Goodbye Blockbuster

Blockbuster plans to end all domestic retail activity, as well as its by-mail movie distribution, by early 2014, the home movie provider's parent company, DISH Network, announced Wednesday in a press release.

In the release, DISH Network also announced that while company will close all of "its approximately 300 remaining U.S.-based [and company-owned] retail stores," franchised and licensed stores will remain open.

The Blockbuster By Mail service will end mid-December and will serve existing customers until that time.

Another PC Maker is Failing

Acer CEO J.T. Wang is resigning from his post at the Taiwanese PC maker and will be replaced by president Jim Wong as part of a corporate restructuring that will try to revitalize the company's sagging fortunes.

Citing the company's recent run of poor financial results, Wang said in a statement on Tuesday: "It is time for me to hand over the responsibility to a new leadership team to path the way for a new era."

Wang will remain as company chairman until the end of his tenure in June, while Wong will take over as CEO at the start of next year.

Along with the departure of Wang, Acer will cut employee numbers by 7%, resulting in annual savings of $100 million from next year.

However, the company will take a one-time accounting charge of $150 million related to the reduction in staff and a "product plan termination", Acer said without elaborating.

In addition, a newly formed advisory committee will propose changes to the company's strategy pending approval from Acer's board of directors. Following the changes, Acer intends to introduce more competitive products in the PC, tablet and smartphone space to stabilize its market share, the company said.

The shakeup comes as PC shipments continue to decline, partly as a result of competition with tablets and smartphones that are more in demand. Acer has been one of the PC vendors worst hit by the downturn, resulting in quarterly losses.

808 Headphones Review

By George Harding

Our mobile devices usually have a facility to hear sound, especially music. Most cell phones and all MP3 layers come with earbuds, which are convenient and easy to carry. However the cords often get so tangled that using them is too much trouble. The earpieces may not be the right size or may be irritating to one’s ear.

An elegant solution to these problems is a set of headphones, but the best ones are quite expensive. 808 Headphones are reasonably priced and give you all the advantages over earbuds.

They are elegant in design, being smooth in appearance. They fit snugly over your ears, so there’s no problem with fit or irritation. The earpads are very comfortable. Each earpad is adjustable so as to fit different head sizes and shapes.

Probably the best feature is the sound quality. You get very good bass response as well as treble (although my ears are too old to benefit from those high notes!).The rated frequency response is 20 – 20K Hz. The power capability is 20mW, 60mW maximum.

The headphones come in a very nice flexible case with a zipper closure.  One of the earpads folds in so as to fit compactly in the case.

There are two cables supplied with the headphones, stowed in a net pocket inside the case.  The company describes them as “tangle-free,” and they appear to be so. One is a plain cable with 3.5 mm plug on each end. The other is a flat cable with a control for play/pause, for those devices that permit that. There is also supplied a 6.3mm adapter.

These are really nice headphones and are reasonably priced.

808 Headphones          
www.808headphones.com     
Price about $90

What Now BlackBerry?

The big question we have for BlackBerry is: What do you do now? The plan to sell the company has apparently collapsed and it doesn't look like there was a Plan B. Why do we say that? Because their CEO got fired today. If it was his plan to sell off their assets in order to save what is left of the company and that plan failed then he should have been fired.

It was only a few short years ago that BlackBerry was the 800 pound gorilla in the cell phone world. They controlled most of the market and owned the government market. Today they are a minor player making outmoded products.

The BlackBerry story should be an object lesson for MSFT and the iFruit company. Today they are very successful but who knows what's coming in the next couple of years.

Signal Boost DT Review

Signal Boost DT

If your cell network provider’s signal is a bit weak, you might consider a signal booster. The effect of this device is to provide a better signal for your cell phone, whether you need it at home or in the office.

Signals may be weak for a number of reasons: too far from nearest cell tower; interference from other signals; construction of your building or office impairs signal, and others.

The Signal Boost DT works by having an outside receiver, a desktop antenna and the Boost device itself.

The product comes with those three items, two lengths of coax cable, a cable connector, and mounting hardware for pole, wall and window. It also comes with a very complete installation guide, with explanatory text, pictures and step-by-step instructions for installation and operation.

It’s necessary to mount the outside receiver in a position so that it faces the cell tower nearest you. It may be difficult to find the direction of the nearest cell tower, for starters! The guide mentions two ways to do this.

The first is to read the number of bars on your cell phone, as you walk around your house or office building to see in which direction the bars are the highest.  The response time is very slow, using this method. It may take 15-30 seconds for the bar indication to change from one location to another.

The Wilson Electronics web site has a section which details for many types of cell phones how to access a test mode.

The way I used was to go to the AT&T store and ask about the nearest cell tower. They have a web site which pinpoints cell towers. From this you can determine which is the closest and in what direction it is located.

Once that is determined, you mount the outside receiver on a pole, wall or window. The guide advises that a pole mount is the best.

The coax cable is connected to the outside receiver and the desktop antenna, and the Signal Boost is connected to the desktop antenna. This completes the installation, although it may be necessary to rotate the outside receiver slightly to maximize reception.

The Signal Boost unit has two lights, indicating reception on either the 800 MHz or 1900 MHz band. 

Each can be green (blinking or solid), yellow or red. Satisfactory installation is indicated with blinking green for 15 minutes, then solid green.

This is a product which requires careful installation, but will provide increased cell signal reception.

Signal Boost DT by Wilson Electronics 
www.wilsonelectronics.com                  
Price about $330

No Post Today

There will not be a blog post today due to a death on the family. We'll be back soon.

LibreOffice 4.1.3

The Document Foundation (TDF) announces LibreOffice 4.1.3, for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. This is the third minor release of the LibreOffice 4.1 family, which features a large number of improved interoperability features with proprietary and legacy file formats.

The new release is another step forward in the process of improving the overall quality and stability of LibreOffice 4.1. For enterprise adoptions, The Document Foundation suggests LibreOffice 4.0.6, supported by certified professionals.

LibreOffice 4.1.3 arrives just one day before the LibreOffice HackFest in Freiburg, Germany (https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Hackfest/Freiburg2013), where the community will gather at the ArTik to get started on EasyHacks under the mentoring of experienced certified developers such as Thorsten Behrens, Eilidh McAdam, Bjoern Michaelsen, Markus Mohrhard, Eike Rathke and Michael Stahl.

LibreOffice 4.1.3 is available for immediate download from the following link:

http://www.libreoffice.org/download/. Change logs are available at the following

links: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/4.1.3/RC1 (fixed in 4.1.3.1)

and https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/4.1.3/RC2 (fixed in 4.1.3.2).