Sony has opened a brand new Sony Store in the Century City mall. According to workers there, this is the first Sony Store (as opposed to SonyStyle store) and the other stores will eventually all be converted.

Sony sells HDTV

I’m not really sure what the difference is between the stores but it’s interesting that this store is just a few stores away from the Apple Store. It’s obvious that Sony has styled the store after the Apple store in terms of looks and the way the employees try to interact with you.

Digital cameras, laptops, headphones and more

According to an employee there, all the new Sony products will be available first at this store in Century City before they are available at Best Buy or any other retail store. The employee seemed very knowledgeable about the Sony products and showed me the 2 laptops with keyboards with backlighting, and was even able to show the backlighting by covering the ambient light sensor.

Since I like this mall, I will be returning here a lot.

It’s about that time again when I have to start looking for a new car. Last time back in 2004, I was looking at the Prius but because it was so new, there was a long waiting list to get one. Now, the current generation Prius is readily available, but there are new ones ready to come out in the near future.

The word is that a new low end “C” model will be coming out in 2012. This model will be smaller and lower cost than the current model. The concept looks more sporty than the current generation and will compete with the Honda CR-Z.

Prius C Concept

I’m not sure if I should wait for this model, not knowing for sure if it will even come out in 2012. Waiting for new car models is a lot like waiting to buy the latest smart phone or other high tech gadget, because a new one will be announced as soon as you buy it.

Sprint has teamed up with Google to offer Sprint users the ability to switch over their Sprint number over to Google Voice. Or, if you want to keep your Google Voice number, you can replace your Sprint number with your Google Voice number.

This offer is being slowly rolled out to some users, since it’s apparently still in the preview slash beta phase.

Sprint + Google Voice

The only small catch is this is in beta and Sprint will not be taking any support calls regarding this switching of numbers. And as you probably know, getting Google on the phone is basically impossible. So the bottom line is, you will be on your own with this one.

Although I already have Google Voice, I’m not sure if I’m going to use this feature because I really don’t use my Google Voice very much. The only time I use it is when I want to “hide” my real Sprint number. If I use this new feature, I won’t have both numbers anymore.

So for now, I’m just going to wait and see.

Perhaps I’m the last person on the Internet to realize that Napster was bought by Best Buy back in 2008. I thought they went out of business back then but apparently, it’s been slowly building their new business. Gone are the days of bootleg music and it’s now a way to stream music and buy them legally.

When I found out that Best Buy has a free Napster sign-up for their good customers so I decided to try it out.

Free from Best Buy

Basically, it’s a slick looking website where you can search for songs and stream it, or buy and download them. Since there are so many of these types of websites, including iTunes, there was nothing here that looked very interesting.

When you play a song, a small browser window will open to keep the song playing while you continue to browse Napster for other songs. If you close this window, your music playback will stop.

Napster Home Page

They also offer a mobile version on the iPhone and Android marketplace (oh, and RIM). However, without actually signing up for the service (read pay real money), you don’t get all the features. In fact, you can only listen to 30 seconds of the songs. So the “free” version is really just good for browsing the app to see what features are available but not for real use.

Napster Mobile

All in all, there’s nothing here that other services don’t give you for free. Take a look at Grooveshark for free streaming music. They don’t have everything but hey, it’s free.

Back to Zencu once again, but this time, it’s all vegetarian. First up, a small cucumber salad with delicious ponzu sauce.

Cucumber Salad

Next, asparagus roll with absolutely nothing else but rice. It’s a little boring and without soy sauce, there’s not much taste except for the natural taste of the asparagus. At least it’s healthy.

Asparagus Roll

I finished off with the Zaru Soba noddles like last time, even though I said I wouldn’t have it again. So I lied.

Zencu Sushi & Grill
319 E. 2nd. Street #206
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 687-7780
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Now that I’m basically happy with my Samsung Epic 4G, I don’t really need my iPhone 4 anymore. I could try to sell it on Craigslist or auction it on  eBay but it can be a hassle and being the lazy person that I am, I really don’t want to mess with it.

Apparently, eBay figured out that there are a lot of lazy people like me and opened up their “Instant Sale” for electronics section.

Basically, all you have to do is find your phone, check off what condition it’s in, and they will give you a quote for what they will give you. Yes, in dollars. See below for what they said I would get for my iPhone 4.  Since I paid $200 for my iPhone, I could use the $300 extra to get out of my AT&T 2 year contract and maybe break even.

Sell my iPhone 4 on eBay Instant Sale

The quote I got above was a little while ago and you won’t get that same quote if you try it today. Like your car, the value keeps going down.

While I was there, I decided to see what my Samsung Epic 4G was worth. Apparently, a lot less than my iPhone 4. Actually, with the 2 year agreement and rebates, I only paid $200 so I would actually get all my money back, assuming I didn’t have to break my 2 year contract.

Sell my Samsung Epic 4G for $190

One more thing about this deal is eBay pays for shipping too! And as soon as they get your phone, they credit your paypal account. It all sounds great.

Well, I’d like to tell you more about this service but I ended up not using it and selling my iPhone 4 to a friend of mine for $500. But it’s good to know it’s there when you need it.

In trying to get a video monitoring system to work, I ended up having to purchase a new WiFi router. My old Linksys was getting old, so frankly, I was happy to get a new one.

Linksys E2000

Using my usual “pick up at store” from Best Buy, I got this puppy for about $70. Features include:

• 802.11 a/b/g/n – 300 Mbps data transfer rates with Wireless-N and dual-band 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz
• 4-port – 10/100/1000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet switch
• LEDs – power, Internet, wireless, Wi-Fi Protected Setup and Ethernet (1-4).
• Parental controls – Block specific websites and restrict Internet access during certain hours.
• Guest Network – Set up a separate, password-protected network to let visitors have access to the Internet without having access to your computers or data.

Back shows 4 Ports and reset button

Since my older router didn’t have Wireless-N, this is an upgrade. I haven’t done any scientific testing but the signal seems stronger. Unfortunately, my laptops are old and don’t have WiFi-N so I cannot test the speed increase.

The setup software and browser access makes configuration a snap, just like before. It’s really a no brainer.

The guest network is a nice touch since these days, everybody and his brother seems want to use my WiFi when they come over. You can just give them the temporary guest network password and change it at a later time.

Guest access screen

When the guest opens their browser, they will see the screen above so that they can enter the password you gave them to use. The screen looks like something you’d see at a hotel or coffee house when you try to use their free WiFi.

Lights on top

The lights on top are cool looking as well as the space ship shape of the unit. However, I’d like to have seen more than 4 ports in the back. It runs really hot so it’s probably not a good idea to put it on top of something that needs to run cool (like your computer). The other problem is because of it’s slick look and lights on top, you cannot put anything on top of it like the old Linksys units which were boxy.

Other than those small complaints, everything works without any problems. I’ve watched Netflix on my PS3 without any glitches and my laptops and mobile phones all work perfectly.

All in all, a slick device that works as advertised.

There’s a good chance you’ve seen the Chase TV ad showing a guy putting on his coat, only to use the Chase app to take a picture of his check to make a deposit, then sit right back down.

If that’s not the the lazy man’s app, I don’t know what is. When I got my Sprint rebate check from my Epic 4G, I decided to try using this app for the check deposit.

Note that this app is currently only available for the iPhone and Android operating systems, as far as I know. The picture below is from the Android version showing the initial screen after login.

Android check deposit

After you enter the amount, you must take a picture of both the front and back of the check. Then when you press “Next.,” the check images are uploaded to the Chase servers as shown below. Unfortunately, something was wrong with my connection on my Epic and I was not able to upload my check.

Android deposit failure

Upon receiving the error, I tried again using the iPhone version of the app, as shown below when I took a picture of the Sprint refund check.

iPhone check front

If everything works properly, after the upload of the check images, you should get a confirmation screen like the one below.

iPhone deposit success

Nice. They tell you to keep the check until everything clears, then you can destroy the check.

Have you ever gotten a check as a prize in a tournament or contest and wanted to keep it framed? Well, this lets you do that because you can deposit the check electronically, then frame the original check.

Don’t get any stupid ideas for committing fraud because that’s illegal regardless of what way you deposit the check.

For lazy people like me, this eliminates having to hire a personal assistant to do errands like this.

Previously, I reviewed Sushi Go 55′s nigiri and chirashi sushi. This time, I decided to try their Sashimi Matsu.

Sashimi Matsu - $24.95

As with everything here, it was fresh and prepared perfectly and delish. However, the price must have gone up by a dollar because their website still says the price is $23.95. Even with the dollar inflation in price, I liked the sashimi here but I did like the chirashi sushi better.

Sushi Go 55 Restaurant
333 S. Alameda St. #312, Los Angeles, CA 90013
(213) 687-0777
sushigo55.com
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