When Google’s Chromecast first came out, like many a geek, I ordered one right away because it was ridiculously cheap, and seemed like the long overdue bridge we were waiting for to connect our Android phones and tablets to our TVs. With all due respect to HTC, the MediaLink HD just wasn’t a solid product and never got the development work and improvements it needed.
Continue reading Chromecast Randomly Rebooting? Check Your USB Power Source
It’s been interesting – and depressing if you’re in the magazine industry – to watch as many magazines have become less and less costly to subscribe to over the past few years. As more people do their reading online, subscription bases have shrunk, and many magazines are rapidly sliding toward become free and purely ad-supported vs. subscriber supported. I find this quite sad, as quality journalism is worth supporting, but it’s hard to be upset with incredibly cheap prices as a consumer. I know what this means for the future of the magazine though…
I subscribed to Popular Photography a few years back, but let my subscription lapse because I wasn’t reading all the issues. I was surprised when I received an offer in the mail to get the magazine for only $7 for the whole year. SEVEN DOLLARS. At that price even if I only read a few issues a year, that would be worth it. I’ve seen similar, though not quite as deep, discounts from Maximum PC, the only magazine I’ve maintained a subscription to for over a decade.
I truly will mourn the day when most magazines fold and things are purely digital…I enjoy the non-distracted, deep reading that magazines can bring a reader.
Like most people, I’m accustomed to seeing advertising across nearly every facet of my life. I truly did not expect to see advertising on the console screen in my Mazda 3. It seems this particular radio station in the Seattle area uses the tiny bit of data that can be pumped on FM frequencies (or maybe it’s only on HD radio, I’m not sure) to display an ad for Western Washington Honda Dealers. How utterly tacky and desperate of them…and of the Honda dealership to participate in such a thing. Who thought this was a good idea?
One of the issues I noted in my first day with the Asus UX305 was the weird trackpad that had a clunk/click sound when tapped on. I couldn’t understand if it was normal or not; I assumed it was just a poor design decision on Asus’ part. When I posted my first impression review on the Amazon product page, one of the commenters shared that he too had the clicking trackpad issue. When he contacted Asus tech support they told him it wasn’t normal and that he should return the product.
Curious about this, and having the personality type that doesn’t keep a product if I think it’s defective and would need to be returned anyway, I ordered a Microsoft Signature Edition (the UX305FA-USM1). I’d gotten into a somewhat heated discussion over in the Amazon product review comments with someone who insisted that the Signature Edition was a superior product due to the software build Microsoft put on it (bloatware-free). Oh, also some guy who was mocking me for not lying and using the student discount like he did.
Figuring I now had the opportunity to see for myself, I ordered the Microsoft Store version. And, somewhat to my surprise, there was a big difference in the trackpad. Watch the video to see why.
Shortly after doing this video, I returned the Amazon version.
Posted by Instagrate to WordPress
I stumbled across a cool photo organizing/sharing solution called Mylio today. I wanted to check it out because it’s quite clear Google has abandoned Picasa (it’s been at version 3.x for years now) and I’ve been hunting for a more modern solution for photo syncing and sharing. Here’s the rundown of Mylio.
Continue reading Mylio: A Cool, But Costly, Photo Organizing Solution
Facebook is often slammed for their poor handling of privacy, and most of the time they deserve it. They’ve historically played fast and loose with the privacy of user’s data, not unlike most other young silicon valley start-ups. It’s not surprising when you think about it – if you grew up in a computing era where both privacy and intellectual property are largely irrelevant (sometimes called “The Napster Generation”), when those same people form companies they’ll take those assumptions with them into defining how their products work.
After I returned the Dell XPS 13, I expected to wait until the Windows 10 time frame to try and find another product. I’m also keeping my eye on what Apple does with the MacBook Air, just in case I feel desperate enough to make THAT giant leap (can you tell I’m reluctant?). I’m hideously uncomfortable and slow using OS X because I’ve never done more than dabble on my Mac Mini – the OS makes little sense to me, I know virtually no shortcuts, and I find it utterly non-intuitive. But enough about that, back to the world of Windows laptops…
I was reading a very detailed review of the Dell XPS 13 – I’m always curious to read what reviewers say about hardware that I own(ed) – and I saw a review of the Asus UX305F. I frankly hadn’t paid much attention to Asus laptops since I bought their first Zenbook back in 2011 and the key travel was so short it missed 50% of what I typed. And their model naming scheme is so confusing (UX301LA, T1000TA, etc.) it’s hard to know what’s what. Seeing the specs on the UX305F, and the price, my jaw dropped.
Continue reading The Best Value in Ultrabooks Ever: The Asus UX305F
This was not an easy decision, but I sent the XPS 13 back to Dell for a refund. I won’t be repetitive – all my reasons are in this previous blog post. The bottom line was that I felt it had too many compromises for a product cost over $1900. When I splash out that much money, I want to feel like my purchase is an improvement in all the important ways. That reasoning is why I bought, then returned both a Nikon D7100 and a Nikon D600. Both cameras had a lot going for them, but ultimately were not a full upgrade from my well-use D300. I had to wait for the D750 before the true successor was found.
The point being that when I’m upgrading a cornerstone of my technological world, I have high standards and will wait for the right product. The XPS 13 was so close in most ways; I may revisit a Core i5/256 GB PCIe SSD version late in the year after Windows 10 launches. Maybe Windows 10 will bring with it some battery life gains, and Dell will have a few months to mature their drivers. Back to my HP Envy Spectre 14 for now, though that may be short-lived as I have my eye on something else…something quite different from the XPS 13, but something that may tick the most important boxes (but not all of them).
Side note: the photo above is of a really cool owner’s welcome booklet that Dell sends you after you buy the XPS 13. It was customized with the model of my laptop, and even the service tag and specs of the product. It welcomed me to the Dell family, and was a nice touch. It felt personal and welcoming. Nice job whomever at Dell is responsible for it!
Any self-respecting geek knows all about CCleaner, a handy (and free!) tool for reclaiming gigabytes of hard drive storage space. I use it all the time, and it’s great. What I didn’t know about until recently though was an add-on called CCEnhancer. Created by a third party, this tool expands the list of apps that can be purged by CCleaner. I wasn’t sure what it would find, as I don’t install many apps on my systems, but I was surprised to see it find an additional 1.2 GB or so of files – I hardly use Quicktime, who knew it was chewing up 400 MB of storage? And Windows was keeping 811 MB of memory dumps – what on earth for?
