Monthly Archives: April 2008

Popcorn Hour A-100 Review

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Much to my surprise, my Popcorn Hour A-100 came in the mail yesterday after only waiting one week. I ended up paying import fees, roughly 35$ more, but didn’t mind it so much as comparable units would cost double, if not triple the amount. It took about a month for the whole unit to arrive on my doorstep, from ordering process to unpacking it. Here’s a short review on this little device.

Design – sleek and small, it’s incredible how Syabas has managed to cram so much into so little. I’m able to fit this device among my other A/V hardware with ease. Right now, it’s stacked on top of my DVD player taking up next to nothing in terms of space.

User Interface – I would say one of the most important parts of any consumer device, this puppy is easy to use and it’s very responsive with the provided remote control. The GUI resembles that of Microsoft’s Media Center application (in terms of icons and colours) and that’s not a bad thing either. The whole interface is sleek and smooth, adding class to the device.

Playback – Simply, it plays anything I can throw at it. I started off directly with with some 720p and 1080p Matroska (MKV) files and it didn’t even stutter: the Popcorn Hour A-100 played them beautifully in high definition along with the multi-surround AC3 sound channels. The only problem the A-100 has with these types of files is the fast-forwarding, but I don’t think it’s the device’s fault (I’m pretty sure it’s something to do with MKV files and indexes). Regardless, I also played some WMVs and AVIs (XviD) perfectly over the network. I didn’t try playing any audio files though, but I’m sure the A-100 will do a fine job.

Value – When I first heard about the A-100, I thought it would cost somewhere near 300 to 400$. When I found out it was only 179.00$ USD, my jaw dropped. “There must be a catch” I thought. But doing a quick search on Google resulted in many high praises for the units and people with working units. Without hesitating, I ordered a unit right away. Comparing the A-100 to the likes of the other media players on the market, this is the cheapest and most powerful unit out there. Previously, to playback 1080p video, I built myself a basic low-end computer that cost me 434$. That’s roughly 200$ more than Syabas’ unit, at a fraction of the size of a desktop computer. I wish I knew about this puppy long-before I built myself a new computer to do high definition video playback.

So far, I have no complaints about this unit. I installed a temporary 120GB hard drive into it but didn’t have time to test it out. I’ll have a follow-up guide/review once I settle in with this new media player.

HalfAgain’s StoreStacker Review

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I have been playing with StoreStacker since I purchased it and here’s my take on it.

This software definitely has a place among people running niche websites. For those who need a system that can show the reader a select broad range of products from a distributor, StoreStacker accomplishes the job easily. It lets you run your own affiliate store, by pulling relevant products from Amazon, eBay & Clickbank and including your affiliate id/code in the product URLs. Supposedly, plug-ins will be developed to handle other affiliate links, such as from Linkshare, CJ and Overstock. Speaking of links, the ones that the software creates for you are nicely masked from visitors and search engines

You can create your own templates too (based on the Smarty template engine I believe) to give your stores a unique look (or model it around your existing site’s layout). Out of the box, StoreStacker comes with 3 basic professional-looking templates to get you started. Of course, I highly recommend everyone to change the templates right away as to not face any search engine duplicate content penalties. Oh, you can also include your own advertising codes in the templates and/or directly into Storestacker, such as Google Adsense for some extra income.

The system is fast and very well coded. The product grabbing system is never slow and works like a charm. The guy who coded StoreStacker knows his programming well.

I have used BlogSolution on a few domains liked how the system ran. StoreStacker is no different: the user interface is clean, straight-forward and easy to use. I can create new categories and grab products using keywords of my choice in the matter of a minute, filling my site with products ready to sell. If you have a dozen or more categories to create, StoreStacker supports XML-based import files for quick and efficient category creation. It’s way too easy.

For 97.00$ USD, StoreStacker is a steal and a half. I recommend it to anyone wanting to expand their affiliate store and offer their visitors some new products, without manually entering each and every product from their various sources. If you want to receive 20% off this system or any other HalfAgain product, just use the promo code LUCKYYOU1068400 when you checkout. Give it to your friends too if you want them to receive a discount!

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 White Paper Details

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he XPERIA X1 phone is not out yet, but a white paper was released touting all the cool new features of the device last month. Just by skimming over the document briefly, this phone looks jam-packed with all sorts of goodies. I have a feeling that the iPhone will soon be getting its ass kicked when the X1 is out. Apple should definitely rework the new 3G version of its phone if they want to stay head of the game!

The X1 has these buttons referred to as “panels” on the main home screen (they’re clickable shortcuts pretty much). Some of the pre-loaded panels are news updates, finance, weather info and shortcuts to applications found on the phone. There’s also the Media Experience Panel which is probably a multimedia (audio/video) playing application. A Slideshow Panel is included for viewing your pictures and videos in an organized manner. The Today Panel is like any Window Mobile-based PDA’s today screen. There’s also a 3D Fish Panel that is a screensaver for eye-candy purposes, something which I’ve seen on the iPhone (since, you know, having fish swim around in your phone is really cool).

The long list of features found on the XPERIA X1 include:
• 3-inch Wide-VGA (WVGA) (800×480) TFT 65K colour LCD
• XPERIA™ panel concept
• Unified Media Experience
• 3.2-megapixel AF camera with touch focus
• Video capture and playback upto 30 fps
• Integrated WiFi
• Integrated A-GPS
• Handsfree headset with a 3.5 mm audio jack, USB charger, USB cable provided in the kit.
• Internet Explorer Mobile browser
• HSDPA 7.2Mbps, HSUPA 2Mbps
• YouTube support (3GPP playback)
• FM radio, streaming audio/video
• Video telephony
• Bluetooth™ 2.0
• HW 3D Graphics
• Supports microSD™ High Capacity memory card
• Exchange /IMAP/POP3 email
• Special effects (Illumination, animation, transitions)
• Quad-band EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
• Upto Tri-band HSPA (850/1900/2100 MHz) (900/1900/2100 MHz)

I seriously can’t wait for this phone!

Popcorn Hour A-100 Shipped

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I just got an email this morning that my Popcorn Hour A-100 (ordered last month) has finally been shipped by Syabas. It’s coming all the way from California! Most likely it’ll take four or five days for it to get here, max 1 week. For those who don’t know what this is, it’s a device that can play multimedia files of all kind, such as H.264, XviD, MPEG2 & 4, VC-1, MP3s and more. It even does Matroska (.MKV) files and 1080p playback. It’s featured with a Windows Media Center look-alike user interface for easy navigation, and it’s all packed into a small portable unit. HDMI, RCA, Coaxial, Component and S-Video connections are included. I have been on a waiting list for almost a month and it’s good to see them delivering ahead of schedule. You need to sign up on a first-come, first-serve basis list to actually get one of these babies. I will review this unit as soon as mine gets here!

StoreStacker Officially Released

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It looks like StoreStacker has been officially released by the HalfAgain team as promised (there were delays before, so this is good news for them to release on time). If you don’t know what StoreStacker is, take a look at this post I made a few days ago. In a nutshell, this baby will be able to pull multiple feeds (Amazon, Linkshare, Clickbank, eBay, etc) and display product information and prices straight on your website. Why would you want to do this? Simply, you get to give the consumer an option when it comes to purchasing, as some stores offer products for much cheaper. Rather than manually enter every item on your site, StoreStacker simplifies things by automating these tasks. This makes your site a one-stop shopping resource for everything about the niche you’re targeting.

Here are a few things about StoreStacker that you should know about before purchasing. First, the license is for unlimited domains: that means you get to install the software on as many websites as you like with no restrictions. Second, you can also list your own products side-by-side to the ones from the affiliate feeds. Third, if you are one of the first 500 purchasers of this script, you are entitled to a free Clickbank feed plugin. Fourth, you can add your own products to the shop next to the affiliate ones. Last thing you should know is that supposedly, the software will be limited to only 1000 customers, but I don’t think that’s true. HalfAgain has a reputation for these types of claims (see ContentClub). In any case, if this restriction is true, it’s something to consider.

For anyone who wants 20% off the purchase of StoreStacker, use this promo code: LUCKYYOU1068400. Pass it to your friends too if you want them to have a discounted price! This promo code is good for any Halfagain product, such as BlogSolution, ContentClub, ContentSolution, RSS Magician, RSS Evolution and of course, StoreStacker.

I just purchased my own copy of SS, so I will soon do a full review of the software and let everyone know how it is very soon. Stay tuned.