Here it is| Playstation TV

I recently got rid of my PSVita, and so I was left with a decent sized digital library and a few hard copy games with no device to play them on. Being a fan of the PS3 I can always use more controllers, and having the ability to play my Vita library on one of my televisions was a nice thought; that's where the Playstation TV comes in. With the Lego The Movie (The Game) Playstation TV bundle weighing in at roughly $100 with an included PS3 controller, it seemed like a no-brainer.

Let me start by saying that as a streaming device (like Fire TV, Apple TV, or Roku) the Playstation TV is by far the worst. It isn't even a close competitor. Months after launch and the Playstation TV still can't even run Netflix. You're pretty much limited to Crunchyroll and the Playstation Network for entertainment titles. 3 days to 2015 and there are companies making media devices that don't play Netflix, or Hulu; for shame. The options are so limited that you might as well not have any.

Playstation TV also boasts the ability to play a large portion of your Vita library on your television. After quite a bit of testing, only a select few games will work on the device; despite allowing you to download any Vita title that may be in your library. Touch My Katamari and Project Diva F are on that list, and while games like Minecraft are advertised to work they have such bad frame rate and texture issues that they are nearly unplayable at any enjoyable level. I was successful in getting Conception II and Final Fantasy X HD, as well as a couple smaller titles like Binding of Isaac and Pinball Arcade to run well enough to be enjoyable. The games that run well make the micro-console shine.

The size of the console is a good selling point, it's tiny, about 1/3 the overall size of the Fire TV, and only about 2X the size of my Fire Stick. It was easy to setup to my wired network, although wireless can be a chore if you have more than a basic network. I don't enable DNS because I manually assign all my IP addresses from the devices to my router, that way if I need to forward ports for a specific device it's easy; the Playstation TV doesn't allow you to set advanced settings for a network before connecting, and the device must connect to the router before it will allow you to change any of the IP address settings or DNS settings. I'm not sure why this is, I never had any issues with connecting my Vita to my home network. That was an issue, but considering the WiFi isn't fast enough to stream PS4 games, which is another advertised feature, keeping it plugged in may be your best option.

I wasn't able to test the PS4 streaming ability, although I would say it works fairly; it seems to be the real push for the Playstation TV. I would have liked to see the same functionality put forth for the PS3 through the Playstation TV, considering the Vita could remote play into a PS3 it just couldn't play any games (except a very select few; Shadow of the Colossus being one of them). It can play PS3 games through Playstation Now streaming service, but that requires a fee to play games and they are rentals; and not your current library. It seems like they are really pushing the Playstation 4 with this device, even allowing you to watch PS4 gameplay from it.

The interface is nothing intuitive, but then again it shares a menu with the Vita. The navigation can be a little strange, but is easy enough to get used to. Home button takes you out of whatever application you are in, then holding the circle button closes that application. It works. I would have liked to see better Playstation 4 controller support since the touchscreen on the controller would make it possible to play those otherwise unplayable games, but what do I know; it's probably better to leave the support sub-par.

Overall, if you don't have a PS4 you want to stream games from you're probably better off stearing clear of the Playstation TV. Playstation 3's are getting cheap enough that they are worth the extra but for the functionality, and if you really want to experience the Vita library you wont want to do it from this. If the majority of games you want to play are JRPG titles, you're in luck since most of those work, and the inclusion of a PS3 controller is pretty nice (considering those are $54 new). It just doesn't have the functionality yet to justify the purchase as a stand alone console, or a streaming device. If it was returnable, I would have taken it back already.
*End of Sunday, December 28, 2014 Review *

 *Begin Friday, January 27, 2017 Edit*
I have had two years with the Playstation TV now, one of those years I have also had a Playstation 4; which means I've spent loads of time using the Remote Play feature. Over the last year I have seen some good improvements in remote play, but I think they could eliminate the upload time altogether by having the Bluetooth controller inputs bypass the Playstation Television and go directly to the Playstation 4 if it is in range. Then you are simply downloading the video, which takes much less resources than the way it currently works. Obviously that doesn't work if it's too far away, but that doesn't mean everyone should be punished. I say all of this because it's too slow to play anything competitively the way it is now. You have a very obvious latency between you and your own console, let alone you and other people when also trying to play anything multiplayer. Single player games which don't require lots of immediate input work good, so RPG and Adventure games get played on mine a lot. It satisfies my Playstation 4-from-the-bedroom need, but doesn't woo me into wanting to use it all the time.

The rest of the review stands. It did not serve me better than the Vita to play Vita games, of which I have bought another now and enjoy it all the time compared to this device. The Playstation Television still seems like it has no place, aside from the occasional Minecraft or Tales from the Borderlands over Remote Play; but what is the price on convenience? And convenient things don't always need to be useful all the time; they need to be useful when, well, it's convenient for you. Something this is great at being, convenient when you need it to be.

*End of Friday, January 27, 2017 Edit*

*Begin Wednesday, November 11, 2020 Edit*

Wow, 5 years on with the Playstation TV and the thing has earned its spot on my shelf. As the Vita ages and sinks into obscurity, the library goes with it and the great titles of the console are lost to time. From the beginning the Playstation TV was a doomed project. The lack of game support, the lack of support for major streaming services, proprietary memory, and the extremely slow WiFi, all added to its demise. At the time, when compact media was at its premium, Sony decided to create smaller, console specific memory. This is generally regarded as a bad move now as the media can be nearly impossible to find and anything of decent size is insanely expensive. By comparison to SD cards, a 128GB microSD card now costs less than $20 while a 32GB Vita Memory card costs over $60; and this is bound to get worse as stock dwindles.

I kept my generation 2 Playstation Vita original, making sure to update it and keep my library of digital titles accessible on the Playstation 3 for transfer. However, I modified the Playstation TV to allow install and access to titles deemed unsupported before. Now the entire Vita library is accessible on the television. This is a major improvement to the Playstation TV. While it was nice to access some of the games, the ability to play everything using a PS4 controller is far superior to the old "some titles and a PS3 controller" method from before. On top of this, I solved the storage problem on the Playstation TV by installing a SD2VITA adapter. This adapter goes into your game card slot and allows you to use a microSD card for storage instead of the proprietary media. This, coupled with the ability to play all games has made this device a real game changer. Having access to the entire PS1, PSP, and PSVita libraries puts the device at the top of its game. No more swapping cartridges as the SD card is big enough to hold all my retail titles as well as the majority of my digital titles. The ability to play all these titles in large format on my television really brings a new respect for some of the titles and just how good the Vita really looked for the time.

As for the streaming apps, once modded the Playstation TV can access a plethora of apps that were never officially supported; many of which have been modified by users to maintain some level of support, like Netflix and YouTube. These are not officially supported, however, as I mentioned in my original review, this was a terrible mistake. Sure some people had access to those apps on other devices, but nobody wants to move back and forth from device to device to access one or two specific apps; they want access no matter what device they are on. This is solved by modding the Playstation TV, you are no longer restricted to what Sony wants to offer you.

Imagine going to an all-you-can-eat buffet, and they have all the food lined up to make it look enticing. Now imagine every time you want to get some of that food, a person comes over and tells you that what you are trying to eat is technically included, but that they don't want you to eat it right now and to choose something else. Now imagine that they have 200 items to choose from, but the only ones they want you to eat are the mac and cheese and the mashed potatoes since those are the easiest to make more of. That was what dealing with the Playstation TV was like, and can still be like if you try and play by the rules.

End result of the Playstation TV, it gained value once modding opened up true access. Now is certainly the time to get one if you are on the fence as the cost of the device continues to climb. If you have a Vita collection, or a digital PSP collection, and playing those on the television sounds like a good time then I urge you to pick one of these up.

*End of Wednesday, November 11, 2020 Edit*

Here it is| QFX H-251BT - Stereo Bluetooth Headset with MP3 and FM

The QFX Stereo Bluetooth headset was an impulse buy of mine. I like the portability of bluetooth around my home, and sometimes at night I'm up working late and don't want to be a bother to my neighbors; so playing my bluetooth speaker is out of the question. I first saw these QFX headphones when we pulled them out of a shipping tote at Staples, and they weren't on file in the store. We put them into lock-up until they were added, but they never were. Skip ahead to today when not only did they get put onto file, they went on clearance. Amazon sells them for $38, Newegg for $26; I picked them up for about $14 after my 15% off coupon and my employee discount.

The H-251BT headphones by QFX boast 7 hours of music playing time, 300 hours of standby time, auxiliary input, FM tuner, and a microSD card slot for the built-in mp3 player. I can't vouch for the standby time, but everything else so far is working as advertised. The headphones have been on for about 5 hours and still haven't turned off yet, and the FM tuner works as expected; acceptably. The mp3 player works okay, it would be handy if you didn't own a smartphone or tablet that had expandable memory (looking at you Apple and Amazon people), but anyone with another style device is going to find it tedious to only have the ability to skip songs, and not play a specific track.

I tested the auxiliary input using my computer's headphone jack, it works like any other pair of wired headphones. I didn't buy the QFX H-251BT's because I wanted to use them wired, I wanted portability. Here's where the unit actually excels. I have tested them across my smaller sized, 2-story apartment and there wasn't a single instance of them losing signal. The headphones have no problem keeping up with the distance, and all the track skip buttons worked even from the other side of the house.

Aesthetically, they are some of the worst looking headphones I've ever seen. I can't figure out who they were designed for, but they certainly aren't nice to look at; nor will they look good on you when you put them on. If you go walk through the park wearing these people will laugh at you, and probably rightfully so. Don't buy them because they look cool, they don't. They have a really thick, plastic look, maybe they were trying to copy beats; they missed all the marks on design.

I was hoping the H-251BT headphones would be comfortable, but the padding they use on the ear-cups isn't soft and they are just the right size to not fit over my whole ear; meaning they put uneven pressure on the sides of my ears. If the cups had been slightly bigger, the headphones wouldn't sit so far away from your head, and the cups could slip over your ear delivering a better sound and being significantly more comfortable. Unfortunately they aren't bigger and anyone with normal or larger ears is going to find them uncomfortable relatively quick.

The sound coming out of them is okay, there isn't any definitive bass, but the treble isn't overloaded so it still sounds okay. I would say the sound is about on-par with my Microsoft LifeChat LX-3000 headset. They sound exponentially better than my Targus 51EB bluetooth earbuds; it's not even close. My biggest audio complaint is this weird sound they make when no music or anything is coming out of them, and it does it on any mode; but not while music is playing. It's like a really low frequency, but audibly it's loud enough to easily hear. Reminiscent of the sound tapes make in a cassette player between songs or after the tape is over.  Very distracting between tracks, but not enough to hate them.

Overall I think you should probably skip these and go for something slightly pricier. I know you don't get an MP3 player or FM tuner with a pair of iFrogz Coda Forte, or Photive BTH3 bluetooth headphones. I know that the asking price jumps from roughly $30 to around $50, but the difference is noticeable. Save your money for something better, it will be worth it in the long run to wait out another $20.

Here it is| Photive Hydra - Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker

One thing I always look for in a Bluetooth speaker is the depth of sound that it can provide. Other factors are important, like battery life and size, but if the speaker doesn't sound good you wont want to listen; rendering the whole thing pointless. Photive was not a brand that I had ever heard of before my father bought their Cyren model speaker for his kitchen. The sound on it was good, but the lack of bass was a downfall; he quickly discovered that placing something behind the speaker increased the sound quality exponentially. Being battery powered, it was as easy as moving it to wherever the music was desired; a far-cry from even my iHome, which is still limited to being plugged in. We spent many nights sitting at the table or in the living room or in the garage or in the guest bedroom listening to music, always commenting on how handy the portable speaker is. And despite the lack of bass depth, the sound from the speaker was highly impressive.

Now, my family isn't one that can keep a Christmas present a secret, we quite enjoy giving them early as a surprise; after all, they are meant to be enjoyed. I was greeted with a Photive Hydra this year early. The box claims waterproof and dustproof IP66 rated. If you don't know what the IP66 means the first number corresponds to the rating against solids, and the second corresponds to the rating against liquids. An IP rating of 6 in the first digit is as high as it goes, with the second digit availably going up to 8. In this particular case, the Hydra is dust-tight, meaning it can't get in. It is also a 6 rating for liquids, meaning that high-powered streams of water will not hurt the unit in any way. Sprinkler? Fine. Wave at the beach? Alright. The water from a shower? No problem. Heavy rain? It laughs at that. It is not, however, rated to be submerged in a pool for extended periods of time.

The Hydra itself looks sleek, and feels hefty; not real heavy, just solid. It is heavier than the Cyren, and also larger. The buttons for controlling the unit, except the power switch, are located on the top of the model. They feel solid and have a nice click to them when pressed, which is good because they are built into the case itself. The buttons certainly don't feel cheap or flimsy, I expect them to hold up well. The side of the Hydra features a removable waterproofing cap that covers the power switch, the auxiliary audio jack (3.5mm) and the micro-usb charging port. This cap is rubber, and can be removed without much effort, but is attached to the unit on the inside of the cap so it wont get lost. The power switch seems solid, and well placed. I also expect it to hold up well.

After powering up the unit a small blue LED on the front flashes slowly to indicate that the unit is on. Pressing the top Bluetooth button allowed my Samsung Galaxy S4 to see it within seconds, and the sync time was fast. No pin required. I turned the speaker all the way up, and then down two-notches; a trick I learned from my father, who has never blown a single speaker in his life. The range of volume the Hydra offers is good, and the sound quality while low volume is about 90% as good as it is while in the higher volumes. This is achievable because of the two 40mm drivers and the passive subwoofer providing 7 watts of power. 7 watts might not seem like a lot, and honestly when stacked up against my Fisher STV-862 home-stereo speakers, it isn't even on the map; but this isn't a home stereo replacement, it's a portable speaker.

The depth of sound the Hydra provides is immaculate. I would say that it is the best sounding Bluetooth speaker I have ever heard, including the Bem Mojo, JLab Crasher, and the JBL Flip. I don't know if it's because of the waterproof casing, but the bass achieved by the Hydra is unbelievable and the loudness of the speaker is enough to fill any room easily with music. I can broadcast over my iHome without any effort, with far superior sound quality. Every genre of music I have thrown at it has sounded rich and full. I don't feel like I'm missing anything while using the Hydra; all the notes are there, crystal clear.

The portability is where the Hydra really shines though. It's as easy as picking the speaker up and carrying it to wherever you're headed next. The Bluetooth has over a 30ft range, so whatever device you're using can just stay put and the speaker can control the volume and the track skip itself. To put the unit to the real test I was able to pair it with my Asus X205 Cloudbook running Spotify in my bedroom and still control the music while taking a shower (with the unit in the water with me) from about 20 feet away. The unit didn't seem to be phased by the water at all, which is just what I would hope for out of a product claiming to be waterproof. The rechargeable battery has a life of 8-hours per charge and takes roughly 5-hours to charge. The Hydra can still be used while plugged in, and charges over USB. Unfortunately, while the unit comes with the USB cable, it does not come with a power adapter; but any standard USB power adapter will work.

Overall, the Hydra is a product I would recommend for anyone looking for a severely portable Bluetooth speaker; one they will never have to worry about getting destroyed by whatever adventure they are going on that day. The price tag of $139.00 is still completely worth it, especially when you stack the sound quality up against similarly priced models, most of which are not waterproof. That being said, at the time of this review you can pick the Photive Hydra up off of Amazon.com for $59.95; and for that price you would be crazy not to get one.

The Beginning of Stuff

I like writing reviews. I like buying things and letting other people know if it was a valuable purchase or not. In the past I have mostly done reviews for video games, but I love technology and toys. I have a passion for cheap gadgets and the way we can use them to transform our everyday lives into something less mundane. I plan on using this blog to help people to make purchasing decisions on some of the tech they might not even know they want yet.

Like my game reviews, I am going into this 100% unbiased. I am not sponsored by any company, and I surely don't make any money off the reviews through advertising. I do not receive review products, although if that were to change I will ALWAYS let you know that the product was provided for review. I am not here to shill, I want to provide information on products as a friend would had they purchased something they loved or hated. I spend my own money on these products, and use them the way they are advertised and sometimes the way a normal person is going to use them.

I hope you enjoy the upcoming reviews, if you ever have any questions or comments be sure to leave them in the comments section and I will respond.