Lenovo N700 Wireless and Bluetooth Mouse AND laser pointer

So I got this mouse. It was on sale.  $20 or so with shipping. The normal retail is $45 on Amazon.com.

It is the Lenovo N700 Wireless and Bluetooth Mouse AND laser pointer. Basically, this means it is a dual wireless mouse. You can use the supplied RF dongle or use it with a Bluetooth 4.0 computer. It also has a trick up it's sleeve. That trick is converting itself into to a laser pointer for presentations.

It is definitely a good looking piece of gear as it transforms into shape as a mouse or flat into a laser pointer.

There are definitely dozens of reviews out there so I won't get into specifics. However, if you are a Mac user and curiously interested, read on.

I didn't even try this with any versions of Windows. I bought this with the intention of using it with my Macs. It is designed for Windows 8 as it has gesture support for that OS. For OS X, forget about any gestures and assume it will be a 3 button mouse.


The reason why I wanted it because I wanted to remove the clutter on my desk when I switch between Desktop and laptop. I have the Logitech bluetooth K810/K811 keyboards and I can switch back-n-forth by toggling the Bluetooth presets. It comes in handy. This isn't a multi-device Bluetooth mouse but I figure I can use the Bluetooth on my 15" Retina while the RF USB dongle can be used for other computers that dock into my Caldigit Docking station.

(here it is flat in laser pointer mode)

Bluetooth pairing was a real pain. It took me 20 minutes to get this paired and dozen of other Internet postings indicate this was problematic. I had to toggle to laser pointer for 3 seconds, then back to bluetooth and I held the three mouse buttons until the light flashed orange. Once it flashed, I was able to get it paired. It did take several tries. Once paired, everything was good to go. I also tried the dongle as well.

Operation and handling. 

Well, I'll say this now. This isn't a good mouse. It looks very pretty and has that cool laser pointer feature. It moves too fast and erratic. It is too sensitive. I have a lot of Bluetooth mouses from no-name, Chinese $10 bargain bin Fry's specials to Microsoft, Logitech, and Apple.  From a comparison stand-point, this is definitely a $20 mouse. I would not spend $50 on this. Also, it doesn't even feel ergonomic.  There are no real gestures. You can glide and slide the middle button and it would sometimes scroll. If you slide the upper portion of the middle button, you can sometimes move forward and backwards on browser pages. However, these operations were sporadic. Scrolling didn't always work. I think there has to be some sort of sensitivity controls. They probably have this as a driver download or something for Windows 8 but nothing like that exist on OS X.

(next to a Magic Mouse)

In conclusion, this is definitely worth only $20. It is cool in the respect you can use either Bluetooth or a USB RF dongle. The laser pointer is pretty gimmicky but cool. I'll keep it for a while because I do like the size when it is transformed into a flat slate. I guess it may be better if I actually used Windows with this except my Windows machines are only accessible via Remote Console.

Pioneer A1 Wireless Airplay Speakers XW-SMA1-K

Over the weekend, Best Buy had the Pioneer A1 Airplay speakers on sale for $50. These originally retailed for $300 then dropped to $150 recently. $50 was a steal so I figured I get two. One for the Guest Room and another for the Garage or future tree-house/deck I plan to build in the back yard.

The A1 is an Airplay speakers that also supports DLNA and HTC Connect audio streaming. It is fairly compact with two 3" Mid-range speakers and a single 1" tweeter. This turned out to be an odd arrangement because fidelity wise, your high notes will sound mono or like a center speaker. However, for this size, you're not gonna be looking for stereo imaging or soundstage. At $150, I'd be concerned but for $50, these sound great. For that price point, you get a rather full body warm sound which is enough to fill a small room.

My Airport Music Streaming set-up

I finally set-up my Airport streaming set-up and I like to share it with my readers. Overall, I am pleased how it turned out.

Apple Airport allows you to stream wirelessly from iOS or Macs to a variety of wireless speakers and sound systems. I have various speakers in different parts of the house and this now changes the way I listen to music. Using Wi-Fi, you don't have to worry about range issues and the sound quality far exceeds bluetooth.


By default, iOS devices can only stream to one devices. When you play a song, you can pick which remote speaker to listen to. This by itself is cool but the cool part comes with multiple, simultaneous streams.

Desktop Macs and PC's running iTunes can stream to multiple speakers simultaneously all at the same time. If you have a dedicated iTunes server running, you can make up for iOS's single speaker deficiency by using the iOS devices as a remote control. As a remote, you can stream to multiple speakers in multiple rooms.

Here, I have the computer, the speakers in the basement, dining room, and master bedroom all playing at different volumes. This is simply brilliant!

This is why I love the Airplay protocol. I can walk from floor to floor, room to room, and all hear the same music in my 3 story house. I can initiate a stream in my Master bedroom and walk across multiple rooms and hear all the same track. 

The first speaker I have is the Klipsch Gallery G17 Air. I use this in my bedroom because it covers a decent size area. I originally had this in the living room but decided I want speakers with more "stereo" soundstage separation in the living room. A majority of these portable speakers suffer one thing: lack of sound stage and most of them sound mono to me. When you are up close, they sound great but the farther you get, you realize you lose stereo separation. The Klipsch uses a bass reflex enclosure so the sound is very "punchy" for being a small set of speakers. Don't get me wrong, they do sound very good. These once retailed closed to $500 and have been compared to the Bowers and Wilkins Air Zeppelin. I would say these are one of the better small wireless speakers you can get on the market.

For the bedroom, they work fine. I also alternate between airplay mode and direct line mode to my iPod classic.

The next system is the Sony DLNA compatible SA-NS500 portable wireless speaker. This is a unique cylinder cone design. The top acts as a handle and it is great for lugging around because it has one trump card - batteries for 5-6 hours of portable sound. I normally leave it in the Dining room but I often take it outside to keep me company when I am washing and waxing the car on the weekend.

The shape is designed to punch sounds indifferent direction. It has 4 30mm two way speakers and a small 110mm sub woofer.

Again, the Sony is a good sound speaker but you won't get any soundstage. Early reviews were mixed on this but with later firmware revisions, Sony worked out most of the kinks. This also supports DLNA.

My next set-up is a not really a speaker system. Rather, a converted PogoPlug running ArchLinux and shairport. I had a spare PogoPlug and a few older 2.1 computer speakers. I figure I throw it in my basement and it works pretty great. Open source hackable solution. All you need is a USB sound card, some speakers, and ArchLinux running on these PogoPlug. I will probably build some more PogoPlug "Airplay" receivers that will expand my speaker lineup. You can read about it here.

I also have an AppleTV connected to my  TV and sound system but I really don't use it for audio Airplay streaming chores.

Lastly, the living room. I thought long and hard on this. I shopped around and looked at a few options. I really didn't want to put a stereo system in the living room because I wanted it to be minimalist as much as possible. However, I spend a lot of time in there relaxing and lounging. I seriously considered the Bowers and Wilkins A5 and A7. Price wasn't really an issue as I spent quite a bit of money furnishing the living room already. The problem withe the Bowers and Wilkins' A7 is the same with the Klipsch, Sony and myriad of other "Airplay" enable speakers. They all lack soundstage and stereo imaging. Your left and right speakers should ideally be a few feet apart (say 6 feet) to have any stereophonic effect. Most of the music I listen to, 80s and 90s music, are heavily mixed with stereo effects. I also listen to a lot of live concert recordings.

The solution I came up was an Apple Airplay Express plus the well reviewed and acclaimed AudioEngine A5+ speakers. The AudioEngine is a good midrange $400 studio monitor quality speakers. This is a popular home-brew Airplay set-up and I now know why it is popular. They sound amazing.

For now,I don't have the DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) but I plan to add that in a few weeks. This is by far, one of the better solutions out there even without an added DAC. I wanted clear, accurate sound. For the price, the A5+ are amazing. They don't have that artificial bassy, hyped sound. Just go on Google and read up on the AudioEngines, they are amazing powered speakers for the price. This is what I ended up and I'm very satisfied. 

So there you have it. This one geek's streaming audio home set-up.

Links:

AudioEngine A5+: http://audioengineusa.com/Store/Audioengine-A5plus

Sony SA-NS500: http://store.sony.com/p/Sony-HomeShare-Wireless-Multi-room-Audio/en/p/SANS500

Klipsch G17: http://www.klipsch.com/gallery-g17-air/

Two Wi-Fi Extenders. Edimax and ON Network impressions

Today's topic is Wi-Fi extenders.

I've spent the last few weeks trying to optimize my network in my new house. I have a few rooms wired but most of the house still requires Wi-Fi. Moreover, a few devices exclusively require Wi-Fi. With more than 8 IP cameras, a half dozen airplay speakers, and various mobile devices, the wireless network in my house is heavily congested. Hence, I looked into Wi-Fi extenders.

I ended up getting two wifi extenders to see if I could improve my network situation: An Edimax EW-7238RPD Universal Dual Band Wi-Fi Range Extender and

an ON Networks N300 WiFi Range Extender (N300RE-199NAS).

The Edimax is a dual band extender which works with both 2.4 and 5 GHZ bands whereas the ON Network N300 is strictly a 2.4 GHz extender. The N300 seems to be a rebadged Netgear WN3000RP.

Both are wall plug extenders. The ON Network N300 have two antennas and the performance shows. It has almost double the range of the Edimax. However, the Edimax has a nice feature: WPS push button configuration. WPS makes it easy to have it pair to your main router. For me, the WPS isn't a big selling feature. Both extenders have ethernet ports so you can connect lan line devices like an XBOX or NAS.

My main Wi-Fi Router is a TP-Link Archer C7 (AC1750) dual band 802.11AC Gigabit router. Overall, it is a very good router with excellent range and throughput.

As you can see (using various tools), the Archer C7 support 1300 Mbps (80MHz width) in 5GHz and 450 MBps (40MHz width) at 2.4 Ghz.

Neither of these extenders perform better than the TP-Link Archer C7.

The ON Network N300 tops out at 300 Mbps. The Edimax, to my surprise, only tops out at 150 Mbps yet it is rated at 300 Mbps. The Edimax's advertising is a bit deceiving and it is my fault for not reading the fine print. Edimax advertise the EW-7238RPD at 300 Mbps (when you account for both bands).

Taken from their product page. I feel a bit deceived that I am not getting 300 Mbps on a single band. I understand that I won't get the speed (450 Mbps) from my Archer C7 but 150 Mbps is cutting it low for a 802.11n device.

The actual speed of the Edimax is 150 Mbps. Hence, my dissapointment.

Performance.

So how do they perform? This is a bit hard to quantify and test. I have a three story house and my main router is in the middle floor. The basement houses the ON Network N300 and the top floor is handled by the Edimax. I tried various testing and various floors and at different ranges; behind walls and in adjoining rooms. The ON Network actually perform the best as I could easily get 60% signal from the farthest reach of my house.

Testing about 40 feet away, the N300 was giving a healthy 145 Mbps.

In the real world, using iperf, I was indeed seeing 7.5 Mbits/sec. This was good enough for one computer to stream 1080p content from youtube or Netflix.


Netflix requires 5-7 Mbps for 1080p streaming. Edimax struggled quite a bit.

I only tested the 5GHz channel of the Edimax as that is the justification for buying it. On 2.4 GHz, I was better off just using my router which has excellent range. The Edimax gave me an average throughput averaging 54. Mbps even at 5GHz at an average distance.

iperf showed a disappointing rate and I could see frames dropping while watching video.

It was only when I was right next to the Edimax that I got decent throughput of 150 Mbps.

Both extenders use standard web browser interfaces. There is really nothing to write home about. They both do the job. Both have easy WPS set-up.

Conclusion.

I would have to say the N300 is a better deal. Even though it doesn't support 5GHz, it was a better extender with far better range. Unfortunately, I could really do with out both of them. My TP-Link Archer C7 has a very good range. Instead of using wifi repeaters, I think I'll be better off hard wiring to ethernet to another Wi-Fi router running bridge mode. With extenders, you are effectively only getting half the throughput. It has to connect to the router wireless and it will compete with the other devices that are concurrently using the same spectrum as the source wi-fi.