Local Bose distributor ATLAS Singapore has kindly sent over a unit of the Bose SoundLink Wireless Mobile speaker. If you recall, the SoundLink Wireless Mobile is a portable speaker that weights 1.29kg with a depth of just 4.8cm with its fold-out stand closed.

The unit I reviewed is the standard version of the SoundLink Wireless Mobile speaker (with nylon cover) which retails for S$549. A premium model with dark brown leather cover is also available at S$639. Accessory covers in various color are available separately for S$59 (nylon) and S$99 (leather).

Music performance

Streaming music to the SoundLink from my iPhone

I tested the the SoundLink in the one week that I had it at home, and also brought it on a short trip to Malaysia. As someone who loathes coming back to a silent hotel room in the evenings, I am happy to say that the SoundLink performed superbly.

The speakers delivered credible performance even at high volumes and does not sound muddied like so many portable speakers that I’ve tested. The sound stage, mid-range and bass totally belies its diminutive size. I also did not notice any discernible reduction in the qualify of music playback due to the use of Bluetooth.

Having said that, I felt that its treble could have been better. And its mid-range, while adequate, isn’t exactly impressive. Then again, I’m probably making an unfair comparison against my Yamaha reference speakers which I listen to regularly.

Other observations

Below are some of my other observations of the SoundLink:

• Bass: Powerful and deep base. Place it close to a concrete wall for maximum effect – its practically akin to having a separate sub-woofer.
• Battery life: At a low volume, I ran the speakers for six hours with no signs of it running out of juice
• Portability: The SoundLink is perfect for travelling and will fit comfortably into your luggage
• Volume: This is hard to quantify but the SoundLink is probably as loud as your typical TV at maximum volume (But with much better bass)
• Range: Works as advertised (10 meters). Music playback cracks up at extreme range, or if there are too many obstacles in between.

One shortcoming of the SoundLink is the absence of Bluetooth AVRCP (Audio/Video Remote Control Profile) support. This results in two sets of volume control: The volume buttons on the SoundLink itself, and on your source device such as iPhone or iPod. Not a deal breaker, but it would have been a great feature. Hopefully, this capability will materialize in a future firmware upgrade via its “Service” port.

In closing

Front view of the Bose SoundLink Wireless Mobile speaker. Note the illuminated buttons along the top

The SoundLink is slim enough to fit into your luggage when travelling, while its beveled Chrome edges are designed for longevity

The Micro USB ("Service") port is used for upgrading the firmware for the Bose SoundLink

The accessory cover is securely fastened on with a bolt that requires an allen key to release/change

From left to right Altec Lansing inMotion Compact, Bose SoundLink, Altec Lansing inMotion Air

Related posts:

1. ATLAS unveils Bose SoundLink Wireless Mobile speaker
2. Increasing the range of my wireless Microsoft Mobile Mouse 4000
3. Seagate unveils the GoFlex Satellite Mobile Wireless Storage

To quickly explain: the key difference has to do with how the eneloop is engineered with a very low self-discharge rate compared with standard NiMH batteries. Indeed, Sanyo claims that its new “eneloop glitter” batteries retains 75% of its energy even after three years of storage. Such a lengthy shelf live means that power is available when you need it, making it a perfect green replacement for Alkaline batteries.

In keeping with the expected longevity of your eneloop purchase, Sanyo has given the eneloop glitter a new design that is just gorgeous. (You can see photos of them below)

In the meantime, some key features of the new “eneloop glitter” batteries:

• High recharging capability of approximately 1,500 times (50% more than the old eneloops)
• A digital camera powered using eneloop batteries can take approximately 4.4 times more shots than conventional dry-cell batteries
• Lower self-discharge rate (ready for use with 75% of its energy remaining even after three years of storage!)
• eneloop batteries are pre-charged at the factory where they are manufactured in Japan by green power from photovoltaic generation
• Comes in a variety of glittery colours

I plan to test out the eneloops by substituting them in some of my battery-powered gadgets that I use on a daily basis. In no particular order: Logitech Anywhere MX (2x AA), Apple Wireless Keyboard (3x AA) and Kensington Presenter Pro Remote with Green Laser and Memory (2x AAA).

Will update in a couple of months on how they fare.

Sanyo sent me 8pcs of the AA andn 4pcs of the AAA "eneloop glitter" batteries

In keeping with their longevity, the eneloop glitter series looks really good!

Obligatory shot of the battery pack (back)

No related posts.

Maintenance downtime took place without me even realizing it

Experienced a downtime with my Maxinfinity Internet connection.  Admittedly, I’ve forgotten about it and despite working till very late (or early) on Tuesday morning, the entire maintenance window passed me by without me realizing it.

Of course, this would only be possible because of the Peplink Balance gear that I use for Internet load-balancing. In a nutshell, I subscribe to two different Internet Service Provider. which serves to speed up my Internet access under normal circumstances. Moreover, any outage or maintenance downtime is limited to one ISP as the Peplink Balance router would seamlessly divert all data requests to the unaffected Internet connection.

You can read about my Review of the Peplink 380 Multi-WAN Router which I wrote last year, or my interview with Keith Chau on the topic of enhancing business continuity with the use of WAN load balancing.

Related posts:

1. A quick look at the Peplink Balance 310
2. Peplink Balance appliance for powerful, easy to use WAN load-balancing
3. My StarHub Fibre Broadband is live – 24 hours later

Those listed with an (*) are paid/commercial software; the rest are freeware or open-source software.  Also, note that while the client software listed under “Utilities (Cloud)” are all free, I do pay a recurring fee for the associated cloud services.

Applications

• Microsoft Office 2010* (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook)
• BlackBerry Desktop Software - Software to manage my BlackBerry smartphone
• Dragon Naturallyspeaking 11.5* – The top voice-recognition software on Windows
• FeedDemon – Windows RSS reader that syncs with Google Reader
• Foxit Reader 5.0 – One of the fastest PDF readers
• Notepad++ – A very powerful text editor
• SmartDraw VP* – Visual processor for quick and easy visuals
• Snagit 10* – Premiere screen-capture software for the Windows platform
• IrfanView – Lighting-fast and lightweight image viewer
• SOTI Pocket Controller-Pro for BlackBerry* – Lets me access my BlackBerry smartphone from the desktop
• XNote Stopwatch* – Professional countdown/timer/stopwatch/clock software
• 7-Zip - A powerful file archiver
• Kindle for PC

• Google Chrome - Web browser software
• Internet Explorer 9 - Web browser software
• Mozilla Firefox - Web browser software
• FileZilla - FTP client software
• Trillian* - Multi-IM client

• iTunes - Enough said
• Windows Media Player - Enough said
• Media Player Classic - Free audio and video player for Windows
• Handbrake - Multiplatform video transcoder
• Creative Smart Recorder – Very useful sound recording software that came with my Sound Blaster X-Fi

Antimalware (Security software)

• Microsoft Security Essentials - Free antivirus scanner by Microsoft
• Faronics Anti-Executable (Standard)* – Whitelisting software

Utilities (Cloud)

• SugarSync Manager - Keeps my documents in for real-time backup protection
• ResophNotes - A simplenotes client to share text notes with my iPhone, iPad
• RescueTime - Software to automatically monitor how you spend your time
• MobileNoter Sync Client - To sync OneNote notebooks to iOS

Utilities (Runs in background)

• Unofficial Apple Wireless Keyboard Support – Helps your Apple Wireless Keyboard work better on Windows
• Synology Assistant – Free utility to help print from the Synology 1511+ NAS
• MaxiVista* - Lets you tap monitors on a spare PC as an extended screen for your Primary PC
• Matrox PowerDesk – Comes free with Matrox TripleHead2Go to manage multiple monitors
• SlySoft Virtual CloneDrive - Software to mount CD/DVD images
• SlySoft AnyDVD* – Removes copy protection from DVDs

Related posts:

1. Increasing the range of my wireless Microsoft Mobile Mouse 4000
2. My mobile desktop

I’ll blog a little more about the various load-balancing options another day, though what I wanted to highlight today is the sheer reliability of the company’s operating system and hardware, a trait which I mentioned in my recent report on ITBusinessEdge recently.  Titled Peplink on Enhancing Business Continuity with WAN Load Balancing, I wrote the article after interviewing General Manager Keith Chau at CommunicAsia 2011 this year.

Anyway, below is a screenshot of the dashboard for the Peplink Balance 30, a 3x WAN port device targeted at the lower-end market such as power users and home office users.  As you can see, the device has been up for over three months without being switched off and is still working flawlessly.  Ironically, my Internet modems probably saw more resets.  Indeed, the uptime could have been higher were not for a firmware update that required the Balance 30 to be restarted.

More than three months uptime from the Peplink Balance 30, a device targeted at "Power Users & Home Offices"

Related posts:

1. A quick look at the Peplink Balance 310
2. Who’s afraid of maintenance downtime?
3. Attending CommunicAsia 2011 in Singapore

Internet connection not ready

I made a decision to switch my home office’s StarHub cable broadband to one of its MaxInfinity Fibre plan just over a month ago.  The decision was helped by the Internet Service Provider’s (ISP) willingness to let  me terminate my former contract without penalty – probably due to the fact that I have not taken any freebies ‘bait’ previously.

The scheduled installation finally took place on Tuesday morning, with the technician kindly giving me a call prior to coming over.  I suspect it was more to prevent a wasted trip caused by customers who forgot about the appointment dates than out of courtesy, but who am I to complain?

According to the StarHub technician, having my fibre optic termination point in my study a.k.a. Mission Control room  (as I did) is rather rare. Indeed, when the contractors from OpenNet (The company tasked with deploying Singapore’s Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network) came to wire up my apartment late last year,  I had to repeat my instructions to run the cable to my study quite a few times; they keep gesturing to my TV point in the living room.  Fortunately, my own contractors were present, and they actually did the work of running the fiber optics cable inside my house.

Install and wait

Anyway, the technician was able to complete  the fuss-free installation in about 20 minutes.  And the primary reason the process proved fuss free was entirely due to the fact that no testing was actually done. Apparently, it can take up to 3 days for the Internet to be activated upon installation. No idea if the situation is unique to StarHub, or pertains to all ISPs using Next Gen NBN.  This is of no consequence to me, since I still have my other broadband connections, but good to know in advance if you’re the impatient sort.

And yes, unlike ISPs like M1, StarHub makes it mandatory to use their Huawei HG256s Home Gateway (pictured above). Since I’ve no use for the Huawei’s wimpy Wi-Fi capabilities, I’ve promptly disabled it.  Power-users who want to make use of their own routers for NAT’ing and Port forwarding will need to configure your own router as a DMZ destination on the HG256s. On that front, I thought S’pore blogger Lester Chan did a good job outlining how he did bridged between his Huawei HG256s and D-Link DIR-855. (I did my IP addressing differently as my equipment is more versatile.)

Conclusion

So what’s my experience with the new fibre optic broadband connection? Actually, it feels pretty much the same to me.  Then again, I’m currently performing WAN load balancing across three different broadband links, so I’m sure that obfuscate my experience somewhat.  The enhanced upstream bandwidth will benefit me though – once I get the other components of my network in place.

Fibre broadband finally up the next morning after 24hours (I checked the modem's uptime log to verify)

A snapshot of my current test bed for testing networking devices

Related posts:

1. StarHub unveils innovative Roam Manager service

This photo of Bill Gates and three LCD monitors in the background was used in the CNNMoney article

I recently convinced a friend to get a new monitor for a dual-monitor setup, which led me to think again about the use of multiple monitors.  You see, I’m an advocate of using multiple monitors for productivity and health reasons – I believe they help you work faster and is better for your eyes in the long run.

The problem however, is that many people instinctively consider having even two monitors (never mind more than two) to be a luxury and unnecessary.  This immediately closes their mind as they file it under the “too expensive” without even considering the various benefits of working with multiple monitors.

Yet many would spend over a hundred thousand dollars to get a new car (It currently costs more than US$40k just to get a COE license to own a new car in Singapore) and would not hesitate to splurge thousands more on luxury items like designer handbags or watches that adds nothing to productivity.

Even billionaire Bill Gates admits to using three monitors in his office in a 2006 interview by Fortune.  You can read the article published on titled How I Work: Bill Gates.  In addition, the prices of LCD monitors have dipped substantially since 2006, and it may surprise you that the four LCD monitors on my home office desktop costs about the same as a 64GB iPad2 with a couple of accessories. Finally, a good LCD display can probably work for longer than five years, and is easily migrated to newer desktops or laptops.

So why don’t you give an additional monitor (or two) some consideration today?  And to show you how comparatively tame my own setup is, I’ve attached some pictures of various multi-monitor rigs below.

Received this image from Matrox PR about how its Extio fiber optics KVM is being used to put the servers/workstations far away (and eliminate noise)

Mitch Haile's home workstation. That's 1x 20" and 4x 30" LCD monitors or 11,440 x 1,600 connected via Mac Pro (Click on picture to go to Haile's site)

Stefan Didak’s home office desktop with erm, a lot of monitors (Click on picture to go to Didak’s site)

Related posts:

1. Mission Control refresh 2011 Edition
2. Nice Samsung Smart TV video

As part of my evaluation of the HP ProCurve 2915 8G PoE Switch, I connected a trio of Wi-Fi access points to check out its Power over Ethernet (PoE) capabilities.  For those not familiar with PoE, the technology enables the delivery of power over the same Ethernet cables used for data connectivity.

From left to right, you can see the:

• ZoneFlex 7962 dual-band 802.11n Smart Wi-Fi Access Point from Ruckus Wireless
• ECB-9500 Wireless N 300Mbps Access Point from EnGenius
• DAP-2555 AIRPREMIER N Dual Band Access Point from D-Link.

According to its web-based management console, the amount of power currently supplied by the ProCurve 2915 to the three access points (AP) is pegged at 12 watts out of a maximum of 134 watts (About 17 watts x 8).  As a managed switch, the ProCurve 2915 really shines in that it allows a network administrator to configure the POE power on a per-port level basis from 1W all the way to 33W. PoE output can also be disabled individually.

More than anything, I think the above setup shows the important role that PoE can play in the deployment of Wi-Fi APs in both small and mid-sized businesses and the enterprise today. Other devices that can benefit from an existing PoE infrastructure would be the use of IP phones and IP cameras.

I’ll post the link to my review of the HP ProCurve 2915 once it’s published on ITBusinessEdge.com.

Related posts:

1. My first look at the Meraki MR16 Wi-Fi access point

The Peplink Balance 310 appliance arrived on Friday after an initial missed delivery from FedEx.  An internal refresh, the new appliance retains the ability to perform ISP load-balancing between three WAN sources that made the 2xx/3xx series such an ideal product for small and mid-sized businesses looking for an easy to use product.  Under-the-hood however, the revised Balance 310 now incorporates a much more powerful processor, bumps up the built-in LAN switch to 4x Gigabit Ethernet, and includes a USB port on the front for connecting a USB-based modem for mobile data access.

I’m not exaggerating on the sheer simplicity of web interface in the Peplink Balance, which is also used by Matt Mullenweg of WordPress for his home office.  (Mullenweg did a side-by-side review of three Peplink models here, though as I understand it, his Balance 310 is an older hardware revision)

Key highlights of the Balance 310′s capabilities:

• 100Mbps router throughput
• 7 load balancing algorithms (Weighted, Enforced, Persistence, Priority, Overflow, Least Used, and Lowest Latency Load Balancing Algorithms)
• Site-to-site VPN bonding (2 Peers; 30Mbps bonding VPN throughput)
• PPTP VPN Server (Recommended for 15 VPN users or fewer)
• 1U rackmount capable
• Inbound load balancing

You can find the product comparison page for the various Peplink Balance models here, or read my earlier review of the higher-end Balance 380 multi-WAN router on my ITBusinessEdge SMB Blog.

Four GbE ports, three Fast Ethernet WAN ports and one USB port makes the Balance 310 an ISP load-balancing powerhouse for SMBs

Related posts:

1. Peplink Balance appliance for powerful, easy to use WAN load-balancing
2. Who’s afraid of maintenance downtime?
3. My workstation

Updated Mission Control (a.k.a. my workstation) this month with the acquisition of two new 23-inch Dell UltraSharp (U2311H) LCD monitors, which I have just managed to mount. Getting them set up into a single desktop took longer, and required the use of my old Sony VAIO TZ26GN (1.06GHz) laptop. The Dells are connected via Matrox TripleHead2Go in dual-output mode, while my two older Samsung SyncMaster P2350 LCD monitors are actually connected to a Magma ExpressBox1 with a quad-output Matrox M9140 LP x 16 graphics card inside.  Finally, holding the various monitors in place are various “Desk Mount” monitor arms from Ergotron.

Some work still needs to be done to tidy/bundle up the various cables, though everything is up and working now.

Why go multi-monitor?  I wrote Increase Your Productivity with an Additional Monitor two years ago, but in a nutshell:

• Greater efficiency: ALT-Tab is a chore and productivity killer when you have 10 or more program windows open most of the time
• Your eyes: Why risk your eyesight squinting at a small laptop screen given the number of hours I spend at the computer a day?
• Affordability: LCD monitors are a steal now (All the monitors on my table costs only slightly more than a single 19-inch CRT back when I was studying)

Some quick points to consider:

• Setting up a multi-monitor setup powered by a laptop is much more challenging than with a desktop.
• Even one additional monitor makes a big difference; consider going this route if you are not technically inclined.
• The DualHead2Go/TripleHead2Go from Matrox are a gem and very easy to setup.
• Note that only the DisplayPort (DP) version of  TripleHead2Go supports triple monitors in 1920×1080 resolution.
• Quad monitor is really only possible (from a laptop) using a software-driven approach like MaxiVista (What I did), or  using DisplayLink’s USB graphics adapters.
• Monitor arms are essential for space management – or get monitors that come with an adjustable (E.g.: height, pivot, tilt and swivel) stand.

I plan on writing a more detailed article on how to setup multi-monitor rigs, so stay tuned.

Another view of my workstation; you can see one of the Samsung in portrait mode

A close-up of the ExpressBox Pro and my old Sony VAIO TZ26GN laptop

Related posts:

1. Some multi-monitor rigs from around the world
2. Increasing the range of my wireless Microsoft Mobile Mouse 4000
3. Magma unveils three-slot Thunderbolt expansion chassis