7 Color LED Alarm Clock Review (with calendar, temperature and more)

Presentation of the 7 Color LED Alarm Clock

In this review, we would like to present this 7 color LED alarm clock that we received from Chinabuye (SKU:30081). It is a simple digital clock that has 7 color lights (check the video below) and has some other functions besides clock. The package also includes an user manual, where there are all the instructions to configure and use this device (model HSD110A).

Regarding its quality, it is made of plastic, has a LCD display (vertically) to show its functions and has a base so you can put it, for instance, over a table in your home or office.

Following are the features of this LED alarm clock:

• 7 different colors LED (it is optional turning it on).
• Clock / Time function (12 or 24 hour format selection).
• Alarm Clock function (8 alarm musics).
• Temperature function (Celsius or Fahrenheit selection). (*)
• Calendar function (day, month and day of the week from 2000 to 2099).
• Countdown Timer function (maximum: 180 minutes and 59 seconds - 3:00:59).
• Powered by 3 AAA batteries (not included).
• LED life about 100000 hours (or 11 years).

To switch among these functions, press the "M" button (underside) or push the screen lightly to back (check the images above or the video below). By the way, at the underside you will encounter 4 buttons to configure the functions, a switch (left) that, when ON, will return the display to clock function after 10 seconds of idle (without pressing any key) on any other function and a switch related to the colored back lights. That last one (back light) has 3 states to control:

• OFF: No back light.
• ON: Colored lights all the time (be careful with battery power).
• TR: Colored lights will be on while some operation is being made then will off after 10 seconds of idle.

Now talking about the alarm function, it has a mono speaker at the underside and its sound quality is probably enough if the purpose is just waking you up, unless, of course, if you have a very deep sleep that prevents you from listening the alarm sound.

Since we do not have the knowledge in music, we only recognized two of the eight musics: "Happy Birthday To You" and "William Tell Overture: Finale". However, case you are curious about the alarm musics (do not expect a MP3 quality), and other things, we made the video below showing the main features of this 7 color LED alarm clock.

As showed in the video, the back light colors are very cool, but they are for short time enjoyment, so do not turn it on for long time or else the batteries will run out more quickly.

Where can I buy this 7 Color LED Alarm Clock

This bedside clock (and other locations) is for sale for about $7.8 at Chinabuye (check this link). Good product for gifting someone or to decorate your home/office.

Note 1: According to Chinabuye's description, it can display temperatures between 0º and 50º Celsius with a precision of ±1ºC.

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Tutorial: How to Connect the Xbox 360 Controller to Ubuntu

If you follow this blog, you know that we already wrote a tutorial explaining how to connect the Xbox 360 controller to Windows. This time, we will explain how to connect the Xbox 360 controller to Ubuntu, but it is probably similar to other Linux distributions. By the way, it would be good if you read our Xbox 360 wireless receiver review, where you will know more about the Xbox wireless receiver before reading this tutorial.

Case you still do not have a Xbox 360 wireless receiver, you can buy it on Chinabuye for about $10.

What are the requirements?

Since kernel 2.6.26, official Ubuntu already comes with the xpad module, so the Xbox 360 wireless receiver should work as you plug it on a USB 2.0 port. However, to avoid compatibility problems and to ease the use/configuration, we recommend an alternative driver to connect the Xbox 360 controllers. Also, there are tools on the package "joystick" to test and calibrate the Xbox 360 wireless controllers, however we recommend to you use an alternative solution (explained below) since it is easier to use and has more compatibility with receivers (this one worked fine).

The complete list of requirements that must be satisfied before proceeding on the tutorial are:

• Install some required packages.
• You must have at least one Xbox 360 wireless controller.
• You must have one Xbox 360 wireless receiver.
• Your PC must have one USB 2.0 port ready to be used.

Installing the required packages

To install and configure the required packages to use the Xbox wireless receiver with wireless controllers, follow these steps:

Step 1: Open the terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T).

Step 1.1 (optional): To check if the Xbox wireless receiver is connected to a USB 2.0 port, run the command

       lsusb

It should show, besides other things, something like this:

       "Bus 002 Device 006: ID 045e:0291 Microsoft Corp. Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver for Windows".

Step 2: Run the following command

       sudo apt-get install --install-recommends jstest* joystick xboxdrv

Wait until the installation of the required packages be completed. Now you are able to use the Xbox 360 controller on Ubuntu (Steam games, emulators or native games), however you must connect the Xbox 360 wireless controller to the wireless receiver (check the following section). Case you are experiencing problems (mapping or no-detected button), we recommend that you configure the controller.

How to connect the Xbox 360 controller to Ubuntu

Now that the Xbox 360 wireless receiver is installed and plugged, your next step is connect your wireless controller to the receiver. For that, do the following:

Step 1: Turn on the Xbox 360 controller (press and hold that GUIDE button in the center).

Step 2: Press and hold the button on the receiver (its light will start blinking).

Step 3: Press and hold the connect button on the top of the Xbox 360 controller.

Step 4: Wait until the light on the controller keeps blinking slowly (probably a bug on Linux).

After that, you will be able to use your Xbox 360 wireless controller on Ubuntu (and probably on others Linux distributions).

Just to improve the understanding, watch the video below showing how to connect the Xbox 360 controller to Ubuntu to play a Super Nintendo (ZSNES emulator) game (Alladin).

Configuring the Xbox 360 controller on Ubuntu

The packages installed early have an useful tool to help you configure your Xbox 360 controller, including remap function and a detection screen (it shows what you press). To access it, run the following command on terminal:

       jstest-gtk

It should show a window with four joysticks (see image below) even if you are connecting only one controller.

Image 1: List of Xbox 360 controllers

Just select the first one on the list (configuring for player 1) and then click on "Properties". Now you have a new screen where you can test left stick, right stick, d-pad and the buttons. Also, if you are experiencing inverted buttons problem, or if you just want to remap buttons, there is the option "Mapping".

Image 2: Tool to test and calibrate the Xbox 360 controller

Any question or suggestion, please use the comments section below.

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Tutorial: How to Connect the Xbox 360 Controller to Windows

Before start this tutorial, we would like to emphasize that the following instructions are for those who have a Xbox 360 wireless controller and would like to connect it to PC (should work on 7, Windows XP and Vista) to play your favorite games. It would be good if you read our Xbox 360 wireless receiver review, where you will know more about the Xbox wireless receiver before reading this tutorial.

Case you still do not have a Xbox 360 wireless receiver for Windows, you can buy it on Chinabuye for about $10 (also includes the driver CD for Windows 32/64 bits).

What are the requirements?

The following are the requirements that must be satisfied before proceeding on the tutorial:

• You must have at least one Xbox 360 wireless controller.
• You must have one Xbox 360 wireless receiver for Windows.
• Your PC must have one USB 2.0 port ready to be used.
• You must have the Xbox 360 wireless receiver driver for Windows (as mentioned early, they are included in the driver CD).

Note that we made this tutorial using Windows 7 (you will see Windows 7 images), but it is similar to Windows XP or Vista. Any doubt, use the comments.

Plugging the Xbox 360 wireless receiver for the first time

When plugging the Xbox 360 wireless receiver in a USB 2.0 port of your PC for the first time, Windows will try to install automatically the required driver for the device. It will probably fails on finding locally or on the Internet (see image 1), so you will have to point the Xbox wireless receiver driver manually.

Image 1: Windows fails on finding a Xbox wireless receiver driver

To install manually the receiver driver, follow these steps:

Step 1: After Windows fails in finding the proper driver, right click "Computer" and click on "Properties".

Step 2: Click on the option "Device Manager" (top-left).
For Windows XP, click on the "Hardware" tab and then click on the button "Device Manager".

Step 3: Under "Device Manager", and presuming that others devices on your PC are installed correctly, you will see on the list that only one item is not recognized (see image below). Right click on that item and then click on "Update Driver Software...".

Image 2: Right click on the unrecognized item

Step 4: Windows will ask how to search for the driver. Click on "Browse my computer for driver software" so you can point where are the drivers (see image below).

Image 3: Windows asks how to search the receiver driver

Step 5: Now, click on the button "Browse" and choose the folder "USB Driver" located in the root of the driver CD (see image below). Then, click "Next". Windows will try to find proper drivers for your system (Windows version and 32/64 bits).

Image 4: Where are the drivers?

Step 6: After finding a driver, Windows will recheck if you really want to install that driver. It does that for security reason that we are not cover in this tutorial, but these are the drivers, so click on "Install this driver software anyway" to proceed (see image below).

Image 5: Confirm you want to install this driver

Step 7: After that, Windows will successfully install the Xbox 360 wireless receiver driver, so you are ready to play (see image below).

Image 6: Xbox wireless receiver driver installed

How to connect the Xbox 360 wireless controller to PC (Windows)

Now that the Xbox 360 wireless receiver for Windows is installed and plugged, your next step is connect your wireless controller to the receiver. For that, do the following:

Step 1: Turn on the Xbox 360 controller (press and hold that GUIDE button in the center).

Step 2: Press and hold the button on the receiver (its light will start blinking).

Step 3: Press and hold the connect button on the top of the Xbox 360 controller.

Step 4: Wait until the lights (controller and receiver) stay on - that means both are connected.

If you want to use more than one wireless controller, just repeat steps 2, 3 and 4 for each wireless controller.

To confirm if the wireless controller(s) is working properly, there is the "Game Controllers" option. You can access it by typing "joystick" on the start menu (Windows will find some options) and then clicking on the "Set up USB game controllers". There, you will be able to see if the left stick, right stick, d-pad and buttons are working properly and also how many wireless controllers were recognized (see image 7).

Image 7: Test your joysticks here

Just to improve the understanding, watch the video below showing how to connect the Xbox 360 controller to Windows 7 to play a Steam game (Renegade Ops).

Any question or suggestion, please use the comments section below.

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Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver Review

Presentation of the Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver

In this review we would like to present to you a Xbox 360 wireless receiver that we received from Chinabuye (SKU:23243). With this device, you can connect a Xbox 360 wireless controller on PC (Windows and Linux) and also on Android devices (smartphones and tablet). Note that this Xbox 360 gaming receiver is only required if you want to use a Xbox 360 wireless controller (not the wired controller).

The product package comes with the following items:

• Xbox 360 wireless gaming receiver (160cm of USB cable).
• Driver CD (drivers for Windows 32/64 bits, PDF with installation instructions and the "Microsoft Xbox 360 Accessories" software).

To use the Xbox 360 wireless receiver, the following tasks must be done:

• Step 1: Plug the PC wireless gaming receiver in a USB 2.0 port. (*)
• Step 2: Turn on the Xbox 360 controller (press and hold that GUIDE button in the center).
• Step 3: Press and hold the button on the receiver (its light will start blinking).
• Step 4: Press and hold the connect button on the top of the Xbox 360 controller.
• Step 5: Wait until the lights (controller and receiver) stay on - that means both are connected. (**)

How to connect a Xbox 360 Wireless Controller to Windows or Ubuntu

If it is the first time plugging it, it probably will be necessary to install the Xbox 360 wireless receiver driver. For Windows users, there is the CD included in the package with drivers for Windows 32 or 64 bits (XP, Vista or Seven). For new Ubuntu users (***), the receiver probably will work as soon as you connect it, but know that there are tools to ease the task.

Case you need installation instructions, check the proper tutorial link just below:

• How to connect a Xbox 360 controller to Windows (with video).
• How to connect a Xbox 360 controller to Ubuntu (with video).

Testing the Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver

As usual, we prepared some tests to see the capabilities of the product. For this Xbox 360 wireless receiver, we tested if a gamer is able to use it in different OS's (Windows and Ubuntu), how far is the wireless range, which type of application it is compatible and if it is possible to use more than one Xbox 360 controller on the receiver.

Testing the connectivity in different OS's (Windows and Ubuntu)

We tested it and confirmed working on the following OS's:

• Windows XP SP3 - 32 bits.
• Windows 7 - 64 bits.
• Ubuntu 12.10 - 32 bits.

Testing the wireless range of the Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver

For this test, we just connected one Xbox 360 controller to the PC wireless gaming receiver and move the controller away to see how far it works. It was able to keep working in a distance about 7.5 meters (batteries fully charged and with walls obstacles).

You probably will not use the Xbox 360 controller far away from the PC wireless gaming receiver, but we made this test and put it on this review just in case someone needs that info.

Testing the Xbox Gaming Receiver in different applications

Probably a gamer want to use this gaming receiver to play Steam games or emulators games on PC. So, we tested it in these two situations. Both worked fine (plug and play) without the need of extra configuration (emulators need mapping). However, case you encounter some game/emulator with Xbox 360 controller compatibility issue, know that there are softwares like Xpadder and MotionInJoy to try to fix some problems.

Testing if more than one Xbox 360 Controller can be used simultaneously

This one is for those who like to play games with friends. We managed to test 3 (three) Xbox 360 controllers with this Xbox 360 gaming receiver and all of them worked fine (simultaneously) on GoldenEye 007 (Mupen64 - Nintendo 64 emulator) and Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (Kawaks - arcade emulator).

Unfortunately, we were unable to test if this PC wireless gaming receiver works with the Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel and Xbox Wireless headset (we do not own them).

Where can I buy this Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver?

This Xbox gaming receiver is on sale for about $10 at Chinabuye, more specifically in this link.

Note 1: Pay attention if you are not plugging it in a USB 1.1 port (generally those front panel USB ports on older PC's).

Note 2: Under Linux, only the receiver light will stay on. The controller light will keep blinking, but you will be able to use the Xbox 360 controller anyway.

Note 3: Distros with kernel +2.6.26 (or newer) probably already come with the new xpad module.

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Credit Card USB Flash Drive 8GB Review (7 different notes)

In this review we would like to talk about a credit card USB flash drive that we received from Chinabuye (SKU:13097). As you probably noticed, this 8GB flash drive has a credit card style, which means dimensions very similar to a real credit card (see comparison in the images above), so you can put it in your wallet without worrying about the thickness. Also, it has a bank note drawed on it (7 types detailed just below). In other words, it is one of those cool USB flash drives to carry.

On the product's page, before adding it to cart, you can choose one of the 7 different notes:

• 100 dollar note (USD) - the one that we received
• 100 euro note (100EURO)
• 500 euro note (500EURO)
• 100 Chinese renminbi (RMB)
• 500 Indian rupee (INR)
• 500 Hong Kong dollar (HKD)
• 1000 Uruguayan pesos (UYU)

Check the video below to understand the credit card USB flash drive concept.

Build Quality

It is made of plastic and its rigidity is similar to a conventional credit card, so the care should be the same. The drawings on the notes are very similar to real notes, but you may find some little differences (insignificant).

Since it has a rotative mechanism (see video above), it will be easier to fit it in tight spaces closes to the USB port of your computer, including the back where there is a lot of cables.

Speed test of the Credit Card USB Flash Drive 8GB

For this USB flash drive (8GB version), we made a speed test using the software USBDeview (write speed and read speed). The results are:

• Write Speed: 4.55 MB/sec
• Read Speed: 14.54 MB/sec

Where can I buy this Credit Card USB Flash Drive

We just reviewed the 8GB model, however Chinabuye also sells models of different capacity (4GB, 16GB and 32GB) with the same dimensions and notes (100 dollar, 100 euro, 500 euro, 500 Indian rupee, 1000 Uruguayan pesos, 100 Chinese Renminbi and 500 Hong Kong dollar). So, choose the credit card USB flash drive more appropriated to your needs.

• Credit Card USB Flash Drive 4GB (~$7.51)
• Credit Card USB Flash Drive 8GB (~$9.91)
• Credit Card USB Flash Drive 16GB (~$13.36)
• Credit Card USB Flash Drive 32GB (~$22.21)

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