OUYA Unboxing and first impressions

I was one of the July 2012 backers and I finally received my OUYA right on Memorial weekend on Saturday afternoon.

Here’s my unboxing, thoughts, and if you don’t have time to see the whole thing and you’re thinking about getting one, get it, totally worth the $99. They did a great job overall, this thing can play any Android video game, it runs Android 4.1 out of the box, it can also stream video really nice as well (see the Twich app to watch live streams from gamers worldwide to get the picture of the streaming capabilities)

I can safely say “I love OUYA”.
(and sorry for the pronuciation, the way to pronounce it is “OOH-Yah”

Raspberry PI Game Console Project: Getting an OS to run on it.

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(My previous post)

So now that we have a Raspberry PI we need an ARM based Operating system to go on it.

My original idea is to run Jelly Bean on it, but I couldn’t quickly find an image for the Raspberry PI (which means I’ll either have to find harder or I’m gonna have to bust my ass and build one myself and add all the drivers necessary so that it runs like charm)

At this point I just need to know that my hardware is good to go, so the quickest, easiest way to put an OS on the Raspberri PI that I found was to get a Debian based Linux on it called Raspbian “wheezy”.

You can download the .zip file that contains the image file via http or you can help seed a torrent of it after you get it.

Once you download that you will end up with a 493.6MB .zip file, unzip it, and you will see the 1.96GB 2013-02-09-wheezy-raspbian.img file.

Now you have to put that .img file inside the SD card that will go into the Raspberry PI.

I’ll teach you how to do that on a Mac (on a linux box is quite the same, the file and mount locations are probably the only thing that’ll change)

1. Stick the SD card on the SD slot of your macbook.
2. On the Finder, Eject the SD card as soon as it comes up.
3. Open a Terminal
4. Execute sudo diskutils list, you should see something *like* this (this is actually how it’ll look when you’re done)

[bash]$ sudo diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.3 GB disk0
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 499.4 GB disk0s2
3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: FDisk_partition_scheme *2.0 TB disk1
1: Apple_HFS Time Machine 2.0 TB disk1s1
/dev/disk2
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk2
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk2s1
2: Apple_HFS PICS_AND_MOVIES 999.9 GB disk2s2
/dev/disk4
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: FDisk_partition_scheme *15.9 GB disk4
1: Windows_FAT_32 58.7 MB disk4s1
2: Linux 1.9 GB disk4s2[/bash]

I want you to notice the “/dev/disk4“, judging by the size, that’s our 16 GB SD card right?

5. Now that we know where it is, let’s copy the image file into it. First make sure to unmount the partitions that are on the SD Card so you can write on it, for example, I have there a Windows_FAT_32 partition I don’t want to loose (disk4s1), you unmount it like this:

sudo diskutil unmount /dev/disk3s1

Then copy the image using the awesome dd utility, if the .img file was in your “Downloads” folder the command would look like this. (“if” stands for “input file”, make sure you put the full path to the file, or go to that folder and execute the command below)

sudo dd bs=1m if=~/Downloads/2013-02-09-wheezy-raspbian.img of=/dev/disk4

This will take a few minutes, be patient.

Once done, take the SD card, put it in the Raspberry PI SD Slot, hook it up to a monitor and power, snap a mouse and keyboard, and boot. It should work.

Sony Walkman NWZ-W262 gift from Klout perks arrives! #Review

First Impressions
Feels good in my ears (I’m already used to in-ear buds, this ones have a nice vacuum when you slide them in)

Unlike my old sport Sennheiser headphones (which I love for running) the speakers are joined by a thick cable, not a thin cable enclosed by a plastic frame.

Screen Shot 2013-04-04 at 11.04.47 AM

It took a couple of minutes but the drive “WALKMAN” was mounted automatically! Maybe it was the first time the device was started it may have needed to boot or it just didn’t have enough charge to mount itself, who knows. it’s mounted now, I’ll be uploading music to it with drag and drop next.

Controls

The controls are placed on the underside, buttons are nicely separated. You will have volume controls on your left ear, the same goes for one button to turn shuffle on or off. Controls are responsive, skipping is instant just like you’d expect.

On the right ear you will have skip and play/pause buttons. Some buttons trigger a female voice that tell you what you just did, that’s a nice touch.

I’d give the controls and overall design a 4/5.

Sound
If you’re used to Dre. Beats you will be disappointed, If however you use regular headsets sound quality is comparable to the sport Sennheisers, it seems like they will do the job well when you’re running.

You won’t be able to blast super hard with these headsets, and a downside is the sound bleed. People around you will hear your music, something that surprises me because they are in-ear, but now I’m starting to think that the in-ear part is only to avoid sweat from going into your ear canals when you’re running, it’s not related to sound quality.

I’d give them a 3.8/5 in sound, I guess if you’re not too demanding they’re fine.

I’ll be updating this post after I take them on a 3 mile run.

Specs
2GB storage.

1.5 hours to charge, up to 8 hour playback.

water resistant, perfect for sweaty runners like myself.

Verdict

They are well worth the $55, Get them on Amazon if you like them.

Disclosure: I didn’t buy the Sony Walkman, they’ve been given to me by Klout perks, probably with the intention of me reviewing these and generating buzz around the product. Still the targeting by Klout Perks was great, I’m a geek and a runner and I do need a product like this. I would’ve probably not bought it in the first place since I tend to do all my running work outs using my Android phone and several apps (FrostWire for the media player, Cardio Trainer for mile tracking)

Remee Unboxing

Welcome to my Remee Unboxing, unlike every other night I think tonight I’ll actually want to go to bed because there might be a chance towards doing something productive or fun while I’m in temporary death mode.
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