I purchased a Logitech Harmony One remote about 5 months ago, and I am finally ready to give my review of it. The retail on this bad boy is $249.00. Amazon currently has the Harmony One for $179.99. I really wanted to give myself plenty of time with the remote before I reviewed it so I can give a thorough and accurate review.

Design

The design of the Harmony One is amazing. It is designed to fit very comfortably in the palm of you hand. Along with great ergonomics, but also has a rubber back for easy gripping. Another great design aspect of the Harmony One is a motion sensor inside so when you pick it up it lights up, but if you have it sitting on a table, the lights shutoff to conserve battery. I find this very useful when channel surfing late at night with the lights off. The button design is good. After just a few short days I found myself very easily finding the buttons with out having to look at the remote. One issue I have with the design, is the hard plastic buttons that make a very minor click noise when pushed. I have always been a fan of the Tivo controller with rubber buttons, but this is more a personal preference then a design flaw.

Set Up

Logitech is known for excelling in the area of setup, and it is no different with the Harmony One. Setup is done completely on your Mac or PC via USB. The setup software is nothing more then a browser for a web app. You have to login to a website via the software to setup the remote. From there it is pretty easy to understand. You just choose your devices, and then the software takes you through a very easy to follow line of steps to setup the different activities. Overall I found the process very easy to follow. I had my whole entertainment system setup with in a few minutes. The remote also allows you to setup some favorite buttons for your favorite channels. Also, with the online based setup, you never lose your settings if you have to reinstall the software, or switch from PC to Mac like I did.

The setup was very easy, but I did find myself having a few minor issues with it. Over the few months I have had the controller, I had to go back and do some customization of the buttons which turned out not to be as easy as the initial setup. Some of the custom setup options are hard to figure out.

Final Word

The Harmony One works with almost any device that has a IR receiver. There has been a lot of talk about how it doesn’t work with the PS3 due to the lack of Bluetooth support. I solved this problem by purchasing the Nyko Playstation 3 Remote which comes with a IR receiver that plugs into the USB port on the PS3. Other than that, I have been very impressed at the wide range of devices this remote supports, I have everything from my TV, Tivo, Surround Sound, PS3 to my Macbook Pro and Nikon D40 associated with this remote.

Yes, the remote is on the expensive side, but I have to say it is well worth it. I have gone from 9 remotes on my end table to just 1. I was very skeptical I might have buyer remorse because I paid so much for this remote, but I am very happy with it. If you have the money I say go for it.

Price: $249.99
Amazon Special: Harmony One $179.99
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Official Site: http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/remotes/universal_remotes/devices/3898&cl=us,en

A couple of weeks ago, I dropped the ball and entered the world of DSLR photography. My weapon of choice, the Nikon D40, a reasonably priced professional grade camera. I did not want to post a review right when I got it, so I opted to use the crap out of it for a few weeks then review it. Below is my unboxing video which I posted to my YouTube account, but never posted on the site:

I have had the camera for 13 days and I have taken over 1200 pictures. Let me first offer this disclaimer, I am a BEGINNER when it comes to photography. I am not offering photography advice just yet. This is a review of the camera!

I shopped around pretty good looking at Nikon and Canon models. I choose the Nikon D40 for 2 main reasons:

1. I could not find a bad review about this product. I read probably close to 100 reviews and all of them were positive. Professionals and amateurs all said it is an amazing camera.
2. The second reason was price! This camera was about $100 to $200 cheaper then any other DSLR camera on the market.

Apple just officially launched its Back to School promotion. 2008’s promotion is bigger than ever. This year’s promotion also includes the new Macbook Air. The official statement on Apple.com reads:

If you’re a student, faculty, or staff member and you buy a Mac before September 15, you can get a free iPod touch or iPod nano. After all, isn’t college about seizing every opportunity?

The qualifying mac computers are:

Macbook | Macbook Air | Macbook Pro | iMac

When you purchase any of the above mac’s, either from instore or online, with a student discount, you will be given the option to receive a FREE iPod Nano (8gig) or a FREE iPod Touch (8gig.) As they have done in the past, if you would rather the larger model iPod Tocuh, you can apply a credit of $299.00 to the 16gig or 32gig models.

This is Apples largest and most genorious back to school promotion ever. I personally will be jumping on the band waggon this summer when I purchase my new Macbook Pro. I am currently waiting to see what develops at WWDC next week.

In the most recent “The Dark Knight” trailer released you see a red liquid get spilled on the ground and then later the above image flashes up for a few seconds. After this was discovered hidden in the trailer many believe that Two Face will make an appearance in the second installment of Chris Nolans Batman films. Later in teh film you see the below image where you can see a light burn line on the edge of his face.

Below is a image that I am not post a thumbnail to. It is rumored to be the concept are for the Two Face makeup. Be warned, this image is getting removed from site left and right by request of Warner Brothers, which makes it seem like it is infact the true concept art of Two Face in the up coming “Dark Knight” film.

LINK TO IMAGE (**SPOILER ALERT**)

What are ya’lls thoughts on this image? Real or Not? Do you like it? It personally scares the crap out of me.

UPDATE: Well, Warner Brothers got to me, and requested I take it down. I hope you all got to see it while it was still up. I guess it is safe to say that Warner has confirmed this is the image of Two Face. Below I have attached the email that they sent me:

VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL

RE: Unauthorized Use of Warner Bros.’ Property

Dear Chris,

Tobeageek.com is offering 1 image from THE DARK KNIGHT, consisting of the Two Face character. I have a good faith belief that such content is not authorized by Warner Bros., its agent, or the law and therefore infringes Warner Bros.’ rights. I have attached a photo of the infringing image.

Image to be removed is located at:

http://www.tobeageek.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/dentburn.jpg

I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

Please confirm that you have taken the appropriate action at your earliest convenience. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter and please advise should you have any questions or require any additional information.

Thank you,

/mb

(name removed)

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

4000 Warner Boulevard

Bridge Building 156 South, #5109

Burbank, California 91522

Phone: (removed)

Fax: (removed)

(email removed)

I am a big fan of all the goodness that is Web 2.0 and New Media. Here is a list of my favorite web celebrities and a little bit about each of them. Enjoy, let me know if you think I missed someone.

Leo Laporte

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Laporte
Twitter: Leo Laporte Twitter

How You Might Know Them: I like to refer to Leo as the Godfather of Podcasting. This guy spends more time creating podcast then anyone in the business. Leo is the lead host of many of the shows found on the TWiT Network. Some of his podcast include TWiT, The Tech Guy, Macbreak Weekly, and Net @ Night just to name a few.

A thank you goes out to a Facebook App for bringing this amazing piece of software to my attention. Green Print is a program that becomes the middle man between your computer and printer. What it does is eliminates printing those extra pages that seem to print on everything these days. It sets itself up as your default printer then when you click print, it analyzes your print job for pages that don’t need to be printed. It then provides a great interface that allows you to print only what you want to.

Green Print is a quick download via their website. I love it not only because it is saving money, but it is saving trees and ink. I hate when you print, from the net especially, and you always get a blank page with one line of footer text. This eliminates this as you can see in my sample images below.

The process is very easy and takes just one extra button push. I have been using this for a week now and have not felt inconvenienced yet, and probably have saved 20 sheets of paper.This is probably the easiest way to help support the environment while sitting at your desk!

Links:

• Official Website
• Green Print in the News
• Blog
• Demo Video
• CNBC Video Review

While out driving around yesterday afternoon when I came across a street navigation street view truck. Could Atlanta, Georgia be the next city to receive the Google Maps Street View? This truck was spotted in the Buckhead community in Atlanta. The truck was named Luke as you can see next to the right tail light. Luke was seen driving around in circles and even through some parking lot. The below images were taken on a camera phone so sorry about the quality!

UPDATE: Well, it appears my predictions were right! Google just released Google Street View Atlanta. It is pretty wide spread coverage of the city and surrounding areas. Atlanta is very spread out, which is the reason I assume it took so long to get up!

OK, I know this is not really a geek thing, but it does deal with the net so I could not pass it up. This site (KnickerPicker.com) has figured out how to make men enjoy lingerie shopping. It is the most fun I have had shopping for my girl friend ever!

Enjoy the virtual dressing room, it allows you to dress women of different shapes, sizes, and race. Enjoy having them walk around and turning around on request. Check it out, you wont be disappointed.

KnickerPicker.com
Dressing Room Direct Link

So not many of you will know who is, but all of you have probably seen her at some point. Well she is the creepy little girl that scarred the heck out of all of us in the US version of The Ring.

Well, she is all grown up now!

I have to say, I read the MacRumors.com blog on almost a daily basis. This is a great site to pay attention to just before major apple events like the upcoming Macworld 08. Well, when I logged on today to get my daily intake of Mac Rumors, I was surprised to see multiple Windows Vista ads on the site. I know Mac’s are considered the best Vista machine currently on the market, but come on guys you are smarter then this. Don’t advertise the competition! I sure hope this was done as a joke. Enjoy the picture below:

(click image to view larger version)

I counted 2 Vista advertisements on just the front page!