A very brief review of the Dell Latitude 2110 Netbook (USA people click HERE). There is a few good reasons why this might suit your needs over the Acer and others out there and the price range is $400+ or £289 – a lot depends on the specs your choose of course such as operating system, memory and hard drive etc. This is just an overview as I only had one day to take a look at this device and get it ready with Windows XP.

First the Specs

It is running an Intel Atom N470 which runs at 1.83Ghz with 512KB L2 Cache.

The Chipset is Intel NM10 Express

Display options are all 10.1″ but can either be 1024×600, 1024×600 with touchscreen or 1366×768 TrueLife LED

Graphics is powered by Intel GMA 3150 (optional Broadcom Crystal HD media accelerator

Memory can be up to 2 GIG Ram DDR2 (One slot)

Hard Drive is 250 GIG or 64GIG SSD

3 x USB, VGA port, Network port, Audio.

Built in Webcam

The beast in action

Model Tested

The model I had to get ready was the 10.1″ 1024×600 with touchscreen and 3G card fitted (for mobile broadband) with 2 GIG ram and 250GIG Drive fitted plus the 6 Cell Battery. It came pre-installed with Windows XP Pro from Dell and pre-built with all there apps.

Initial testing

The screen size presented a problem (as it does with all netbooks) and the first task was to update windows with every single update and this process was very slow indeed. After the first round of 23 updates and a restart, Explorer would crash upon starting and finally fixed this by de-installing Explorer 8 and reverting to 7 until it self updated itself later. Dell had managed to install Windows Search which made a already slow laptop slower and more work to get rid of all the junk.

3G Problems

With a sim fitted – it stated it could not find the 3G Card (that’s the hardware not the sim) and eventually had to get on the phone to Dell who took control and 3 engineers later – finally they installed some Vodafone software, they could not explain why there software did not work.

What about the laptop?

It has a rubberised coating both top and bottom and feels quite durable and the chic keys are something you either love or hate. The speed of the device felt very sluggish though this might have something to do with all the junk Dell like to Install. The only user serviceable parts is when you take off the battery allowing you to slot in a SIM Card for the broadband. What if you had a lot to built – this is were another call to Dell comes into play…

Getting down and dirty

I was un-sure how you took the hard drive out and called Dell – they were shocked I needed to remove the hard drive and questioned me why. After explaining that I need to make an image and build a lot – they soon got the manual out. You have to remove that battery, remote Two screws and now the Keyboard comes out, unclipped the connected flat cable of course. Now you need to remove 3 Screws and flip the thing over, remove another 4 and now the Laptop comes apart - revealing the motherboard. From here you need to take another 4 screws out of the hard drive and you can now image that beast. I am not looking forward to repeating this over and over again – Why on earth did Dell not make it easier?

Thoughts

The battery (6-Cell) forms a sort of stand and lasts quite some time and the touch screen is sort of responsive but not amazing. I personally think it is no better then any of the other Netbooks out there and seems to cost more. The 3G built in is a nice feature though and may suit some people.

Just a heads for people currently running Skype Beta 5, although the software tell’s you that you have the latest version – if you check out the Beta page you will find it has been updated today – 2nd September 2010. Might be worth a shot even though it is Beta, I had no major problems that I could not work around and who can forget the multi Video conferencing.

If your sporting a HTC phone and like the combined FlipClock and weather widget then your in luck, you can now have this little beauty on your windows 7 desktop. Keep reading your interested in watching the video showing the widget in action or just head off to the website to grab the code and give it a whirl.

I bought one of these devices a long time back and what it does out of the box is basically play just about anything your chuck at it and play it at full HD (1080p). It works by means of plugging in your external HD with movies, music and photographs and you plug it into your TV via HDMI. This works well enough but it means your limited to the of the hard drive you plug in. They did bring out a new model called the WDTV Live which has wired / wireless (by means of a adaptor I guess) but I did not fancy buying yet another device – so what about modding this and making it wireless and accessing my NAS box?

Flashing the firmware

I headed over to B-RAD and got myself a ** WDLXTV-0.5.8.1 ** - this is based off the WDTV firmware and I proceeded to follow the instructions. You out the file on the memory stick (I used a 1GIG slim version) and the WDTV told me a new firmware was found – I flashed and waited. At this point I had no networking as such and I had a few USB Wireless sticks to choose from but the one Virgin Media gave me when I upgraded to 50mbit was the D-Link DWA-140 – this been listed as compatible.

Hours of Messing

I followed guide after guide after guide and still no wireless working, still no shares showing up with all my movies. I then stumbled upon this post HERE, followed it to the letter and although the WDTV box told me NO-IP at the boot screen, I checked my router and indeed it had assigned 192.168.0.107. I could ping this IP but no shares, no movies – head scratching time !!

More reading

I worked out I needed the Samba pack (on the b-rad site above) and I had to read the Telnet guide also. One I had the right parts – I booted the WDTV, still read NO-IP but now it had a new share I had created called MOVIES and I could see both the network and the NAS Flashing away.

How fast though?

I tested some movies and normal divx type stuff played fine but HD stuttered. You have to remember that it was scanning the network so probably not only using bandwidth on the wireless but also the NAS was using the drives. I shall leave it indexing the NAS (might take it some time) and tomorrow I can place it back under the TV and now have complete access to all my movies, photos and Music collection - definitely worth the hassle and of course the money saved in not buying a new one.

Update: You can find some more addon’s HERE such as the Elmar Weber’s Apple Trailers Plugin & WDLXTV App pack UPnP-djmount.app.bin-0.1 which adds more functions to the little WDTV.

As ISP’s provide faster bandwidth speeds, webcams get higher resolution and computers get faster and more core’s – it begs the question – can you now stream in full HD resolution to offer the best video possible as well do it on a free service? I recently watched what was claimed to be full blown HD Stream but after making this full screen and seeing ‘jaggies’ on the diagonal lines (such as the nose for example) – I questioned if this was really HD and what was at fault.

Bandwidth requirements

• 720p60: 1280×720 gives 0,92 megapixels per frame. If we take a 24-bit color value per pixel (RGB), this means 2,76 MB data per frame, which multiplied with the 60fps gives 1,3 Gbps or 165 MB/s.
• 1080i60: 1920×1080 means a 2 megapixel frame which translates into 6,2MB per frame. The interlacing cuts the bitrate in half: 6,2MB x 60 / 2 = 1,49 Gbps or 186 MB/s.
• 1080p60 is obviously double the throughput of 1080i: 2,98 Gbps or 373 MB/s

Hardware

I am using the Logitech 9000 Pro and going from the spec’s page:

• High-definition video (up to 1600 X 1200*) – * Enhanced from native 2-MP sensor.
• 720p widescreen mode with recommended system

Now when I tested this HD mode – I need to add that it was dark and only had one light on – that means the camera had to work harder and probably make the image worse that it could have been.

The testing enviroment

Using the Core i7 machine armed with Flash media encoder 3.1 – I set the input and output to 1280×720 at 25fps, the bandwidth to 950 for video and the total bandwidth needed was 1014kbps. In theory I have 1500kbps – so I should have some headroom.  I also recreated the same settings on Wirecast and go to work recording some content and taking some pictures.

The first thing I noticed on Wirecast broadcasting was it was not as crisp even on preview and if you click the picture above to get the full resolution you can see that there is jaggy lines on the cup, the laptop and the words are not that clear.

Now let is turn to Flash Media Encoder 3.1 – straight away you should notice the much sharper picture, the lack of jaggies on the laptop, how easy it is to read the text. The lines you can see running through the picture is the camera trying hard to compensate for low light.

Thoughts

Wirecast will probably get better in Version 4 – as of now it downgrades the quality of either a webcam or a screen capture (a game for example). FME on it’s own of course cannot do camera swtiching live or capture the desktop but armed with the right programs, you could go so way to get them features.

The bottom line is just because you *think* you are broadcasting in HD does not mean the end result is true HD Quality. The stream above for example is still worse in Quality than a proper 720P Movie – streaming has a long way to go yet.

Unboxing the device

All synology NAS devices are well packaged with a carrying handle for easy transportation once it arrives or you buy it from the store. Inside you will find the device itself, a power cable, a power supply unit, RJ45 Network cable, a packet of screws to hold the harddrive in, a packet of screws to secure the unit and finally a manual plus CD to install the device.

Putting the device togther

The unit come unscrewed and its a simple case of sliding the top across and you end of with two pieces, one is the top and the other has the electronics stored inside. It is obvious were the drive goes:

With the drive placed in the holder and pushed into place, its is secured and you can refit the top, again there is screws supplied in the box which fit on the back. Once everything is ready – you now need to plug this into the power and into a network point, either on a router or a switch – the faster the network, the better it will perform.

Setting up the device for first time use.

Before you start, it is best to head off to the synology web site and download the latest firmware, make sure you remember to select the correct device from the drop down as it defaults to the DS1010+. Once you have the file saved, extract this to a place you know and now insert the CD that came with the device. This is one product that you actually need the CD that comes in the box as this prepares the harddrive to hold not only the firmware but also formats the drive. Once the process has finished (it will take a while) you can now go into a web page and manage the device from there.

The Basics

You need to create some users so that you can access the shares later, it can tap into Windows Server Active directory if you are a company or simply match the users on the NAS box with your windows login. You need to prepare the drive, I found with this device though it had already set up the drive for me on the first part of the install. You then need to create some shares and give people (users) permission – you can have as many or a few as you require at this stage.

Technical Info

It has a 1.06Ghz CPU with a 64bit DDR533 Memory Bus which supports floating point.

It comes with 512MB Ram, 3 USB Ports, 1 eSATA Port and supports a max of 12 IP Webcams.

Performance

Windows Upload/Download⁽¹⁾ (5GB File)

Netbench⁽²⁾

Encrypted file Upload/Download⁽³⁾ (5GB File)

iSCSI Upload/Download⁽⁴⁾ (5GB File)

Web Server Responsiveness⁽⁵⁾ (1,000x requests)

Photo Converting⁽⁶⁾ (54MB of Photos)

Price of this device

I did some searching around and I found the price on average of £230, I failed to find as USA Prices. You may well ask why a 1 Bay NAS box with no drives costs more then the 2 Bay DS210J (my other device) and the answer is performance, number of IP webcams out of the box supported and a eSATA Port – all pointing to a business use rather than home. The graphs above bear this out and its clear why the price is more.

The different products from Synology

Synology provide a page to compare all the products and the best way to think about this is to ask yourself were is the product going to be used, how many people will access this at one time, how much storage do you need and how much you are will to spend on a NAS Box.

Why Synology?

There is a lot of companies out there who sell a NAS device and while I was looking, I found some lacked in features (as in they had none), some limited the size of the hard drive and some were plain slow. Remember not only are you getting a NAS device which can support the largest drives but they come packed with features such as:

• Photo Station – share your pictures and videos easily.
• Download Station – leave this device to get the files without having to leave computers switched on.
• Webstation – have your own unlimited website which supports PHP and MySQL
• Audio Station – share you music via a web page, itunes and any other music player.

Plus many many more – head HERE to see everything that is on offer…

Lord of the Rings Online was a Game you paid your hard earned money for each month to play but come September 10th – put that money away as it will go in full “Free to play” mode. Of course like most other Free to play games, to get the extra stuff, you need to spend money. You’ll be able to download the game client, create an account, and battle the forces of EVIL~! without paying one red cent.

Of course, you’re free to purchase additional content, such as fancy weapons and armor and other premium content.

In short: the game = free, but any accouterments will cost ya.

You know what other MMO is going free-to-play? Everquest. Who saw that coming?

Methinks Blizzard would do well to come up with alternatives to this $15/month system if it wants to maintain its top spot, particularly as we get closer to the release of The Old Republic. Not that I know a darn thing about Star Wars, but the game certainly looks like it’ll be worth a punt.

Source: Crunchgear

The pogoplug only came with a RJ45 adaptor on the back which meant it could only been used with a wired connection which also meant it had to be close to the router or switch (unless you wire in some long cable of course). Pogoplug have introduced a wireless USB adaptor and if you already own a Pogoplug – you can get it fro FREE.

Pogoplug Gets a Wireless “Little Buddy”

Our #1 requested feature now resolved: Wireless Adapter enables Pogoplugs to be placed anywhere in the home; existing users can get it for free!
Pogoplug is giving people what they want. Our customers have bombarded us with requests to add wireless connectivity to the Pogoplug, and we heard the message, loud and clear. Starting today, anyone can pre-order the Pogoplug Wireless Extender that makes any existing Pogoplug fully WiFi-enabled. Now users can place the Pogoplug anywhere in their homes without having to permanently connect it to a network router or wired Ethernet port.
The Pogoplug Wireless Extender is compatible with all previous versions of Pogoplugs and the recently announced Pogoplug Biz. Other recent improvements we’ve added to the Pogoplug include cloud printing, the updated Pogoplug Android application, the ability to share and collaborate on documents directly on the Pogoplug, and a very simple system of email upload. We are constantly striving to make the Pogoplug even better, and we would love to hear what your experience has been and how we can improve it. Keep sending those emails!
The Pogoplug Wireless Extender will work on 802.11 b/g/n networks and is available for pre-order now for $29.
In addition to the introduction of the new Wireless Extender, we are reducing the price of the current Pogoplug from $129 to $99.
Because of this price move and as a thank you to existing Pogoplug owners there is a special limited time offer; any existing owner of a Pogoplug can receive a promo code to get the new Wireless Adapter for free. To find out how, visit our Facebook page or our website support page.
The standard model Pogoplug can be ordered starting today for $99 at www.pogoplug.com.

Synology® Debuts its DiskStation Manager 3.0 Beta, Including Multi-tasking Web UI, New iPhone® and Android Phone Support and Enterprise-level Features. Synology® Inc. today announced the beta release of its operating system, DiskStation Manager 3.0 (DSM 3.0), introducing multi-tasking web UI and new web desktop that make Synology NAS server even more intuitive and easy to use. The enriched iPhone® and Android phone support greatly increases multimedia files’ mobility. In addition, Windows® ACL support simplifies file privilege management. Comprehensive iSCSI support and extended volume size capability offer businesses with scalable NAS solution to meet enterprise-level demand.

“DSM 3.0 realises our commitment in delivering the best in class NAS solution with forward-thinking features,” said Derren Lu, CEO of Synology Inc. “The breakthrough multi-tasking web UI has raised the bar for NAS server’s using experience.”

The new multi-tasking web UI offers users a new way to quickly move between apps. Users can run multiple applications simultaneously on one tab browser and switch between them instantly, or perform real-time inter-app file exchange between two or more File Browsers. Dynamic loading saves users from the constant wait of refreshing the whole webpage. All of these features are performed on a web browser, imitating a full desktop experience.DSM 3.0 is the first NAS operating system allowing for customization and individuality, at the same time being easy-to-use and intuitive.

DSM 3.0 offers a customizable web desktop that allows users to make sure their favorite apps are easily accessible and the backgrounds scream their personalities. All accessible folders and files can be managed within File Browser.Synology smartphone apps, the new DS photo+, DS audio and DS cam, now support Android phone in addition to iPhone. With DS photo+, users can upload photos or videos from their iPhones or Android phones straight into and download from their DiskStations. Users can also view photos and videos that are stored on their DiskStations while leaving comments for their friends. The Android version of DS audio comes with a unique remote function, allowing users to conveniently remote control the music playing on their DiskStations through attached USB speakers.

DSM 3.0 simplifies file privilege management with Windows® ACL support, allowing access permission settings for shared folders and every file object on DiskStation in a Windows environment. The comprehensive permission precedence rules formulate a hierarchy, with each file’s explicit permission settings rule above inherited ones. This Windows-native experience aims at providing administrators a more flexible privilege management method to meet enterprise-level demand.For more flexible virtual storage solution, DSM 3.0 now offers multiple cross-mapping between iSCSI Targets and iSCSI LUNs. It also offers multiple connections per session (MC/S) and multipath I/O (MPIO) to provide connection failover and load balance benefits to strengthen the stability of a network storage environment.

To ensure file integrity, DSM 3.0 is compliant with SPC-3 PR standard to support Microsoft® Windows 2008 Server Failover Clustering or other systems such as VMware® Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) or Oracle® Cluster File System (OCFS).DSM 3.0 with EXT4 system provides a well-structured base for enterprise-class data storage. It adopts EXT4 file system and supports the maximum volume space of 1 exabyte, equivalent of 1 million TB, with greater stability, better performance and lower possibility of file fragmentation.Another key enhancement in DSM 3.0 is the upgrade to the new Surveillance Station 5 that supports over 580 IP cameras and 500 megapixel resolution, and is compatible with ONVIF and PSIA industrial standards, securing users’ future investment. In addition, Surveillance Station 5 makes propertysafeguard even easier to do. Users can live view up to 36 channels in one layout. Time Slicing feature splits playing event into four equal lengths of video clips to help users to quickly glance through the whole event.

Beta Testing

The beta release of the Synology DSM 3.0 additionally includes WebDAV support, IPv6 integration and more new features. For further details, please visit

http://www.synology.com/enu/support/beta/Synology_DSM3.0_2010.php

Synology DSM 3.0 Beta Reward Program

Synology will award a DiskStation DS110+ to a maximum of three beta testers who provide the most valuable feedback and assistance for making DSM 3.0 even better when the beta program ends. Visit http://www.synology.com/enu/support/beta/Synology_DSM3.0_2010.php for details.

Availability

The Synology DSM 3.0 beta is free to download for users who own a DiskStation x07 series and onward. The supported models are:

DS411+, DS1010+, RS810+, RS810RP+, DS410, DS410j, DS710+, DS210+, DS210j, DS110+, DS110j, DS509+, RS409+, RS409RP+, RS409, DS409+, DS409, DS209+II, DS209+, DS209, DS209j, DS109+, DS109, DS109j, DS409slim, RS408, RS408-RP, DS508, DS408, DS108j, RS407, CS407, CS407e, DS207+, DS207, DS107+, DS107, DS107e

The download is available at http://www.synology.com/enu/support/beta/index.php

The live demo site is available at http://www.synology.com/enu/products/demo/index.php

Synology at a Glance

Founded in 2000, Synology is a young and energetic company dedicated to developing high-performance, reliable, versatile, and environmentally-friendly Network Attached Storage (NAS) products. Our goal is to deliver user-friendly solutions and solid customer service to satisfy the needs of businesses, home offices, individual users and families.

Press Contact

marketing@synology.

You can find out more at the homepage – from what I understand, it a Free to play 3D MMORPG that plays a lot like World of Warcraft and has been going for some time. The client is 6.7Gigs to download and can take some time.