New Bike - Trek x-cal 8

Recently got together with some friends and started mountain biking/trail biking. I bought a 4th hand bike a few years ago a Sarecen x-ray, unfortunately it has a tiny frame and 26" and with me being 6ft and 100KG the bike was too small. Plagued with gear and brake problems I decided to invest in a new bike. As I work for the NHS they provide their employees with the Bike scheme which allows me to purchase a bike through my employer and in return I sacrifice a small amount of my salary every month for 12 months.

I dropped into Summit Cycles in Aberystwyth to see what they had to offer and walked out with 2 quotes, Trek x-caliber 7 and 8. Reading the spec I instantly preferred the 8 plus I liked the Trek green/yellow colour it came in. 2 long weeks later and I had the call to say the bike was ready to be picked up.

Wow what a difference a good bike makes, It's smoother, fast and more comfortable to ride. I can ride for longer without killing myself and off road it rips up the local trails, both up hill and downhill. So to say I'm happy with the x-cal is an understatement. Stay tuned for more pictures and possibly some video's.

emby the new MB3

Emby the powerful home media application formerly known as Media Browser or MB3. You may have heard me or read my blog posts regarding Media Browser and how highly I rate it. The popular alternative to plex has undergone a name change, something sorter and trendier than the previous name. It was received with mixed reviews however I personally like the new name, its catchy short and keeps to its origins (say M B - emby). Along with the new name has come a new logo and again it suits the name perfectly and hopefully one day it will be as recognisable as leading brands.

So why am I blogging this? Well mainly to give you an update of what's happened to my favourite media application but also to inform people how the team at emby are progressing. Recently there's been a major server update which has seen a host of changes (screenshot 1). Along with the back end the web client has seen some minor improvements and bug fixes. The biggest changes are to the Kodi and Roku apps, both seen huge performance improvements and style improvements. Other apps such as the Windows mobile and Android have also followed suit. One of the biggest let downs at the moment is the iOS app. The previous iOS app was developed by some one not affiliated to emby so unfortunately hasn't seen any new updates, however the emby team have assured the community that they are working hard on their own iOS app which will be released in the near future, something I cant wait to see.

Site Moved

After 2 years with my previous host using word press I made the choice to move it to google blogger. There were a few reasons that pushed me in this direction which I will mention below. First things first, the move to google has been stressful, I am attempting to import all my old posts here over the next few days/weeks.

My old host was iPage, it was cheap and straight forward which is probably why I had all the problems. Firstly their support was slow and useless, often responding with one word answers or saying the problem wasn't with them. Secondly their hosting was slow, moving around the blog was sluggish which is never good for a blog site. Finally their renewal price was outragous, compared to the $2 a month I was paying for the last 2 years they wanted to up it to $9 a month and that was the final straw.

I'm a little apprehensive about moving from Word Press to blogger, but we will see what happens, stay tuned!