Some More Gadget/Tech Upgrades for Me

Gadget upgrade for the month is an Xperia Z1 Compact. At last! And I got it at a pretty good deal with extended warranty. I opted for the brick-and-mortar store purchase over the internet sellers because of the warranty. My strategy of getting the Z1 Compact when it’s successor has been released worked quite well with a little bit of savings and even more value for money given the incremental upgrade in the Z3 Compact.

The Windows part of my geeky life is a bit less interesting with just a few little more time spent on Windows 10 Preview. I’ve upgraded the build once and so far, so good. It complements my Windows 8.1 experience in my T100. Speaking of the T100, I seem to have influenced Dogi to get one. Cara surely got influenced as she got one the day after I told her about it as a recommendation for a “laptop for work stuff”.

Quickly After a Year

It’s been more than a year since I started this geek/tech blog and I have not been as into it as I would have wanted. It’s been mostly monthly lookbacks like my personal blog. I’ve been consistent, at least.

Quickly now, a year ago, I noted the release of the Sony Xperia Z1f in Japan which later became the Z1 Compact internationally. Last month, Sony released the Z3 compact as a successor. It was a minor update and I noticed how I had a draft regarding smartphone upgrades. Yep, to-do list. Of note on that matter is that my girlfriend is using an iPhone 4S now and it still is a very decent phone 3 years after its release.

Also last year, Windows 8.1 was released. I’m using a netbook/tablet hybrid with Windows 8.1 which I got almost a year after. Earlier this month, I’ve installed the newly released Technical Preview of the next Windows version, Windows 10. Due to drive space limitations, I haven’t tried to install it on this hybrid and on my main desktop PC. I managed to install it on my spare SLI PC. Usage isn’t very frequent though so a review of sorts won’t possible anytime soon. Not to mention the frequency of blog activity.

That’s all for this month. Oh, and I found some Youtube channels habit-forming. TechQuikie is one. I’ll link that and some others later—again, hopefully.

Gadget Catchup

My Gadgets

It’s been a month since I got this ASUS Transformer T100 netbook/tablet. I’m still torn between calling it a booklet or a notepad. End up calling it a netbook since that’s what I’ve come to need. The tablet aspect comes in handy and entertaining, but it still is a netbook.

This is my most significant gadget update since I got my Xperia Pro more than 2 years ago. Hipster me, when finally I got a touchscreen smartphone, I had one with a slideout keyboard. When I finally got a tablet, I got one that’s a Wintel device with a keyboard doc. I have now started to transition from my Sony Ericsson Elm feature phone and Neo Vivid netbook for my mobile needs.

Probably the best thing about it is Minion Rush.

Mhae’s Gadgets

Mhae now has devices on the three major platforms—her netbook with Windows, her tablet with Android, and her iPhone 4S with iOS which used to be my sister’s then her husband’s. The iPhone has yet to get action because of urgent matters that we don’t get to get a microSIM.

Parent’s Gadgets

As for my parents, my father doesn’t have a recent gadget update. I’m waiting for price drops for Seagate’s laptop SSHD’s to upgrade his netbook. I’m hoping that would give enough improvement on performance in a similar way an SSD upgrade improved my mother’s Pentium Dual-Core-based Acer laptop.

I finally got my mother a replacement for her failing MyPhone Android 2.3-based phone in an LG L40. I find its price very reasonable for its specs. It’s got decent speed on KitKat and has been serving my mother well and saving us both from headaches.

It’s been quite a gadget blast although noticeably on the more budget-friendly side. It’s nice to know that this is possible in a time of hyped and (un)reasonably expensive products that, whether we acknowledge or not, have become more needs now than wants.

Tablets

Quickly, 10 days ago, we got an 8-inch Skypad quad-core Android tablet for PhP 999 above a 2-year globe tattoo subscription. And today, we got an asus T100 10-inch Intel Atom-based Windows 8.1 netbook/tablet for around Php 24,000 at 12 months 0% installment. Good deals in my opinion.

The skypad’s with mhae now and is currently minion rushing. I’ll do so later on on my t100, or maybe on papa’s mypad from earlier this year.

I’ve finally started going with the tablet trend.

Complete Rebuild

Not as intended, though, but yes, it’s practically complete. Thanks to my sister’s spare generic speakers, I’ve been using my SLI-PC more these past weeks, especially since I’ve been sick at home for a lot of days.

The computer’s chassis is positioned at ang angle so that when I sit on my bed with my back on the headboard, I can see the 22” screen clearly and fully. The right edge of the screen is just a small measure form chassis’ edge so it doesn’t obstruct the view. The green LED fan on the front cannot be turned off when the unit is powered on but it actually has a cool effect. The position of the PC is also good in that I can continue my viewing even when lying down.

Of course, thank to Unified Remote, I can keep my comfy position when I adjusting the volume, turn the subtitles off, skip a few seconds forward, etc.

It feels good that I get to use my second PC more this time. Sure, I still watched some episodes on my main PC and this is still my blogging and surfing PC since it’s more power-saving and more silent, but still, at last, the SLI-PC has been completed. I’ll be buying the better speakers I’ve been planning for it sooner, since I’m enjoying its new-found use. I intended the rig to be a Physx gaming machine but this seems to be more practical since I watch and relax more than game, anyway.

2014 Mid-Year Updates

I’m going to make a quick semi-free-writing rundown of tech stuff from this month.

Phones

o I messed up and got to fix my synchronized addressbook

Videogames

o Since May, EA Origin has given out for free, Dead Space (haven’t played it), Battlefield 3 (haven’t played it either), Plants vs. Zombies (haven’t played it in Origin), and Peggle. Yep, I’ve only played Peggle.

o I realized there ain’t gonna be a new NFS game this year. I guess having watched the movie on the big screen with mhae was more worth it.

o Steam buys and weekend wasters: Injustice and Arkham Asylum. Go DC!

o 2M likes on NFS World got me to run it again. I got 3 random cars that are ok but I wouldn’t have really chosen. At least none are american. Haha.

Hardware

o Still not able to fix that higher than the rest temperature on the 3^rd core of my home pc

o Got to install work pc’s Thermaltake Frio and I’m happy with it. Lost 10 to 20 degrees. And it’s now overclocked to 4 GHz. I should really get myself to finish my 2 years… comparison.

Hardware News

o Intel’s released their Haswell Devil’s Canyon CPU’s and I’m very interested especially with the i5-4690K

o AMD’s new laptop APU’s are interesting

Those are pretty much what I can recall about June. Let’s see how the second half goes.

Speedy Speedy Drives (Part 1)

I’ve never been a big supporter of SSD upgrades. They do have advantages, though, but knowing your priorities, they can be too expensive for what you get.

First SSD involvement this month was having a pair of 256 GB Samsung EVO’s on the new PC at work. They came a few days after the PC so I was the one who installed them. I chose 2 of them to try out the performance benefits of RAID0. In the end, it proved no advantage in Perform3D. Boot times did lessen and I’ve already found that to be great, but for the actual work, meh.

Second SSD buy, this time it’s personal, was a 160GB Intel that I found in TipidPC. I meant to install it the next day, but I wasn’t successful in restraining myself. The result: The sluggish 5-year-old laptop that’s been sluggish ever since, boots under a minute and facebook within the next. Oh, it’s not really that personal as it serves as a gift to my mother who’s the primary user of that laptop.

(to be continued…)