One of the things that I like the best about this job is the chance to look at and use some of the latest, greatest gadgets on the market today. I like writing for Gear Diary the best because of the diverse amount of products we get to look at. Recently, as many of you know I've had the opportunity to take a look at a couple of new devices from E-TEN.  The E-TEN X800 is the top of the line model of the X series devices. Let's take a quick look and see how the X800 stacks up.

Please note, that due to the recent site loss that Gear Diary had, I'm reprinting some of the previous posts related to this device as part of this review.

I've owned a number of different E-TEN devices, the M500, the G500, the M700, and now the X800 (and soon to be X650).  I was really concerned about this particular device, as the build quality of the previous three devices left a little to be desired. In fact, my daughter has been using the M700 for the past three months or so, and the device had some serious problems now. It is constantly getting stuck in boot loader mode, and getting it to turn on normally is a hit or miss exercise.

However, that's another story for another time. Let's take a look at E-TEN's new slim, VGA powerhouse, the X800!!

 The Unboxing

The box is WAY smaller than it looks here.  It's really VERY tiny.

There it is, just under the clear plastic... I've been waiting on this baby for MONTHS!

The X800 on the left, its case, wrapped in plastic on the right

The contents of the box, (starting with the device and moving counter-clockwise):

• The X800
• AC Adapter
• AC Adapter prongs/tip
• The 1530mAh Battery
• Wired Headset
• Getting Started Guide
• Software CD and Spb Mobile Shell Coupon
• USB Sync/Charge Cable
• Screen Protector (White square above the X800)
• Vinyl Belt Case
• Instructions for putting the case on your belt (under the case)
• Extra telescoping stylus

Device Comparison (from left to right): Siemens SX66 (HTC BlueAngel), Glofiish M700, Glofiish X800, Blackberry Curve 8310 Titanium, Treo 750

The X800 is somewhat smaller than the M700. Its the same width, but about 4-5mm shorter. Without the slide out keyboard, its substantially thinner, too.

The Full 360

Left side of each device (from bottom to top): The SX66, M700, Treo 750, Blackberry Curve 8310 Titanium, and the X800.

The left side of the X800 has the volume up and down button, and the record button. The somewhat white dot you see on the X800 isn't a photo glitch, its the recessed, soft reset button. Below it, is the headset jack.

Bottom of the devices, (from bottom to top): The SX66, M700, Treo 750, Blackberry Curve 8310 Titanium, and the X800.

The bottom of the X800 has the microphone, the MicroSD slot door, and the mini USB port. The device has a telescoping stylus in the lower right corner, on the bottom of the device.

Left side of the devices, (from bottom to top): The SX66, M700, Treo 750, Blackberry Curve 8310 Titanium, and the X800.

The left side of the X800 has the camera button (on the left) and power button (on the right). The sides of the device are that wonderful rubberized plastic that is becoming so popular. Its a really dark black, too. Its so dark, I had a hard time actually finding the power button on the device.

Top of the devices, (from bottom to top): The SX66, M700, Treo 750, Blackberry Curve 8310 Titanium, and the X800.

The top of the X800 doesn't really have anything on it at all. There's some writing embedded into the rubberized plastic that says "GPS," so I'm assuming that this is where the GPS antenna is located.

The Battery Compartment

Me, trying to get into the battery compartment so I can insert my SIM card and the battery (in the background, in white).

I really couldn't figure out how to get into this device. I had to look at the Getting Started poster to figure it out.  There's a small indent near the bottom of the device and a small extended tab on the battery cover where you are supposed to get your fingernails under and pry the battery cover off. The picture was taken about 10 minutes into trying to get the cover off.  As I was struggling with this, I had all sorts of laughable things going through my mind, like:

• "This thing came all the way from Taiwan and I'm going to have to send it back so they can take the battery cover off for me."
• "10 years in WM devices and I can't get the battery cover off this device for a simple unboxing....LOOOOOSAHHHHHH!"
• "[Content intentionally deleted, as this is a G-Rated site.]"

After I finally got the battery off, I thought to myself, "I wonder how many additional battery covers E-TEN is going to need to manufacture and ship as replacements to customers?" The device is encased in aluminum, but its really thin, and there's plastic behind it. Someone (pick me) is going to bend and break the battery cover trying to get the damn thing off.

Initial Device Screens

The initial boot of the X800. Its got the classic Glofiish orange ROM screen	The initial WM6 splash screen. It took over 90 seconds to get to this screen
The initial WM setup splash screen. It took an additional 2 minutes to get here...	Software installing from the extended ROM. This took about 7 or more minutes

Radio Reception
Over the past week or so, I've been putting the E-TEN X800 through its paces. Having owned or used the M500, G500, and M700, I thought I knew what to expect with the X800.  The GSM radios in all three of those quad-band GSM phones left a great deal to be desired. Honestly, I was poised for yet another disappointment...boy was I ever wrong!

I got the M700 after moving back to Chicago, but along the I-88 corridor, it dropped calls twice, and always in the same place. Again, my other GSM phones didn't do that. The WM6 Professional upgrade that came out for it, did improve radio reception somewhat, but not enough to make the M700 my daily driver.

Now, the X800...and all it's 3G goodness..? Oh yeah, baby!  This thing's radio is the shizzle!

I'm carrying at least 3 bars no matter where I am at the house, at least 3 bars no matter where I am at the office, and at least 3 bars everywhere in between during the commute. I've almost always got an HSDPA signal icon. Its never dropped to EDGE or GPRS coverage. The 3G radio is awesome! So, yeah... data is good.  Call quality is top notch as well. I can't say that it's as good as land-line call quality; but it is certainly giving my Comcast Digital Voice service a run for its money. Calls are clear, and have rivaled that of my land line. I'm very impressed!  This is one of the best phones I've used in a while!

Battery Life
In one of my recent blogs on the X800, I mentioned that I thought the unit E-TEN sent me was defective. It was.  They sent me a replacement unit, and I have some interesting news regarding its battery life.

What a difference a new device makes!!

Wow!

Interesting thing was, I noticed the improvement right away.  With the older unit, the device might last about 3.5 - 4.0 hours...if I was lucky. The new device can go (and has) nearly 48 hours without a charge.  The interesting thing is that I live in a 3G coverage area. 3G is harder on the battery than just plain EDGE.  Oh, and by the way, to answer the lurking question - No, I haven't seen the device struggle to hold a 3G signal. It nearly always has 3G, and I have never seen it drop down to EDGE.

To be honest, though, I rarely use WiFi. With an all you can eat data plan, I rarely have the need.  However, I suspect that with moderate radio use (WiFi, voice calls and data usage), you should be able to go most of the day before really needing a charge or battery change.

I am really impressed with the battery life in this device. Its not bad...not bad at all

Memory Usage
If there's one problem that the X800 has, its memory. I'm not certain where the bottle neck is, but I have my ideas. There's one heck of a lot of software in the device, and with only 64MB of RAM, the device only has 11-15MB free after a soft reset. For a device that sports HSDPA and GPS, 11-15MB isn't enough to get things done.  My experience with the X800 has been mixed in application use at best.

I've been using iNav iGuidance 3.0 for GPS navigation on this device, and while it works well, the application runs very slowly.  The performance is really horrible.  The voice prompts are spaced 3-5 seconds apart when trying to pull voice prompted directions together. Its almost as though the CPU is taking a huge amount of time to think things through two and three times before it acts.  Which probably isn't too far from the truth...

At the end of the day, I really have to wonder what E-TEN was thinking. The device's performance can't be news to them. They had to bump into this in their own testing. They have to have known about this before the device was released.  It seems to me that its simple enough to fix, as well...all we need is a ROM upgrade... and I don't think that I'm asking for or expecting a lot.

Final Conclusions
I like this device. Its thin. Its light weight. It gets great radio reception; and of course has all the benefits of 3G. However, I was very disappointed with device performance, due to the memory issues it had.  However, I think that some software changes should resolve this, and should make the device worth having.  All we need do is wait for E-TEN to release a ROM update that addresses them.  The custom software for the task manager and such is pretty cool, and was a welcomed addition to the device.

The screen is one of the most awesome that I've seen. Pictures taken with the device look good on it, but leave something to be desired on bigger screens.  However, for a camera phone, its not too bad.

MSRP: $599.99 - search around for less expensive retailers, though
What I Like: SOME of the custom software, radio performance (finally!!), 3G, the continuously solid GPS performance, VGA screen
What Needs Improvement: Device performance

So is it truly about the EULA, Apple wanting control, or is it something else entirely?

Over the last couple of weeks, there's been a lot of press about Psystar, the web-based organization who has defied all speculation that it was a fly-by-night scam artist. The company emphatically insists that it’s a legitimate business who simply had payment processing issues to overcome regarding its highly publicized Mac clone/compatible PC's. According to a post on its home page, http://www.psystar.com/, their online store is back up, in business; and orders placed during the week of 07-Apr-08 are currently shipping.

While I'm not going to get into the debate over whether or not the PC's that are shipping from Psystar are legally able to run Apple's OSX Leopard, its very clear that the components they are using are definitely Leopard compatible. The PC's themselves are WAY cheaper than even an entry-level Mac Mini, which starts at $499. Psystar's entry level box, the Open Computer, has decent specs for the price (Core2Duo 2.2 gHz, 250GB, 2GB RAM), but no OS. The company will sell you a Leopard license and install the OS for $155. Apple's EULA (end user license agreement) forbids the installation of the OS on any other machine, except those manufactured by Apple...hence the controversy.

My big thought on all of this really comes at the situation from a different angle: The entire Mac/Apple experience. Is it truly the combination of hardware and software that makes the relationship work; or will any port in a storm do?

I bought a MacBook Pro, installed Leopard, installed Vista Ultimate, and have the full blown experience. The problem here is that the entire financial commitment for my rig is approximately $2600USD. That's $2000 more than you'd spend on Psystar's entry level rig ($1600 more than their Pro rig), and you'd get the same experience, right..? Right..?

That's the question that many end users are asking themselves...will the experience be the same, will it be as good (or at least comparable) as the original? I'm interested in finding out the answers to those questions. As an owner of a MacBook Pro, I can truly state that the hardware is by far what initially attracted me to Apple. At 1 inch thick, with a 15 inch wide, glossy screen capable of displaying HD video, upgradable to 4GB of RAM, I honestly bought my MBP to be a Windows laptop. It's truly an awesome machine, and works well, even as a dedicated Windows box.

For me, it WAS all about the hardware. The fact that I get to run more than one OS on it, where I can really work photos, video and music with some really nice, native tools, was a huge bonus (and one I chased after for my iPod. I reformatted it and now sync it as a Mac device).

All Apple components work well together. It's completely seamless. It all just works...just like you would expect from a complete solution. Apple hasn't formally responded to all of this yet; at least, not that I've heard. But if they do, I would love to know what they think. They initially allowed something like this back in the day (a la the Lisa), but it didn't last long.

Most of the big pundits that I've either spoken to, listened to, or read have all said that it's just a matter of time before Apple slams the EULA hounds on Psystar and the store takes another nap. Everyone is saying that the issue is about Apple controlling their complete experience, and access to their OS on their machines. To an extent, it's true, but let's take a deeper look...

As all of the components aren't specifically rated to work on OSX, many users will likely have to rely on the good graces of the open source community for compatible drivers, if native ones don't or won't work. While I'm certain the community is up to the challenge, I wonder if it's truly mature enough to be able to handle that level of support, in light of Apple's (likely) action to enforce their EULA. I know the flesh is willing...

It will be interesting to see how Mac purists, switchers and the Mac curious react to all of this. I'd love to see some kind of sales figures from Psystar. It might go a long way in encouraging Apple to either review/rewrite their EULA; or to lower the premium threshold on all of their device and hardware prices. It took me well over a year to save for my MBP, and while I think it was a good buy, the cost was very steep and I have yet full realize the full ROI on the purchase.

I would love to be able to purchase a MacBook for my daughter. It could see her through high school as well as into college, but currently the price point is just too high. If Psystar were to come out with a notebook that could run Leopard, they might snare yet another purchase from me...

What about everyone else? What are your thoughts on all of this? I'd love to hear what you have to say in the discussion area. Why not join in and let us know your thoughts?

I love my country.  I truly do. I am a true, blue, tax-paying, and very serious America for Americans, American.  I recently found some comments on the current Democratic front runner that I wanted to repost, as I find this very interesting. 

Ken Blackwell a columnist for the New Your Sun recently posted the following.  He is the former Lt. Governor of Ohio, his wife is the superintendent of the Cincinnati schools.  He also played pro football with Dallas; and yes, he is African-American.

Ken Blackwell - Columnist for the New York Sun:

It's an amazing time to be alive in America. We're in a year of firsts in this presidential election: the first viable woman candidate; the first viable African-American candidate; and, a candidate who is the first front-running freedom fighter over 70. The next president of America will be a first.

We won't truly be in an election of firsts, however, until we judge every candidate by where they stand. We won't arrive where we should be until we no longer talk about skin color or gender. Now that Barack Obama steps to the front of the Democratic field, we need to stop talking about his race, and start talking about his policies and his politics.

The reality is this: Though the Democrats will not have a nominee until August, unless Hillary Clinton drops out, Mr. Obama is now the frontrunner, and its time America takes a closer and deeper look at him.

Some pundits are calling him the next John F. Kennedy. He's not. He's the next George McGovern. And it's time people learned the facts.
Because the truth is that Mr. Obama is the single most liberal senator in the entire U.S. Senate. He is more liberal than Ted Kennedy, Bernie Sanders, or Mrs. Clinton. Never in my life have I seen a presidential frontrunner whose rhetoric is so far removed from his record. Walter Mondale promised to raise our taxes, and he lost. George McGovern promised military weakness, and he lost. Michael Dukakis promised a liberal domestic agenda, and he lost.

Yet Mr. Obama is promising all those things, and he's not behind in the polls. Why? Because the press has dealt with him as if he were in a beauty pageant. Mr. Obama talks about getting past party, getting past red and blue, to lead the United States of America. But let's look at the more defined strokes of who he is underneath this superficial "beauty."
Start with national security, since the president's most important duties are as commander-in-chief. Over the summer, Mr. Obama talked about invading Pakistan, a nation armed with nuclear weapons; meeting without preconditions with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who vows to destroy Israel and create another Holocaust; and Kim Jong II, who is murdering and starving his people, but emphasized that the nuclear option was off the table against terrorists - something no president has ever taken off the table since we created nuclear weapons in the 1940s. Even Democrats who have worked in national security condemned all of those remarks. Mr. Obama is a foreign-policy novice who would put our national security at risk.

Finally, look at the social issues. Mr. Obama had the audacity to open a stadium rally by saying, "All praise and glory to God!" but says that Christian leaders speaking for life and marriage have "hijacked" - hijacked - Christianity. He is pro-partial birth abortion, and promises to appoint Supreme Court justices who will rule any restriction on it unconstitutional. He espouses the abortion views of Margaret Sanger, one of the early advocates of racial cleansing. His spiritual leaders endorse homosexual marriage, and he is moving in that direction. In Illinois, he refused to vote against a statewide ban - ban - on all handguns in the state. These are radical left, Hollywood, and San Francisco values, not Middle America values.
The real Mr. Obama is an easy target for the general election. Mrs. Clinton is a far tougher opponent. But Mr. Obama could win if people don't start looking behind his veneer and flowery speeches. His vision of "bringing America together" means saying that those who disagree with his agenda for America are hijackers or warmongers. Uniting the country means adopting his liberal agenda and abandoning any conflicting beliefs.

But right now everyone is talking about how eloquent of a speaker he is and - yes - they're talking about his race. Those should never be the factors on which we base our choice for president. Mr. Obama's radical agenda sets him far outside the American mainstream, to the left of Mrs. Clinton.

It's time to talk about the real Barack Obama. In an election of firsts, let's first make sure we elect the person who is qualified to be our president in a nuclear age during a global civilizational war.

Subject: Kind of scary, wouldn't you think Remember--God is good, and is in His time, on time--every time.

According to The Book of Revelations the anti-christ is: The anti-christ will be a man, in his 40s, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal....the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, will destroy everything. Is it OBAMA??

I STRONGLY URGE each one of you to repost this as many times as you can! Each opportunity that you have to send it to a friend or media outlet...do it!

If you think I am crazy..Im sorry but I refuse to take a chance on the "unknown" candidate.

Microsoft has stopped the SP1 Prereq Merry-Go-Round...

Vista SP1 has been available for a little bit, but hasn't hit many computers in the wild due to a problem with one of the prereq KB installs.  Two months ago, when the prereq was released, it sent some computers into an endless series of reboots.  Many users stuck in that loop were without any recourse as they watched the scenery blur as they went in circles on that merry-go-round from hell.

With the latest Patch Tuesday release, Microsoft says it has resolved that problem and the prereq is safe to download and install.  Microsoft will also issue a fix to prevent the PC from getting stuck in that loop.  The two updates should install via Windows Update, in the proper order (very important) without a problem.  Those Vista users who have Automatic Updates set to install things automatically shouldn't have to do anything, according to the Microsoft Update Team blog.

The problem arose due to a few unknown and rare events. One of the prereqs, the Service Stack Update (or SSU), contains code that checks whether there are pending reboots or other pending updates.  If it saw either of these conditions, it automatically bounced the box, thinking that a reboot was needed to complete the installation, thus creating the reboot loop.

Users without SP1 should see it hit Windows Update soon after these prereqs install.  However, I haven't seen it hit my MacBook Pro just yet. I'd love to hear how things went for everyone else, though.

If you're running Vista, have you pulled down the updated prereqs and have you installed Vista SP1 yet?  How did it go?  Have you noticed any kind of improvement over Vista RTM?

Comcast uses the less is more strategy in delivering HD content.  What's up with that..??

I saw this over at BetaNews, and again, just had to comment. I've got Comcast at the house and have their HD/DVR TV package as well as their mid-tier Internet package, and VoIP phone service. My TV package includes their sports package (I wanted to get the NFL Channel as well as ESPN-HD so I could get my NFL Football games in HD.  My average, monthly cable bill runs between $200-$225 dollars, depending on any On-Demand Movies I purchase.

One of the biggest draws for me as a Comcast customer, is one stop shopping. I’m actually saving about $200 a month by combining all of my needs into a single bill. I do have their HD service, and do have a Comcast provided, HD capable, DVR. I absolutely love it for Monday Night Football.

So, I heard that Comcast is planning sacrificing HD signal quality to make room for more HD channels.  Essentially, they are recompressing their signal so that they have more bandwidth for additional channels. This specifically gives them the ability to squeeze 3 channels instead of 2 on to their 38.8 Mbps QAM. 

This move could realistically create deficiencies from 0.7 percent for Comcast's supposed HD delivery of HBO, to 38.5 percent for Discovery Theater.  If you consider that Comcast is broadcasting HD at 1080i to their subscribers, and this new policy creates significant signal degradation and artifacts are produced; it makes you wonder if Comcast is providing an HD signal at all.

As I said, I've got an HD package, including a small sports package. I'll be keeping an eye out for any signal and picture problems over the next few weeks. If it gets too bad, I'm not entirely certain what I will do, as the (total) package savings keep me where I'm at; but I'm also not going to lose out on true HD related sports come football season this fall...

Have you seen any evidence of this?  Join us in the discussion and let us know!

I write for a couple of different sites. Including this one, write and have written for CompuServe/AOL, Pocket PC Thoughts, Lockergnome, The Gadgeteer, CMPNet’s File Mine, WUGNET: The Windows User’s Group Network, and Gear Diary. Honestly, life is all sunshine and daisies when the site is up and your backup app is working.  However, when things go south, and you find out that your data is gone due to some sort of corruption or backup problem, life can get very complicated. 

Gear Diary had a problem like this not too long ago, if you remember.  Judie, the site owner, ran around like a nut trying to work with the hosting company to get things turned around.  Some things went well, but others did not, and we had to rebuild the site from scratch.

Gear Diary is a WordPress enabled site, so many team members use the online WYSIWYG editor to create and edit content. It saves drafts, allows you to upload (and even watermark) graphics/pictures, and is, for all intent and purposes, an online word processor, much like Google Docs.  When the site went belly up, most of the content headed south the border as well.  Most team members had not saved a local copy of their work...which got me thinking...

One of the biggest and hottest trends I've been hearing a lot about lately is software as a service, a la Google Docs, Office Live, etc. If you take the Gear Diary site issue as a point of reference, and apply software as a service (which is basically what WordPress is acting as), you get an interesting and fairly destructive situation.  WordPress doesn't offer any kind of method of saving its documents locally, or in a format that can be read (or edited) by any other local application. Despite the fact that WordPress creates HTML documents, all data stays on the server.

If you bump into a server issue, i.e. you go down, your data gets lost. It happened to Gear Diary. It can happen to any user that uses a software as a service app. what bothers me more, is that unless there's a specific viewer or offline editing tool for the document type, the data is useless.  Further, if the app doesn't allow you to save data locally, an off line viewer isn't going to do much good anyway.

Many users here (those that work right on the server) have taken to copying the code out of WordPress and saving it as a text or HTML file. That at least gets the data out and saved to your local hard drive.  However, it doesn't address disaster recovery on the client side (which was one of the big draws, aside from cost savings and the lack of deployment problems...all you need in most cases is a compatible browser...).

Interestingly enough, Google may be planning changes to their online suite that would allow users to do just this: save data locally. As I noted above, the ability to save data to the server is nice, but if you're on a laptop and not connected to the 'Net, you might be out of luck if you've got work to do.

If Google Docs users have downloaded Google Gears, they should be able to edit a copy of a locally stored or cached version of the data, when they open a browser, and "navigate" to docs.google.com. Users will be able to transfer the updated data back to the server when the computer goes back on line, which is huge; but I don't necessarily want to rely on data that’s still in my Internet cache.  The browser needs to save the file locally...and it would be nice to have it saved in an industry standard format.

I'd love to hear everyone's opinion on this.  Why don't you join us in the discussion area and give us your thoughts?  I just have one request...I'd like us to NOT get into a debate over software as a service vs. a client side app, if possible.  I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts and ideas on getting past the problems and challenges I've outlined: saving data locally and to a server, local file viewing and editing and disaster recovery; but if we MUST debate the entire issue, that's cool too!

Sometimes, I need to have white noise playing in the background in order to be able to concentrate. This can take the form of music (CD, MP3's etc), radio (Internet or other), or the TV. Sometimes, the simple sound of the air circulating in the room that I'm in can be deafening, and just too loud.  I need to fill the air with something other than, well... the air.

Recently here in Chicago, we had a very bad rainstorm come through. My sump pump decided to die the day AFTER the storm when a lot of the water absorbed by the ground decided to continue to run off.  My house is the last on the street, and a corner lot.  I am at the bottom of a slight incline, and I get run-off water from about 4-5 houses to the west of me.  During this past Spring, my sump pump kicked out about 5-10 gallons of water every 15-20 minutes...it ran ALL the time. 

The day after this last storm, we got some water in our basement. Not a lot, but enough to ruin the carpet and to spur my wife and I to move my home office upstairs, out of the basement and into the "living room."  So long 25" TV in the basement...Hello....wall. Great. Just great...and with the start of the football season, I'm basically screwed, right?  WRONG!

Enter Hauppauge's WinTV-HVR 950 Hybrid TV Stick!  The WinTV-HVR 950 models 1139 and 1136 (here on out, called the 950) are USB 2.0 devices. Its an analog AND HD-TV TV tuner that works with both Windows Vista and XP SP2 (Mac OSX users need to use model 01145, which includes Elgato's EyeTV Lite, so you can watch and record analog and ATSC digital TV on your Mac.) I was given model 1139 to review.

I've been using Hauppauge products for almost 7 years now. I have a WinTV Go board that I've got stuck in my Dell C600 Extended Docking station (the kind that accepts 2 ISA compatible computer cards).  In Nashville, I had a cable connection close to my office desk, and I had an extra splitter and cable go right to the card. having all of my basic cable channels right on my computer screen. Watching Monday Night Football on a 17" ViewSonic LCD was way cool.

While I am not doing that with this setup (the 15.4" screen on my MacBook Pro is MUCH better), I thought I would still have a problem with a cable connection until I noticed that the 950 comes with its own antenna (the cable and long, black stick thing you see above).  The antenna works for both analog and digital TV stations!  A better picture of the actual antenna can be seen below.

Since reception depends on antenna placement, sticking this in the right stairway wrung is very important. Its a good thing that my desk is now positioned right next to the stairway on the main floor of our house instead of in the basement where it used to be.  Otherwise, I'd have a bit more trouble with reception than I've got right now; but I'm getting ahead of myself... Let's start from the top, shall we..?

Installation
Installing the system was easy.  Simply connect the 950 to a USB 2.0 port, insert the CD, and that's it. Please note, that you MUST have a USB 2.0 port to use the 950. A USB 1.1 port will NOT work according to the documentation. 

The following are the system requirements for the 950:

• Minimum processor recommended:
  • 2.2 GHz P4 or 1.8 GHz Centrino or equivalent (minimum).
  • 2.8 GHz processor for analog TV recording with MPEG-2 (minimum).
• Microsoft® Windows® Vista (all versions), Windows XP, XP Pro or Windows XP Media Center Edition, with Service Pack 2. Also compatible with Vista Media Center.
• Graphics with 64MB of memory (minimum).
• USB 2.0 port (will not work with USB 1.1).
• CD-ROM drive (for Software installation).

The following is included in the box:

• WinTV-HVR-950 USB 2.0 TV stick with cable TV or ATSC antenna connection.
• USB extension cable.
• Portable antenna*.
• Software on CD-ROM (incl. manual).
• Quick Installation Guide

My MacBook Pro more than covers all the requirements. In fact, it really surpasses them. The only thing that could really improve my Windows Performance Index is a faster drive; but that's a different story, and I digress.

The installation process gives you the option of turning on graphic acceleration for the 950; but I've noticed that even with twice the video memory, that may not have been a great idea.  The installation process defaults it to off. Some of the channels that I have access to via the antenna don't display very well, and the TV display actually freezes (though the rest of the display and the PC are fine). I've been trying to trouble shoot the problem with no success so far. I can't seem to find where to modify this in the application, and the manual has nothing on it at all.   It might be my inexperience with Vista, but you would think that if Hauppauge offers you the option to turn it on, they would offer you the option to turn it off, too.  Not so much... Unfortunately, I've got a lot of choppy video on my system, and I don't know why... Could be I need more RAM, could be a number of things. I have no idea, as this is Vista and not XP, and I'm still a bit of a newbie here.

Adding Channels
The biggest thing here is that the 950 will display digital content in HD as well as regular analog channels. If you've used Hauppauge products before, then the process is pretty much the same here as it is with their other products. You start the Channel Manager and let is scan for channels. Once it finds them, it adds them to your available channel list, and you can watch content.

With Channel Manager, you can add and subtract channels from your suite, can manage signal sources (antenna, cable, etc.) and the devices you have pulling TV signals in. Again, if you've used Hauppauge products before, then you're used to WinTV and its components.   This was pretty much what I have seen before and I was very familiar with it.

I have Comcast digital cable pumped into the house, and I know there are a lot of digital channels that they are NOT pulling in that are available through antenna.  For example, TUBE, ION, IONLife and qubo.  I have NOT seen them in the Comcast lineup here in Chicago-land. If I could have pushed a cable connection across the house so that I could hook it to the 950, I would have gotten a LOT more channels, but this is the best that I could do with the included antenna. Which presents a problem.

The 950 is a USB device that hooks directly to your computer. The antenna included with the device easily hooks to it and doesn't put any pressure on the port. Coax cable is MUCH more rigid than the antenna's wire, and even on my older WinTVGo PCI card, put a lot of stress on the device it was connected to.  I would hate to see a USB port on my MacBook Pro get damaged because a coax cable tweaks it to one side. Hauppauge does offer an iUSB extension cable that acts as a tail connector on the 950 (like the USB cable of a mouse) so that your USB port doesn't get stretched or tweaked.  I honestly think that they need to include this cable as part of the package and not just offer it as an accessory.  I would also like to see a Bluetooth 2.0 dongle that supports up to 300 foot connection between the actual 950 and a dongle you hang off your cable connection near your TV/Cable box. That way you could plop this thing on your cable box and have it shoot a signal back to your PC.

Watching TV
Watching TV on the 950 was really cool. The antenna was able to pull in both analog as well as digital channels and I was able to see both on my MBP.  Of course, due to me using an antenna instead of my cable box, I was met with varying levels of clarity and snow, but the overall experience wasn't bad.

Analog TV.  This is actually Fox32 in Chicago.  This wasn't the actual Devo music video, "Whip it!" Its a commercial that uses the song and part of the video. I forget what it was for...a car ad, I think.  Anyway, as you can see, the picture is a bit on the snowy side. This was also the best analog picture that I could get at the time of the screen shot.

Digital TV. Now this is what I'm talking about!  Crisp. Clear; and definitely HD.  I forget what channel this was; but who cares!  Look at this!!  And if you think this was good, you should have seen this stuff full screen on my MBP!  15.4" of wide screen HD TV...now THAT was awesome!

Conclusion
All in all, this is not a bad little gadget. I had seen this in the store before and had walked right by it because I had my WinTVGo card and for logistical reasons.  I'm still not 100% certain how I am going to be able to hook my cable box to the 950 in my house, but once I get that figured out, I should be good to go.  You can find the WinTV-HVR 950 in just about any consumer electronics/computer store.

MSRP: $119.00
What I liked: Digital and analog TV capabilities on my MacBook Pro
What needs improvement: Connection to your PC may cause stress on a USB port when using coax cable.