Hp has just changed the game. While Apple’s Macbook Air had me lusting, HP has just sold me a new laptop. Being that I’m a student, I need something portable and I believe the hp 2133 has done that without sacrificing features. The new 2133 is comparable to a Asus Eee pc but it doesn’t skimp out on the specs. While the Eee pc can be considered a children’s laptop the HP 2133 is by no means a toy. The silver design is reminiscent of a Macbook Pro and bears almost the same keyboard. The 2133 will be my next purchase as I venture on to Unbuntu or to a hacked version of OS X. 

While most people find the Macbook Air completely impractical, overpriced and irrational, I don’t. Lets be clear, its obvious that this machine is suited for a casual user. Now I won’t get into full specifications but this machine is indeed capable of handling the majority of a users needs. So with that being said here is my list of pro’s and con’s.

The Pro’s 

- Light weight

- Portable- Sleek design 

- Webcam- Multi-touch trackpad

The Con’s

- 80gb Hard drive

- Non removable battery

- Lack of optical drive

- Weak video card

So with that being said, yes I still want one. Being a student, I rely on portability. I previously owned a Macbook Pro but lugging it around campus became annoying. So I sold it and entertained the thought of an Asus EEE Pc, but it lacked one thing, OS X. The lack of a true Mac UMPC has me contemplating the Air or switching to another OS to remain mobile. Tell me what you think. Air or something else? 

Don’t get me wrong, the Iphone is in fact my favorite cell but it doesn’t come without out fault. There are several things that I would improve on or completely redesign.

So here goes the list in order of importance. 

1. Copy and Paste: I wont even debate this, we just need it. Arghh. 

2. Fix the recessed headphone port: Just annoying yet so typical of Apple to do something proprietary. Um dock connector…. 

3. Bluetooth stereo support (A2DP): sure we have bluetooth headsets but c’mon this is 2008. I need bluetooth headphones plus it looks and feels cool not being tied down by wires.  

4. Turn off landscape mode: While I love the feature when showing pictures it gets annoying when using the ipod function of the phone. A slight tilt of the phone and it jumps into cover flow. Sure its a great idea but we need to have a way to disable it. 

5. Speaker volume: It’s low, considering the device plays music and has a speakerphone option it needs to be revised. 

Feel free to comment you Apple zealots.  

Even though I own a big screen hdtv I find that it’s always in use when I’m ready to get my game on. So I picked up a VGA kit for the Xbox 360 so that I can play on my 22″ lcd.   The kit comes with all the necessary cables to hook it up to your lcd as well as run the sound into your computer or sound system. I recently purchased a Mac mini to replace my aging PC so I will walk you through steps to get it working.

Step 1. Hook the vga cable up to the back of your 360 and connect the other end to the monitor.

Step 2. Run the sound into the line in on your computer. Check the picture below. 

Step 3. Check your sound settings by going to system preferences then select sound. You want to select the input tab because this controls the sound coming into your Mac so that you can use your connected speakers.  

I turned the volume all the way up but the safest setting is probably around 3/4 of the way. But once again this is your preference

Step 4. This is the most important step because macs don’t pass through the line in audio automatically as windows machines do. Your going to need some software to enable the pass through. Thats where Line-In comes in handy. Install it as usual and and then run the program.

Once the program is open select Input from Line-in then select Output Default System Output and click Pass Thru. Once this is done you should hear sound. 

Step 5. This step is optional and makes Line-In start on boot. Go to System Preferences and the click Accounts. Then click Login Items click the plus sign and locate Line-in in your application folder. Select hide and your on your way. 

Then click Login Items click the plus sign and locate Line-in in your application folder. Select hide and your on your way.

Step 6. Fire up that 360 and get your game on.  

Mini-Review

Being the 2nd generation of this product there are some much needed improvements over the original bluetooth headphones. The headband is now a flexible based metal over the original plastic that broke after months of usage. The headphones are also very comfy and easier to control with updated button placements.

They headphones now ship with a dongle so that you can use them on any device that doesn’t support A2dp or have bluetooth. Overall they’re a solid update and priced to take home.  

A2dp still sucks on a Mac!!! 

Although these headphones received a glowing mini-review from me they flat out don’t work well with Leopard. Setup and pairing seemed to be a breeze but upon my first attempt to listen to any music all that happened were frequent dropouts when not using the dongle.  My setup consists of a Macbook pro using both a bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

Being that I was using three bluetooth devices I thought that maybe the mouse and keyboard were causing interference. So I unpaired all bluetooth devices and only paired up the headphones. I was sure that this would end my problems but no. The only thing that seemed to work was using dongle that shipped with the headphones. Once the dongle was inserted everything included my keyboard and mouse worked great but this defeats the whole purpose of apple implementing A2dp as the dongle would work with any previous Mac OS.

So what have I learned 

Apple has once again let down some of its users. We’ve been dying for A2dp and all we received is this poor implementation. I’m praying 10.5.2 will fix this issue and others. Btw these headphones work amazing with my Windows mobile phone, I know sad but true. Apple get this right we beg you.