the user interfaces they seemed to want to copy. To an experienced person, the UI feels like something HP outsourced to Asia and sent them a poor art-bible of the end product they were expecting...

* The device seems unfinished

Buy HP DreamScreen 130 13-Inch Wireless Connected Screen Now

Photos look great on this and the widgets seem to work pretty well, though you're restricted to those that HP wanted to install. No Flickr? But there are serious problems here. Everything takes a LONG time. Opening up Settings seems to take much of a minute (okay, closer to 15 seconds). It's slow. And the user interface? It looks like it was designed to be a touch screen interface but then that turned out to be too expensive. So you're always scrolling around the screen getting to exit and open buttons. It's pretty painful.

Pros:

Looks nice

Good resolution

The Internet Radio bit seems to work well

Cons:

SLOW!!!

Only the widgets that HP wants

Dreadful and painful user interface, you're just going to be unhappy working with it

Bugs all over the place (radio station genres, spelling errors, sometimes the slideshow button works, other times it doesn't)

I'd wait for version two of this. Let the bugs get fixed, have them improve the user interface, get some more widget options, and install a faster processor. Then it'll be worth something like the asking price.

Read Best Reviews of HP DreamScreen 130 13-Inch Wireless Connected Screen Here

I got this for my mom as a Christmas present. I got her a Westinghouse 14 inch frame a couple of years ago and that set the size bar pretty high. With the HP Dreamscreen I hoped to improve upon the previous frame in several areas.

With the previous frame, found that having a digital frame is a lot of work if you have to change out the pictures on a memory card all the time especially if you don't live near your parents. So I was hoping to find a way to do this remotely. The Snapfish option sounded promising (but why no flickr, photobucket or imageshack?). Facebook seemed sketchier to me, as Facebook already crunches your photos when you upload them and doesn't even present them THAT well on a PC screen.

We finally settled on the snapfish option and save the images at 800x480 and that works very well. I am very pleased with the images on the screen. The odd size is a bit of a problem, but overall the images look great and are crisp and bright.

Pandora radio is pretty cool. The sound is above average but it only goes so loud and starts to get tinny at higher volumes. It is a neat "gee-whiz" feature though. I haven't played with HP radio yet.

Facebook has been buggy for me. I even updated to the latest firmware when I fired the frame up for the first time (and another bright spot was that the frame logged onto my wi-fi flawlessly and easily.) But Facebook is SLOW and the pictures don't look great from Facebook, as I suspected they would not. The Facebook feature would actually make the frame worth buying for that alone if only those pictures were better quality.

The remote control works well, the controls are ok. Not great, but there are worse out there.

I spent a bit of time trying to change the slideshow settings for the Snapfish account before I realized that you have to be in the PHOTOS section. Press options there and you change the transition, length of time each photo shows on the frame and various photo options for ALL of the different modules (facebook, snapfish, etc...)

One good point to HP is the packaging. When you open the frame, it is almost like opening a jewelry case. The box is well designed and everything inside is protected nicely and the presentation is outstanding. If the product lived up to the packaging it would get 5 stars all the way! As it is, I would rate this as 3 stars if you are looking for more than a picture frame, but as a wireless digital frame, it is a five star unit and it has exceeded my expectations.

Want HP DreamScreen 130 13-Inch Wireless Connected Screen Discount?

After reading some of the reviews, I had low expectations. This is a great piece of gear. It really is no slower than your home pc would be. It is a great device for streaming music, photos, etc. The internet radio is worth the price. Hook to your stereo system and listen to hundreds of stations, many with cd quality. If you have a home network set up this is nothing else that compares. I have owned mine for only a couple of weeks and there have been 2 firmware upgrades which added enhanced features.

Sadly, the digital photo frame market is mostly flooded with no-name products that are seriously lacking in several areas. One would expect a "world class" company like HP could offer a much better product, but so far as several others have reported in their reviews, HP has largely failed. This product looks great on paper but is disappointing in reality.

Consider this: You can buy (from HP no less) a very nice complete netbook computer with a better higher resolution screen, a much faster processor, WiFi, a full keyboard, expensive Li-Ion battery, hard drive, etc. for the SAME PRICE as this photo frame which has none of those things. So why does HP use a substandard 800 pixel display that makes your photos fuzzy? Why do they use a little toy processor that makes everything so slow as to be painful? Why isn't there a motion detector to turn the frame off when nobody has been in the room for a while to save energy?

Why also, isn't this device UPnP-AV or DLNA compliant so it can automatically pull pictures off your PC, NAS or home server? Other less expensive devices offer this functionality. The "internet" features of this device are severely limited. You can buy devices at a third of the price that do much more (but granted have a smaller screen). And you can buy devices at a third of the price with a better, higher resolution screen, than the DreamScreen.

I would suggest waiting until more companies figure out the "high end" digital frame market. There are new wireless offerings from Buffalo, D-Link and others that conform to home media standards (UPnP and/or DLNA) that put the DreamScreen to shame and can do much more. Hopefully such competition will force HP, and others, to get their act together.

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