Hasbro is Adding Rey to Star Wars Monopoly After Criticism From Fans

It's completely unfathomable to me that Star Wars toys have left out Rey. The Verge reports Hasbro is adding Rey to Star Wars Monopoly after criticism from fans. What idiot eliminated her in the first place? And what other idiots didn't catch it or allowed it to go through?

And they're not the only one. "A six-pack of action figures available at Target eschewed Rey in favor of a generic Resistance pilot, while a Millennium Falcon play set included only Chewbacca and John Boyega's Finn, despite the fact it's preternaturally gifted pilot Rey who's handed the keys to the iconic ship."

Morons.

Make This Mini Star Wars BB-8 Ball Droid with a Hacked Sphero

Can't wait for new Star Wars toys? Make This Mini Star Wars BB-8 Ball Droid with a Hacked Sphero.

What happens when a 21st-century kid plays through video game history in chronological order?

Andy Baio wrote in Medium, Playing With My Son.

"Start with the arcade classics and Atari 2600, from Asteroids to Zaxxon. After a year, move on to the 8-bit era with the NES and Sega classics. The next year, the SNES, Game Boy, and classic PC adventure games. Then the PlayStation and N64, Xbox and GBA, and so on until we’re caught up with the modern era of gaming."

"On Eliot’s fourth birthday, I started him with a Pac-Man plug-and-play TV game loaded with arcade classics — Galaxian (1979), Rally-X (1980), Bosconian (1981), Dig Dug (1982), and of course, Pac-Man (1980) and three sequels, Super Pac-Man (1982), Pac-Man Plus (1982), and Pac & Pal (1983)."

Pley: Netflix for Lego

Pley lets you rent Lego sets like Netflix does for movies. Clever idea given the cost of the sets I'd be interested in (Simpsons, Star Wars).

TiVo Launches Over-the-Air DVR

I've had a TiVo for a long time and a Roamio for about a year and love it. It was expensive and my cable bill is high but I'm good with that and get a lot of use out of it. CNN Money reports Simple, Brilliant and Legal -- TiVo Launches Over-the-Air DVR. I'm not sure why legal is in the headline, they must be comparing it to the Aereo and the Supreme Court case decided a couple of months ago but the article makes no mention of it or any other legal issues.

So the new Roamio OTA can record four shows at once and hold 75 hours of HD programming, pretty nice. Otherwise it's a Roamio, with the great interface, channel guide and integrated streaming services like Netflix and Hulu Plus (of course you have to subscribe to those). The difference is it gets TV the old-fashion way using an antenna (aka OTA). The really attractive thing is, it's only $49.99! At that price it's a steal. I might have made the tuner/storage trade-off a little differently, more storage and less tuners (since OTA has so many fewer channels than cable) but it also works with a TiVo Mini, so you can dedicate a tuner to stream stuff recorded to a different TV in the house.

But there's a downside, like other TiVos the Roamio OTA requires TiVo Service which is $14.99/month. The people I know using OTA TV are doing it because they don't want to pay cable fees. I doubt they're interested in paying $15/month (or $500 for lifetime service). The TiVo really is easy to use and $15/month is a lot less than cable fees so so maybe there's a market for that, but I suspect it will be a big turnoff, as it's been with other TiVo products. Also the TiVo Mini I mentioned is $100 and requires a $6/month service, so I don't know how attractive that is to pair with a $50 device.

Making a 7' Lego Serenity

brickfrenzy posted, "I had the opportunity to rebuild my Lego Serenity, and as I did so I decided to make a time-lapse video of it. This was filmed over the course of about 14 months and encompasses 4166 individual images, taken at 60 second intervals, plus detail images from the first build." Only thing I wonder is where are the blueprints?

Tivo Makes Its Hardware Exit Official, Lays Off Most of Design Team

Tivo Makes Its Hardware Exit Official, Lays Off Most of Design Team | Gadget Lab | Wired.com "According to sources within Tivo, most of the hardware team has been let go. So far, that’s five employees. A skeleton crew of two engineers has been retained to handle support for current and upcoming third-party devices. The sources told WIRED that Tivo is getting out of the hardware business altogether and making a big direction change."

Not too happy about this, but glad I have my Roamio.

Update: Much better, TiVo Isn't Exiting Hardware, Says TiVo. “We’re investing a ton into Roamio [the current TiVo line] and are working on new features and services for it…it’s just not right to say we’re exiting the hardware business.”

Lego The Simpsons

I saw another post that had better pictures but still didn't see better on the official Lego site. So Uncrate describes the upcoming, Lego The Simpsons "In perhaps the most anticipated pop culture collaboration of a lifetime, everyone's favorite yellow minifigs and the cartoon world's most famous yellow family have finally joined forces. Lego The Simpsons ($200) will take two forms. The first, a Lego set, depicting the Simpson family's home painstakingly recreated in brick form — complete with minifigs of Bart, Lisa, Maggie, Homer, Marge, and Ned Flanders. The second, a Lego-themed episode of The Simpsons planned to air on FOX in May of this year. The set is sure to please longtime Simpsons fans, with plenty of incredible details including the family's car, Bart's skateboard, a radioactive isotope, and much more. We can think of no better way to celebrate the show's 25th year than this iconic partnership. Expect the set in Lego stores this February."

Someone made a full-size, working car out of Legos

Someone made a full-size, working car out of Legos and I declare that he has won Lego.

• The engine is made from standard Lego pieces and runs on air!
• The engine has four orbital engines and a total of 256 pistons.
• More than 500,000 LEGO pieces.
• Top speed around 20-30km (We drive it slow as are scared of giant lego explosion)
• Built in Romania and shipped to a secret location in Melbourne.
• It's a Hot Rod design, mainly because hot rods are cool.

50 Years 50 Toys Infographic

Abby Ryan Design created 50 Years 50 Toys "To celebrate the holidays this year we've created a holiday themed infographic that looks back at some of the most popular holiday toys from the past 50 years"

TiVo Roamio marries content recording and roaming, but cable keeps calling

Ars has a nice review, TiVo Roamio marries content recording and roaming, but cable keeps calling. I had some setup problems but nothing as annoying as his. My Roamio has mostly "just worked" since install.

There is an issue that now that it connects to the network to try to unify different services, it wants to talk to the network. That's fine, unless the TiVo service is down. I've found that I've finished a show and clicked to delete it and my TiVo hung for a several minutes. When I got to the menu it said it couldn't contact the TiVo service. Fine, so I won't be able update the guide or look some things up, but I don't think it should affect me deleting a show stored on my TiVo.

Home Theater Upgrade

I watch a lot of TV and movies but I don't upgrade my home theater equipment very often. My TV was 11 years old. An expensive (at the time) Panasonic 42" Plasma TV. I had a Denon A/V receiver I got a couple of years later and a Panasonic DVD player. My TiVo was a Series 3, about 7 years old. I got my money out of the lifetime service option (I think I managed to transfer that over from a previous TiVo) but I did replace the hard drive once and it was starting to act up again (a few reboots and pauses).

There were some limitations. The TV and receiver didn't support HDMI connectors so everything was using component video and digital audio cables (I think all were optical). That was fine. I have a Wii and an AirPort Express to stream audio from my mac and iOS devices. But that meant I couldn't use an Apple TV or some other newer devices. Many blu-ray players now just have an HDMI connector. Also, while the TV was HD, it had a resolution of 1024x768 which meant the best it could do was 720p. Higher resolution 1080i and 1080p were beyond it.

So I was thinking of upgrading and then TiVo finally announced their new Roamio and I was interested. After my Series 3 then rebooted on its own, I ordered one then I started looking at home theater equipment reviews in The Wirecutter. I was very happy with their articles, picking the best device in a category and explaining the choices and selection process. I was thinking of buying some of their step-up choices but the more I researched the more I agreed with their best picks. So I ended up getting their picks for Best TV, Best A/V Receiver and Best Blu-ray Player. Here's some of my thinking.

The TV is clearly the best reviewed TV around (some say ever). There are even higher end ones, but this has a great picture for not crazy money. From Amazon I got the 50" version for $1000 (seven times less than I paid for a 42" plasma 11 years prior). I looked at their Best $500 TV choice but it was limited to 720p, didn't have as a good picture (I like rich blacks for old movies) or as a good an anti-glare coating (I've been known to watch movies during the day) and didn't do 3D. I don't have much use for 3D now, but if I keep this TV as long as the last one, some future proofing seemed nice. This one also had network features (aka a "smart tv") and the cheaper one didn't. I didn't see a need for the smart features but I suppose they're worth something (and could be upgraded over time). Also I was saving some money on expectations for a receiver so it seemed reasonable to put it in the TV which I'll be looking at. I'm not a hardcore gamer so the one issue of some video lag didn't bother me at all. I expect to keep this TV until it's time to upgrade to 4K video (if that ever happens).

The TV picture is gorgeous. While the screen is 8" bigger, the bezel on this model is smaller than on my old TV. The picture looks both bigger and better and yet fits right in where the old TV was. It's nicer, but not overwhelming. The image is bright and the colors vibrant. I pulled out my old Toy Story DVD because it has a THX Optimizer on it with some image patterns to help you set up the video controls. I even remembered I had ordered the free THX blue glasses and where they were. So I set that up was and was happy. Then a friend mentioned he looked up the settings that some experts post on a forum. I found this for my TV and was surprised to see that there are a set of slides to download to a sd card to run in slide show mode for 100 hours to break in the TV before configuring the video settings. Yeah I'm not doing that. An alternative is to watch regular TV for 250-300 hours. Fine, after Halloween I'll try out these settings, in the mean time I'm pretty happy.

My last receiver was about $1000 so seeing The Wirecutter's pick was $250 surprised me. Shifting to HDMI means many fewer cables and I'm sure simpler insides. It supports 4 HDMI inputs and I had plans for all of those so I thought about future proofing and getting a step up pick with more inputs, but as I researched, it seemed less necessary. At $250, if I need a new receiver in a few years I'll upgrade. I agree with the review that many features on a receiver aren't necessary. I want it to have good sound and switch inputs. Since I've moved all video to HDMI I don't need it to up-convert or anything like that. The one thing I looked out for was that it passed through 3D so that a 3D blu-ray would play on the 3D TV if I ever wanted that.

As for sound, I didn't really use the DSP stuff on the old receiver so this Yamaha had plenty. I'm surprised but I have used a few of the "sound programs" like "Sports" and "The Bottom Line" (a Jazz club effect) and now regularly watch TV with the "Drama" setting. The Wirecutter said that Dynamic Compression was the one useful sound feature and I have used on occasion when watching something late at night. I have surround sound but not a subwoofer (I have neighbors) so 5.1 was just fine. For radio, sure some FM reception is nice, but mostly I want to stream audio from a computer or iOS device (iTunes or Spotify or whatever). The thing it was missing was builtin AirPlay but I have an AirPort Express already and I'm sure I'll eventually get an Apple TV so it didn't need to be builtin. And whatever was builtin would only stream audio and I'd eventually want to stream video too so I'd be looking at an Apple TV anyway.

Since I was going with HD everything it seemed reasonable to get a blu-ray player too and they're just $100. Their pick from Sony seemed fine, particularly on sale at Amazon for $95. It's supports 3D and the Yamaha Receiver will pass it through to the TV, so I'm good to try an Avatar 3D blu-ray or something eventually.

One feature to consider in all of these components is networking. Streaming services for video (Netflix, Amazon) and audio (Pandora, Spotify) are pretty nice. You can get TVs, receivers, blu-ray players, etc that all offer these features but you really don't need them in all your components. This was the one downside I found to The Wirecutter's strategy of picking the best of each device rather than also having a Best System. So my TV and blu-ray player have various streaming options but I'm probably never going to use them since my TiVo has them too. Still I connected them all up with ethernet cables which are more reliable than wifi (and my router was right next to the TV stand) and found they all downloaded and installed software updates when turned on (which was kind of nice). Another network feature is DLNA which lets you stream stuff (video, pictures, audio) from computers. It seems more prevalent for windows but there are some apps for iOS that are supposed to work. The Apple alternative is AirPlay via an AppleTV. Again to use this you only need support for this it in one device, I have it in both the TV and blu-ray and this redundancy makes the choice of skipping networking features in the receiver seem much better.

The last system-wide feature I learned about is called HDMI Control or CEC. With HDMI cables being digital and with devices getting more complicated the industry looked to do more with the digital connections. So if your TV is streaming Netflix for you, you want some way to send the audio back to the receiver to send to the surround speakers. You could use another cable but HDMI Audio Return Channel (ARC) lets this happen on the same HDMI cable you use to output video from the receiver to the TV. CEC lets the different remotes control the related devices. So turning on the TV will turn on the receiver and the blu-ray player and the volume controls on any of the remotes will affect the receiver. This is another nice benefit of using HDMI cables that I didn't anticipate, but it wasn't easy to get working.

While HDMI CEC is an industry standard, all the venders had to implement it and they have some differences and they all seem to have rebranded it to something else. So Panasonic calls it Viera Link. I do have a universal remote I've used but the remote that came with the new TiVo is quite nice. It's uses radio instead of infra red so it doesn't need to be pointed at the TiVo and it's designed well and has a few unique buttons. One problem is that it's not a learning remote. You can enter codes for different equipment to make TV power and input buttons and volume and mute buttons works with a receiver, but there are no macros and no Receiver power button. HDMI CEC would mean I could the one TV power button to turn on/off my receiver too. My problem was that when I did this, the sound came from the TV and not the receiver. Googling led me to this answer. It seems the Panasonic TV has all the HDMI control options in the setup menu which was easy to find, but there's another option to be found in one the networking apps called VIERA Link and that has one setting for "Speaker Output", change it from TV to Home theater and it all works fine.

So the main device I interact with is the TiVo Roamio. I got the Pro model just to be decadent. I've had it about a month now and am very happy. WIth six tuners I never have a conflict (though I have wanted to record six things at once a couple of times, Sunday has a lot of good TV) and with a 3TB drive I'm not going to run out of room for years, if ever. The picture looks great and I'm having it output everything at 1080p. I got it before the new TV and even hooked up to the old TV using 720p the picture looked much better than my old Series 3. The new HD interface is mostly great and familiar. I like that all movies have their year appended to the title (so you can tell it's a movie) and that almost all TV shows have the season and episode number in their descriptions. Also the guide now shows icons for things that are scheduled to be recorded and new series episodes have a NEW icon. It doesn't manage to show more information on the screen though, the extra real estate is taken up with some ad-like things at the top and a thumbnail picture of what's playing (which I've grown to like over the previous system of overlaying the guide info on top of the full-screen picture).

There are some little things that have annoyed me. Sometimes the clear button will return you to full-screen video, sometimes it won't. It took a while to figure out that the zoom button always works to return to full-screen video. I think I used to be able to use the channel up/down buttons to scroll through a wish list's upcoming show details and now I can't. I also feel like to the rate a show (with thumbs up/down) I have to click more to get to the details description. Right-arrow while watching TV brings up a screen with a few tabs showing info about what's playing, whats being recorded on the other tuners, closed captioning information, and alternate sound tracks. For some reason these tabs are in a different order if you're watching live TV or a recorded show. So that makes a macro to turn on/off closed captions is impossible.

I upgraded from an old TiVo and that process was always start over completely. There was no way to move channel lists, favorite channels, show ratings, season passes, wish lists, or web video subscriptions. Now at least you can transfer season passes via their web site but that wasn't as smooth as it could be. The order of the passes wasn't preserved and auto-record wish lists didn't come over either. Some passes came over but the show is on hiatus and there are no upcoming episodes in the guide; these are displayed as "Corrupt - delete me" which isn't what you want to see. It's also wrong, the correct thing to do is leave them and wait for new episodes to appear in the guide and then they will fix themselves (I've seen this happen in a couple of cases).

There was an issue with certain FiOS cable cards so I was sure to pick up the right model numbers. Cable card install was easy enough, you put it in the TiVo and call an automated FiOS number and read a few codes to active it; but the HBO and Cinemax channels didn't work. FiOS encrypts those and I had problems when they started doing so. I called FiOS, the tech was nice, admitted he hadn't done this before, but got it working within 15 minutes.

The Roamio has a big new feature that it can download and stream video to an iPad or iPad via the TiVo app. I've tried streaming to the iPad once and it was quite nice. It picked up right were I left off, but when I went back to the TV I had to manually advance to the new position. I've just used this on my home network but apparently as of today it will work out of the house too. I can definitely see using this when traveling and it being very useful in a household of several people.

Even though the TV and blu-ray have streaming features, I'm probably going to stick to using the ones in the TiVo. They have good netflix support which is the one service I use now. There's also Amazon Instant but I never understood how that's different from what I get via my Amazon Prime subscription and don't use it much. It is nice that these services are integrated into the search functions of the TiVo. So it will tell you if something is on the device, listed in the upcoming guide or available via Netflix or Amazon.

The only game console I have is a Wii. I used component cables to connect it to the receiver but the Yamaha isn't capable of converting that signal to HDMI so I'd have to run component cables to the TV and switch the TV input to use the Wii. That's not horrible (that's what macros on universal remotes are for) but not ideal. Then I found this device that converts the Wii output to HDMI for just $20 on Amazon. It seems to work perfectly and makes the connections and use a little easier.

I bought five different color High Speed HDMI Cables with Ferrite Cores from Monoprice for about $27 and got a pack of five ethernet cables from Amazon for under $14.

Overall I'm really happy so far.

Apple Stuff

So Apple had their big event yesterday. All of it seemed pretty reasonable though a bit unexciting.

The iPad updates were expected. The mini got retina and the big one is now an Air (basically a larger version of the mini form factor) with the guts of an iPhone 5S. Though neither got the finger printer scanner. So we know what's going into the next version next year. I'm hoping that now that there's an iPad Mini and an iPad Air, we'll get an iPad Pro in 2014 to match the Mac naming conventions.

The MacBook Pro changes were also just the expected spec upgrades. Fair enough. They're nice machines. My sister will probably upgrade to the 15" MacBook Pro because she wants a 15" screen. A 15" Air would be fine for her but Apple apparently doesn't' want to go there. Also, since the MBP isn't in any way user expandable and she's had her current one for over 5 years, it seems like the right plan to get the $300 upgrade for a 512GB SSD.

The Mac Pro is still nice, just as it was when they announced at WWDC. A starting price of $3K is lower than I expected but we still don't know what the options cost.

Nice to see updates to iWork (it's been 4 years) though I hope they're not dumbed down and that the sync to iOS versions works perfectly as they say. (I've had some issues with custom display formats which iOS doesn't support but that's mostly it). I see the new versions don't support AppleScript and that's pissed some people off, but I didn't even know the old versions did.

Mavericks being free is also nice though I suspect it was a lot of work for accountants to figure out how to do that (for profit public companies don't usually do a lot of work to give it away for free). Remember the early iOS updates were free on iPhone (which charged a monthly fee for phone service so it counted as a revenue stream) but cost some money on iPod Touch (which had no monthly charge).

I'm installing iOS 7.0.3 now but I'll wait a little for Mavericks to see if there are any issues. Quicken will supposedly work fine and Quicksilver 1.1.2. will probably too. This is a bit distressing, Mail in Mavericks Changes the Gmail Equation. I'l definitely wait for that to settle out. Hiding the All Mail folder was really useful when using iPhones to prevent them from using a ton of data bandwidth.

For now I don't think I have to buy anything. :) Replacing my iPad 2 with an iPad Air is kinda appealing (lighter, retina, siri, faster), but maybe not compelling enough right now. I'm more interested in an Apple TV update.

Doh! Official Lego Simpsons Sets Coming in 2014

Doh! Official Lego Simpsons Sets Coming in 2014. Nice.

The Free Universal Construction Kit

The Free Universal Construction Kit "F.A.T. Lab and Sy-Lab are pleased to present the Free Universal Construction Kit: a matrix of nearly 80 adapter bricks that enable complete interoperability between ten* popular children’s construction toys. By allowing any piece to join to any other, the Kit encourages totally new forms of intercourse between otherwise closed systems—enabling radically hybrid constructive play, the creation of previously impossible designs, and ultimately, more creative opportunities for kids. As with other grassroots interoperability remedies, the Free Universal Construction Kit implements proprietary protocols in order to provide a public service unmet—or unmeetable—by corporate interests. The Free Universal Construction Kit offers adapters between Lego, Duplo, Fischertechnik, Gears! Gears! Gears!, K’Nex, Krinkles (Bristle Blocks), Lincoln Logs, Tinkertoys, Zome, and Zoob. Our adapters can be downloaded from Thingiverse.com and other sharing sites as a set of 3D models in .STL format, suitable for reproduction by personal manufacturing devices like the Makerbot (an inexpensive, open-source 3D printer)." Much more info and videos on the site.

Unofficial FIrefly Lego Set

Custom LEGo "From the creative mind of Designer Thomas Lockwood comes a masterpiece of design, function, and fun.  A true Browncoat's dream come true, the Firefly Serenity Playset is the set that never was meant to be.  This set has everything you want in a toy: Immediate recognizability, features to play with, spectacular part usage, and model accuracy & proportion.  It all comes together to make this building toy a playable set with an eye towards hours of fun (in building and playing).

This playset has an interesting history.  Originally the design was put up on the LEGO CUUSOO site with the possibility of becoming an actual LEGO branded product with a required 10,000 votes.  After just a couple of months, in what must have been some sort of speed record, all votes were obtained and success seemed imminent.  Much to the chagrin of supporters everywhere, the playset did not pass LEGO's review, despite recognition, praise, and visibility from a bunch of websites, Wired.com, retweets from 3 of the show's actors & Grant Imahara.  That was the end...or so everyone thought.

Steps have been taken to ensure that this model finally will be available for all.  While not an official LEGO set, this is being provided as a service to find & source all the bricks required to put this together, along with the instructions and a few other surprises.  Spend your time building the model, not sourcing and waiting for all the parts to come.  Instead, get a box of parts in the mail, ready to build."

TiVo Stream Makes Me Want to Upgrade to a TiVo Premiere

TiVo Stream Gets Viewers Off the Couch

"The $130 box, available Sept. 6 from TiVo.com and in Best Buy soon after that, streams content from your TiVo to up to four mobile devices in your home at high-definition quality. That lets me watch prerecorded shows while doing other things, like cooking or getting ready for work.

Stream also turns mobile devices into TVs of their own: You can scan the channel guide, select a show and watch it live. It also lets people wirelessly download content to their mobile devices for watching anytime, like on planes or during road trips.

TiVo Stream works with the iPad, iPhone and newer iPod touch models. A TiVo spokesman said an Android-compatible app is in the works."

New TiVo Tip

After 12 years I'm still learning things about TiVo? According to Tips and tricks, down under "De-dupe Your Now Playing List" you can create a keyword Wishlist and pushing one of the Thumbs buttons lets you mark the keyword as required, optional or excluded. As that's tip explains this can be quite useful:

"If you like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, you know what happens when the show takes a week or two hiatus: Your DVR records lots of repeats because they stop listing the guests for each night. Why? When the networks don't provide unique guide data, TiVo can't determine if the show is new or a repeat, so it records them all to play it safe. Waste space and/or manual recordings no more! Martin T., from the Web's most beloved TiVo community forum, exercised the new-and-improved TiVo WishList® feature to to get us our daily Jon Stewart, without the three extra servings. "



"By default the keyword is required in your search. Press either Thumbs button once to exclude the keyword (adds a minus sign), again to make it optional (adds parentheses), and third time to make it required (removes symbols)."

You can use this thumbs tip with only one keyword assigned too. It's probably better to make this wishlist with "Daily Show with Jon Stewart" as a title keyword instead of just a keyword. Also, when making such a wishlist it's really nice to have a keyboard to enter information rather than using the remote and the letter grid. I used the TiVo iPad app for it.

New Kindles

The tech news of the day is the new Kindle models. Ars has two good articles, Amazon creates first viable non-iPad tablet by not copying the iPad and Hands-on with Amazon's new Kindles.

I'm not trading in my iPad anytime soon and I agree with the first article I think these are going to find a new market rather than kill an iPad. If I didn't have an iPad I'd be interested in the Fire though I'm not sure about the 7" screen for movies or games. I'm now interested in the Touch. At $99 and with an eInk screen, it seems like a digital book to bring to the beach. It will also fit in a few coat pockets that an iPad won't. So I might take it on a train or someplace to read more comfortably than on an iPhone. If I were traveling with a laptop and iPhone I might take one of these along the way I would take a paperback. If I were already traveling with an iPad I wouldn't. The fact that there's an iOS Kindle app that syncs your location in digital books is what makes it viable for me (as someone with Apple products) also Instapaper support.

Serenity in Lego

Here are some photos on flickr by Dufresne07 of his Lego model Serenity from Firefly. It's pretty damn impressive.



The drive even lights up.