The Roku Legacy

The Roku has been around for several years now, and is one of the few devices that hasn’t changed much over time, largely because Roku did a specific task, and did it very well. Roku was one of the first companies to tackle the idea of a compact media box to hook up to a TV. The idea was simple, with no monthly subscriptions, inexpensive hardware, and a simple intuitive user interface. As a result, the Roku sits in a class of its own. It’s significantly less expensive than Google or Apple’s TV products, and highly specialized, unlike some of the inexpensive Android-based devices. In some ways, the Roku is difficult to review because it tends to be only and exactly what it says on the box. That is also one of the major selling points. Very few companies can really claim that their advertising is so accurate that you get exactly what you expect. The Roku 3 has a few new tricks hiding behind the HDMI port, but nothing we haven’t seen before. The real question is not whether the Roku 3 is an amazing new product, but whether in an attempt to be more competitive, Roku has ruined their tradition.

Hardware

The Roku 3 is a slight departure from the previous sets in hardware. It’s smaller, and also simpler. You connect it to your multimedia center with an HDMI cable, it’s as simple as that. You won’t find a lot of extra ports on the Roku 3. You will find a USB port, but for the most part it’s simply a tiny minimalist box. It’s well enough made, but it’s so light the only real concern I ever had with it was that some of the heavier HDMI cables might just pull it off the shelf under the TV where I was testing it. Luckily, despite the size, wireless connectivity is excellent. It’s important to note that the Roku 3 is for HD televisions only, in other words, you need HDMI. It lacks the extra ports of some of the other Roku models, but I’m not going to mark them down for that, since they’re quite clear about that fact in their marketing. The Roku 3 is small and simple.

The remote control is the most significant change from previous models. It’s rounder, has a few extra buttons, and a headphone port. It also inherits the motion sensing hardware included with the Roku 2 XS.* Besides that, it’s comfortable enough to hold, and again, pretty well made. Roku seems to be taking their hints from the Wii with the remote, and they include a wrist strap, presumably so you don’t put the remote through your television screen while firing birds out of a slingshot.

The Roku 3 also comes with headphones. I’ll discuss why the Roku 3 comes with headphones later. The included headphones are actually pretty good. They come with three sizes of silicon pads, so you can choose which one fits your ears best. They’re a somewhat obnoxious purple , and the cord is a bit stiff and coils a lot. That said, the headphones themselves sound like Roku actually put some time into choosing components that sound good. While listening to TV shows, the headphones sounded accurate and didn’t become painfully distorted at higher volumes.

Firmware

Despite what Roku claims, the new firmware doesn’t feel very different from the old. Of course, the Roku has always been exceptionally easy to use and reliable, so I’m quite happy with the fact that the changes were minimal. The Roku version of a software store is their “Channels”, which once selected are available from your home screen. The new user interface fits more channels on the screen at a time, which is just enough for me to consider it a small but significant improvement over older versions. The new firmware supports some additional features, and you’ll find some games available now, and even some app-like channels. Angry Birds Space and a Plex client were two of the less usual channels I wanted to check out. There is also a USB media player channel available. There honestly isn’t a ton of content available, and the existing design doesn’t really allow much searching options. The Roku Channel Store is a sort of big browsable grid, but that’s OK because you don’t spend much time there. The firmware felt consistent, well thought out, easy to use, very stable, and much snappier overall than previous versions.

Features

The Roku 3 has most of the standard media services you’d expect out of a basic TV box. Netflix, Pandora, a smattering of news stations and prominent websites are all available, wrapping their online content into simple, browsable, remote-controllable apps. Unfortunately, most don’t have a lot of unique content, and some are downright disappointing. For example, I was pleasantly surprised to find an app for SyFy, and disappointed to find it full of mediocre clips and previews. In the SyFy channel, and in many other similar ones, there are few if any full-length episodes to be found.

There are some channels that are well worth having, however. Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Instant are all available to stream video, and Pandora, Spotify, Slacker, and MOG are the cream of the crop when it comes to music. If you use another video or music streaming service, it’s worth checking the Channel Store to see if it’s there, since I’ve only listed what I believe will be some of the more popular choices. I’ve tested several streaming channels, and they all work as advertised. Roku is also continuing to sign more content providers. Recently, they announced that Time Warner Cable subscribers can use Roku to stream live TV. Certainly, Roku doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, and their content is only improving.

One of the newer things Roku seems to be supporting, however, are channels that offer the ability to consume your own media. Unfortunately, the aptly named USB Media Player channel is the only thing that I tested that didn’t seem very functional. It can play the most basic formats, but although the description lists MKV, it failed to recognize or decode some such files. Instead, I opted for the Plex channel. This required installing some software on my computer, but it was easy enough to set up, and I was soon browsing and streaming my media collection directly from my desktop over WiFi. This was so much more convenient, I essentially gave up on the primitive USB media player. Plex itself is pretty awesome, but I’ll leave that for another time.

Also new to the Roku 3 is the ability to get application channels. Most importantly, games. The Roku 3 remote works rather like an inferior version of a Wiimote, but certainly well enough for what Roku is trying to do. Unfortunately, the games vary from a few well-executed ones like titles from the Angry Birds series, to more often poorly executed ones. It’s clear that Roku is struggling to get app developers, and isn’t holding them to the same standards as the other channels. When your screen fills with icons that were evidently drawn in Microsoft Paint XP, it’s not really a good sign. That said, the games that do work well, work very well indeed, and I would love to see more polished titles like Angry birds become available. It’s really quite fun, and a great time waster while someone is on the phone to play a few levels with the Rokumote.

One of the more unusual features (in my opinion anyway) of the Roku 3 is that it has a headphone jack on the side of the remote. I mentioned the headphones earlier, and this is what they’re for. Plug them in to the remote, and the Roku stops sending sound over HDMI, and instead outputs to the headphones. You can then adjust the volume using the control on the side of the remote. It actually works very well, and though it works great with the included headphones, the remote also outputs enough power that my larger over-ear headphones had reasonably high volume as well. I did hear what sounded like a little compression in the sound, but overall, it was clear and I didn’t  hear any static. Overall, the feature works well and exactly as advertised.

Conclusion

With the Roku 3, Roku continues their tradition of reliable, easy-to-use set top boxes. For being exactly what it claims to be, the right price, and an adequate improvement over their past models, I rate it 9 awkward earbud pads out of 10. The Roku 3 is available for purchase on Amazon.com for $99.99

I decided to test out the antenna, 2 ways: 1) first to install in on my roof, next to the Winegard for an apples to apples comparison, but also 2) to install and test it in my attic.  The reason for the second is that when its rainy or windy, the winegard, which I had tried installing in my attic but never got a good enough signal even with a pre-amp, signal loss was frequent, rendering my OTA setup sometimes useless.  Could the DB8e pull in signals even in my attic?

Tale of the Tape:

AntennasDirect DB8e: $199.99

• Works 70+ miles from broadcast towers
• Very flexible aiming characteristics
• Designed brackets allow elements to turn 360º
• Weatherproof construction
• High gain across entire UHF band (UHF channels 14-51)
• Impedance 75 ohm
• Max Gain 17.4 dBi
• Dimensions 48″L x 36″W x 6″D
• Product Weight: 10 pounds

Winegard HD7698P HDTV: $110.99

• Active Elements: 64
• Less Wind loading
• Impedance 75 ohm
• Estimated Range: 70 miles VHF & 60 miles UHF
• UHF Elements: 35
• VHF Elements: 29
• Boom Length: 168.25″
• Maximum Width: 53.5″
• >Vertical Height: 33″
• Element Diameter: 3/8″
• Turning Radius 101″
• Shipping Weight 17 lbs.

Setup

Putting the DB8e took about 20 minutes, with its instructions being no better or worse than the Winegard. Generally speaking I have found most OTA antenna setup instructions to be lacking, but in this regard, given how few elements the DB8e had, setup was a breeze.  Best of all, this is not a relatively large antenna. I actually put it together in my home, and carried up to the attic, something I couldn’t have done with the Winegard.

Apple-to-Apples Test

One of the nice features of the DB8e is the ability to have the antenna pick up signals from two different directions. In my case, this was particularly helpful because often times in bad weather, I would lose some channels because my stations are received from two, albeit slightly different degrees. I found no discernible difference in picture quality between either, and the DB8e didn’t pick up any new stations, or lose any stations versus the Winegard. While I haven’t had the chance to test in bad weather yet, so far, this is a draw.

Attic-based Test

Here is where the DB8e really shined. First, the Winegard is just too large for my attic, and second, it was never able to get a great signal.  That said, the DB8e, lost no channels when installed in the attic.  There was no noticeable picture degradation, and best of all, it will likely be less impacted during bad weather.

Conclusion

While one should bear in mind that the Winegard is a circa 2009 model, the model can still be purchased today direct from Winegard, and is still their top ultra long-range model.  But the advantage of the DB8e is really three-fold, 1) its a more manageable, size-wise antenna, 2) it operated as well within my attic as outside which should be especially handy during bad weather, and finally, and this is very important for those of you who live far distances from your signals, its bi-directional, enabling you to pick up more channels that what far-out users are typically stuck with uni-direction antennas.  These features for me, certainly make the one time $50 price difference more than acceptable, and if you are considering truly cutting the cord , and live far away from your local stations, the DB8e is very likely the new king on the block of Ultra Long Range OTA antennas.   Happy cutting…

You often hear that good things come in small packages, but when it comes to computers this isn’t usually the case. Your best phones pack five inch screens and they’re only getting bigger. High powered gaming rigs need big fans and cooling systems, and enough space for larger than normal components. Small computers have always tended to reflect that in every manner. Smaller cases tended to skimp on power, and mini computers, like the Zotac ZBOX Nano, tended to run last generation hardware with no ability to upgrade. The specs on the ZBOX, however, tell a different story. A dual core 1.7 gigahertz processor and a RadeonHD 7340, 64 gigabyte solid state drive, and a meager but respectable 2 gigabytes of RAM falls right in line with high end ultra-book notebook computers. It’s not built for gaming, but the ZBOX is marketed as a multimedia bare-bones mini-PC. In today’s world, that means hardware accelerated 1920×1080 video, great connectivity options, and reliable performance is a must. Reviewing the Zotac ZBOX gave me an opportunity to see if AMD’s E2-1800 platform was up to the task, and if Zotac could make a tiny box with enough options to satisfy the needs of todays digital entertainment.

In the Package

A little creative lighting shows of the ZBOX’s brushed metal case and illuminated power circle.

Whether or not the Zotac ZBOX is a great computer, it certainly comes with its fair share of accessories. Seriously, this thing is decked out. Besides the necessary power cord, a wireless antenna, IR receiver, remote control, optical audio adapter, wall mount, and an upgrade guide all make an appearance. Although including an HDMI cable would have been a nice touch, no normal computer comes with a monitor cable anyway. Having the upgrade guide was a nice touch for the nerd in me, and it means if I want to upgrade the ZBOX, I don’t have to rely on iFixit. The included wall mount doesn’t look like much, but it’s sturdy and hooks in to the bottom of the ZBOX in such a way that you can face the front of the box up, down, left, or right; it’s your choice, and it’s not a permanent decision. The strange little thing that looks like it has the male end of a 3.5mm audio cable on it is a converter to optical audio out. Zotac also includes a driver CD, but this was honestly a head-scratcher for me, considering that the ZBOX does not have an optical drive.

The Accessories

The Zotac ZBOX comes with four pieces of pieces of hardware that I actually consider distinct enough to spend some time talking about. I’m sorry, optical audio adapter, you’re just not that special.

Compact form factor and good wireless reception.

The ZBOX does not have wireless built in, so Zotac has included a USB wireless card. The ZBOX itself is pretty small, so space is at a premium. It’s also targeted at the home theater PC market, so having good wireless reception is a must. Zotac struck a balance, and included what looks at first glance like an antenna that you can attach to a USB port. Closer inspection reveals a small wireless card that even includes a WPS setup button. Unlike some other USB wireless cards, it does not extend much over the sides of the USB port, so all nearby ports remain usable when the wireless is inserted. I had no problems with wireless reception, and both Windows 8 and Linux support the wireless chipset out of the box, though you’ll need to track down the drivers if you’re using Windows 7.

The next two pieces of hardware are the IR receiver and remote control. There’s not much to say about the receiver except that it works, and it has a decent length cord on it. This is great if you want to hide the box and still use the remote control. The remote is good, but it’s not fantastic. It has plenty of buttons, most of which work perfectly. I suspect that the remote is more designed for people with TV tuners, due to the presence of a number pad wich is all but useless in todays world of file names. The range and reception are great, however, and most of the buttons are logically laid out. Unfortunately, the rubbery texture is a lint magnet. If you look at the pictures, you can see fuzz all over the buttons. I cleaned the remote repeatedly, and only ended up replacing the more standard white-gray lint with the red lint from my cleaning cloth. So far, I’ve used the remote to control internet radio, movies, music, and even to give a presentation.

The Zotac ZBOX Itself

It’s bright, it’s green, it’s the Zotac ZBOX power indicator circle!

When I first took the ZBOX out of its box, the first thing I noticed was that it really is small! It has about the same footprint as my Roku and the Xios DS, but is about twice as thick. The most common comment I got about the ZBOX is “that’s a computer?”. We all know that computers can be small today, bu I think, when it comes to the ZBOX, it’s not just the size, it’s also the style. We’re used to laptops, or the industrial slim style desktops, or cell phones, but the ZBOX is sleek and just a little on the sparkly side. It reminds you of a designer portable hard drive, or maybe a Star Trek prop. Turn it on, and a green ring on the top glows. The fan hums along — not silently, but pleasantly enough. The overall impression is at once stylish, bold, and understated.

The construction is excellent, mostly metal, with a plastic but not cheap-feeling top. At first I wasn’t crazy about the four little feet, not sure if they were screwed in or glued on. I thought they might just come off. The included manual, however, noted that they were in fact clever thumb screws which let you take the bottom off of the ZBOX to access the solid state drive and RAM slot. Making the internals easy to access on such a tiny computer is definitely a nice touch. I also wanted to mention that Zotac seems to have chosen Kingston as a technology partner. They make the SSD, the RAM, and contribute their lock design. Kingston doesn’t just make cheap hardware, they make very good quality hardware, and it’s a nice change to see good quality components in relatively low-cost nano computers like the ZBOX.

Zotac’s nice touches don’t end there either. The front of the ZBOX has a multi-card reader, an eSATA port that doubles as as USB 2.0 port, a headphone port that doubles as optical audio out, and a microphone port. The USB/eSATA port is cleverly designed so that you don’t even need an adapter. The power button is also on the front. The left side has the air vent and a spot for a Kingston lock. The back of the device has the power port, an HDMI port, two USB 3.0 ports, an ethernet port, and two more USB 2.0 ports, one of which is recommended for the wireless. For such a tiny computer, the ZBOX has more than enough connectivity options. At no point during this review did I feel that there was not enough space for devices I wanted to plug in, especially once I discovered the eSATA port could take a USB device as well. Zotac gets very high marks on their port layout and selection, and bonus points for creatively combining ports to give you more options.

Running Software

At its heart, the ZBOX is a computer, so how it runs software is important. I found the AMD E2-1800 to be overall a very peppy platform, and quite capable. I tested the ZBOX with Windows 7, and found the experience a little lacking. Windows 8 installed better, and the start screen worked reasonably well with the remote control. Although Windows 8 did have some trouble with detecting multiple key presses, turning on bounce-keys in the Windows accessibility options fixed that easily. It should be noted, though, that neither Windows 7 nor Linux had problems with multiple key presses. Boot time is fantastic, barely over ten seconds for either Windows 8 or KUbuntu Linux. Although I would have preferred Zotac include 4 GB of RAM instead of two, the speed of the 64GB SSD helps make up for that. Also, it’s easy to upgrade to 4GB of RAM.

To get video to play smoothly, I went into the BIOS and increased the RAM available to the video card. The onboard graphics can accept up to a gigabyte of graphics memory if you want to spare it. I set the graphics card to use 512MB, and tested Netflix, Youtube in HTML5 mode, and playing various media in XBMC, which works great with the included remote. On both Windows and Linux, the results were the same. Netflix plays fine in standard definition, but is too laggy to be watchable in HD mode (I’m pretty sure this is the fault of Silverlight). I was able to stream full 1080p video from YouTube without a problem, and it played smoothly embedded and in full screen. XBMC also ran very smoothly, including OpenGL visualizers for music, and HD movies with the UI overlay. It’s no Intel Core i7, but it’s more than enough for casual media consumption. I thoroughly enjoyed the Zotac ZBOX, and I give it 9.5 green power circles out of 10!

As you can see the Roku 3 now requires an HDTV as they have removed any capability to connect the device to an SD TV, though I imagine this can be worked around if you try hard enough.  It also now has motion control for gaming and dual band Wi-Fi for higher streaming performance on wireless networks!  The coolest new feature however, may be the ability to plug headphones directly into the remote which will allow you to receive sound via headphones instead of via HDMI!  And the headphones are included in the $99 price!

The new $99 price tag may be warranted if the new device performs a bit quicker than the Roku 2, once we get our hands on the new device we will get a full review out.  Till then, stand by for more!

We’ve been following the company since January of this year and have seen the service improve. One game changing event was when they update their Roku Channel. See our complete review here.

Check your Aereo availability here. Read the full article from NY Daily News here.

Ordering and Delivery

Tesla espouses a ‘new way to buy a car’, and for the most part, that was certainly true. Ordering was a snap, online, and very easy. Select your battery (45KwkWh, 60KwkWh or 85KwkWh), your colors (exterior and interior), and your options, enter your credit card for the down payment and done. Ordering went off, for the most part, without a hitch. On the other hand, delivery was, well, in a word, a clusterf–k.

Two weeks prior to delivery, I received an email, cc’d on which was my assigned “Delivery Specialist”. Let’s call him Jim. I never heard from Jim. A week went by, and with a week to go until scheduled ‘delivery’, I was anxious. After placing numerous calls to the gentlemen who had handed me off to Jim, I received a call from a second Delivery Specialist, let’s call him ‘John’. John and I arranged for a time for the car to be delivered (pickup is only available in California, elsewhere, buyers are charged $900 for the car to be delivered via flatbed truck or some equivalent to any location with an hour or so of ‘training’ by the delivering specialist I was corrected by multiple readers that all buyers are charged this destination fee). One day before the car was to be delivered, I received a call from Delivery Specialist #3, let’s call him “Dan”. Dan informed me that John had been ‘reassigned’ to another delivery, and Dan would be delivering my car. A quick rewind. About a month prior to getting the car I called Tesla asking them how I should set up my garage to charge the car. Tesla informed me that the ‘high powered wall connector’, which enables the car, rated at a range of 270 miles under ‘normal’ conditions’, to be charged in 4 hours, were back ordered, and as such, install a ‘Nema 6-50′ plug which can easily and quickly be converted to support the high powered wall connector when its available. As such, I had my electrician install the Nema 6-50. Fast forward to Dan, who now, a day prior to the car being delivered, informs me that the Nema 6-50 adapter is not available, and as such, I will have to plug the car into a standard 110v outlet, which charges the car at a rate of 2-3 miles per hour. Uh Oh. No worries though says Dan, the car will be fully charged upon delivery, or will it….

Delivery Day

At 8am, I receive a call from Dan saying he’s running a bit late, and the 9am scheduled time will likely be 9:20am. Knowing Dan is driving from NJ to Westchester County NY, I figured traffic was inevitable. At 8:30am I text Dan a simple, “how’s traffic’. No response. Over the next 45 minutes, I text and call Dan to no avail, he’s not responding. Worried, (and pissed, more pissed than worried), I call John, Delivery Specialist #2 who picks up. Upset, I ask John why Dan isn’t responding. John doesn’t know, but promises to call Dan and find out. A few minutes later John calls back, telling me Dan is “5-10 minutes away”. At 9:50am, Dan finally drives the car up my driveway. I’m pretty hot at this point. “Why pick up the phone for John and not me?” No real good response. Moving on I notice the car has plates, which I specifically said wasn’t required as I was transferring plates from my old car. Minor hiccup, but then I notice there’s no inspection sticker on the car. “Where’s the inspection sticker?” I ask Dan. Dan informs me he was ‘pained’ this morning prior to leaving for my home when he noticed the lack of an inspection sticker. “Why didn’t you tell me that when we spoke this morning so I could schedule an inspection?” I furiously asked Dan, given that Dan knew I had turned in my leased car the day before, and the Model S was to be my sole car. Shrugs and apologies ensued. “Isn’t it illegal to sell a new car without an inspection?” I ask Dan, and then Dan’s colleague from Tesla, who Dan called and I spoke with asking the same question. “Yes”, is the response I get from the Tesla employee on the phone, “it is illegal to sell a new car without an inspection.” Getting in the car, I also notice the car is only 75% charged, “Why isn’t the car fully charged?” I ask Dan. Another shrug, another apology. Two hours later, after numerous phone calls, I find a local auto shop to conduct the inspection, for $10 given it’s an all electric car – no emissions tests required. Now in fairness, Tesla did have another, fourth Delivery Specialist physically drive up a Nema adapter that afternoon, but overall, given my experience, the delivery experience is broken. No one called days in advance to confirm anything. While I am sure there is some checklist Delivery Specialists are instructed to follow, none was in this case. Fortunately, the car makes up for it.

The Car

The car itself, in my opinion, is gorgeous. Sleek lines, tons of room, and mostly well thought through. Its also BIG, only a few inches shorter than a base BMW 750. Driving the car is an experience like no other car I’ve ever driven. Acceleration from a standing start is amazing but what really sets the car apart is passing power. From 40mph to 70mph feels like it happens instantaneously, like being on a roller coaster when you first take off. It happens so quickly you don’t realize how fast you are going – speeding tickets are a real concern when driving this car. The driver and passengers alike are thrust back into their seats, response is instant when you mash the gas peddle accelerator. In a word, its exhilarating. Cornering is amazingly precise, thanks to the cars natural, low center of gravity. The driver can also adjust the handling between comfort, standard and sport driving modes. The seats are generally comfortable (more on that later) and there is an absolute ton of room. Now let’s get to specifics.

The Good

Beyond the acceleration and handling, the basic functions of a car, the technology is ridiculous, and yet, as I write below, there is a surprising amount of standard tech available on today’s gas-powered luxury cars that is shockingly absent. The central control panel is in short, fantastic. Touch response is immediate, no visual pixels, easy to reach, its great. And as you can see in the video below, its customizable. Rather than write about all that’s good in this car, only a video will really do it justice.

Also great is the iPhone/Android app, that allows you to do everything but turn on the car, including warming it up to try to recapture some of that lost range as a result of sitting, unplugged, in the cold (more on that later). See the screenshots below. The location screen, not shown, brings up the iOS Map screen with a blue dot where you are, and a red arrow where the car is, and can provide directions to get from you to the car. Like everything in the car’s display’s, the iOS’ displays also match the color and wheels on your actual car.

The Bad

The first morning I went to drive the car after charging overnight the charging port wouldn’t release from the car. Two calls into the ‘Ownership Experience” line (the first call sent me to voicemail telling me I’d get a call back), and a gentleman kindly walked me through a ‘soft reset’ of both the main touch screen as well as the driver display. What Dan, my Delivery Specialist didn’t tell me is that one needs to press AND HOLD the button on the charging port, push in and then pull out. Simply pressing and releasing the button before removing the port can ‘confuse’ the car.

The headrests aren’t great. They look cool, but are too narrow, and don’t have enough forward padding. The result is if you lean your head back, you find your head ‘slipping’ from one side or another, and if you don’t lean back, I found that simply bringing the seat more upright didn’t yield a comfortable back position.

Unfortunately, Tesla takes a nod from strategic partner Mercedes, in that the steering column literally hides the cruise controls, and is too close to the left turn signal, on which is the windshield wiper functionality, which is somewhat hidden as a result of the very beefy steering wheel.

While the technology package is impressive, here’s a shocking list of absent tech commonly found in other, high end luxury cars: heated sideview mirrors, proximity/parking sensors, and blind spot assist. The car with the telematics package comes with 3G, but no 4G, and while the car has wifi hardware built in according to Tesla, the ‘software’ isn’t ready to handle it. Plus, given the connectivity, there is no ability to use the car as a hotspot. Additionally, while the bluetooth connectivity to my iPhone worked well, on the music side, there is currently no way to browse the music on the phone, only skip to the next song. Bummer. Also, when navigation is on the main center console, there is no way to orient the marker to always face up – that happens on the driver display – this is something Dan mentioned Tesla was working on as well. Additionally, using the heater and air conditioning (especially this) is a real battery drain, yet Dan and a Tesla rep on the Owners Experience line indicated the front seat warmers don’t use nearly as much power. If so, why didn’t Tesla make back seat heat warmers standard, as well as footwell warmers using the same electric coil method? Doesn’t solve the A/C use, but does address cold weather use and possibly the cold weather battery drain issue (more on that below). There is also no heated steering wheel, another oversight in my opinion.

Another additional item I feel Tesla overlooked, especially given their partnership with Mercedes: no ability to fold down back seats from the trunk (which all Mercedes SUVs have). The Tesla has an amazing trunk (and frunk) space, but to get all that goodness, including the room when the back seats are folded down, one must do so from the back seat first. A small inconvenience, but one that could have been better thought through. Another small inconvenience, no hooks for clothing or laundry in the back seat ceiling…silly overlook in my opinion.

Finally, one comment on the Energy Consumption screen. As seen in the picture below, the left hand axis represents the watts/mi usage, while the line represents the remaining range based on driving at that instant (which is different than rated range). Problem is, naturally, if one sees a line go higher, the assumption is more range – not so, because higher watts/mi used on the left axis means less range. So users must get used to the fact that when the instant read is BELOW the solid horizontal range line, that means remaining range is HIGHER than rated range, and vica versa , and if the dotted horizontal average line (in this case your average expected remaining range based upon the last 15 miles), is ABOVE the solid horizontal rated range line, that means you expected to get LESS than the rated range reading on your driver display – an odd quirk, but one that can be overcome.

The Cold

The weather, cold weather in particular, could be the Achilles heal of this car, although I’m told Tesla is working on it. Rated range is calculated based not only on driving habits but also on the battery itself. If the battery is cold, and all batteries, in order to function ‘optimally’ must be kept within an ideal temperature range, the rated range is reduced by the amount of energy the car requires to heat up the battery to within ideal temperature range. The impact to the battery has been mixed. On a cold, 26-degree day, I saw the car lose as much as 7 miles/hour in rated range from just sitting there, unplugged, while on other, more recent days its only lost 1-2 miles/hour of rated range. One Tesla rep from the Owner Experience line answered upon my asking, that leaving the car at JFK Airport, during the cold season, for even up to 24 hours, going on a trip and returning could leave you with a dead car. Yes, there are ‘safety measures’ the car goes into when the battery gets low, but the rep ‘did not recommend’ leaving the car at the airport for even 48 hours during winter. He said the company is working on this, alluding to it being a calculation error rather than a functional one, but in the end, he didn’t recommend leaving the car outside, not plugged in, for any extended period of time. On another day, I called the Owner Experience line again, asking the same question. This time, a helpful woman who owned an S in Colorado said just the opposite, also based on her personal experience and noted how many Roadster customers have left their cars unplugged ‘for weeks at a time’ without issue, although I failed to clarify if this was in cold weather. I’ll certainly keep an eye on this and report back in an update.

Summary

The Model S is a blast to drive, and is far head of the pack in terms of overall technology. While range is more than adequate for a daily use car, and even some longer drives (plus the Supercharger network that is free of charge to all 85Kw and 60Kw owners who purchase the twin charger add-on, Correction, free supercharging is available to all owners with an 85 kWh battery and those 60 kWh battery owners that purchase the seperate supercharging upgrade), range anxiety is limited, although not completely removed because more planning for long trips is required than with a standard gas car. No question its a game changer. But its not perfect, and while the absent technology and other creature comforts are generally easy to incorporate going forward, the cold weather battery issue needs to be addressed, and quickly, if Tesla is going to conquer the gas powered market. I’ll report back in six months or so after I’ve had the chance to drive the car more, and update my impressions.

The Speck has great video output if you have the ability to hook up an HDMI cable to it and play it in a 1080p television or even down to a 720p television. Having access to both of those things made the viewing experience very nice. The picture quality was amazing from the start and all HD movies and television shows that I tried playing on it were great. Another great feature about the Speck is its fast start up time. The time it takes the Speck to turn on from the second I press the power button the remote to the time I get to select a file to play, is about 5 seconds which in my experience using these types of devices is very good. There are no splash screens to sit through, the device just turns on and allows you to start watching your shows or listening to music. The ability to play music, and picture slideshows off of the device wasn’t something that I needed or really expected when I first got the device but, it was a nice surprise to be able to do those sorts of things. The aluminum case provides something different from a lot of the other players that I have encountered while using my friends players and such.

The Speck does have some bad features to it as well. Its small, lightweight design is also a bit of a problem for the Speck. The weight of my HDMI cable was actually enough to move the device around if it wasn’t weighted down by something else. So there were times when I plug the HDMI cable into the device, go and sit on the couch, and by the time I got to the couch the cable would have pulled the device into a position where the remotes signal wouldn’t be able to be picked up by the device which was an inconvenience because I had to get up and re-adjust the position of the device so the remotes signal could be picked up by the device. Speaking of the devices ability to pick up the remote’s signal, which was something that really bugged me about this device. Unless I was in a perfect spot, the device had a hard time picking up the remotes signal when I would press a button. There was no good peripheral detection which often meant I would have to sit in a direct line to the device and not off to the side to use the remote and ultimately the device itself.

While I think the Speck is a decent product I don’t think that I would recommend this product to people who want to use this at home for their home theater systems. If somebody wanted to use this for travel and take it on the road, I think this would be a great choice because of its light weight, compact design. There isn’t enough good to outweigh the major inconvenience’s that this device can provide for a home theater system. The picture quality is very good, and it plays a ton of different file types but, those are features that you can get with many other players that are more user friendly in a home environment.

The Pivos XIOS DS Media Play Smart TV Companion (that is its full title) is one of those things I have always been fascinated with. I’m an Android zealot, who who has experienced many devices over the years from cheap to cutting edge. I have long used Android to listen to music, watch videos from files, YouTube or Netflix, catching up on news, browsing Reddit, and many other forms of media consumption. Pivos describes the XIOS DS as “the marriage between digital home entertainment and the powerful Android platform”, and I got the opportunity to see if it lives up to their claims.

Unboxing

The XIOS DS is a tidy and compact package. The packaging is clean and simple, and as soon as I took the top of the box off, I found a card inside. “Before using your device, please upgrade to the latest firmware.” Considering how unstable the device was when I first turned it on, I’m glad they warned me to upgrade, but more on that later.

Under the XIOS in the box, I found the power adapter HDMI cable, and remote control. Including the HDMI cable is a nice touch in a time where so many devices are bring-your-own-cord.

Hardware

The XIOS itself is simple but well designed. It’s small, but uses what little space it has effectively. One side holds the MicroSD card slot and two USB ports. Another side has ethernet, HDMI, power, and a third USB port. The last side has a few indicator lights. The build quality is solid. The ports are uniformly constructed and firmly attached. There are no rough edges or bad seams. The bottom of the device has a silicon mat to keep it from sliding around.

The included remote matches the XIOS, and to my pleasant surprise was very well made. It may be small and light, but it doesn’t feel flimsy, and the silicon buttons are soft to the touch and clicky to press, and the volume buttons are located on the side. The remote felt like it would be a real companion to the XIOS. The buttons are few, but well thought-out, with the exception of the lack of a “home” button. The remote was definitely conceived as part of the product, not just a flimsy accessory, the limitation to the remotes functionality would be in software.

An Android Powered…

One of the most difficult parts of this review was trying to decide how to consider the device. As a simple, inexpensive, Android-powered mini-computer, I need only be concerned with whether the company has kept the firmware stable and up-to-date. As an Android-powered HTPC, I need to consider multimedia playback and how well you can control the device with the included remote.

Of course, the hardware that is exactly what it says on the box, so if you’re familiar with the Android OS, you know roughly what you’re going to get. You won’t mind updating the firmware, you’ll know that you should have a spare USB keyboard and mouse if you don’t have a touchscreen, and you would doubt your geek-cred if you didn’t try five different launchers, home screens, widgets, and media players on it just as fast as you could install them.

Pivos, however, isn’t just marketing to the tech-savvy. “Digital home entertainment never came in such a sleek package.” it says on their website. It also says “XIOS DS Media Play supports a rich user interface with variety of widgets, animated background and shortcuts to your favorite apps… Enjoy the ability to stream all your favorite video and audio content and a massive collection of applications and premium online content.” In other words, this isn’t just about the hardware, and I would be remiss not to review the device for what Pivos claims it to be.

The XIOS as a Media Center

First, I want to give Pivos credit where it is due. They were clear even in packaging that the firmware should be immediately updated. The default firmware was pretty much just a very glitchy version of stock Android 4 ICS. As I already mentioned, to get started you’ll need to plugin in a keyboard. I had a spare one lying around (specifically, the excellent Logitech k400 I previously reviewed) which worked flawlessly with Android. In case you’re wondering why I’m not including screenshots of the device, it’s simply because there is nothing to take a screenshot of. The software is completely stock except for a simple file manager, and it will change with the version of Android you have installed.

Updating the firmware did fix many of the crashes I had been experiencing and improved my wireless connectivity. As much as I like the idea of the remote, though, it isn’t enough to navigate around stock Android. The remote seems to have been designed with XBMC in mind, and only that. It does not control the cursor, but just sends key presses for the buttons on the remote such as “up”, “down”, “left”, “right”, and “select”.

Once I had finished updating the firmware, I spent some time making myself at home on the device. I installed a launcher more suitable for a TV screen, and after realizing that the XIOS didn’t actually have a media center software packaged with it I located a micro SD card which was required to download other software, and headed over the the Pivos website to grab the hardware accelerated version of XBMC. Finally, the XIOS was starting to feel like a media center.

Although still in release candidate for Android, XBMC was easy to install, super slick, and worked great with the remote. Unfortunately, playing files in general on the device was very much hit-or-miss. Some played fine, others played with smooth video but no audio, or in the case of Netflix, played audio but no video. Pivos did post a video to their forum where they give directions for how to fix Netflix, and I applaud them for making sure to address that issue and do their best to make it easy to fix. Unfortunately, it still requires using an app to edit the Build.prop file on the device — not something most people would consider very “easy”. In addition, I recommend not using this device on a wireless network. Although it works alright for browsing the Internet, even after applying the changes mentioned by Pivos, Netflix could not buffer for more than about thirty seconds at a time, and YouTube was unable to play HD video without constantly buffering.

The Rating

I think that Pivos is sincerely trying to provide devices with a lot of value, and they are clearly trying to be consistent about upgrading their devices. Unfortunately, for those who aren’t tech savvy, they don’t seem to be able to wrap up what they’re trying to provide in a nice package. For those who are tech savvy, the XIOS DS is an attractive price, and is as easy to customize as you would expect of an Android device.

The bottom line is that the XIOS is getting frequent software updates, and Pivos seems committed to the device, but, the XIOS is also not suitable for anyone who isn’t comfortable flashing firmware, and editing config files, both of which are required to get the device working smoothly.

If Pivos really wants this to be a multimedia device, they need to improve the software. They need to ship a stable version of Android, make sure automatic updates work, include a custom launcher with big buttons that you can navigate with the remote, and include the hardware accelerated version of XBMC. They also should patch the Android keyboard so that when you’re navigating using the remote, there is a way to shift focus to the keyboard to type.

I give the XIOS 4.5/5 for hardware, and 2/5 for software, resulting in an overall 6.5 little robots out of 10. The device is available for purchase on amazon.com for $119.99.

That time of year is finally upon us… Superbowl time baby!  The great American pastime’s final stand of the NFL season brings the San Francisco 49′ers against the Baltimore Ravens.  This year if you don’t have a cable subscription (PFFT Cable) you are in luck, as CBSSports.com will be streaming the bowl live to all of us over the net!  This year marks the second anniversary of the bowl being streamed online, free of charge!  If you are a fan of the NFL, there is currently a bunch of content posted to CBSSports.com including interviews with players, etc.  Check it out!

Plex users looking to stream the bowl, I recommend you sign up for MyPlex as this will allow you to pass the stream directly over to your HTPC via CBSSports.com.  This will make the stream seamlessly integrate into your HTPC so you don’t have to fumble with keyboard/mouse etc to get the stream rolling.  SEE YOU BOYS (and GIRLS) SUNDAY!

Where: Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans

When: Sunday, Feb. 3 at 6:30 p.m. ET

Watch: CBS

Live Stream: CBSSports.com

Listen: Sirius XM Radio: 88, WBAL 1090 AM (Baltimore) or KNBR 680 AM (San Francisco)

Betting Line: 49ers -3.5, Over/Under 47.5

The new Aereo Roku Channel is a full fledged DVR and OTA Channel replacement.   Users can still use their iPad or iPhone as a remote by using what Aereo calls “Two-screen mode”, however while this was formerly the only way to use your Roku with Aereo, you no longer require it.  As can be seen in the screen shots below, users have a variety of screens that enable users to watch, record, and gain access to a full fledged onscreen guide.

But even more important is the quality is dramatically improved.  I tested the channel on my Roku2 XS connected to my home network via Wifi.  As stated, quality is DRAMATICALLY improved, and what I saw was just about equal to my OTA antenna quality.

New Aereo Roku Channel Home screen

Aereo Roku Channel Guide Selection Screen

Aereo Roku Channel Channel Guide

Aereo Roku Channel Selection

With the Roku update, Aereo has taken a dramatic leap forward, greatly improving both their service and ease of bringing OTA HD channels to homeowner’s big screen TVs with high quality.  Even with the price, which runs slightly less than Netflix on an annual basis, this is a game changer.   Given that you can test the service for 24 hours for just a buck, it’s well worth trying out the service.  Happy cutting…