The Top 10 Benefits and Drawbacks to Driving a Prius

The Toyota Prius is one of the geekiest cars you can buy. What geek doesn't love the quiet hum of an electric engine or the screens full of mileage graphs and charts? There's just something inherently cool about a car that seamlessly switches back and forth between gas and electricity. The following is a list of just why a geek might consider Toyota's flagship hybrid.

The Top 5 Benefits

5. The Fuel Economy

Duh. The Prius is literally the best (non-electric) car out there for fuel economy.  You might not ever have the pleasure of driving the fastest, biggest or most luxurious car, but there's something kind of thrilling about knowing you got the BEST car for fuel economy out there. Sure, there are lots of cars that come close on the highway, but no diesel/subcompact/geo-metro can compare to the pure bliss of getting 50+MPG while crawling along in bumper-to-bumper gridlock on your commute home from work each day.


4. The Technology

We're not talking about Nav systems and stereos here, but rather the very impressive Hybrid Synergy Drive. For those of us out there who don't normally care much about cars, the Prius is our version of "fun to drive". It's neat seeing the arrows fly around on the display as energy goes in and out of the motors and battery. Watching as your car generates more and more electricity going down hills never gets old. And I don't know anyone who doesn't think it's at least kind of cool to silently stealth through parking lots and side streets on the electric engine alone. There is no shortage of graphs, charts and weird buttons to keep your inner geek happy as you drive.


3. The Community

The Prius is definitely a hate it or love it kind of car, but those who love it REALLY love it. There are tons of groups both on and offline who are seriously into getting the best out of this unique vehicle. The largest online resource is Priuschat. You can be assured that this community will be ready and willing to help and provide advice with anything from modding your Prius to researching the best way to eek out those extra few MPG. The people who love this car want to make sure you love it too, and will do everything they can to answer your questions.


2. The Little Perks

There's a lot of little stuff here and there that makes driving the Prius awesome. Some states and provinces still offer tax incentives. Others give discounted tolls or access to HOV lanes for single occupant drivers. There's also nothing better than driving around a crammed IKEA parking lot to nonchalantly take the Hybrid space right by the door (assuming a Hummer hasn't already taken it). Even if you don't like the Prius or Hybrids, there's no doubt that you are rewarded for driving one.


1. Long Life and Easy Maintenance

In the first few years, there were concerns that the battery in the Prius would die an early death or that maintenance would be horribly expensive because of the hybrid components. These concerns have been almost completely nullified over time and the Prius has been shown to be one of the most reliable vehicles on the road (a la consumer reports).  In many cases the Prius requires less maintenance because of things like regenerative breaking (fewer brake pads to replace) and all-electric accessories (no belts to change). Many Priuses last for hundreds of thousands of miles with very little more than routine oil changes. Even with great fuel economy, you still wouldn't see the mass of Prius taxis out there unless the car had excellent reliability.



The Top 5 Drawbacks - It's not all sunshine and roses deciding to hop aboard the Prius bandwagon.


5. Your Car Now Makes a Statement

The Prius is synonymous with hybrid which is synonymous with the environmental movement. There are definitely some Prius owners who deluded into believing they helping mother nature by putting another car on the road, but for the rest of us we just really like the cool car and/or gas mileage. Prepare to be constantly reminded that a Hummer is better for environment than a Prius or that batteries are a ticking time bomb just waiting to unleash an environmental fury in your next fender-bender. For many people, it seems like driving a Prius is like having a big "I'm Environmental and Better Than You!" sticker plastered all over the back of your windshield.


4. The Prius (And Other Hybrids) Still Have A High Capital Cost

There is endless debate on this all over the internet, but let's be honest, a new Prius is not the cheapest option for saving money/using less gas. As mainstream as the Prius is, it's still more expensive than other similar mid-size cars and you'll need to do a fair amount of driving to recoup that cost. If you specifically need a mid-size car and utilize all the space, then it's a great option. But, how many really people do? A smaller econo-box is often going to be cheaper (albeit less cool) in the long run for the Monday-Friday single-occupant commuter. Until the Prius gets in even more hands and economies of scale ramp up, you're going to be stuck paying a premium.


3. It's Freakishly Noisy Inside

You could make a lot of subjective comments about how you hate the look, or the displays or any other unique features of the Prius, but one thing new riders in a Prius always notice is just how noisy the thing is at highway speeds. It's like driving into a wind-tunnel. The problem probably manifests itself because of a few reasons: the low-rolling resistance tires, the lack of heavy sound-deadening material, the stark contrast between the silent city-operation... It's especially puzzling because of the very aerodynamic shape of the car itself. Whatever the cause, the noise makes it hard to recommend the Prius for someone who spends most of their driving miles on the highway.


2. You Have to Change Your Driving Style

You can most definitely get in a Prius and "just drive it", but eventually all those fun gauges and charts will serve to remind you just how much gas you're wasting by driving normally and it will eventually push you to try hypermiling. To get close to (and eventually beyond) the fabled 50 MPG it almost becomes like a video game. You need to know exactly when to fire up the engine, when to pulse, when to glide, how slowly to break, what your engine temperature is, how to warp-stealth... The list goes on. For some people, hypermiling is fun and they're good at juggling everything. For others it becomes frustrating and even dangerous as they focus on getting everything perfect while forgetting to actually drive.


1. There's a Really Big Magnet in the Back Bumper...

... which seems to attract large SUV's and Trucks dangerously close! No matter how you drive, people will tailgate you - a lot. It's not an exaggeration. Those who hypermile and drive dangerously slow probably help to fuel the problem, but even those who drive no differently than anyone else will notice just how often others will protest your choice of conveyance by driving a foot behind you. It is all the more unnerving with the hatchback being so close to the bumper because you'll only see a monster grill filling up your rear window. If you are at all a nervous driver, but you still want a hybrid, you might want to go for something a little less hybrid-looking like a Civic or Camry Hybrid.

A Review of the Top 10 Features and Drawbacks of Telus Optik TV

2011 Update: A lot of changes have come to Optik TV over the last year including the use of an Xbox 360 as a receiver, Remote Recording and better service for Fiber to the Home customers. See below.

With the recent re-branding of Telus' fiber optic internet and TV services to "Optik", many people are considering making the switch away from cable or satellite to Telus TV. Their service has been around the last few years, but it has only recently been widely available. Using a Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) delivery service, Telus is able to directly stream television over your existing internet connection. While an emerging technology, this system works well and is surprisingly sophisticated. For the right household, it can be a great way to watch TV.

This article aims to explore both the advantages and disadvantages of switching to Telus TV. Overall, the system is great in certain circumstances, but may not be the best solution for everyone. Couples and gadget lovers will love the sleek user interface and the flexibility of the system when combined with one or two TVs. Larger families will most likely end up fighting over the limited number of simultaneous live TV streams and recording space available. In any case, the IPTV market is rapidly changing, and it's recommended to try the system for a month before signing up for any of Telus' heavily pushed 3-year contracts.

Top 5 Awesome Features of Telus TV

5. Picture Quality

The picture quality of HD channels on Telus certainly stands up to the quality of anything that Shaw/Express Vu could offer. Channels are clear, vivid and life-like. What is truly awesome is the standard definition (SD) channel quality. These channels seem to greatly benefit from their all digital delivery and they look so much better than your standard cable fare. You wont mistake SD channels for their HD counterparts, but you will notice a huge jump in quality when coming from other TV providers.

Update: Like other carriers, Telus has also begun broadcasting 3D content both on their included free channel and as Video on Demand rentals (currently costing $9). The (rather limited) 3D content available so far is also of excellent quality.

4. The Internet Speed Boost

Subscribers to Telus TV are given a minimum 19 Mbps profile in order to accommodate the bandwidth needed for TV delivery. Most people are reporting real-life speeds of around 15 Mbps (meaning download speeds of almost 2 Megabytes a second). For many subscribers, this will vastly increase their connection speed (although see the caveat in the drawbacks section below). In addition, it seems Telus no longer monitors/enforces bandwidth caps for TV subscribers. Best of all is that this comes for free with no additional charges!

3. The Savings

This is probably the biggest reason people would even consider Telus TV - the price. Switching to Telus can save a great deal of money over the long run. Basic TV starts at just over $20 a month and includes approx. 10 HD channels. More advanced packages are generally less expensive than Shaw's comparable offerings. If you're willing to sign up for a 3 year contract, you get the additional savings of a free PVR rental. As a nice feature, Telus' plans are straightforward and clearly laid out on their website.

Update: Telus has raised prices on many of it's services. Add on packs which used to be $5 are now $7. There are also many reports of Shaw throwing out aggressive promotions to "winback" their customers who have migrated to Optik TV. Telus still may be the cheapest option, but as always, check prices carefully before signing any contracts.

Update: Telus has also been aggressively expanding asian channel offerings over the last year and now boasts one of the largest selections of these kinds of foreign stations.

2. The Set-Top Box Software

Telus is now currently using Microsoft Mediaroom for delivery of their TV services. If you've ever used Media Center on your windows computer, you'll be instantly familiar with the user interface. The system is sleek, intuitive and easily customizable. You can easily hide channels you're not subscribed to and choose exactly what you want on your guide. You get little touches like picture-in-picture previews of selected channels, transparent underlays of your current channel in any menu screen and even on-screen caller ID. In addition, this is one of the fastest user interfaces out there with zero lag in any menu screen. Simply put, this is probably the best set-top software currently available.

Update: Telus has upgraded the software over the last year, and now allows one to schedule and manage their recordings from any web connected computer or iOS/Android device. It doesn't allow streaming, but again is a great add-on to the already fantastic Mediaroom platform.

Update: Telus also recently started allowing the use of an Xbox 360 as an HD box. Unfortunately, they do not allow one to have the Xbox as a sole box (it MUST be added to a house with an existing Telus-branded box already present) and they charge a $5/month fee to use the Xbox.

1. Instant Channel Change

At first it might not seem important, but the ability to change channels instantly is actually what most people who see Telus TV notice first. You can truly channel surf again by flicking the up or down button to quickly see what is on each channel. Gone are the days of waiting for digital channels to slowly pixelate in. Even HD channels come into view the instant you select them. This also allows for quick picture-in-picture previews of a channel while surfing the on screen guide. The speed of the channel changes combined with the overall speed of the software make for an extremely enjoyable experience.


The Top 5 Drawbacks of Telus TV

5. Installation Issues

Telus TV is not the cable company, it is not a simple 10 minute service call or a flick of the switch to turn on your TV. Installation takes hours (our recent move required a 6 hour long service call to activate the service). Most people have a cable jack by their TV but few probably have a phone line or ethernet port. Because the Telus box does not have WIFI, the technician will most likely spend a lot of their time running cables around your house to physically connect your set-top boxes and the modem. This also can create headaches because anytime you move or want to add an additional box, it requires a technician to come out. It's not a dealbreaker, but prepare to take a half-day off in order to have the service installed.

Update: With the recent Boxing Day deals, many people have picked up an Xbox 360 hoping to use it as a second receiver. Before doing this, be aware that Telus charges $100 to send a technician out to hook up the box for existing customers (it's free for new customers). They also charge $5/month to use the Xbox as a receiver. Some customers have reported success in negotiating with customer service for a reduced rate.

4. Customer Service

Now to preface, Telus customer service is getting MUCH better than it has been, but it still has a way to go. Telus seems to not be outsourcing TV agents overseas at the moment, which is a bonus. Unfortunately, however, these agents are friendly but they are generally not well-informed about the intricate specifics of Telus TV (a web search of online user forums often yields better results). Unlike Shaw, one cannot change packages or service their account online or through chat. Customers are forced to call in and wait on (sometimes very long) holds for any kind of change. Combine this with limited operating hours (7:30am to 8pm) and you have a formula for frustration.

3. Instability Issues

Again, it has gotten much better, but generally speaking Telus TV can be subject to some unique issues. Anytime a net connection is lost, so is your TV. Between your TV and the wall is a set-top box, router AND a switch - the combination of which can make troubleshooting difficult. Sometimes the TV picture will freeze or pixelate, although changing the channel away and back often fixes the issue. Unfortunately, a reboot of the box takes about 5 minutes before TV returns which means a poorly timed hiccup at the end of a show could really ruin your day. It's not to say other TV platforms don't have issues, but it's important to be aware of the unique flaws inherent to IPTV.

Update: An especially annoying HDMI connection issue seems to be popping up for many users. When using an HDMI connection, many people have reported skipping, freezing, inputs randomly changing or even blackouts. This has forced many users to have to switch to Component connections (which does not allow 3D programming to be viewed).

2. Bandwidth Issues

As mentioned previously, Telus does increase users bandwidth, but it becomes an issue with TV sharing the same line. If one is watching 2 or 3 programs at once, that 15 Mbps connection speed quickly slows down to 3 or 4 Mbps. While this is still a fair speed, it can be annoying to have to shut off your TV in order to allow that one last torrent to quickly finish. The good news is that Telus prioritizes packets, so heavy web-usage doesn't impact any TV's that are on. Unfortunately this issue combined with the issue of limited incoming streams (see below) makes it hard to recommend Telus TV to a large household.

Update: If one is lucky enough to live in newer residence or upgraded area where Telus has a true fibre connection directly to the premises ("Fibre to the Home"), bandwidth becomes a non-issue. Any number of TVs can be on with no impact to the internet connection. This also increases the number of TV streams available (see below)

1. Limited TV Streams And Recording

Due to bandwidth issues, a total maximum of 2 HD channels and 1 SD channel (for a grand total of 3) can be watched at one time. While this is great if you only have 1 TV (the PVR has the ability to record all 3 shows at once), it quickly becomes a challenge within multiple TV households. One recording-hungry user can literally lock out all live TV within the house. If you have more than 3 TV's, it also means you will never have the ability to watch live TV on all of them at the same time. Recorded TV can be streamed from the one PVR to any TV in the house if no live streams are available, however Telus only allows 1 PVR box for the entire house so hard drive space could quickly fill up. Telus is currently using a 320 GB hard-drive in their boxes, and while they have a USB connection, there is no ability to add an external hard-drive to increase storage room.

Update: Again, if you are lucky enough to have a Fibre to the Home connection, Telus now allows up to 4 streams with 3 HD and 1 SD channel going at any given time.

Top 5 Disappointments With The 3G iPhone

The iPhone is an amazing device. It has blown existing smartphones out of the water with its innovation and ease of use. What's probably most surprising is that in the year since the iPhone launched, no competitor has really been able to emulate this amazing new platform. The new iPhone 3G and 2.0 software update have generally made a great device even better. Updates like 3G, the appstore and GPS were sorely missed features. The iPhone, however, still isn't perfect. Below is a list of the top five disappointments that people have noticed when upgrading to the new phone. By no means is the iPhone bad device, but as this list proves, the folks at Apple still have a little ways to go:


5. The App Store

The app store is an excellent addition to the iPhone/touch, but it still doesn't match the flexibility that developers are allowed on other platforms. A centralized store run by Apple means that many potential applications (ie. emulators and any application that doesn't terminate when the home button is pressed) may never be allowed on the phone. With Apple's approval needed for all applications, one would expect only quality applications, yet with over two dozen tip calculators in less than a month, we know the name of the game is quantity over quality. To be fair, the app store is new and a lot of promising apps are on the way, but it seems that the need to jailbreak (and void your warranty in the process) hasn't been completely eliminated.


4. 3G Makes Browsing Faster, But Not Lighting Fast

Unfortunately, the inherit limitations of 3G service and the iPhone itself mean that even with the latest iPhone, you wont be browsing as anywhere nearly as fast as you can on your home computer. HSDPA, the 3G technology of the iPhone, has broadband comparable speeds but also suffers from extremely high latency. This means that while large data files will download fast, it takes a long time for the network to recognize requests and dish out the data to your phone. The iPhone (and all mobile devices) are also no where near as powerful as your home computer, so even when connected to wifi, websites load much slower as the phone processes the information. Many tests out there show the 3G iPhone is faster than the 1st gen iPhone, but even websites like ESPN.com still take almost a full minute to load completely. If you were expecting the browsing speeds depicted in the Apple television ads, you'll be disappointed.


3. Apple's Bandwidth Restrictions

Apple seems to be restricting a number of services to conserve the amount of cellular data the phone uses. Even with 3G, you cannot use the music store application unless connected to wifi. The app store only allows downloading applications under 10 megabytes over the 3G network. Those excited to stream high quality youtube videos over the network will be disappointed to see Apple is still downgrading the quality when not connected to wifi. All these restrictions clearly point to the fact that AT&T and other carriers are attempting to limit the amount of bandwidth they have to provide. What this means for you is your phone is intentionally crippled.


2. Buggy 2.0 Software

The first thing many people noticed when using the 1st gen iPhone was how quickly and smoothly one could navigate the phone. There was no lag, and all features worked exactly as one would expect. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be the case with the 2.0 firmware update. The phone is still certainly usable, but lag is ever present and several new bugs have popped up. Contacts lists are sometimes painfully slow to load. Keyboard presses are often ignored. continuously crash out to the homepage. Hopefully these issues will be fixed quickly in a future update, but until that happens, users will be dealing with a glitchy expereince.


1. The Battery Life

There isn't really any way around it, the iPhone 3G has horrible battery life. Even people using the iPhone moderately are reporting difficultly getting through the day without completely draining the battery. All 3G phones are quite power hungry, but every other phone also has a user replaceable battery. It's true that most users wouldn't carry a spare battery on them, but the lack of user replaceable batteries means that there's no option to install a higher capacity non-OEM battery. A quick and easy way to boost the battery performance of the phone is to turn off 3G services, but that makes one wonder why even upgrade in the first place?

5 Cool Websites Still In Beta

It must be very daunting launching a new web-service post dot com bubble burst. Financial considerations aside, it often feels like everything worthwhile has already been done. The sites on the following list prove that assumption wrong, as each offers something new and fun to play around with (for free!). Now, keep in mind that these websites, while fully functional, are still in development. It's not uncommon to encounter glitches and just because they're free now doesn't mean they will always be. So what are you waiting for? Go check out the top 5 cool beta websites:


5. Finetune

Finetune is a very cool site that allows you to choose from 2+ million songs to create custom playlists. You can play these playlists from any computer with internet access. There's nothing to download (the webplayer is Flash-based), the songs are CD-quality, and it's free! The only downside is you can't choose the order in which the songs in your playlist appear, but you can skip curently playing songs and make as many playlists as you want. Finetune calls it the evolution of the mixed tape, but I like to think of it as an internet iPod stuck on shuffle. The best advice is to use the main website to setup your playlists, then play them using the Wii-version for an ultra sleek and simple ad-free interface.
Website: www.finetune.com
Wii Version: www.finetune.com/wii


4. Cha Cha

Cha Cha allows you to submit any question, and have a real person go out on the web and find the answer. You can submit a question via their website, SMS or even a their toll free number (1-800-2chacha). The answer is then sent as a text message back to your mobile phone. The service is free, and anyone can also join the team and be paid to answer other people's submitted questions. This obviously means there is a wide variety in the quality of answers, but if you've ever tried to use Google on your cell phone when out and about, you know the potential convenience of being able to call someone else and have them do the search.
Website: www.chacha.com


3. Ask 500 People

Ever wanted to know if people could pick a superpower what they would choose? Or what people's favorite kind of cheese is? These silly questions (and some serious ones) can be answered by ask 500 people. Just like it sounds, anyone can post a question, where it will be queued up and asked to 500 people on the website and "hundreds websites across the internet". Now, the results aren't exactly scientific, and because the service is in beta it's more like you'll ask 200 people. Nevertheless, this is a very cool (and once again free) service that can be a fun way ask questions and get your opinions out there.
Website: www.ask500people.com


2. Amazon Mechanical Turk

A pioneer of "crowdsourcing", Amazon Mechanical Turk takes those tasks which computers aren't really good at yet (ie. telling if two products are duplicates, or writing short product reviews) and connects them to internet users who are willing to complete them for money. Now, most tasks (called HITs for Human Intelligence Task) only pay a few pennies each, but most also don't take more than a minute to complete. Volume processing is the key to making any significant money while "turking". Some people have made hundreds of dollars, while others just find it too boring. Nevertheless, if you can find tasks you like, Mechanical Turk is one of the few legit ways to reliably make money on the internet.
Website: www.mturk.com


1. Tagcow

If you've downloaded all your pictures off your digital camera, you probably have a lot of filenames with titles like "dcm_10010" or other equally as descriptive titles. The solution is to upload photos to tagcow (or interface with its flicker widget), where the photos are magically processed and tags are added like "man", "child eating spaghetti", "disneyland", or whatever else appears in the photo. It isn't really magic, as the work is done by paid users on Amazon Mechanical Turk (see #4). The service is free to you though, and there's no limit to how many photos can be uploaded. Just keep in mind, anyone can sign up for Mechanical Turk, so make sure you're okay with strangers seeing your pictures. We wouldn't want that embarrassing photo of you at last years Christmas party slipping out now would we?
Website: www.tagcow.com