Samsung Original Standard Battery (2100mA) with NFC for Galaxy S3 III Mobile Phone

Samsung Original Standard Battery (2100mA) with NFC for Galaxy S3 III Mobile Phone..

Special Price Samsung Original Standard Battery (2100mA) with NFC for Galaxy S3 III Mobile Phone By Samsung

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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful.
Good battery
By jagsfangrandma
My galaxy 3s was having difficulty holding a charge and I was charging 2-3 times a day as within hours (without even using the phone) the battery was down from 100% to critical level. So bought this and works like a charm - just like when the phone was new.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful.
Not all of these are genuine
By Yu-jin Chia
First, there are a lot of fake/reject Samsung standard batteries out there. A lot of these can be weeded out by looking at price: if it's under $10 it's probably not genuine/new. I've gotten generic non-NFC spare batteries for that much, but that's a different story. I wanted some extra batteries with NFC support and decided to try my luck here.

I bought one of these from PacificCellularDistributor. It was from this same listing and only $2 cheaper than the current price, which is discounted from MSRP but is still reasonably (i.e. believably) close.

When I got the battery I noticed it didn't fit perfectly in my S3. On closer inspection I noticed the top edge cover of the plastic housing seemed to be jutting out a bit, and lifting it with a fingernail caused it to peel away. That struck me as a bit unusual, but I figured it might have just been knocked loose in shipping and it didn't seem to be that serious. I seated the battery and used it for a whole day.

It did seem to charge to 100% and had good run time- as good as the stock battery. I was thinking this was the genuine article, but then I decided to test NFC. My wife has a Galaxy Victory that has NFC/S-beam support, and I know it works with the original battery. I checked to make sure the feature was enabled, tried it... nothing happened. I swapped it out with the original and it worked. Changed it back, still didn't work.

This is when I realized that this battery is either refurbished or fake. The sticker on it does look genuine, and it does say Near Field Communication on it, but NFC is either broken or was not present to begin with. It's possible this was an OEM battery that was damaged/defective and refurbished, but if so it's not a good item. No manufacturer refurbishes these things, which means someone else did it- and you don't want to be using a Li ion battery that a random (possibly amateur) person fixed. Not only may its performance be affected, but it's actually a potential hazard: these things can catch on fire if tampered with.

On the bright side, I pointed this out to the seller and they promptly refunded it. However, I'm sure they knew this to begin with and only did this because I caught them. I'm sure they've gotten away with it at other times when people didn't have the means or inclination to test the unit thoroughly.

Bottom line: you're taking a chance with these Amazon marketplace sellers. I'm pretty convinced now that the only way to be sure these batteries are genuine is to buy direct from Samsung or an authorized retailer. You pay a few bucks more, but it's worth knowing they're definitely the real article and not going to damage your device. Though technically 'free' as a result of the refund, I'm very reluctant to use this one and will probably only do so in an emergency.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful.
True OEM - not a knock off
By nothappy01
Yep, this seems to be the real deal Samsung Galaxy S3 OEM battery, not a knock of like some of the other retailers here on Amazon are selling. Looks and acts exactly like my original.

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Seagate Backup Plus Slim 1TB Portable External Hard Drive with Mobile Device Backup USB 3.0 (Red) STDR1000103

Seagate Backup Plus Slim 1TB Portable External Hard Drive with Mobile Device Backup USB 3.0 (Red) STDR1000103..

GET Seagate Backup Plus Slim 1TB Portable External Hard Drive with Mobile Device Backup USB 3.0 (Red) STDR1000103 By Seagate

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170 of 199 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent very slim, light, fairly fast 500-GB hard drive; the Windows version works on Mac and the Mac version works on Windows
By ƒůŽźŸ ωŬ≥ζŷ ♥☮♭♩♪♫♬♮☯☺♡✈
இ Fuzzy Wuzzy's Summary:
ѾѾѾѾѾ Highly recommended with warm fuzzies!

փ Positives:

փ This hard drive is indeed very slim, with its 9.5mm thickness being comparable to an internal laptop hard drive.
փ The read/write transfer speeds are pretty fast for a 5400-RPM hard drive (but performance will feel slower if you are accustomed to using 7200-RPM drives).
փ By installing a Windows or Mac driver, you can use either the Windows or Mac version of this drive on both Windows and Mac computers, which is great for transferring files in between both platforms.
փ This drive comes in 500-GB, 1-TB, and 2-TB capacities with five different color options for the top metal panel.

ჯ Negatives:

ჯ While the Seagate Dashboard software that is pre-loaded on the hard drive includes very useful and flexible backup software, the other two parts of the software to share files to social media sites and save files from social media sites are limited in their usefulness and flexibility.

With a thickness of 9.5mm for the 500-GB drive, this very portable little drive is only slightly thicker than an iPhone or pencil, and its thickness is comparable to many internal laptop/notebook drives. But while 9.5mm-thick internal laptop drives do not have an external case covering them, this drive is housed inside an attractive anodized aluminum metal case, with a plastic bottom base, that gives it a solidly rigid feel to the drive. The hard drive that is housed inside the case may even be thinner than a 7mm internal hard drive. So this external hard drive is actually thinner than most internal laptop/ultrabook hard drives. And the 500-GB drive weighs only 5 ounces, making this an extremely portable drive to carry around. With a thickness of 12.0mm, the 1-TB and 2-TB versions of this drive are 2.5mm thicker and slightly heavier than the 500-GB version. But a 12.0mm-thick drive casing is still tiny for a 2-TB external drive. There are some 15mm-thick 2-TB internal drives that are thicker than this, and they do not have an external case.

This hard drive comes with an 18-inch USB 3.0 cable. While this cable length is adequate for plugging into a laptop, I wish that the supplied cable was just a little longer in length (24 inches would be ideal) to allow more flexibility when connecting the hard drive to a desktop computer. My desktop computers are connected to USB hubs located on my desk so the cable is not too short for me, but many people will plug this hard drive directly into their desktop computer's USB port.

This drive is whisper quiet and when it is plugged into the USB port, a thin sliver of light glows near one corner of the top of the case to show that it is operational. While this drive is either reading or writing data, the glowing light pulsates, slowly shifting between dim and bright, instead of just blinking like most hard drive status lights. The pulsating hard drive status light looks more unique than the usual blinking light used by other external hard drives, as if the hard drive is breathing in and out while it works. My one minor quibble is that I wish the light would pulsate at a quicker pace. With a blinking hard drive activity LED, I can quickly glance over at the light and see if it is blinking. With this slowly pulsating light, I have to stare at the sliver of light for several seconds to see if the drive is reading/writing. As with all non-SSD hard drives, when I hold this drive in my hand, I can feel its body vibrating due to the spinning platter that is inside, and if I press my ear right up to the case while the drive is reading or writing data, I can just barely hear the read/write head moving around inside. So this hard drive is as quiet as the quietest of internal drives designed for notebooks.

I have seen various reviews erroneously mention that this Seagate Slim drive is either a 7200-RPM drive or a SSD drive, but both of those descriptions are incorrect. While Seagate previously used 7200-RPM drives in their GoFlex Slim drives, this Slim drive uses a 5400-RPM drive. For a 5400-RPM hard drive though, its transfer speeds are pretty good. This hard drive connects through a USB 3.0 cable, and as with all USB 3.0 devices being backwardly compatible with USB 2.0, you will only get the faster USB 3.0 speeds if you connect this drive to a USB 3.0 port. Connecting this drive to a USB 2.0 port will result in slower transfer speeds. When tested using the "HD Tune" hard drive performance benchmarking tool on an older laptop with USB 2.0 ports, I get an average read speed of 28 MB/s and an average write speed of 21 MB/s. Connecting this drive to a newer laptop having USB 3.0 ports, I get an average read speed of 92 MB/s (with maximum peaks of around 112 MB/s) and an average write speed of 86 MB/s. Even though most 7200-RPM notebook-sized hard drives will be faster, these speeds are pretty fast for a 5400-RPM hard drive. If you want the fastest speeds using this Seagate Slim drive, you need to plug it into a USB 3.0 port. This rule applies to any external storage device that uses a USB 3.0 cable. Perhaps Seagate chose to not include a faster 7200-RPM hard drive inside this tiny thin enclosure because of potential heat and reliability issues?

If I read or write hundreds of megabytes of data, the exterior of the drive does get warm over time since there is no internal cooling fan or ventilation holes in this drive's casing, but it usually does not get too hot. On one occasion, however, I was copying many very large HD video files onto this drive, and after twenty minutes of transferring HD videos back and forth where this hard drive was reading and writing non-stop, the drive's enclosure felt very hot when I touched it, so I undocked and unplugged the drive to let it cool down because I was worried about adversely affecting the drive's long-term reliability by continuing to operate it with the temperature inside its enclosure being so hot. The drive enclosure's metal top surface cooled down after about fifteen minutes, and I then plugged the drive back into my laptop and proceeded to edit the HD videos that were now loaded onto the drive. Because this tiny hard drive is housed in such a small totally-sealed enclosure, you should let it cool down sometimes if feels too hot after extended periods of reading/writing data. Avoiding repetitive overheating is a good idea for any external hard drive that lacks a cooling fan or ventilation holes in the hard drive's enclosure since heat can degrade a hard drive's performance and reliability over time. With most electronic components, repeatedly overheating the electronics can cause hardware failures and overheating is the primary cause of hard drive failure. Also avoid bumping, jarring, or dropping this hard drive, especially when it is plugged in.

About 800 MB of this drive's space is used up by the pre-loaded Seagate Dashboard software and brief tutorial videos on using the Seagate Dashboard software to protect and back up your files, save social media files, and conveniently share image and video files that are stored on this drive to Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube. If you are certain that you do not ever want to use this Dashboard software, you can delete the 'Seagate Dashboard Installer.dmg' Mac software file, the 'Seagate Dashboard Installer.exe' Windows software file, and the 'Video' folder to free up hundreds of megabytes of disk space. A 'Seagate' folder that is in the root directory contains a 'SerialNumber.xml' file that has the model number and serial number of the drive. The model number and serial number are also printed on the bottom panel of the drive however. In the Windows version of this drive, the 'Seagate' folder has a 'Seagate-Release.exe' program that you can run to register the drive with Seagate. After you finish registering the drive, you can delete the 'Seagate' folder.

If you want to leave the software and tutorial videos on the drive, you can still delete either the 135-MB 'Seagate Dashboard Installer.dmg' Mac software file or the 156-MB 'Seagate Dashboard Installer.exe' Windows software file if you only exclusively use Mac or Windows computers. In the 'Video' folder, there are eight folders - 'en-US', 'fr-FR', 'it-IT', 'ko-KR', 'ru-RU', 'sv-SE', 'zh-CN', and 'zh-TW' - that each contain the same set of four tutorial videos: 'Introducing Seagate Backup Plus', 'Protecting Your Files With Seagate Dashboard Tutorial', 'Saving Social Media Files With Seagate Dashboard Tutorial', and 'Sharing To Social Media Sites With Seagate Dashboard Tutorial'. These eight sets of videos are identical in the video and audio, and only differ in the subtitle language used: English (no subtitles), French, Italian, Korean, Russian, Swedish, Chinese, and Taiwanese. If you keep the 'en-US' English video that has no subtitles and delete the other seven folders, you free up almost 350 MB of space.

Of the three components in the Seagate Dashboard software, the "Protect" function offers the most usefulness and flexibility, while the "Share" and "Save" functions for sharing/uploading to and saving from social media sites are limited in their capabilities. With the Dashboard's "Protect" function, you can schedule backups of your files based on a regular hourly/daily/weekly/monthly schedule, or have your files backed up whenever they are added or modified, or make backups on an as-needed basis by manually initiating a "snapshot" backup of your files. I am always surprised by how many people never back up the files on their computers, either their work-related files or their personal files, including documents, email and Microsoft Outlook files, photo/music/media files, or other files that are often irreplaceable if their computer's hard drive suddenly fails. If your computer has years of files accumulated on it that you have never backed up to another disk, to a CD/DVD, or to an online cloud-based backup service, this Seagate Slim hard drive can be used as your backup device where you can store a duplicate copy of all your important files. If you have already been using a backup process, as mentioned, you do not have to install the Dashboard software and you can just completely delete all the pre-loaded software from this hard drive if you want.

Important: If you do use the pre-loaded Seagate "Protect" software to back up your files, or if you use other kinds of automated backup software, you should randomly spot-check some of the duplicated backup files and folders every one or two months to verify that the files are correctly being copied and that they can be read correctly. Spot-check the backup files more frequently if they are important and you really value their integrity. Backup software is still a software application and, just like firmware and other software, and also taking into account that a hard drive may start to slowly fail with read/write errors after years of usage, there may be a software or hardware glitch that causes a file to either not be backed up by the backup software, or to be backed up but unreadable. By occasionally spot-checking the integrity of your backup files, you reduce the possibility of having an unpleasant surprise if you really need to recover the files from the backup copy. A data error can happen with any electronic storage media. For example, if you back up files by burning data to a CD/DVD/Blu-ray disc, you should spot-check their integrity by accessing some of their files at least once a year. The same rule applies if your backup files are stored by a cloud-based backup/storage service. There are also integrity-checking software that will automatically verify the integrity of hard disks or optical media. I am an avid photographer, and with terabytes of hard disk space becoming more inexpensive each year, my favorite way to back up files is by manually copying files and folders to two separate hard drives in a "manual RAID 1" setup where I manually back up and mirror the photo and HD-video files between both drives, instead of relying on backup software to perform the function. I previously used a dual-hard-drive RAID 1 storage unit, but I like being able to directly access either drive and I also do not like how RAID 1 simultaneously deletes files from both drives if I ever type or click too fast and have an "oops" accidental file deletion.

The Dashboard software's "Share" function lets you share files that are stored on the hard drive by uploading to either Facebook, Flickr, or YouTube. And the "Save" function lets you save photos from Facebook or Flickr. Unlike the "Share" function, "Save" does not let you save videos from YouTube. But there are many freeware software and online sites that can convert and save YouTube videos already. I really did not care for how either these "Share" or "Save" functions worked because they are quite limited in their flexibility, and it is very easy to perform the same functions directly using the Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube sites without having to go through an intermediate step of using the Dashboard software to upload files. Perhaps Seagate added the "Share" and "Save" options for computer newbies or social media newcomers. But the irony is that even though this Dashboard software "dumbs down" the uploading of files to Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube, the computer newbies who would most benefit from using the "Share" and "Save" options may not even have an account on Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube.

This pocket-sized drive is quite small and light: 4.5"x3.0"x0.4" and 5.3 ounces (including the USB cable) for the 500-GB version, with the 1-TB and 2-TB versions being slightly thicker and heavier. You can use this portable drive to shuttle files back and forth between Windows and Mac computers, dragging and dropping folders and files to transfer them between the computer and this external hard drive. Note that there are two versions of this Seagate Slim external hard drive: a Windows version formatted for NTFS and a Mac version formatted for HFS+. You should get the version for the platform that you work on the most. If you mainly use a Mac and you use Time Machine for your backups, you should definitely get the Mac version of this drive. If you mainly work on Windows and Mac is more of a secondary computer, you should get the Windows version of this drive.

Since Windows NTFS and Mac HFS+ file systems do not automatically play well together, use of this hard drive on both Windows and Mac computers does require the download and installation of a driver. If you get the Windows version of this drive, when you plug the drive into a Mac, it will download from the Internet a necessary Mac driver (NTFS_for_Mac_with_restart.dmg) that lets the Windows-NTFS-formatted drive work with Macs. NTFS drives are normally read-only on Mac OS, and this driver lets Macs both read and write on the NTFS-formatted version of this hard drive. Note that because Mac's Time Machine requires a Mac-HFS-formatted drive, when you use the Windows version of this drive with the Mac driver, this setup cannot work with Time Machine unless you reformat the drive to be a HFS+journaled file system... in which case you might as well just get the Mac version of this drive if you intend to also use it with Time Machine. If you get the Mac version of this drive, when you plug the drive into a Windows PC, it will download a necessary Windows driver (HFS4Win.exe) that lets the Mac-HFS+formatted drive work with Windows. You can also download both the Mac-driver-for-Windows-NTFS and Windows-driver-for-Mac-HFS+ drivers directly from Seagate's Web site. See the 'Comments' section of my review for the URL locations. Seagate should have pre-loaded both of these Windows/Mac drivers on the hard drive just like how they pre-loaded both the Windows and Mac versions of their Dashboard software.

Overall, this is a great little drive that is sized for maximum portability. It includes a 2-year limited warranty. And at the time of this review's writing, Amazon is offering this hard drive at a great price of less than $70 for the 500-GB size. It was not that long ago when a 500-GB portable hard drive costed hundreds of dollars and was at least three times larger in size. I rely both on my own research and the opinions of others to help me make informed buying decisions. I hope that this review helped you to be a wise shopper! :)

107 of 127 people found the following review helpful.
Fast little drive - Dashboard software not perfect
By Roberta V. Russo
Here are the impressions of a non-techy about the Seagate Slim 500 gig external hard drive. This drive is amazingly small - about 3 by 4 inches and 1/4 inch thick. Nice - because it doesn't take up much shelf or desk space and is easy to carry around. I like to take a backup drive with me whenever I travel with my computer and this drive is the perfect size for that. The USB cord that it comes with is approximately 18 inches long (give or take). It also comes packed with a small instruction pamphlet describing how install the backup software called the Seagate Dashboard that comes pre-loaded on the drive. Its a pretty simple and straightforward process so there is not a lot to the instructions. There are also 4 short instruction videos pre-loaded on the drive: "Introducing Seagate Backup Plus Video"; "Protecting Your Files With Seagate Dashboard Tutorial"; "Saving Social Media Files With Seagate Dashboard Tutorial"; and "Sharing To Social Media Sites With Seagate Dashboard Tutorial". If you watch them they give a pretty good overview of the features available with the Dashboard software.

I usually don't load the software that comes with hard drives, but I decided to give the Seagate Dashboard a try. I am using a laptop with Windows 8 operating system. Basically you just plug in the drive, navigate to the installation file and double click it. That brings up the registration screen, the software loads, and then you must re-start the computer to finish the install. It took maybe 5 minutes and installed with no problems.

Once the software is installed you open it by double clicking its desktop icon. From the home screen you get 3 choices: Protect (backup and restore your data); Share (upload your pictures and videos to your Facebook, Flickr and YouTube accounts); and Save (Download pictures and videos from your Facebook and Flickr accounts).

Protect:
You can schedule backups at specific intervals like hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, etc. Or you can select continuous backup which basically creates backups in real time as you add or change files. If you don't want to set a regular schedule you can instead click the "snapshot" button to start a backup whenever you want. By default the backup includes anything that is not a system or program file but you get the option to pick the files you want to include. The first time you run backup takes a little longer because it is backing up all the files, after the first time its faster because its only backing up new or changed files. I have the drive connected to a USB 3 port and the first time I ran backup it took about 20 - 30 minutes to backup roughly 100 gig of data files. I selected "continuous" and keep the drive connected all the time. I haven't really noticed any lag time or slow down using the continuous backup feature.

The drive comes with a free one-year subscription to the Nero "cloud" drive which you can also select as a backup location. You get 4 gig free for 12 months - after that you have to pay for the subscription. You can also buy extra space. You have to create an account and set a password. I did set up the account, but haven't used this feature and don't really plan to in the future.

Share:
You can use the Dashboard to upload pictures and video to social media sites: Facebook, Flickr and YouTube. I don't use Facebook or Flickr (hard to believe in this day and age, I know) but I do use YouTube, so I gave it a try. From Dashboard click the Facebook, Flick, or YouTube icon. The first time you access one of these sites you have to enter your account log-in information and give the software permission to access your account. Here is how it worked for YouTube. Once logged in it brought up a file manager screen where I could browse to and select a video on either my Seagate external hard drive or my computer hard drive. Once the file is selected you choose one of the standard YouTube categories for it. Then the file uploads. After uploading the video using the Seagate Dashboard, I deleted it from YouTube and uploaded it again using the standard upload directly from the YouTube site - just to see the difference.

First of all the video took longer to upload using the Seagate Dashboard than it did directly from the YouTube website. I suppose that might not be the fault of the software - maybe the internet was just running slower when I used the Dashboard, but I did upload them within 1/2 hour of each other. The biggest fault I found using the Seagate Dashboard to upload videos is that you don't get any of the options that you do when you upload directly from the YouTube site. When you upload a video directly from the YouTube site you get a lot of options. You can enter a Title for the video, you can enter a description, and enter tags (e.g. Chicago, dogs) so that the video comes up in searches, you can pick a thumbnail to use for the video, select a privacy setting (public or private) and select a category for the video. When you use the Dashboard, it automatically uses the name of the file as the title of the video (you don't get to choose). The only choice the Seagate Dashboard gives you is to select a category for the video - that's it. It also automatically posts it as a public video. You don't get any other choices or options. Once you have uploaded a video using the Dashboard you can always log on to your YouTube account directly from the YouTube website and edit these choices, but why bother with 2 steps if you can just do all this directly on YouTube in the first place? Given the results of this test, I would not use the Seagate Dashboard to upload videos to YouTube. I can't speak for how Facebook or Flickr uploads work because I don't use Facebook or Flick.

Save:
You can use this to save files from your social media sites (for example, save the pictures you posted on Facebook). The only 2 social media sites you can do this for with the Seagate Dashboard are Facebook and Flickr. YouTube is not an option. I don't use Facebook or Flickr, so I couldn't test this. I am disappointed that saving files posted to my YouTube account was not an option.

Overall I would give the drive 3 stars. What I liked most was the size and speed - its small and very fast. I give the Dashboard software mixed reviews. The backup function seems to work great but the Share and Save options left something to be desired. I would have rated the drive higher if it hadn't been for the software. I just got the drive, so I can't speak for durability, but it seems like well built little drive.

36 of 41 people found the following review helpful.
Contains standard SATA version of Samsung M9T
By Chris Burston
I ordered one of these in the hope that it would contain the long anticipated 2TB 2.5" 9.5mm Samsung M9T hard disk. I'm happy to report that it does and that said drive has a standard SATA interface.

My MacBook Pro is now sitting pretty with 2TB of internal storage. Happy Days!

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RCA DRC6272 7-Inch Twin Mobile DVD Players - play two different DVDs!

RCA DRC6272 7-Inch Twin Mobile DVD Players - play two different DVDs!..

GET RCA DRC6272 7-Inch Twin Mobile DVD Players - play two different DVDs! By RCA

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335 of 341 people found the following review helpful.
Great for the car
By Rob
My wife and I really shopped around for a DVD player for our car. We took a chance with this one because there was no reviews on it. I have to say that chance really paid off for us. Here is why we decided to go with this one:

1. Brand recognition. We could have went with a couple other names, but I have known RCA for being decent. Maybe not the best but good enough for me.

2. Remote controls. This is the number one reason why we went with this one. The first one we had didn't come with remotes and we found it to be a real pain if you have to skip sections, stop, play, and all other normal functions you would use with a DVD player. Because we don't want the kids to get out of their seats while driving this is really ideal and highly recomended. Our children are also too young to understand the controls. The different colors make it easy to determine which control works for what player.

3. Two independent players or able to view the same movie on both. The original one we purchased only had one player. With two kids you never know what they are going to watch. This solves the problem when they both want to watch different things. The other reason is for back-up purposes. I have read in many reviews that the dvd player breaks after a while...well with two, if one goes down during a long drive, your not at a complete loss because you can use the other.

The one con with this player is the fact that it doesn't remember where the DVD left off if your in the middle of a movie and you shut your car off. This may bother some people but the fact is on long drives your not going to stop every half hour...more like every two or three hours. The average movie is around two hours so it's unlikely this is going to be a major problem during those drives. Unless you plan to use the DVD player for every little drive, this really isn't that big of a deal.

Other than that this DVD player is perfect for what we intend to use it for.

198 of 210 people found the following review helpful.
Works OK but could be a lot better
By Ellis Moose
I was in the market for something to entertain my small kids on drives, particularly during our long daily commute to work (where their daycare is located). This appeared to fit the bill. Indeed it did do the job, but it could be a lot better.

PROs:
- The system was very easy to set up. So long as you aren't worried about hiding cords, it only really takes minutes to get this up and working.
- The system is relatively easy to operate. You can have both screens showing the same movie, or each watching something different. Switching between the two settings is very easy.
- The picture and sound were adequate for our sedan.
- We never had a reliability problem.

CONs:
- Many people will be buying this for small children. If your kids are too little to be trusted with operating the unit themselves, the system doesn't work well. For one, as mentioned in other reviews, everytime you stop the car (even if you leave the key in the aux position) the movie completely restarts when you restart the car. This becomes a problem when the person in the front seat (not the kids in back) has to wade through the menu and get the movie back to where it was (supremely frustrating if you're dealing with a Disney movie... parents, you know what I'm talking about). Equally frustrating is that, while the system comes with remotes, you must be directly in line with the sensor to get them to work. In other words, only the kids in the back can really get the remote to work. In our case, that won't work because the kids are too little to figure out the remote buttons. Bottom line you end up reaching behind the headrest from the passenger seat and trying to hit buttons without being able to see them or what's on the screen. There is no tactile indicator on the buttons to let you know which is which by feel, so you really have to go off of experience. There is also no 'menu' button on the unit. It only exists on the remotes. The front seat occupants will NOT be able to get the remote to work while remaining seatbelted in the front... no matter how much yoga you practice.
- The unit's cord are hard to hide in order to give you a clean look. The way they plug in makes the unit easy to set up but also hard to make look clean. Also, my two year old son liked to kick the cords out of the monitor with his feet.
- The headrest strap is really just one long strip of velcro strap. It works but it doesn't make for an overly secure fit. Also if you have tapered headrests, you'll find it hard to get it to work great. We had to loop it around the metal headrest posts instead of the actual headrest.
- As I mentioned previously, the unit is easy to install. It isn't SO easy to install that you'll want to take it down and put it away every time you get out of the car. That would just be too much of a hassle. On the other hand, it is easy enough to get out of the car quickly to be enticing to a thief. That is exactly what happened to us. The first time we forgot to lock the car (after having this for about 1.5 years), it was gone in a heartbeat.

We are now looking for a replacement unit and will probably NOT get another RCA. We need a system that is easier to operate from the front seat. If your back seat passengers are old enough to operate this independantly and you don't make frequent stops, this unit should work for you just fine and is very cost effective.

If anyone knows of a similar dvd system that remembers where in the movie it left off when you turn off the car, please let me know via the comments here.

80 of 97 people found the following review helpful.
Fantastic for long trips.
By Brian Weidow
I had no problem with setting up the RCA cables to each other. or mounting it to the back of the head rest. It was very easy to use. Best of all remotes are NOT interchangeable!The remotes are color coded to their prospective dvd player. So during a trip you will not hear .... Dad! He keeps messing up my movie. And as long as you have power to the players it will remember where the movie was last stopped. Cannot say enough how fantastic the picture and sound is. I'm so glad I got it for our 16hr round trip to Rhode Island. Never knew the kids where there. :).

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NeatReceipts Mobile Scanner and Digital Filing System - PC

NeatReceipts Mobile Scanner and Digital Filing System - PC..

Special Price NeatReceipts Mobile Scanner and Digital Filing System - PC By Neat Receipts

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604 of 624 people found the following review helpful.
Good product, does what it claims - to organize your receipts
By Gadget Lover
I upgraded from the Neat Receipts 3.0 scanner to the Neat Works 4.0 scanner package recently. I like the Neat Receipts 3.0 scanner, but the upgrade is really worth it.

For starters the quick scan center with the new version takes less system resources and it allows the user to enter receipts in batches, which is efficient. I was able to scan a pile of 277+ receipts in one night, while watching television. Pretty painless and easy to do without requiring a lot of attention, so you can make good use of downtime while you're watching TV / relaxing, etc.

The best part of this is not the physical scanner, it's the software. It allows me to look up previous receipts in a jiffy, and lets me shred / toss old receipts. The physical scanner is nice too though. It's definitely not photo quality, but that's not why I bought this package. The scanner works fairly well / quickly for most receipts, a bit better than the silver version even though they're supposedly the same hardware. I find with the older version the USB would fail to be recognized by Windows XP, but no such problems with the new version.

If you want to organize your receipts and keep good records, I highly recommend this package! It's the one of the few products that actually does what it claims to do. Excellent product.

Future improvement wishes would be speedier scans, but that is limited by the scanning technology and hardware specifications.

FYI - yes it will sometimes have difficulty scanning very light receipts, but that is to be expected with a scanner like this. If one expects photo quality scanner this is not the one to buy. A photo quality scanner will take too long to scan receipts. This scanner captures receipts information pretty well but it does not produce a photo replica of the receipt.

Also, the other reviewer mentioned problems with USB. Quite often that is a problem with Windows, especially on a Windows system that's been run for quite sometime and with a lot of other accessories installed. I installed this on 3 of my windows XP systems and they all worked fine. If I ever have a problem I would reinstall Windows as Windows tends to get cluttered with hardware profiles and have problems with USB devices.

431 of 447 people found the following review helpful.
Loving it during my first 8 hrs of ownership
By D. Mashino
The ratio of bad reviews to good reviews here on this NeatWorks scanner was dubious so though I desperately needed a receipt-scanning solution, I really hadn't taken the plunge until I visited Costco and must've been riding a wave of positive-ness because I walked in, wasn't looking to buy anything, but when I saw only 2 left of this product on the shelf, I took one.

Got home, inserted the set-up CD as instructed and nothing. I'm running a new (1yr old) Dell with very sufficient hardware/memory running WinXP. But I figure sometimes the CD set-up is wonky, so I ejected then reinserted and it worked; brought up the set-up initialization screen. It asked me to check online for a version newer than what was shipped; I did, and there was. So after 10 minutes of downloading a 200mb file, I was done. Clicked the file, set-up was a snap (took 10-12 minutes) and off I went. Connected the scanner by USB cable and everything worked; no crashing.

Tested a batch of 15 receipts to see if it could handle the crinkled, faded, potentially illegible imprints on what seemingly is the standard thermal paper being used by all merchants. Alas, this product worked fine; and it worked as promised. Scanned all receipts, and was able to make not only the correct (99% of the time) OCR function for amounts, dates, retailer, and sales tax, it also was able to be relatively correct in judging which sector of retail (general receipt, food, etc.) it should categorize my purchases.

So the initial test was done; I was pleased. So now I wanted to dig deep and scan roughly 6 weeks of receipts that I'd amassed -- roughly 200 receipts. This would've really been a test, since half of these receipts were nearly 4-6 weeks old, they were crinkled from being shoved into my pocket or folio while on the road, and some were teeny-tiny receipts like taxi receipts from Manhattan.

Result? Got through it all, and except for roughly 5 receipts out of my total 197, the scanner and software were both able to recognize most receipt fields and categorize them correctly. Oddly, and I think this is because of the clarity of the receipt vs. software, some receipts were ported into the "Documents" category vs. "Receipts" area. That was remedied easily by dragging each image from "Documents" to "Receipts."

"Areas," you ask? The software gives you 3 distinct areas that it will move your raw scans into; those are RECEIPTS, DOCUMENTS, and BUSINESS CARDS. I'm guessing the software takes ques from the content plus the size of the scan to determine where images should go. Like I said, the software was mostly correct except for a few faded receipts, but when I moved those stray images from "Documents" to "Receipts," the software kicked-in and was able to read the proper field information (amount, etc.) correctly.

From these areas, you can then file your raw scans into varying folders that you can create, or into document types if you'd like to export as PDF, etc. It's pretty simple, and I have never used a product from NeatWorks, so I have no way to compare previous versions with this 4.5.2 version that I'm using.

I looked at negative reviews and can say that I have neither had the software or hardware cause crashes, reboots, stalls, freezes, or any other degradation of my laptop from working as it normally does.

Also, I had no real OCR problems with the scanner or software recognizing figures or names. In fact, the only constant problem I had was with drugstore chain "Longs Drugs" which uses only a logo and not typewritten version of its name on receipts, so the software took to recognizing the first item in my receipt as the name, so I had numerous prescription receipts filed as "Hallmark" since I had bought cards with those purchases. What amazes me is the software is able to decipher through all the cr*p that's listed on receipts; these days, surveys, serial numbers, and other gobbledy-gook are all listed and yet the software was able to filter through that and report the correct field information.

A couple cautions: 1) Handwritten numbers have never been recognized in any of my scans, 2) Export data to Quicken in groups based on the accounts you use in Quicken.

As to #1 above, those who have a lot of written-in totals at restaurants for tip, etc., will find this problematic. Every receipt I'd gotten for a meal (which were a lot) I had to correct with the tip included vs. the software recognizing only the subtotal before tip.

And as to #2 above, I found that importing into Quicken was a snap (as QIF file), but since Quicken will only dump all data in a QIF file into a single account, you need to filter this BEFORE the export. For example, if you use multiple cards like I do for various clients and you keep track of each account separately in Quicken, then you'd better categorize those purchases in NeatWorks accordingly, and then selectively export those transactions. That way, your import into Quicken is done per account. It's easier that way, than having to use the "Move Transaction" function in Quicken.

I'd say 4 stars because I had no elements of surprise and no hiccups in service. I'd rate it 5 stars after about 3-6 months of ownership if this flawless experience keeps up. I'll be back in September to report.

1295 of 1371 people found the following review helpful.
Beware - Not Backward Compatible
By stevecat
(NOTE: see my update on NeatWorks ver 5 below)

I have been using NeatReceipts for a couple of years now. I generally like the product, but I am now using BOTH the 'Classic ver 1.5.9" and the new Ver 4.0 software because NeatWorks broke a covenant with its' early adopters. They broke two of the cardinal rules of product development (1) never, ever, under any circumstances forget your early customers and their data and (2) never remove vital features from the product.

First, they "forgot" their "Classic ver 1.5.9" users. Versions of the software from 2.0 up thru the current ver 4.1 cannot recognize or import any of the receipts or documents scanned into the earlier version. I have personally talked to them about this for almost 2 years. At first, in early 2007, they repeatedly stated that they were hard at work on a migration solution. We depended on that statement, telling them how important it was for us to be able to access our archived data - for inventories, insurance and tax records.

But they finally just abandoned this effort and offered everyone a discount to upgrade to a later version. How is that going to help with restoring archived data? The data and file formats for their .elrec and .eldoc seem fairly simple - a scanned image and some recognized text fields. Why can't they import those formats like they allow for jpeg and tiff images?

They offered no acceptable reasons beyond that we are no longer working on that feature and "would you like to upgrade?". They seem oblivious to the frustrations they have caused a large number of their early customers. We even communicated with Rafi Spero, one of the companies owners. If he couldn't make it happen, you know they don't care about you as a customer. BEWARE THIS COMPANY.

Secondly: The "Classic" version allowed users to create folders and subfolders, etc. This was a fantastic way to organize receipts for cash, various credit cards, checks and debits, by year and then by month. Or to organize a copy of receipts for an inventory by broad categories and then further by store, year or vendor. So the initial features of both subfolders and the ability to copy receipts from yearly tax records to inventory folders was extremely useful and helpful in elimnating paperwork clutter.

The new ver 4 software does not support nested folders or copying receipts to other folders. Every time you scan a receipt, it goes into a folder. But all folders are on the same level. You can show and hide folders, but this is an extremely clumsy process and causes users a lot of extra work in trying to organize their invoices and receipts. If you want to copy a receipt, you have to scan it AGAIN. How brain-dead is that?

Bottom Line: This company has proven that, at their convenience, they will ignore or abandon prior versions of the software and remove vital features.

To fix some of their current short-coming, as mentioned above, it would not surprise me to see them create a new version of their software that is incompatible with what they are selling today.

DO NOT TRUST them with any vital data that you may need in the future.

UPDATE: 2-11-2010 - I have been given a preview of the new NeatWorks ver5 software. I don't know when it will be released but it seems to have (finally) added back in some of the features that went missing with ver 2 and onward. Now they also have a chance to allow for importing old receipts (".elrec" files) from their "Classic" users. If they do Import ".elrec" files many Classic users will be happy that their data is no longer "orphaned". I will then change my opinion and rating of NeatWorks and their products because they did admit to these past mistakes, listen and respond to their customers and "the true test of your character is how you respond to those mistakes."

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LG Venice (Boost Mobile)

LG Venice (Boost Mobile)..

GET LG Venice (Boost Mobile) By LG

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235 of 248 people found the following review helpful.
I LOOOOOOVE THIS PHONE!!!
By Susan
I am actually obsessed with this phone!!! I Love the price it was $20-40 cheaper than the ones they are selling in Boost Mobile stores + Boostmobile.com. I really enjoy it. A gamer’s wet dream. I have upgraded from the gingerbread based Boost mobile phone the Samsung galaxy prevail which was logy, took forever to open an app, took forever to swipe, forget about emulators, bad RAM count had to upgrade to a 4 GB SD card and still ran out of room. The amount of apps on that phone that I could hold on the phone only was only 11 or so. This phone kicks the crap out of that. I can play any emulators from Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, N64, and PS1. Game board Apps like Monopoly run like a charm. The Music Player kicks butt, the weather widgets, facebook buttons widgets, Google play books, and optimized ram is perfect. I am an electronic file junky. I enjoy collecting music and movies making ringtones and taking photos + playing all kinds of games. This Phone is perfect if you want everything in a phone and the price is perfect. I only pay $40 a month everything unlimited and this initial $200 phone will last me a long time. No problems with it and love the big touch screen. Camera comes with a flash, plus a amazing crisp zoom, it takes panoramic photos, theres about 2GB worth of internal phone memory, it comes with a ram optimizer, 2GB SD card, millions of customization options great Android Ice Cream based phone. I bought this phone on Cyber Monday and got it with Prime shipping and within 2 days it was on my front doorstep. Awesome product I love it thanks so much!

134 of 143 people found the following review helpful.
Boost LG730 Venice phone is TRULY a super product.
By J. Polack
I have had lots of phones. After using numerous Motorola, Samsungs and others, I bought the LG730 a couple months ago. My old Samsung had just died and the LG730 Venice was the only choice at Target for a Boost smart phone at 10pm on a Saturday night, so I tried it very reluctantly. WOW! Using for two months now. No problems ever with the Android side being under-powered or slow. No need to jailbreak the o/s in order to get apps to work. No dropped calls. Compatible with my SD cards, micro usb cables and chargers, small enough to go in shirt pocket, compatible with all my Bluetooth devices, great sound quality on speaker or regular! Good screen. Touch screen works well. Works great with USB to my laptop to send and receive text messages, files, backup the phone, etc. Could not be better, and with the price under $200, the service at about $45 per month, for text, www, and voice is superb! I use the voice to text message constantly to send text without having to type it in and it works flawlessly. Camera works great. Built in flash. I can't say enough good about this phone. Its a real home run for Boost after they released numerous "smart" phones with limited features and abilities. You cant go wrong with this one.

104 of 113 people found the following review helpful.
Best Phone Boost has out!! I Absolutely Love It!
By Tommy R
I've had numerous phones through Boost Mobile since the 1st Model that came out! Since then I've had many of them but eventually moved over and started with smartphones when the 1st Android Phone for Boost Mobile came out which was the Samsung Prevail which was a step up from any previous phones they had to offer! The LG Venice is better than most phones that are not pre-paid and that come with Contract competitor service carriers! The 4.3" inch capacative Touch-Screen is incredibly clear and vivid, especially when playing videos from YouTube and and sources! It has the lasted 4.0 Ice Cream Operating Platform that is super fast and has many different options available for customization and productivity! I get great reception and I'm told my voice is nice and loud and clear on the other end of the phone call, unlike my 2 previous Samsung Transform Ultra phones where others could barely hear my voice even when brand new! I was also lucky and got my LG Venice for a steal! Usually Priced from $229-$249, I bought mine on Amazon.com and only paid $155 right before Christmas! I have one more payment and I'll be down to $40 a month unlimited, which i would be paying more than double with contract carriers! So if you're looking into buying a Prepaid Phone from Boost Mobile for the first time, or you're a current and returning customer, I would definitely not pass this phone up! It has everything you need and more, I highly recommend this phone to anyone!!

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RCA DRC79982 9-Inch Mobile DVD Player with Additional 9-inch Screen

RCA DRC79982 9-Inch Mobile DVD Player with Additional 9-inch Screen..

GET RCA DRC79982 9-Inch Mobile DVD Player with Additional 9-inch Screen By RCA

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45 of 49 people found the following review helpful.
Awesome
By Amazon Customer
Bought two sets of these before a big family road trip, dont think we would have made it without them. Kids all loved them and the video play is awesome. Id suggest buying headphones to go with them and maybe some sort of extension for the power cords because they are a tad short.

47 of 52 people found the following review helpful.
Good but not great...
By Asha Conley
Bought this for use in our minivan to keep the kids entertained. Pros: The screen resolution is good, clear picture, volume is loud enough. I like that when you turn the car off, the DVD picks up from where it left off when you come back. Cons: straps that hold the screen to the headrest are not very secure (I have a Honda Odyssey minivan), the buttons are hard to reach when the player is on the headrest such that you have to fiddle with the player just to reach the buttons or unstap it. The remote has no volume button, it does not have a rechargeable battery. The deal breaker for us was how the two screens have to be connected by a cable which hangs awkwardly between the two players such that the kids have to go under them or around them to get in and out of the van. In fact between the connection cables and the cable going into the car adaptor, that was too many cables! I sent then back.

25 of 31 people found the following review helpful.
Worth the money
By Mary Ann
Clear picture. Nice size screen. Easy to load disc. Sound quality and volume good. Easy to mount onto headrest and take down. I really have nothing negative to say. Used them for vacation, helped immensely for travel with the kids.

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SanDisk 32GB Mobile MicroSDHC Class 4 Flash Memory Card, Frustration-Free Packaging- SDSDQM-032G-AFFP

SanDisk 32GB Mobile MicroSDHC Class 4 Flash Memory Card, Frustration-Free Packaging- SDSDQM-032G-AFFP..

GET SanDisk 32GB Mobile MicroSDHC Class 4 Flash Memory Card, Frustration-Free Packaging- SDSDQM-032G-AFFP By SanDisk

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843 of 867 people found the following review helpful.
This Sandisk 'class-4' micro-SDHC card is faster than a PNY 'class-10'
By NLee the Engineer
I purchased a SanDisk 32 GB microSDHC Flash Memory Card SDSDQM-032G nearly two months ago, for use in my VIZIO 8-Inch Tablet VTAB1008. At the same time, I also purchased a higher-priced PNY 32 GB microSDHC Card (P-SDU32G10-EFS2) which is supposed to be a 'class-10'. My benchmark results, however, show that the Sandisk class-4 card is actually faster - most of the time.

I used two sets of benchmark programs. One is called 'Flash Memory Toolkit v2.0', which measures the random read/write speed of files between 1MB and 15MB. The other one is called 'H2testw v1.4', which measures the sequential read/write speed using 1GB files. Here are my results: (see my uploaded charts in 'Customer Images' section for details)

- For smaller files (1-5MB), the Sandisk class-4 card gives an amazing write speed of 15-17MB/s, while the PNY 'class-10' card can only get 1-6MB/s

- For larger files (10-15MB), the Sandisk and PNY cards are about equal at around 8MB/s for write

- For huge files (1GB), the PNY did better at 9.5MB/S, while the Sandisk dropped to 5.5MB/s

- The read speeds of both cards are equally high at around 18MB/S (this number may be limited by the maximum speed of my card reader used)

What the above shows is that: When used in a typical digital camera (with file size 3-5MB), this Sandisk 'class-4' card is at least twice as fast as the PNY so-called 'class-10' card. But when used in a HD video camera (sequential writing of huge file), then the PNY card should perform better.

For a card to be marketed as a 'class-10', it must maintain a MINIMUM write speed of 10MB/s. So by this definition, the PNY card does not qualify since it cannot even achieve a MAXIMUM write speed of 10MB/s. This Sandisk card, on the other hand, exceeds the requirement of 'class-4' by a huge margin.

Sandisk seems to be the only flash memeory manufacturer that still gives honest, conservative speed class ratings. Any other manufacturers would have labeled this card a 'class-6' or even higher. As a matter of principle, I rather give my money to a company that promises less but delivers more, instead of to others that do the opposite. At the present cost of about 1 buck per GB, this is an unbeatable deal!

[Aside]
The capacity of this card, as reported by my computer, is only 29.7GB. Note that this is actually normal, because compter people define one 'Giga' as '2 to the power 30', which is 7.4% greater than 1 billion. So 29.7GB comes to just about 32 billion bytes, which is '32GB' according to marketing people.

[Update Dec 3, 2011]
I re-tested the two cards above, using the CrystalDiskMark v3.01. The results are consistent with my previous finding. See my newly uploaded charts in 'Customer Images' for details.

[Update Nov 19, 2013]
The Sandisk card is still working fine after two years in my tablet. It should be noted that I have purchased dozens of CF/SD/microSD cards over the past decade, and only experienced ONE card failure (which was caused by an incompatable card reader). So I'm probably just more careful in handling memory cards. For example, I always make sure to discharge myself electrically before touching a card to avoid ESD zap, and use "Safely Eject USB Device" command to remove a card.

178 of 193 people found the following review helpful.
Great price on a genuine product
By Doug
This is a great price for a 32GB SanDisk micro sdhc card. Don't let the 10 people who gave this a 1 star rating scare you, this is a great price for a good product. Anyone who works with computers or technology in general knows that you will occassionally have a device that just fails. I work a computer helpdesk and see it with hard drives all the time, it happens. That's why any good manufacturer warrants their product, so if you have a failure like this, you get a new one. These types of failures are unavoidable.

This is a geniun SanDisk product, sold by Amazon.com and not some third party seller. Buy with confidence.

500 of 567 people found the following review helpful.
A deal, but, if given the option CHOOSE (RETAIL PACKAGING) OR YOU WILL RECIEVE A COUNTERFEIT ITEM. No joke.
By Benjamin Anderson
***
Update: As far as I can tell, there is no more non-retail packaging option on this product... hopefully they realized what was going on and changed it. But if the option is there again, make sure the item you add to your cart is (retail).
***

I meant to order "retail" packaging the first time, but I rushed and I wasn't careful enough. I got the crappy "hassle-free packaging" one instead. Huge mistake. However, I WAS NOT AWARE THAT AMAZON INTENDS FOR THIS TO HAPPEN THE MAJORITY OF THE TIME BECAUSE THEY ARE ACTUALLY SELLING YOU A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PRODUCT THAT IS MUCH, MUCH CHEAPER FOR THEM TO MAKE. Although, I assume that's part of how Amazon offers low prices.

The amazon page for this item secretly contains 2 items:
SDSDQ-032G-AFFP (Default item. Counterfeit. Poor chances of receiving a card that's not a knock-off/counterfeit/lesser-quality item, OR an item that was previously returned/refurbished/slightly-damaged-but-good-enough-for-hassle-free-packaging.)
SDSDQM-032G-B35 (Retail item. Legitimate. Excellent chances of receiving a new, legitimate SD card.)

Amazon (immorally) tries to get as many people to buy the non-retail one as possible. For example:
#1 Your browser automatically refreshes the web-page to this item whenever you do ANYTHING other than clicking "Add To Cart", after you have selected "Retail". I confirmed this after getting a crappy card.
#2 When you click on *ANY* link to the current SanDisk 32GB class 4, it'll take you to the COUNTERFIET one (SDSDQ-032G-AFFP) no matter if you clicked on the Retail one (SDSDQM-032G-B35) or not!!!
#3 The reviews for the two items are combined.
#4 When you select "Retail", the only picture that changes is one of the SD cards changes to a red retail packaging one. It's extremely subtle on purpose, and I don't even think that's real retail packaging, but whatever.
#5 Search the 1/5 and 2/5 star reviews. Note how they are mostly people who bought the counterfiet one (SDSDQ-032G-AFFP)? And people who bought the retail one (SDSDQM-032G-B35) are more likely to give a good review, with a higher read & write speed??

It's obvious... Do not buy SanDisk cards that have 'Bulk' attached to the name, or 'Frustration-Free', or anything else other than "Retail"!

Also, here's a short guide for repartitioning/reformatting with GParted, if you were unlucky enough to get a lesser-quality card, or are having issues with one (I'm sure there's Windows software too, just Google it):
Short version:
1. Insert your SD card into a microSDHC USB adapter (commonly comes with SD cards, also on Amazon for a few bucks).
2. Plug the adapter into your computer and make sure the SD card is recognized.
3. Download and Run: GParted. (Free, comes with Partition Magic, you may need to boot into it).
4. Select the drive in GParted, and click "create new partition table" in MSDOS (erases drive).
5. Re-partition the drive in whatever filesystem your device requires (look it up, usually FAT32).
6. The size of the partition can be your entire card, except the first 500MB. Make sure that you leave about 500MB of unallocated/free space BEFORE the rest of the partition. You'll end up with a 28.5GB card instead of a 29GB card, but your speeds, stability, and compatibility GREATLY increases. Note: This is also true with many other flash drives and external storage.

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Bose® SoundLink® Bluetooth Mobile Speaker II - Leather

Bose® SoundLink® Bluetooth Mobile Speaker II - Leather..

Grab Now Bose® SoundLink® Bluetooth Mobile Speaker II - Leather By Bose

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665 of 697 people found the following review helpful.
Side by Side Review of Soundlink I vs Soundlink II...Amazing just got even more Amazing
By PositiveLogic
I'm tempted to do a video review of a side-by-side comparison between the SoundLink I and the Soundlink II, but, when all is said and done, it's the sound that matters and there's no way to convey that unless you yourself preview the sound difference live. That said, here's my assessment in comparing the two:

Yes, the sound is quite a bit fuller, yet better balanced with improvement on the mids and highs -- w/ crisper sound on the top end without beginning tinny, hissy or overly blaring. Another reviewer stated the treble was diminished on the SL II, but I'm hearing differently. From the big brassy sounds of 60s era Sinatra to the Edge's (from U2) guitar -- you actually get more of that nice shimmering mid-range and treble. The bass is solid and expansive without being exaggerated. There are times when it sounds and feels like I've got a dedicated floor standing subwoofer, and then I look over and I'm reminded that all that sound comes from something no bigger than a hardcover book. Some reviewers have said that they hear little or no difference between the Soundlinks I and II. So I'll add to points here:

--You will probably hear the difference in sound quality between Soundlink I and II if you play a wide variety different musical genres. I did.

--If you read the hundreds of Soundlink I reviews on Amazon, you will hear one consistent theme, the mid-range and highs on the Soundlink I sound muddy or muffled, especially compared with Big Jambox. While I hear the difference, the Soundlink I still provides me with a pleasant listening experience. If the Soundlink II did not exist, I'd be very happy with the Soundlink I. At the same time, the improvement in sound quality in the Sounndlink II will, I believe, address the concerns of those who did voice this concern.

I like the bi-fold cover, which now allows me to more easily carry the unit around the house while playing it. With the SL I, that the cover would be hanging awkwardly if you wanted to walk across the living room playing your music.

Battery indicator light now provides more information about battery status...going from green to yellow to red.

By the way, here's an important tip to anyone wanting to make an objective comparison between the Soundlink and any other portable speaker. Remember that the Soundlink has passive subwoofers that project backwards. Whether or not you are comparing it to something that does not have this feature, keep the Soundlink away from a wall, otherwise it would get that disproportionately boomy bass so that so many have complained about. I think this one little detail has inadvertently and , perhaps unfairly, negatively skewed a few Soundlink reviews. Personally, there are times when I like it close to wall because the music sounds more live that way...but it's a matter of taste.

All that being side, now that I've lived with the Soundlink for over a week, here are some further impressions:

LIKES
--Big, well balanced sound in small form factor. Like a book, it's easy to carry.
--Bluetooth pairs easily
--Versatility. You can also connect via wire
--New bifold cover allows for easier carrying while playing music
--Minimalist design. I like the fact that there is no software baggage, remove controls, computerized voices to deal with.
--Gives me a break from having to wear my iPod earbuds all the time.

DISLIKES
--Battery life not as long as others in this category
--No volume reading. While it is easy to adjust the volume, you cannot tell where the volume setting is relative to the highest and lowest settings.
--AC Adapter seems to be bigger than it needs to be.
--Distasteful, overly expensive covers.

Overall, the sound is better than some 2.1 systems with dedicated floor subwoofer I've heard. Also, while I admit I have not heard the Big Jambox, it's hard to imagine this would not turn some folks in that camp...particularly with the smaller, more portable SL form factor. When I was in my 20s, back in the component system heyday, I had Sherwood amplifier/receiver, turntable and cassette deck with...two giant speakers with 12 inch woofers. Today, I am carrying that same big sound around the house with from room to room, some times even playing the same music I used play. What a trip. Thanks Bose.

523 of 572 people found the following review helpful.
Incremental upgrade from original SoundLink offers marginal improvement in sound
By M. Erb
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2KY34JS4YCLIZ UPDATE: Jul 28, 2013 - I've just reviewed the BoseSoundlink Mini and it has surprisingly good sound, I actually prefer the sound of the Mini to the SoundLink. The SoundLink however can produce louder sound and has more bass. But you should definitely see if you can listen to the SoundLink Mini before making a decision because it is a pretty amazing sounding speaker for its size. Here is the ink to my review of the SoundLink mini... http://www.amazon.com/review/R2LM0EQRW8AWY6

----

My rating is closer to 3.5 but Amazon only allows whole star values so that's why I've given it 3 stars.

The Bose SoundLink Bluetooth Mobile Speaker II is an incremental and evolutionary, not revolutionary, upgrade from the previous SoundLink speaker. You'll notice a ever so slightly tweaked sound profile that Bose claims extends the bass response while also improving the clarity and definition of the mid and high frequencies.

In my A/B comparison tests between the original SoundLink and SoundLink II, the aural differences were modest. Bottom line here is that if you have an original SoundLink you needn't worry about upgrading since the sound difference is minor. The only other significant difference between the two is the SoundLink II has a different cover which is of a bi-fold design. This results in a smaller footprint at the expense of stability.

If you are sold on the Bose SoundLink and are trying to decide between the two, I'd get the original SoundLink if the price is less than the SoundLink II. You certainly won't be giving up anything significant in the sound department and other than the bi-fold cover, the SoundLink II is practically the same speaker. There has been no improvement in battery life and both utilize the same 1700mAh battery. Cosmetically the two units appear identical with the only visible difference being the new bi-fold cover.

I have previously reviewed the SoundLink speaker and viewed that speaker as a decent sounding speaker with good build quality. The SoundLink II is virtually identical so my previous comments still stand. It is a substantial, solid feeling speaker that exudes quality. That quality comes at a fairly steep price however and with the plethora of bluetooth speakers entering the market, there are many competing speakers that also offer good sound at reasonable price points and with more features.

Operation of the SoundLink II is fairly straightforward. The speaker has the ability to remember pairing with up to 6 different devices. You may also connect a wired device via the AUX input on the back of the speaker.

Pairing is fairly simple although in my attempts to pair with my iPhone 4 and a MacBook Pro notebook computer, the pairing failed in my first two attempts with both devices. I have no explanation for that suffice to say that I eventually did get the unit to pair with both, but it wasn't foolproof in the first two attempts. The SoundLink will always first attempt to reconnect with the most recently paired device and if that device is not available will search for the any other device that it has been previously paired with.

When I received the Bose SoundLink II I knew that it did not include a remote or additional features. It is a bare-bones bluetooth speaker. But many other bluetooth spekars include useful additional features such as a remote, speakerphone capability and USB charging capability. If you plan on using this speaker in a vehicle, having speakerphone capability is a big plus. Some competing products such as the EcoXbt Grace Digital ECOXGEAR ECOXBT Rugged and Waterproof Wireless Bluetooth Speaker (Black) or the Jambox Jawbone BIG JAMBOX Wireless Bluetooth Speaker - Graphite Hex - Retail Packaging, include these useful extra features. I'm not saying either of those other speakers are comparable sounding, I'm just saying that there are lots of bluetooth speakers out there in the marketplace and many offer additional features at less cost.

Battery life is unchanged from the previous SoundLink and provides a maximum of 8 hours using the same 1700mAh battery, but you'll rarely see that kind of life especially if you listen at higher volumes. Typically you can expect more like 4-5 hours of sound at louder listening levels. Bose offers an optional car charger, Bose® SoundDock Portable® and SoundLink® car charger that will allow you to simultaneously charge the SoundLink as you listen to it but as far as I know there is no USB charging option which is a pretty big disappointment for me.

The speaker cover is user replaceable but the bi-fold design may or may not be an improvement depending on your use of the speaker. In the house where it will typically be on a shelf or table, the reduced footprint of the speaker may be a benefit. However for outside use, or in a car or boat, the reduced footprint results in significantly reduced stability and the speaker is prone to tipping over backwards if bumped or as a result of sudden movement or change in attitude.

As this speaker utilizes a passive, rear facing speaker, optimal sound is realized only when the rear firing speaker has a reflective surface such as a wall behind it. Thus if using the speaker outdoors, unless it is against a wall of some sort, bass reproduction will be reduced. And another consideration of this type of speaker is that it is not intended to be put in an enclosed space such as a cubby hold in a desk or something as that will adversely affect the sound.

Overall, the Bose SoundLink II is a well-built, solid speaker. If you like the "Bose sound" you will probably like this speaker. There is great competition in the bluetooth wireless speaker arena however and it is worthwhile checking out other speakers as you may find lesser priced speakers with more features that offer very good sound and certainly more accurate, unbiased sound. Bose still does not offer as many features as other comparably priced bluetooth speakers. For the premium price Bose is charging for this speaker, I expect more.

Ultimately, everyone has differing expectations and opinions of what constitues a "good sounding" speaker. You owe it to yourself to listen for yourself before deciding and ideally being able to do some A/B listening tests. It's not easy to describe the sound of a speaker and everyone has preferences in what sounds good to their ears.

PROS:
-Compact yet full-sounding
-Nice size for travel
-Solid feel and seemingly well-built

CONS
-No USB charging (a feature available in many other bluetooth speakers)
-No remote (a feature available in other bluetooth speakers)
-No Built-in Speakerphone (a feature available in other bluetooth speakers)

238 of 259 people found the following review helpful.
Fantastic rechargeable portable bluetooth audio system
By RST
In my experience with this rechargeable speaker, I think the majority of those interested in a portable self powered Bluetooth speaker will be thoroughly satisfied if not impressed with the SoundLink II.

Expectations

I came into this speaker expecting about the same performance of other speakers this size and shape, and I couldn't have been more wrong in my expectations. From the beginning I knew this unit was different-- it's heavy, relatively speaking, for a speaker it's size in the way that many Bose speakers are. Only once you fire it up will this customary heavy feel make sense. I'd kept my eye close on the Jawbone JAMBOX Wireless Bluetooth Speaker - Black Diamond - Retail Packaging but ended up with this one.

First Impressions

From opening the box, the unit is heavier than expected, but also thinner than expected from the picture (I'll be adding some of my own pictures). Charging took about 2.5 hours, and it is usable while charging. I did open the manual for about 5 seconds for Bluetooth pairing instructions and of course it was simple-- press & hold the Bluetooth button to pair. The device is svelte, stylish, minimalist and sounds great. My parents even thought it sounded better than their less-than-year-old Wave® Music System III - Graphite Gray. It's clear that the design was well thought out-- a durable but thin magnetic speaker cover folds under and back as a stand-- very similar to how the iPad Smart Cover works.
Sound

This speaker's ability to produce mids and lows is jaw-dropping for its tiny size-- in a way that makes you want to feel, touch and flip the thing around to see where the bass is coming from. You don't even feel the normal vibration of bass which makes it even more shocking. I actually had a grin on my face the first time I started testing out the unit because of the shock of how great the sound range is. The volume isn't tremendous but the sound could easily fill a room and host a room of party goers and provide all background music-- you might even want to turn it down a bit.

My thoughts on Bose

I'm not new to Bose-- I have had the Bose Companion 5 Multimedia Speaker System - Graphite/Silverfor my PC, I have had Bose in my vehicles before and now, and use their middle channel speaker on my home theater system. This one, however, outperforms its class more than any of the others. I don't buy Bose because of the name, but because of specific situations where I think the sound or utility is superior.

Operation

Operation is simple-- press power, volume up, volume down and mute, auxiliary if you don't use Bluetooth. There is no LCD or screen, just a few small very useful lights on the front-- bluetooth active, battery status, etc. Simple, understated useful lights.

Where to use

This would be perfect for a beach party if you are the careful type and wouldn't fill it with sand. A picnic, yard party, office desk, or if you travel in sales and want to provide an impressive audio presentation with a visual and don't want to carry wires & a speaker system are all things where this would have great application. Today I used it while visiting my grandma in the retirement community to provide some relaxing background music as she was having a rough day. The uses for this device are endless. this would be a perfect device for a traveling massage therapist! I never thought I'd be so enthusiastic about a Bluetooth speaker. It's that good.

Drawbacks

So far I've only discovered two drawbacks. First, the power adapter is a bit oblong as far as the wall brick is concerned. I found myself unplugging it accidentally a few times just in the first couple hours I was using it. This one small inconvenience is why I rated the speaker 4 stars instead of 5.

Second-- the unit is heavy! Maybe worth it if that weight is what makes the sound so great and battery life good but-- you'll be shocked when you pick up this brick.

Overall conclusions

I'm still exploring battery life but so far every other aspect of the speaker has been great. It is a premium product with a premium price. I don't think you'll be disappointed. If you have any particular questions I'm always happy to answer those in the comments below.

Update: I see a few "unhelpful" votes here, which is pretty uncommon. If you find my thoughts unhelpful, please post a note in the discussion to help me improve and meet your expectations.

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Seagate Backup Plus Slim 1TB Portable External Hard Drive with Mobile Device Backup USB 3.0 (Blue) STDR1000102

Seagate Backup Plus Slim 1TB Portable External Hard Drive with Mobile Device Backup USB 3.0 (Blue) STDR1000102..

Buy Seagate Backup Plus Slim 1TB Portable External Hard Drive with Mobile Device Backup USB 3.0 (Blue) STDR1000102 By Seagate

Most helpful customer reviews

170 of 199 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent very slim, light, fairly fast 500-GB hard drive; the Windows version works on Mac and the Mac version works on Windows
By ƒůŽźŸ ωŬ≥ζŷ ♥☮♭♩♪♫♬♮☯☺♡✈
இ Fuzzy Wuzzy's Summary:
ѾѾѾѾѾ Highly recommended with warm fuzzies!

փ Positives:

փ This hard drive is indeed very slim, with its 9.5mm thickness being comparable to an internal laptop hard drive.
փ The read/write transfer speeds are pretty fast for a 5400-RPM hard drive (but performance will feel slower if you are accustomed to using 7200-RPM drives).
փ By installing a Windows or Mac driver, you can use either the Windows or Mac version of this drive on both Windows and Mac computers, which is great for transferring files in between both platforms.
փ This drive comes in 500-GB, 1-TB, and 2-TB capacities with five different color options for the top metal panel.

ჯ Negatives:

ჯ While the Seagate Dashboard software that is pre-loaded on the hard drive includes very useful and flexible backup software, the other two parts of the software to share files to social media sites and save files from social media sites are limited in their usefulness and flexibility.

With a thickness of 9.5mm for the 500-GB drive, this very portable little drive is only slightly thicker than an iPhone or pencil, and its thickness is comparable to many internal laptop/notebook drives. But while 9.5mm-thick internal laptop drives do not have an external case covering them, this drive is housed inside an attractive anodized aluminum metal case, with a plastic bottom base, that gives it a solidly rigid feel to the drive. The hard drive that is housed inside the case may even be thinner than a 7mm internal hard drive. So this external hard drive is actually thinner than most internal laptop/ultrabook hard drives. And the 500-GB drive weighs only 5 ounces, making this an extremely portable drive to carry around. With a thickness of 12.0mm, the 1-TB and 2-TB versions of this drive are 2.5mm thicker and slightly heavier than the 500-GB version. But a 12.0mm-thick drive casing is still tiny for a 2-TB external drive. There are some 15mm-thick 2-TB internal drives that are thicker than this, and they do not have an external case.

This hard drive comes with an 18-inch USB 3.0 cable. While this cable length is adequate for plugging into a laptop, I wish that the supplied cable was just a little longer in length (24 inches would be ideal) to allow more flexibility when connecting the hard drive to a desktop computer. My desktop computers are connected to USB hubs located on my desk so the cable is not too short for me, but many people will plug this hard drive directly into their desktop computer's USB port.

This drive is whisper quiet and when it is plugged into the USB port, a thin sliver of light glows near one corner of the top of the case to show that it is operational. While this drive is either reading or writing data, the glowing light pulsates, slowly shifting between dim and bright, instead of just blinking like most hard drive status lights. The pulsating hard drive status light looks more unique than the usual blinking light used by other external hard drives, as if the hard drive is breathing in and out while it works. My one minor quibble is that I wish the light would pulsate at a quicker pace. With a blinking hard drive activity LED, I can quickly glance over at the light and see if it is blinking. With this slowly pulsating light, I have to stare at the sliver of light for several seconds to see if the drive is reading/writing. As with all non-SSD hard drives, when I hold this drive in my hand, I can feel its body vibrating due to the spinning platter that is inside, and if I press my ear right up to the case while the drive is reading or writing data, I can just barely hear the read/write head moving around inside. So this hard drive is as quiet as the quietest of internal drives designed for notebooks.

I have seen various reviews erroneously mention that this Seagate Slim drive is either a 7200-RPM drive or a SSD drive, but both of those descriptions are incorrect. While Seagate previously used 7200-RPM drives in their GoFlex Slim drives, this Slim drive uses a 5400-RPM drive. For a 5400-RPM hard drive though, its transfer speeds are pretty good. This hard drive connects through a USB 3.0 cable, and as with all USB 3.0 devices being backwardly compatible with USB 2.0, you will only get the faster USB 3.0 speeds if you connect this drive to a USB 3.0 port. Connecting this drive to a USB 2.0 port will result in slower transfer speeds. When tested using the "HD Tune" hard drive performance benchmarking tool on an older laptop with USB 2.0 ports, I get an average read speed of 28 MB/s and an average write speed of 21 MB/s. Connecting this drive to a newer laptop having USB 3.0 ports, I get an average read speed of 92 MB/s (with maximum peaks of around 112 MB/s) and an average write speed of 86 MB/s. Even though most 7200-RPM notebook-sized hard drives will be faster, these speeds are pretty fast for a 5400-RPM hard drive. If you want the fastest speeds using this Seagate Slim drive, you need to plug it into a USB 3.0 port. This rule applies to any external storage device that uses a USB 3.0 cable. Perhaps Seagate chose to not include a faster 7200-RPM hard drive inside this tiny thin enclosure because of potential heat and reliability issues?

If I read or write hundreds of megabytes of data, the exterior of the drive does get warm over time since there is no internal cooling fan or ventilation holes in this drive's casing, but it usually does not get too hot. On one occasion, however, I was copying many very large HD video files onto this drive, and after twenty minutes of transferring HD videos back and forth where this hard drive was reading and writing non-stop, the drive's enclosure felt very hot when I touched it, so I undocked and unplugged the drive to let it cool down because I was worried about adversely affecting the drive's long-term reliability by continuing to operate it with the temperature inside its enclosure being so hot. The drive enclosure's metal top surface cooled down after about fifteen minutes, and I then plugged the drive back into my laptop and proceeded to edit the HD videos that were now loaded onto the drive. Because this tiny hard drive is housed in such a small totally-sealed enclosure, you should let it cool down sometimes if feels too hot after extended periods of reading/writing data. Avoiding repetitive overheating is a good idea for any external hard drive that lacks a cooling fan or ventilation holes in the hard drive's enclosure since heat can degrade a hard drive's performance and reliability over time. With most electronic components, repeatedly overheating the electronics can cause hardware failures and overheating is the primary cause of hard drive failure. Also avoid bumping, jarring, or dropping this hard drive, especially when it is plugged in.

About 800 MB of this drive's space is used up by the pre-loaded Seagate Dashboard software and brief tutorial videos on using the Seagate Dashboard software to protect and back up your files, save social media files, and conveniently share image and video files that are stored on this drive to Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube. If you are certain that you do not ever want to use this Dashboard software, you can delete the 'Seagate Dashboard Installer.dmg' Mac software file, the 'Seagate Dashboard Installer.exe' Windows software file, and the 'Video' folder to free up hundreds of megabytes of disk space. A 'Seagate' folder that is in the root directory contains a 'SerialNumber.xml' file that has the model number and serial number of the drive. The model number and serial number are also printed on the bottom panel of the drive however. In the Windows version of this drive, the 'Seagate' folder has a 'Seagate-Release.exe' program that you can run to register the drive with Seagate. After you finish registering the drive, you can delete the 'Seagate' folder.

If you want to leave the software and tutorial videos on the drive, you can still delete either the 135-MB 'Seagate Dashboard Installer.dmg' Mac software file or the 156-MB 'Seagate Dashboard Installer.exe' Windows software file if you only exclusively use Mac or Windows computers. In the 'Video' folder, there are eight folders - 'en-US', 'fr-FR', 'it-IT', 'ko-KR', 'ru-RU', 'sv-SE', 'zh-CN', and 'zh-TW' - that each contain the same set of four tutorial videos: 'Introducing Seagate Backup Plus', 'Protecting Your Files With Seagate Dashboard Tutorial', 'Saving Social Media Files With Seagate Dashboard Tutorial', and 'Sharing To Social Media Sites With Seagate Dashboard Tutorial'. These eight sets of videos are identical in the video and audio, and only differ in the subtitle language used: English (no subtitles), French, Italian, Korean, Russian, Swedish, Chinese, and Taiwanese. If you keep the 'en-US' English video that has no subtitles and delete the other seven folders, you free up almost 350 MB of space.

Of the three components in the Seagate Dashboard software, the "Protect" function offers the most usefulness and flexibility, while the "Share" and "Save" functions for sharing/uploading to and saving from social media sites are limited in their capabilities. With the Dashboard's "Protect" function, you can schedule backups of your files based on a regular hourly/daily/weekly/monthly schedule, or have your files backed up whenever they are added or modified, or make backups on an as-needed basis by manually initiating a "snapshot" backup of your files. I am always surprised by how many people never back up the files on their computers, either their work-related files or their personal files, including documents, email and Microsoft Outlook files, photo/music/media files, or other files that are often irreplaceable if their computer's hard drive suddenly fails. If your computer has years of files accumulated on it that you have never backed up to another disk, to a CD/DVD, or to an online cloud-based backup service, this Seagate Slim hard drive can be used as your backup device where you can store a duplicate copy of all your important files. If you have already been using a backup process, as mentioned, you do not have to install the Dashboard software and you can just completely delete all the pre-loaded software from this hard drive if you want.

Important: If you do use the pre-loaded Seagate "Protect" software to back up your files, or if you use other kinds of automated backup software, you should randomly spot-check some of the duplicated backup files and folders every one or two months to verify that the files are correctly being copied and that they can be read correctly. Spot-check the backup files more frequently if they are important and you really value their integrity. Backup software is still a software application and, just like firmware and other software, and also taking into account that a hard drive may start to slowly fail with read/write errors after years of usage, there may be a software or hardware glitch that causes a file to either not be backed up by the backup software, or to be backed up but unreadable. By occasionally spot-checking the integrity of your backup files, you reduce the possibility of having an unpleasant surprise if you really need to recover the files from the backup copy. A data error can happen with any electronic storage media. For example, if you back up files by burning data to a CD/DVD/Blu-ray disc, you should spot-check their integrity by accessing some of their files at least once a year. The same rule applies if your backup files are stored by a cloud-based backup/storage service. There are also integrity-checking software that will automatically verify the integrity of hard disks or optical media. I am an avid photographer, and with terabytes of hard disk space becoming more inexpensive each year, my favorite way to back up files is by manually copying files and folders to two separate hard drives in a "manual RAID 1" setup where I manually back up and mirror the photo and HD-video files between both drives, instead of relying on backup software to perform the function. I previously used a dual-hard-drive RAID 1 storage unit, but I like being able to directly access either drive and I also do not like how RAID 1 simultaneously deletes files from both drives if I ever type or click too fast and have an "oops" accidental file deletion.

The Dashboard software's "Share" function lets you share files that are stored on the hard drive by uploading to either Facebook, Flickr, or YouTube. And the "Save" function lets you save photos from Facebook or Flickr. Unlike the "Share" function, "Save" does not let you save videos from YouTube. But there are many freeware software and online sites that can convert and save YouTube videos already. I really did not care for how either these "Share" or "Save" functions worked because they are quite limited in their flexibility, and it is very easy to perform the same functions directly using the Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube sites without having to go through an intermediate step of using the Dashboard software to upload files. Perhaps Seagate added the "Share" and "Save" options for computer newbies or social media newcomers. But the irony is that even though this Dashboard software "dumbs down" the uploading of files to Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube, the computer newbies who would most benefit from using the "Share" and "Save" options may not even have an account on Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube.

This pocket-sized drive is quite small and light: 4.5"x3.0"x0.4" and 5.3 ounces (including the USB cable) for the 500-GB version, with the 1-TB and 2-TB versions being slightly thicker and heavier. You can use this portable drive to shuttle files back and forth between Windows and Mac computers, dragging and dropping folders and files to transfer them between the computer and this external hard drive. Note that there are two versions of this Seagate Slim external hard drive: a Windows version formatted for NTFS and a Mac version formatted for HFS+. You should get the version for the platform that you work on the most. If you mainly use a Mac and you use Time Machine for your backups, you should definitely get the Mac version of this drive. If you mainly work on Windows and Mac is more of a secondary computer, you should get the Windows version of this drive.

Since Windows NTFS and Mac HFS+ file systems do not automatically play well together, use of this hard drive on both Windows and Mac computers does require the download and installation of a driver. If you get the Windows version of this drive, when you plug the drive into a Mac, it will download from the Internet a necessary Mac driver (NTFS_for_Mac_with_restart.dmg) that lets the Windows-NTFS-formatted drive work with Macs. NTFS drives are normally read-only on Mac OS, and this driver lets Macs both read and write on the NTFS-formatted version of this hard drive. Note that because Mac's Time Machine requires a Mac-HFS-formatted drive, when you use the Windows version of this drive with the Mac driver, this setup cannot work with Time Machine unless you reformat the drive to be a HFS+journaled file system... in which case you might as well just get the Mac version of this drive if you intend to also use it with Time Machine. If you get the Mac version of this drive, when you plug the drive into a Windows PC, it will download a necessary Windows driver (HFS4Win.exe) that lets the Mac-HFS+formatted drive work with Windows. You can also download both the Mac-driver-for-Windows-NTFS and Windows-driver-for-Mac-HFS+ drivers directly from Seagate's Web site. See the 'Comments' section of my review for the URL locations. Seagate should have pre-loaded both of these Windows/Mac drivers on the hard drive just like how they pre-loaded both the Windows and Mac versions of their Dashboard software.

Overall, this is a great little drive that is sized for maximum portability. It includes a 2-year limited warranty. And at the time of this review's writing, Amazon is offering this hard drive at a great price of less than $70 for the 500-GB size. It was not that long ago when a 500-GB portable hard drive costed hundreds of dollars and was at least three times larger in size. I rely both on my own research and the opinions of others to help me make informed buying decisions. I hope that this review helped you to be a wise shopper! :)

107 of 127 people found the following review helpful.
Fast little drive - Dashboard software not perfect
By Roberta V. Russo
Here are the impressions of a non-techy about the Seagate Slim 500 gig external hard drive. This drive is amazingly small - about 3 by 4 inches and 1/4 inch thick. Nice - because it doesn't take up much shelf or desk space and is easy to carry around. I like to take a backup drive with me whenever I travel with my computer and this drive is the perfect size for that. The USB cord that it comes with is approximately 18 inches long (give or take). It also comes packed with a small instruction pamphlet describing how install the backup software called the Seagate Dashboard that comes pre-loaded on the drive. Its a pretty simple and straightforward process so there is not a lot to the instructions. There are also 4 short instruction videos pre-loaded on the drive: "Introducing Seagate Backup Plus Video"; "Protecting Your Files With Seagate Dashboard Tutorial"; "Saving Social Media Files With Seagate Dashboard Tutorial"; and "Sharing To Social Media Sites With Seagate Dashboard Tutorial". If you watch them they give a pretty good overview of the features available with the Dashboard software.

I usually don't load the software that comes with hard drives, but I decided to give the Seagate Dashboard a try. I am using a laptop with Windows 8 operating system. Basically you just plug in the drive, navigate to the installation file and double click it. That brings up the registration screen, the software loads, and then you must re-start the computer to finish the install. It took maybe 5 minutes and installed with no problems.

Once the software is installed you open it by double clicking its desktop icon. From the home screen you get 3 choices: Protect (backup and restore your data); Share (upload your pictures and videos to your Facebook, Flickr and YouTube accounts); and Save (Download pictures and videos from your Facebook and Flickr accounts).

Protect:
You can schedule backups at specific intervals like hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, etc. Or you can select continuous backup which basically creates backups in real time as you add or change files. If you don't want to set a regular schedule you can instead click the "snapshot" button to start a backup whenever you want. By default the backup includes anything that is not a system or program file but you get the option to pick the files you want to include. The first time you run backup takes a little longer because it is backing up all the files, after the first time its faster because its only backing up new or changed files. I have the drive connected to a USB 3 port and the first time I ran backup it took about 20 - 30 minutes to backup roughly 100 gig of data files. I selected "continuous" and keep the drive connected all the time. I haven't really noticed any lag time or slow down using the continuous backup feature.

The drive comes with a free one-year subscription to the Nero "cloud" drive which you can also select as a backup location. You get 4 gig free for 12 months - after that you have to pay for the subscription. You can also buy extra space. You have to create an account and set a password. I did set up the account, but haven't used this feature and don't really plan to in the future.

Share:
You can use the Dashboard to upload pictures and video to social media sites: Facebook, Flickr and YouTube. I don't use Facebook or Flickr (hard to believe in this day and age, I know) but I do use YouTube, so I gave it a try. From Dashboard click the Facebook, Flick, or YouTube icon. The first time you access one of these sites you have to enter your account log-in information and give the software permission to access your account. Here is how it worked for YouTube. Once logged in it brought up a file manager screen where I could browse to and select a video on either my Seagate external hard drive or my computer hard drive. Once the file is selected you choose one of the standard YouTube categories for it. Then the file uploads. After uploading the video using the Seagate Dashboard, I deleted it from YouTube and uploaded it again using the standard upload directly from the YouTube site - just to see the difference.

First of all the video took longer to upload using the Seagate Dashboard than it did directly from the YouTube website. I suppose that might not be the fault of the software - maybe the internet was just running slower when I used the Dashboard, but I did upload them within 1/2 hour of each other. The biggest fault I found using the Seagate Dashboard to upload videos is that you don't get any of the options that you do when you upload directly from the YouTube site. When you upload a video directly from the YouTube site you get a lot of options. You can enter a Title for the video, you can enter a description, and enter tags (e.g. Chicago, dogs) so that the video comes up in searches, you can pick a thumbnail to use for the video, select a privacy setting (public or private) and select a category for the video. When you use the Dashboard, it automatically uses the name of the file as the title of the video (you don't get to choose). The only choice the Seagate Dashboard gives you is to select a category for the video - that's it. It also automatically posts it as a public video. You don't get any other choices or options. Once you have uploaded a video using the Dashboard you can always log on to your YouTube account directly from the YouTube website and edit these choices, but why bother with 2 steps if you can just do all this directly on YouTube in the first place? Given the results of this test, I would not use the Seagate Dashboard to upload videos to YouTube. I can't speak for how Facebook or Flickr uploads work because I don't use Facebook or Flick.

Save:
You can use this to save files from your social media sites (for example, save the pictures you posted on Facebook). The only 2 social media sites you can do this for with the Seagate Dashboard are Facebook and Flickr. YouTube is not an option. I don't use Facebook or Flickr, so I couldn't test this. I am disappointed that saving files posted to my YouTube account was not an option.

Overall I would give the drive 3 stars. What I liked most was the size and speed - its small and very fast. I give the Dashboard software mixed reviews. The backup function seems to work great but the Share and Save options left something to be desired. I would have rated the drive higher if it hadn't been for the software. I just got the drive, so I can't speak for durability, but it seems like well built little drive.

36 of 41 people found the following review helpful.
Contains standard SATA version of Samsung M9T
By Chris Burston
I ordered one of these in the hope that it would contain the long anticipated 2TB 2.5" 9.5mm Samsung M9T hard disk. I'm happy to report that it does and that said drive has a standard SATA interface.

My MacBook Pro is now sitting pretty with 2TB of internal storage. Happy Days!

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