When it was announced back in September 2011 I was quite excited about the HarmonyLink. I got one as a gift this Christmas and after some initial efforts with it, my enthusiasm is a little dampened, but I still think the device has a lot of promise. There are some serious flaws that need to be addressed by Logitech before it can replace my Pronto TSU 2000.

I was surprised that it didn’t use the same Harmony Desktop software that worked with the 659, then I got excited because it appeared to be web based. The model is log into website, configure your Devices and Activities on the web and sync to your device – nice. Sadly if you try to log into your account on myharmony.com from a non supported platform you get this message:

The following platforms are supported:

Microsoft® Windows XP or Vista with Internet Explorer 7+, or Firefox 3+

Microsoft® Windows 7 with Internet Explorer 8+ or Firefox 3+

Intel Mac OS® 10.4.8+ with Firefox 3+ or Safari 4+

The reason for this is they use a custom browser plug-in to do the initial setup of the device. This sort of makes sense, as the HarmonyLink is a wifi device that needs to be told how to connect to your wireless network. The initial setup seems to be the only time you’ll need the USB cable provided. I also found it a bit uncomfortable being asked by a website to enter my WPA2 password.

Logitech could have made things much simpler. Provided a very simple utility on Windows and Mac OSX to do the device initialization. Of course you need to program the device to enable it for your wireless network, they have all the code they need to do this in a reasonable manner so it seems like just a dumb design decision to include it as part of the browser plugin.

Security fail: The website myharmony.com also wasn’t able to accept a < character in my password. It gets better, the Android app (and apparently the iOS app too) doesn’t remember your password. So you need to type it in from time to time. Strike two for password security. They do require at least 4 characters, I can think of some great four letter words that might fit. So the user is torn between using a strong password or a convenient one. Everyone who might want to use the remote may need to know the password, that’d be strike three on their security story.

Setting up the devices was pretty reasonable, it does require that you know the model numbers of your equipment but will provide suggestions if you’re close to the right name. I had trouble locating the IR4PS3 device (for control of the PS3) in the device database, I ended up succeeding by entering Sony as the manufacturer and IR4PS3 as the model – then the correction offered by the website (IR4PS3/IR4PS3) worked.

The remote is setup around the idea of Activities, such as “Watch TV”. This is a bit different than the flow I have setup with my Pronto so it’ll take some getting used to. They have three basic activities: Watch TV, Watch Movie, Listen to Music. You can have multiples of one type of activity and give them unique names, but they provide only 4 icons – which is very silly given how easy it should be to have many different icons.

They very first time you connect to the HarmonyLink using your Android or iOS device running the remote control app, you’ll likely have a firmware update and a sync of your data from the web. The Android app hung on me during the firmware update leaving me waiting and waiting. It required a reboot of my Android tablet and I was back in business.

I haven’t warmed up to the Android version of the app yet. The power off path wasn’t immediately obvious to me, I’ll have to see how others that get a chance to use the remote once I shake out all the major issues react to it. Responsiveness to button presses is pretty good, there doesn’t feel like there is any appreciable lag. You can edit the button layout, with the exception of the 4 way navigation pad which seems fixed (this is unfortunate as the IR4PS3 mapping for ‘ok’ doesn’t map to X).

I was disappointed to discover that there wasn’t a web UI on the HarmonyLink itself. You must use a supported device (Android, iOS) and run the app. I’ll need to break out Wireshark and take a look at what needs to be done to fix that.

As I started with, I’m still optimistic this is going to be a nice addition to my home theatre – but only once they address some of the shortcomings. Engadget gathered a long list of great comments which felt pretty much on target. There is also a suggestion thread in the Logitech forums. I hope Logitech is listening.

I used to be one of those that strongly believed screen protectors were not worth the money. Over time I had a series a devices which I carried with me daily with no screen protection, sure after a year or two I’d inevitably end up with a small scratch but at that point the value of the device had dropped significantly anyways. The cost of screen protectors seemed outrageous, you could buy from a brand name and pay a big price – or opt for the super cheap knock offs from eBay. I assumed the cheap ones were not worth the money as the name brand ones were 10x more expensive.

The first phone I had with a screen protector was the NexusOne. It came to me with a Zagg invisibleshield installed. The invisibleshield model was one of the ones with the self healing property and had a slightly mottled surface. This felt a little different than a naked screen, your finger had a little drag. It was easy to get used to this. I never bothered to remove the screen protector during the time I had that phone.

Readers of this blog will know that the next phone I had was an HTC Desire. This came with no screen protector. The screen showed a few tiny (nearly invisible) scratches in the Gorilla Glass screen. The scratches were not enough to bother me in day to day use. When I bought a case for the phone from eBay, a cheap screen protector came along with it. I wrote back then that I was pretty impressed with the screen protector as it felt exactly like the screen.

My current phone is a well used Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant (i9000m). It’s got a few nicks and dings, and a handful of fairly deep scratches on the screen. Honestly you don’t notice them in normal use, but you can see them if you look up close as should be evident in the picture below. This is the lower part of the phone close up, a lamp is reflected off the screen but hopefully the scratch marks are clear (a deep one is centered, about 1/4 down from the top).

While I liked the case, it added a lot of bulk to the HTC Desire. This round I decided against a case but thought a couple of bucks was worth getting some screen protection. A screen protector can also help hide some of the existing scratches on a screen (true from my experience).

After looking around a little, I decided on an anti-glare screen. The cost was a little bit more than the clear ones, but less than a cup of coffee more. The youtube video demonstrating it also looked pretty cool. I made the purchase from eBay, but it turns out CitiGeeks has a web store and is based in Canada.

The packaging looked professional and included their logo. What was inside is pictured below.

You get the screen protector, a small card that you use to prevent air bubbles when installing, and a cleaning cloth. They have very good installation instructions on their website, and a youtube video which is very helpful.

The resulting installed anti-glare screen looks very good on the phone, turning it into a matte black surface when off. You can see the anti-glare properties in the photo below giving a soft halo reflection of the light. It also does a reasonable job hiding some of the small scratches, but not the deeper ones. Again, during normal use you don’t see any of the scratches.

I wouldn’t recommend the anti-glare screen having used it for a while. It does cut down on glare, but I find it adds a strange sparkle effect to images. If you look at the picture at the top of this post the right side of the image shows some of this as a multi-color graininess. This is difficult to capture in a picture, but is quite distracting in some situations.

I will recommend CitiGeeks. They provided a 20% discount coupon for my next order (if you search for this coupon online you should be able to find it easily). They also have pretty good email support, even at off hours. When I got my Galaxy Tab, I bought a crystal clear protector for it using the coupon and was able to get a better price than eBay. The clear screen protector is completely invisible, I had two Galaxy Tabs next to each other – one with a protector and one without – you could not tell the difference.

Low cost screen protectors do work well, and pay for themselves with the peace of mind they provide you when you accidentally toss your car keys into the same pocket as your phone. Should you get one? I think it’s still personal preference, I’m sold on them but only if I can get them at very low cost.

RAM is one of the most important aspects of your computer system, but spending a lot on fast RAM is usually not worth it – better to get more RAM that is cheaper. I’ll frequently just buy whatever is cheapest that meets the specs I need.

Back in 2006 when I bought a refurbished Mac Mini (G4) from Apple it came with 512MB of RAM. The PPC Mini was limited to a single RAM slot, and 512MB was ok – but not really enough.

For Macs there was RAM specially tagged as compatible, or I could go the aftermarket route and just buy some RAM with the same specifications. If my memory is correct, the price delta was 30% or so. In the end, even at the premium price (about $100) the 1Gb of RAM I needed wasn’t a huge expense so I went for the guaranteed to work. The memory arrived, it worked fine until just recently.

The mini stopped booting, running a memory test resulted in it indicating the RAM was bad (I thought maybe the hard drive had gone). As Kingston has a lifetime warranty I figured it was worth seeing if I could get a free replacement (vs. a $30 price for a new unit at todays RAM cost).

Wow! Kingston’s support/warranty process is amazingly good.

I called and almost immediately got a real live person. It was really hassle free, they asked why I thought the RAM was bad and I said I had run a self test on it – and that was it. I was immediately in line for a RMA #.

The RMA process is really slick. Once you get the right documentation from Kingston (via email!) – you only need to package the RAM and drop it off at a FedEx location. Kingston picks up the cost of shipping it both ways.

The shipping was fast (and free to me):
Oct 4, 2011 9:45 AM Delivered FOURNTAN VALLEY, CA
Oct 4, 2011 8:57 AM On FedEx vehicle for delivery COSTA MESA, CA
Oct 4, 2011 8:03 AM At local FedEx facility COSTA MESA, CA
Oct 4, 2011 5:59 AM In transit LOS ANGELES, CA
Oct 4, 2011 4:04 AM Departed FedEx location INDIANAPOLIS, IN
Oct 4, 2011 2:04 AM International shipment release INDIANAPOLIS, IN
Oct 4, 2011 12:27 AM Arrived at FedEx location INDIANAPOLIS, IN
Oct 3, 2011 10:44 PM In transit MIRABEL, PQ
Oct 3, 2011 8:04 PM In transit OTTAWA, ON
Oct 3, 2011 6:23 PM Left FedEx origin facility OTTAWA, ON
Oct 3, 2011 5:16 PM Picked up OTTAWA, ON


A brand new stick of RAM arrived on my doorstep on October 12th (again via FedEx). It was amusingly over packaged (as you can tell from the photo at the top of this post). Of course it works perfectly.

Sure I paid Kingston a premium form Mac specific RAM, but that was back in 2006. To get such red carpet service 5 years after I bought something is really amazing. Their warranty also covers the regular ValueRAM etc, so you should get similar great service. They usually have very good pricing on their RAM, but given my experience with the warranty even if they aren’t the best price it will be tempting to spend a few bucks more to get Kingston.

You can see what I bought above. It was a $2.99USD from an eBay seller, shipping from HongKong included. Based on the stamps on the envelope, it cost about $0.70 postage to ship it.

The case was exactly what I expected. A slightly flexible case with all the right holes for camera, headphones and power. The power and volume buttons are covered but function well. It is a good snug fit over the phone. The case adds some bulk to the phone, but not a lot of weight. I’m still quite pleased with the case after having it on the phone a couple of days.

The case is described as TPU GEL. Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU) is a type of plastic, the GEL is I suspect used to describe the flexibility of the case, as there are TPU cases which are hard plastic. Jenn has a Kate Spade silicon case for her iPhone 3G and it’s quite a bit more rubbery than this one.

The use of screen protectors is almost a religious issue. I hadn’t had a phone with a screen protector until the NexusOne, and it came to me with one installed. The HTC Desire does have Gorilla Glass on it, however it isn’t immune to small nicks and scratches.

Hopefully you can see the numerous small nicks on the screen in the picture above. You didn’t see them in normal lighting conditions, but the were there. I figured for the price, I couldn’t really go too wrong.

The screen protector is the typical generic screen protector. They include a small cleaning cloth as well. The instructions read a little like engrish, but are understandable. The screen is by no means anti-glare, the resulting finish is high gloss and I did have a few minor bubbles. Compared to the zagg which had a very distinctive feel to it, this one feels just like the bare screen.

I ran into the usual problems when applying the screen protector. The first film you take off exposes the sticky adhesive that will bind the screen protector to the phone. Of course it will pick up every free dust particle in the area – and even a grain of dust will show up as a bubble on the screen. Using the dusting cloth too close to the adhesive is a great way to get more stuff stuck to it. I found that the corner of the protective film used as a pick was useful for clearing dust bits out of the way – even off the adhesive.

One tip I may try in future is to do this in the bathroom. Run the shower to make the room a bit steamy, this will reduce airborne dust. Then make sure you’ve got good bright lighting and go to it. If you can get it perfectly aligned the first time that’s best, the more you mess with it – the more you are dealing with small bubbles. Large bubbles can be worked out prior to removal of the 2nd film.

Looking at the final product of my efforts below, you can see a number of imperfections in the application. Dust trapped below the screen protector as well as a few circular artifacts which are air bubbles. The screen protector also didn’t quite seal down in a couple of corners (likely where I handled it too much). None of the imperfections are highly visible in normal usage.

Apparently Steve Jobs had commented (on iPod’s) that stainless steel looks beautiful when it wears, and I have to agree. The rate at which I seem to change phones lately (about once a year) it is unlikely that I really need to worry about protecting the device all that much. Without any case or screen protection, it is likely this phone will last the 3 years or so before it is completely obsolete – I’ll still feel much better the next time I drop it onto the pavement.

First impression: Fast. So very fast. Second impression – argh, no physical keyboard – no buttons either! Then the fact that the Nexus has so much more RAM available than the G1 did starts to sink in, and the speed – did I mention it was fast? I was sold, but really hoped that the keyboard / button thing was going to quickly become a non-issue.

The headline photo is a comparison shot of the Nexus (far left), and iPhone 3G (middle) and the G1 (right). Things get interesting when we look at the side profile.

The Nexus is the thinnest of the bunch. Let’s take a look at some of the specifications

Some big differences, with twice the CPU frequency and more than twice the RAM – even needing to drive the larger resolution screen isn’t going to be enough to slow it down.

After a few days I got used to the ‘soft’ buttons for home, menu, back and search. The ROM has haptic feedback (it vibrates) when you hit these buttons. Initially the back button gave me some trouble, specifically in twitter where the reply button on screen is just above the back button – I kept hitting reply instead of back. As I got more familiar with the phone this was much less of an issue.  I still manage to hit the home button when using the track ball for some reason.

Having a real headphone jack is very nice, something I really found annoying with the G1. Having the dock to charge means no messing with cables, you just drop it in. The predictive keyboard is actually quite good, and once you get used to using it – the on screen keyboard is just fine. I still sometimes miss the physical keys, but everything else on this phone is so nice I’m willing to live without them.

This card worked reliably for me until things went wrong in early January of this year. Luckily I have a couple of 1Gb cards around that I could swap in as substitutes.  A couple of days later after drooling over 16Gb cards which are now reasonably cheap (if you drop to class 4) I realized that ADATA offers a lifetime warranty. There didn’t seem to be any sensible manner to claim this warranty, but I filled in the web based form to get some technical support. A few days went by, but then I got an email back.

The email was quite helpful. It was somewhat a form letter, but pointed me at the SD Formatter tool which in theory knows how to properly format an SD card. I had already tried multiple readers / machines to validate it was really a problem, but I gave the official tool a shot anyways. The same email contained a form document file that I needed to complete and send in to get an RMA #.

It took me a couple of days to get around to filling in the form, but the response with an RMA # was fairly prompt.  I sent off the card (cost me $2.88 postage – but it was well padded) and figured I’d see what happened. Well, today a rather large box (pictured at top of post) arrived. In it was a new card and two ADATA lanyards. Sweet, and I thought I had excessively packaged the card on return.

ADATA is one of the lower cost brands, yet from what I’ve read in various forums those with ADATA cards haven’t had more problems than any other brand. When the card failed, I was planning to just abandon an avoid ADATA in the future – the quality of the customer service (and the warranty) has me sold on ADATA being a good brand to buy. I will without hesitation buy ADATA again, and I’ll recommend it to others.

[Update: June 7, 2011 - I'm no longer using this ADATA card. The replacement started to exhibit strange behaviour in my phone - I replaced it with a 16Gb class 4 Patriot card. Not sure at this point if I'd recommend the ADATA brand]