Deals

So Black Friday is around the corner... ill be posting cool deals i find here.

First up, LotR for only 50 dollars. Worth it.

So you need a multifunction printer

Check one of these out. All of them are wireless, work with Google Docs as well as Apple's AirPrint technology. Finally, Canon has their own app for iOS or Android to print photos.

Canon MG 8220 MG 6220 and MG 5320...

This article covers them all.

http://thetechjournal.com/electronics/canon-pixmas-new-three-wireless-printers-with-airprint-support.xhtml

Also note that ALL newer PIXMA wireless printers will get an update to support AirPrint. Awesome.

Reviews:
MG 8220
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2394284,00.asp#fbid=ccOwCFKq003

MG 6220
none yet

MG 5320
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2391362,00.asp#fbid=ccOwCFKq003

Having had personal experience with the canon PIXMA line of products (our family has the now older MP950) i can't recommend them enough. It does an awesome job for whatever you throw at it and 2 or 3 years later (i forget) we've had no problems. I can't say that for any other brand printer we've had over the years.

Ill update this page with more details such as the difference between the models at a later date. So far only thing I've noticed is only the higher end 8220 and 6220 support newer (therefore larger, like 32 or 64gb) SDXD memory cards.

Also, some people may need an auto sheet feeder or fax machine, in that case check this guy out. (these should get the AirPrint upgrade)
MX882
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2379000,00.asp#fbid=ccOwCFKq003


There is a cheaper MX420, but it seems its worth the extra money to get the MX882
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2380749,00.asp#fbid=ccOwCFKq003

So you need a digital Camera

I'm not a photographer, but i do very much enjoy photography so we are only going to look at point and shoot cameras. Some day i hope to get more into it. For now, here are some recommendations...

I pretty much only look at canon cameras. To me, they're a brand somewhat like Apple or BMW, nearly everything they make is awesome. Occasionally, they release a bad or sub par product, so, like all technology, you gotta read reviews and opinions about each model being released that you're interested in. That being said, since in general they fall in that rare category of a brand that rarely makes mistakes, if you're lazy you can be somewhat safe with just going to the store and as long as you end up with some canon camera you will be happy. But since you're here, and reading a few more sentences isn't too difficult, i think you will be happy with these choices.


Top choice, the Canon HS 310 $250

Basically you get a a great lens, great sensor for a great price.
This article compares it to its bigger brother the HS 510 and explains a bit why its a good deal

http://www.popphoto.com/gear/2011/08/canon-elph-510-hs-and-310-hs-are-skinny-compact-cameras-lots-zoom

Second Choice is the Canon Powershot s100 $430

This one is pretty pricey, but is at the top of the list of compact cameras. It will produce better pictures than the HS 310. It also has GPS built in, so every photo will be geo tagged.... how awesome is that for the traveler!

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/09/canon-powershot-s100-is-a-low-light-hotshot/

And finally we have the Canon HS 510 $350

this is the upgraded version of the HS 310 i mentioned earlier. As far as i can tell the only advantage you get with this camera is a larger touch screen interface. However, that interface isn't that great and i don't feel the extra cost is worth it. So this is just here in case you gotta have the latest and greatest. In my opinion, once you're spending the $350 for this camera, you might as well get the s100 which is a better camera.

On a final note, the new Apple iPhone 4S has probably the best camera in a smart phone right now. According to early reviews, it just about good enough to replace your point and shoot. So, thats something to consider depending how serious you are about your photos.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/11/iphone-4s-review/

Note that he is comparing the iPhone to his canon s95, which was the predecessor to the s100, so thats pretty impressive to say the least. (and who knows how detailed his eye and opinion is) Of course it still won't be as good and will still be horrible in low light conditions.

Also, all these cameras, (including the iPhone) shoot video in 1080p, which besides being awesome, makes me wonder what the future of consumer compact camcorders will be if still cameras can do great (enough?) video.

So You Need to Build a Computer

Well, this video isn't actually all that useful for someone learning, but i had a  blast making it, so hope you enjoy. Also, if you have already built computers, i think you will find it quite entertaining.

http://vimeo.com/29548110

How to do research

Read 3^rd party sites!!!!!!!! I can't stress this enough. Don't listen to websites and companies talk about their own products. Don't listen to that guy at frys or best buy either. They usually do not know what they are talking about sufficiently or are encouraged to push certain products and always... insurance plans. (hint, for most products most of the time, you don't need any store offered insurance plan.)

I know this is going to sound crazy, but companies LIE to you when they talk about their products.

No, they’re not out right lies, of course not, because then thanks to our wonderful legal system they would be sued.

But they are half truths. Favored Benchmarks. Selective comparisons, and much more.

See, companies spend millions of dollars on advertising and marketing, as well as on their legal teams. They know exactly what you want to hear, how you want to hear it, and how they can tell you that without getting in trouble. You think I’m being extreme? Just read about “n150” routers. Or look at any company’s “competitive analysis.” Or better yet, watch some of these videos…

Everything that makes the Tab “better” is in fact quite debatable. Also hard to believe, but the world does not need adobe flash, albeit it is sometimes nice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWS-O2nOmwA

Ok wow, this commercial does so many things right.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QR0M91_cyw

Ok, I have to admit, I have the utmost respect for Apple’s marketing team. (I also really love their products, they are good.) They are scary good at what they do. Too good. “Jobs’ Distortion field” may be fake but his marketing teams are extremely talented.

Watch this video, and think about these realizations…. Apple knows what you want to hear, and they are telling you just that. They’re not lying, but they fail to mention little things like how much that slick cover costs or that the front camera is crap and you will want to upgrade when the ipad3 comes out... That being said, I love this video, I think the product is great, and I think its the best video of tech marketing… ever. Just listen to how he says “aluminum” and try not to want this product.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Apple?v=Z_d6_gbb90I&feature=pyv&ad=7393087276&kw=apple%20iPad

There are a lot of 3^rd party sites out there. They are worth reading. You can gain real knowledge and better yourself to understand this crazy fast changing tech ruled world.

There are some distinctions, that the reader should understand….

There are News sites and blog sites…. Editorial Reviews And User reviews…..

Some sites focus on news but have editorial reviews… and usually all sites, even stores have user reviews.

Many sites now combine all those features I have mentioned.

News Sites and Blog (rumor) sites

They are useful for seeing what is coming next, where things are going, which companies are doing smart things, dumb things, mean things, nice things. The comments on these articles also give you an idea of what the general population’s views on these things are.

I would not trust their comments however for reviews, or any factual content.

I would check their facts for consistency with other 3^rd party news sites. Believe it or not, but modern journalism no longer lives in newspapers and magazines, its on the web. This means that although NY Times and the WSJ still have websites and are reputable, a lot of breaking news comes on other sites that do not necessarily have the same standards of journalistic integrity. What you read can not be true. You have to be smart.

This is especially true of people’s personal blogs (yes, even mine,) where people’s opinion often supersedes facts. Does this make blogs useless? Of course not (otherwise why would I write this?) you just have to use some common sense when you do research on the web. If it sounds fishy, it probably is.

One must remember than many prominent news sites are actually collection of many people’s blogs that get posted on this site. Opinion, like I just mentioned, often can get in the way of facts and you have to look out for that.

Rumor sites, are another fun little bundle of joy the internet brings to us. These sites tell us all kinds of wonderful things like Microsoft fired Steve Balmer, Jobs is dying, and the next iPhone will run Windows.

Rumors can be right. They can at least be interesting and give you ideas about whats coming.

But people are also dumb and have really bad ideas. Besides that they only get half the story, over emphasize things, and sometimes just lie. Often times “analysts” are just pulling things out from whence they should not pull things out of. They really don’t know what they are talking about.

Editorial Review and User Reviews

Editorial Reviews

Ok, so these are where you find good, trustworthy, 3^rd party reviews of all kinds of products. You can mostly trust these articles. These people have no connections with any specific company and honestly mention features, problems, and personal preferences.

The one thing they lack, however, is exposed time with the device. Usually, these guys get several things from companies and only have a few days, one day, or maybe just several hours with the device. This lets them get a general feel for it as well as notice any glaring problems. What it doesn't do is let them see reliability. How can they? Will it last one year? One month? One week? They can’t answer that. 

They also can’t answer how many products will be defective. They usually receive samples (rather than retail) versions from companies which I'm sure are tested to make sure they work right. So the device which is reviewed works great but what they don’t tell you is %25 percent of these products are defective (lemons).

This is where we turn to customer reviews. Customer reviews, are sometimes good, sometimes bad. One must realize many people have no idea what they’re talking about yet feel compelled to rant about it on the internet because... they can. (ok, stop snickering about me right now, I beg to differ.)

So usually I don’t trust them for their specific features, performance etc content. However, they are quite useful to see if a product is not reliable, or has quality control issues. Sometimes you do find very good, very informative reviews as well, but I imagine for one who does not know a lot about technology (and for whom this blog is intended) they will not be able to discern the difference.

When I do research on an upcoming product, I will actually look at the 1^st party website just to see what they say, find at least 2 rumors rumors saying the same thing, and most importantly wait until actual official news of some kind is released about the product. Trust me, no one is going to know exactly what the next iPhone will be like until Apple releases it.

When I do research on a product to buy, I try to find at least 2 independent 3^rd party reviews as well as many user reviews. When all of those are good, you can be pretty confident the product will be awesome.

Here are some sites I very much respect and enjoy.

General tech news and reviews and rumors

http://www.engadget.com/

Tech rumors and news

http://www.bgr.com/

Apple and general tech rumors, news, and reviews

http://www.macrumors.com/

CNET does everything. And although I often consult them, I don’t trust their reviews very much to be honest. I always try to find another review to go with or against their opinion and usually find that other site is right. By doing everything, they don’t do much very well.

http://www.cnet.com/

One of my favorites. Also does everything, but more focused on computer tech, so they do it well.

http://www.tomshardware.com/

Solid reviews and editorials

http://www.pcmag.com/

Great site for PC hardware, reviews and news. Very technical, very good

http://www.guru3d.com/

Another great site for PC hardware reviews and news. Perhaps even more technical; great for PSU reviews

http://www.hardocp.com/

Great place to buy tech stuff, and has some of the best user reviews around

http://www.newegg.com/

Wonderful site for technical reviews of routers

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/31478-new-to-the-charts-cisco-linksys-e1200-wireless-n-router

Great site for technical reviews of PSUs

http://www.jonnyguru.com/index.php

Good site for more hardware focused news and reviews

http://www.anandtech.com/

There are also several good over clocking forums and more specific hardware sites that are good.

Good places to buy things from include…

Amazon.com, and it is pretty good for user reviews

Best buy

Newegg.com

Apple stores. Well, just for apple stuff anyway.

I will probably develop this section more later in life… you know, when I actually own and buy my car. Still, this site is worth mentioning for those looking for whats coming next.

Great site for Car news

http://www.leftlanenews.com/

So you need high speed internet…

There are lots of options out there of course, and this is a somewhat impossible question to answer conclusively because different options will be available to different people in different locations at different speeds. Thats a lot of differences. So let me tell you some things to look for and some things to avoid.

First, the obvious.

Fiber Optic is the fastest form of internet, if you can get fiber to your house for a reasonable rate, thats the way to go.

Cable seems to be pretty much the second best option, and in some situations is faster than fiber.

DSL sucks. Don’t bother. I’m serious. I looked at AT&T’s rates and speeds and I get faster speeds on my smartphone’s 3g connection for the same amount of money. Yup, its that bad.

Comcast is the main cable guy. They now call their service “Xfinity.”

Verizon is the main fiber guy. 

At&t has DSL but also some form of cable / fiber hybrid they call “u verse.”

What I've found simply looking in the east bay as well as the stockton area. 

Verizon is not available in many places, so I have not personally used them. I have heard good things however. Some places however they still don’t get fiber directly to the home so speeds may not be that much if any faster than comcast.

My parents have comcast and I recently just got their service in my apartment. They are quite aggressive and are promoting fast speeds at good intro pricing. After the intro pricing however, they can be quite expensive, but no more so than anyone else. (at least with my limited research) They are reinforcing their backbone network with fiber to make it faster, and may eventually offer fiber to the home.

Gotta stay on top of them, it seems the best way to go about it is join for intro pricing then look elsewhere. If you switch (think in a year) you can hopefully switch back and get more intro pricing. Check to make sure there’s no time agreement with your contract.

AT&T’s DSL, as I mentioned before, is something I would recommend you avoid. Their U Verse, is quite different however. They have fiber backbone but ultimately its just cable coming to the home. That means the speeds are actually just similar to comcast. Furthermore, I found U Verse was not available in my area, so I was not able to try it. Prices seemed similar to comcast but not as many intro deals were available.

Second, the not so obvious.

Don’t rent the modem from the company. This may just be personal preference, but here are my reasons for doing so. Renting the modem will cost you an extra 5 dollars a month, which although doesnt seem like alot it means you are spending money on nothing… 

If you buy a modem, buy this one.

http://www.amazon.com/Motorola-SB6120-SURFboard-eXtreme-Broadband/dp/B001UI2FPE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1312508687&sr=8-1

I just found this one, it is a slightly newer model but I cannot find any differences so far. Does not seem to e worth the quite increased price.

http://www.amazon.com/Motorola-SURFboard®-SB6121-DOCSIS-Cable/dp/B004J0DE0A/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1312509354&sr=8-9

User review suggests it is simply smaller. It mentions it is ip v6 compitible, I need to check and see if first modem is ipv6

Its DOCSIS 3.0, which is a relatively new standard that means it can accept the higher speeds cable companies will have if you willing to pay for them. 

It will not work with verizon Fios service however.

At about $90, it will pay for itself in 1.5 years, making it worth it financially.

I would avoid the modem router combos. They tend to have more issues and less support. Furthermore their router abilities are usually not as good as a stand alone system. Finally, and the biggest reason, the life of a modem will vastly out live a router. WiFI technologies are constantly getting better, giving your router a lifespan of roughly 2 to 4 years. A docsis 3.0 modem however, unless you switch to fiber or something drastically changes, (which it always potentially could) will last 4 to 6 years.

If you must just get a combo, get this one, as its the only one I know of that has docsis 3.0 modem with a wireless N certified router.

http://www.amazon.com/Motorola-SURFboard-Gateway-SBG6580-Wireless/dp/B0040IUI46/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1312509354&sr=8-8

I will admit it is pretty impressive to cram a dual band N router and modem in one package, and may serve some people quite fine while being simpler.

However, I think reviews show it will not be as good as a stand alone dual band router.

Also its quite expensive.

NOTE

I have not done research for hosting your own websites or for corporate stuff. I plan on hosting my own website soon so when i cross that bridge and talk to comcast about it i will let you know.

So you need a router….

The quick no nonsense answer is...

Buy this one. 

http://www.amazon.com/Cisco-E1200-Linksys-Wireless-N-Router/dp/B004T9RR6I

It doesnt do everything, but what it does, provide basic wireless N (the most modern WiFi standard) it does very well.

Yes it will work with PC, MAC, iOS, Android and everything else.

One annoyance, in order to set it up easily you need a DVD drive on one of your computers. (setup runs on a supplied CD)

I also personally own this one, and can attest to... it working great, easy setup, not having any weird issues. I have not tested range as right now my computer sits right next to it. You can set it up completely wirelessly which is nice. I think it looks cool too, which as we all know, is very important.

If you have questions, go here.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2383274,00.asp

And here

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/31478-new-to-the-charts-cisco-linksys-e1200-wireless-n-router

Belkin has this little guy.. Which might be worth it but I have yet to find a review of the device.

http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Wireless-Router-Latest-Generation/dp/B004N6259Q/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1313201622&sr=8-5

There are expensive dual band routers that could be recommended as well. However, right now I feel it is in the consumer’s best interest to get a cheaper basic N router such as this one and wait for dual band gigabit routers to become cheaper (and undoubtable better)

If you need one of those, (plan to do lots of wireless video streaming for example) Linksys, netgear, and apple have some high end models that are recommended. 

In fact, apple recently updated their airport extreme, which if used with any sandy bridge equipped mac you will get quite epic speed boosts.

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/08/08/latest-airport-extremes-bring-improved-range-and-performance/

Quick Note

If you feel you know better than i and are going to not listen to this, at least do this...

Do not, for my sanity's sake, ever buy any router labeled something like "N150"

this includes this one...

http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Wireless-Router-Latest-Generation/dp/B004N6259G/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1313202762&sr=1-1

and this one

http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-RangeMax-150-Wireless-Router/dp/B001UI4RTG/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1313202890&sr=1-3

Here's why...

those routers, and anything "n150" are actually not certified with the WiFi standard "wireless N" Essentially they are Wireless G routers with some added stuff to make them work a bit faster and more reliable, usually using MIMO tech (Multiple In Multiple Out antennas. this is standard on certified N products.) Here's the catch, in order to get that added benefit your adapter must be specially designed (usually meaning its the same brand of the router) to take any of these advantages. Since most people use devices with integrated wifi devices this never happens. So basically you're just getting a Wireless G router.

Whats wrong with that they're cheap, you may ask?

Well, first of all they are lying to you. (by calling it "n150" it sounds like its certified, and also i guess they avoid being sued for not actually meeting the standard.) And that is something that really bothers me. They should just call them G routers, then i might not rant so much. 

I believe we as consumers actually have a lot of power over companies by what we chose to buy, and i don't want to encourage this behavior.

Secondly, Wireless G is ok, sorta kinda, 3 years ago. Compared to N, which has much better speed, range, and reliability, G is not worth you spending money on. Even if your needs are simple, trust me, you will be much happier spending $50 for the router i recommended than $30 for any of these.

Finally, these routers often use the cheapest components used by companies, so they are more likely to fail. You are better off getting an older high quality MIMO G router used than one of these.