Final video of 2011 is now on my NATHANROADINWA YouTube Page

I want to let people know that my final video for the Second Season of my NATHANROADINWA YouTube Channel is now on my YouTube channel page. The video is entitled "Tech Confusion: Deleting YouTube Videos in 2012 on PCs and Other Devices Such as Internet Tablets".

In the video, I show how to delete videos in the upcoming year that are uploaded to your YouTube account. I show how to do it using the new YouTube page design that was recently introduced. I broke up the video into 3 parts. In the first part, I show how to delete a YouTube video using a Desktop or Laptop PC connected to the Internet. In the second part of the video, I show how to delete a YouTube video using a tablet such as newer Android tablets like the Archos Gen8 Tablet or an Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet. And in the last part of the video, I talk about trying to delete YouTube videos using other devices such as media players like the WDTV Live Plus.

I also want to mention that I have recently introduced a skill level system to some of my videos. I recommend them on whether they are for Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced level users. If I rate a video for Beginners or above, that means the video should be helpful to all users. If I rate it for Intermediate or above, that means the video should be helpful to the Intermediate and Advanced level users, but Beginners might have a hard time understanding and following those videos. And finally, if the video says it is recommended for Advanced users, that means you will have to be very careful if you are not yet an Advanced level user when performing things similar to what I show in my videos.

I am labeling this video for Beginners or above since this is a basic level task. The only danger here is accidentally deleting the wrong videos since YouTube deletes videos permanently when you mark a video for deletion.

A final note: Please rate this video and leave comments letting me know if you think this video is helpful or not and whether you think this skill level addition is a good idea. Also be sure to look for the other videos I have done on my NATHANROADINWA YouTube channel.

To see this and my other videos on my NATHANROADINWA Channel Page, --> CLICK HERE <--

WD TV Live Plus Owners Robbed of "Christmas Gifts"

I have some rather bad news for now to owners of the WDTV Live Plus media streamer. Western Digital who makes the WDTV Live Plus has just added several Internet services including the Vudu video service to the WDTV Family of media streamers. But unfortunately the WDTV Live Plus model (released approximately 18 months ago in mid-2010!!) appears to be pretty much abandoned when it comes to new firmware upgrades and access to new services.

I am regretting more and more each day my decision to purchase a WDTV Live Plus. If I buy another media streaming device, chances are very good it won't be a model from the Western Digital WDTV series.

My Kindle Bookstore Buyer Beware Video is now on my YouTube Channel Page

This entry is to let you know about my latest video on my NATHANROADINWA YouTube Channel. This one is entitled "YouTube Special: A Kindle Bookstore Buyer Beware". It is about a disturbing discovery I made about e-books on the subject of YouTube available at the Amazon Kindle Bookstore. Two of the electronic books mentioned are free through Amazon's Kindle Owners' Lending Library program and if you are currently an Amazon.COM Prime Subscriber. But after watching the video you will see that Amazon.COM should make these books free to everyone and not just to Prime Subscribers. Anyone who bought these e-books might want to consider getting a refund.

This video will apply to Kindle and Kindle Fire users, but users of other popular 2011 e-reader devices such as the Nook Tablet and Nook Color might find this information useful as well.

To see my video, please --> Click Here <--

And please feel free to comment and rate the videos so I can get good quick feedback. YouTube has been slow lately to update view counts on some of my videos. If you rate the video or comment on them, the ratings and comments are added almost instantly.

It is finally official: My Coke Rewards extended for 2012!

Finally, the people in charge of My Coke Rewards has changed the official program rules to indicate that the program will run until AT LEAST the end of 2012. It would have been nice to get an e-mail confirmation of this from Coca-Cola. It would have also been nice had Coca-Cola let people know a little sooner instead of leaving us confused about whether the program was actually coming to an end. For example, I didn't know whether to enter as many points by the old ending date of November 30, 2011 since they never said anything about the extension until December of this year. If you had entered all your points right before December, you would lose out on the opportunity to get bonus points later on.

I just wish My Coke Rewards would be a little more vocal about their program's rules and dates. The only reason I found out myself that the program was extended throughout 2012 was by visiting their Rules page. Like I said above, it would be nice to confirm this with an e-mail and in addition with a large banner ad on the My Coke Rewards website pages to let members of this program know.

And I should also mention that there is still no change in the music download rewards. They are still offering the Napster downloads for 70 points a song which is rather high for a single song download and since Napster has now been absorbed by Rhapsody. Hopefully Coke will fix this problem and make it right by cutting the point value in half soon when it switches to Rhapsody any day now. But the My Coke Rewards program is slow to make changes so I wouldn't get your hopes up!

My new Tech Confusion video about the Cisco Linksys WUSB600N Wireless Adapter is now on my YouTube Channel Page

As the end of the second season of my YouTube videos nears, I have uploaded a new Tech Confusion video entitled "Tech Confusion: Discovering the WUSB600N Wireless Adapter Light is Not Working on a WD TV Live Plus".

In this edition of my Tech Confusion series of videos, I explain a possible reason why users of the WDTV Live Plus machines who use the WUSB600N Wireless Adapter from Cisco Linksys might have a blue light that is not functioning anymore on the device. I then explain if there is anything that can be done about it.

This problem might also apply to other similar Cisco Linksys wireless adapters and other machines in the WDTV Live Family such as the Hub.

Please feel free to ask questions. I may not have all the answers, but I might be able to answer some of them.

To see this video, --> CLICK HERE!!! <--

Also, remember to rate my videos. If you do not like it for a valid reason, please feel free to give me a negative vote. It helps me improve my videos more as it gives a better picture of how many people find these videos useful. And for those who are not rating the videos, please do so as I don't know if people left the video in the middle of it or if they just didn't feel like telling the truth about whether they liked the video or not, or if some other completely different reason kept them from voting on the video.

And finally, I want to mention that the format of my YouTube Channel page has been changed somewhat. The most recent videos are on the left side and my playlists are on the right side of the new Channel page. My information about what the NATHANROADINWA Channel is about appears now on the top right side of the page. To see all of my older videos, click on the Uploaded Videos playlist on the right side of the page.

YouTube performing site maintenance right now

If you are watching my videos this morning, I want you to be aware that YouTube is doing site maintenance for a few hours this morning. This means you might not be able to post comments or ask questions or rate my videos right at the moment. If that is the case, I would appreciate it if you come back later today and rate my videos or leave questions or feedback on my YouTube videos as I really appreciate questions and feedback even if it is negative.

It looks like it is time for Western Digital and Flingo to quit their partnership

I decided to try out the Flingo service again on a Western Digital WDTV Live Plus media streamer since I haven't checked it out in several weeks or months.

Big mistake!

Flingo continues to disappoint. They only have like 3 or 4 video services that you can fling from. The only well known one is still YouTube as it has been forever with Flingo.

But now I can't even get YouTube videos to be flung to the WDTV Live Plus. All I get is a message telling you to try it on a page with only one video whatever that means.

For those not familiar with Flingo, here is how it works (or in this case how it is supposed to work): You drag a Flingo thing from their website and put it into your bookmarks on your browser. Then you go to the website of the video on your browser you want to fling or stream to your regular TV using the WDTV Live Plus and click on the bookmark entry labeled fling.

It is a great idea, if it actually had any real support!

I think it is about time for Western Digital to abandon the Flingo service and start adding real video services to the WDTV Live Plus and other WDTV machines such as Crackle and several other free video services.

Flingo is apparently never going to get the major media outlets to support them and will never be reliable enough to use on the WDTV in my opinion.

December First is here: Some My Coke Rewards/Napster Questions answered; Some still not answered

Well I have been writing a lot about the My Coke Rewards program lately in this blog. It is now December 1st.

The following is what we NOW know:

1. Napster website now redirects you to Rhapsody as of today (December 1).

2. My Coke Rewards is still allowing members to redeem codes despite the Nov. 30, 2011 end date given in their official rules page.

3. As of today (Dec. 1), Napster is still the MP3 source for MP3 downloads on My Coke Rewards despite the fact Napster is now redirecting you to Rhapsody's website.

Here is what we still DON'T know:

1. If and when will My Coke Rewards switch from Napster to Rhapsody Music Download Rewards?

2. Will the points value for mp3 downloads decrease from the higher Napster point levels to the lower Rhapsody point levels from earlier years of the My Coke Rewards program?

3. Is My Coke Rewards continuing through the entire 2012 calendar year?

We will have to just wait and see unfortunately.

However, I do have some GOOD news if you are a member in the Disney Movie Rewards program. Today is the start of their annual 25 days of free codes promotion. I just wish My Coke Rewards would be a little more generous in their bonus point opportunities.

My Coke Rewards leaves us with cliffhangers

I have mentioned the My Coke Rewards program in recent entries to this blog. Tomorrow is the last day, according to Coke's program rules, that you are supposed to be able to enter My Coke Rewards codes. But Coke hasn't said anything to anyone about this. They haven't even officially announced whether the program will be continuing in 2012. However, there has been places on the My Coke Rewards site that mention that codes will be accepted through at least early next year. So Coke has got a lot of confusion going on about their Rewards program right now.

And that is not the only confusing thing going on right now at My Coke Rewards. As I mentioned before in this blog too, Napster is supposed to be completely switched over to Rhapsody by Nov. 30 which is tomorrow even though My Coke Rewards is still currently offering the Napster downloads. To make things more confusing yet, Napster downloads actually replaced the Rhapsody downloads offered from the My Coke Rewards program in the past. When Rhapsody was the source of the download prizes on My Coke Rewards, the points required for downloads were only about half of what they were when Napster became the new source of downloads on My Coke Rewards. Does this mean that the MP3 downloads will go back to the old Rhapsody point level which was worth about half the points they are now once Napster finishes the switchover or will the My Coke Rewards program use an excuse to charge us the same number of points as Napster's download rewards in the future if Rhapsody once again becomes the MP3 source for My Coke Rewards? So many unanswered questions right now.

This is like My Coke Rewards' Y2K moment. You don't know whether the program is ending meaning you should enter and/or redeem points right away or whether the program will continue for many years to come and change for the better.

My Honest Review of the Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet is now on my NATHANROADINWA YouTube Channel

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving break.

I am back with another video review. This time it is of the highly buzzed Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet which is becoming one of the most popular tablets of 2011. You are probably wondering if I am giving up on the Archos Gen 8 Tablet line and/or other devices I have covered in the past. The answer is NO! I intend to make videos out of ideas that I feel will be helpful and as long as I think there would be people willing to watch the material covered in that video. You are also probably wondering if I will be making reviews of other expensive products in the near future like the Amazon Kindle Fire review that I just made. The answer to that question is "probably unlikely". I usually only review products that I purchase myself with maybe a few exceptions. I don't intend on buying myself every brand of tablet on the market such as the Samsung Galaxy, the Nook Color, and the list goes on and on. If I had the money I might consider it, but for now I am stuck reviewing mostly things I purchase myself.

Now let me talk about the Kindle Fire Tablet review. In the review, I start out by showing what the package looks like and what is included. Then I discuss what can and cannot be done with one of these Kindle Fire Tablets and what may be able to be done on a Kindle Fire in the near future.

I should mention that in the video, I mention that you can't record audio or use the Skype service because there is no built-in microphone on the Kindle Fire. I recently came across information that claims you CAN hack the Kindle Fire to use a microphone through the headphone jack, but it is a little complicated to hack it to do so.

Finally, I discuss who I would recommend this tablet to and who I wouldn't recommend this tablet to.

I should also mention that even though this is Cyber Monday and Amazon.com is doing a Cyber Monday Deals Week, the Amazon Kindle Fire is not likely going to be put on sale this week. It sells for about the same price every day probably due to Amazon.com's low price pricing strategy for this particular tablet model.

To see my review of the Kindle Fire Tablet, --> CLICK HERE!! <--

Note: You can also click the above link to see any of my past videos as well. And please feel free to leave any feedback (positive or negative) and rate the videos if you are able to do so from the device you are watching it on.

Only one week left to enter any My Coke Rewards points by Nov. 30, 2011 deadline!

Just realized that the code entering part of the My Coke Rewards program here in the USA ends next Wednesday on Nov. 30, 2011 according to their program rules page. Time is quickly running out, and that means you only have one week remaining to enter any codes you have not added to your My Coke Rewards account. If you have a lot of points to enter, you had better get started entering them this week so you can get as many as you can with the weekly limits.

You will still have until December 31st though to use what points you have left in the My Coke Rewards Program towards the merchandise, prizes, and donations offered by the program.

But maybe Coke might change their mind and extend their My Coke Rewards program for another year at the last minute. So I wouldn't redeem those points right away if My Coke Rewards does manage to be extended for at least one more year.

I just wish Coke would have given us a heads up about the program coming to what appears to be an abrupt ending!

Fred Meyer starts to Ad Match (sort of)!

I just learned that Fred Meyer is doing an "ad match" where you can bring in a retail competitor's ad and they will match it if it is a lower price than the one being offered by Fred Meyer. But as the title of this post mentions above, most items are excluded since this policy is only for their Home Electronics section of their store at least at this time. It does not apply to any other department.

In addition to being limited to Home Electronics department only, you can't match the price of any online stores, or any bundle offers, and the item can't be offered at a sale price in the form of a coupon or percentage off at the other retailer. Membership store prices like Costco or Sam's Club will not be allowed either. There are other exclusions. To find out more about their policy you should go to their website.

By the way, this policy will not be in effect from this Sunday until about the end of the month because they are excluding this policy during around the time that the Black Friday sale ads occur at places like a WalMart, Best Buy, or a Target.

Holiday Coke Rewards Catalog "Insiders" identified

I did some more investigating into why the My Coke Rewards Holiday Gifts were wiped out so fast today. I made mention of "insiders" as I was about 90% sure that there had to be people with an inside knowledge of what was going to be offered today.

Well shortly after I wrote the last blog entry, I came across this disturbing piece of info from the My Coke Rewards Facebook webpage:

START OF FACEBOOK QUOTE

My Coke Rewards Season of Giving
Instead of a Wednesday Deal, we wanted to do something special to celebrate the season. Enjoy these exclusive holiday offers available to our fans first. Get rewards from Nike®, AMC Theatres® and Best Buy for half the points. Take your pick before they're available to everyone: http://CokeURL.com/8wv2.

END OF FACEBOOK QUOTE

So basically My Coke Rewards offered the same offers only to Facebook members first before people like me had a chance to get them. Not illegal, but rather unethical to favor users of a social network like Facebook over the general public.

The best thing for people like us who didn't get a fair chance at great rewards like the ones offered today is to let Coke know these kind of Facebook offers have to cease to exist like I am doing here right now. And like I mentioned in the last post, we need to let Coke know they should be letting us know of offers in advance by about 24-48 hours instead of after the fact.

My Coke Rewards program still has a major flaw

I want to let people know that if you are into the My Coke Rewards Program like I am, you might have received an e-mail from the My Coke Rewards Program telling about their 50% off items out of their Holiday Rewards Catalog.

They show many gift cards for places like Subway, Home Depot, Best Buy, and others that you can get for half the points for a limited time.

I went to the My Coke Rewards Holiday Rewards Catalog webpage to check out these rather good looking deals.

One major problem. They were already wiped out of many of the items (mainly the more valuable gift cards, of course!).

You can still get the Coke merchandise such as t-shirts, but let's be honest: those items are not worth near as much as the gift cards were.

What bothers me about this is that I get the e-mail from Coke telling me about these would-have-been good deals after it is already too late. Clearly the program is being abused by "insiders," and Coke has not tried much to make this a more fair process to all the My Coke Rewards members who want to redeem points for great deals like these.

How easy is it to make this more fair in the future? Extremely easy. Send the e-mails AHEAD of these point drop offers by around a day or so and not AFTER they already have been grabbed by the "insiders" of the My Coke Rewards program.

Hopefully, Coke will read this and follow my advice.

My video about Initiative 1183 is now on my YouTube Channel

I have just uploaded a new installment of my Confusing Olympia video series to my NATHANROADINWA YouTube Channel. It is called "Confusing Olympia: Initiative 1183 Deceptions".

This is my look at the claims made by the two opposing sides of Washington State Initiative 1183 which if passed would make hard liquor available for purchase at certain regular retail outlets instead of just the current state operated liquor stores. This is the Initiative that has gotten a lot attention here in Washington State this year since Costco has spent millions of dollars for the Yes side while many out-of-state liquor companies have spent thousands of dollars for the No side.

As with many past issues here in Washington State, both sides exaggerate their claims and I give my opinion on which way people should vote. However, you can choose to vote which ever way you want after watching my video.

Please feel free to rate or comment on this video and look for my other videos on my NATHANROADINWA YouTube Channel.

To see this video, --> CLICK HERE!!! <--

How long does a Memorex DVD Case last? My newest YouTube video gives a very surprising answer

Well I have just uploaded my 28th video review in my "Honest Video Review" video series to YouTube.

This video provides the answer to the above question in the title of this blog entry. I will give you a hint: if you think these cases will last hundreds of years, you are way, way off.

As you will see as you watch this video, Memorex DVD cases have major defects in them and should be completely avoided. I am telling people to stay away from buying the Memorex DVD cases like the ones in the video, and after you watch it I am sure 90% of the viewers would agree with me. These cases were literally falling apart as I was recording the review for these cases.

I want to make clear though that I am not telling people to avoid all Memorex products. They do make many good quality products. Unfortunately, these DVD cases like the ones with the design shown in this video are nowhere even close to their usual good quality levels.

I am just glad I didn't purchase more than two 10 packs of these cases. 20 DVD cases falling apart in a rather short time period is still 20 too many to add to our garbage dumps.

To see this rather surprising video, --> CLICK HERE!! <--

And please let me know what you think about my video reviews by commenting on them and by rating them. And look for the other videos I have done on my NATHANROADINWA YouTube channel while you are at my YouTube NATHANROADINWA channel.

Harry Potter DVDs and Blu-rays to vanish at the end of the year

I thought I would write a short little post today since it appears Warner Home Video is going to pull the entire Harry Potter series on both DVD and Blu-ray from store shelves at the end of this year.

What does this mean? It means that if you want the unedited theatrical versions of these movies without any Star Wars-type changes you had better consider buying them very soon as the future re-releases of these movies may likely have additional scenes that were cut in the original version shown in theaters and/or have alterations such as different music in some scenes.

I don't think this is a smart move for Warner Video as original DVDs may be "phased out" by the movie studios before we see the re-release of these movies to home video if they wait like 5 years to bring them back to stores in disc form. That would mean that in order to buy and watch Harry Potter movies in the future, you would be required to have a Blu-ray player. People without Blu-ray players would likely be upset with Warner not being able to play them on their regular DVD player. But of course by then Blu-ray players will likely have come down a lot more in price than they have so far.

So the bottom line is that we might have a long wait to see what the re-release of the Harry Potter series of movies will be like. They might be the same exact discs and packaging, or they could be significantly different.

FOX brings back 2 old shows for November Sweeps

Remember "America's Most Wanted" and "30 Seconds to Fame"? FOX is bringing them both back in time for the November sweeps ratings period.

Now the bad news. First, "AMW" is back on this weekend only. It will probably disappear again until the February Sweeps period next year when it will only be shown once again. "30 Seconds to Fame" is back on Saturday nights for only a few weeks, and the episodes are the same repeats they showed earlier this year.

The good news about the "AMW" special this Saturday is that it will be an original 2 hour program and not a 2 hour repeat.

Maybe this is a sign that FOX might bring these 2 shows back with original episodes on a year round basis. Maybe they will also finally change their mind about canceling "Human Target" which should have not happened last season especially with the lower than expected numbers for "Terra Nova" and "The X Factor". The only problem is that Mark Valley has already moved on to starring in "Harry's Law" now, but they could probably get him again if they offered the right amount of money. Or they could always introduce a new Christopher Chance while keeping the old Winston and Guerrero on the show if Mark Valley is not available to come back.

Beware of the following type of e-mail scam!!

Above is a partial scan of an e-mail I have recently received twice.

It appears to be a speeding ticket notice from the New York State Police. The only problem is I have not been to New York in quite a long time.

The above notice is likely a scam as it requires you to open an attachment which is a very popular choice for sending many types of computer viruses.

If you are sure you have not driven in New York State lately, get rid of this e-mail immediately!!

If you are from New York or have driven in New York and are NOT sure if it is a real ticket, I would advise you to call up the New York State Police by phone to verify if you actually have a ticket because I doubt the New York State Police issues tickets on the Internet in this manner.

My video review of the SkipDr Laser Lens Cleaner is now on my NATHANROADINWA YouTube Channel

Yes, I know it has been several weeks since I have uploaded a video to my NATHANROADINWA YouTube Channel. I had been rather busy with work, seasonal stuff, birthdays, etc. for a while, but now things have gotten more back to normal now.

Well finally I have put together a new video review. This time I am reviewing the SkipDr Laser Lens Cleaner from Digital Innovations. I purchased this cleaning disc at Fred Meyer after I had some success a while back cleaning my drives with a similar Philips Magnavox cleaning disc that I had borrowed. This disc can be used on just about any type of machine that has a CD/DVD drive including Blu-ray players, HD DVD players, Microsoft XBOX video game systems, Sony Playstation video game systems, Portable DVD Players, and DVD Recorders.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Shortly after I purchased this item, SkipDr was replaced with the name CleanDr by Digital Innovations. Everything else between the older SkipDr and newer CleanDr Laser Lens Cleaning Discs are probably almost identical.

I also want to mention that I am continuing to use the new version of my Video Review Opening Theme song on this video review. The improved version is the one I created using the Magix Music Maker 17 software which I recently reviewed for this same series of video reviews on my NATHANROADINWA Channel on YouTube.

As always, let me know what you think about my video reviews by commenting and rating them, and look for the other videos I have done on my NATHANROADINWA YouTube channel too.

--> CLICK HERE <-- to see my SkipDr video review and my many other reviews that I have uploaded to my NATHANROADINWA YouTube Channel page.

Updates on the WDTV Live Deezer app and Best Buy.COM webpage loading problems

Recently I mentioned that BESTBUY.COM was not working correctly with Mozilla's Firefox Browser. My Firefox browser was recently updated automatically when I started Firefox and this happened after I first posted about the BESTBUY.COM incompatibility issue.

Unfortunately, the updated Firefox browser continues to have problems loading pages from BESTBUY.COM. I have to click the stop button on the browser and then reload the page using the reload page button at the top of Firefox before the Best Buy pages tend to appear. Hopefully Mozilla and Best Buy will see this and work out their incompatibility issues soon.

I also recently mentioned that the Deezer application on the WDTV Live Plus media player has a search feature which returns no results no matter what you enter as a search term.

Well I installed Deezer on an Archos 32 Internet Tablet and went to the Deezer website. While you can listen to radio stations on Deezer and listen to the top music lists, the search feature is disabled on all the methods I have tried. This used to be not the case with Deezer. However, Deezer is in the process of doing official launches in other parts of the world such as in the UK next month and here in the US in the future even though they let certain devices here in the US already access certain features of their service.

I know what you are probably thinking. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to not allow certain features to be used until a certain date, but it probably has to do with getting rights to use music here in the US that they already can use in Europe where Deezer is based out of. Hopefully Deezer will get their full US service up soon or it will probably be time to start looking for alternative music services.

Best Buy.COM issues with Firefox browser

This is to let people know that if you are having problems accessing the Best Buy website, BESTBUY.COM, that there are apparently some incompatibility issues between the Best Buy HTML code and Mozilla's latest Firefox browser version.

I figured this out after I tried Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser and the pages started loading fine without taking forever to load or else having to stop the loading of the page to make the webpage appear like I had to do in Firefox to make the page appear eventually.

It is sad that there is this kind of incompatibility still in the year 2011 since many current High School kids have been raised their entire lives with the Internet now.

Last Day to use Fred Meyer Savings Certificate (AK stores ONLY) and Deezer search issues on WDTV

This is a reminder that today is the last day to use your week long Fred Meyer Savings Certificate for $10 off a $50 purchase, $20 off a $100 purchase, or $30 off a $150 purchase or greater in selected departments.

But I will not be taking advantage of this savings certificate since it is only valid at the Alaska locations since this savings certificate is to get Alaskans who get their annual Dividend fund from the state to spend their annual state dividend check at Fred Meyer. So us Washingtonians are out of luck unfortunately. Which is a shame since this is the time of the year where Fred Meyer rarely puts out any savings certificates to the other Northwest states.

Unfortunately in other bad news, the search option in the WD TV Live Deezer application is NOT currently working. The search options in other apps such as Tune-In and YouTube are working, so this is apparently a Deezer only problem. Hopefully Deezer and Western Digital are looking for a solution for this problem as I can not access any music from Deezer other than the top songs and radio options. You can't currently look for any song by title or artist right now which is very frustrating.

Steve Jobs' death only one of several major tech stories this week

This morning, the Today show on NBC dedicated almost the entire first half-hour of their program to report on the passing of Steve Jobs.

However, many Digital Music/Tech stories this week have been downplayed in the media.

First, like I mentioned yesterday, Napster is going to be merged with Rhapsody and the Napster brand will be discontinued which will eliminate a major competitor to Apple in the online digital music business. Best Buy, who currently owns Napster, decides to throw in the towel because of Apple's dominance.

Second, was news this week that Microsoft Zune devices are no longer going to be manufactured. Zune was one of the main alternatives to Apple's iPod. Microsoft also decides to throw in the towel because of Apple's dominance.

These stories come in addition to the recent announcement earlier this year that WalMart was ending its online digital music service that was in direct competition with Apple's iTunes store.

So Apple has managed to knock out 3 major competitors just this year alone: WalMart, Best Buy, and even tech giant Microsoft!

But there are a few other tech stories which are getting very little coverage as well. I will briefly mention them.

First, Western Digital is releasing a new model to the WD TV line. It is going to be called "WD TV Live" which is confusing since they already have a "WD TV Live" model. The new model has built-in wireless unlike the previous WD TV models and some cosmetic changes, but the features and online services are pretty much the same as the older versions of WD TV Live and the Live Plus models.

Second, Archos is now listing at least 2 models of their Gen9 series of internet tablets on their website though they might not be for sale quite yet. The new models appear to have 3G capability in addition to Wi-Fi. But the 3G might not be a built-in feature and may require a thing to be plugged into it.

It appears that the moral of this story is that even though it seems like much of Apple's competition seemed to die around the same time as Steve Jobs this year, there is still some hope for competition and innovative products from companies other than Apple this year.

Update to "The End of Napster" entry

I wrote the last entry earlier today entitled "The End of Napster". In that entry I mentioned how Apple will be well off even without Steve Jobs as their spokesperson.

Well just a few minutes ago I learned on the news that Steve Jobs had just passed away according to Apple. I would like to let Steve Jobs' family know that I am sorry for their loss. I was not criticizing Steve Jobs in the last entry, but the fact that Apple has been and will be a dominant player in the online digital music industry for many years to come. And I would really like to see alternatives to Apple's offerings which are becoming harder and harder to find with the end of both Walmart and Napster's digital music service offerings.

I am asking for any major retailer or company to fill the void that is being left by the exits of Walmart and Best Buy from the digital music service business. We need more than just Amazon and Apple to obtain and listen to online music.

The End of Napster

Well it looks like Napster is about to be no more. Best Buy, who purchased the company back in 2008, was apparently unable to get Napster to be a leading contender in the digital music business. They are selling it to rival Rhapsody meaning that everyone who was subscribed to Napster will apparently now be subscribed to Rhapsody instead.

This sale just comes weeks after Wal-Mart shut down their digital music store.

Even without Steve Jobs as Apple's spokesperson anymore and even with an iPhone release that many are disappointed with, Apple has to be happy with the end of both Wal-Mart and Napster digital online music services this year. These 2 closures should increase Apple's iTunes store market share to a larger piece of the pie yet.

Well there is still an Amazon.COM to challenge Apple's iTunes store dominance. But let's be honest: Apple will be in really great shape for some time to come.

A Fall 2011 TV Update

NBC has just cancelled "The Playboy Club" after 3 episodes making it the first show to get pulled this season. It looks like it will be joined very soon by "How to Be a Gentleman" on CBS and "Free Agents" on NBC. Replacing "The Playboy Club" on Oct. 31 will be "Rock Center" which is a new news magazine type program with NBC's Brian Williams and Harry Smith. It is still strange seeing Harry Smith on NBC now after being on CBS News programs for so long.

FOX's "Terra Nova" is not really bad but not really good either creatively, but I don't think it will last more than 2 seasons on FOX which is how long many other shows have lasted on FOX such as Human Target and the recent Terminator series.

But the show to keep an eye on this Fall will likely be "The X Factor" also on FOX. It might be only getting around 11 Million viewers now, but that is how American Idol's First Season started out. And by the end of Idol's First Season, it was around 22 million viewers for the Finale. I think "The X Factor" will catch a lot of people off guard as the season progresses.

Chris Christie for President? Might not be that bad of an idea!

Sorry for the long absence again between posts. There is a lot of talk lately of people wanting New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie to run for President. Since I haven't been to New Jersey in a long long time, I can't say how good of a governor he is for that state.

Then I saw that he looks rather obese when they showed video of him walking on a recent news report. So many people might want to pass on him as a candidate just based on his weight.

Well currently over in the European nation of Denmark, there are efforts being made now to tax foods with a certain percentage of fats or greater. This is to prevent Denmark from having soaring obesity rates like here in the United States and Great Britain. A similar type tax was attempted here in Washington State with 2010's "Candy Tax". Fortunately this tax which was taxing everything from licorice, energy bars, and sweetened nuts based on the definition of flour and candy was repealed by the passing of an initiative last year by Washington State voters.

With a Gov. Chrisie as President, there would likely be more tolerance for obesity in this country as not all cases of obesity are from people eating too much "junk" foods. It is likely that genetics does play an important part in people's weights and not just food consumption.

With around 1/3 of the US population currently being labeled obese, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie might be just what this country needs: Someone to represent the big people of this country.

Who should be in the America's Got Talent Final Round next week

I just watched the Top 10 Performance Round of America's Got Talent. It was very disappointing to see some of the singing acts which in the past have won almost every season of America's Got Talent but one season get standing ovations from the judges.

After watching the Top 10 round, here is who SHOULD be in the Finals:

Magician Landon Swank
Team iLluminate
Silhouettes
and Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr.

Who will ACTUALLY be in the Finals is most likely going to be:

Team iLluminate
Silhouettes
2 out of the following 3 acts: Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr., Anna Graceman and/or band POPLYFE

If Team iLluminiate gets eliminated tomorrow the show will have lost a lot more of its credibility. The only reason they would be eliminated is that the show producers this season have favored certain acts (Silhouettes, Anna Graceman, Lys Agnes, POPLYFE, and Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr.) over the other acts such as Landon Swank and tumblers Zuma Zuma.

I wish Landon Swank would make the finals this year since he is the best magician they have had on the show since Nathan Burton in Season One from Summer 2006, but I can't see people voting for him over singers on a show that usually almost always favors singing acts.

Again I am hoping for an upset. We will find out soon if the four I think should move on all make it to the next round.

My video showing how to fix a loose Archos 32 back casing is now on my YouTube Channel

I have another Tech Confusion series video entitled "Tech Confusion: Repairing the Loose Back Casing on an Archos 32 Internet Tablet" which I recently uploaded to my YouTube channel.

In this video, I explain how I fixed my Archos 32 back casing which came loose after I accidentally dropped it. This video shows the Archos 32, but it might apply to other Archos models such as the Archos 28 Tablet which looks like it has a similar design. You also get to see some of the inside parts of the Archos 32, but I strongly do NOT recommend people taking apart their A32s since they could be easily broken in the process of taking the back cover off, and it would most likely void the manufacturer's warranty.

Ordinarily my Tech Confusion videos focuses on technical software and hardware related problems and not cosmetic problems like this one. But since a loose back casing can cause a lot of frustration when playing a game or doing other activities on your Archos tablet that requires a lot of constant gripping, I felt this would be an acceptable exception to the rule.

To see this video, --> Click Here <-- and search for the video entitled "Tech Confusion: Repairing the Loose Back Casing on an Archos 32 Internet Tablet" on my NATHANROADINWA YouTube Channel Page in the uploads section.

And please feel free to leave comments, suggestions, ratings, etc. while you are there.

And finally I want to mention that you should be able to view this video on your mobile devices, Blu-ray players, and media players like the WDTV or Roku if they support YouTube video playback.

Which canceled FOX show might be coming back?

Before you get excited about the news that one previously canceled FOX show might return, I should mention there are like 3 shows that should have all been renewed by FOX which are "30 Seconds To Fame", "Human Target", and "America's Most Wanted".

So which of these 3 shows will get a much earned renewal?

Is it "30 Seconds to Fame", which was "America's Got Talent" before "America's Got Talent" even existed and which was brought back by FOX for late night repeats recently?

No, it is not.

Is it "Human Target", which was actually doing well in the ratings despite FOX moving it around on the schedule several times?

Sorry, it is not "Human Target" either.

So it has to be "America's Most Wanted" which has led to the captures of over a thousand fugitives and was canceled in favor of what are being called "quarterly specials" airing only 4 times during the whole year.

SORRY, IT IS NOT "AMW" either.

It's "Breaking In", a short lived sitcom, which wouldn't even been on the ratings map if not for airing after mega hit "American Idol".

So I know what you are all probably thinking. Why renew this over "30 Seconds To Fame", "Human Target", and "America's Most Wanted"?

It is most likely about money and studio relationships. Warner and FOX do not always have the best relationship and that is why "Human Target" was canceled despite the modest success of the show. "AMW" was canceled because apparently it is too costly for even a non-scripted show. "30 Seconds to Fame" was probably not brought back with new episodes because FOX was hardly promoting the recent repeat airings, and most people don't realize that "America's Got Talent" is extremely similar to this show.

"Breaking In" is most likely coming back because FOX wants to please Sony Pictures which owns a huge film library while Sony seems to try to keep old shows alive for Syndication, Online Viewing, Etc. The deal Sony is making with FOX for "Breaking In" is probably very similar to the deal for CBS show "Rules of Engagement" which was renewed for Saturday night airings this Fall to have more episodes available for Syndication.

If "Breaking In" does indeed come back, this show will likely be shipped off to Fridays or the dreaded Sunday 7PM timeslot to die off once FOX gets tired of the low ratings this show will likely get when it returns if it does indeed return.

My video explaining how to enable video calling on the Archos 32 Gen8 Tablet using the Skype service is now on my YouTube Channel

Earlier this Summer in this blog, I called this a "Summer of Disappointment." I am going to to have to say once again things have improved greatly towards the end of this Summer, and that term "Summer of Disappointment" doesn't really apply anymore. The latest example of that is the Archos Gen8 Tablets. Archos recently released a new firmware earlier this month which allows you to use your Archos Gen8 tablets such as the Archos 32 Internet Tablet to do not just audio calling through Skype but now VIDEO calling for free as well!

Just think how cool that is. You could be thousands of miles away with only your Archos Tablet and as long as you have WiFi access you could call back home and have a video call with someone without dragging along your desktop or laptop computer while on your trip.

Since this is a new feature to the Archos Gen8 Tablets, there are obviously going to be bugs and slow connections for now. But this could possibly be improved in future versions of Archos' firmware for the Gen8 Tablets.

In my video entitled "Tech Confusion: Running Skype on an Archos 32 Gen8 Internet Tablet with Video Calling Enabled", I explain the steps needed to enable the free video calling feature on Skype for an Archos 32 Tablet, but enabling Skype on many of the other Archos Gen8 Tablets should be very similar so watching my video could be helpful to owners of those models such as the A43, A70, and A101 as well.

To see this video on my NATHANROADINWA YouTube Channel Page, --> CLICK HERE <--

As always feel free to leave comments, questions, or mention any corrections if I made mistakes in the video. And for those of you with Archos 32 Model Tablets, I will probably be doing another video on the Archos 32 in the very near future.

No surprises during the "So You Think You Can Dance" Final Performance Show of the Season

Well tonight is the 2 hour Season Finale for Season 8 of "So You Think You Can Dance." I was hoping that the very obvious frontrunner Melanie would finally face some real competition from the other 3 dancers and be challenged in the finale by some difficult dance routines.

Well neither happened.

Tadd just struggled on one routine with Sasha and didn't look like he had the right type of clothing on for that routine.

Marko looked a bit too goofy when he danced with Sasha.

Then the guys had to do an unfamiliar stepping routine together at the end of the show. Nigel then tells them after they are done dancing their last routine that he still thinks a woman was going to win this year.

On the women's side, Sasha was better than Marko and Tadd in the numbers she danced with them. However, she didn't look very believable dancing with either of the 2 remaining guys.

And that leaves us with obvious frontrunner Melanie. You knew it was probably going to be her night when after doing a Disco routine with Marko that she got no critique but just compliments from guest judges Kenny Ortega and Katie Homes despite that her Disco number was far from flawless. This Disco routine just proved my point that Melanie may not be as good in the many styles she was never chosen to perform in this season, and we will never know that for sure since the show is ending this week.

Melanie's routines after the Disco routine were just the typical Melanie-type routines we have seen in weeks past. Why couldn't we have seen Melanie do a hard hitting hip hop routine with Joshua or Sasha's routine with Mark which would have been out of her comfort zone instead of her contemporary style wearing the usual fancy dress?

I have no idea who I really would have liked to see win this season. I might have rather seen one of the Top 20 dancers who went home early on win instead. While Melanie is a great dancer, I can't really root for her because she hasn't been challenged like former winners of the show have been. And Marko was only in the finals because of his partnership with Melanie most likely. Tadd is good, but all star Joshua was much better than he was last night. So out of the 4 remaining, I think I would have to root for Sasha, but that is only because I believe she has been challenged the most of the 4 remaining dancers.

So tonight Melanie will most likely win Season 8 of "So You Think You Can Dance" unless Sasha pulls a really big upset which is unlikely since she wasn't allowed to shine like Melanie was all season long.

I am sure hoping for an upset tonight!

My review of the GNW Brand Men's Leather Belt is now on my NATHANROADINWA YouTube Channel

I have recently uploaded another edition of my Honest Video Review series on my NATHANROADINWA YouTube Channel. It is a video review for a Men's leather belt made for Fred Meyer's GNW brand. I bought this belt to replace my Dockers leather belt which I previously did a video review of last year and was rather disappointed with.

I also want to mention that I am premiering my "improved" version of my Video Review Opening Theme song with this video review. The improved version is the one I created using the Magix Music Maker 17 software which I recently reviewed for this same series of video reviews on my NATHANROADINWA Channel on YouTube.

As always, let me know what you think about my video reviews by both commenting on them and rating them, and look for the other videos I have done on my NATHANROADINWA YouTube channel too such as the video reviews of the above mentioned Dockers leather belt and the Music Maker 17 software.

To see these videos, ---> CLICK HERE!!! <--- and look under the uploads section of my Channel page located at the top right corner and scroll down to the "Load more" button at the bottom of the uploads section and click the "Load more" button if you can't find the video you are looking for.

My Honest Video Review of MAGIX Music Maker 17 Windows PC software is now on YouTube

I have uploaded another edition of my Honest Video Review Series to my NATHANROADINWA YouTube Channel. It is a review of Magix's Music Maker 17 Software for Windows PCs. I purchased this program so I could come up with some better sounding compositions for my videos as I have gotten a lot of negative comments on my YouTube comment pages about my music.

In the video I play a little of a demo song included with the software, and I also play my "improved" version of my video review theme song. I would really appreciate if people watching this video would comment and let me know if it sounds better than the version I am using now. If I get a lot of positive responses for the new version on my YouTube video comment page, I will likely change the song sooner. This is a good way for you to motivate me to change it if you really don't like my opening music that well.

To see my video review for Magix Music Maker 17 (or any other videos of mine located on my YouTube Channel page), please --> CLICK HERE!!! <--

My thoughts on Season 8 of So You Think You Can Dance

I watched this Wednesday's 2 hour So You Think You Can Dance and was surprised to hear Executive Producer and Judge Nigel Lythgoe comment that people were claiming that Melanie, one of this year's Top 10 girls, was getting better dance numbers. I felt Nigel kind of dismissed those claims during the show. However, I began noticing a few weeks ago what Nigel was talking about last night about Melanie getting better dance numbers.

Is this a valid argument? Sadly it is.

Melanie has been getting a lot of breaks, along with her partner Marko. First of all, Melanie who is a contemporary dancer was paired for 5 weeks with Marko who is a jazz dancer which are more compatible than many other dance styles. Meanwhile you had other much less compatible pairings the first 5 weeks of the live shows such as a ballroom dancer paired with a tap dancer and a jazz dancer paired with a break dancer.

In those first 5 weeks of live competition shows with partner Marko, Melanie was able to early on become a favorite this season since she was dancing in her very own style in week one, Marko's style in week two, lyrical hip hop in week 3 (which is the kind of Hip Hop that Melanie would be most comfortable and believable doing), and then Marko's Style again in week 4, and her own style along with a tango number in week 5.

So by the time half of the Top 20 were sent home, the hardest dance Melanie had to do in the competition was lyrical hip hop which is considered "hip hop with emotion." This isn't the really fast hard hitting hip hop that would be much more out of her comfort zone.

From the Top 10 round up until now, Melanie continued to get lucky with dance numbers getting jazz and contemporary styles for a third time each. She did also get a Viennese Waltz number. And this week she had like a Broadway number and a hip hop number. However, even this week's hip hop number was like perfectly suited for her since she was playing the role of Little Red Riding Hood. And if you have seen Melanie standing next to host Cat Deeley, you can tell Melanie is like a full head shorter than Cat Deeley which means her height makes her a great person to play that kind of role.

Also helping Melanie out this season, and I am sure former Programming Insider Podcast co-host Michael Burgi would agree with me on this, is that she is often doing dance styles that are familiar to older people and she is being compared to actresses and dancers of the 40s and 50s era films by the judges. Meanwhile other contestants are doing these less familiar styles and are going home. For example, Sasha and Ricky got a new dance style on the show this week called Waacking. But if people are not familiar with these newer styles, they are less likely going to call up or log on and vote. Sorry Sasha and Ricky, but I think you two are in danger this week since hardly anyone can appreciate that style at this point in time. It takes time to appreciate newer styles of dance.

Nigel has made no secret that he thinks Melanie is one of the best dancers of So You Think You Can Dance's entire 6 year history. While that may be true, I honestly can't agree with him since Melanie was never really put to the same challenge of learning new dance styles as winners of past seasons were. So in my mind, we will never know if she is one of the best ever with only one week left for her to do all the many styles she never had to do this season such as Bollywood, Hard Hitting Hip Hop, Quickstep, Waacking, Disco, and so on.

Finally: A positive announcement about the WDTV Live Plus and Hub

It is strange how just hours or days after I post how disappointing things were this Summer, everyone seems to be getting things turned around.

The latest example is that Western Digital has finally given us a firmware this Summer. Even better is that we got Hulu Plus in this latest firmware which was announced as coming to the Hub and Plus machines many months ago.

Now if only they could add some more free online services soon. And I want to say to the U.S. Postal Service that if all of these other people and groups can turn things around for the better, you should be able to also!

Update on the "Summer 2011: Summer of Disappointment"

I thought I would mention that things appear to be already getting much better in Washington, D.C. with the debt crisis since my last blog entry. And the hometown Mariners baseball team snapped their 17 game losing streak. In fact, the Seattle Mariners can't get a streak even started now. They win a game, then they lose a game, and win one game again, and lose one game again, and so on. Playing as a .500 team with no streak is better than a losing streak playing with a .000 win average. It's too bad the postseason chances are gone though for the Mariners after losing 17 straight games even with being in one of the divisions of baseball where you have the best overall odds to make the playoffs.

I would like to mention that my YouTube viewcount seems to be working about at 100% now. The missing views seem to have all been added back in. And I just passed the 25,000 total views mark for my combined video view total.

I also would like to thank the readers of this blog for helping me set a new record for July 2011. That month marked the highest number of page views since Blogger started keeping track of my page views about one year earlier.

So this "Summer of Disappointment" is now becoming an inaccurate term. This was a disappointing Summer, but it looks like it is starting to make a recovery towards the end of it. Hopefully this trend will continue.

Summer 2011: Summer of Disappointment??

I just want to let people know of the progress (or more like the lack of progress) this Summer of the year 2011. We all know how bad things are in Washington, DC with the debt crisis between the Democrats and Republicans. And the hometown Mariners baseball club have lost a franchise record 17, yes 17!, consecutive games!!

But there are other disappointing things that should be addressed besides the obvious:

1. YouTube: It has been about 10 days since the last day of the inaccurate view counts of certain videos. The view counts have yet to be added to my view count data graphs. More disturbing is that when I go to my video page, where it shows all of my videos and view counts for each video, at least two of my videos have been and still are stuck at the same number of views even though they appear to be still counted on other pages.

2. United States Postal Service: Once again we are hearing about possible cutbacks to services such as consolidating operations from 2 places into one or closing down Post Offices for small towns. Having just ordered something from the Post Office and finding their tracking service slow and confusing, closing Post Office locations and consolidating some operations will unlikely fix all of their financial problems.

3. Western Digital: I have been waiting for the WDTV to add some very usable services to make it more Internet friendly such as the Roku or even the Sony Media Player. But since no firmware has been released since about Mid-May of this year, it looks like Western Digital has decided to take the Summer off and go on vacation. What a shame! During this Summer, Hulu could be sold and with the sale of Hulu to Apple or possibly someone else, Hulu could be delayed as a service on the WDTV indefinitely since then they will have to work with the new owners to license the same Hulu Plus service that they already announced was coming to the WDTV Live and WDTV Live Plus and WDTV Live Hub machines. Walmart is getting ready to compete with Netflix this Summer with their Vudu service, and appears Western Digital has not made any announcements about whether they intend to get on the WalMart/Vudu bandwagon yet. I have said it before, and I will say it again. Western Digital needs to start supporting the WDTV better or it is going to go the way of the Flip cameras, which are going away.

It seems like Fall can't get here soon enough!!

My Honest Video Review of the Mibro KingChain 2 Inch Galvanized Security Snap is now on YouTube

My Honest Video Review of the Mibro KingChain 2 Inch Galvanized Security Snap Part Number 491151 has been uploaded to YouTube.

This is a review of a security snap or carabiner that I recently purchased to replace a similar carabiner that broke during a recent camping trip on my Case Logic camera bag that I previously reviewed last Fall.

Please rate and let me know what you think about this review and look for the other reviews and videos I have uploaded onto my NATHANROADINWA YouTube channel such as the one for the Case Logic camera bag that is mentioned in this video.

To see the video, --> Click Here!! <--

YouTube view count problem update

This is an update to the last blog entry. YouTube seems to be counting views again for me, but has yet to add in missing views from the days that weren't counted. These will supposedly be added back in over time. I also want to mention that depending which webpage you look at, the view count can be greater or less than the view count of the same video's view count on a different webpage.

Since I am using YouTube as a free service only, it doesn't bother me much that the view count is off on many of my videos along as this is a temporary situation. But for paying users of YouTube, I could understand why they are upset. If you are paying for something you are not getting, you feel cheated.

Hopefully YouTube will work out these view count bugs completely very soon.

YouTube view count problem continues

Well, I have noticed in the last few days that YouTube is not giving me an accurate count of views of my videos for the last several days. Apparently several others are having this same problem.

I went from over 100 views on July 13th to less than 30 views on July 14th. Only 2 or 3 views were reported on July 15th so far.

This is just to let other fellow YouTubers know that you are not alone if you have a low view count for the last few days and hopefully YouTube will fix this very soon.

My YouTube First Anniversary Spot is now on my YouTube Channel

I have just uploaded a nearly 2 minute spot that is an advertisement for my NATHANROADINWA YouTube Channel since it has been one year since I started uploading my videos to YouTube.

In my first year on YouTube, I have had a little over 23,000 views of my videos. Over 10,000 of those 23,000 views came from my top 4 most viewed videos.

I want to thank all of those who have helped make this channel the success it is today. It wouldn't be the same channel without all of you supporting and viewing my videos.

Please note that the video spot is NOT endorsed by the US Government or YouTube. My NATHANROADINWA YouTube Channel is NOT affiliated with either party.

To see the video, please --> CLICK HERE!! <--

My thoughts on 2 disappointing Summer 2011 TV shows: "Expedition Impossible" and "The Voice"

I haven't talked about TV in quite a while, so here is my opinion of 2 Summer shows which made their debuts this Summer.

First I want to talk about Expedition Impossible which recently started this Summer on ABC. This is Mark Burnett's attempt to do an Amazing Race-type show. Mark Burnett is known for several reality shows with Survivor probably being the most successful one to date. So with a resume that includes Survivor, how can you go wrong?

Well unfortunately Expedition Impossible just isn't a very good show. When you watch this show, it is obvious that certain words and phrases are replaced by the ones used in the Amazing Race such as Pitstop, Team Number 3, etc. with terms such as checkpoint, 3rd place, etc. in order to avoid legal problems.

But the show suffers from a much more serious flaw. Unlike Amazing Race, Survivor, The Apprentice, and other competition reality shows, Expedition Impossible has almost zero strategy involved in it after 2 episodes. It is almost 100% physical endurance challenges. Which means teams that are not as physically strong will most likely be at a disadvantage as the show continues. With the Amazing Race you do have Roadblocks where you can strategically pick a player to perform a challenge. Amazing Race also has Detours, which is a choice between 2 tasks, where the players can choose the task they think they will be better at to get ahead of other teams. Expedition Impossible just completely lacks these kind of strategic elements.

This is ironic that the show has no strategy element to it since the word strategy is often used by many Military organizations and since Mark Burnett is a former Military person himself.

Now why do I call The Voice (which also coincidentally happens to have Mark Burnett's name attached to it as a Producer) which has been a successful show on NBC a "disappointment"?

It mainly has to do with the lousy format of the show. First we had the audition rounds where the contestants sang while the coaches were turned around in their chairs. This was apparently to get us to believe that the coaches wouldn't have picked these contestants based on their physical appearances. Well if you look at this year's Top 4 on The Voice, you have contestants such as a bald headed rocker woman with some facial piercings and a guy wearing a hat that looks like it is currently in style. The point is these people aren't much different in appearances than any other singing talent competition show or artists who are already famous and have very unusual looks like a Lady Gaga.

Then you had the boring battle rounds which lasted way too long. Then we had another round where 2 out of 4 contestants were saved with one being saved by America and the other by their coach. Then when the coaches had 2 contestants left they were allowed to try to bias the vote towards the contestant they wanted to represent themselves in the final instead of allowing only America to decide. This does not make any sense to let the coaches have so much voting influence throughout the entire season when the original premise of the show is that the coaches are obviously not smart enough to pick the contestants on just their overall appearance. And if it wasn't bad enough that the coaches had so much decision power on this show about who stayed or who went all the way up until the week before the Finals round, they all had to regularly get up and perform which makes you wonder if these coaches were doing this for their contestants or for themselves to boost their own music careers.

I am hoping for a complete overhaul of this show when it returns next Winter. But since all 4 coaches are already coming back for next season, I would expect that the show will likely keep most of this current format intact. Which is a shame since it is trying to be several different types of things while doing none of them really well.

Fred Meyer 24/7 online store appears to be no more!!

Bad news. There currently appears to be no sign of the Fred Meyer 24/7 online store which sold CDs, DVDs, and video games online. This means I won't be doing my online shopping with Fred Meyer anytime soon since that was their main online store.

If anyone knows if or when Kroger or Fred Meyer will try online retailing again, please let us know!

My review of the I/OMagic Model IDVD8PB External DVD-RW Drive is now on YouTube

I have recently uploaded another video review to YouTube. This time it is a video review of the I/OMagic Model Number IDVD8PB USB 2.0 Portable 8X DVD-RW External Drive. I purchased this external DVD Burner as a second DVD drive under my Windows Operating System environment to burn DVD discs in. Even though I purchased it to burn DVD discs, this drive can also be used to play various DVD and CD formats such as DVD Video, DVD+RW, DVD-RW, CD-R, and CD-RW discs. There are a few DVD formats such as LightScribe DVD discs and DVD-RAM discs that this drive doesn't support though.

Please feel free to leave comments and/or suggestions. And please rate my videos on YouTube if you are able to.

To see this video, please --> CLICK HERE!! <--

Review of the OSN Digital DK2000 Kit has been uploaded to my YouTube channel

I have recently uploaded onto my YouTube NATHANROADINWA Channel my video review of the OSN Digital DK2000 LCD Universal Screen Protector Kit, which also happens to be the 22nd edition of my Honest Video Review series.

I bought this to protect various electronic screens such as the types found on small electronics such as cameras, cell phones, tablets, MP3 Players, etc. I bought this on clearance at a Fred Meyer retail store, and I do not know exactly where one can buy this item now. But I thought I would still do a video review of this product since I felt it would be still informative to people who want to protect their device's screens from being scratched or damaged.

In the video I show how to size the clear protector film to different devices such as a Sylvania SMPK2083 MP3 Player, an Archos 32 Internet Tablet, and a Samsung P3 Player.

So -->click here<-- to go to my YouTube Channel page and watch this video.

And please leave comments and rate the video while you are there. The more ratings I get, the more helpful the search results will be in YouTube.

NATHANROADINWA YouTube Channel videos hits 20,000 Views Milestone

Just want to let my followers of my blog and YouTube channel know that when you combine the views from all of my videos that I have made so far and have uploaded to my NATHANROADINWA YouTube Channel, that they total over 20,000 views now. It was only like 4 months ago when I reached around 10,000 views. And I now have a half dozen videos with over 1,000 views each.

I am now only one month away from my first anniversary on YouTube. Thank you to all of you who have viewed and contributed comments, suggestions, or ratings over these past 11 months. And please continue to post comments, questions, suggestions, criticisms, etc. about my videos. It might just help my videos be better in the future, and you might be helping out other viewers who have similar problems or questions in the process.

My Video Review of the Memorex CD & DVD LabelMaker Essentials Kit is currently on YouTube

It has been quite a while since I have posted anything in this blog. This is mostly because I have been busy visiting with family members and working outdoors.

I have yet to mention in this blog about my latest YouTube video review which I uploaded last month. It is a video review of the Memorex CD & DVD LabelMaker Essentials Kit.

This product is a label applicator kit that I recently purchased in order to make labels to put on some of my CD and DVD discs.

Please rate and let me know what you think about this review and look for the other reviews and videos I have uploaded onto my NATHANROADINWA YouTube channel.

And if you are going to rate the videos, please watch the video all the way through. The reason I am bringing this up is that I have had a lot of comments about the intro music being horrible. I don't want people to give a thumbs down only after watching the intro part of my video just because they don't like the intro music as an example. If you like the video, but you do not the intro music please leave a comment instead. That way I can more accurately tell which videos are helpful and which ones are not at least until YouTube can allow users to rate individual parts of the video such as the music separately. If anyone at YouTube is reading this, being able to rate separate parts of the video such as music would be very helpful in the future.

To see my latest videos such as the LabelMaker one mentioned above, --> click here <--

Thoughts on ABC, The Biggest Loser, and American Idol Finale Week

It has been a while since I have talked about TV since I have been rather involved with other things as of late. So I want to talk about TV today.

Well after ABC recently announced that they are ending 2 of their 3 long running soap operas, now ABC is about to drop their entire current Saturday morning lineup. The interesting thing about this is that most if not all of their current Saturday Kids lineup are Disney shows and Disney owns ABC. Apparently Disney can't even get kids to watch Saturday morning TV shows anymore. If they can't, the question is who can?

Since ABC still has to have a few hours of children's programming because of FCC requirements, they are going to introduce a new children's programming block to replace their current Disney themed one. I have mixed feelings on this. The good news is that the new block will be new shows in high definition and will probably have more educational value than the current Disney themed ones. The bad news is that the ratings will likely be down with the new kids format, ABC is once again giving up on a long tradition of Saturday animated shows just like they are planning on doing with their soaps, and kids (especially teenagers) will likely pursue other forms of entertainment such as browsing the Internet or playing video games on Saturday mornings which is much more subject to controversial material than broadcast TV. Usually the worst things on Saturday morning children's TV are just ad spots aimed at kids to get their parents to buy sugary cereals or the latest toys. With Internet browsing, you don't know what kinds of people or advertising your kids may be approached with.

I watched the Biggest Loser Season Finale. I was glad that it was finally over. It went on way too long this past season. I didn't like the usual "feel-good" mentality of the final episode. The Biggest Loser people constantly try to convince the viewer that they are changing lives. The answer to that is yes AND no! The no part was what they didn't show. Rulon Gardner, the Olympian from this past season, was a no-show at the finals. It would have been nice if we would have gotten an update on his weight loss journey. Moses and his daughter have actually GAINED weight when they returned to the finale from the time they were eliminated from the show. Meanwhile Dan and Don, the police officer twin brothers, who were eliminated early on after throwing their weigh-ins managed to lose more weight than many of the contestants who stayed a lot longer on the show and didn't try to throw weigh-ins. So the key thing to remember is that the Biggest Loser show works, but only for SOME people and NOT for MANY people apparently.

Finally, I have to mention this season's top 2 on American Idol. This is a season where I don't care who wins because there were other singers who would have made a better top 2 than Lauren and Scotty. I thought Lauren was quite a bit better than Scotty. But I think the show's producers were trying to imply too much that Lauren was the underdog and that Scotty was the frontrunner. I think this effort of making Lauren look like the underdog will backfire and Scotty will still win. I think Lauren and Scotty are in the finals only because their fans stuck with them the entire season while James and Casey and Pia's fans were so upset over the shocking results that many of them quit watching the show as voters and only watched to see who was left in the competition instead of voting for the remaining pop singers. That is my theory why we got 2 young country singers over the more talented singers that were in the other genres this season.

The only good news is that we are almost 100% guaranteed we will have a better top 2 matchup next year on Idol.

Another WDTV Live Plus Update

Since Western Digital just updated the WDTV Live Plus Firmware the other day, it is time for me to give an update on the WDTV Live Plus.

First, I will mention the good news about the latest firmware update to the WDTV Live Plus. Text which was messed up or nearly unreadable in the previous firmware appear to be back to normal. And the arrow keyboard keys seem to work in most of the WDTV's Internet applications now.

But those problems mentioned in the above paragraph were problems that you shouldn't expect to have in the first place. They were the result of shoddy beta testing. Hopefully Western Digital will take more preventive steps to keep those kinds of problems from reoccurring in the future.

Now the bad news: Western Digital did little in the new firmware to increase the machine's functionality. There is the ability now to use hard drives that are greater than 2TB with the WDTV, but that is about it in terms of new features. There is no support for any other types of USB devices this time around.

Even worse is the lack of any new Internet applications, which means you still have only the 13 that Western Digital has included while Sony and Roku's media players have so many more to choose from.

Hulu Plus is already announced as coming to the WDTV, but not until "later this year" which means it might be Christmas before we ever see Hulu Plus added to the WDTV machines. That is way, way too long in a rapidly changing market. Also a problem with the WDTV right now is that some media outlets are quitting their existing services. Examples include CBS pulling content from the Flingo app and ABC News eliminating a couple of their shows from the Mediafly app. How many other organizations will pull content from the only 13 WDTV Internet apps before Western Digital actually adds some more useful Internet apps to the WDTV?

The bottom line is that Western Digital needs to start adding some more free Internet apps to the WDTV series, and they need to add them very soon (like within the next few weeks) or the WDTV machines will likely go the way of the Flip cameras in my opinion.

Two more Video Reviews uploaded to my NATHANROADINWA YouTube Channel

Sorry for the long absence once again. I appreciate those readers and viewers who have been and continue to have patience while I try to figure how to keep things continuing here and what direction I plan on taking my online plans in. As some of you probably already know, this blog and my videos on YouTube are not part of a job that I am being compensated for. I do not currently nor have I in the past received compensation for the products I have reviewed on here and on YouTube.

Right now, besides the financial issues, I also have to deal with the rapidly changing electronics market. For example, if I purchase something at Best Buy or Fred Meyer and I want to review it, by the time I review some products they are already discontinued or put in the clearance sections. It is a double whammy because first the item is no longer available for sale so I am reviewing a product that you might not be able to buy anyways. Second, I purchase this stuff right before they go on clearance so I am stuck paying the whole price for something that I could have purchased somewhat cheaper had I waited a few weeks or months. So this is something I am going to have to continue to deal with for now.

Now I want to mention that I have recently uploaded to YouTube two of my video reviews. They are video reviews of the GE DVI-to-HDMI Adapter Part 22701 and the LinkStyle Component/VGA to HDMI Video Converter Box. The DVI-to-HDMI Adapter was purchased in order to eliminate the rather long DVI-to-HDMI cable that I had been using. With this adapter I can run a shorter HDMI to HDMI cable from the adapter plugged into the TV's DVI port to the port of the machine I am using that has HDMI output. The LinkStyle Converter Box was purchased by me to use the TV's screen as a second PC screen. I bought it with the intention of watching free internet videos on my TV so I wouldn't have to watch them on the smaller PC screen.

As I always say, please rate and let me know what you think about these reviews and look for the other reviews and videos I have uploaded onto my NATHANROADINWA YouTube channel.

To see the videos, CLICK HERE!!

More on the recent WDTV situation and Flingo

Recently, I mentioned that I was very disappointed with Western Digital's WDTV Live Plus Firmware upgrade they released earlier this month.

Well after waiting over a week now for another firmware upgrade to the WDTV Live Plus machines, I am sorry to say that it is like nothing has changed. After using the WDTV Live Plus with the latest firmware some more, just about every Internet application I use seems to have bugs dealing with the keyboard. It is frustrating that we have to wait a month or longer between firmwares when keyboard functions should be easily fixed. And it seems like with these kind of bugs that are easily found, that one would get the impression that the Western Digital people do not use the products themselves or else they know about the bugs and are not capable of fixing them on their own.

I have recently tried to become familiar with Flingo. This is actually a good service on the WDTV Live Plus... if it was actually supported! With Flingo, you can go to a website and by clicking a button on your web browser, it will play the video on the WDTV. This sounds very useful, right? Well actually it isn't because Flingo will only allow you to do this with YouTube video pages which you can already watch on the YouTube application on the WDTV machines. The only advantage that I think there might be is that the resolution seemed to be better by flinging the video than by watching it through YouTube. If they had Flingo for websites like CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, etc., for example, you could watch episodes of recent shows on your TV by clicking the Fling button on your web browser. But that will unlikely ever happen. In fact, recently CBS and their video clips have actually disappeared from the Flingo application on the WDTV. Maybe CBS didn't like the deal they were getting from Flingo.

Finally, I did want to mention that I tried my USB Hub and it appears that it works with multiple USB devices. But Western Digital seems to not be really acknowledging that it works now and leaving their users in the dark as usual.

Hopefully in the future Western Digital will do a lot better job fixing their bugs, increasing their low number of Internet applications, increasing the usability of their exisiting applications since some could be improved greatly, and finally do a better marketing job for these machines.

My video review of the Gear Head Mini USB Keyboard now on YouTube

My video review of the Gear Head Mini USB Keyboard Model KB1700U is now online on my YouTube Channel, NATHANROADINWA.

This is a video review of a cheap keyboard that I recently purchased at Office Depot. I originally purchased it thinking it would be a small wireless keyboard that I might be able to use with an Archos 32 Internet Tablet or WD TV Live Plus machine. Unfortunately, I didn't realize until after I left the store that it is a wired keyboard. And even though it is labeled a "Windows" keyboard on the box, it does work with at least some non-Windows devices.

Please rate and let me know what you think about this video review and look for the other reviews and videos I have uploaded onto my NATHANROADINWA YouTube channel.

To view the video, click here.

Very bad news on 2 different products: WDTV and Flip Camcorders

I have very bad news to report on not one but TWO different electronic products: the WDTV and the Flip camcorders. And sadly this is no late April Fools joke.

I already installed the new firmware that was released just yesterday on the WDTV Live Plus. After just a few hours of using the WDTV Live Plus with the new firmware, I can say I am very disappointed with the new firmware. First off, the keyboard bugs that existed in Mediafly and TuneIn Radio applications were NOT fixed with this new firmware. In addition, the characters that you enter into the Mediafly search box are no longer centered properly. So this is a NEW bug.

Also disappointing about the new WDTV firmware is that the text on YouTube and Mediafly below the picture describing the shows is in very very small text which is almost unreadable from even a close distance.

Finally on the WDTV, they did add one new Internet application, but it is not a good one. It is just CinemaNow which looks very similar to Blockbuster's application since the interface for both are pretty much the same. The main difference is that CinemaNow has full TV shows available besides movies, but like Blockbuster costs money. Too bad they don't get a service like Crackle which offers some free full length TV episodes. And with a device like the Roku player, there are so many more Internet applications available for it (100+!), but Western Digital's WDTV only gives us about a dozen. The WDTV's only strengths over the Roku in Internet applications right at the moment is Deezer, Facebook, and YouTube which are not included on the Roku.

Hopefully Western Digital will immediately put out a new firmware to fix the above addressed bugs and small text issue on YouTube and Mediafly, and that they will shortly add several more services to be more competitive with other machines like the Roku.

Now on to the second product that has very bad news. This time it is the Flip camcorders. I just learned that Cisco, maker of the Flip camcorders, is getting out the camcorder business. Apparently they have no interest in selling the Flip line to anyone else, which means that in the coming months the Flip camcorders will be no longer sold. Hopefully they will still carry the accessories for the Flip camcorders. But you just never know.

And what about the software support for Flip camcorders? Will Cisco continue to update software for the Flip after they stop making them? Your answer is probably as good as mine.

My video review of the Microsoft Wireless Mouse 5000 has been added to YouTube

After nearly a month of no new videos to my NATHANROADINWA YouTube channel, I have finally uploaded a new video review.

This time it is a video review of a wireless mouse that I recently purchased with the intention of using it with the Microsoft Wireless Keyboard 3000 which I purchased previously.

I purchased this mouse thinking that I could use one USB transceiver for both the Microsoft Wireless Keyboard 3000 and the Microsoft Wireless Mouse 5000 since they had the same transceiver (Model 1364) included with them, but I then found out that they cannot be used with the same transceiver if purchased separately and they must be purchased in the Microsoft Wireless Desktop 3000 combo set to use both with only one Model 1364 USB transceiver plugged into the computer.

Please rate and let me know what you think about this review and look for the other reviews and videos I have uploaded onto my NATHANROADINWA YouTube channel.

Click here to see the video.

Did you get the free bag of chips on 4/1??

I was one of the lucky ones who did get the free bag of Lay's Potato Chips on April 1 at Fred Meyer and other Kroger affiliated stores. There was a limit of one free bag per customer, but it did appear some people got multiple bags, and I of course was not one of them. I only got one bag for myself. In case you didn't get the free bag, the following photos show what the free bag looked like.







They were small 2.5 ounce bags which means you would have to grab about 4 or 5 to equal a regular size bag of Lays chips. They only had the original and one other flavor (not sure which one) as free bags. And you can see from the above photos, "Free Sample" was printed in red instead of the price, and "Not for Resale" was printed on the back where the UPC bar code is usually printed on the bag.

It was a great free giveaway. Hopefully we will see other companies step up and do the same soon.

Count Von Count to appear next season on an episode of Fox's Million Dollar Money Drop

You read that right. Sesame Street's The Count will appear in a special episode of Fox's Million Dollar Money Drop next season and will play for charity. This of course would not be the first time a Sesame Street character has appeared on a TV game show. Oscar The Grouch appeared previously in several episodes of 1 VS 100. And several Sesame Street Muppets appeared on Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader recently.

Million Dollar Money Drop host Kevin Pollak said The Count was an easy choice to bring on to the show since the show deals with money and numbers. And The Count has also seen a recent surge in popularity with his song Hands appearing in a commercial just a few years ago according to Pollak.

In addition to appearing on Million Dollar Money Drop, The Count has also started a website with a countdown starting with April 1 as the first day of the countdown. Ironically, April 1 will be the date of the last day of the countdown as well.

Where I have been...

To those wondering what happened to me in recent weeks, I kind of took a break from the blog and the videos. This is partly due to a recent passing of a very close family member. I had some personal stuff I wanted to take care of around that time too, so I decided to take a longer absence from the blog and my YouTube videos.

There are still things that I want to try to start taking care of now, so I will continue to have long gaps between videos and blog postings. So I hope all of my loyal followers will continue to be patient with me over the next several weeks.

Important note: This post is NOT an April Fool's joke. However, I want to make clear right now that I do indeed plan on posting April Fool's Day type jokes this year and in the future. So you have been warned!!

And finally I want to mention that some of the upcoming videos may feel a little outdated since I am running this blog and the NATHANROADINWA YouTube channel by myself right now. I will try to post the most relevant stuff I can under my circumstances.

Another New Archos 32 Tech Confusion video about AppsLib uploaded on YouTube

I have recently uploaded another video in my Tech Confusion series to my YouTube NATHANROADINWA channel. It is called "Tech Confusion: Fixing AppsLib on an Archos 32 Tablet when AppsLib constantly closes".

Unlike one of my earlier Tech Confusion videos where I was showing how to REINSTALL AppsLib on an Archos 32 Internet Tablet after accidentally uninstalling AppsLib, this new Tech Confusion video shows how to FIX AppsLib when it is still installed on the Archos 32 Tablet and closes as soon as you try to open the application.

I want to point out that while this video was made specifically for the Archos 32, it may be helpful to users of other Archos Gen8 models too which includes the Archos 28, Archos 43, Archos 70, and Archos 101 Tablets.

I also want to mention that it is a good idea to watch the entire video before attempting to do anything I demonstrate in the video as it might do more harm than good if something else is wrong with your Archos Tablet than what I am describing and fixing.

Let me know what you think about this video and look for the other videos I have made on my NATHANROADINWA channel.

And please rate these videos whether you like them or not. It helps to get good honest feedback so I can determine if these videos are helpful!

To go to my YouTube NATHANROADINWA Channel page, click here!!

New Tech Confusion video about Flip camcorders now on my YouTube Channel

I have recently uploaded another installment of my Tech Confusion series of videos entitled "Tech Confusion: Trying to copy videos from a Flip camcorder to a hard drive without using a PC" to my YouTube channel, NATHANROADINWA.

This is me explaining if and how it is possible to copy video on a Flip Camcorder directly to a hard drive or device with a built-in hard drive if you do not have access to a PC when the Flip camcorder's built-in memory becomes full of videos.

Let me know what you think about this video and look for the other videos I have made on my NATHANROADINWA channel.

And please rate and comment on this video whether you like it or not. It helps to get good honest feedback so I can determine if these videos are helpful!

To view this video, go here!

My Analysis of TV Guide's Fall 2011 TV Scorecard video now uploaded to YouTube

I have recently uploaded a video entitled "Analysis of TV Guide's Fall 2011 TV Scorecard" on my YouTube channel, NATHANROADINWA.

This is my opinion of the TV Guide's Fall 2011 TV Scorecard which is on the TV Guide website.

I did make a few mistakes in the video. At the time, I thought Mr. Sunshine was doing better than Cougar Town, the show it was replacing. But it looks as if Mr. Sunshine is going down in the ratings recently and may not be back even though I mentioned it will probably be back in the video.

I also mentioned in the video that I believed Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior will be back next season, but it has suffered a significant drop in its second week. But I think it will still come back as long as the show doesn't drop a whole lot more in the ratings.

Note: TV Guide did NOT include some shows on the list such as Supernanny, Cops, America's Most Wanted, Shark Tank, America's Funniest Videos, and Million Dollar Money Drop, so I didn't mention them either if they were not listed on the TV Guide Scorecard webpage.

Let me know what you think about this video and look for the other videos I have made on my NATHANROADINWA channel.

New video review uploaded and 2 of my videos hit milestones

Just want to let people following this blog know that I have uploaded another video review to my YouTube page recently. It is a video review of the Innovative Technology Digital Keychain Model Number ITKC-100SLV. It was given to me recently as a gift and displays small pictures that are stored on your PC after copying the pictures from the PC to the Digital Keychain.

Feel free to comment and rate my videos as good feedback will help me determine what parts of my videos are OK and which parts need a little improvement.

Now I also want to briefly mention that in the rather short time since my total views of the NATHANROADINWA channel hit 10,000 views, I have had my top 2 viewed videos hit milestones. My top viewed video, "Tech Confusion: Trying to Enable Wi-Fi on the WDTV Live Plus from Western Digital", became my first video to reach 3,000 views. My second most viewed video on my YouTube Channel, entitled "Tech Confusion: Finding a composite cable with TV output compatible with the Archos 32 Tablet", has become the second video to reach 1,000 views now.

Finally, to get to my YouTube channel page, click here!!

NATHANROADINWA YouTube Channel videos hit 10,000 views milestone!

I wanted to let people familiar with this blog and my YouTube channel know that the NATHANROADINWA channel that I started last Summer on YouTube has reached a major milestone. The view total of my videos has surpassed 10,000 views!

Now that is very small when compared next to a single hit YouTube video that gets 3 Million views in just a few days, but those kind of hit videos are ones that have mass appeal. My videos are niche videos so they do not appeal to the majority of people worldwide. So for my videos to get a combined total of 10,000 in under 12 months is exciting to me.

As long as people continue to watch my videos, I plan on making new ones when I get the chance to make them. And if you have any questions on the technical videos, don't be afraid to ask. I will try to do my best to answer them as soon as I can.

Two new Archos 32 Tech Confusion Videos now uploaded on YouTube

I have recently uploaded the second season premiere of my Tech Confusion series to my YouTube NATHANROADINWA channel. It is called "Tech Confusion: Using USB devices on an Archos 32 Tablet with a USB Host Cable." I also uploaded a second Tech Confusion video entitled "Tech Confusion: Restoring AppsLib on an Archos 32 Tablet using WI-FI."

The first video is me showing how to enable different USB devices on the Archos 32 Internet tablet using one of those hard-to-find USB host cables. The second video is me showing how to reinstall AppsLib on an Archos 32 Internet Tablet after accidentally uninstalling AppsLib.

I want to point out that while these videos were made specifically for the Archos 32, they may be helpful to users of other Archos Gen8 models too which includes the Archos 28, Archos 43, Archos 70, and Archos 101 Tablets.

I also want to point out that I created a new intro segment for this season of my Tech Confusion videos.

Let me know what you think about these videos and look for the other videos I have made on my NATHANROADINWA channel.

And please rate these videos whether you like them or not. It helps to get good honest feedback so I can determine if these videos are helpful!

To go to my YouTube NATHANROADINWA Channel page, click here!!

Why are some of my videos outdated?

I haven't posted on here in several days again. So I thought I would write about why some of my videos on my YouTube channel seem outdated.

1. Technology changes quickly sometimes. For example, after uploading my Western Digital Hard Drive review on YouTube, the same store I purchased it at which happened to be Best Buy, put the same hard drive on clearance and now sells the same hard drive supporting the new USB 3.0 as well as the common USB 2.0.

2. Some retailers such as Fred Meyer will seem to stop selling a product I review making it seem like the product is discontinued, and then they will put the item back on the shelf a few weeks later.

3. I try to record my videos with minimal background noise and better lighting conditions. But since I am in Washington State where it is cloudy almost everyday (or it seems like it anyways), I have to rely on indoor light bulbs that are not very bright, so I usually wind up waiting until there is silence and a lot of daylight which rarely happens these days.

and finally

4. It takes a while to do the editing and add the special effects to the videos.

So those are the main reasons why my videos may seem outdated sometimes. I will continue to try my best to get these videos out as soon as I can.