This is just a quick guide to help you locate where to download it, get it installed and up and running with your VB6 studio.  The guide has 4 main sections:

1. Downloading the MSDN Library
2. Extracting the MSDN Library
3. Installing the MSDN Library
4. Test the MSDN Library with VB6

Step 1

Click on the Privacy Shortcuts (lock icon) link on the top right of most browsers using Facebook. From the options that appear, select the "See More Settings" link at the bottom of the shortcuts listed. This should lead you here: https://www.facebook.com/settings/ . It should appear as below.

Step 2

Click on the "Videos" link at the bottom left portion of the screen among the catagories of settings. This will make the "Video Settings" tab appear. It should be located https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=videos . It should appear as below.

Step 3

On the "Auto-Play Videos" setting select the "Off" option. You should be good now.

Mobile Facebook Video settings are done differently.  Here is the official Facebook help on adjusting those:

https://www.facebook.com/help/633446180035470

Recently, I have had to go back to reinstalling Visual Basic 6 on a Windows 7 workstation and trying to do some development/bug fixes. Specifically, I have been trying to get my dev environment working to debug some old VB6 OCX projects. After working through some initial lameness with installing VB6 (for example, it will always try to install an old version of Java on a new Windows machine- you can trick it out of doing that), I final got VB6/studio installed and could open my old VB6 project. A few more obvious issues after that, I was down to one error that I couldn't seem to solve.

The Problem

When I opened any of the VB6 projects, I got the same series or errors trying to load the project.  I have included the screen shots in detail here so you know exactly what I am seeing. I went through various Google and MSDN recommendations but nothing was working and I did not find a solution. Here were the errors I was getting:

...continue loading project?

Errors during load. Refer to '<path>.log' for details.

Errors occurred during load.

Errors during load. Refer to '<path>.log' for details.

The project finally appeared, but without some of the MS Controls that I had used in the project.

 The error log file referred to in the screen shots contained this kind of error in my project (yours will vary):

Line 12: Class MSComctlLib.Slider of control sldInterval was not a loaded control class.

Line 37: Class MSComctlLib.Slider of control sldCallTimeout was not a loaded control class.

Line 54: Class MSComctlLib.Slider of control sldConnectTimeout was not a loaded control class.

Line 71: Class MSComctlLib.Slider of control sldTimeoutPeriod was not a loaded control class.

Line 88: Class MSComctlLib.Slider of control sldRetryPeriod was not a loaded control class.

The real problem? The Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Common Controls ( MSCOMCTL.OCX ) was not properly registered. OK. No problem, I thought. So, I quickly went to my Windows/SysWow64 directory and I registered it by running:

> regsvr32 mscomctl.ocx

from the command line (as Administrator). Command shell responded that .ocx was registered successfully. Woohoo!

Only, once I re-loaded the VB6 project, I got the same error as before: "Object library not registered"

So, I thought I might have to force VB6 studio to re-associate with the OCX so I attempted to add the mscomctl.ocx file to the project via the Components menu in the IDE. No tamales. Response: "Object not registered".  I even tried reinstalling VB6. No dice either. Bummer.

The Resolution

As I said, re-registering the OCX or reinstalling VB6 didn't help.

Back to Google and MSDN. I found a couple articles online that said to re-register the typelib as follows for Windows 7--

> cd C:\Windows\SysWOW64\

> regtlib msdatsrc.tlb 

This apparently works on some computers, but on my machine as the "regtlib.exe" executable was not present in the SysWow64. In fact, that file as an exe does not exist on my machine. After a bit more searching, I found that the type library registration is now part of .NET framework. I had to use that equivalent binary inside of one of my installations of .NET to do the task. On my machine, the solution was as follows:

> cd C:\Windows\SysWOW64\

Once there, I ran the regtlib command from the .net version that is installed (latest) on my machine.

> C:\Windows\SysWOW64]C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\regtlibv12.exe msdatsrc.tlb

Registration of msdatsrc.tlb successful.

This command ran successfully and now I can open my VB project.  Zippidee doooda! Now my VB 6 project loads successfully.

Since this took me a while, I assumed others may have run into this gauntlet, so I wanted to be sure to document the fix in case anyone else runs into this.

Keep on coding people...

Kim Gentes

In many situations, having a compliment of skilled musicians for a full band is not possible. Church plants, special events, youth nights and other situations sometimes leave you standing there with your guitar, playing away, worshiping your heart out. I believe that God is honored when we give Him everything we have each time we worship- our surrendered hearts are what He looks for (Psalm 51:17). That being said, as your community is gathering you can sometimes find yourself with parts of a band (such as a drummer and keyboardist, but no bassist). These people are ready to serve, but it would be helpful to be able to "sub" in that missing player until a person arrives at your church who can serve in that role.

Enter "Worship Backing Band" (WBB for short). A couple years ago, I noticed that a number of these software tools were releasing to supplement musical tracks for musicians in local church settings. I had known the folks at Musicademy because of the great training resources they released over the years (which I had tried and reviewed favorably). So I knew I wanted to check out there new "Worship Backing Band" software at some point.

The version I was able to download is the latest (1.5) and it comes available for the Mac or PC. I choose to do my testing and using it on both a PC and a Macbook Pro so I could get the feel for both environments interactions. Downloading and installing it was simple enough. Once installed, I went and acquired a few songs to do my testing (I chose "Bless The Lord/10000 Reasons", "How Can I Keep from Singing", "Let God Arise" and "You Alone Can Rescue"). The model for this is that you purchase the player for $25 (it always comes with one free song of the month), and then you purchase individual songs that you need (priced from $8.99 down to $6.91, depending on how many songs you buy).  Compared to the hundreds of dollars you might spend on Ableton Live (which I have and use, as well) on just the software, this is very, very affordable.

Once you download and install all the songs, you are ready to use the software. The nice thing about the software is that using it on PC or Mac is identical. The interface and functionality is replicated perfectly. Using the system is, above all, simple! The right pane of the application contains a playlist for the songs you want to use in your worship set. You load songs into it by clicking on the "library" button and exposing the songs available to you in the middle pane from your library. Drag and drop the songs from the middle library pane into your playlist on the right. 

On the left side pane is a mix control panel for each of the instrument tracks in the song. Everything from lead voice, background vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitars (2 tracks), keyboards (2 tracks), bass, drums and couple of click tracks (regular and shaker) are available. There is even a vocal cue track.

Here is how you use it: 

1. First, select the "mute" button for any instruments that you have in your band. (leaving un-muted any tracks you wish to play out loud with your band). Make sure to save your song "mix" by using the "Save Song Mix". 
2. In the middle pane, adjust the pitch and tempo to your desired settings for your band.
3. Click Play.

Basically, 90% of what you will want to do with WBB is covered by those instructions. However, you can adjust the volume for any track if you want more/less of any instrument. As the song plays, you can also jump to or repeat sections using keyboard keys "<>" and "g". The beauty of this tool is that it is clear, simple, and easy to use. If you use a PC or Mac laptop, and want an easy-to-use software package for adding virtual instruments to your regular band members, you should really look at Worship Backing Band.

Once it was installed, I grabbed my guitar and was ready to go within just 30 seconds using this software and my Macbook Pro. While there are no advanced features for saving the segment flow of a song (only the mix), or for adding your own custom tracks, this program allows you to do what you minimally want to do.  Musicademy has over 125 popular worship songs in their purchasable song library for your church, which would be 90% of the common songs used by many churches. That along with the the minimalist approach on the interface of this tool makes Worship Backing Band simple, clear and easy-to-use. The nice thing is, you don't have to spend any money to try WBB out. Musicademy has a functional demo version of the software that you can download for Mac or PC. Below is a summary video that is all the instruction I needed to get going and use WBB. 

If you want to try out Worship Backing Band, go here and check out the details, download the demo and see the song library: Worship Backing Band

NEW WBB 2.0 Update: After I had completed the initial review of version 1.5, I was able to get a sneak peek at the latest update to WBB version 2.0.  This new version comes with a number of significant updates for those who want more power and control. It is important to note that the new Worship Backing Band software (v2.0) will be called "MultiTrack Pro Wav Player". The current version will still be available for those wanting the current functionality and not needing anything else.  The main updates I found bring the player up to another level of helpfulness for the local church worship leader. Here are the highlights:

• Seamless Loop & Navigate - Now you can seamlessly loop and jump through song sections. Want to do the chorus again? Now it is easy in "MultiTrack Pro Wav Player". The player automatically queues up the exact right spot to jump back to the start of any section, so it feels musically seamless. You could navigate sections in v1.5 but you had to perfectly time the keystroke required to do so, which is almost impossible if you are also playing an instrument (even with a pedal) and leading a congregation. Now, looping, section navigation and such all keep the song together and flowing like a real band would.
• Save Section Structure - like the above navigation, you can also save the song flow instead of having to remember your customizations.
• USB foot pedal support - you can now navigate through a song by controling the player from a USB foot pedal. Great update.
• Audio WAV Hi-quality- the tracks are now full WAV files and as such have more control and clarify of audio.
• Customize your own instrument tracks - you can now load your own WAV files into a song by importing them. Got your drum loop or track you want to use? Just hit CTRL-m on a song and you can now load your instrument as part of the song mix. Great for more advanced users.

All in all this "MultiTrack Pro Wav Player" update is great. Be sure to check out Worship Backing Band.

Review by Kim Gentes

My best advice- get advice from a pro! One of those guys who is a pro is Jeff Dykhouse. I first got to know about Jeff on the liner notes of dozens of worship CDs. As a music reviewer, I ended up seeing Jeff's name constantly inserted under the assignment of "engineer" or "mixed by" on many well known worship projects.  When I had appeared on a Vineyard CD in the early 90's (ya, I've been around that long), once again, I was not surprised to find Jeff's name on that. Folks over the years have told me about Jeff's work on recording projects, and also his work in local churches- helping to consult to make their sound systems work great.

But recently another friend pointed out that Jeff also has posted some really good articles on the proverbial church worship question "how loud is too loud". Jeff answers this question in three excellent articles that are worth a serious look. If you are a church, you use a sound system and you have this question come up often, there is no better a place I can recommend than having you first read and take to heart Jeff's concise answers in his three-part post.  You can find them all here:

How Loud is Too Loud (Articles 1-3): http://bit.ly/10kkO5K
by Jeff Dykhouse 

I trust that will help many as we all look to make the sound an asset in our worship facilities instead of a liability! 

Worshiping with you!
Kim Gentes

Now I can check in at scannable card businesses all day long- no card required. Turns out that CardStar has already dozens of built in card formats from various businesses and affinity clubs. If your particular card isn't in there, just use the "Other" designation and enter the ID. The scannable bar code is automatically generated. You store it, and its there for retrieve whenever you need it.

I know this sounds pretty simple and unsexy in terms of technology, but it is amazingly helpful and allows me to throw away almost all of my membership cards! Thank God!

There is app for Android and iOS devices. Download it. It is real helpful. Oh ya, its free.

http://bit.ly/WIBPVo

Again, here is how you add a simple card to it.

How To Add A New Membership Card To Cardstar

STEP 1 - Start the app, Click the "+" button on the far top right.

STEP 2 - Scroll through the list of companies on the screen. If you find your company, select that one. If you don't, scroll to the bottom of the list of companies and click (other).

STEP 3 - Enter your membership ID/number (click the Check Mark in the top right when you have entered it)

STEP 4 - The next screen will be the "Edit Card" screen. Select the "Title" field to assign the name of the business/club. Enter the name of the business. Be sure the select the OK button to complete the name. Then select the Check mark on the top right again to save your changes.

STEP 5 - Click the top left edge of the app screen to go back to the main menu.

Now, whenever you need to access your membership card, just:

STEP 1 - Select the name of the club/company.

STEP 2 - You bar code will appear and be ready for scanning.

Pretty cool, ya. I think so. Good scanning folks.

Kim Gentes

How To Stream Your Worship Services Online
With Dan Wilt (WorshipTraining) and Special Guest Kevin Weimer (WorshipStream)

Description: Every church can benefit from streaming their services online. In this webinar we will talk about why churches stream, should it be live or on-demand, one camera versus multiple cameras, and what do you need to get started. There are literally countless options on how to implement a system for streaming, but we will focus on the basics of what you need to know to begin. This is a very practical (non-super-technical) look at how easy it can be to start streaming your services and events online. 

THREE (3) RESOURCES: The video, audio and PDF resources that were presented in this webinar are available below in full form below.

Resource 1: Webinar Video

Resource 2 and 3: Audio & PDF Downloads

Free Resource Downloads for  "How To Stream Your Worship Services Online"
by Dan Wilt & Kevin Weimer

Editors Post-Logue: If you have further questions about streaming your worship or church services online, you can contact Kevin Weimer directly via http://www.worshipstream.com .  He is very knowledgeable in this area and will help answer your questions.  I have personally used WorshipStream.com services before and highly recommend them.    Sincerely, Kim Gentes

STEP 1 - Create the Form

Go to Google Docs, use the  Create drop down, select "Form" as you see below

STEP 2 - Set up Form

Next you will see a new form presented to you. Depending on whether you are using Google apps or just an individual use account you may have different options at the very top, but in any case ignore those check-boxes at the very top for now.

In this example, we will just create a bulleted form for a multiple choice question (you can do others as you like). For our example change the Question Type to Multiple choice, as you see below.

STEP 3 - Customize the Form and Questions & Answers

Now let's get down to your actual questions and answers in your form.

In this example, you can see I have called the form "Understanding the Chickens". Every form can have multiple questions, but I am just going to have one question for this example. My question title is "why do chickens cross the road". I also start entering some possible options for answers. Note that I also select the check box at the bottom of the question "Make this a required question", so that people must answer it. See below.

STEP 4 - Clean Up a bit

When you create a form, the default template automatically puts up a second sample Question. It's at the bottom of the form. For our example, let's just delete it. The delete button for any form element will be on the far right of the page area, as you see below (at the bottom of the image).

STEP 5 - Save and Preview Form

When you get things looking like you want, click the "Done" button the question you are editting. Then click the "Save" button on the top right hand area of the page. When you do that, the form will appear in the mode that users will see it, allowing you to preview it. Our sample should now look like this below. 

STEP 6 - Edit the Confirmation Page

Google forms lets you edit the page that users see when they complete the form. You do this by first selecting the "More actions" drop down on the top right area of the page, and select the "Edit Confirmation" selection as shown below. 

Immediately, you will be given access to the "Edit confirmation" dialog. This allows you to change the text as you wish to the user response page. But more importantly, it allows you to include a link to the summary data for your users. All users like to find out the results of most polls and this is what allows that. Make sure you select "Publish response summary" checkbox to allow your users to see the results. Again, unless you are using Google Apps for your domain, skip over the other checkbox for that. Your form should look like the following.

STEP 7 - Get Embed Code for Your Poll

You are on the home stretch, and just a couple things left and your poll will be live on your site. Before you can post the poll on your site, you must get the code from Google Docs. This is easy enough. On the form, once again select the "More actions" drop down on the top right area of the page, this time select the "Embed" selection as shown below. 

Immediately, you will be given access to the "Embed" dialog. This has one purpose- to let you copy the embed code from Google for use on your site. Your form should look like the following. Just copy the code to your computer's paste buffer for now.

STEP 8 - Paste Embed Code on your Website/Blog

Now take the code you have in your paste buffer and drop it into your own blog, CMS, webpage or such. Whether you are using Wordpress or native HTML editing or such, there will be a way to paste code snippets into your page.  Check the instructions for your particular site editor on how to add widget code, and this will be the way you add this code snippet for your poll. In the case of our example, I am using Squarespace for my website, so I add my poll using its "Insert Code Block" icon, which is just a way to add custom widgets or code from other sources than the editor gives you. You can see me pasting the code as shown below. 

You are now done adding your poll! Congrats! However, you will want to know how to access the poll results and go back and edit things later if necessary. See below for that info.

STEP 9 - Reviewing Results and Making Changes Later

Reviewing the poll results at any time is easy to do. The results are stored in a spreadsheet, which you can access from the form. You do so by selecting the "See responses" drop down from the top right area of the form, and selecting the "Spreadsheet" option, as you see below. The spreadsheet will also be viewable directly in your google docs directory by now, if you are looking directly at that directory.

Once you access the spreadsheet, you will see the results in a regular cell/row layout, showing the responses of each poll-taker as you can see below.

STEP 10 - Making Changes to the Poll After It's Launched

The great thing about Google docs is that you can always update or edit your forms/polls. When you access the form from Google docs it will open up to the spreadsheet view by default, but don't worry, you can always get back to the form editing/layout very easily. Simply, notice on the top of the spreadsheet view that there is a tab called "Form". Use that and select "Edit Form", which is the first drop down in the list, as you can see below. That will bring you back to editing the form. Also, of note are the several other features of the forms, which include a cool way to send the form via email or even shut down the poll so you can stop taking results. All very cool.

SAMPLE POLL

Below is the sample poll we've created in this step by step tutorial. Enjoy!

 

First, move your cursor to your desktop and click the right-mouse button. This will reveal a context mini-menu.

From that menu, select "Personalize" (normally, the last option). This will open up the Control Panel applet for personalization. One of the themes in use will be selected. If you want to access pictures from any other place than the current one in use, select that theme now.

At the bottom of the applet frame you will see an icon labele "Desktop Background" with the words "Slide Show" undernearth.  Select that link.

This will open up the library of images in the theme/feed you are interested in. Scroll down to the image you are interested in and right-mouse click the image. If your theme is a feed from the internet, this will bring up a security warning.

Select "OK" if you get the security warning (assuming your image feed/theme is secure and ok). 

This will bring up another mini-menu. Select the "Preview" option on the mini-menu. 

This will open the image in the Windows Preview browser.

Use the "File" menu on the Windows Preview application. Use the "Make Copy" option and save a copy of the image file to your desired location. 

You now have a copy of the desktop image from your theme or feed.

Kim Gentes

So here is the deal. All those browsers and platforms have changed so significantly, that the underlying technologies have become a mashup of mobile centric functionality (such as touch-screen operation, screen resolution/orientation), HTML5 A/V capabilities and desktop CSS sensibilities (along with web font assets etc). A modern mobile phone has a unique dialect for browsing websites and using its hardware and accessing the datastreams it connects to- notably digital cell phone calls and internet surfing.  Dumbing down the desktop versions of HTML and browsers into a mobile version is no longer an option. iOS and Android (both webkit-based) browsers have forced us to see the world of mobile as unique. In fact, it has pushed back much of the simplicity and elegance demanded of mobile devices back onto the design of desktop via what I call the "iPhonification of websites".  We are seeing web 2.0 (and 3.0) largely with the flavor pushed back onto the desktop world from the success of Apple's mobile i-world.

OK, so that is the set up.  Once we see the mobile world has its separate needs and reasons for requiring a different technology subset, we recognize that perhaps we need a different way of architecting these mobile browser experiences.  For the last 3 years, much of the desktop AJAX experience has been fueled by support from a toolsuit called jQuery. Free, but brilliant and solid software modules that provide a framework for AJAX/Javascript development and function.  And, up until now, people developing for mobile have been cramming jQuery solutions into mobile devices to stay consistent with their server side support.

Life just got a bit clearer. About 10 days ago, the version 1.0 of jQuery Mobile finally released. Initially, this will actually make more work for those software developers who want to support all the platforms that are continuing to proliferate onto the marketplace.  But with the creation of this unique mobile version of jQuery, hope rises for the huge range of sites/apps that rely on jQuery as their mobile solution for an AJAX foundation.

The new jQuery Mobile stands on top of (not in place of) the jQuery core, and reaches into various areas, most notably the touch functionality. Everything from attribute references to PhoneGap update tips are included on jQuery Mobile's flourishing documentation.  Everyone in the app/site space is rushing to support mobile, but none of that is possible (in a good long term way) without platform tools like this being brought to bear in the mobile space.

All you geeks out there can check out jQuery Mobile for yourselves right here.

http://jquerymobile.com/

A big shout out to all the folks in the jQuery cloud that make it all happen.

Kim Gentes

Windows Phone 7.5 Review
HTC Trophy

by Jordan Gentes

Microsoft’s new phone platform Windows Phone7.5 is intuitive, simple, and brilliant.  Wait, did you just use those three words in the same sentence as Microsoft and Windows?  Yes, I did.  This new development by Microsoft brings an important piece to the mobile environment.

Intuitive: The OS its-self is very intuitive.  When you power on the display you are welcomed to live tiles that are beautiful and easy to understand.  Gone are the days of cluttered notification bars and crowded clusters of apps.  Windows Phone ushers in a day of relevant information that updates seamlessly.

• People:  The ability to sync your contacts with external email accounts and Facebook are standard in the “smartphone world”.  Some phones settle for simply syncing photos and other contact information.  Windows Phone goes to the next level with a deep Facebook integration.  Now I can locate my contact in my People section and I am presented with the contacts’ Information, What’s New (On their FB wall, statuses, posts etc.), Pictures (feed from FB), and the History I have with that contact, from Texts, to missed calls, all of my interaction with that contact is stored in an easy and convenient location.

Simple: With the introduction of live tiles the Windows Phone OS is super simple to navigate.  The OS is attractive to all ages, something that neither iOS nor Android can say.  This OS provides an enjoyable user interface that is simple, but powerful. 

• Messaging: Windows Phone has done a great job consolidating text and Facebook messaging into a convenient and seamless process.  You can start a conversation with someone via text and continue the messaging on Facebook if they were to login while you were in conversation or vice versa. 

Brilliant: Windows Phone is brilliant; so many functions that users count on daily are built into the framework of the user experience.

• Windows Key: Probably one of my favorite features of the OS, hold the Windows Key, for two seconds and you are greeted with options to speak commands to the phone.  Texting, Searching, and launching apps are just a few of the options that are made possible by this feature.  And what do you know, it works!  If you speak clearly, it will understand the overwhelming majority of what you are saying, I have yet to say something clearly and have it misunderstand my instructions.  Try that Android.. 
• E-mail: I love the email client on the Windows Phone OS.  You can add most popular email services to sync with your phone.  This is a great thing for the user; I can’t tell you how frustrating it is that you can only sync Gmail (other than Exchange) with Android.  Microsoft’s decision to allow their users to sync Yahoo, Windows Live, or Gmail is very pleasing. 
• Search:  When you click the search button, you are greeted with more than just a traditional search.  Built into the “Search” is 4 icons at the bottom of the screen, one that finds local attractions near to your location, a music note that within seconds of touching finds your song (bye, bye Shazam),  an eye ball that scans barcodes, QR Codes, Microsoft tags, Books, CD’s and DVD’s.  I love that they have taken the time to add those recourses to the Search, no more need for 10 different apps to perform the various functions.  It’s clean, and it just works! 
• Apps: While the Marketplace for Windows Phone continues to grow, it is certainly newer to the market then iOS or Android.  With that “new comer” status there are less apps available.  However, due to the deep integration of features already provided in the OS I found my need for additional apps to be much lower.  Nonetheless, I found most popular apps available on the other platforms were available one Windows Phone.  To be frank, I found all the apps I wanted to use were available, however, to be fair I did want to mention the reality that the app selection is not as populous at this moment on Windows Phone. 

Synopsis:

This particular review was conducted on an HTC Trophy, however, yet another thing I love about Windows Phone is every phone gets updates, meaning everyone has a congruent user experience.  The battery life on this particular device is incredible (for a smartphone) I easily go the entire day with no problems.  On one day of very heavy usage I got a low battery warning at 15 hours, however, on a normal usage day (that would involve several emails, 100-150 text messages, 30 minutes on the phone, and some casual internet browsing) the phone still had 40-50% battery remaining at 15 hours.  Battery usage will vary by device somewhat, however, the OS manages power quite efficiently.  Windows Phone is a true representation of a modern mobile experience.  Windows Phone is clean and it’s such an inviting user interface that I am confident anyone would enjoy the experience. 

Amazon Product Link: HTC Trophy Windows Phone

If you are looking at purchasing a device, consider what you are interested in using the device for and see which device leans towards the features you are most excited about.

 iPad / Kindle Fire Comparison

eBook Reader	10	7
Web Surfing	8	7
Movie/Video	6	8
Music Player	7	6
Email	6	7
File Sharing	7	4
Apps	6	8
Gaming	6	7
Size/Form Factor	9	7
User Interface	8	7
Performance	7	8
Typing/Editing	6	8
Battery	6	6
Price	$199	$499

If you are interested in have a excellent ebook reading experience, web surfing, music playing (stereo speakers), sleek user interface and like small device size, then the Kindle Fire is in your strength list. If you are interested in watching movies, having a lot of custom apps usage, gaming usage, or want to take notes or data entry then the iPad is a strong device to consider.

What is also important to remember is this- the iPad and the Kindle Fire use the same essential hardware processor and architecture, but the iPad runs iOS and the Fire runs Android.  The differences in iOS and Android propogate much of the technical comparisons of the two tablet- iOS runs more tightly and slightly better performance; Android runs with broader access to external connections (even USB ports) and file systems giving you easier access in such areas. Such technical considerations are not often important to general users, since apps are virtually becoming synonymous across both the iOS and Android platforms. But they are important to technical people and developers.

If you are user, use the device that meets your needs. Technical considerations are less the issue.

As with everything, utility is the king.  At the price point of these two devices, it's important not to ignore your real functional requirements, since much can be saved (cost-wise) if you lean more to the Kindle Fire and it meets your needs. But if you must have the strengths of the iPad on your side, be sure you are ready to pay 2.5 times more for the Apple brand.

Kim Gentes

Perhaps, not "more of the same", if Amazon has anything to say about it. In fact, with the launch of their latest device Amazon looks like they have finally decided to weigh in, and weigh in heavily, on the device market. Not satisfied with having the world's most popular ebook reader, Amazon has launched a new line of Kindle devices that compete head-on with real tablets. Here is my review of the first version of that device.

Today is November 15.  It is a significant day for many other reasons, but one small reason is the arrival of the new Kindle Fire, personal tablet from Amazon. I had preordered the tablet for work reasons, but was anxious to get it open running as soon as the UPS man rang the doorbell.

The unveiling of my new Kindle Fire repeats a theme that has been taught well by Apple- simplicity. But Amazon takes this theme and perfects it, and expounds on its uses in a broader context. The shipping box containing the Fire was simple and well packed (all with eco-conscious packaging), as is most everything Amazon does in fulfillment. Popping the box open revealed the device (and a small power chord) and a simple sleeve box top. Inside the sleeve was a simple paper card, containing literally 5 simple sentences of instructions. No monster guide, no thing "getting started" manual, just a single card with a big picture and less than a handful of words (which all fit, nicely, in my hand). User guide? Who needs a user guide- this is the new Kindle. OK. Prove it.

The device itself is all black (mine anyways) with just one physical button (power), a single USB connector/power port and a mini-jack for audio. All located at the base of the portrait-held device. There are shallow indentations at the top edge for the audio speakers. The back of the device is a grippy, rubberized cover. Nice tactile surface, that doesn't slip from your hand and isn't rounded, unlike the iPad 1 whose rounded aluminum back was always slipping and pushing away from the user. Physically, the Amazon Fire form factor is literally 1/2 the size of iPad 1. However, the screen size of the Fire is only about 75% of height and 2/3 of the width, so you are still losing significant screen size, but it feels still large enough for use in your hands.

Booting it up, the Kindle Fire was ready to go by immediately powering up when I plugged it in. And the question to get going on the device quickly had me choosing a network and time zone.

Next came the fun surprise of seeing that the device recognized its owner without me doing anything. Presumably the device was tethered to my purchase account somehow, and immediately recognized who was the owner. Regardless of how this happened, the device customized itself to me and quickly loaded its updates and my own content connections.

On first opening of the device, initial "welcome" guides show how to use the basic functions of the device. In two or three easy arrows I was ready to run and rock with my Fire. 

Quickly, I jumped around to see all my kindle books (from my previous purchases of kindle books on the iPad app), all my audiobooks and Amazon cloud music was all available on this device. Some initial download time would get content, but all was accessible without extra logging in or such. Love it. 

I quickly went to the web browser and walked through a number of sites, including our favorite, WorshipTeam.com.  The Kindle Fire performed excellent on all fronts. Websites with HTML5 and Flash worked perfectly and the performance was snappy. Battery seems to be charged close to top when you get the device, but I topped it off. After five hours of playing media and websites and even videos, the device was still at 84%. Not sure what its battery specs are, but it seems pretty decent on heavy media usage. My version has 6.5Gb of storage, and I began downloading things to it.

After testing out some WorshipTeam.com functions, including the Android app for it, I went into the Amazon Prime area. I happen to also be an Amazon Prime user, so I was able to quickly access its library of many thousands of videos. I watched a couple minutes of Kevin Costner's "Postman" and the app, media and device performed seemlessly. The video was smooth, audio clear and I wasn't even using headphones, just listening through the on-device speakers.

From there, I went to the Android marketplace and installed a few apps and even downloaded a few not in Amazon store, to see how non Amazon-store apps would work. Answer- perfect! Android apps work well on this device, which of course is an Android tablet. I ran WorshipTeam.com app and it was crisp and responsive.

Overall, I like the Fire a lot. Primarily, the UI is its biggest advantage. Smaller than the iPad, it makes a book reading experience work, where the iPad is cumbersome. Movie view is good, though smaller than the iPad. For large app experiences, like car racing, the iPad is nicer, but for practical usages, the Kindle Fire seems well suited and nicely sized.  While this device won't eclipse the iPad for now, it is a huge step forward to a functional, easy-to-use, and perfectly sized tablet.  The preloading and easy connection of Amazon content is a long term combo-punch that iTunes can't match yet. iTunes is fine, but ultimately Amazon truly seems to understand content better than Apple, from books, ebooks, movies and music.  As they catch up with their device, I think you will see that content becomes the ultimately powerful propellant to growing this new tablet ecosystem.

Win Amazon. I highly recommend it!

Amazon Link: Kindle Fire, Full Color 7" Multi-touch Display, Wi-Fi

Review by Kim Gentes.

Since I brought in two devices, I will outline what happened for each:

Part 1 - Macbook Pro

I took my Macbook Pro laptop in.  The actuall LCD screen had cracked. I hadn't dropped it or lifted it by the screen or anything. I opened the screen one day and it was cracking across the middle from the left. After about 2 days it was completely cracked across the entire screen.

The tech looked at the screen and immediately said the following things:

1. First, my limited one year limited warrantee was out of date
2. Second, even if I had Applecare extended, that would have expired
3. Third, that neither limited warrantee or AppleCare covered physical breakage of the screen! (which he implied that I had obviously done something to the computer- which I had not).
4. Finally, the cost of a replacement LCD screen for my MacPro would be $600

I was beginning to let me blood boil a bit when he said, "those are all the things I am supposed to tell you. And I have. Now the good news. I am going to replace the screen without any further questions or cost to you."

Wow. I felt a nice happy moment. An Apple happy moment. I let it sink in. :)  Of course, I know that comes directly out of shareholder happiness, but as a product owner it was nice to feel some goodness.

In the very same visit, the next thing also happened.

Part 2 - iPad

I bought my new iPad in April of last year (2010). It arrived on April 13 via UPS. Three or four days ago, I plugged in my iPad to my Macbook Pro. iTunes on my Macbook Pro recognized the iPad and notified me that I should update to the latest software for iPad. I clicked accept and it proceeded to update to the latest iPad software revision (according to my iPad I have Model MB292LL, and it now has Version 4.3.5 (8L1)). The iPad rebooted after its update and all looked well. I was wrong.

Since then, the iPad hasn't been able to connect and be recognized by my computer. I also won't take a charge via USB /wall plug. For a couple days, I assumed I just needed to reboot or reset some part of the device. Finally, at 45% life of the battery I was concerned and I brought it to the store. They tried all they could think of. Nothing worked. Since it won't talk to iTunes (because it won't communicate through USB connection anymore), they said they can't reset it.

"What to do?" I asked. "Nothing" they said. It wasn't covered and they "believed" it was a hardware error, not software. Since they couldn't connect to the iPad from a Mac, they couldn't tell for sure. But even though it was the last update that marked the onset of the problem, they refused to believe that. My iPad was simply my problem. Nothing to be done. "Get files off by using WIFI if possible", they said, "before battery went total dead". The message was clear- sorry, its your problem, too bad. Next customer!

What the?! I really felt like this was bad judgment since the device clearly had worked fine for me for a year and now a software update causes a problem and they wash their hands of responsibility. While I was glowing with happiness at their Macbook Pro response, this made absolutely no sense to me. I left feeling a little like they didn't think it was worth it to help me on the iPad but since the Macbook Pro was more expensive, they'd make sure I didn't hate them.

Kim Gentes

Your Story?

Anyone else out there have a Apple Genius Bar story? Let's hear it.....

When I do a review of anything, I do so under my own convictions and opinions. People don't pay me to do reviews. Occasionally, I do get demo products sent to me, but more often than not, I review items I purchase and just tell you about it.  Either way, the goal is to give you honest, hopefully knowledgeable, and always fair reviews.

Back in February of this year, I posted a review of an iFrogz cover (original review is here). iFrogz "Luxe Lean iPad Skin" is a hardshell polycarbonate iPad protective cover. I loved the tactile/functional feel of the cover and liked the look of it as well.  It also seemed well made. Well, we wanted to update you on the item so that you know how it did during normal lifetime of use.

First, of all, as you can guess if I am writing an update now talking about product lifetime that means the cover's life has come to an end. If the cover only lasted until August, something was seriously wrong. About June, the corner of the cover developed a crack. The way I used my iPad, I only rarely took it out of the cover. I just felt it was safer, since there was always a chance I could accidentally drop it or something. I was surprised a crack developed in the cover, and I can't honestly remember if there was any bump or something that happened to the iPad. There certainly wasn't anything major or I would have noted that as a possible cause.

In any case, the cover developed a small crack. Once that happened, the cover corner with the crack deteriorated quickly. The whole are looked dry and brittle. Within 3 weeks the entire corner fell off when I was trying to put the cover on/off.  Once the corner fell off the cracked cover case was now brittle, sharp and dangerous, becoming a hazard itself.  I took the cover off completely to avoid slashing myself with the jagged, sharp edge.

I was, obviously, disappointed in the cover, especially after giving it a positive review on my initial purchase.  Of course, there was no way to know it was going to deteriorate, but I wanted to make sure to send an update so that you would know what happened, especially if you were considering buying one based on my original review.

by Kim Gentes