Nvidia Shield Price cut to $200

I was pleasantly surprised today, when I noticed Nvidia Shield is only $200 now http://store.nvidia.com/buyshield!

This may be a temporary price drop though http://www.anandtech.com/show/7899/nvidia-shield-price-cuts-and-portal

I am shopping for an Android device, since I need WiFi calling (inadequate reception in my home) Nexus 5 phone won't work for me, since stock Android phones don't support WiFi calling on Tmobile.

So have been thinking about Nexus 7, or getting non Nexus Android phone from Tmobile that has support for WiFi calling.

Started thinking about the Nvidia Shield again today, and was surprised to see it was in the news again, and price had dropped when I Googled.

Additional resources:

• Official site http://shield.nvidia.com/
• XDA (one of the best Android resources) http://forum.xda-developers.com/nvidia-shield
• All Anandtech Nvidia Shield articles http://www.anandtech.com/tag/shield
• Article that inspired my interest in the Shield http://www.anandtech.com/show/7190/nvidia-shield-review-tegra-4-crossroads-pc-mobile-gaming

Nerd News: Anandtech Live Stream

Link:  http://www.anandtech.com/show/7487/the-anandtech-mobile-show-live-tonight-at-7pm-et


Will be on Anandtech Youtube Channel http://www.youtube.com/blogs/anandtech, after live stream, and Andand said will be on Audio Podcast later

List of Topics to be covered:

The iPad Air
Investigations into Apple's A7 and Cyclone CPU Architecture
ASUS Transformer Book T100 & Retail Bay Trail
A Discussion of 64-bit in Mobile
The Haswell MacBook Pros
HTC's One Max
Brian's Initial Thoughts on Google's Nexus 5

Nerd News: Anandtechs's "They're (Almost) All Dirty: The State of Cheating in Android Benchmarks"

Really great article at Anandtech http://www.anandtech.com/show/7384/state-of-cheating-in-android-benchmarks about the "cheating" going on in Android benchmarks.

Covers the details of this mess, and as Anand has said repeatedly this has happened before, he has seen it before.

But the key aspect, IMVHO, was not directly stated in the article, though it is in the comments by Geekfool & Anand's response source:

geekfool - Wednesday, October 02, 2013 - link

It seems like these cheats are an admission that that frequency scale-up under load happens too slowly, and that users will never get the speed they paid for because the battery / thermal dissipation can't support it. I would like a follow up that checks if the governor differences are noticeable to users as lag, dropped frames, etc.
The article touched on this slightly when mentioning the difference between the Nexus 4 and its LG branded equivalent. It seems especially likely to be noticeable with the A7 / A15 split on the Exynos

Anand Lal Shimpi - Wednesday, October 02, 2013 - link

Bingo! I had a whole section about the embarrassment that is software DVFS before culling it to keep the whole thing manageable.

I think that comment and response covers the meat of the issue, also explains why iOS with lower spec hardware tends to equal or exceed performance of stock skinned Android devices with twice the cores. 

For more on this issue comparing Moto X (dual core Android) to Samsung S4 (Quad Core Android) see http://www.anandtech.com/show/7235/moto-x-review/7

Anand & Brian cover this article and more in podcast that just came out few minutes before I started writing this blog post.

Podcast:  http://www.anandtech.com/show/7393/the-anandtech-podcast-episode-26

Anandtech review of Razer Edge

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6858/the-razer-edge-review

Good review by Vivek Gowri @vivg91

Vivek mentions that hardware wise the Edge is a "monster".

I totally agree with that, one point I would emphasis, is that this is only Windows 8 Tablet I can find that has 8 GB of RAM!

Twice as much as any other tablet.

All that RAM plus SSD mean the Edge should work very well for most mobile business use, unless you need a portable workstation.

I used work with business people that had to travel all the time, I can see people like that, that are into gaming, might well pick the Edge to replace laptop for travel.

Even if their not into gaming, if they need for more than 4 GB of RAM, this would be only tablet available.

Even if work picks up the bill for checked luggage, carry on luggage is only stuff you can count on making it to your destination.

And you can carry a Edge + ARM tablet for same weight as single laptop, while having redundancy for basics like email.

Nerd Gear: Anandtech's articles on GeForce Titan

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6763/highend-meets-small-form-factor-geforce-titan-in-falcon-northwests-tiki

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6760/nvidias-geforce-gtx-titan-part-1

I'm not going to pretend I know half as much about GPU's as the Nerds at Anandtech, go read their articles!

Nerd Gear: Microsoft Surface Pro Insights

After reading Paul Thurrott's Going Pro: Thinking About Performance article http://winsupersite.com/windows-8/going-pro-thinking-about-performance, I came across this in the Comments section from another reader:

saqrkh on Feb 10, 2013

After having used the Surface Pro now for 36 hours, I think it will shine most in an office/work-setting for most people. At work we carry our laptops around for meetings, presentations, to our colleagues and bosses for feedback on work, etc.
Being much lighter and capable (touch and digitizer/inking) the Surface Pro is a superb alternative to the traditional laptop for each of those functions. Even the sub-par battery life would be a non-issue since we always come back to our desks.
Unfortunately, the battery life on this thing isn't good enough to make it a professional's best friend. That said, for the here and now, it's a great partner to have with you whilst in the office.

I have mentioned before, I am real interested in the Surface Pro, but after reading Anatech's article, http://www.anandtech.com/show/6695/microsoft-surface-pro-review, decided I will wait until Haswell before considering it, but saqrkh's comment above really resonated with me.

That is very close to the use case I was looking at from the Blackberry Playbook.

The Playbook was a real disappointment for me, like the hardware, but it seemed more like an Alpha than Beta product.

I had been looking at it as device that would tightly pair with my Blackberry Bold, for me personally I hate carrying laptops or even tablets around if I can avoid it, I already carry a lot of other gear.

So I tend to use smartphone 4-5 hours every day for things most people use Tablets or even Notebooks for, but a larger screen and keyboard will speed things up if you need to do a lot of writing or data entry, also allows one to be involved in a meeting far more than if your squinting at a small screen.

After the success of the Galaxy Note, and the Note 2, I know I am not the only one that feels that way. The Galaxy Note will replace my Blackberry Bold & much of what I wanted to do with the Blackberry Playbook.

Hopefully with Haswell the Surface Pro, or perhaps a Lenovo or ASUS tablet, will solve problems and use cases that the Galaxy Note 2 doesn't.

Otherwise I will still have to lug around a laptop, or what usually happens to me, limp along with my phone, since those situations tend to arise unexpectedly.

Nerd Gear: Anandtech Review Surface Pro

Anandtech's Microsoft Surface Pro Review http://www.anandtech.com/show/6695/microsoft-surface-pro-review

I have been waiting for this, I am really interested in Microsoft's Surface Pro, looking at eventually getting either a Surface Pro or iPad, though I believe the Surface Pro compares more directly with the 11" Macbook Air, see Anandtech's iPad 4 review  and Macbook Air review for comparisons.

If you read the comments of the Surface Pro review, Anand says he will try and run the 11" MBA through their new laptop power tests to give comparable numbers for people to compare Surface Pro directly with 11" MBA for battery life.

But it looks like they are roughly comparable for battery life about 4-5 hours with light use.

The Surface Pro & base model 11" MBA both use the 1.7 GHz i5-3317U CPU and the integrated GPU.

Weight wise, if you count the weight of either keyboard cover option for the Surface Pro, it falls between the 11" & 13" Macbook Airs.

Respective Weights:

• MS Surface Pro 2.0 lbs without cover http://www.microsoft.com/Surface/en-US/surface-with-windows-8-pro/specifications
• Touch Cover MS says less than 0.46 lbs (scroll down to tech specs) http://www.microsoft.com/Surface/en-US/accessories/touch-cover
• Type Cover MS says lest than 0.55 lbs (scroll down to tech specs) http://www.microsoft.com/Surface/en-US/accessories/type-cover
• Macbook Air 11" at 2.38 lbs or Macbook Air 13" at 2.96 lbs (scroll down to "size & weight") http://www.apple.com/macbookair/specs.html

Total weight of Surface Pro + Touch Cover is ~2.46 lbs, total weight of Surface Pro + Type Cover is ~2.55 lbs, vs Macbook Air 11" at 2.38 lbs or Macbook Air 13" at 2.96 lbs.

I had been debating getting a iPad 5/6 next spring (Spring 2014) or a Surface Pro to replace my 13" ASUS Laptop running Windows 7.

My laptop is one of the UL30V series, has weak discrete G 210M GPU in it, http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-G-210M.17638.0.html, no where near real gaming laptop.

When I bought it just wanted something that would run SC2 in addition to other less demanding games, which it does fine.  SC2 runs fine at low to medium settings which was all I needed when I bought it.

I have a more powerful machine now, and girlfriend wants to build a gaming rig, so we will eventually have a couple of powerful gaming machines.

But I want something that is easily portable for use away from home, after reading these reviews, think I will wait for a Haswell upgrade to get a Surface Pro.

Or a Haswell Macbook Air with Retina?  But that would probably be twice the cost of a Surface Pro :/

A lot depends on your use case & budget.

Can't say I *need* more than I have right now, my laptop still runs plenty of games from Steam no problem, and I only use it for gaming anymore when I am out of town for more than a day.

Edited to add:  I have been reading a lot of comments from various people on Surface Pro, the most interesting was about a device demoed at CES, that I liked, but totally forgot about.

The Razer Edge! 

Razer's site http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-edge/

Anandtech's comments from CES on it http://www.anandtech.com/show/6649/razer-edge-impressions-and-thoughts

If your looking to get something before Haswell, this probably makes a lot more sense, since it has a GT 640M LE, http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-640M-LE.72199.0.html.

Now I am really confused, I am not a fan of Razer's stuff, IMO they are over priced on many of their products.

Not bad stuff, but your paying for the name vs the performance frequently IMO.  I do have a couple of friends that have one of their keyboards or gaming mouse. I use a Das Silent (Cherry MX Brown) keyboard myself, IMO Cherry or Alps keys are the way to go, see http://www.daskeyboard.com/blog/?page_id=1458#keyswitches for more on keys, but which exact brand/layout (backlit or not, "quiet" or not) is just matter of personal preference.

The Razer Edge does look very slick, both the keyboard & gamepad docks support external battery that about doubles battery capacity.

So for light to moderate usage, using extended battery, you could probably come close to equaling iPad or Nexus.

Though gaming with it will burn the battery quickly.

Nerd Gear: Anandtech reviews entire Intel 525 SSD line

They test 30 GB- 240 GB, I am actually interested in the small ones for couple projects I am thinking about for my home network experiments.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6725/the-full-intel-ssd-525-review-30gb-60gb-120gb-180gb-240gb-tested

Nerd Gear: Anandtech Reviews Thermaltake Level 10 M Gaming Mouse

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6526/capsule-review-thermaltake-level-10-m-gaming-mouse

I am a bit interested, still not convinced high end mice are any better than normal mouse.

But I used to feel that way about keyboards, before I got my DAS Silent.

This mouse is $99 and isn't right hand biased, which is important to me, since I primarily use my left hand for mouse.

I do switch to right hand for some things.

Also when doing mouse intense stuff all day long, I tend to flip between right and left hands on regular basis to avoid fatigue.

But then I have practiced more than just mouse stuff with both hands, in large part of because of my martial arts & weight lifting, try to have equal strength and skill on right and left side of my body.

AnandTech Pod cast, worth listening to

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6487/the-anandtech-podcast-episode-11

I liked the whole podcast!

Think many hardcore Nerds will be most interested in the Nexus 4 LTE section.

They follow an outline & provide a timeline for each point, so you can skip to specific topic.

I suggest listening to the entire podcast though, if your interested in deeper learning.

There are lots of juicy little tidbits you can pick up between the lines.

Example, I am real interested in Windows 8 phones, so was interested in what they had to say about the Lumia 920.

I like the live tiles concept, and I am also looking for a new platform that has comparable security to my Blackberry that I am moving away from, to a Galaxy Note 2, because of my doubts of RIM's future.

Looking at Windows phones as a likely candidate for secure mobile platform, since the only other real choice is iOS, which works and has great device security, but I really don't like the UI and total lack of multi tasking.

So little tidbit I picked up, related to problems battery testing on the Lumia 920, was they hadn't been able to hack the short timer for shutting screen off (ie power saving), like they were for most phones that didn't allow shutting that feature off completely.

Not the same as a detailed examination of the devices security, but a useful bit of data IMO.

Nerd Gear: Anandtech reviews 2 Rosewill Keyboards

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6475/capsule-review-rosewills-illuminated-keyboard-and-rk9000bri-keyboard

I suggest close reading of the last section of that review, where they talk about the differences between Cherry Switches.

I also suggest this from Das on differences between switches http://www.daskeyboard.com/blog/?page_id=1458#keyswitches

Full disclosure, I use & love, a Das Silent, which should have Cherry MX Brown switches on it, though I haven't removed key caps for cleaning yet (what can I say, I would rather game than clean).

I do a lot of typing and more than a little gaming.

I do plan to buy a few different mechanical keyboards to test out various switches, as my budget allows, to compare on a personal level the differences.

I want to have a mechanical spare keyboard, instead of the bluetooth spares I rely on currently.

Plus my girlfriend wants a better keyboard, and she isn't as picky as me, so any extra mechanical keyboard can always be donated to her.

Nerd Gear: Anandtech reviews the Google Nexus 4

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6440/google-nexus-4-review

Anandtech is my favorite site for reviews, they tend to provide more depth and objectivity than most other "tech" sites.

Plus, they still come up with stuff that is new to me, and I don't mean devices,  so I keep learning things from them.

Nerd Gear: Anandtech reviews T Mobile Galaxy Note 2

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6386/samsung-galaxy-note-2-review-t-mobile-

Galaxy Note II on T Mobile is what I plan to get myself for Christmas this year, and I am becoming convinced that Anandtech is one of the best places for reviews on electronics.

I wish they had more articles, but pretty sure the reason they have fewer than some other places, is that they actually spend time testing and using stuff before writing about it.

They also have first touch articles, but those are clearly labeled, so you know up front if your getting a real review, or just impressions from a trade show or event.

Most, if not all of their writers, also do a good job at separating facts and observations from opinion and preferences.

Something that I, as a writer, really appreciate, a lot of online sources of so called "information" don't seem to make an effort at that, or perhaps lack awareness of the distinction.

Anyway, I don't have anything objective to add ^_^

I haven't found anything to dislike about the Note 2 so far, other than ridiculous price on T Mobile, not sure why they are $70 more than anyone else, maybe that is typo or something, or they want people to buy the phone elsewhere?

Nerd Gear: "ASUS F2A85-V Pro Review: A Look at FM2 with A85X"

Anandtech review and discussion http://www.anandtech.com/show/6360/asus-f2a85v-pro-review-a-look-at-fm2-with-a85x

If your like me you can find hardware a bit confusing at times, Trinity processors add to that complexity, as Anandtech article linked above says:

"The main point of confusion comes in the face of chipsets, whereby multiple sockets and processor families can use the same chipsets and each motherboard manufacturer has a different naming scheme in order to differentiate the two."

Anandtech always seems to do good reviews, and I think this article is helpful in understanding Trinity.

Not that I claim a deep understanding of it at this point!

Fortunately I have a few friends that are real hard core computer nerds that I go to when I need help ^_^

Nerd Gear: Dell U2713HM review from Anandtech

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6308/dell-u2713hm-unbeatable-performance-out-of-the-box

I find, after getting a 27" iMac, that 27" is bigger than I want for most applications, I use it of course ^_^ but as I get my home office set up the way I want, the 27" screen will eventually be used primarily for viewing when I am standing.

Working on a custom desk setup that will work for both sitting and standing use, for better back health.

I find the 23" or 24" screens to be sweet spot for size, but I will definably be going Dell for my next screens.

But then I am looking at having 5-6 screens total, counting laptops, sadly that is for work not gaming T_T

Though once I have the hardware, I will probably get a good A-10 simulator.