TV:
Crystal clear, TONS of HD (just under 100 channels including the movies package). Cablecards have been solid since install, even after loss of power. There was some minor pixelation occurring on fast action HD channels and this problem is well documented over at TiVoCommunity, but this is more an effect of using TiVo and not Fios itself. I have the line attenuators on hand should the problem come back. I can’t comment on the quality of the Verizon STB’s as I don’t use any. The one box I have is their $4 a month guide-less box which just tunes stations. This is controlled by a Tivo S2. I highly highly recommend Tivo boxes over standard cable provider DVR’s, it’s not even close. That’s a rant for another day.

Internet:
Solid 20/5 connection. Haven’t had a single outage. Haven’t experienced any slowdowns or throttling on Torrents, large downloads or uploading. I have the Verizon router configured as the main DHCP on the network and as primary 802.11B network. Off of this, I have an 802.11N network for the high speed devices. All working well, and I was pleased to see that the Actiontec router allows access to all controls and settings. Plus it was free.

Phone:
This isn’t VOIP and as such it comes with NO additional services that a typical VOIP provider gives you today. No web access to voicemails or call features. No email or sms alert to new voicemails. NOTHING. You get a phone that rings and a voicemail service that you call into. Call quality is fine and my alarm system is working, but if you’re used to Vonage or Optimum Voice you’re in for a rude awakening. I’ve tried services like GotVoice, but they were unable to access the Fios voicemail service. There is a product called IOBI from Verizon that offers some of the features I want, but I am not about to mess with the billing right now. It is a PAY service.

Billing:
Now the nightmare. The billing with Verizon is atrocious. The first 2 months I’ve been overcharged. I’ve been told it will all work itself out as the services synchronize and the discounts kick in. Well, I called them the other day and found that I was inadvertently charged for additional TV installs. I was credited $40 and now I’m actually “averaging” the expected amount per month. After 2 more months pass, i’ll see if I’m still averaging the right price. Reading the actual bill is impossible as there are multiple charged and credits sprawled across many pages. At least I’m paying the right amount in the end. But be warned that billing is a joke and you should be aware of all the promotions you’ve been offered and that they are in fact credited on your bill. So far so good…

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I know I have mentioned SlingMedia before. I was very impressed with their setup utility over a year ago when I got one. But I wanted to mention a few new developments which solidify their status as being completely TechMoments approved. I have been using the SlingBox A/V more and more often lately. It’s just very easy to flip the TV on from any computer and just keep it in the corner of my desktop. This wasn’t even Slings intended use, but I use it this way more often than remote. Anyhow, I recently moved the equipment around and when unplugging the Slingbox, the IR cable got stuck to the box and ripped. Since the box is now damaged with half a connector lodged inside one if its ports, and I have a now useless cable, I call them.

I have no receipt. I have no idea what their warranty is. I’m expecting to be buying a new slingbox before I’m off the call.

I get straight through to their tech support and explain the situation. He agrees that I need a new Slingbox. I said I wasn’t sure if it’s still in warranty and he said, don’t worry it is. I said how? He said all of our products carry a lifetime warranty. Well, isn’t that nice! They send me out a new slingbox and cable and I used a prepaid label to return my current one. Setup was a breeze as always, but I was just so relieved to see how this company handled this.

The other very exciting piece of news is the release of Slingplayer Beta for Windows. What sling already does is awesome, I wouldn’t even think to complain about it. You can view your TV and Remote Controls on your PC and control everything. Find a movie, watch something off the Tivo, whatever, just use the remote. Well, now you don’t have to. They have now included an integrated program guide on the PC. So, I can browse locally for what I want to watch and it will tune to the channel. What’s more is that it can act as a DVR and record shows remotely. I’m not sure i would need this, but its certainly a nice feature. The only gripe I have is that this BETA is Windows only for now. Hoping the update comes to MacOS soon….

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“Hi, I’ve recently switched from Optimum Voice to Verizon Fios, but there is a problem with the transfer of my line”
“Sir, I’m showing that your account has been closed, if you are having phone trouble, please contact your current provider”
“No, you don’t understand, they were able to port the line. In fact if you were to try and call me from anywhere in the US or the WORLD I will answer. But if you call me from your phone, right now, it won’t work.” (I assumed Cablevision using Optimum Voice in the call centers, my bluff went uncalled)
“Sir, I’ve never heard of this before, the account was canceled on 7/16 and there is no way we can troubleshoot a line we don’t own.”

At this point, I want to reach through the phone and strangle her.

“Can we please get technical confirmation of the problem as I’m describing it to you?”
“Sure sir, let place you on hold and see if I can get someone on the line”

At this point, a gruff technician takes over the call, we’ll call him Maxwell. Maxwell says “Yeah, I see this all the time, you have to call us to release the line from our switch”. “Great, how long does that take?” “24-48 hours”… “OK, well, start that process now please”.

This all leads back to the obvious bad blood between Verizon and Cablevision. They will due whatever it takes to make things more complicated and costly for each other and the consumer is the one who pays the price. I’ll let you know when my new phone is 100% ported, I’m not holding my breath on the 48 hour estimate…

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As instructed, I visit the activatemyfios.verizon.net website. What an exciting URL! Let me take a moment to explain what this site actually does. It is a revenue generator for Verizon. Force feeding you data protection plans, antivirus, spam filtering and rustproofing. But I couldn’t even get that far. Before you begin down that journey of “No thanks” and “I’ll install it later” you have to pass the dreaded account setup screen. What happened next infuriated me. The account setup progress is obviously too complex to be handled by a web browser alone. It attempts to install a Firefox extension. OK, I’ll play along. I allow the extension to download only to find out that it is incompatible with Firefox 3.0. Wonderful… Let’s try Safari. Well, not so fast Mr. consumer. We DEMAND that you allow us to ruin your life. It recognizes that I’m on a mac and instructs me to download and run an application! I’m desperate to finish this process, so I actually allow this to happen. The app loads, and freezes. It is at this point where I see just how clever the Verizon development team is. The application apparently has some sort of “reload on quit” setting. Ah, fun! I quit, the icon bounces away and start right up again. Force quit… no luck, it relaunched and haunts me over and over. Shut down and restart the system. “I’m sorry, the system can not be shutdown at this time because the application ‘Verizon Fios Installer’ is still running.” Are you kidding me?
I can’t believe I’m now booting up Vista to do something my Mac couldn’t handle. This is embarrassing and it’s all Verizon’s fault. Now, I know I can just skip the Firefox step, as I’m running the same version here on Vista. I punch in the URL in good ole Internet Explorer. OK, kiddies, can we guess what it wants to do now? The IE warning bar slides down to alert me about an ActiveX Control installation. (Now that I’ve actually completed this ridiculous step, let me point something out. NOTHING that I did required any of these advanced controls and software installations. I created an account, answered a few questions and watched a fancy “Welcome to Verizon Fios” video. This is clearly a case of over-development by Verizon. Even if software needed to be installed, you can provide download links. A simple web guided setup and intro would have been more than enough, and it would have worked right out of the gate, regardless of OS and browser.)

Once that nightmare is over, the first thing you are required to do, is create a verizon.net email address. Now, maybe it’s just me, but do we really still rely on our ISP’s to provide email services? I can remember a day when things like Yahoo Mail and Hotmail were shunned. But in todays internet, webmail providers, whether free or fee, are far superior to the slim offerings of our Cable and DSL providers. Anyway, I proceed to setup the account, thinking this is the only conduit to seeing my account management and billing screen. I find a few more errors along the way but finally… I’m in! I click over to “My Account”. Humm… Nothing really here, just shows that I have internet and no email waiting. There’s various settings for Spam filtering in addition to some widgets about the whether and todays news. How do I check my plan, my upcoming bill, etc? I’m puzzled. I’m on the horn with Verizon the following day.

Me — “I’ve logged into the ActiveMyFios site, but I can’t find my account info”
Verizon Rep — “Oh, billing is not on this site, you have to go to Verizon.com”
Me — “So, what the hell did I just sign up for?”
Verizon Rep — “Thats just the internet home page”

Are you freaking kidding me? The last thing I want is multiple accounts to manage my Fios. I then find my way to Verizon.com (we were on .net before). I do the account setup dance again. Yes, another login id, another password. This site is much cleaner, but still has its own errors. To this day, I can’t see that I have anything installed. An “ecenter” rep told me that I won’t be able to see anything on this site until my first bill generates. I am actually laughing at this point. I’ve been able to sign up for Sprint at the store, and by the time I got home, all my plan details were on the website. I guess Verizon isn’t as advanced?

See the following post for the next exciting chapter - the phone porting issue.

ARGH! Leave me alone!!!

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“Where’s the rest of your team Curtis?” I ask as I peer around him to the van parked out front.
“It’s just me”, he says.
“But I thought all Fios installs were done with two people?”
“No, I’m a one mean team. Don’t worry, I’ve been doing installs since we started provisioning Fiber.”
(I guess I don’t have a choice)
“Did you bring the cablecards? I’m supposed to be getting four cablecards”. I’m not much for small talk.
“Yeah yeah, I got the cablecards, are we doing a Tivo install?”
“Yeah, but don’t worry I’ve got all the documentation printed out and ready for you”, I assure him. My idea of documentation was the CableCard FAQ from TivoCommunity.
Despite my enthusiasm for a successful install, Curtis looks down and shakes his head.
“Tivo? … Tivo??”
“Actually, three Tivo’s. I have one series 2 and two HD boxes which will take 2 cards each”
He remains skeptical and admits he hasn’t configured one of those in a while, but assures me he won’t leave until everything is working.
Fair enough…

I give Curtis a tour of the current installation, a Series 3 in the bedroom, TivoHD in the basement and a Series 2 in the Den. I show him the wiring “closet” and explain that I “kind of” have a lot of computers (checking my router showed 15 devices that are pulling IP’s). I explain that I’d like to keep my current network topology, which is comprised primarily of 2 access points, an 802.11n running the show and an 802.11b/g running in gateway mode. Fortunately for me, Curtis is a techie and is nodding along while admiring my random collection of Transformers posed around the basement. I can see we’re going to get along fine.

We make our way to the backyard to see how he’s going to get the fiber to the house. He take a few minutes surveying the neighbors backyards and says he needs to bring the cable over from a house or two away. He’s worried about poison ivy. “How did you know we have a poison ivy problem?” was not what he wanted to hear. I assured him that our backyard is sprayed regularly and he should be fine. “It’s not your yard I’m worried about” and we both glance over at my neighbors unkempt backyard. “Good luck man, I’ll be inside!”

An hour or so passes and Curtis is already patching the Fiber into the house. I asked how he fared on the neighbor’s lawn. He seems to have escaped unscathed and explains that he had to dodge many landmines of dog poop. “Oh, I should have warned you about that!” I then whip out my camera and before I start taking pictures, I explain that I’m going to be documenting the install progress. His eyes light up. “Are you going to post it to a website? Which one?” “Well, I might mention it on TivoCommunity but really it’s just for my blog.” Curtis interrupts; “Let me just say one thing, give me a chance here and I’ll make this look perfect.”

I can tell Curtis takes pride in his work. He is also unhappy with the job Cablevision has done on my house after I show him the current coax wiring. Wires are cutting across barren walls for no reason and other cables are retracing each other. He struggles to find understanding in their cable runs. “I have no idea what they were doing here, but we’re going to fix it, don’t worry”. I wasn’t.

Curtis then started formulating a plan of attack. He tells me we’re going to do an indoor box. It’s much better to keep it indoors and out of mother natures way. I had seen some pics of interior installs but I didn’t think I was a candidate for one; most of what I had seen were outside. The spot was perfect; right opposite the cable drop, next to an outlet on a plain wall. It was practically begging for some kind of box as the other walls already had circuit breakers and alarm panels…. but I digress.

I left Curtis for a while as he pulled the cable into the house and placed the box on the wall. I didn’t stick around to watch too much of this, but I can tell you that when he was done, there were more lights lit than when he started. And that’s a good thing. It wasn’t long before Curtis tells me the phones are working and to test them out. I couldn’t believe my old Optimum Voice phone number was ported over that quickly and easily. The phones were working and sounded fine. He also assured me the alarm was configured to assume control of the line as required. Things are humming along. Curtis denies my repeated offers for lunch. He say’s it will only slow him down…

Internet is up and running before 1pm. He says I may need to rebind my devices. Nope, my D-Link already saw the new modem/router and seemed very content, despite being bumped down the chain as it was no longer facing the internet. I verified my networks and everything was intact. I do have some logical cleanup to do and convert my NAT router into a bridge device, but that’s a job best saved for the weekend. Obviously the first thing I do is a speed test. I should mention that the previous night I was able to pull 27MB/4MB (down/up) on Optimum (with Boost). Curtis can see I’m disappointed.

“What’s wrong?”
“I’m only getting 20mb downstream”
“What are you paying for?”
“Good point.”

Verizon is “fast enough” but Optimum felt faster (because it was). I can see an upgrade to the 30MB plan in my future… Curtis recommends the 20/20 plan, but I don’t think I’d take full advantage of it. It’s nice to know that Verizon provides an option like that though.

On to video… Curtis also came armed with the DCT700. This is a small digital box with no frills. It’s missing an OSD and has no VOD option. It has no clock on the front and won’t even show what channel it’s on. It’s exactly what I need for my Series 2. It’s also only $4 a month. I re-run the Series 2 setup guide and quickly reminded why I love TiVo. The program guides are updated and the box is being controlled via IR within no time. Not only that, but I was able to confirm that all my season passes won’t miss a beat. That’s right, even though the shows have moved stations; Tivo just “found” them again and was recording my son’s shows the rest of the afternoon. God bless Tivo.

And now the part we’ve been dreading, the cable card configuration. Curtis wants to blaze forward by installing ALL 4 cards and then provision them simultaneously to save time. I feel somewhat uneasy about this approach, but I’m not sure why. Then I remember reading this line in the FAQ “Do not let the installer do multiple cards at a time”. “Umm, Curtis, I think we should do one card at a time.” He agrees.

The cablecards are unveiled like a plate of fresh pastries. Except these pastries are made of metal and you shouldn’t eat them. From here on out, I must warn you. If you’re coming from AVSForums or TiVoCommunity, be advised that I’ve ignored every warning and even the FAQ from here on out.

The Series 3 is still using Cablevisions guide date. OK, let’s remove the cablecards and just put yours in. We navigate around the cablecard menus and finally find the numbers we “think we need”. Curtis starts taking notes. He hooks up his laptop and enters the first launch sequence. Within a few minutes we have picture! All channels seem to be working. “Not so fast” I tell him. I remember reading that the Conditional Access screen should say “Subscribed”. It’s says “unknown”.
Curtis says “Lets give it some time and work on the other Tivo”. Keep in mind I’ve just broken cardinal rule #1.

The basement TivoHD is new. “New”; as in I just opened the box. “Give me a sec, let me activate this thing”. Tivo.com doesn’t let me activate due to a “billing error”. Great, perfect timing. I call TiVo, a human answers on 1 ring to customer service. Incredible. I explain the problem and he offers to activate me over the phone. Problem solved, I wish all companies worked this way.

Being that this is a new Tivo, it hasn’t received any service updates and has been sitting boxed for a few months in my house. A few steps into the guided setup it suggests we configure the cablecards. OK, off we go. We follow the same procedure as before and essentially arrive at the same result. Picture is there but still no “Subscribed” tag in the Conditional Access menu. Curtis sends the activation signal again. Nope, no good. Test channels again. They work. Then the moment I was waiting for… “Subscribed” appeared in the menu! At this point, we think we’ve figured out the pattern.

1. Insert Card
2. Add to system (I don’t know what happens here, but it involved a laptop and a field technician)
3. Test some channels
4. Provision
5. Test some channels (Wait 30 seconds or so)
6. Confirm SUBSCRIBED

We repeated this dance 4 times and not all went as smoothly. Curtis had “fat fingered” one digit resulting in an error that scared us so much we rebooted the Tivo Series3. And what do you know, I had a pending service update. The Tivo now updated its software right in the middle of our cablecard installation. “Oh crap, the menu looks different, I think Tivo just revved the software”. Both our faces turned white. We’re now batting .500 with only one card in each TiVo showing subscribed.

Eventually, all cards were showing subscribed. All Tivo’s had the Fios guide data and it was only 4pm. Curtis is satisfied and seems happy since he recieved some on-the-fly TiVo training for his future installs. After we clean up, Curtis tells me more stories about Cablevision and Verizon. It’s getting pretty ugly, petty stuff now. He points out how he properly terminated and grounded the cablevision line to my house. “If I didn’t do that, they could fine us for damaging their equipment.”

Since it’s early enough, I planned on bringing my Cablevision equipment back to the walk-in center for an in-person cancellation. “Make sure you tell them to remove their line from your house, make them do some extra work”. Thanks for the advice Curtis, and a great overall installation experience.
Later that evening…. My smile quickly fades when I visited the “post-install” setup website, but that’s a story for another day…

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And this is just another reason why Apple rules the roost…

This link over at Microsoft confirms this ridiculous anomaly and offers a hack to work around it. I wont be messing with my contacts and adding subfolders. I’ll turn off the Windows portion of sync until Microsoft gets their act together.

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I have finally chosen the lesser of two evils by signing up for Verizon FiOS and subsequently canceling my Cablevision. This is a full conversion, Triple Play for Triple Freedom. Don’t get me wrong, there are still benefits for being on Cablevision, but the scales finally tipped in favor of FiOS. Here are my pros and cons for each.

Cablevision Pros:
1. Better phone service - It seems silly to be writing that, but I haven’t seen anything to suggest otherwise. Optimum Voice is an award winning voip telephony service from Cablevision. I enjoy the benefits of managing voicemail and calling features online and getting paged with latest messages.

2. MSG HD - Cablevisions unholy relationship with the Garden and the Rangers means I won’t be watching too many Rangers games in HD. I’m upset about this, but I won’t let them hold this over me while prices continue to rise.

3. Fast Internet - I have personally seen 30+ MB speeds downstream. It has gotten slower lately, but still borders on “Crazy Fast” which is what Verizon claims they can offer.

Cablevision Cons:
1. SDV - Switched Digital Video is killing Cable subscribers that don’t use their set top boxes. Because of the migration to SDV, I’ve already lost access to all Voom content and more channels are on their way down the SDV path. TiVo has a kludge called a “tuning adapter” but I’m not interested in adding more boxes and cables to my current setup. Their is no specific date or price point set for these adapters at this time.

2. “Not-quite-HD” - HD is usually measured in 720p, 1080i, etc. But, did you know that your 1080i might not look as good as your neighbors 1080i? This has nothing to do with your TV. Fact is that Cablevision, in order to conserve bandwidth, regularly “scales down” the bandwidth on less popular channels (See this thread in the Optimum Yahoo Group). Because of this, the NHL Stanley Cup finals actually looked better in SD than HD. The HD experienced excessive macroblocking on Versus while the FiOS signal was reportedly crystal clear.

3. Price - As my “promotions” run out, my monthly costs are increasing. I’ve spoken to their retention department on several occasions over the past few months. It seems they are more interested in bad-mouthing FiOS and telling me all about Verizons “hidden fees” and extraordinary taxes. If they just renewed any of my promotional rates or at least discussed potential ways to save money and come to a common ground I might have stayed. Instead they have a holier than thou attitude and basically pushed me more towards Verizon.

Verizon Pros
1. True HD with no SDV - Verizon’s fiber lines carry enough bandwidth for all our HD needs for the foreseeable future. The channels run at maximum recommended bandwidth and the picture is, from what I hear, stunning. This is my primary reason for switching.

2. Cablecard Support - Not a true “pro” as Cablevision also supports cablecards, but this makes my TiVo transfer very easy.

3. Price - Even without a promotion, Verizon is coming in $20-$25 less per month than Cablevision. The current promotion however puts an extra $180 in my pocket in the form of a $30 discount for the first six months.

Verizon Cons
Without actually having Verizon, I can only tell you what my “concerns” are, and hopefully they will all work out.
1. Is 20/5 Internet faster than cable? We’ll have to see what speedtest.com says…

2. Where will all that equipment go? How flexible will the installers be?

3. Phone service limited on features compared to Optimum Voice.

So, my install date is set for 7/16 and I’ve taken the day off. I think we’ll need it. I had the sales rep note the account with a “TiVo Installation” so I can hopefully get someone qualified to handle that. I’ll be getting one Digital SD Tuner and 4 Cablecards. I will not be using ANY of Verizon’s STB’s so that means no interactive features, no guides, no VOD. Thats what I pay TiVo for and I’m quite happy with that!

Check back here to see how the install went!

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Packaging

Dell is following in Apples footsteps when it comes to packaging. The XPS box has nice etched graphics on white cardboard on the inside and they separate the contents into two sections. One for the accessories, manuals and media and the other for the laptop. I was surprised to find that the laptop includes a nice ballistic case with a magnetic flap closure. Sony charges over $100 for a “Sony branded” form-fit leather case (yes I bought it), so to see Dell throw this in is a nice touch. Not to mention they also include Creative earbud headphones, a bluetooth travel mouse and a leatherette binder for the manuals and media (much like a car manual comes in). So, hands-down the XPS out of box experience is very rewarding. Sony’s products always seem to come in the same plain brown boxes. Maybe it’s because the TZ-190 is viewed as a “business” laptop. Still, the unboxing is not very exciting.
Winner: Dell

Look and Feel

The Dell keyboard has raised beveled keys. I’m not a stickler for keyboards and I don’t touch type. Maybe if I did, this keyboard style would be important to me. Instead, all I can focus on is how there are huge gaps between some of the keys. These are screaming out for crumbs and dust to fall into. This would drive me crazy. The Vaio on the other hand has flat keys (like the Macbook) that are individually set onto the laptop frame. There is very little chance that anything could fall between or underneath the keys. However, the trade off is that the Sony also compresses the key size and combines some keys. For example, the Dell has dedicated Home/End and PgUp/PgDn keys. The Vaio does not. I also noticed that the Dell keyboard actually isn’t set properly. The space bar is not sensitive enough and upon further inspection it looks as though there is a raised bump beneath it. I tried pushing it down, but only time will tell if this will hold. I just checked again… It’s NOT holding. Pressing the space bar at anything other than dead center doesn’t register. I have seen other posts complaining about the overall build quality but other than this, the laptop seems to be pretty solid. I’m also not a fan of the black/silver combo. The outside doesn’t look too bad, but the inside is a brushed-chrome massacre. The Vaio’s all black interior is sexier, hands down. (Are these cars or laptops?)
Winner: Vaio

Media Controls

The Dell media controls are very nice. They are touch sensitive buttons placed just north of the keyboard. They work very well and light up when pressed. The only problem I can see is hitting track forward instead of pause, which would annoy me. The Sony doesn’t have dedicated volume buttons, instead relying on quirky F-keys. The dedicated media playback controls are at the front of the laptop, which makes it awkward when playing back on your lap. I tend to lift the laptop up to see which key is labeled for what.
Winner: Dell

Graphic Performance

Here is where the Dell will shine…. or will it? The video performance award is easily taken by the Dell. Vista reports a 4.1 subscore for video on the Windows Experience Index for the Dell and a measly 2.0 on the Vaio (which does NOT have dedicated video). Hell, I was even able to play half-life 2 on my old M1210 without much fuss (Thats why these are branded as XPS after all). The lack of dedicated video doesn’t just prevent you from gaming, but I have trouble watching full screen video, and even Peggle stalls from time to time on the Sony. Now, i don’t need to game on the Dell, but I just figured it would be nice to have. However, here’s the downside, and I hope I’m wrong about this. There’s no way to not use the dedicated video. If I can tell the nVidia driver to save battery and never go overboard, then that would be a nice compromise. I’ve only had the Dell a few hours, and with Aero turned off, I can still hear the video card ramping up when it thinks its power is needed. I can imagine all my minutes being sucked away…
Winner: Dell

Display

Both of these screens are LED backlit, but there’s something about the Sony. I just assumed that XBrite screen technology was all marketing, but the Vaio screen looks so much nicer. Perhaps its the fact that the Vaio, although only sporting an 11.1″ screen (as opposed to the 13.3″ screen on the Dell) has a higher resolution of 1366×768. The Dell’s native display resolution is only 1280×800. So, theoretically, despite gaining 2+ inches in screen size, i’m losing desktop real estate by a number of pixels. Plus, the Sony resolution has a wider aspect ratio. It’s a “wider widescreen” if you will. I’ve gotten somewhat used to this when using Slingplayer or Trillian docked to one side and still having room to surf the web in comfort with the rest of the screen. If the Dell were using a higher resolution, and I don’t see why it couldn’t, perhaps my thoughts on this would be different. The 1280×800 just doesn’t do the 13 incher justice.
Winner: Vaio

Battery

Here’s the killer. The Sony really does get those numbers they promised. No wait, it gets better than that. Right now, I see at least 5 hours, and I can easily stretch that to 7-8 with WiFi and/or Bluetooth disabled. Yes, this is due largely in part to the integrated video, and possibly because the laptop is powering a smaller screen. It is also due in no small part to the ULV processor. But I also think that Sony just tries a little harder when it comes to power conservation. The Sony SmartWi utility allows me to choose, via hotkey, which combination of wireless antenna to turn on or off. The Dell has one switch for all on, or all off. The only way to change that is to tell the switch to just control either Bluetooth OR WiFi, no mix and match. Not good. On top of this, the Vaio has a utility that automatically turns off the DVD drive when not in use. I’m sure this saves some battery as well, but no such utility exists on the Dell. Now, I was hoping that the Dell would give me 5 hours out of the gate. After the first full charge, Vista is reporting UNDER 4 hours. After running some updates, the number jumped around between 2 and 3 hours. Granted I should break in the battery to see some real world numbers, but I don’t think it will come close to the Sony, SSD and LED be damned.
Winner: Vaio

Bundled software

Some manufacturers are notorious for installing bloatware all over their laptops. Sony leads the pack. It took me quite some time to remove everything I deemed unnecessary on the Vaio. Hell, people have even gone out of their way to document “clean installs” for Vaio owners. This is all the more important when dealing with a 32GB SSD. The drive was practically filled when I got it. The Dell, however, doesn’t seem to have too many things to remove. I pulled off the bundled Antivirus (I’ll use Kaspersky, thank you) and Google Desktop. Maybe 3-4 other crap apps (avatars for my video chat??) needed to be removed and I was done. Sony has recently announced that you can opt out of the additional software installed, but this will initially be only for “Built to Order” laptops, and not retail chain sku’s.
Winner: Dell

Ports and Expansion

Both laptops are pretty optioned up when it comes to ports. Both have DVD-RW drives, 2 USB ports, firewire and an ExpressCard slot. Both of them have media readers that accept SD and MS card types. The Vaio even goes one further by having an analog modem, which is crazy if you ask me. The Dell on the other hand offers an HDMI output which would come in handy for throwing a movie up onto a TV. Can’t say I’d use that too much, but it’s nice to have the choice. The Dell also includes an express card sized remote that fits in the slot when not in use. I can’t understand why ultraportables have this. I mean, how far away from the laptop might you actually be for this to come in handy? I would rather load the expresscard slot with an additional SSD drive. I have a 16GB Lexar drive which I can load up with DivX movies without impacting the OS partition. Makes more sense to me….
Winner: Tie

Overall, I’ll have to play with the Dell a few more days, but for my needs I may just stick with the Sony. Despite the incredible deal I got on the Dell, the Sony just seems to do everything right. I’ve never had WiFi dropouts, the machine comes out of standby pretty quickly and the battery life is legendary. Not to mention it’s lighter overall and is a true ultraportable. The Dell, at 13″ barely qualifies. I’ll keep the Dell through the weekend and make a decision then. Looks like geek beats cheap this time around… Thanks for reading…

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HD-DVD may be dead, but not before giving away some free money and enjoying two great last releases. I’ve been largely ignoring the rebate situation, as I bought my HD-DVD (for Xbox) from Amazon. Surely they won’t give away free money! I was wrong. Amazon, like BestBuy, will be giving back a $50 GC for everyone who purchased a player prior to the announcement of it’s death. Now, I’ve purchased a total of THREE HD-DVD players! I picked up my original HD-A2 from BB, which was eventually sold on eBay due to it’s abysmal startup times. Then I bought an HD-DVD drive for Xbox from Amazon and CC. Now, Circuit City isn’t just going to give something away for free, but they will offer trade-ins for a gift card. The other HD-DVD I also resold at a profit, but I’ll be happy to collect the $50 for my pain and suffering. :)

In the weeks following the HD-DVD loss to Blu-Ray, everyone began dumping the movies. BestBuy didn’t sell them on clearance, at least not by me. They ripped the shelves out of the store and spread the Blu-Ray love down the entire aisle. Blockbuster pulled all the discs from the shelves and put most of them up for sale (at very high prices, considering they were used!). But the thing that bothered me most, was that Netflix and Blockbuster Total Access stopped getting new titles. Sure, you can still rent from existing inventory, but movies like Valley of Elah and I am Legend were listed as N/A on HD-DVD format. These are, however, available from Amazon new. But the movie I’m most excited about is the HD-DVD release of Appleseed Ex Machina. I watched this movie on my PSP and was blown away by the action scenes and visuals. I’m expecting it to be nothing short of breathtaking when I get the disc later this week.

But after that, my HD-DVD collection will cease to grow, and I will continue to look forward to the LG BH300, which is nothing but a promise as of yet.

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