Target price increases – coincidence or bad shopping?

Posted on October 24, 2011 by admin (Royce)

I was at the local Target last Friday afternoon with a list of things I needed to pick up for the weekend. While I was shopping, I noticed there were a lot of new price tags overlapping older price tags on the shelves.

Out of curiosity, for every item I purchased, I took a moment to peel off the newer price tag to see what the original price was underneath.

I was hoping for some good news. What I got was nothing but bad.

First up was a trip down the pet isle. I needed indoor pads for our semi-outdoor dog. The price for one set of pads went up from $6.99 to $7.99.

Next up was some cat food for my two feral yardkeepers. That went up from $4.49 to $5.19.

A trip down the kids section of the medical isle was next. (I was putting together a little kit for my Godchild and niece since they’re both officially at the ouchie-boo-boo stage of home exploration.)

Neosporin was the first item I wanted to get. That went from $7.04 to $7.99.

I bought a little Hello Kitty first aid kit for my niece even though it had gone up from $9.99 to $10.49.

Finally, for my Godchild, an official plastic doctor-bag. That had jumped from $12.99 to $13.69.

Finally, I made a quick run to the food isle for some creamer and cheese. (What can I say? It was an eclectic Friday kind of shopping list.)

Coffee creamer? Went from $2.69 to $2.89.

Cheese? $2.99 to $3.24.

What really bothered me about this was that everything I went in to buy had been marked up. A close second was that I spent $4.30 more than I would have if I got these same items the week before.

Maybe this trip was nothing but coincidence, but if every shopping run is going to have price increases, $4 (or more) a run is going to add up real quick.

News stories the mainstream media missed : 10/22/11**

Posted on October 23, 2011 by admin (Royce)

Urgh. It was another one of those weeks. Just enough time to twitter, but no time for some decent blog posts. But at least this one is getting out!

Here are some news stories from this week that I think the mainstream media completely missed out on. All links are from legitimate news sources and not the fringe / wacko sites.

* THE! DELOREAN! IS! COMING! BACK!! OK, so technically it’s not a “factory new” DeLorean. And it’s only electric. And it can only go 70-100 miles before it runs out of power. And it’s going to cost $90,000…. hey, wait a minute. That’s a giant ball of suck!! Who has the nerve to pass this off as a “futuristic” car when an entry-level Toyota stomps all over it?! It’s more “Back to the Past” than anything else. Linkage at [NPR]

* There’s dumb, there’s really dumb, and then there’s the US Government. This week’s monument to extra large Grade-A+ stupidity is the bipartisan plan in the Senate to “import foreigners” to buy American homes. Apparently us broke-ass American’s ain’t buying mansion-sized homes no more, so the plan is to offer “foreigners a three-year, residential visa if they invest at least $500,000 into the housing market and live in a home they have bought for at least 180 days each year… [and] pay for the homes with cash.” Not written but heavily implied : “To hell with all you existing US citizens who can’t buy a $500,000 home and to hell with all you hardworking foreigners who have been waiting in line for years to be citizens. THBBBTTTTT!!! Nanna-nanna-boo-boo!!” Details at the [NEW YORK TIMES]

* There’s no question where some people are headed in the afterlife, but apparently certain people want to go that extra mile just to be absolutely sure where they’re going to wind up. Lindsey Graham, Republican from South Carolina, witnessed all the bloodshed and violence in Libya, and with a sincere heart, said “Let’s get in on the ground. There is a lot of money to be made in the future in Libya. Lot of oil to be produced.” OK, was that a titanium pitchfork with carbon-fiber accents or the solid gold pitchfork with diamond tips you ordered Mr. Graham? Story and video with Graham’s comment at [THINK PROGRESS]

* Grocery store shenanigans? In this day and age? Apparently Kraft is strong-arming local grocery stores to put their packaged-food up front with the produce! This brilliant but low-key evil plan is based on the fact that comsumers see everything in the produce isle as healthy. Since fruits and veggies are universally accepted as healthy, anything in the produce isle is also seen as healthy (AKA the “halo effect”). So Kraft wants to put their cheez-wiz, processed funk, and all their other items in the produce section to “play up the fresh factor”! I figure strong-arming grocery stores has to be easier than making healthy products in the first place, right? The full story with some seriously subtle underhanded-deviousness-in-progress at the [WALL STREET JOURNAL]

* Speaking of deviousness, Verizon is going to start “collecting your Web browsing history, cell phone location and app usage” and sell your information to advertising agencies. Verizon super-duper promises with cherries on top there’s nothing personally identifiable sent! Just GPS where your cell phone is and where it goes, every website you visit, what time your phone was turned on, if you’re in range of certain businesses that are over-paying Verizon to advertise their crap… you know… Minority Report your ass! This applies to the Verizon 4G and LTE wireless cards too. Story and how to tell Verizon to take you off this list at [PC MAG]

* Who would have thought a Doctor would prescribe videogames to cure a illness? The headline says it all… “Action-packed video games help solve lazy eye”. Yes! We officially live in the future! I wonder if I can put all my Xbox 360 games down this year as medical expenses? Article at [NEW SCIENTIST]

* I secretly love SouthPark. They hide socially relevant and cutting-edge commentaries in simple animation, doo-doo jokes, and amazingly colorful vulgarities. An episode way back in 2009 titled “Goobacks” had a premise that “people from a poverty-stricken future travel back in time to find work, South Park residents accuse them of taking their jobs.” What’s really funny about this episode just happened in 2011. With most of the immigrants gone in Alabama due to recent legislation, the abundant jobs now available, formerly “taken” by immigrants, are NOT WANTED by the jobless local citizens! Delicious irony ensues at [GOOGLE NEWS]

* Want a genuine queasy feeling without having to get in the car, drive to an amusement park and hop on a roller coaster with a five story drop? Check out how the Euro crisis is connected to everything in this easy-to-barf graphic at the [NEW YORK TIMES]

* Do you use words like “because,” “since” or “so that” often? Do you use phrases and write about physical needs such as food, sex or money? You might be a candidate for attending psychopath-u! Or was it u-psychopath? Anyhow, a new computer analysis of word patterns of nutballs says psychopathic killers have distinctive word patterns and those patterns can be detected early. Story (and words for budding writers to avoid) at [SCIENCE DAILY]

* I haven’t run a multi-million dollar company yet, but I would think one of the top five things to do is NOT completely piss off the core customers when coming up with new ideas. Moleskine managed to do just that this week by announcing they are “crowdsourcing a new logo” from their pool of professional customers. Some customers asked if Moleskine was aware a professional design takes around 8 hours and this “contest” is pretty much asking for free spec work. One commentator put best : It’s like Moleskine is “go(ing) around the local bakeries for free bread and then go(ing) back to pay for the one bread they liked”. Moleskine responded to their paying customers questions with this … “If you had spent some time on the “Competitions” area of Designboom website, you certainly have seen that other Brands are running and previously decided to run similar contests, with the same regulation of our with great participation as well as amazing results. That said, being a contest, there’s a final price for the winner, but all the submissions are free, as well you are free not to taking part to it.” Needless to say, a firestorm of bad PR from Moleskine’s formerly devoted customer base has ensued. Expect Moleskine to suddenly realize their oopsie when their core demographic stops buying their overpriced drek. Moleskine’s original logo contest announcement [here] and Moleskine’s backhand response with customer comments [here].

That’s all I got this week!

** Actually posted on 10/23 because I completely blew off yesterday!

News stories the mainstream media missed : 10/15/11

Posted on October 15, 2011 by admin (Royce)

OK, this is just embarassing. I realized this morning I haven’t made any “News stories the mainstream media missed” posts since MARCH. My only defense is that, yes, it has been that kind of year for me. SO without any further delay…

Here are some news stories from this week that I think the mainstream media completely missed out on. All links are from legitimate news sources and not the fringe / wacko sites.

* This week’s winner of the gold-plated oxymoron award goes to the US Governemnt! Specifically, for sending “Armed military advisers” to help regional forces combat the “Lord’s Resistance Army” in Africa! OK, when someone holds a gun to another person’s head, they’re not exactly “advising”. It’s more of a “WHAT DOES MARSELLUS WALLACE LOOK LIKE?!” kind of thing. And the “Lord’s Resistance Army”? Seriously? Are they resisting the Lord? Or are they helping the Lord resist? Might make a difference if they spelled that out a little better. Unfortunately, in all seriousness, this sounds like the beginning of another “occupied” war for the US. The full story is at [NY TIMES]

* Faster than light speed travel IS possible! OK, so we still can’t do it, and mostly it’s fancy-pants conjecture, but at least it’s no longer laughed out of the high-and-mighty physicist’s bar and grill anymore! The gist of this article is that light speed is just a perception! (Meanwhile, the drunk philosopher in the back of the bar is yelling NOOOO KIDDING! I KOOODA TOLD YOUS BUMS THAT!!) Bonus points for some cool ancestor of mine figuring out the speed of gravitational wave propagation and how it relates to all this… smart stuff. Time travel hijinks and perceptive physicist mirth in the link. [PHYSORG]

* Get Peanut butter NOW!! Jif is going up 30% starting in November, while Peter Pan will raise prices as much as 24% in a couple weeks. Unilever wouldn’t comment on its pricing plans, but a spokesman for Wegmans Food Markets, the closely held supermarket chain in the Northeast U.S., said wholesale prices for all brands it carries, including Skippy, are 30% to 35% higher than a year ago. Kraft Foods Inc., which launched Planters peanut butter in June, is raising prices 40% on Oct. 31. Dammit, a PBJ isn’t a PBJ without enough P in it. Wait, that didn’t sound right. Story is at the [WSJ]

* When was the last time you used a film camera? You ‘member – a camera that actually uses a roll of chemically coated transparency paper-like stuff to take photos and video with? Well, the last film camera makers just called it quits. There will be no more film cameras made from here on out. It’s the end of a major era that spanned decades, and I don’t think anybody heard the door slamming on it. Details at [TECH CRUNCH]

* Governor Jerry Brown said it was OK for police to search cell phones at any time of an arrest. “Call records, text messages, photos, banking activity, cloud-storage services, and even where the phone has traveled” count for bonus points! Bear in mind that a traffic ticket, by strict definition, is also an arrest. So I guess I better keep a 44oz drink in my cup holder at all times so I can… OOPS!!! How did my cell phone wind up in there?!? Darn it! Now it’s all fried and useless! Sorry ossifer! [WIRED]

* I love how the foreign press loves to backhand Texas. A recent article in Spiegel says Fort Worth Texas as “…one of those hard-to-read provincial cities in the vastness of Middle America, a downtown-less cluster of commercial areas connected to too many expressways”. Hey, buddy, nobody makes fun of Fort Worth except Dallas. Got that? NOBODY! Except for that little pimp slap, the article covers an amazing little thing that happened recently. A man who had his face pulverized by an electrical accident received a full facial replacement – a face transplant – from a dead man. I’m torn between the “WOW” for the science part of it and a serious “OH $#!^” for what will happen to society when this procedure gets “mainstreamed” down to the plastic-surgery level of complication. [SPIEGEL]

* I’ve decided to go as 18hz for halloween… because that’s the frequency of fear!! Mu ha ha haaaa!! OK, that was a really cheesy line. Sorry. But seriously, scientists have figured out that 18hz is the sound frequency that makes people want to GTFO of a situation with no logical explanation. Examples and article at [GUARDIAN]

* Some things I just can’t make the funny with. This story for example – “We fabricated drug charges against innocent people to meet arrest quotas, former detective testifies.” Wow. Some of the NYPD was planting drugs on innocent people for a monthly quota. That’s beyond vile. The only reason these scumbags were busted was that they missed some hidden security cameras in the home they were planting evidence in. Article at [NY DAILY NEWS]

* The headline from TIME magazine says “The Greek Meltdown: Putting the Hell in Hellas” Ah hah. I see what you did there TIME. Saying Greece is having a hella-time in their hella-predicament! How hella-cool of you hella-reporters! Too bad things are about to get rabid-zombie-infected-monkey kinds of FUBAR over there. Normal everyday people are living in the streets kind of broke, all the politicians and bankers are still as rich as a wet-cement chocolate cheesecake, and nobody in power has the brass nards necessary to make serious changes so Greece won’t go completely bankrupt. Unfortunately the Greece situation is a little too familiar sounding for comfort. What happens in Greece has a better than average chance of happening in other countries around the world. A European country at war with itself is never ever good for US (pun intended). But if it spreads worldwide? Hell won’t even begin to describe what will ensue. Sorry, got a little too serious there for a moment. Story at [TIME]

* And finally, I’ve been loving me some Twitter for awhile. The more time I spend on Twitter, the more I see the massive disconnect between Twitter and the mainstream media. News on Twitter arrives in a swarm-like manner – quick, lots of information, then it dissipates. Meanwhile, CNN, MSNBC, FOX, CBS, ABC, NBC and all the others are featuring some vapid dingbat of the month and completely ignoring reality outside their curtain-covered windows. Case in point – look up #OWS and #OccupyWallStreet and #OccupWallSt on Twitter. There are massive protests that are going on all over the world right now. Photos of Times Square with more people and riot-geared police than on New Year’s Eve. More photos of protesters and riot-geared police are coming from Seattle, Spain, Washington, Austin… all these places where everyday people are flooding the streets and gathering by the thousands, and not one damn moment of live coverage by the networks with multi-state broadcast capability. Where are the reporters in trench coats on the scene? Where are the writers who stay with the protesters in each city to write a fifteen page micro-spaced article in Rolling Stone? Where are the news helicopters to fly over the protests for a birds-eye-live view? Regardless of whether you agree with the protesters or not, knowing what is going on in the first place is absolutely critical. Not knowing what is going on is nowhere near as bad as the notion that the broadcast networks are unwilling to inform on what’s going on in the first place. No links on this one – just hit up Twitter and search for the #OWS and #OccupyWallStreet and #OccupWallSt .

iStumbler crashing in OSX Lion fix

Posted on October 13, 2011 by admin (Royce)

Fast post – if your iStumbler app is crashing in OS X Lion, go under the APPLE menu and go to SYSTEM PREFERENCES…

From there, look in the “Internet and Wireless” section and click on BLUETOOTH.

Make sure Bluetooth is ON and DISCOVERABLE.

Close out of the SYSTEM PREFERENCES and re-launch iStumbler. No more crashes!

Ever wonder why your dog is so happy to see you when you get home?

Posted on October 10, 2011 by Royce-iPad

Have you ever wondered why your dog is always so very happy to see you when you come home? Assuming you work 8 am to 5 pm, it may be because you have been gone for 56 hours in their timeframe!

Assuming the idea that one human year is seven dog years, every hour to us works out to 7 hours for a dog.

Here’s my math…

There’s 8,765.81277 hours in a year
168 hours in a week
And 1 year = 52.177457 weeks

So a dog year would be 7 * 8,765.81277 hours a year = 61,360.68939 hours to a dog
61,360.68939 dog hours / 24 hours = 2,556.69539125 dog days a year
2,556.69539125 dog days a year / 365 = 7.004644907534247

1 day for us, 24 hours of human time, is 7 days in dog time.

Breaking that down a little more, 24 hours human time = 168 hours dog time (7 * 24)

So 168 / 24 = 7 dog hours for every human hour.

Going backwards…

7 hours * 24 = 168 dog hours a day

168 dog hours a day * 365 days in a year = 61,320 dog hours a year

61,320 dog hours a year / 8,765.81277 hours in a human year as comparison = 6.99 dog years for every human year (rounded)

Yikes.

The whole seven years to every human year is really a guideline more than a rule, and the lifespan of dogs vary greatly from breed to breed, but regardless I think I’ll take my dogs out to run and play catch a little more this week.

Plug in a USB cable right the first time

Posted on October 4, 2011 by admin (Royce)

Have you ever tried to quickly plug in a USB cable? You would think it only takes two tries, but for some reason I find myself having to flip the cable over and over and over and over until I get the right orientation.

There’s actually a very easy way to tell which side is “up” on any USB cable.

Look at the top of your next cable. On one side is the manufacturer’s logo, and on the other is the USB symbol (sometimes with another manufacturer logo underneath the symbol).

USB Cable 1

The USB cable always plugs in with the USB symbol facing UP on your laptop.

USB Cable 2

If you have a vertical monitor with USB ports, the USB cable always plugs in with the USB symbol facing you.

UPDATE 10/06/11 : Drew made a comment I wanted to re-post in the main article: “Well, not always. As an IT guy, I have worked with a lot of PCs and I would say it is true for 80% of the hardware we have. For some reason, for a few models of the netbooks and odd ball laptops we have, the ports are upside down. I hate exceptions to the rule.”

UPDATE 10/06/11 part 2: Made it on Lifehacker! Booya!

A comment on the New York City protests…

Posted on October 2, 2011 by Royce-iPad

There was a major protest event in New York city earlier today. Thousands of protesters who want to “Occupy Wall Street” took over a large swath of the financial district, and then marched on the Brooklyn bridge, completely shutting it down. While the protesters were on the bridge, some were cordoned off by the NYPD and over 700 protesters (as of this post) were arrested.

There was NO mainstream media coverage of this event. There was absolutely no interruption of the pre-programmed Saturday night drivel on CNN, FOX, ABC, CBS, or NBC for a live news feed.

Twitter was also not trending the thousands of #occupywallstreet and #ows tags.

Yes, there were tweets from individuals on what was happening, but unless you followed certain feeds, or knew of the hashtags to search for, you would never know this event happened.

The protest isn’t what really concerns me. It’s the defining silence around it that has me wondering if something very important has been broken in our society.

Day-old news doesn’t carry the same impact as “live” news. Blogs and individual tweets still don’t reach the same number of people that a TV broadcast does. So is there such a thing as reliable mass media anymore? Is there a way to show what is happening in the world that can’t be censored or prejudiced with an individual’s point of view? And did Twitter censor the thousands and thousands of #occupywallstreet and #ows hashtags?

A good friend of mine tweeted me that nobody will care unless “someone important like Brad Pitt, Snookie or a Kardashian to be named later appears”. Maybe that’s the biggest problem.

A question about the FBI’s “stingray” : a letter to the WSJ

Posted on September 23, 2011 by admin (Royce)

After reading the Wall Street Journal’s story on the FBI’s Stingray use, I thought I would throw in my two cents on the matter in a letter to the editor.

Eesh. I’m turning into one of those people.

Anyhow….

———

Regarding the FBIs “stingray” tracking device (Thursday Sept. 22 p1): What would happen if I, as a private citizen, built a device to impersonate a cell phone tower and drove around my city intercepting signals from cell phones?

Regardless of my intent, I think I would be arrested and charged with several FCC and Patriot Act violations.

Since this device would be illegal for a private citizen to use, I believe law enforcement should have to obtain a warrant to use this device themselves. A warrant that specifically states the number or name being searched for, the area to be canvassed, and the reason for initiating the search.

Just because it is easy to use a piece of technology does not make legal to do so in and of itself.

-Royce Eddington
McAllen, Texas

My recommended iPad apps for 09/01/11

Posted on September 1, 2011 by admin (Royce)

Every Thursday I’m going to start recommending a set of iPad apps you can get for $20 or less.

This week I found four apps that total $14.03 after tax.

They are…

#1 : Skyfire Web Browser. It’s beautiful. It’s simple. It works! What makes this web browser to spectacular is that it lets you view flash movies on your iPad! I’m talking live news! Southpark! The Daily Show! Embedded movies!! It plays every flash movie I tried! All you have to do is visit the website and most of the time the embedded movies will load like it does on desktop machines. If there is no video, you just need to press the little “VIDEO” button in the lower left and force Skyfire to look for the movie on the page. Once it finds it, it will start spooling it for you immediately. Plus it links to Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Google Reader, Read it Later, Instapaper, Pinboard and Tumblr and even lets you share direct links with friends. To top it all off, it allows for private browsing and will emulate a desktop in case you run across a page that forces you to an iPad specific site. Dude. This app spanks Safari. Hard. Five stars, no question. Currently $4.99 at the app store.

#2 : Luminance. Luminance is like walking into a very well stocked kitchen. Every possible spice and ingredient is in there for you to cook with, but you have to know how to cook in the first place to get the best possible results. You start off by loading a photo from your library (or take a new one with the camera). From there it imports a copy into its’ own library for editing. You can pick from one of the presets, but clicking on the ADJUSTMENTS button sends you to the pantry, where you can add filters in layers from the right column. WHITE BALANCE, EXPOSURE, BRIGHTNESS/CONTRAST, HUE/SATURATION, TONE CURVE, COLORS, SEPIA, SPLIT TONING and VIGNETTE are what you have to choose from, and each section has more sub-sections with lots of slider controls for each level you can tweak. All layers have the Photoshop-like visible/not visible option, so experimenting with layer effects is pretty easy in this app. There is also a HISTORY button to undo the changes up to the file’s OPEN point and a way to save and share adjustment sets for future one-click access. There’s also a Facebook/Twitter/Camera Library/Email export option. It’s a solid app and definitely rates five stars. Currently $0.99 at the App Store.

#3 : Wolfram Alpha. Where was this gem when I was in high school? This app is the mathmasters wild dream. You can type in anything calculation based you want results for in the search bar, and Wolfram Alpha will find it. For example, I typed “What is the distance from the Earth to Jupiter”. The results came back in AU, KM, meters, miles, corresponding quantities comparing to light and radiation, and the complete orbital properties of Jupiter. Maybe you can find this kind of information on Google after five or six links, but Wolfram Alpha puts it all in one space. This is insanely useful for the high-end calculators out there. Some of the examples given are “What is the thermal expansion coefficient of UNS S21900 stainless steel” and “sin(pi/#)& /@ {6,5,4,3,2,1}” and “Evolve TM 120597441632 on random tape, width = 5”. This is an awesome app for hardcore calculating. Five stars. Currently $1.99 at the app store.

#4 : Snapseed. Snapseed is fun. It’s a very straightforward click-and-apply photo editor with some decent features. You start by loading a photo from the library or camera, and then choose from AUTO CORRECT, SELECTIVE ADJUST, TUNE IMAGE, STRAIGHTEN & ROTATE, CROP, BLACK AND WHITE, VINTAGE FILMS, DRAMA, GRUNGE, CENTER FOCUS and ORGANIC FRAMES. Whatever filter you choose, the sub-sections are handled by touch feedback on the full screen. You slide up for a sub-section selection, then slide left or right to adjust! It’s all iPad, and almost no menus. This gives this app an “all image” photo editing feel. It also has a “COMPARE” button that shows you the “before” when you hold down on it. You can email, print, flickr, save or facebook your work, but there is no step-down UNDO or any kind of layer support. However, what you trade in features you get back in ease of use. Plus using your fingers to make adjustments instead of a slider control was a lot more fun. For quick photo editing, this app can’t be beat. Five stars. Currently $4.99 on the app store.

Seagate GoFlex Satellite needs to go back to beta (review)

Posted on August 30, 2011 by admin (Royce)

I have an upcoming project where I need to securely stream videos to multiple iOS devices for a training seminar, so I decided to give the Seagate GoFlex Satellite a try yesterday to see if it would do what I needed.

I should have known things were going to go bad just looking at the box.

Somebody in Seagate’s art department needs to hold an iPad someday. This is ridiculous. A five year old can see this picture is wrong.

I should have known this was going to be the start of something…. terrible. Something that would eat two hours of my day just to get set up and running.

Right up front, I found out this fugness is NOT plug and play. The Seagate GoFlex Satellite is about as friendly as a crackhead rattlesnake on a burning cactus.

Once you take the Seagate GoFlex Satellite out of the box, you’re going to have to do some work before your iPad can see it (let alone use it).

I’ll skip over the 55 minutes of trying to get this thing installed and researching Seagate’s online tech support and just list what I had to do…

Charge the Seagate GoFlex Satellite for 30 minutes into a wall outlet using the plugs they provide.
While it is charging, go to Seagate’s download page and get your sync software for your platform (mac or PC) and install it on your desktop.
On the iPad, while it is connected to a live WiFi network, download GoFlex Media (by seagate) AND 8player Lite in the iOS store. Install both of these apps on the iPad.
After 30 minutes of charging, unplug the usb cable from the back of the Seagate drive
Press the RESET button on the bottom of the device with a tack or pin for 5 seconds to clear out the factory garbage on it
TURN OFF EVERYTHING IN THE AREA THAT AUTOMATICALLY CONNECTS TO WIFI NETWORKS. Not kidding. If anything auto connects to the Seagate during the next steps, the drive’s WiFi will never blink blue and update.
Turn off the WiFi on the iPad (by going to GENERAL and WiFi)
Connect the Seagate GoFlex Satellite drive to a PC – not a mac.
Download the latest firmware update for the Seagate GoFlex Satellite from Seagate’s website
Save the update directly to the root level of the GoFlex drive
Safely eject the drive from the taskbar of your PC. (You can’t just unplug this thing straight. It may lose the update.)
Hold down the power button on the side of the Seagate GoFlex Satellite for 15 seconds to turn it off.
Wait 15 more seconds.
Press the power button to re-boot the drive
The power light on the drive will blink green and then go solid. Then the light under the WiFi will start blinking green… then stay solid green…. then blink again.
After two minutes of this green blinkage, the wifi light will blink blue very briefly. This is where you MUST connect through WiFi on your iPad. (Miss this opportunity at your own risk!)
While the GoFlex is blinking blue, on the iPad, go to GENERAL and WIFI.
Turn the WiFi back on the iPad
Under CHOOSE A NETWORK, pick SEAGATE GO FLEX WIFI
Once the checkmark appears next to the SEAGATE GO FLEX WIFI network and the WiFi icon appears by the iPads’ name on the top menubar, go to the GoFlex Media app on the iPad and launch it.

Nothing to it!!

Once you have cleared the hurdles of connecting this device, these are the screens you will see in the GoFlex Media app on the iPad…

This is what you will have to deal with. It’s not like having a external flash drive or a folder you can just tap-open stuff with. It’s definitely not a Mac-like app. What you see above is what you get.

Once you’re connected to the drive on the iPad, you can change the name of the drive as it shows up in WiFi as well as assign a password. That’s about it, though.

To get files on the drive, you will have to use that sync app that was downloaded to the desktop and connect the Seagate GoFlex Satellite directly to your mac (or PC). When you use the transfer app, whatever files Seagate’s app does not support will not get copied over. If you drag and drop files, the files will copy over, but the Seagate app will not list them in the VIDEO or PHOTO views. Also, if you try and drag-and-drop files directly to the drive, some files may not transfer depending on how your computer is set up for external NTFS disk write access.

You can download files from the GoFlex Satellite drive to the iPad in the app, but you can not send any files from the iPad to the drive. It’s strictly a one way street.

Also, Seagate’s GoFlex app also does not support .flv videos (among a few other formats).

Oh, and the drive is formatted NTFS. If you re-format it into any other type, it won’t work anymore. It’s NTFS or nothing.

Right. So back to the other app that was downloaded to the iPad – 8player Lite.

The reason 8player Lite was downloaded to the iPad is because Seagate’s own technical support staff recommends using this app instead of Seagates’ GoFlex Media app!! Not kidding. The techs’ comments in their own forums and on amazon.com constantly mention this app instead of their own.

It’s pretty obvious why. Launching 8player Lite will get you to a old-style PSP navigation system…

Click what you want and the icons appear under to list content, or to the right for hierarchy. To back up a level, just click to the left.

It’s exactly as I remember my PSP system’s navigation.

The best part is that this app will list everything you dragged and dropped. Everything.

This is really handy to see what you really have on the drive in a category pane, and I believe it’s how a file-management app should behave.

But what really sold me on the 8player Lite app was this…

It played .flv’s. This little app actually played everything I had… every format, every size, every medium.

That’s a pretty sad state of design when I would rather have an old PSP interface than the one Seagate designed in 2011 for an iPad.

OK, now for the bad part… you can’t get online while you’re using this thing. The ipad is only connected to the Seagate GoFlex Satellite through WiFi, and if you try to get anywhere in Safari, you will just wind up at a web-interface of the files you have on the GoFlex Satellite drive. To get back online, you have to break the WiFi connection and switch back to your original network in the iPad’s GENERAL and NETWORK settings.

(You can also just switch off the Seagate GoFlex Satellite drive with the power button on the side, but your iPad may or may not reconnect to the previous wireless network as quickly as you could do so manually.)

Let me tell you, no internet access gets old real fast.

So to sum up my complaints…

This monstrosity is NOT plug and play out of the box! Connecting a WiFi drive should require no more than 5 minutes.
NTFS only is a poor decision considering most iPad users are also mac users as well.
There has got to be a way to surf the internet while the drive is connected. Maybe make this drive an FTP server that can get a DHCP address from a wireless network and let the iPad app act as a GUI FTP login? Or let the drive login to the network as a alternate configuration. (EX: if network named “X” is detected, then set IP address to “Y” and login with “Z” credentials.)
A Mac-like GUI. Something for the iPad shouldn’t look like something from the Napster-lovin’-90s.
There is no SEND TO DEVICE option. A storage drive that you must to connect to a desktop or laptop to load files to it is just ridiculous.
There is no on the fly converting. Seagate needs to take a look at AirVideoFree on the app store to get an idea on how it’s supposed to be done.
There are two green lights on this thing. The problem is one of these lights only turns blue and flickers when data is streaming or you have a window of opportunity to connect to the drive. IMO, this light should REMAIN SOLID BLUE when ANY device is connected and revert to green when NO ONE is connected. Ideally, it should also blink blue for every number of users connected and flicker blue when data is being transferred.
User/password combos would be great.
The getting started video is on the drive, and you can only see it after you have connected! This video needs to be put on the root level of the drive (or in a big TRAINING folder) so people can view it when they need it!
No love for .FLV.

Right now, bottom line, the Seagate GoFlex Satellite stinks on ice. But the potential for this drive is enormous.

I think of this drive like one of those fantastic big-budget sounding movies, with characters you’ve always wanted to see on the big screen. But what got made was something with C and D-list actors and director who doesn’t know anything about the project or material they are working on. Just bad all around.

Once the damn thing is connected to the iPad the first time, it behaves. Somewhat. But would I recommend a Seagate GoFlex satellite right now? No. Absolutely not. It’s actually easier to “cloud” data than use this device as it is now.

It needs work to be iPad friendly, and it needs a complete overhaul to be actually useful.

If the software updates make major improvements, I’ll re-review the drive.

UPDATE : If anybody from Seagate reads this post, let me strongly suggest you call Verizon and Sprint. Team up with them to make a 4G WiFi server. Their WiFi hotspot devices (like the Verizon 4G LTE MiFi) and your drive tech. Think mobile 4g hotspot, storage, streaming and internet access. All on one local device, no cloud needed. You will not be able to make these things fast enough at the factory.

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