33 RPM from Anthony Di Iorio on Vimeo.
Music by: Mr. Oizo
In this video review I’ll be going through the features and performance of the Mondo by Grace Digital Audio.
The Mondo is a small and portable Internet connected media player that can stream content from online radio networks, Pandora, iHeartRadio, Sirius XM and local files over your network/removable media. During my testing period I was able to stream quite a bit of content over the Internet and I can say that the experience was very smooth with very little buffering when changing sources due to the speedy 802.11n wireless chipset. Even some of the large files on my media server took at most 4-5 seconds to buffer on this media player.
Even though the Mondo uses a low resolution display, menus are still easy to navigate and text is readable for the most part. The Mondo is capable of displaying full colour images including Album art and icons for navigation. Speaking of navigation, the Mondo is primarily controlled with a control dial located below the display which is very easy to use for scrolling around menus, but makes it difficult to input text when using the search feature or connecting to a secured wireless network.
In terms of audio fidelity, the Mondo provides a decent listening experience for most home users, but if you plan on turning up the volume over 75% you’ll be in for a rattling surprise (literally) when you hear the cheap plastic parts vibrating and creating unruly distortion.
One feature I really enjoyed while using the Mondo was the mobile integration. If iOS or Android device, you can download a remote app to control this device without the IR remote that is included. This makes it much easier to navigate compared to the control wheel, and if you happen to lose the remote, you might already have the device to replace it. Unfortunately there is no support for audio over AirPlay, so the only way to get your music to it is via the Aux input, removable media, or a UPnP server.
Pros:
Overall the Mondo by Grace Digital Audio is a fairly decent device for the home user and it provides a great source for higher end speakers since it has a stereo RCA output on the back. If you are in the market for a portable Internet radio, the Mondo is a great option coming in at around $170 on Amazon.
Thanks to Grace Digital for providing the review unit.
This was my second timelapse done with Magic Lantern. Earlier in the day I tried out bulb ramping to get the sunset, but it didn’t work out so great. In total this timelapse used 2531 frames and spans over about 2 hours at 3 second intervals with 2.5 s second exposures.
Music:
“cloudcycle/stratus.spherical” (cloudcycle) / CC BY 3.0
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“Stay hungry, stay foolish” — Steve Jobs
Over the last two years, the iPad has been dominating the tablet market. Until now, I’ve regarded all other tablets at the same price point useless hunks of silicon. Today Amazon announced their new Kindle Fire. The tablet features a plethora of great specs and only costs $200. That’s right, it’s the first viable tablet competition to the iPad that has a competitive price point!
Now on to my thoughts… The Kindle Fire looks good, really good. For $200 it destroys every other Android tablet on the market with ease. As far as the interface goes, I’m really impressed with the design. It’s one of the fist tablets with an interface that looks completely different to the interface iOS and Honeycomb uses (single pages with icons). As you can see in the image above, Amazon chose to feature an elegant cover flow style content browser that allows you to see recently used apps, movies, books and more. Other apps are available in a side-scrolling browser on the bottom.
Specs are pretty decent, so lets make a direct comparison to the $500 Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1:
Kindle Fire $200:
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 $500:
For $200, the Kindle Fire is pretty similar and is definitely a great choice if you are looking for an inexpensive alternative. Plus, since it’s from Amazon, it’s connected to your Amazon account which means purchasing apps, books, music, and movies is extremely easy.
More at Amazon.com
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In this video review, I take a look at the Merlin Video Rail Slider Camera Dolly.
Features:
After testing this rail system for a few weeks, I definitely say I’m impressed. The included wheels are extremely smooth, and just the fact that keeping the DIY community in mind while designing this product makes it the best system I’ve seen so far. Other systems on the market typically include a proprietary set of rails that can only be upgraded if you purchase a new set from the manufacturer. With the Merlin Dolly, you can easily use a plank of wood or your own rails to accommodate any length you need.
Overall, this is the perfect choice for anyone looking for a dolly system that can easily be customised to fit your needs. With it’s fantastic build quality and extremely smooth wheels, this is simply an amazing product.
Be sure to check out the demo below:
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