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www.TELE-satellite.com —
12-01/2012 —
TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine
3G modems. At the mo-
ment this support is limited
to models from the com-
pany Huawei, but these are
so widely distributed that
most users should have no
trouble getting their hands
on one. According to Kar-
macom, this function is
still in the Beta stage and
when we connected our
Huawei E5830 we found
out why. The receiver cor-
rectly recognized the mo-
dem although a link to the
UMTS network could not
be established. Since this
is a beta version, we un-
derstood that there might
still be some glitches; we
look forward to the day
when our E5830 will also
work nicely together with
the Amiko Alien. This fea-
ture will let you access the
Internet for example, on a
camping trip, without hav-
ing to drag along your lap-
top or tablet PC.
Even the Amiko Alien‘s
YouTube function has been
given a facelift and can now
store clips on external stor-
age media. You can then
quickly transfer them to a
PC or other device and ar-
chive them or pass them on
to others via e-mail or so-
cial networking. We found
this to be an excellent func-
tion that worked perfectly
during our tests.
Especially noteworthy are
the two additional functions
that were added to the me-
dia player with this software
update. First there‘s the on-
line subtitle search that can
be accessed with the yellow
function button during the
play back of a movie.
With the data name and
the selection of the de-
sired language, the Alien
automatically searches the
Internet and blends in the
subtitle it has found. This
feature is not just inter-
esting for the hearing im-
paired; it can also be used
alongside foreign language
movies to make it easier for
viewers to follow what is
going on.
The second new feature is
the fully automatic search
of the IMDb movie data-
base allowing the display of
a wide variety of additional
information on the movie
that is currently playing.
This includes not only the
names of the actors and
a brief description of the
movie itself, but also where
the movie was made, when
it was made, the length of
the movie plus much more.
For our test we selected
a somewhat older movie
from 2007 (Bury My Heart
At Wounded Knee). The
IMDb information was im-
mediately accessed by the
Amiko Alien. This is an out-
standing feature that we
hope other manufacturers
will integrate into their re-
ceivers. Karmacom, with
their Amiko receiver series,
is quite a few steps ahead
of all the others and there‘s
no doubt that customers
are quite satisfied with the
products from the Hungar-
ian company.
With the WLK-100 two-
in-one keyboard, Karma-
com offers a very practical
improvement to the Amiko
Alien receiver. Thanks to
the perfect integration
into the software, the key-
board‘s setup is actually
fun and greatly simplifies
the use of the receiver‘s
Internet features. The key-
board itself is highlighted
by its exceptional work-
manship, the comfortable
operation of its buttons
and the sensitivity of the
track pad.
All in all, it‘s an exception-
al expansion of the Amiko
Alien that is topped off by
a wide-reaching software
update that includes access
to network drives, 3G mo-
dem support, the recording
of YouTube videos as well as
the additional features in
the media player.
1. The Amiko Alien‘s
software can be updated
either via the Internet or
via a USB stick. Before the
update process begins,
the receiver confirms the
version number of the
update.
2. After a restart and a
quick reorganization of
some critical data, the
receiver can immediately
be put back into service.
3. Access to a Windows
shared folder
4. 3G Modem settings
5. The reworked network
menu, now also with a web
browser
6. The Opera web
browser‘s start page with
search field and five links
to most-often viewed web
sites
7. Despite the wireless
two-in-one keyboard,
the manufacturer did
not eliminate the OSD
keyboard.
8. Facebook on the Amiko
Alien
9. Access to YouTube
videos. With the push of
one button the current
video is stored on an
external storage device
10. Amazon search for a current Tom Cruise movie in the Amiko
Alien‘s web browser
11. Our USB hard drive with some test data for the media player was
recognized without any problems.
12. Internet subtitle search. The Amiko Alien provides complete
access to the IMDb database
13. A previously enabled Windows folder can easily be linked to the
Amiko Alien as a logical drive
14. Security settings during the enabling of a folder under MS
Windows