The Drunken Tech Blog

Spoiler/tl;dr - Philo TV is an awesome service! To clarify, this post is more focused on streaming Live TV, not just on demand... Let me start by saying I DESPISE Cable TV. Paying a ridiculous fee for an obnoxious number of channels that will never be watched just seems ludicrous. When I decided to cut the cord, Sling TV had just recently come into being. I liked the idea of around 25 channels, most of which I would actually watch, only costing about $20. This was also about the time that The Walking Dead was reaching the end of whatever season they were on at this time. This was a show that my wife and I watched religiously on Sunday night. So, my first foray into streaming Live TV channels had begun... For the most part, things went well. But then Sunday night came around and time to watch our show. I can't begin to express how frustrating the buffering was. It was more annoying than I could deal with and I decided to change the channel, with the plan to watch it...

About a year ago, I decided that the new wave of "Mesh Wireless" devices was the way to go. I bought into the hype behind being able to "blanket your whole home in fast, reliable WiFi" that so many of these brands seemed to be offering. After doing my research, I settled on the Eero units due to bandwidth issues some users had experienced with the Google WiFi units. At the time, there were only a couple other options (Netgear being the main competition). I started my adventure spending $350 on a three-pack of the original Eero Pucks. It was on sale at Best Buy so I thought I was getting a great deal. Initially I thought I'd just use them as Access Points in conjunction with my nice Netgear Nighthawk router. Unfortunately, it took a lightning strike the night before so I succumbed to an Eero-only setup. At first, all went well. Aside from one of the pucks having trouble pairing, I eventually got all three placed and connected. According to the Eero App, m...

I've been toying with this idea for a couple months...I want to do away with the aftermarket head unit in my 3 Series with my Nexus 7 tablet. Well, I finally got around to working on it. First I had to move the HVAC controls down to the space where the sunglasses/storage compartment was. For that, I ordered this part and it was super simple. Just pull it out of it's current spot under the radio and snap it into this new piece. The wiring should all reach the new location with no trouble. http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/51168230902/ES86962/ You'll also want to order the switch panel cover for the switch spaces. There are varying sizes depending on how many switches you currently have in this space. I only have the DSC button, but I wanted to leave an extra space for future use. So I got the 3-long one: http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/51168236251/ES87070/ Next, I had to find a nice, small amp I could tuck in the dash behind the tablet. I went with this A...

Last week I posted about the newly announced Ubuntu Touch edition designed for phones and tablets. I promised an update with my first impressions. Unfortunately there isn't a whole lot to say just yet. Only a handful of the apps are actually functional (gallery, phone, camera, browser, media player, and notepad) and even fewer of those actual function properly on the Nexus 7. What I CAN say, though, is that Ubuntu Touch has A LOT of potential. It certainly is a beautiful OS and the layout of the interface and the way you interact with it is quite intuitive. It makes use of all four edges of the screen, allowing you to swiped between running apps, access app-specific settings, system settings, and a quick-list of favorite apps (think the Unity Launcher, on your Ubuntu Desktop). The install image includes some sample content, including People, Pictures, Messages, etc, so you can see what using each of those apps looks and feels like. All-in-all I would like to spend some time wit...

So, Maybe I'm really late to the game here, but I just stumbled across a little app called Subsonic ( link ) that runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. On a very basic level, you install it on your machine, point it to the folders that hold your music and movies, and then you can access that media from any device on your network. And with a bit of port forwarding, you can also access it anywhere in the world over the interwebs. Once installed, you just point your browser to the IP of the machine you installed it on and log in with the default admin info. Then you change the admin password configure everything how you want it. This webpage acts as a frontend for all your media pleasure. BUT WAIT! There's more.  You can also set up multiple user account for your bros. You can control what type of access rights they have (stream, stream/download, stream/download/upload) and then they can enjoy your media as well! And yes, that does say upload! Through the web interface, you ca...

Ok, I still don't entirely get how this app works, but who cares??? Go get this app, now! Basically, you launch this music app and search for a band. It shows all the albums it can find by said band and you can play any/all of the songs it finds. So far I have been pretty amazed at what it can find. I was even able to listen to some older GWAR stuff that I couldn't hear on Rdio or other more well-know apps! Oh, and the kicker...It's FREE. Yep absolutely FREE. All you can hear; unlimited skipping; non Pandora-like crap. Oh, and did I mention you can build playlists? And add any tracks you like to them? AND every artist you search for is stored in a list on the main music screen so you can easily get to them again (unless you remove them, of course) (There is an option to remove the ads for $0.99 but it's not necessary. Personally, I did just as a THANKS to the Developer!) Seriously, go get this app now! Play Link: http://t.co/eTIHlE9 (Oh, and in case you didn...