What is Windows Home Server?

Hands On Review of the Griffin Stylus for the Apple iPad and iPhone

Andrew Edney

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Dec 22, 2010

If you use an Apple iPad or iPhone for any length then your fingers might get a little sore. If that’s the case you could do with using a stylus – and Griffin has one just for you!

Griffin’s Stylus is a balanced pointer with a soft rubber tip custom designed to mimic your finger. The omni-directional tip adapts to any writing style and doesn’t care whether you’re left-handed or right-handed. Keeps your touchscreen free of fingerprints and smudges as it gives increased control over any touchscreen operation. Perfect for sketching, drawing, gaming and photography apps, or any use where you need a finer degree of control than your finger can offer. Stylus includes an integrated clip that attaches to a pocket in your bag or a pencil loop in your iPad case.

Features

High-sensitivity, omni-directional point won’t scratch or smudge your touchscreen
Great for right- and left-handed writers
Integrated clip attaches to strap, pocket or a pencil loop in your iPad case
Use with any app for greater comfort and control

What’s In The Box?

The box is very small, and just contains the stylus – but then what more do you really need?

The stylus itself is very small and lightweight – as you can see it about the same length as an iPhone 4. Its length is 4.3” and its weight is just 0.4 oz.

Final Thoughts

I really like this stylus – I found it very easy to use and I didn’t need to apply very much pressure at all when using it. I used it on both an iPad and an iPhone 4 and I have to say it felt a little bit strange going back to using my finger after using the stylus.

If you use either of these devices for any length of time then this stylus is a must have, and at less than $20 it’s a bargain. I actually bought mine in Tesco.

You can learn more from the Griffin website.

Windows Server Code Name “Vail” Online Help

Windows Home Server

Timothy Daleo

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Dec 22, 2010

3

A Windows Server Code Name “Vail” Online Help webpage has just been released from Microsoft. The webpage includes pre-release documentation and is subject to change in future releases but still has quite a bit of information. While you are at the site, please take the quick survey to let them know how they are doing! I see this as a good sign that Microsoft will continue to fully support Windows Home Server Code Name Vail.

The website is at:

http://onlinehelp.microsoft.com/en-us/vail/default.aspx

Remember to complete the Survey!

The website looks great and had some wonderful information on Windows Home Server Code name Vail.

In my opinion, the best part of the website is the “What’s New” area. This gives you some quick links and takes you to some forum resources.

I look forward to seeing more information on Vail and hope for great features in 2011.

Tim

Synology Launch the High Performance DiskStation DS1511+ NAS

Andrew Edney

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Dec 22, 2010

4

Not a company to sit around, even during the holidays, Synology today announced the launch of their new high performance DiskStation NAS server, the DS1511+, which is aimed squarely at the small and medium sized business.

Synology^® DiskStation DS1511+ offers a high-performance, scalable, and full-featured network attached storage solution that meets the needs of small and medium-sized businesses that require an efficient way to centralize data protection, simplify data management, and rapidly scale storage capacity with minimal time spent on setup and management. The Synology DS1511+ is backed with Synology’s 3-year limited warranty.

165.91 MB/sec Writing, 197.8 MB/sec Reading
Windows^® ADS and ACL support
iSCSI Support as Virtualization Solution
Scale up to 15 Drives with Synology DX510²
Expandable RAM Size (up to 3GB)
2 LAN with Failover and Link Aggregation Support
Hot-swappable Hard Drive Design

Here is the full press release:

Synology® Unveils High-Performance DiskStation DS1511+ with Greater Scalability and Full-Featured NAS Solution for SMB Users
Milton Keynes, United Kingdom—Dec 22, 2010—Synology® Inc. today unveiled DiskStation DS1511+, a high-performance NAS server that offers greater scalability, significant storage capacity and full-featured business NAS solutions for SMB users.
As information data increases exponentially by the minute, the performance of data transmission becomes a predominant requirement for setting up a centralized file server in a business environment. ?With link aggregation, the DS1511+ surpasses its predecessor to deliver an astonishing 197 MB/sec in reading speed under RAID 5 configuration in a Windows® environment, and 165 MB/sec in writing,? said Chad Chiang, the product manager of Synology Inc. The 2 LAN structure with failover support coupled with hot-swappable drives thus ensure high data availability.
The DS1511+ provides space for five hard drives – with a single drive reaching a 3TB capacity – that can be scaled up to a total of 15 drives for a maximum of 45TB by connecting with two Synology DX510 expansion units. The default 1GB RAM can also be upgraded to 3GB to enhance work process performance. Running on a 1.8GHz dual-core processor, the DS1511+ only consumes 68 watts of power during operation, while the multiples scheduled on/off, wake on LAN/WAN and hard drive hibernation facilitate energy saving and low operating cost. The reliability of DS1511+ is solidified by Synology’s 3-year limited warranty.
Blessed by the Synology DiskStation Manager 3.0 (DSM 3.0) operation system, the DS1511+ can fit to a business environment easily. Windows ACL support allows for customized privilege setup on files and folders through existing Windows user interface. Moreover, user account can be managed more efficiently and productively by utilizing the Windows ADS integration to reduce burden of IT administration.
For anyone seeking an alternative of Storage-Area-Network (SAN), the affordable and cost-effective iSCSI support in DSM 3.0 allows SMB users to consolidate storage into data center storage arrays while providing hosts with the illusion of locally-attached disks. The DS1511+ also serves as a seamless storage solution for virtualization servers, such as VMware® vSphereTM, Microsoft Hyper-VTM, and Citrix® XenServerTM.
The Synology DS1511+ has many features that enhance the effectiveness of resource sharing. The comprehensive network protocol support assures seamless file sharing across Windows, Mac® and Linux platforms, while file access on the Internet is simplified by the encrypted FTP server and the web-based file browser. In terms of security protection, the presence of HTTPS, firewall, IP auto-block and AES 256-bit encryption engine provides users with a peace-of-mind during file sharing.
Availability
The Synology DS1511+ is now shipping globally.

You can learn more about the DS1511+ from the Synology website.

Western Digital Caviar 2TB Green Drives Going Cheap

Andrew Edney

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Dec 22, 2010

1

If you are stuck for something to buy the “geek” in your family, why not look at giving the gift of storage this year? Amazon have the Western Digital Caviar 2TB Green Drives for under £75!

This is the WD20EARS model, which is an advanced format drive, so make sure your system can handle these.

To learn more about advanced format drives and Windows Home Server, click here, and to learn more about hard drives in general click here.

So, if you want to get some more storage, very cheap, buy some of these today by clicking on the link below.

And here are some extra pictures from Tim:

WHS Phone App for Windows Phone 7 Updated

Andrew Edney

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Dec 21, 2010

0

WHS Phone is a new Windows Phone 7 app for Windows Home Server. You can connect to your server and browse files, stream music, view photos, and much more. This app has now been upgraded to version 1.1.2.1.

This app is available now in the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace for $3.99. Use Zune Marketplace to check it out!

App Purchase from Zune Marketplace

The app is available for your Windows Phone 7 through Zune. The price is $3.99.

Changes In This Release

Here are the list of changes for this release:

Add Folder Songs to Playlist (Tap and Hold to add files, non-recursive)
Add SSL Support
Add Server’s WHS Phone Addin Version to About Page
Add days since last backup to computer details
Music should play when a song is added to the playlist
Add Version, URL, and contact information to the WHS Console Addin
Progress bar on the user save pop is not working.
WHS Phone Addin Users drop down does not update when new users are added, WHS console has to be restarted to see new users.
Server Page Storage Pool is Calculated Incorrectly.
WHS Phone Crashes with 3000+ Images in a Folder
German Translation for incorrect.
Server screen, Hard drive scroll viewer bounces back up
Log in crashes if invalid characters are entered

Check out what Tim wrote about it earlier this month.

DVBLogic Version 3.2 Suite Out Now

Andrew Edney

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Dec 20, 2010

1

So only 3 days since the release of RC3, DVBLogic have just released the proper final release of Version 3.2 of their software.

Here is what they say about this release:

DVBLink products v3.2 are released!
Registration information of DVBLink 3.2 products is compatible with v3.1. In other words this update is free of charge.
What’s new and fixed since version 3.1:
General
– Added: Czech, Chineese and Polish languages
– Added: EPG program information overwrite on each update. This means that previously incomplete EPG data will be overwritten with a newer one when it becoms available.
– Added: Channel numbers are taken from xmltv (channel IDs) during EPG channel mapping
– Fixed: DVBLink Server (sometimes) hangs up during service shutdown
– Fixed: DVBLink Server (sometimes) crashes during service shutdown
– Fixed: DVBLink Server (sometimes) crashes when closing server configuration utility (after switching tabs and configuring source(s))
– Added: adding epg data into the gaps (e.g. no data available gaps in already inserted epg data)
– Added: channels.xml template for xmltv epg source where time offset can be adjusted per channel. Also HDTV channel flag can be set there. File has to be added manually via editor – no user interface is available (yet).
– Fixed: pop-up asking to synchronize channels immediately after wake-up (when pressed Yes all channels are deleted)
– Fixed: Guide information not updating properly after standby
– Fixed: “DVBLink program has stopped responding” pop-up in MediaCenter/Extender when local MediaCenter is used simultaneously with Extender device(s)
– Added: New product installer for DVBLink TVSource / Network Pack
DVBLink TVSource
– Added: EPG from the stream (EIT packets) support
– Added: TeVii S660 support (changed tuner name)
– Added: Support for new TBS tuners drivers and tuners (TBS 6921, 8921 and QBox3)
– Added: Digital Devices CI module support
– Added: Terratec H7 dvb-t tuner support (changed tuner name)
DVBLink Server Network Pack
– Added: Guide listings in a webbrowser and remote timer recordings programming
– Added: New IPhone/IPad user interface with full web-interface functionality
– Added: Mobile web-interface (http://x.x.x.x:port/iphone) compatibility with most desktop and mobile browsers (live TV streaming only works for IPhone and IPad)
– Added: IPhone streaming
– Added: IPad streaming
– Added: language selection to UPnP server
– Added: possibility to disable web server authentication (it is disabled when user name is empty)
– Fixed: BSE EPG information not appearing via the web server
– Added: support for Samsung DLNA TVs
– Fixed: unreliable stream parameters detection on some UPnP players when playing back encrypted channels
DVBLink for IPTV
– Added: RTSP static port
DVBLink for Dreambox
– Added: EPG retrieval from the Dreambox (stream)
Important!! Version 3.2 is incompatible with version 3.1 or earlier. This means that you must upgrade all of your DVBLink products to the new version!
How to install:
DVBLink TVSource/DVBLink TVSource Connected Edition:
– Run DVBLinkSetup.exe from Setup folder. It will both install new version or update existing version to a new one.
DVBLink Server Network Client / DVBLink for Dreambox / DVBLink for IPTV:
– New installation: run msi installation files. Install DVBLink server first, followed by the DVBLink source product installation and (eventually) Network Pack installation.
– Upgrade: run enclosed bat files. Upgrade DVBLink Server first, then DVBLink source products and then (eventually) Network Pack and Network Client(s). This will preserve all your channels and settings. You will need to re-enter server IP address after upgrading client.
The versions of all binary files (exe and dll) should be 3.2.0.0.
Things to know and to consider:
– Users with satellite tuners need to rescan the channels. Otherwise you may receive DVBLink “No signal” message when tuning channels in MediaCenter
– The DVBLink default recorder is used for remote Guide watching and timer recording programming. This means that for it to work you must select one of your MediaCenters to be a DVBLink default recorder (via MediaCenter DVBLink addin menu).
– DVBLink server will wake up the default recorder MediaCenter if it is in the sleep state via “wakeup on lan” and will start MediaCenter itself. Make sure that your BIOS and network card settings allow “wakeup on lan” to work.
– To watch channels on the IPhone/IPad connect to DVBLink Server from IPhone browser using the following URL: http://<dvblink server ip address>:port/iphone
– Users, having issues with incorrect display of accented characters in channel names or scanned EPG information, may select another DVB coding page in the general DVBLink server settings dialog and re-scan channels/EPG information.

Well done guys! I wonder how long until the first beta of 3.3?

You can download the required version from here.

If you are not sure what this is, and you want to learn more, you can check out our two how to guides –

How To Install and Configure DVBLink Server and TVSource v3.01 and

How To Install and Configure DVBLink Server Network Pack v3.01.

Hands On Review of XBMC 10.0 Dharma

Andrew Edney

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Dec 20, 2010

11

The latest version of XBMC has been released – bringing it to version 10.0, also referred to as Dharma. Here we provide our hands-on review.

What is XBMC?

XBMC is an award-winning free and open source (GPL) software media player and entertainment hub for digital media. XBMC is available for Linux, OSX, Windows, and the original Xbox. Created in 2003 by a group of like minded programmers, XBMC is a non-profit project run and developed by volunteers located around the world. More than 50 software developers have contributed to XBMC, and 100-plus translators have worked to expand its reach, making it available in more than 30 languages.

While XBMC functions very well as a standard media player application for your computer, it has been designed to be the perfect companion for your HTPC. Supporting an almost endless range of remote controls, and combined with its beautiful interface and powerful skinning engine, XBMC feels very natural to use from the couch and is the ideal solution for your home theater.

Currently XBMC can be used to play almost all popular audio and video formats around. It was designed for network playback, so you can stream your multimedia from anywhere in the house or directly from the internet using practically any protocol available. Use your media as-is: XBMC can play CDs and DVDs directly from the disk or image file, almost all popular archive formats from your hard drive, and even files inside ZIP and RAR archives. It will even scan all of your media and automatically create a personalized library complete with box covers, descriptions, and fanart. There are playlist and slideshow functions, a weather forecast feature and many audio visualizations. Once installed, your computer will become a fully functional multimedia jukebox.

Downloading XBMC

You can download a version of XBMC for a number of different platforms, including Mac, Windows and Apple TV. There is even an option for a Live CD, which basically means you boot your computer from that so that you don’t have to install anything if you want to use XBMC.

The download page can be found here.

Installing XBMC

Installing XBMC was very simple and quick (I did it on a Windows machine as that was the one I happened to be on at the time and also the easiest for doing the screenshots).

BYOB Podcast Episode 26 Out Now

Andrew Edney

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Dec 20, 2010

2

The guys over at BYOB, including our very own, and slightly older Tim Daleo, have released the BYOB podcast episode 26.

Here is what they had to say about this weeks show:

USB 3.0 Thumb Drive, GT 240 Deal, Hardware RAID Controller, and Michaels VM. We cover some varying topics today starting with some first impressions of USB 3.0 from Tim as well as his GT 240 Deal. We cover part two of DE alternatives and talk a bit about hardware RAID, and we discuss Michael’s VM build.

Hope you enjoy the show and as always we look forward to hearing from you. Happy Holidays to everyone and we hope everyone gets Newegg gift certificates so you can BYOB…

As usual you can listen to the show here.

And the 2nd Live show went really well – the recording will be available soon.

Revision 3 Plugin for Windows Media Center

Andrew Edney

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Dec 19, 2010

6

Revision 3 produce a lot of great video content, including the great Unboxing Porn series, and now they have released a plugin for Windows Media Center to allow you to watch them from within Media Center.

Here is how Revision 3 describe this plugin:

With Windows Media Center, your PC is a powerful TV, bringing your shows and entertainment to one place. Enjoy broadcast and Internet TV right on your PC. Whenever and wherever you want.

So ok, it doesn’t really describe the plugin so much as Media Center, but you get the idea!

You can download the plugin from here. Just pick which processor type you have and away you go! There is also the option to download for other devices, including Google TV, Boxee and Apple TV.

Thanks guys – this saves me from watching the content through a browser!

And thanks to the Extreme Windows Blog for the heads up!

UPDATE:

It seems that the 64-bit plugin doesn’t work! So just use the 32-bit version for now.

Anyway, here are some images of the plugin running (thanks Tim!)

Synology Launch DiskStation DS211+ NAS Server

Andrew Edney

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Dec 18, 2010

1

This week Synology announced the launch of their next NAS server – the DiskStation DS211+. And this one is aimed at the small business.

We mentioned the launch of the DiskStation DS211 last month, and now it is the turn of the DS211+.

Synology^® DiskStation DS211+ offers a high-performance, secure, and full-featured network attached storage solution that helps small and medium-sized businesses centralize backup, protect critical assets and share files quickly and efficiently. Synology protects your investment in the DS211+ with a 2-year limited warranty.

108MB/sec Reading, 55MB/sec Writing¹
Windows^® ACL Support
Complete Backup Solutions
256-bit AES Hardware Encryption Engine
Hot Swappable Hard Drives
Cool and Quiet Design
Power-saving with only 24W in Operation

Here is the full press release:

Synology^® Presents the High-Performance DS211+ NAS Server with Brand New Cool and Quiet Hardware Design for SMBs

Milton Keynes, United Kingdom—Dec 14, 2010—Synology^® Inc. today launched DiskStation DS211+, a high-performance, secure, and full-featured 2-bay NAS server for SMB users to share files, centralize backup, and protect critical data quickly and efficiently. The DS211+ comes with the brand new hardware design to provide more reliable solutions and quieter working environment.

The DS211+ incorporates major hardware upgrades from its predecessor. Its hot-swappable hard drive design minimizes the financial lost due to system downtime and increases reliability. The 92mm low-rotation fan and efficient airflow design provide sufficient airflow to keep the system running cooler than its predecessor, while ensure a low noise level at the same time. The special material of snap-on front cover absorbs HDD vibration, which further ensures quiet operation. The DS211+ was measured at only 19.4 dB(A) in operation, much lower than office background noise that is about 40 dB(A). The SD card and USB slots offers a plug-n-save quick solution to store data with just one touch on the <> button in the front panel.

“The brand new hardware design of DS211+ realizes our promise of providing satisfying solutions. We designed DS211+ to be hot-swappable for higher reliability, and also cool and quiet to ensure the best user experience,” commented Chad Cheng, product manager of Synology Inc.

For fulfilling the demanding requirements of SMBs, the DS211+ delivers an average of 108MB/sec reading and 55MB/sec writing speeds under RAID 1 configuration in a Windows^® environment. Its performance is further ensured by the 256-bit AES hardware encryption engine, which prevents unauthorized access attempts to hard drives, while at the same time boasts read speed to be 200% faster than the pure software engine.

The DS211+ offers rich features and applications with the renowned DiskStation Manager 3.0 operating system, which can replace several network hardware equipments in offices. Its comprehensive network protocol support assures seamless cross-platform data sharing and backup. Users can back up data to rsync servers, external hard drives via USB or eSATA connection, or cloud via Amazon^® S3. Moreover, they can use Synology Time Backup to back up different versions of files, and flip through to find the most recent changes quickly. The Web Station provides virtual hosting feature via LAMP (Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP) server, allowing hosting up to 30 websites. With simple setup steps, the DS211+ can also acts as mail server, printer server, FTP server, and centralized interface to monitor the office environments. Internet information security is a critical issue for SMBs. Other than the hardware encryption engine, the DS211+ provides encrypted file sharing, HTTPS, firewall, and IP auto-block support to increase the security level. Furthermore, users can efficiently control and set privileges with Windows^® ACL support.

The Synology DS211+ is powered by 1.6GHz CPU, 512MB RAM, one Gigabit LAN port, three USB ports, one eSATA port, and one SD card slot. Compliant to the energy-saving trend, the DS211+ consumes relatively low power of 24 watts in operation and supports multiple scheduled power on/off and hard drive hibernation.

Availability

The Synology DS211+ is now shipping globally.

You can learn more from the Synology website. And as the press release says, it is shipping now, at a cost of £299.

Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac Beta 2 Now Available

Andrew Edney

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Dec 18, 2010

4

If you have a Windows Phone 7 device and an Apple Mac, you might want to connect the two together, Microsoft have just released its Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac beta 2 for you to try.

Here is how Microsoft describe the Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac:

Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac is a new software application that enables you to synchronize your favorite music*, videos*, photos* and podcasts* from iTunes and iPhoto.This software is not part of the Zune experience. In order to enjoy the Zune experience on Mac, you will need to install a Windows OS (XP or higher). Zune delivers music and video entertainment across Windows Phone 7, Xbox Live and Windows PC’s. *DRM Protected content will not be able to be synchronized with Windows Phone 7

You can download the beta from the Microsoft download site.

You can also learn more about Windows Phone 7 from the Microsoft website.

Its nice to see Microsoft producing software for the Mac. I’m still a Windows guys, but I also have a MacBook Air, and so I want the ability to use anything with all my kit. A pipe dream maybe, buy who knows in the future.

Tim went to the Windows Phone 7 launch event and wrote up a great article if you haven’t read it.

Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard Available on TechNet and MSDN Now

Andrew Edney

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Dec 18, 2010

5

At the start of this week, Microsoft released Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard to manufacturing (a process referred to as RTM). Now if you have a TechNet or MSDN subscription you can download it now.

So if you visit MSDN, for example, you can download both the install disc and the repair disk today.

So that’s SBS 2011 Standard ready, hopefully not long now until we get some news on SBS 2011 Essentials (formally SBS Aurora).

BYOB Live Again Today

News
Tech

Andrew Edney

-

Dec 18, 2010

2

Today is the 2nd live BYOB podcast event – so why not join in at 11am PST and ask your questions of the BYOB guys, including our very own Tim Daleo.

You can join in from 11am PST here.

And if you haven’t already, go take a listen to last weeks show.

And you can also listen to the last live BYOB show from here.

DA Document Manager 2010 Add-In for Windows Home Server Now With 20% Discount

Andrew Edney

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Dec 17, 2010

1

Our friends at Group Seven have been in touch to let us know that you can now buy DA Document Manager 2010 for Windows Home Server, or any of the other editions with 20% for the holidays.

DA Document Manager provides businesses and individuals both with a well thought out and versatile document archiving software application that makes a nice compliment to DA Document Manager Internal Viewer, Adobe’s FREE Acrobat Reader or any other PDF viewer setup for the Internet Explorer Browser.

You can learn more here.

You can visit their store here and use the following code: BESTOF2010 for 20% off

Remember that this code is just for the holidays so be quick!

You can download the latest version from here.