Category: Technology

A few days ago a friend of mine was telling me about a new receiver that allows you to watch Orbit, Showtime and ART for free. Then yesterday I read an article in Campaign ME about how these companies are now worried this receiver will get popular and how they busted some guys selling it in Dubai. The way it works is the receiver connects online and downloads the latest codes the descramble the signals, its kinda like cables black box in the States. Anyone heard of this? I think the brand of the receiver is Starbox and sells for like KD100..

I have read a lot in forums on why Bose sucks but this is the first time I have actually seen an article on it. I found it via digg and its an interesting 2 part read in which the writer who is a sound system salesman discusses why Bose sucks without going into too much confusing tech talk. Its a good read for anyone who thinks Bose speakers are good or for anyone who is thinking of buying Bose stuff. [Link]

A point-and-shoot with 3200 ISO, sounds promising. If I see some cool sample shots at the high ISO’s I might just get one for myself.. although I am not a Fuji fan.. [Link]

Sultan Center are selling AstroBoy toy robots. The one in the picture above has a hand scanner that reads these special trading cards and in return they change the lights and noise he makes. And its cheap for only KD5!

Google has just launched a new service called “Google Mars” that lets you browse the martian land just as you would with Google Maps. [Link]

[source digg]

Introduction
In January I posted about my home theater setup and I mentioned I wanted to upgrade my aging old Kenwood receiver with something newer and better. Well a few days ago I passed by the Denon dealer in Salmiya to check out some AV Receivers and I ended up buying one. I did a lot of research online before I decided to upgrade my receiver and I came to the conclusion that for my budget and my needs, the Denon AVR-2106 fit the bill perfectly. I had previously seen the receiver when I tagged along with K.TheKuwaiti when he was getting a Denon for his living room and I remember the price was around KD175 since they were having discounts. So I passed by the Salmiya dealer and I looked around and I couldn’t find the Denon AVR-2106. I asked the salesman about it and he told me they were out of stock but he would check to see on the computer if any of the other branches had any left. Two minutes later he tells me he found one more piece left, but its the display model in the Hawalli branch. I am not good at price haggling at all, in-fact there is only one person I have ever met that was worse then me and thats TivoGuy, but I went ahead and asked the guy how much discount extra would he give me since it was the display model. He checked on his computer and told me the lowest he could give me the amp was for KD161. I was like stunned, I wasn’t planning on getting the receiver, I was just checking on the price, but now with this special price it was just soo fucking tempting to resist. So I tell the guy OK and he was like give me a minute to call the Hawalli branch and make sure they still have it. Five minutes later he comes back to me and tells me that the receiver they have in stock is actually not displayed and is still brand new in the box. I was like thats great but I still just want to pay KD161. The salesman laughed and said that wouldn’t be a problem since I was a good customer. I couldn’t believe what a good deal I was getting, I quickly paid the money and went and picked up the receiver from the Hawalli branch.

These lists represent the top camera makes and models used to create photos uploaded to Flickr, the best online photo sharing application in the world. The lists are generated automatically by periodically sampling the EXIF data from the stream of recent uploads. [Link]

(yay my camera is #1)

Nat wants us to take a cruise but due to the fact I get sea sick that will never happen. I could never last for days on end out in the sea, just thinking about it makes me dizzy. Now after seeing the Aeroscraft I think this is something I would definitely enjoy. [Link]

[source Digg]

I just found this link which busts the biggest technology related myths. Here are some of the questions that are answered for example:

– Is using your cellphone on the plane dangerous?
– If you pull out your USB memory stick without ejecting do you mess it up?
– If you turn off your PC without shutting down Windows do you cause damage?
– Does turning off your PC daily to save power shorten its life?
– Can hackers destroy data on your computer’s hard drive?
Find out the answers to these questions and more. [Link]

[source Digg]

TivoKuwait.com is up and running with lots of juciy info on getting Tivo running in Kuwait. The site is run by Tivo Guy, Rami. [Link]

In one of the forums I usually visit somone had a post asking for everyones home theater setup. This is mine:

TV: Panasonic TX-33P100X
Receiver: Kenwood KRF-V8881D
DVD Player: Sony DVP-NS575P
Speakers: Jamo X870 for left and right. Paradigm CC370 for center. Two OEM Kenwood speakers for surround (they came with an older amp). No subwoofer (Jamo’s have 10″ woofers built in)
Universal Remote: Sony RM-AV3000
Tivo: Series 1 Philips with 120GB drive

Future plans:
– Need to upgrade rear speakers to Paradigm ADP-170
– Need to get a Definitive Technology SuperCube Subwoofer
– Need to upgrade my TV to a Sony 34″ HDTV CRT
– Need to upgrade receiver, probably with a Denon

Click here for a largeer picture of my setup

Whats your home theater setup?

Update: I just replace my Kenwood receiver with the Denon AVR-2106 and the Sony universal remote with the Harmony 880.

I passed by Al Ghanim Electronics tonight to check out their HDTVs. They had a whole bunch of plasmas on display but none grabbed my interest, I was there looking for regular (tube/crt) high definition television. Turns out they only had 1 which supported the 720p resolution and it was the 36″ Sony which a regular reader (hola) pointed out to me was on sale for KD590 because it was the last piece. Sadly its widescreen which won’t fit in my display and also I was looking for a regular 4:3 ration TV not the 16:9. They had 2 other Philips TVs which supported HD and were pretty cheap BUT neither of them supported the high resolution 720p, just the low res 420p and 1080i. The 34inch was for like KD300 while the 29″ for like KD200.

So if anyone is interested in the Sony 36″ HDTV, its selling for an amazing low price (actual price is around KD800) and they only have 1 display model left.

Well the Xbox360 is coming out in a few days and its time to move onto the next generation of videogame consoles. I have been reading most of the Xbox reviews online and I have concluded one thing, I need a High Definition Television. The majority of the reviews I have been reading have been saying that unless I have a HDTV I won’t be seeing much of an improvement over the current generation of consoles. So it seems the wise thing to do is to upgrade my TV which I have been wanting to for a while now. I don’t want to get a plasma/LCD TV for numerour reasons including the fact that the only plasma I can afford are the cheap Panasonic Viera series which are currently being advertised on billboards around Kuwait. The problem with the Viera is you get what you pay for and according to online reviews the Viera series have numerous issues with the most important one being they doen’t support the 720p resolution. I also believe that a high definition tube television would give a better picture quality then the plasmas and LCDs, so until OLED TVs get released I will be sticking with the old tube.

This is where the problem starts, I haven’t found many HD tube televisions in Kuwait. I only found two models at Sony, a 29″ and a 34″ and I haven’t found any other anywhere else. The 34″ seems like my best option at the moment but it costs around KD700-KD800 which brings me to the following question, is it worth getting HDTV in Kuwait?

In the States they already have cable and satellite channels broadcasting at High Definition, from what I know we don’t have anything like that in Kuwait. So paying KD800 for a TV so I can play high definition games on it doesn’t make a lot of sense. DVD’s are supposed to look better on HDTV’s but I don’t buy that many DVD’s and I mostly use my TV for watching TV shows.

So any HDTV experts here? Any tips and advice in purchasing a HDTV and using it here in Kuwait?

I just found out that the new Jaguar XK uses Macromedia Flash for its interface. The touch screen control panel uses Flash and with it you can adjust the audio, navigation, climate control, telephone and vehicle settings. I just really hope it doesn’t start up with a stupid flash intro page. [Link]

Apple turns 30 on April 1st. When Apple turned 20 they released the Twentieth Anniversary Mac. It cost $10,000 and was delivered to your home in a limo. The system looked like nothing else at that time. It had a very small foot print kinda like the current iMacs and the sound system was designed by Bose. The Mac came with a remote control so you could turn it on and off plus control the volume. You could even watch TV on the Mac and change channels using the remote. Due to the price though they only sold 12,000 world wide. I was able to purchase a brand new TAM three years ago from a local dealer for KD150. I gave it as a gift to my parents who proudly display it and use it today. Even though the TAM was released in 1997, it still grabs the attention and curiosity of visiting guests.

If Apple would release a Thirtieth Anniversary Macintosh this time around, it has to follow the footsteps of the previous one. It has to look like nothing else available which shouldn’t be too hard for Apple to accomplish. It should cost $10,000 and this time they probably would team up with Bang & Olufsen. Finally every hardcore Mac user would want one but none of us would be able to afford it. [Link]