Shownotes:
I’ve got three reviews for you on today’s Brief. I start off with the Mophie Juice Pack. It’s a battery pack that doubles the battery life of the 1st gen iPhone and the iPod Touch. A version for the iPhone 3G is coming October 30th.
Sometimes WiFi isn’t enough. Not every device that wants to be connected to the Internet has WiFi built in. When you don’t want to lay a new Cat 5, there’s the Netgear Powerline.
A couple weeks ago, I tweeted about NeatReceipts. It’s a small, portable scanner that does way more than just scan. It uses text recognition software to “read” your receipts and help you organize them and succesfully get ready for tax season way before tax season arrives. I’m loving this thing! I show you the PC version. They also announced the Mac version yesterday. If you deal with a massive amount of paperwork and receipts, check out the NeatDesk.
On October 1st at 8:00 PM Eastern, I’ll be talking to Nicholas Colas, someone who CNBC and Bloomberg look to for information on important Wall Street issues. The Wall Street crisis isn’t something I would normally involve myself in, but Nick is practically part of the Geek Brief family, and I think this will be a casual and informative conversation. If you have questions for Nick, email me. Please put “Nick” in the subject line. Here’s the link to watch.
You can save money on domain name registrations and renewals from GoDaddy.com with discount codes GB1, GB2 and GB3. For an explanation of each code, click here.
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October 1st, 2008 at 12:53 am
But we’d like to see your private parts Cali.
October 1st, 2008 at 3:18 am
One small correction:
The Nintendo Wii *does* have Wifi, it *does NOT* have Ethernet by default, though there is a $34 adapter sold by Nintendo that adds ethernet to the back of the Wii via a USB dongle.
Cheers!
October 1st, 2008 at 4:40 am
For those of you interested in a neat receipt system, woot.com has them on sale today only for $70 (and that is version 3.0). I would totally get this steal, but I have a mac and they are selling the pc version.
October 1st, 2008 at 5:04 am
I presume you mean the Wii doesn’t have wireless G… ?
Neatreceipts looks cool, but $200 is tough to swallow when I already have a scanner. I like to keep receipts for a few months.. just in case. I end up tossing them, scanning only the few that I find extremely important.
Seems like they could just sell the software for cheaper maybe? Is there anything special about their scanner?
October 1st, 2008 at 5:20 am
Although powerline communication systems (PLC) seem to be very convenient, they are flawed by design. Powerline installations are not shielded and have complex topologies. As the whole electrical installation of your house may become an antenna, the electromagnetic compatibility of PLC with real wireless services is at least doubtful.
Exciting developments are happening in the field of wireless technology, but frequency bands on the air are precious resources. I want to see new wireless technology to become reality in new gadgets. Therefore, imho *wired* communication systems should not be allowed to put that much noise on the air.
October 1st, 2008 at 5:49 am
“Shirt is a repeat”? Does that mean that, after 439 episodes, you’ve finally run out of different shirts? Or have I just not noticed that you’ve repeated some other shirts before. :P
October 1st, 2008 at 8:25 am
At the start you said ‘This is brief 349′, but it’s 439!!! Doh!
October 1st, 2008 at 9:13 am
You know, what, y’all are right. We haven’t had the Wii hooked up in months, and for some strange reason, we were thinking the opposite…
October 1st, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Thanks for showing the “Bulk” of the Mophie Juice Pack. i was curious to know if it would be too large for the pocket, now i know. i was eyeing this one for the 3G. Do you know if it charges the the iPhone from it’s battery pack? or is it just additional power storage?
October 1st, 2008 at 12:46 pm
I have the older version of NETGEAR’s Powerline product (WGX102 + XE102G – it’s more rounded than what Cali showed) and it’s great for extending the range to a PS3, but for the life of me, I can’t get it to work with my MacBook and Airport Express router — something about a self-assigned IP address. Is anyone else having better luck with the newer version of Powerline?
October 1st, 2008 at 2:07 pm
You haven’t had the WII hooked up for months? I guess that means Neil gave up on his WII fit program… To bad…
October 1st, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Umm… Now I am a keen on technology, but I am by no means an expert. I have seen those Wii USB adapters for the Wii and thought to myself WHAT A RIP OFF as I was able to connect my Wii to my wireless G system flawlessly. I figured EVERYONE knew that. In fact a friend of mine also connects his Wii to his wifi without cables too. I think you just have to fiddle in the system settings.
But I SWEAR to you I have downloaded, those channels, miggled my wii play mario cart online via my wifi without cables. Could someone else please validate that I am not crazy as both Cali and Sean are not aware of the internal wifi settings. I did have to enter my ‘WEP’ keep to be granted access. I also remember looking at my instructions to read how to set it up too. If necessary I could post a vid.
James
Wii DOES have wireless G capabilities.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Even though you purchase the PC version of Neat Receipts, the scanner should still work and you can download the Mac version for free of the Neat website.
I’m not 100% but I’m pretty sure you can do that.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:56 pm
hrm.. guess it does have g too. I remember reading a lot of problems with folks having g only networks having to drop to mixed b/g networks to connect.
October 2nd, 2008 at 10:30 am
Can you write 2 paragraphs about one of your products in my perspective?
October 2nd, 2008 at 10:32 am
I forgot to add, explain who you think the device is useful for. What are some good points of the product. What are some downfalls of the product.
October 2nd, 2008 at 10:41 am
Plz I need it for an IT class. I can’t do it myself because your show sucks. :(
October 2nd, 2008 at 3:05 pm
I am already a fan of Netgear but it was cool to see Ethernet Over Power-line get some love. It works like a charm right out of the box.
These things totally solved a problem for my friend and I re: getting the internet to the other end of his house ( his very old house, his very old, I imagine, lead house.)
btw they definitely don’t like being plugged into a power-strips.
October 2nd, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Thanks Cali.. I have to go shopping for new gadgets now. :) You know.. stimulate the economy!
October 3rd, 2008 at 5:45 am
Hey Cali,
Thought I’d draw your attention to these battery packs
http://tinyurl.com/3j26xr
(UK eBay link, I’m pretty sure they ship to the US too though as they’re in Hong Kong)
I’ve bought a few of them, they’re great and they charge both my ipod, iphone 1st gen and iphone 3g, they’re cheap and cheerful.
Only downside is the lights are really bright, so you can’t leave it charging at your bedside, but otherwise really good value and does the job.
Love the show, keep up the good work. -c
October 3rd, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Cali,
Have you had a chance to use the powerline network adapters yet? Looking to connect a HDTV to the network and stream content, but don’t have cat5 everywhere and the TV won’t allow streaming over wireless.
Thanks!
ShawnM
October 4th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
What about the Linksys powered ethernet system?
Voluptuous Cali, I too would like to see your private parts! You have my edress. When will you be holding “cymbal auditions?”
October 5th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Cali,
There is also a device called a “PlugLink 9650″ made by Asoka, http://www.asokausa.com/products/. I’ve used it at work. It’s OK, but if the electrical system is older it might be intermittent at times.
Cheers
October 7th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Hey Cali, you specifically mentioned Dish TV when referring to the Powerline, does that mean I can finally use iMovie to create DVDs of TV programs I want to get off my DVR, but still save? I would love to convert those to DVDs. Any suggestions anyone?
October 21st, 2008 at 2:53 am
hey cali,nice show love it been watching it from episode 244 but i dont anymore ma ipod is spoilt and there is nowhere here to fix it. but i try as much as possible to come and watch u online.but with the internet speed on this part of the world it takes forever for me to get a full episode sitting and waiting.i am in Ghana and i love you .
January 21st, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Hi Cali,
Love the show, I’ve learned some neat things, but I have a question about Neat Receipts. I know you love the product and do your expensing with it, but It doesn’t work with my expense/accounting program, so I was wondering which expense/accounting package you use?
Thanks In Advance.
Cheers.
Bill.