Another feature that I wanted was cheap 3rd party cartridges. I’m tired of paying $50 to HP just for one set of black and color cartridges. One set of ink cartridges costs more than the entire printer. The printer manufacturers say don’t use 3rd party ink. But I’ve used it in the past and it worked fine for my use. Even if the 3rd party ink breaks your printer, you can just buy a new printer that includes new cartridges so you haven’t lost much.

Here is the list of requirements for the new printer:

1. Inexpensive to buy the printer
2. Supports Google Cloud Print
3. Supports Apple AirPrint
4. Inexpensive Ink Cartridges

After looking around it seems that the only printer company that supports all of these requirements is Brother. The other major manufacturers all were missing one feature. On many printers they only supported both AirPrint and Cloud Print on their more expensive printers. Or the printer supported both printing technologies but there were no inexpensive ink cartridges.

I ended up purchasing the Brother MFC-J435. Setting it up was easy. It has an LCD screen so I was able to select my wireless network on the screen and type in the passkey on the numeric keypad. To enable AirPrint and Cloud Print you just need to use a web browser on your computer and connect to the IP Address of the printer (find the IP Address in the Settings menu of the printer). The printer has a scanner and auto document feeder so you can put a bunch of papers in the feeder and they will all be scanned automatically. The printer also has a fax feature if you still need to use faxes.

Another useful feature is the Brother iPhone app. The app connects to the printer automatically and you can print and scan with it. I haven’t tried printing because AirPrint is supported natively by the iPhone. But the scanning feature is pretty cool, you can insert the documents that you want scanned and hit scan in the app. All the pages are scanned and then combined into a PDF which you can then email to yourself.

As for the ink it is very cheap. At Amazon you can get 10 cartridges for about $7 with free shipping. I haven’t personally used this ink yet because I’m still on the original cartridges, but the pack has a 4 star review on Amazon which is really good for 3rd party ink.

As good as this notebook is you can make it even better. The AO722 is very easy for anyone to upgrade. You can perform any of these upgrades even if you’ve never opened a computer before. All you need to do is remove the battery and take out a single screw to get to all three of these components. These are the starting instructions in order to do any of the three upgrades described below:

1. Completely shut down Windows (don’t use sleep or hibernate).
2. Close the lid and turn the computer upside down.
3. Put a pen or other pointy object into the little hole near the battery and slide it while you slide the battery out.
4. Unscrew the single screw at the bottom of the laptop.
5. Slide the cover off.

Memory is very cheap nowadays so upgrading the memory is worthwhile. The AO722 has a single slot for memory. So you will need to completely replace the existing memory chip with a higher capacity one. I have heard that the AO722 can use up to 8gb chips, but Acer says that 4gb is the max so I would stick with that. 8gb chips are expensive and you will be unlikely to ever use that much in this computer. Some versions of the AO722 come with 4gb stock (notably the version that Costco sells), so if you are buying a new computer you may want to buy the 4gb version.

If you currently have 2gb of RAM you can buy a 4gb module. You’ll want to buy a single 4gb 204-pin DDR3 So-DIMM module like this one. Make sure you don’t buy a kit that has two 2gb modules, these will not work because the AO722 only has a single slot for memory. Once you have the memory module follow this is how you install it:

1. Find the existing memory module and push out the two retention brackets that hold it in.
2. The memory module should tilt up allowing you to pull it out.
3. Push the new module at an angle into the socket.
4. Push the module down so it lies flat, the retention brackets should snap in holding the module in place.
5. Reassemble the computer and start Windows.
6. Go to the Start Menu
7. Right click “Computer” and select properties. Verify that installed memory is now 4gb.

SSD

Upgrading the hard drive to a SSD is the most complicated upgrade. But if you do it you get all these benefits: super fast, low power usage, and no moving parts. There are lots of SSD drives available. First start by choosing the capacity. While you could fit Windows on a 64gb drive you would have very little space left over so I don’t recommend 64gb. I think 128gb is a good size for most people. 128gb will give you enough room for Windows plus a lot of applications and data. I’d only consider going higher if you plan on storing a lot of movies or other very large files.

All SSD drives come in the 2.5″ size that will fit in the AO722. The only thing to watch out for is the drive height. Most drives come with a 9mm height, but there are some new drives that come in a a low profile 7.5mm height. The 7.5mm drives will need an adapter, otherwise the fit will not be tight enough. Just stick to the 9mm drives and you’ll be fine.

I chose the Crucial M4 128gb for my upgrade. This drive has a good reputation, a good value, and has a 9mm height. There are other drives that score higher in benchmarks, but in a netbook you’re not going to see any speed differences so the price increase is not worth it. I chose the drive that came bundled with a data transfer kit. The kit comes with software to clone your existing drive to the SSD and a data cable to transfer the data. If you are planning on transferring your existing Windows install I recommend getting the kit, the price isn’t much higher and it makes the transfer process very easy.

If you are transferring your existing data to the new drive:

1. Start Windows like normal.
2. Plug your SSD into the data transfer cable, plug the USB end into your computer.
3. Transfer the software from the CD to your AO722 (either over the network or with a USB drive)
4. Run the software, no installation is required.
5. Select the options to copy your existing drive to the SSD and start the transfer.
6. It will take an hour or so to copy the data. The software seems to freeze up at certain points. Don’t worry just leave it alone and it will eventually tell you it is finished.

Now:

1. Shutdown Windows and remove the back cover.
2. Pull the existing hard drive out of the bay.
3. Remove the two screws and pull the cable off the drive.
4. Plug the cable into the SSD and secure it with the two screws.
5. Put the drive back in the bay and close the cover.

Bluetooth

The only common feature that the AO722 does not come with is Bluetooth. Not everyone needs Bluetooth, but I like it so that I can connect Bluetooth phones and mice without having an external Bluetooth dongle.

The easiest and cheapest way to add Bluetooth is to just buy a USB Bluetooth adapter. You can either go cheap (under $2 with no shipping!) or one with better reviews. Personally I tried the cheap one and it worked fine, drivers were installed automatically from Windows update. The cheap ones are shipped from China, so you’ll probably have to wait a couple of weeks to get it. I don’t really like the extra USB dongle sticking out the side, I prefer a cleaner look with one less thing to get snagged and break so I installed an integrated Bluetooth card which I describe below.

The only way to add internal Bluetooth is by using a mini-PCIE card. There appears to be a second, unused mini-PCIE slot in the AO722, but this slot is not fully functional. It is only used to support certain 3G cards and will not work with a Bluetooth device. So the only option is to replace the existing wifi card in slot one with a replacement card that has both wifi and Bluetooth.

There are a couple of companies that sell these WiFi/Bluetooth combo cards. My existing WiFi card was a Broadcom so I stuck with this brand because it would likely be the most compatible. After a bunch of research I ordered the Broadcom card model BCM94313HMGB. This card has 802.11n and Bluetooth 3.0. This is one of their more basic cards, they have other ones that have additional features such as 5.0ghz and Bluetooth 4.0. But since I didn’t need those features I got the slightly older card which would likely have better driver support. The best way to find this card is go to eBay and search for the exact model number (BCM94313HMGB). You should find a few sellers offering this card for around $15 including shipping.

Once you get the card the installation is very simple:

1. Open the AO722 following the instructions above.
2. Pull the black and white antenna wires off the existing card. Note which color goes where for when you install the new card.
3. Remove the single screw holding the existing card in.
4. The card will lift up and you can pull it out.
5. Insert the new card in the same way and connect the antenna wires in the same order they were earlier

There are two ways you can install the drivers for this card. The first way is to plug an ethernet cable into your computer and boot up like normal. Windows 7 will install the drivers automatically from Windows Update. At first when I did this Windows gave me an error saying the drivers couldn’t be installed, but once I rebooted the drivers were installed and working. I’m not sure why this happened.

The problem with the Windows Update drivers is that they are a couple of years old and aren’t the latest version. The day after I installed the Windows Update drivers the computer shutdown with a bluescreen crash when I put the computer to sleep. I’m not sure if it was related to these drivers or not.

Broadcom doesn’t have drivers for this card on their website. But I found that HP does have recent drivers here. These drivers have a date of less than a month ago so they are very recent. Even though these are HP drivers they install easily on the AO722. Here is the method that I used:

1. Download the HP driver
2. Open the .exe file with 7-Zip (other applications such as WinZip may be able to open this archive too)
3. Extract all the files to a location on your hard drive
4. Go to Device Manager and find the device
5. Right click on the device and select “Update driver software”
6. In the popup select the “Browse my computer” option
7. Enter the path to the extracted files. The driver should now install.

Here are the experiments that we did:

• Mentos and Diet coke. This one is very impressive because it shoots a lot higher than you would think. I recommend getting this device which is designed for this experiment, it makes it a lot simpler to get the Mentos into the bottle quickly.
• Baking sode and vinegar volcano. Include some red food coloring so it looks like lava. A lot of kids had seen this one before, but they still really liked it.
• Test to see how much a helium balloon can lift. Well apparently they can’t lift very much. But at least each kid got to take a balloon home after the party.

The cake turned our really well. My wife is just an amateur cake maker, but a lot of the parents though the cake was professionally made. Here are some tips:

• Get some fondant. I’d never heard of this before, but it is like a dense, brightly colored frosting that you can make things out of. You can blend it together to make things look nice (this is how the blue and yellow stripes are made).
• Use some red fondant to wrap up some red candles in a bundle. This looks like sticks of dynamite. But be aware that when you light them the flames will be much bigger and burn quicker than a single candle. So be ready to blow them out quickly.
• We found some traffic cone candles at the store that looked pretty nice on the cake.
• The cake topper is a Jamie bobblehead which you can get here (look down the page and they have the other characters if you want a different one). These are pretty expensive for a bobblehead but they are high quality. After the cake is cut you can save the bobblehead as a decoration.

Here are some pictures of the cake:

1. Obtain a large USB memory stick
2. Download and install Rebox.NET.
3. Run Rebox.NET
4. Click the “Matroska” button and select your MKV file.
5. Click the “MP4″ button and select the drive letter for your USB stick.
6. Click the green button in the lower left corner. This will start the conversion process.
7. Once the conversion process is complete then insert the USB stick into your Xbox 360 or PS3.
8. Play the file on your console like usual, it should play perfectly.

Rebox.NET runs very fast because it doesn’t re-encode the video like some other programs. All it does is repackage the audio and video into the MP4 format so that consoles can play the file.

After reading some discussion about the problem online it seems that the emulator doesn’t work with some types of hardware virtualization. Apparently the AMD cpu in my netbook isn’t supported and there is no way to turn off the virtualization enhancements in the BIOS.

So I looked around and found the emulator config file. In the file is a setting to turn Hardware Assist off. I set the value to false, started up the emulator and now it works perfectly. It may not work too well if your app is CPU intensive like a game, but for my use it works fine.

Here is how to configure it:

1. Open a command window and go to %LOCALAPPDATA%\microsoft\xde
2. There will be a file similar to config_*.decfg
3. Open the file in notepad and look for a line that looks like this:

           <EnableHWAssist Reconfigurable="static" Type="bool">true</EnableHWAssist>

4. Change “true” to “false”
5. Save the file and start the emulator.

Lapdawg Clone

As of this writing the price is $49.99 with free shipping, no coupon required. This is less than half the price of the Lapdawg branded version when shipping is included.

I frequently use my laptop while lying down in bed. I’ve tried using assorted pillows to prop up the laptop but that never seemed to work, it was never in the right position.

So I started looking around and found out there is a company that makes a nice looking laptop bed stand called the Lapdawg. The Lapdawg X4 stand looks pretty good from their site, it is very adjustable and it looks high quality. I was interested in buying the Lapdawg X4 until I saw the price of $89 + $16 shipping ($105 total + possible tax), more than I wanted to spend on a laptop stand. They have a coupon field when you purchase, but I looked around and couldn’t find any Lapdawg coupon codes that would reduce the price to something I was willing to pay.

So I started looking around for a laptop stand for a more reasonable price. On Amazon I found a laptop stand that looks exactly like the Lapdawg and has decent reviews. The stand is a clones of the Lapdawg and exactly the same (find the link in the summary at the top of this page). In comparing the pictures from Lapdawg’s site with the pictures on Amazon you can see that it is likely the exact same stand. Look at the hinges on the legs, you can see it has white markings around them to measure the degrees, these are exactly the same on both. It looks like the Lapdawg company rebrands these laptop stands with the Lapdawg name and then they sell them on their own site.

I went ahead and ordered the laptop stand from Amazon since it was significantly less expensive than the Lapdawg and the shipping was free. The laptop stand that I received from Amazon looks exactly like the Lapdawg. It has all the same folding features and has the white degree dials around the hinges. The only difference I can see is that my stand comes with a a cooling fan powered by USB. Personally I don’t bother to use the fans, my laptop stays cool enough, but in case you want them they are there. Luckily I never notice the fans, they are small so they don’t take up any extra space and the cord is detachable so it doesn’t get in the way.

I’ve been using the laptop stand for a month now and it is great (I’m actually using it to type this blog post). The hinge adjustments are kind of a pain because there are six of them. I just leave it in the configuration that I like because it is a hassle to reset all six hinges everytime you want to put it way.

These filler items are cheap enough that you can just add multiples of them to get your price above $25. So if you need an extra dollar, just add in 2 58 cent filler items. As soon as you add enough filler items you will get the Amazon free super saver shipping.

Here are the items I found:

$0.33:  Screws
$0.70: Paint Brush

If you use Amazon regularly you might want to check out my other page to find out how to install an Amazon search plugin that gives you real time suggestions as you type:

http://patricksheedy.net/blog/amazon-suggestions-search-box-opensearch-plugin/

Once I got the plane setup it flies very nice and smooth. But as a newbie it took me a while to get it put together. I’m including some tips here to help other people get the AXN Floater built and flying.

Here are the items I bought from HobbyKing:

Plane

There are three different versions of the AXN Floater Jet:

1. AXN including motor, ESC, servos
2. AXN including motor
3. Airframe only

When I purchased my plane the only version that was available was the one that included everything. The ESC and motor that come with it aren’t the best and people say that they will break eventually. But so far mine have worked fine. It saves time to have everything installed so I recommend getting the version that includes servos, motor, and ESC.

Battery and Charger

The plane flies best with a 2200mah 3 cell battery. This is the battery that I have that works very well and is cheap: Zippy Flightmax

I recommend this charger: Accucell 6 . There are cheaper chargers, but this one is very good. It charges batteries very fast, has a nice readout, and will charge a lot of different battery types.

The charger doesn’t come with a power supply. If you have an old laptop computer you may be able to use that AC adapter with the charger. I didn’t have one so I just but this power supply that works very well: AC power supply

Radio

There are a couple of ways you can go on the radio. If you want to go as cheap as possible you can pick up a Hobby King radio that includes the transmitter and receiver here . Or the same radio from the USA warehouse . This radio will work fine for the AXN Floater.

But personally I wanted something a little nicer that can be used with multiple models that I might get in the future. So I went with the Spektrum DX6i. This is a very popular radio that is used by many people. Hobby King doesn’t sell it, you’ll have to buy it at another retailer or the local hobby store. Buy the version that is a transmitter only (no receiver). Then you can buy the Hobby King clone receivers that work with this radio but are a lot cheaper than the Spektrum receivers. Just get one of these receivers, they both work the same but come with a different case:

Receiver 1

Receiver 2

Spare Parts

The ESC and motor that come with the plane aren’t the best quality. I wanted to pick up spares just in case the originals broke. Or buy these if you bought the AXN without motor or ESC:

Motor

ESC

The servos that come with the plane are decent. But in case one of them breaks it is nice to have backups. Plus they are pretty cheap: Servos

Optional Items

The ESC might not come with the correct connector to work with the battery. You can buy extra connectors and solder it onto the wire yourself: XT60  Connectors . You could also go to the local hobby store and they can make an adapter for you.

This battery monitor is optional but nice to have. It tells you how much power is remaining in your battery. It comes with everything but you need to solder the connector yourself: Battery Monitor

If I left anything off please let me know in the comments. Thanks.

The plugin works in all modern browsers including Firefox 3, Internet Explorer 8, Safari, and Chrome. Once you click the plugin it will then show up in your search bar as “Amazon Suggestions”. Select it and then start typing your search.

The cool thing about this plugin is that newer browsers such as Firefox 3 and IE 8 support a suggestion feature that shows suggestions as you type. In Firefox a dropdown will suggest search terms that you might want to use. Internet Explorer 8 supports a cool feature called Visual Search Suggestions. The visual suggestions actually show the products you might be searching for along with a picture. It is like a real time mini-search in the dropdown.

The same plugin is compatible with all browsers using the OpenSearch specification. This makes it handy to add custom searches for frequently used sites such as Amazon.

To try out my Amazon search plugin just click the link below. A dialog will popup confirming that you want to add the “Amazon Suggestions” plugin. Once you do that you can now select the “Amazon Suggestions” icon from your search box and have suggestions appear while you type.

This looked like a good RC car for my son because:

They go slow so he doesn’t need a lot of room.
They can drive in a lot of places that other RC cars can’t
Batteries last a long time per charge
We can build obstacles together that he can drive over

In looking around the Rockslide RS10 seemed to be a recommended crawler. It is relatively cheap and had decent performance. I couldn’t find any better ones so I went ahead and bought the RS10.

I received the rock crawler within the week. The crawler is very impressive out of the box. It is big and it looks very tough and well made. The crawler comes with almost everything you need. The only thing it doesn’t come with are 8 AA batteries for the transmitter.

After charging up the battery we took it out to try it out. The truck is very impressive. It can climb things that you would not be able to expect it to do. To give you an idea of what it can climb: A standard curb on a road is a little too high to climb if you drive straight on, but if you drive in at an angle you can climb the curb. The people who have seen the truck are very impressed at the ease that the truck can climb obstacles.

The transmitter that comes with the truck is nice for a bundled transmitter. It has an LCD screen on it where you can make adjustments. There is a button on it that allows you to control which steering mode the truck is in: front, rear, or two all wheel steering modes. The only thing I don’t like about the transmitter is the limited range, it only works to about 20 feet. With a rock crawler you’re usually going to be close to the truck anyway so it isn’t a big deal, but it would be nice to have a little more range sometime. I wish that Redcat could have included a 2.4ghz transmitter instead even if it cost a little more.

I had a few problems with the truck. The servos that control both the front and rear steering wore out. They started making a clicking sound when steering and eventually stopped working. Redcat Racing repaired the servos for free under warranty, but from what I have read the stock servos are of low quality so I’d expect the replacements to break too. So instead I replaced them with these metal gear servos that people online seem to like. The new servos were easy to replace and worked without any configuration. So far they have worked great with no evidence of them wearing out.

The screws that hold the struts onto the wing fell out after a few uses. I recommend using Loctite on these screws so they don’t come out. I wish Redcat would warn people about this in their manual because once the screws fall out they are impossible to find.

Overall I really like the Rockslide RS10. The performance is very impressive for a good price. It is one of those things that both the adults and the kids can have a lot of fun with. If you are looking for a good RC vehicle without spending too much I recommend getting the Rockslide RS10.