Previously, we were “lucky” enough to receive several products from CES 2010. We promised that we would have a video for all of them but, once we got the products, everything went down hill.
The iPhone Leather Case Battery was a great product besides the proprietary cable. So we posted an unboxing of it at: bit.ly/8xcw12
But, the other two products didn’t go too well. These 2 products were a “mini-desk” for notebook computers and a tablet.
The “mini-desk” unboxing was deemed uninteresting by our team, and decided that there wasn’t much use to post it. The tablet unboxing didn’t turn out the way we planned.
The box was tampered. We really didn’t notice that until we reviewed the unboxing video. The box included an unauthorized disk. The disk had both a Mac OS X driver on it as well as a Windows 7 driver. We ended up installing both of them on both platforms. The PC was hacked into, and one of our editor’s Twitter, Facebook, and email were all hacked. The Mac turned out fine, after a few virus scans.
In the end, we decided that the only unboxing that was worth posting was the case and, we learned a lesson. Scan any unknown devices before using them. You might just end up like our editor.

-TechReevu Team

With the current battle against Verizon, AT&T is doing whatever it can to keep up with the game. Including cutting the prices of the unlimited data plans for all of their devices! With plans such as unlimited voice and data for only $99. Even for the largely popular iPhone. These changes come after Verizon changed their rates for smartphones on Friday, January 15, 2009. Both companies’ rate changes will occur on January 18th.

Beginning Monday, AT&T’s existing customers will be allowed to take advantage of these new rates without extending their contracts or paying any fees by either heading to their local AT&T store or, by using the account management tool at att.com/wireless. [ATT News Room]

Lev – Founding Editor, TechReevu.com

Just a few days back, Kodak showed off a new pocket HD camcorder called the “Playsport” at CES 2010. This camera featured ruggedness, waterproofing and the Zi8’s sensor, capable of 1080p video.

Today, we found a release date on the camera’s Amazon page!

It is set to be released April 5, 2010!

Lev – Founding Editor, TechReevu.com

If you were expecting an update to the Kodak Zi6’s firmware, you’re out of luck.

According to the Kodak booth at CES, there will no longer be anymore updates to the Zi6’s firmware, due to the release to the Kodak Zi8. Meaning, you can either purchase the Zi8 or, figure out how to hack the firmware like these guys tried to over at the Vimeo forums – “Editing the Zi6 Firmware”

That’s about it for Kodak’s very first pocket camcorder. If you still want to purchase a decent pocket camcorder, here’s the current line up:

Zi8

Vado HD

Flip Mino HD

Flip Ultra HD

Lev – Founding Editor, TechReevu.com

Sony has announced that they are no longer using the Memory Stick Duo as the only storage device in their cameras! You’ll soon be able to chose between using the Duo or an SD card!

This change will occur to the parts of the Handycam and Cybershot lines this year!

If you’d like to read my previous rant on the Memory Stick Duo, read it Here!

Lev – Founding Editor, TechReevu.com

Image Courtesy: Memorystick.com

Our editor, Edward, was able to order a Nexus One the day it was announced. Today he received it! Watch as he unboxes it as his first TechReevu video!

This week, I moved all my junk from one room to another. In celebration of the glories of my new office (more info coming soon on office specs), I decided to do what I’ve been meaning to do for a long time: set up an Ethernet bridge/hub.

My room has only one Ethernet port, and as I have multiple networkable devices, I saw the need for a way to split that connection up. So, I grabbed an old router of mine, a Netgear WGT624. To set it up as a bridge, I did the following:

Note: these instructions are specifically for the Netgear WGT624 v3 router model. Steps for other Netgear routers are probably mostly identical, and other routers should have similar instructions. Just look around for the names of settings that I talk about below, and you should be fine, but just in case, you should Google for instructions for your specific hub.

Step 1: Locate an Ethernet port in your room, connect a CAT6 cable to it.

Step 2: Insert the other end of the CAT6 cable into the WAN port of your WGT624. If you don’t know what a WAN port is, see the above diagram.

Step 3: Grab another CAT6 cable, connect it to one of your router’s LAN ports and to an input on one of your computers. If you don’t know what a LAN port is, see the above diagram.

Step 4: On your computer, connect to the router LAN and browse to 192.168.1.1 (or your router’s setup panel IP address). Login to the admin panel – the default username and password for the WGT624 model are “admin” and “password” (sans quotes).

Step 5: In the router administration settings, go to “LAN IP Setup”, under “Advanced”  in the left navigation frame. On that page, uncheck the checkbox marked “Use Router as DHCP Server”. Click Apply.

Step 6 (optional): If you want this hub to be Ethernet-only, you want to disable Wireless. So, in the left navigation frame of your router administration settings panel, click “Wireless Settings”, under “Advanced”. On that page, uncheck the checkbox labeled “Enable Wireless Router Radio”. Hit Apply.

Step 7: Exit out of the router administration settings panel. Next, walk over to your WGT624 and remove the Ethernet cable you inserted into the WAN port. Now, insert that cable into another LAN port. Once again, see the diagram above for details on the locations of WAN and LAN ports.

---

You have now successfully configured your WGT624 router to act as an Ethernet bridge/hub. To connect your devices, insert them into the LAN ports on your WGT624. You make encounter a warning notice from your main router (not the WGT624) when you first try to connect with it.

Good luck!

Image courtesy of ehartwell.com.

This post was originally published on Absolutely2Nothing, the author’s blog.

Maxim – Editor, TechReevu.com

It’s been in the news this whole weekend: on Friday, a man attempted but failed to detonate pentaerythritol tetranitrate, an incendiary powder, on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. Thankfully, the panic of the passengers drove them to extinguish the fire before the detonation continued, but the issue still remains: how was this Nigerian man able to get these chemicals on board?

Since the September 11 attacks in 2001, U.S. airline security has been tightened. Policies have been enacted dictating how everyone must be screened, using walk-thru metal detectors, x-ray machines, and more.

If we have such a strong arsenal of technology, why was Mr. Abdulmutallab able to get through this screening? This exposes two major issues:

First of all, our screening protocols are very limited. The U.S. currently has random screening for ordinary individuals, and mandatory secondary screening for people on watch-lists. Yet, this random screening isn’t enough – we need to make sure that everybody is safe from this sort of threat. If this means that we have to have secondary screening for everyone, there will, of course, be delays, but in the long run, we need to find a way to make this fast and efficient. The TSA’s current strategy for that is remarkably insecure.

Next, it was mentioned in numerous press articles that the Nigerian man was not on any watch-lists, while his father had specifically reported his growing extremism to American officials. Yes, the man was put on a list of suspected terrorists, but why aren’t the 500,000 people on that list subject to normal watch-list protocols? Let’s have all those 500,000 people be put on the watch-list, so this sort of thing can be prevented.

Now, those two issues expose glaring problems in the U.S’s approach to aerospace security. But while we can put suspected terrorists on the watch-list and improve screening for everybody else, this is not enough – we need a system of sharing information about everybody. And not just a system for the U.S, no, we need to somehow (through the U.N, perhaps?) create an international agreement for sharing data about everyone.

Furthermore, there is a mention in the book SuperFreakonomics about how , after the London Underground attacks, an engineer developed a profile of an average terrorist. The engineer then created a program to go through bank records in London to find possible terrorists. So, what if we were to not only have a shared-info system, but also a system that goes through everyone’s information, highlights those who may be terrorists, and puts them on watch-lists.

Now, if we had that, this situation could be avoided in the future. After all, that is our main goal.

This post was originally published on Absolutely2Nothing, the author’s blog.

Maxim – Editor, TechReevu.com

Sony has been around for decades. Their products are usually reliable and powerful. But, to make this “possible,” they needed a new way to store files. The Memory Stick Duo.

What’s the problem with the memory stick?

This storage device costs $30, just for 1GB! Even when purchased from a reseller! Plus, it’s almost impossible to find this product direct, let alone find the product at all.

And what about transferring? It’s one of the most complicated things Sony has ever done. Transferring only occurs through the whatever is using the memory stick! Meaning, you can just remove the card and put it into a card reader.

Probably the most major problem with this memory stick though, is the speed. It’s has possibly, the slowest transfer rate I have ever seen, in any device, since USB 1.0. Actually, in some cases, it’s even slower.

Basically: this product is garbage. It’s almost impossible to find, and complicated to use.

All I think is: Sony, do you really have to make saving files on your devices, any more complicated and, expensive? Just go with the universal SD card. Then we’ll buy your products more often. :)

Lev – Founding Editor, TechReevu.com

Happy Holidays :)

As you may know, I released a Google Voice application a few months back. Well, after reading some suggestions on the Google Voice forum, I decided that it was time to make a new update (and a new name as well). So, I worked on the program, which is now titled VoiceHub, for a few hours and I finished with a program that fulfills all the suggestions that users gave me. Though I haven’t really worked on the way the VoiceHub looks, I did make a few improvements to the interface. A few being buttons that can be hidden on demand and important buttons where you need them. One thing that numerous users wanted was AutoRefresh. I am happy to say that I have added this feature, though it may not always work correctly because I am still experimenting with this and constantly improving it. I hope that you enjoy this program and I am still accepting suggestions. So keep commenting! – Download it Here!

David – Senior Editor, Techreevu.com