Monthly Archives: August 2008

Product Previews/Reviews

Altec Lansing AHP112 stereo earphones review

by Kristofer Brozio • August 30, 2008

Sort of a review anyway..

I picked these up over at ThingFling.com for about $15 for two pairs, you can still find them online several places, but I believe they are officially discontinued by Altec Lansing.. at least I couldn’t find them on their website.

Here’s a bit about them:

Altec AHP112

The Altec AHP112 is stereo earphones that are ideal for MP3 & CD players, Portable cassette players, video gaming systems and multimedia computers

Features:
-15mm high power neodymium drivers deliver full, rich sound
-Connection: 3.5mm plug
-Frequency Response: 85Hz – 20kHz
-Impedance: 32ohms
-Compact design for comfort and easy portability
-Protective winding case for ultimate convenience

Warranty:2 years

So they come in a hard plastic sealed case that you’ve got to cut open, a pain really to get them open, worse than the standard sealed clamshell boxes.. They’ve got the specs and features listed on the back and you can see the headphones and their case through the front of the package.

The case is actually very nice, it holds the headphones tightly and protects them, you can use the case to wind the cord up for quick and easy storage.

It opens from the top allowing you access to the headphones, and it locks shut tightly so they won’t fall out.

Overall the AHP112 headphones are very nice, they seem well made, I got them because it was a great deal and my wife likes these types of headphones. I personally prefer the in-ear style than these..

The sound quality is decent, especially if you consider the price I paid, but even if they weren’t that cheap and I was looking for a set of headphones I’d consider these. Altec Lansing is a good brand, I’ve had good experiences with their products, and they’re very well known for quality audio goods. The sound is not wonderful, but it’s surprisingly good for a set of low cost ear buds.

I like than and will use them as a spare set if need be, my wife is happy with them, especially the included carry case, she doesn’t have to worry about them getting tangled up etc now.

Articles/Editorials

Transferring DVDs and Video to Cellphones..

by Kristofer Brozio • August 30, 2008

So if anyone is interested I’ve got a series going on over at TiltMobility.com where I’m checking out and reviewing several programs that allow you to transfer DVDs and other types of video to a format that will work on your cellphone. Obviously by the name of the site it’s focused on the ATT Tilt or HTC TyTn II, but these programs will convert videos to any phone format actually.

Some of the programs are actually for converting to any format at all so it’s not just for mobile, you can take a DVD and rip to standard AVI or Divx if you wish.

Some of the are a waste of money and some are very good and work very well, but that’s the whole point of the series, to figure out which programs work and which ones don’t, or which ones work better than others…

Today I’ve just posted my review of Extra Video Converter which can be found HERE

Most of the programs are from my own personal collection, but a couple of them are actually ‘official’ review versions that I received for review.

Here’s a list of the ones I’ve already looked at, and I’ve got many more to go…

Extra Video Converter

Extra DVD Ripper Express

Aplus DVD Ripper Professional

Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate

SPB Mobile DVD

Oh, well that’s it for today… enjoy!

Articles/Editorials

Retiring.. sort of… and a new job .. sort of

by Kristofer Brozio • August 27, 2008

Well semi-retiring anyway, at least from my main site DragonSteelMods.com, it’s going to be relegated to a ‘hobby’ or part-time status. I’ll still be doing reviews there but just not to the extent we have been, we’re about to hit 500 reviews actually, so I guess that’s something to celebrate anyway….

I’m thinking of maybe trying to get some more help with it though, it’s just become a bit too much for me now… I’d like to get a female reviewer actually to possibly bring in more female viewers, I’ve got many requests to review the new iPhone related stuff, but Tom is just too busy to handle it all with his own work..

and I’m heading or running the product review program at Testfreaks.com as of a couple days ago.

They were doing a few reviews here and there, but not much, but not it’s officially going to have a review section etc.

My own site will still be there, I’m just not going to put as much time into it personally, it’s to the point where I need to upgrade the sever and cannot afford to do it, the server now can barely handle the traffic, and I make little money from it, so I can’t justify the upgrade of the server when it can’t even pay for itself now.. but who knows, maybe on down the line I can worry about that..

as for now I’m directing my full attention to Testfreaks…

They’re already doing extremely well with an Alexa rank of a little over 14,000 so it should be no problem dropping that rank even more by adding the reviews and additional forums sections. We’ll be adding a forum section just for the reviews to discuss them and ask questions about the products being reviewed and a News section where I will post affiliate news to and press releases that come in about cool new products.

Oh well.. stop and visit me some time over there, it’s going to be a few weeks before the reviews start popping up, but once we get in full swing, it’ll be lots of fun!

Articles/Editorials, Rants!

I Hate People continued…

by Kristofer Brozio • August 19, 2008

Earlier I posted about how I’ve learned to hate people basically, at least it seems I find the goofballs, or maybe they’re attracted to me.. dunno, haven’t really figured it out yet..

but I’ve got another reason to hate people now..

so my friend asked me to help him fix up on of his apartments to get ready to rent for the 1st of September and this place was a mess.. I’ve been over there a few hours a day for the last couple days..

now normally he doesn’t allow pets in his apartments, but he thought he was being nice by letting these people have their dog with them.. mistake #1 apparently, just because you are nice to someone doesn’t mean they’ll be nice to you… this dog pretty much pissed all over the carpets and left stains on them, these are light tan carpets mind you… but the stains did come out, he called over one of his ‘other guys’ who do cleanup work like that and he got the stains out, but of course it still smells like dog, so the carpets will have to be scrubbed a couple times… apparently also they didn’t care to clean the apartment either, there was dog hair everywhere to be found, the place was just a mess really..

oh and if you rent don’t put large holes in the walls please, it’s not fun fixing them… little finish nails are fine, they fix easily, but these people decided to use screws with anchors all over the place and in the oddest places as well, these left 1/2″ sized holes in the walls, there was at least 25 of them that I had to fill..

but the best part was the dart board they decided to hang up, and from what I saw they weren’t very good at darts either, there was a spot at least 7 feet high by 5 feet wide just full of little tiny holes, and of course one bare spot int he middle where the dart board was…

not only all of this damage was there, but before they left they went on vacation and bought a house, mind you though their lease wasn’t up, they just decided to bail towards the end of the lease, and I find out that they even still owe him a couple months back rent as well!!! So now of course he has to pay me and the other guy to fix and clean the place, but he’s also going to have to go to court to fight to get the back rent…

Try to be nice and things like this happen, it’s amazing how people take advantage of the kindness of others and have no respect at all for other peoples property.. I would never think of doing something like that to someone elses place!

The world we live in is going downhill and has been for quite sometime, I’m hoping that maybe it will change but it jsut seems to be getting worse, people just don’t care anymore about anything, old values are gone, there seems to be no kind of respect anymore at all for anything or anyone..

Articles/Editorials, Kids/Parents

Halloween Costumes

by Kristofer Brozio • August 18, 2008

It’s amazing how fast time goes by eh? Summer is like here and gone already, my kids start back to school on Monday already, which is rather nice really.. but that means more holidays are coming and Halloween is one of them that my kids like to celebrate, personally I don’t care for the holiday anymore as it’s just not the same as when I was a kid, the are has changed and it just doesn’t seem fun anymore…

With Halloween coming it’s time to get Halloween costumes for the kids. Having three kids we kinds of just passed them along to the next youngest, but it’s getting the point now where they are independent thinkers and they know what they want to dress up as for Halloween and they won’t settle for the ‘hand me downs’ anymore.

So of course that means shopping for costumes, personally I hate shopping period and I try and do all of my shopping online if possible, I don’t have to deal with people and I don’t have top pay for gas either. So I was bopping around the web and found a rather cool site aptly named BuyCostumes.com and they’ve got tons different Halloween costumes on their site, not just for kids either, you can find men’s and women’s costumes also.

The popular costumes for kids are of course Batman/Dark Knight, Indiana Jones and Iron Man, and they look pretty cool, for a kid anyway, and they’re really not that expensive. They’ve also got an offer of 99cent shipping on orders over $40 so that’s not too bad there at all.

You can buy full costumes or just parts of them as they have an entire accessory section as well, and they’ve also got Decoration, Props and even party supplies! Oh and they’ve even got Mascot Costumes and costumes for your pets!

So if you’re looking Halloween Costumes for your kids or even yourself stop by and check them out, they’ve got something for everyone!