Skip to content

Posts from the ‘Tech’ Category

3
Nov

Fitted The Xtreamer Cooler

I fitted the Xtreamer cooler the other night. I was a little concerned how easy the how-to made the whole process look, nothing is easy. To be fair though once I’d got the side panel off, which must have been stuck down with the worlds strongest double-sided tape the whole thing was a breeze to complete. It even looks good as an end product with the cooler attached. On a plus note it worked afterwards. I hadn’t slipped and ploughed a screwdriver across the chipset.

I haven’t however watched it enough since to see if the cooler actually works but reading around others seem to think so. Its also stopped acting up. After a little playing around after my previous post, here. It turned out the Windows Home Server wasn’t 100% happy with the Xtreamer on the network. Its fine now, the problem was the WHS, at idle spun down the hard drives when they were not in use and when the Xtreamer started to stream a file there was a delay while the hard-drives spin back up. This is ok when your streaming to Boxee, a PC etc as there is about a 2 second delay the Xtreamer however seems to get confused. I think I’ll file a bug report when I can test this more.
On a similar note the Xtreamer with its HDMI output is pushing me towards getting a HD TV. I’ve been watching the new series Life on BBC/iPlayer and the awesome shots they have in HD are just amazing but I’m stuck watching it on my PC monitor… for now.. any recommendations?

28
Oct

The Xtreamer Cooler Has Arrived

So my Xtreamer cooler has arrived and I thought I’d take this time you tell you and upload a picture from my iphone. Will have to fit this tomorrow but hopefully this will kill some of the annoyances with it when it starts to over heat!

8
Oct

The Xtreamer

So I got a new gizmo a while ago. I’ve been meaning to post about this for a while. An Xtreamer, It streams video and music to the TV downstairs from the WHS. Its a good little product and works well. When it works, when it doesn’t its a little frustrating. I think last night it took 10 minutes to navigate the menus and sometimes it decides not to even play a file.

I have mine set-up on the Wireless N router (D-Link DIR-655) which doesn’t cause any problems at all. I wasn’t sure how well the wireless would work, as I don’t have the option to hook it up to a real connection, but no complaints with the wireless. One annoying point is the cooling fan inside the device. Its whinny even on the lowest of the low settings, sound a bit like a fly buzzing around. However you can turn it off but as I found out the other night after about 4 hours of streaming or being turned on its performance starts to get affected by it over heating. A new head sink add-on has just been released but still it shouldn’t really over heat.

Although when it works its a really good little device. The navigating the menus are quick but sometimes there is a little delay from the remote. I hope a firmware update maybe fixes of these issues when it arrived it needed updating so maybe another one is in the wind. I should ask google.

This is not suppose to be a rant or a review of it I’m just saying. I’ll keep this updated. I think I’ll get this heat sink and with a firmware update then maybe all these problems with go away!

19
Jun

iPhone 3GS

My new iPhone 3GS!

Not a picture of it as I was using it to take the photo.. the box will have to do!

13
Jun

This Week

Just a quick post. I have pre-ordered the new iPhone which will arrive next Friday. The contract is a little steep at 24 months but I think it was worth it. I rang Orange to continue to use my mobile number that I got with my first mobile nearly 6-7 years ago now! I was sort of annoyed that Orange was prepared to give me a phone comparable to the iPhone for free on a £15 a month contract.. just to keep me on, why can’t they offer that to new customers?

On other note I saw Russell Howard live again this week. He was very funny and I believe it was his extended tour dates as he had some new material. I have to admit not as funny as last time but worth going to see!

Also it is nice to hear the British engine manufacturer Cosworth is supplying the  3 new teams to F1 for 2010 including a new British team.

9
Jun

New Look

I was going to wait till the imminent release of WP 2.8 but I found myself wondering the realms of the internet and wound up activating the new look for this weblog. What do we think?

Talking of things being released; The new iPhone named “iPhone 3G S”, the S meaning speed has been announcement as it deemed to be released in to the wild very soon on the 19th June! I think I may find myself outside an O2 store very soon.

Update: Appears Wp 2.8 is being released tomorrow!