Upcoming for 2017

Before the year ends, I’m more inclined to looking forward to upcoming tech and geek stuff. There are quite some to look back at from this month, though.

I finally got my Z1 Compact back from warranty-covered repair with a 3-month warranty on the repaired parts since warranty ended befor November ended. it’s good to have my phone back and I’m amazed at how effective the pc companion backup restore works with settings. It’s a little lacking, though, in that you need to install the apps before you restore. But game progress and the like, they were as before the backup process. Also, I managed to apply the backup screen and rear side protectors. It took a lot longer than makati square people would have but at least, I got to do it. And the purchase of a spare, more than a year ago, did pay off.

I tried and failed to clone my current (not fully utilized) 3TB HDD to the 2TB Seagate SSHD I bought last month. Will try again, maybe next week with some research. Maybe I need to do it on at least a second gen intel core system. So yeah, maybe that’s going to be a good gift to myself, get my main pc fixed after more than a year.

One minor thing about computing, I’m really satisfied with and my expectations were exceeded by the canonc lide 120 that I bought some time ago.

And I have yet to wrap and give the HGAW Gundam X to JT’s kid for nostalgia. And I’ve been wanting an HG for myself again since I bought that.

I prepared myself to wait until January for both but they arrived some time mid-December—MAFEX Wonder Woman, and Evangelion (Rebuild) Portraits VI. I’m keeping Wonder Woman boxed to save its value since I’m not so sure about getting Batman and Superman. But the eva portraits, their “displayed” around the room. Will have to organize soon. Maybe even get a Revoltech Mark.06 for Kaworu to be displayed the same way Mari is with the Provisional Unit-05. Or as one display, with the two eva’s and the two pilots. I must say, the portraits purchase is worth it, seeing the Revoltech 69 with the special color Mari on top of the nvidia edition 690 case. Best thing, they’re both not color accurate to the movie.

And on to upcoming stuff. I’m really excited to see AMD Ryzen (formerly codenamed Zen) and Intel Kaby Lake for desktop duke it out early in the year. I might even consider buying a new platform even if things do go well with my 2500k.

The Xperia X Compact Philippine release is doubtful, questionable at best. I’m just glad I have my Z1 Compact back and fixed and with a well applied pair of matte screen protectors.

I’ve always wanted to get a Masterpiece Optimus Prime but felt it was too expensive for me. Now that I managed to get Bumblebee and Hot Rod, both less expensive models, I’m wanting to get Optimus Prime yet again. well, one reason is the upcoming Masterpiece Megatron 2.0 in the same scale as the MP-10 Optimus Prime. Then again, I’ll leave that to the real collectors, and most likely settle for what I currently have. I’ll just enjoy the fact that they exist.

By end of January or early February, the midseason premieres of DC TV Shows (and Agents of SHIELD) are going to air. The DC TV season had an ok first half and I’m expecting things to just get better.

Lastly, on expectations, Rebuild of Evangelion FINAL is said to be back in the works. Yeah, I think I could be excited for Code Geass R3 and Attack on Titan season 2, but the anticipation for Rebuild Final beats both, combined. I sure hope it brings a closure that End of Eva didn’t bring but have the same profound anime geekery effect.

So there, some look backs and expectations. Cheers to tech and geekery from 2016. Now on to 2017!

Quick Bits for This November’s Geekery

Z1 compact warranty-covered repair is in progress and LG K4 is serving its spare phone role well. I’ve come to appreciate high end handsets more.

Bye bye T100 charger. You are greatly missed, especially since you apparently can’t be simply replaced by a 2A charger that can be baught overpriced at makati square.

Just acquired SSHD for use with spare/main PC. Main PC repair still pending. But yeah, tipid pc search as a google chrome start page was a really good idea. I’ve decided to use it as my main disk (partitions and all) and on 3TB HDD as exTended and image backup storage. The 2nd 3TB would be for use with the Orico enclosure.

Got MP-28 Hot Rod and pre-ordered MAFEX Wonder Woman. Hoping eva portraits arrive soon. Still deciding on Marvel Select finds on ebay.ph.

DC TV shows just rock. Best team up ever just started today.

October Techfest and Geekery Month

I think it’s a good idea to pick up where I left off last month. Well, quite.

It turned out that the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 saga has ended because of the worse battery problem that came to light after the first recall.

The iPhone 7 and 7 Pluse still aren’t available here via Globe or Smart. And I guess that’s all I have about that.

For my next phone, I’m thinking, will I actually get the Xperia X Compact on January? And will it actually be released here? As it is, the Xperia XZ is in preorder and on display at the Xperia Store at Glorietta but the X Compact is nowhere to be seen. And the picture banner on the Sony Philippines microsite for the XZ preorder has XA written instead. Fail.

And talking about the Xperia Store, apparently extended warranty claims should be done on the memoxpress service center in Mandaluyong. I guess I’ll be spending more time with my Z1 Compact, now without the screen and back “glass” protectors.

I got to buy a spare phone, though, and I’m already using it mainly, though I still brought the Xperia in my bag after a week of having it also in my pocket. That’s practically a 2-week transition. The spare phone is a white LG K4 LTE. They didn’t have the indigo one in stock. I was pretty disappointed when I realized that I didn’t ask if that was a dual sim phone. I meant to hand it to my mother after the warranty process but oh well. Good thing is I got to buy her a replacement battery for her LG L40. Mhae also thought it would be nice if she bought the K4 from me later on and give it to Aboy.

TV shows. I got to watch an episode of Legends of Tomorrow on actual TV. Flash, Arrow, and Big Bang Theory, partly. What’s cooler is the same day showing (technically, next day) for Arrow, Big Bang, and Legends. I’m not sure about the schedule of The Flash and apparently Agents of SHIELD also shows on the same week on a different channel on cable.

I got through season 6 of South Park this month and it was very smart. Yeah, I kinda missed Kenny but Butters is a real winner in my books. I’m really considering getting the game on PC.

And sepaing of PC, finally got to (1) get a Sapphire Nitro+ RX480 4GB; (2) get a Canon Lide 120 scanner; and (3) clone my 1TB RAID 1 drives to one of the 3TB drives I got last July (wow, that was 3 months ago). Yep, I’ve decided to not go RAID 1 on my harddrives and the 2^nd 3TB drive will serve as a manual backup drive.

I’ve been running to some bluecreens lately and I think it has something to do with the 3TB drive being more than 2TB. Interestingly, I’m only using just above 1TB on my drive. The urgency of reviving my main PC rises. As for the videocard, I came across a post-purchase realization that I could have opted for and RX470 instead. Nevertheless, I would still be underusing it had I gotten that. Haha. I came to rationalize that I’ll probably make use of this card longer.

So yeah, a good number of wins this month in tech.

Phones and TV Shows

The title felt familiar so I checked. Yep, I had a similar title in February. Just had quite a bit of PC stuff recently.

I’m halfway (or a bit more) with harddrive upgrades at work with the arrival of the two 4TB archive/backup drives I requested and Chammy’s 3TB PBD files drive. Yep, ABC.

AMD Zen is coming next month so I’ll keep my eye out for news and availability. Home PC upgrades went back to a halt because PC activities are mostly relax time on the internet. And the cash issues mostly because of old bills and not getting the time and push to buy a new flatbed scanner. The one time I tried to, almost got irritated at PC Express. I used to like going there.

Now, phones.

Sony Xperia X Compact – I’m definitely getting this despite the compromises:

· No ingress protection rating – with my Z1 compact getting damaged when I used it during an outing, I guess that really isn’t meant for me. I’ll miss rinsing my phone, though.

· Midrange chipset (SD650) – reviews say though, that it’s not really that bad and could actually perform as well or even better than the Z5 compact with last year’s flagship SD810.

· No lanyard attachment – I only learned earlier today that that’s what they call it and that the X Compact doesn’t have it

The selling points for me:

· There are really no alternative mini/compact upgrades to my still well-performing (though damaged) Z1 compact and definitely isn’t a step down from what I have.

· The best improvement could be the camera with improved low-light quality. That’s the biggest weakness I’ve encountered with my current and past Xperia’s

· Natural progression with the USB Type-C

My Z1 compact’s extended warranty ends in November and I’ll probably push myself to have it repaired before mid-month. I’m eyeing January for a phone upgrade.

Sony Xperia XZ – Sony’s anticipated flagship seems to be impressing critics more than the interim flagship X Performance and last year’s Z3+/Z4 and Z5 series.

Apple iPhone 7 / 7 Plus – I stayed up late for the launch event. I was actually impressed by the main products launched and the rest of the “undercard” launches were not as boring as I expected. Not bad, Apple.

· The headphone jack thing is a difficult issue but at least they have adapters included in the box.

· Most of the key improvements have actually been found on Sony, HTC, and LG phones for some time. But still, it’s not a bad thing to get the best features everyone else has.

· The 7 Plus’s dual camera is pretty impressive but it’s interesting to see comparisons against the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. Well, Note 7 wins…with a bang?

Samsung Galaxy Note 7 – not really something that launched this month, but the battery issue and the resulting recall & replacement action is both good and bad. I hope it affects the industry in a much more positive way.

LG V20 – now here’s an underrated phone in the shadow of the iPhone 7 Plus and Galaxy Note 7.

I mentioned upgrades earlier. My father ended his Sun Cellular subscription. I’m thinking of getting myself a Samsung Galaxy J2 with a DTV Antenna while I have my Z1c for repair. Maybe I’ll hand it over to may father if he gets frustrated with his current phone/s since he isn’t going to get an upgrade from Sun anymore.

On to TV show seasons.

I finished season 4 in my South Park catch-up. I’m taking a break now from that because I don’t think too much South Park continuously is a very healthy thing. Still, fun.

Macross Delta has ended and it was just OK. Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans season 2 starts next week. Fun how these two aired similar to Gundam 00 and Macross Frontier. Quite sadly, though, i got engaged to the older shows more. Wow, I can’t believe it’s been 10 years.

The Big Bang Theory and Agents of SHIELD have started. OK starts, I guess.

The DC TV shows are coming next week. Now the previews are getting me hyped. I hope I wont get disappointed.

Non-TV shows, I’ve seen Son of Batman and completed watching the animated Wonder Woman movie. Both good. I think I’ll be watching DC Animated Movies at that pace.

Techxitement

So much for my sbh70. At least it’s still usable though I damaged it a bit more in the past month.

And there’s a lot to be excited about in tech/acquisitions:

· AMD Zen

· Intel Kaby Lake (7^th Gen Core)

· Sony Xperia “X Compact”

· Sappire RX480

· more 3TB harddrives

And I sure wish I’ll have the time to get my main pc up because of above imminent acquisitions.

Upgrades Start and End

Quickly, I got to start the upgrade process of PC-69 with two 3TB harddrives. The planning and waiting for availability of RX480 4GB variants has started, and the end of procrastination in finally getting my main pc fixed is soon to end. I did replace the spare pc’s cmos battery at last salvaging the one from adette’s old (same generation) motherboard.

With windows 10 upgrades ending last july 29, I rushed crammed some windows upgrades at work and at home. glad that because of this deadline, I got to put life back to the damaged (startup problems) ion2 netbook and mhae’s samsung netbook (broken lcd and keyboard). The former, I got to do with the help of yonni’s usb-mini cable for the external harddrive, and the latter is thanks to finding a nearby laptop repair place in metropoint.

What missed the deadline is ate’s old hp laptop but she has a new one anyway, and chammy’s broken alienware that I have yet to have checked. I’m still hoping that the “cpu error” deserves quotation marks.

On “TV” stuff: apparently macross delta isn’t on a season break; southpark really is awesom; and I can’t wait for October for DC tv shows.

Software Upgrades and Finally a Plan on Hardware Upgrades

To get it out of the way, this month’s tech fail: failing CMOS battery on backup PC. Yes! That’s all I can recall and it’s easily fixable. For previous tech fails, I also finally have the plan and funds and great options. The greatest of those options: AMD’s new Radeon RX 480. I can’t wait to see it in price lists.

More on the planned upgrades, well, the only definite one so far is that I’ve decided on to get two 3TB Seagate drives. I’ve budgeted based on the original cost of parts to be replaced and I’ll decide what to get as I go along the not progressive buying process. Wow, I haven’t done that in a long while now.

I also got to organize/file info on the computers at work, for my team at least. Come to think of it, the team’s pretty big now and I’m glad that the hardware and software are quite right in…a lot of ways.

On the anime/tv series side of geekery, I’ve catched up on Macros Delta (or Macross Triangle I like to call it) and I’m getting a good ride and wonderful tunes while everyone else is into Game of Thrones. I did get a copy of (almos) all episodes from eldrich so mhae and I can catch up and get into the conversations by next year’s season. Oh, and I also got from him a copy South Park. YEAH!

Gundam geekery has been good with the release of The Origin episode 3. Simply put, the story has gone well in establishing how tragic Char and Sayla’s past has been, but it didn’t fail to build Char as the villain he is. Yep, I like how there is no attempt to blur his character’s villainy.

Glory of Losers also apparently got scanlated upto the latest volume and it was a joy to recall the story albeit being altered a bit. The katoki designs are just great. I sure wish the other retelling we’ve been waiting for—rebuild of evangelion—gets completed soon.

I think I’ve written quite a bit on free stuff from the net so I’ll end it here for now.

The i7’s and Superheroes

Fun thing at the office, 10 6th generation Intel Core i7 PC’s were delivered. The 11th arrived a couple of weeks after. Things done: distributed, asked laurence for help in setting them up, and managed old PC’s for disposal or reassignment.

Sad thing in office tech, one of those old PC’s was my first i5 office PC and its radeon vidcard broke down. The 6 year old PC still runs but wih a different vidcard.

And I’ve been getting tech fails for how many months now? This month, it’s the right earphone of my SBH70. I’ve yet to bring it to the service center outside warranty. Still using it, just not as much since I only have the left ear going. Not bad for calls, but certainly lacking for music.

Superhero movies and tv shows are the in thing these days. Well, I’m not so sure about tv shows. Nevertheless, mhae and I and a lot of people got to see 2 superhero movies this month—Marvel’s Capt. America: Civil War and Fox’s X-men: Apocalypse. Both were good, the former better as per mhae’s ratings and also the critics’. The latter was also good but underrated with mixed reviews online. I guess it’s also because it was just weeks after Civil War. With 4 superhero movies this year, ranking so far is: (1) Civil War, (2) Deadpool, (3) Apocalypse, and (4) Dawn of Justice. So the 2 Marvel Comics universes fared better.

On the tv side of things, which is basically DC wins with Flash and Legends of Tomorrow ending on good notes despite me deciding earlier that I’ll need some convincing to see Legends’ 2nd season. Same goes for Marvel’s Agents of Shield as it had enough closure by the last episode. Arrow…well…Laurel’s departure was heartbreaking for me—even more now that I realized I’ll see her character in my calendar by december but not in the 5th season. That is unless of course the Flashpoint thing brings her back for the 5th season. Ooh, I just have to go back to Legends: Justice League of America. Yep, TV universes (let’s not forget Supergirl which will be transfering to the CW) are better than the movies’. Oh, and DC wins because we’re saying goodbye to Agent Carter.

Now, when will I catch up with Game of Thrones?

Justice Upgrades

More failing gadgets. I’m getting pretty sure that my T100’s battery is failing as it suddenly powers down with somewhere between 50-60% remaining. The problem is evident with the keyboard dock attached. Thank goodness, the netbook is still very useable since I don’t really do computing on the go.

On superheroes on “TV” and the big screen, Daredevil Season 2 was amazing. The first was still way better for me but season 2’s still worth watching. Supergirl’s 1st season ended well and the Arrowverse shows are soon to end. Supergirls was OK but Flash and Arrow has got much more depth. Legends of Tomorrow is fun but I’m not looking forward to a second season. But with Hawkgirl and Atom there, I’m looking forward to a Justice League incarnation on “TV”. And speaking of the Justice League, well, Batman v Superman was also OK. I liked it, but apparently a good majority didn’t. still, I’m looking forward to better DC movies and eventually an awesome Justice League movie.

Back to computers, we’re finally getting the new PC’s at work though there’ll be a bit more waiting due to stock availability. Nevertheless, the 3rd floor will have 11 new Skylake i7 systems. I also got to update 2 CAD PC’s to Win10 and the laptop. On the software aspect, Autodesk has released their 2017 updates. So far, I’ve only upgraded my PC’s AutoCAD license. And yey, I’ve finally settled the ProSteel activation issue in my PC. At home, I got to upgrade the downstairs PC to Win10 after maybe an hour of trying to recover disk space only to realize I can select a different drive for the installation to continue. One thing I’ve learned in doing those upgrades: graphics drivers are not a small concern.

In anime, I have yet to watch the last two episodes of Iron Blooded Orphans season 1 as the series, albeit being action-packed and generally good, fell short of my Gundam 00 level expectations. As for other expectations, Attack on Titan season 2 didn’t happen yet. One thing that surpassed expectations are the scanlation releases of Glory of Losers. Two volumes went out this month and even though it’s just a retelling, the new details especially with Wing Zero, and the action, even in still pictures, wow.

Failings and New Stuff

Interestingly, technology has been failing on me more often these past months. This month, the office scanner failed on me when I borrowed it home. it work when I used it back at the office. Failed for a few more times then went back to working well. I did get to scan a good number of official docs and some personal stuff—sheet music for rehearsals.

Papa got a new phone, a MyPhone MY32L. Sadly, and I do mean sadly, we didn’t get to find an UNO, MyPhone’s Android One phone. I like to think of Android One as a very inexpensive Nexus. I don’t think the project is going well. Oh well.

Got to do some Windows 8 to 10 updates at the office, but haven’t been able to do the upgrade on the CAD pc’s. and as far as new computer hardware is concerned, apparently, my boss has had me request for 11 new computers.

Superhero TV shows are going well especially the Supergirl episode with the Flash. Still can’t get over it. We didn’t get to see a superhero movie this month. Mhae and I will have to watch Batman v Superman this weekend.

I’m in need of a new gaming videocard as I’m on my last spare videocard, Miro’s 9800 GT. Yonni’s 9800 GT on this spare PC seems to have failed. And I’m still dumbfounded on where the one leg part of an Intel heatsink came from. I remember hearing something fall inside some time probably last month. I just found It on the videocard when I had to replace it.

I should be checking my expenses and savings this coming summer. Also should check my guts as I have to be brave enough to check my main PC again if it’s still useable and what I have to replace. Primarily, I need that vidcard, a CPU heatsink/fan, and a good amount of case cleaning.

Oh, Apple released a new iPhone, the iPhone SE. it’s basically an iPhone 6s without 3d touch and in the body of an iPhone 5s also offered in Rose Gold. They also introduced the 9.7“ iPad Pro—an iPad Pro in the body of an iPad Air/2. Now Apple has small, medium, and large iPhones and iPads with essentially equivalent specs. Not bad actually, not bad at all. Simple, direct. Still a bit pricey, but still, simple, direct, and not bad at all.

It’s a Mobile World, But TV’s Still a Thing

This month’s tech highlight would be the Mobile World Congress. What caught my interest and attention were the phones introduced by Korean tech companies Samsung and LG, and surprisingly, Sony. So Samsung and LG launched ther respective flagships—the S7 and S7 Edge pair, and the G5. Samsung seemed to go for improvement and bring back the some good things that were lost, while LG went for innovation. Sony was a surprise of sorts as no one expected a flagship-speced phone with a smaller (than usual) screen, a similar looking mid-ranger, and another mid-ranger with a fresh look. Oh, and all three belong to the new Xperia X series, the Xperia X Performance, Xperia X, and Xperia XA, respectively. Later news confirmed the culmination of the Z series in the Z5 launced late last year. I think the X series as a name is fresh but the X Performance name is just too long and rather cheezy. But hey, Sony is a Japanese company.

On my side of mobile tech, my Z1 compact has started to get stray inputs somewhere on the upper part of the screen. I haven’t found the actual cause and the exact problem. I’m still unsure whether it’s software of hardware. Interestingly, it went well sometime in the morning and afternoon. It’s still usable and I’m deferring bringing it to the service center until next week maybe. I have yet to do a software reset.

On the “TV” side of things, DC’s television shows are consitently entertaining and engaging. So there are 3 Arrowverse shows I’m watching and Supergirl on the other network. A Supergirl-Flash is airing this coming month and I’m hoping it would be in the same Arrowverse but the concept of the Multi-verse has been touched upon so there’s the possibility that Supergirl will be in another universe. I sure hope not. Marvel’s Agent Carter is… well, ok. Daredevil and Jessica Jones were more intense, well, probably because of their more mature target audience. And speaking of mature content and audienes, though produced by a different studio, he’s still a Marvel character—Deadpool. I already thought It’d be ok if we missed it. We didn’t. Simply, an awesome movie.

SmartWatch and Robot Nostalgia

SmartWatch and Robot Nostalgia

Finally got myself a Sony SmartWatch 2 and I’m having a great experience with it. More thoughts on that hopefully on a more driven blogpost.

As for the robot nostalgia part, Yonni got me a Combiner Wars Ultra Magnus which is a new figure but the most similar to the classic generation 1 and tv cartoon version. A couple of weeks later, I purchased a megazord. I’ll be picking it up at GTO Pasay this coming week.

Other geekery carried over, more PC’s upgraded to Windows 10 v1151.