Last topic of 2009: President Obama's Disappointments

This is the last blog entry for 2009. I thought I would bring up a new topic. Lately I have noticed people referring to different parts of Washington State as being scary places such as Seattle, Spokane, Yakima, etc. The more I thought about it when people say a certain town or city is a scary place, the more I realize that the whole world is a scary place.

Will things be better in 2010? Not likely, since we currently have a President in Washington D.C., also referred to us Washingtonians as the "other Washington", who is making the former President look not so bad as we had previously thought.

President Barrack Hussein Obama, (yes I put the middle name in there to prove a point, not to suggest that he is a terrorist), has not really accomplished much in the first 11 months of the 48 months of his term.

Economy: Still bad.
Space Program: Going nowhere.
US Postal Service: Still in great debt.
Healthcare: Still no real improvements.
Education: Still high High School dropout rates and high teen pregnancy rates
Auto Industry: Saab brand going away even after the massive auto bailout speaks for itself.
Homeland Security: Still thinking inside the box rather than outside of it.
Free TV stations and many Newspapers: Future uncertain.

I could go on and on, but you get the point. Unfortunately if I had to help a grandchild do a report on what it was like during the term of President Barrack Hussein Obama, assuming I have any grandchilden someday, I would have to tell them the following:

President Barrack Hussein Obama was our first African American President. He was well liked by many celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey who had a popular talk show many years ago that ended in or around 2011. He was so well liked by the European crowd that he got a Nobel Peace Prize even though he did not really do anything to earn it.

I don't remember much about any of his policies because they were either defeated or were slightly altered versions of laws we already had. We had a few terrorist incidents here in the United States during his Presidency because the security members of his cabinet had bad intelligence and Obama did not focus enough on terrorism. So in other words he was a big disappointment as our first African American President.

OK, that isn't history yet, but if President Obama keeps on going down the road he is going down now it most likely will be history. The good news is that he can only serve the 2 terms as President. So if we can survive those 2 terms, we can then finally look forward to a President who might be actually able to get things done.

Happy New Year and see you in 2010!!

An Honest Review of Memorex PC Quick Wipes 50 Pack

Today I am going to review the Memorex PC Quick Wipes 50 Pack. These were available at Fred Meyer several months ago at a regular price around $3-$5 at the time. I purchased like 3 of them for about a dollar each when they were on sale. Since about that time I have not seen them at Fred Meyer since, but they most likely still sell these wipes at other retailers like Amazon.com, and Memorex still lists this product on their own website.

These wipes may work but there is a major issue with them

I bought these to clean off fingerprints and dust off of my monitor screen. They can also be used for other items such as PC keyboards, PC mice, and other Home/Office equipment. Memorex puts on the back label of the container, which you can't see without opening the product on the one I bought, that these wipes are NOT for cleaning CD and DVD discs since the wipes are pre-moistened.

These wipes worked pretty good ... for a while. Then they lose their moisture and they are completely dry after about a half a year even though I kept mine inside of the container with the lid closed. Memorex offers a 1 year warranty on this product but since Fred Meyer, where I bought these at, unlikely doesn't carry these anymore, I am just going to forget about the 1 year warranty and just try to find some way to use them before they lose their moisture.

Verdict

Unless you are buying these with the intention of using all 50 wipes within a couple of days, I would not recommend buying this product. Fred Meyer was probably wise to have discontinued this product from their electronics department. Go to Amazon.com and look this product up and you will see a couple of negative reviews on this product. If you want something to clean your computer and office equipment I would recommend looking elsewhere.

An Open Letter to Santa

This is a good opportunity to remind people that unlike many other bloggers on the internet that I am not paid or compensated to review any of the products I have reviewed in this blog so far by either the manufacturers or retailers or Blogger.com.

But the real reason for this post is to let Santa know I am hoping for some items on Christmas day that I can review in future posts on this blog.

Hope all those who regularly read this blog have an enjoyable holiday season regardless of your religion. I will be back posting here within a week at the most.

8GB Samsung P3 Digital Media Player Review

This is the third and final review of these MP3 Video Players ... for now!!

Because of the high price nature of this product and that I have no long term knowledge of this product please do not blame me for any information that might be inaccurate in this review.

I paid around $120 for the Samsung P3 Digital Media Player at Fred Meyer when the product was on sale. Regular price at Fred Meyer is around $150. The P3 comes only in 8GB and Black at Fred Meyer while BestBuy.COM carries only the 16GB and 32GB versions in both Black and Gray and BestBuy.COM does not carry the 8GB at all to the best of my knowledge. As always Fred Meyer does not compensate me in any way for writing and posting these reviews. These reviews are to educate people in to making better purchases by providing information that is not often obtainable from the package of the product or from the salespeople at a retail store.

Unlike the Sylvania and Memorex models that I bought before without doing research on them first, this time it was important to do research because the product being purchased was over $100 and the most expensive product that I have reviewed in this blog to date. I was disappointed with the lack of support for playlists and other features on the Memorex and Sylvania models and that is why I researched the Samsung P3.

One of the great review places (or so I thought at the time before I bought the Samsung P3) is cnet.com.

CNET SAMSUNG P3 VIDEO REVIEW

The above link has a video review of the P3 which makes it sound like a good product. This was probably one of the biggest sources of information that led me to buy the Samsung P3 model at Fred Meyer.

Great Piece of Hardware from Samsung!!

The P3 despite its high cost is a great player from Samsung. Comparing it to the Sylvania and Memorex models I reviewed before, the Samsung 8GB P3 model does practically everything that either the Sylvania only did or the Memorex only did or both the Sylvania and Memorex did.

FM Radio
Videos
Music
Pictures
Games
Texts
Voice Recorder

In addition the P3 also has other features the Sylvania and Memorex didn't have.

Alarm
Address Book
Calculator
Bluetooth Compatibility
Calendar
Clock
Subway Maps of Major Cities
Flash Player

This should be a winner in my opinion if the review stopped here. But unfortunately I found out this thing may be a piece of junk which you will find out why by reading on.

Say it isn't so, Samsung!!

After spending a little bit of time exploring the options of the Samsung P3, I started to notice a very troubling trend with the product. The product on different websites on the internet mentions features that were not on my P3.

English Dictionary
Sketch Application
Lyrics Support
Real Text-to-Speech Support (not just the MP3 Sound file of the text)

Unfortunately after buying the product I learned why these features were missing from my P3. They are missing because I bought an American version of the Samsung P3 and the P3 was originally made for the Korean market.

Samsung can fix this, right??

Yes, they can through what is called a firmware upgrade and it is even included as a selling point on the BestBuy.COM website.

So what's the problem with recommending this great piece of hardware?

Samsung uses a software product called Emodio for file transfer and to install new graphic backgrounds to the P3 and the Emodio software is also catered to the Korean and other global markets but not to the US market as much. The software is less likely to get bug fixes in the US (which it does have some bugs here) because Samsung's main support base for the P3 is in other countries and not here in the United States.

So Samsung is going to start supporting the P3 in the US more in the near future right?

Unfortunately, no is the word I am getting from people who are close to Samsung's Korean Division. Which is a shame since they supported the previous P2 model with some nice firmware upgrades.

It appears Samsung has no plans to make the P3 better or just simply make it more American friendly by adding the missing Korean P3 features.

The most likely scenario with the Samsung P3 is that it will soon be replaced with another expensive model with better features or Samsung will completely pull out of the high priced MP3 Digital Media Player market and let Apple continue its dominance with the Ipod line.

So Samsung puts out a great product with very lousy support for their great product. Buy or do not buy then?

Unfortunately I can NOT recommend the purchase of this product to my fellow Americans. If you are in Korea reading this then this is probably a good product. But in my opinion I would have not bought this great product if I had known ahead of the purchase that this product has non-existent support here in the States.

I would hope that anyone here in the states reading this will think twice from now on when it comes to purchasing a Samsung product in the future. Make sure that before you buy that Samsung that it has US support and not just support for some country on the other side of the world.

Because the P3 hardware itself is fine, I will hold off buying another Media Player for a while. But the next one will not be a Samsung unless they make a huge dramatic change.

Anyone have any Samsung P3 stories they want to share (good or bad)?

An Honest Review of the SMPK2083 2GB Sylvania Video MP3 Player

This is the second of 3 reviews of these small Video/MP3 Players. I will review the third model in the near future. For this review I will compare the Sylvania SMPK2083 2GB model with the Memorex 4GB Video/MP3 Player MMP8640 model reviewed in the last blog post.

I paid approximately $20 at Fred Meyer for this model. Note: Fred Meyer may have quit carrying this model since I bought it last month just like they did the Memorex MMP8640 I reviewed last time. And I need to remind people that Fred Meyer is not paying me in any way to write these reviews since many of the products come from their store. And price information is not a recommendation to go out and buy the product either. It is just here for your information.

After the problems I had with the Memorex MMP8640 Video MP3 Player, I decided to buy this Sylvania SMPK2083 2 GB model because of its low price. This player, like the Memorex I bought before, I had done little research before I bought it.

Let me start out with some of the positives about the Sylvania SMPK2083 2GB model.

Small size, lightweight.
This model is available in six colors.
Doesn't require regular batteries. Just recharge the rechargable battery by plugging into a USB Port on your computer for a couple of hours.
Built in Voice Recorder.
Has a text viewer mode where you can read .txt files uploaded to it which the Memorex model didn't have.
Can store video.
Can store hundreds of photos.
Can store hundreds of songs.

Possibly the best feature of the Sylvania SMPK2083 model which I was surprised to find (which the Memorex model didn't have and this is not even listed anywhere on the outside of the Sylvania MP3 player's package!) is it games feature. Games include a Tetris-like game, a simple sliding puzzle, a simple Sudoku game, and a simple little snake game where you guide a snake around and try to get things on the screen.

Now for the negatives on this Sylvania model and unfortunately like the Memorex there are several negatives.

There is no FM radio on this model like the Memorex MMP8640.

Does not come with any preloaded songs which the Memorex MMP8640 did. This means you will have to put music onto the player before you hear any music on the Sylvania.

Since this is only a 2GB model and the Memorex model was 4GB, the Sylvania has only half of the storage of the Memorex. In addition there is no expansion feature on the Sylvania like the 2GB mini SD card feature on the Memorex player.

Album artwork is not available on the Sylvania at all. Sylvania's manual shows an option for lyrics where the player displays lyrics by pressing a button but this feature is worthless because you have to find .lrc files on the internet which are hard to find and they have to be encoded in a certain way. I even tried uploading the lyrics files to the mp3 player in the way mentioned in the Sylvania manual and the feature did not work for me at all. I kept getting kicked out to the main menu because that was assigned the same keypress unfortunately. So don't even try buying the SMPK2083 model with the intention of using this for displaying lyrics. You will be totally disappointed.

On a brighter note, unlike the Memorex model the Sylvania model can shut down or be sent to the next song in just a few seconds and does not make any noise when you jump between songs with the next chapter button. Also unlike the Memorex model, I had no problems with the Sylvania model losing memory or files or becoming messed up to the point where it needed to be reformatted or reset.

The video you put on here will likely have to be converted and the program takes a little while to convert video on your PC to a format compatible with the MP3 Player. The video is small since this device only has a 1.5" screen. Which means if you want to see names on the credits of a show or subtitles you probably will have a hard time if not impossible time making them out.

So if you want a cheap MP3 player to play short video clips without writing on the video, and plays songs without album art, and have the ability to read short texts and play a few small games and you don't need a MP3 player with a radio and don't mind that the player is limited to 2GB in size this might be a good option.

But for many people this would be a product I would not recommend due to Sylvania's manual which is confusing and practically illegible in some spots and their lack of technical support for this model. Stay tuned I will be reviewing another one of these video MP3 players soon.

An Honest Review of Memorex MMP8640 4GB Video/MP3 Player

This is the first of 3 reviews of these small Video/MP3 Players. I will review the other 2 in the near future. For this review I will focus mainly on the Memorex 4GB Video/MP3 Player MMP8640 model.

I paid approximately $30 at Fred Meyer for this model. Note: Fred Meyer may have quit carrying this model since I bought it last month. And I need to remind people that Fred Meyer is not paying me in any way to write these reviews since many of the products come from their store. And price information is not a recommendation to go out and buy the product either. It is just here for your information.

Let me start out with some of the positives about this model.

Small size, lightweight.
Buttons light up in your choice of 6 colors.
Doesn't require regular batteries. Just recharge the rechargable battery by plugging into a USB Port on your computer for a couple of hours.
Built in Voice Recorder
Has a FM radio built in that you can record.
Can store video.
Can store hundreds of photos.
Can store hundreds of songs.
Displays album artwork on some songs.
Can insert a mini SD card of up to 2GB for additional memory for the MP3 player.

Possibly the best feature of this model is the 500 preloaded songs of several different genres that come with this model. The songs are from artists who are new according to Memorex but I wasn't familiar with any of the artists.

Now for the negatives and unfortunately there are several negatives.

Voice Recorder Button is located on the other side of the volume buttons so you may accidentally find yourself recording when you are trying to increase/decrease volume.

The package labels the FM radio as "Digital FM Radio." This should not be confused with the much better quality HD Radio which is a similar improvement to existing radio as digital TV was to analog TV.

Sometimes if the album artwork is available it will not show up as soon as the song starts playing. In fact on one song it took about a minute and a half into the song playing for that album's artwork to show up. During the time between the start of the song and the time of the artwork's appearance on the screen, you can not skip to other songs or even power the player down.

Other problems I have had with this model included a photo slideshow feature which skipped over a few pictures, and whenever I tried uploading a video to this player the player messes up really bad when I connect the player to the computer and try to open the mp3 player's files. The computer constantly goes through the process of recognizing the device and then acting like it is no longer connected over and over again. I finally had to go into the settings menu on the player and reformat the player which erased all of the files (including the free 500 pre-loaded songs). It is a good idea to back up these songs as soon as you buy this AND before uploading any type of files to this player. Fortunately I did back up the songs before I erased the memory. Also forgot to mention that one song would not copy. Don't know whether it was copy protected or just some bug with the system.

So video playback is highly not recommended on this model. So it seems like it could still make a good music player. Well with the unit I have (don't know if this is just my unit or with all of them), I hear a loud click noise between songs like 50% of the time which is a little annoying.

So if you just want a cheap MP3 player that has preloaded music and don't care for slow responsive times, and a player which does not have highly reliable memory storage this might be the way to go. But for most people this would be a product I would not recommend. Stay tuned there are better ones out there that I will be reviewing soon.

An Honest Review of Memorex Customer Service Phone Lines

Yes you read the title right. This is not a product review this time. Instead I am going to review Memorex's Customer Service Lines. I called 1-800-919-3647, the number featured on a paper that came with one of their products, and got a message saying I would have to wait a minute before getting a live person. Well the line went silent. No music like many other phone lines that put you on hold. I waited about 25 minutes and just hung up.

So I found a second phone number for Memorex's Customer Service online, 1-877-363-6673. I called up this number and was told about a 2-3 minute wait and this time music was playing while I was waiting so I felt like they knew I was waiting this time. Then a minute or so later the wait is announced as a 3-4 minutes wait now and the music stops shortly after that. After 3 or 4 minutes of silence I decided no one was going to answer and hung up again.

I redialed the 1-877-363-6673 number again. But this time I seemed to get a representative within a minute or two. I told him why I called and I started to ask a simple question about whether something was normal for a particular model. He put me on hold for a minute or two and then gives me a reference number to keep track of the situation. I asked him about a few other things wrong with the Memorex product I was calling about and could tell he could not give me any useful information so I just told him thanks for the help and hung up.

So the grade for Memorex Customer Service is a F. This is way beyond the typical bad customer service to have to wait for minutes of silence not knowing if a customer service person knew you were waiting. In addition the knowledge and trouble understanding the representative was typical of a bad support line. Also embarrassing is the fact that I got right through the third time which means some people are just being put on hold for no reason at all while other callers who just keep dialing numbers get through faster without waiting in line like I had to do.

I would think twice about buying anything containing electronic parts from Memorex and just stick to the blank CD/DVD Media and labels and sleeves for this company since their customer service is beyond the typical bad service.

Anyone have any experiences with Memorex's Customer Service? Please feel free to comment about them.

A major family entertainment company may be last hope for Daytime Soaps

Yesterday it was announced "As The World Turns" would end in the near future on CBS. CBS just got rid of "Guiding Light" this year. That will leave 3 soaps on ABC, 2 on CBS, and only one on NBC.

You are probably wondering why a male is blogging about daytime soap operas. It is not because I am gay or because I watch them, but because of the ironic path that the Soap Opera industry is headed in in my opinion.

CBS will likely cancel "Bold and the Beautiful" within the next couple of years, and with the very recent change of ownership of NBC from GE to Comcast that has not yet been completed, "Days of our Lives", NBC's last soap could very well get axed.

That will leave just "Young and the Restless" on CBS, and 3 soaps on ABC.

This is where the irony occurs. ABC will have all but one of the daytime soaps. And guess who owns ABC in case some of you haven't figured it out with all the Disney themed shows on that network. Disney!!

So next time we think of Disney as a family entertainment company, don't forget about the fact that they are the only company really carrying on the daytime soap opera legacy.

If anyone has any comments about this feel free to post them here.

Honest Reviews of Philips MP3/CD Casette Adapter and Belkin TuneCast II FM Transmitter

Sorry for the long gap between blog entries. Should be posting more regularly now.

Today I am going to do an "honest" review of both Philips MP3/CD Car Cassette Adapter model number PH2050W and Belkin TuneCast II FM Transmitter. The Philips Car Cassette Adapter costs about $10 at Fred Meyer and probably other major retailers. The Belkin TuneCast II FM Transmitter costs about $20 at Fred Meyer and probably other major retailers. I want to clarify that price information is not a recommendation to buy these products and that Fred Meyer, where I purchased both products as well as many others that I review on here, does not compensate me to endorse or review these products.

Let me start off with the Philips Car Cassette Adapter Model Number PH2050W. This product works good with the vehichle that had a cassette deck in it that I was using. I just put the Cassette Adapter in the vehicle's cassette deck and plug the adapter cord coming from the Cassette Adapter into the headphone jack of the CD Player/MP3 Player/etc. Then I just simply turn on the vehicle's stereo and listen to the music. The only known issue with getting this to work with some vehicles from what I can tell is that you may have to open the cassette adapter up and reposition the cable which I didn't have to do in my case but looks fairly simple. So this is a product I would be willing to recommend to someone else.

Now on to the Belkin TuneCast II FM Transmitter. This one is a totally different story about recommending this product. This product is for people like me who have MP3 Players or CD Players that they want to plug in to their car stereo but can't in a certain vehicle because of the lack of a cassette deck and the lack of an input jack on their vehicle's stereo system.

Does the Belkin TuneCast II work? The simple answer is NO and YES. Confusing? Read on.

The Belkin TuneCast II FM Transmitter works by plugging a adapter cord into your music device and then the TuneCast II transmits it through the radio station of your choice between most FM frequencies. You just set the Belkin and the vehicle's stereo system to the same FM frequency and you can then listen to your CD Player or MP3 Player's music over the radio. Or can you?

According to Belkin you can, according to me you can't. Belkin talks about a 30 foot broadcasting range with the device but when I tried using it in the car or even in the house the audio output was fading away just a few feet away from the radio. So you have to have the product next to the stereo that you are using contrary to Belkin's claim.

Another problem is Belkin's advice to locate an unused frequency on the FM dial where you live. I found the product works great in a manner I will describe later on when it was broadcasting on a frequency already occupied by a radio station.

The product "as is" works best when there is someone else in the car to move the adapter because there appears to be interference from time to time when driving while using the product.

Well what do you do then if there is no one else to fix it in the car and you don't have the ability to adjust it in the car while driving? I found a possible solution that costs about another $10 or so from Radio Shack. It is called an 8 Foot Headphone Extension Cord. Apparently this thing acts like a signal booster for the Belkin TuneCast II FM transmitter when you plug this thing in between the TuneCast and your music player. After I did this I had only a little bit of noticeable static and did not have to adjust the transmitter hardly at all for some 20 miles driving down the freeway.

So let me summarize these reviews.

If you have a cassette deck in your vehicle just buy the Philips product I mentioned above.

If you don't have a cassette deck and lack an audio input for your car's stereo and live in a rural area or plan on using these kind of devices in rural areas since cities have a lot more interference which may make the Belkin very difficult to use, I would recommend the Belkin TuneCast II FM transmitter but I would also recommend you buy the 8 foot extension cord from Radio Shack because it appears to make a huge difference.

Now if you happen to live in a bigger city (like probably 100,000 people or more) or want to use a product like this in a larger metropolitan area, I would not recommend this product and my best advice would be to look for a more expensive car stereo with an audio input jack or a more expensive FM transmitter product.

If anyone has any questions feel free to leave a comment.