So the Slap Chop seems to be the same crappy $9.99 chopper i had years ago with a new name and the backing of the best salesman in the world; Vince. Though Vince is quick to explain that is definitely not like the one I used to have, and then “sinks” the most unlikely of behind the back shots ever! I only made it 37 seconds into the commercial before I felt like a substandard piece of shit for not owning 3 Slap Chops. Vince made it very clear that my life is boring, and that it has no chance of being exciting until I am Slap Chop-ing my troubles away.

He had me on the hook, I was reaching for my credit card, and then he said it. “YOU’RE GONNA LOVE MY NUTS”.

Holy Shit. It was right then I thought maybe this is a parody? Is this just a joke? No, Vince was deadly serious about how much you will love his nuts. I can imagine the 25 takes it took to get that right, because Vince sounds quite sincere about his nuts. Your gonna love my nuts, your gonna love my nuts, Your gonna love my nuts.

And it is true, his nuts are uniformly chopped and lovely.

Well played Vince. 

This makes me want to get rid of my cable service, but who knows what will happen if and when Apple releases a new update? Let’s not think about that now. This is indeed a major step forward in integrating all the media you would ever want into one place. And as far as installation and usability, I have no complaints. I mean it is still in alpha and it is this good! The install was not bad at all as long as you follow the instructions on the Giz, and make sure that you update all the components of Boxee before running it. So take a look at the video below, as I detail the install and the usage of Boxee on the Apple TV.

So as you might have heard Circuit City is not doing too well. And though I prefer them to Best Buy, it looks like the time for CC might be coming to an end. Last week they announced they would be closing 20% of their stores, just days before announcing that they would be filing for bankruptcy. Ouch.

Well one of the stores being closed is the one near me, and they have 10% to 30% off of most things, so I thought I would go and see what kind of open box goodness I could enjoy. A few weeks back I reviewed the Flip Video Mino camera, take a look here. I love that little camera, and the video quality is pretty nice for something that fits in your pocket. The downside? It can’t read displays or text off of my computer or iphone or anything printed at all. It just won’t focus on it. So that is the only disappointment in a pocket sized video camera, fine with me. But still I had a gap to fill. 

I walked into circuit city and it was a mad house. I saw a nice little flash based camera that would be fine for recording short blurbs and it would certainly be able to zoom in on small text of all kinds. It was open box and was going for around $150. It still had the battery, charger and manual; just no box. I thought about what a great deal I was getting as I took it up to the counter…

Anyway, I paid and I was on my way. Once home I pulled out the manual to check out the functions, and noticed a second battery in the plastic bag. Score! Free spare battery! Then I saw something wasn’t right, the model number on the manual did not match the model number on my camera.

It turns out they had this camera grouped with the wrong set of cameras. They were trying to keep all the same model open boxes together, however a lot of the Samsungs use the same casing, and you have to check the model number on the inside of the screen to tell the difference. Well I paid about $150 for a $400+ HD (720p w/ HDMI) Camera. Not the top of the line by any means, but way above what I paid for!

I thought this was a nice change after years of being over-charged by retail, now it is my turn to taste a little victory.

Thank You Veterans!

Click here for an update!

Well in order to live the dream with my ATV I need to first hack it with Boxee. With the addition of Boxee to my ATV I will be able to use a multitude of online video sites, such as Hulu. That in itself is amazingly cool, and add that to the reasons I mentioned above and I am sold! 

Well Boxee is not for sale. It is currently in alpha, and as much as I want to hack the shit out of my ATV to start enjoying my media again, I am stuck on a waiting list for alpha testers. Which after this article on the Giz, I can only imagine is about a bazillion people long. 

Anyway, Patience is a good thing, so I will wait. But hopefully Boxee won’t make me wait too long. A nice picture to look at while I am waiting…

A perfect rainbow over the Boxee offices in Tel Aviv, Israel. I have been to Israel a couple times, going again in 2009. I need to get to Tel Aviv this time!

Click here to jump to the update

As you can see I am not thrilled with the use of WMC, so I want to move on to another option like the Apple TV or the Western Digital TV. But which?

OK first, Apple TV which is already into it’s 2.0. It is small and easy like most Apple products, it can play HD and now with a little hacking (1 or 2) you can play all xvid and divx videos on it. Also you can download movies directly from the apple store for $2.99 and $3.99. There is a 40GB for $229 and a 160GB for $329. However with the same hack you can hook up an external hard drive via usb, so get the 40GB and save some money. Also it seems you can now get Hulu on your Apple TV, that is a major bonus.

OK so next, the Western Digital WD TV. This is a bit of a different take on a media player than the Apple TV. There is no built in storage, it is all provided via your attached USB drive(s). The cost is $129, so you are saving some money, and chances are you already have a usb hard drive around to hook up to it. But here seems to be the catch, in order to play most of your videos you will have to convert them with the included software. Which is kind of the reason I am using the HP still, I can play all formats without any conversion. Something not possible with the Apple TV up until recently via the hacks (1 or 2) I talked about earlier.

They both look good and have slick interfaces, they both do 1080P, both have HDMI, both can accept USB hard drives and I am sure there is or soon will be a rental service for the WD to match the Apple. But when it comes down to it, I don’t want to convert thousands of files over to a proprietary format. I would rather convert the Apple TV to play all of my files just once. I guess that is my answer.

I think I am going to get a 40GB Apple TV and give it a try. I will let you know how it goes.

Click to purchase in the App Store.

In this case I didn’t even trust my normally trustworthy Amazon ratings which gave it an average score of 4.5 stars out of 5; 234 people surveyed.

So what did I order? 

The Flip Mino 60 Minute Camcorder

This thing seems pretty slick. Tiny one piece rechargeable instant USB video camera, there and ready to go when you need it. I am not expecting this to replace my HD camera, but I am expecting it to actually fit in my pocket. I of course ordered it overnight, so I will have it tomorrow.
A review will follow.

Ok now to the point. Crispy bacon from the microwave is not a myth. I have made it with this device, and it is great every time. The problem is it douches the inside of your microwave with bacon juice. You know, your vegetarian girlfriend’s favorite thing to see when she opens up the microwave.

But look what I found, a solution that provides crispy, mess-free microwave bacon cooking. WowBacon. Pretty cool idea. Pretty queer name.

Check out the product website.

How It’s Made – Bacon