Editorial: Why the HP Brand Sucks

I once thought HP was a respectable brand. It once was. Clearly HP dominates the printer market, and they seem to be in bed with Monster and the Beats by Dr. Dre. If you asked me six months ago what the best brand was in terms of affordable Windows machines and/or printers, I would have said HP hands down.

Not the same case today.

A few months ago, I purchased an HP laptop for $549 and a HP OfficeJet Pro 8500 for $299. I bought them at the same time, and was happy with my decision at the store. Took them both home, set them up with no problems, and everything just worked. Sounds peachy, right?

Three months later, the screen on my HP laptop displays 3 lines of dead pixels. Then the 10-key stops working. Then the audio goes. This all happened in the span of a week.

I Called HP. They repaired it at no cost, but I was still not happy. No computer should have that many problems for no reason. It was treated very well, was never dropped.

A month later, the OfficeJet Pro starts paper jamming for no reason. I know paper jams happen but it would jam EVERY TIME I would go to print something.

The paper jamming stopped one day, when it would no longer catch paper.

That same day, my HP PhotoSmart printer on the first floor stopped working completely. Would not even turn on.

Needless to say, I no longer use HP. I got all HP products fixed under warranty, and then sold them on Craigslist as-is. I never got a replacement for the big OfficeJet printer, as I saw it was not needed. I did replace the PhotoSmart with an Epson printer. And it works just fine.

HP. Hope and Pray it works.

iChat vs Adium - Fight!

For about two years now, there are always heated debates in the Chat sector of the Mac, debating if iChat or Adium is the best Mac Chatting client. I've used both Adium and iChat for an extensive amount of time, and I personally prefer iChat since it has a simplistic UI and I don't use the platforms it doesn't support anyways, so I don't have a problem with that. So, I've decided to make a few rounds of head to head competition on the major aspects of what is expected of a chat client. Then, at the end, I'll post comments from people who I've asked the preference of client.

Round 1 - Platform Support

iChat and Adium both support multiple chatting platforms, such as AIM, Jabber, MobileMe, and usually work fine. However, Adium supports almost 4 times more of what iChat supports, and it also works fine. What Adium supports that iChat doesn't:

• Yahoo! Messenger
• MySpace IM
• Facebook
• QQ
• LiveJournal
• ICQ
• Novell GroupWise
• MSN Messenger

Adium definitely is the winner in Round 1. iChat doesn't have a wide selection of different chat support, it only supports the basics.

Round 2 - User Interface

Now, here is where things get kind of tough. Adium has an OK basic UI, however you can fully customize it to whatever fits you. iChat has an amazing basic nice and bland UI, however you can't change the font, UI, or colors unless you use a 3rd party application, such as chax. However, the latest version of Chax is no longer an add-on, its an actual app. But it looks exactly like iChat and you can fully edit it. So who wins this one? Its really a tie because Adium's base UI is weaker than iChat's, but you can edit the UI completely and make it just like you want it. You can change fonts and order of how iChat's buddy list is sent by using Chax, but you can't change the actual UI like it's colors. You can change the format which is included in the actual iChat(meaning you can change format w/o Chax), to Bubbles, Boxes, or Compact. Round 2 is a tie between iChat and Adium.

Round 3 - What you think

I asked a few people of what they thought of iChat and what they thought of Adium and also asked them what the better client was. Here's what they Said:

TrueSongmedia answered Adium is better: "because it 1) is more stable ... 2) supports more protocols ... 3) looks better ... 4) can log/organize chats". He also went on to add "iChat is okay, but Apple should get a clue and use the libpurple library for IM instead of writing their own crappy one".

Jeff answered Adium because it had multiple platform support.

So, it looks like the majority of people prefer Adium because of the reasons I've stated in the blog post. It would be nice to see Apple make iChat more customizable, but seeing how pretty much every other Apple-made Application is nice and basic, I don't see that happening in the near future. But since I do LOVE the simplistic interface on iChat, I'll keep to iChat.

If you'd like to follow me on Twitter, I'm @Knunez.

An Opinion of the PS3 Slim's Aesthetics

The PS3 Slim has been out for a few days now and I have not been pleased by the aesthetics that Sony has made.

The design of the new PS3 Slim is not that great due to the fact that Sony removed the glossy effect from the original, fat PS3 and added a matte feel towards it. This is how I think of it: If you were to stand up a PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360, the PS3 would stand up very well to others. But if you were to stand a PS3 Slim with the Xbox 360 and a Wii, it is not the same. The slim would feel like it is hiding in the shadows where the original is standing up with pride.

Another reason that I do not like about the new PS3 slim is that it does not have the touch sensitive buttons. Instead, Sony added hard buttons. When I saw the PS3 for the first time, I loved the touch sensitive buttons. It felt like the game system of the future. But when I heard that the slim version had hard buttons, I felt that Sony took a step back.

But other than that, Sony has made a very strategic move by introducing a slim version of the PS3. For $299 you get a bigger 120GB hard drive, the standard blu-ray player, bluetooth & ethernet, and your Dualshock 3 wireless controller. Good job Sony, except next time, go with the glossy.

Cheers,

*Note: This post was written based on a person's opinion. I do ask you to keep the comments to a respected opinion of yours.

Online Friendships

Websites like Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace (if that still counts) have changed the way people on the web interact. Today, it seems that e-mail, the once go to tool for online communication is now outdated and one-dimensional. We all know these tools were originally created to expand our real-life socialization onto the web; but personally, I see myself using these social sites completely differently.

Between my small Youtube presents and Twitter account, I have met a number of people that have become more than online friends -- -- while still being online friends. I think it's true that the Internet has made the world a much smaller place. But what amazes me most in this situation is the fact that people I have never met truly feel like personal friends.

Now, I'm not sure if this experience is limited to the "tech centric" crowd, or, if this is the way social interaction is going. Of course, it does not replace getting out of the house and going to lunch or dinner with a group of friends. instead, I think my online social interactions expands upon My existent, tangible friendships.

As for me personally; I would love to me, and have already met, some of these "online friends". But you see, the term "online friends" doesn't sit well with me. In my mind, it feels like when I call someone and "online friend",  I'm somehow giving that person a little less validity when in fact they have equal importance and meaning to me.

I think the social blog is a perfect example of people, who may not know each other "IRL" as they say, coming together to make great content, learn and get to know a little about each other all at the same time. So I feel the majority of you reading this article can understand, if not identify with it.

What are your thoughts?

What’s So Bad About The Ad? Get A Mac Ads vs Laptop Hunters Ads, Why It All Evens Out.

The one thing that really bothers me about advertising is that most of the time all of the time they aren’t true. One thing that bothers me even more, is that people go out and criticize the ads, my self included. It’s human nature, that’s for sure, to critique.

Perhaps one of the most common advertisements you could see people criticizing are the Laptop Hunters ads by Microsoft, which aim at people looking to buy a laptop within a certain price range, and the Get a Mac ads by Apple, which are aimed at PC users who are frustrated with their computer.

I myself, have even criticized the Laptop Hunters ads, along with several other YouTubers, including thecreativeone and cockyjeremy. The reason for criticizing the ads is quite simple, we are the opposing team, or side. The PC users criticize our ads, therefore we criticize their ads.

But that’s not the only reason. We, as humans, have the logic to know that ads are there to promote the opposing “faction” and we see it as “cheap”, or as a lie. For instance, the Get A Mac ads by Apple usually summarize PCs by associating them with viruses, sluggish performance, and more for the business people.Whereas Microsoft’s Laptop Hunters ads will display Macs as too expensive.

But it all evens out.

No matter what side you are on, you are going to have to accept the truth and realize that all ads are biased and completely untrue, in a sense.

It just depends on what side you’re on.

JD

My Bite Into Apple

http://mybiteintoapple.com