Nerd Gear: "Allwinner A31 Quad Core TV Stick/Mini PC sample Review"

Very interesting looking Mini PC http://blog.geekbuying.com/index.php/2013/03/06/allwinner-a31-quad-core-tv-stickmini-pc-sample-review/

Specs below from link above, does seem like a Beta product, not ready for full production yet based on review:

• SoC – AllWinner A31 quad core Cortex A7 + PowerVR SGX544MP2 GPU
• System Memory – 2GB DDR3 RAM
• Storage – 8GB NAND Flash + microSD
• Connectivity – WiFi 802.11b/g/n
• USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port, 2x mini USB ports
• Reset button-Build in
• Video Output – HDMIVideo Codecs – Mpeg1/2/4.H.264,VC-1,Divx,Xvid,RM8/9/10,VP6Video Container Formats – MKV, TS, TP, M2TS, RM/RMVB, BD-ISO, AVI, MPG, VOB, DAT, ASF, TRP, FLV etc.
• Audio Formats – MP3, OGG, WMA, WMAPRO
• Dimensions – 97*38*12mm
• Weight – ~32g

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: "Samsung Galaxy Note 2 USB Connection Kit"

Link for above VOD http://youtu.be/eRE3EH9enK8 from Himesh's Tech Tips and Reviews http://www.youtube.com/user/himesh123456789

Connection kit like that demonstrated in VOD, Samsung S2 & S3 Multi-functional 4 in 1 Connection Kit : USB /SD Card/Micro SD/Micro USB Inputs, there are also OTG cables like the Micro USB to USB Adapter for Galaxy S3, Note II smart phone and Note Tabs .

I also think these new high cap USB sticks like the Kingston Digital HyperX 3.0 DataTraveler   are usful for OTG cable, you can use external HDD with OTG cable, but you need external power for the HDD then, since OTG can't provide that kind of power.

For more on OTG http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_On-The-Go

You can certainly use a high capacity micro SD card, or SD card with the adapter, but a USB 3.0 flash stick like the Kingston HyperX will be a LOT faster for downloading or uploading movies or whatever from your computer, as long as your machine has USB 3.0

Especially if your wanting to play with HD or Blu-ray!

BTW if anyone knows what that micro mouse might be please let me know, don't think I've ever seen one that small before.

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: Black Hornet Nano UAV

1"x4" Black Hornet Nano UAV

Article http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=62e9b044-0871-46b8-bf7b-f4b1cbcee60f

These are really interesting.

Not just for Sensor, but platform could also be used for Mesh Network I suspect.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_mesh_network

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

CES Coverage resources

I will put several links for live blogs, streams, etc for CES 2013 on this blog post.

Will update throughout the week.

CES Links:

PC Perspective main site http://www.pcper.com/ & live link http://www.pcper.com/live/

 ComputerWorld  http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9234982/Complete_coverage_CES_2013

AnandTech  main page note Pipeline section at right side http://www.anandtech.com/

     Brian Klug's CES bag http://www.anandtech.com/show/6545/ces-gear-whats-in-my-bag

     Vivek Gowri's CES Bag http://www.anandtech.com/show/6556/ces-gear-whats-in-viveks-bag

     "AT&T Developers Summit Keynote" Live Blog http://www.anandtech.com/show/6560/att-2013-developer-summit-keynote-live-blog

Android Police  main site http://www.androidpolice.com/ 

Daily Tech http://www.dailytech.com/

PC Mag http://www.pcmag.com/CES/

CNet CES http://ces.cnet.com/

Ars CES Gear  http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/01/ars-ces-gear-its-totally-my-bag-baby/

Things from CES I like   (some neat, some useful, some both):

• Fuel Cell from Lilliputian Nectar Mobile Power System, PC Perspective link, Wiki entry on Fuel Cells, TL DR version of fuel cells="functions like a battery that has indefinite shelf life."  Good for Urgent or emergency power.
• Storage Visions - The Panasonic DataArchiver - 108TB of Blu-Ray Archival Storage in a 6U Chassis.  I have no need for this, but think it is cool. 
• Lenovo Gaming Laptop with SLI!  http://www.anandtech.com/show/6583/lenovo-ideapad-y400y500-gaming-notebooks-with-sli
• Razer Edge Pro Gaming Tablet i7 CPU, NVIDIA GT 640M LE GPU http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-edge-pro 
• Kingston DataTraveler HyperX Predator 1 TB USB 3.0 Flashdrive!  http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/ces_2013_kingston_wields_1tb_usb_flash_drive_video
• TYLT Vu (cool better designed wireless charger Qi standard) http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/01/08/ces-2013-the-first-thing-at-ces-i-actually-want-the-tylt-vu-a-wireless-qi-charger-that-actually-works/
•  Muskin's High Performance Ventura Ultra USB 3.0 stick  http://www.anandtech.com/show/6606/muskins-high-performance-ventura-ultra-sf2281-usb-30-stick
• Dropbox will be included on all Samsung Phones  http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9235500/Dropbox_to_be_included_on_all_Samsung_flagship_phones_and_camera

Nerd Gear: Computer Cases Cosmos II vs Thor 2 vs Obsidian 650D

Still working on ideas for gaming computer for girlfriend, so that we can game together, we only have one machine that can handle much in the way of games at the moment, here are some of the cases I looked at today:

• Cooler Master Cosmos 2: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5451/cooler-master-cosmos-ii-large-and-in-charge
• Rosewill Thor V2:  http://www.anandtech.com/show/4648/rosewill-thor-v2-the-god-of-cooling-and-silence
• Corsair Obsidian 650D:  http://www.anandtech.com/show/4529/corsair-obsidian-650d-transmuting-graphite-to-obsidian

I welcome any additional suggestions, don't have any real preferences at the movement, other than I want a quality case, cause I will probably use it for 10+ years, and it needs to support water cooling & high end GPU's for future upgrades.

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.

Nerd Gear: GE develops Neat Thin, Quiet Cooler

GE Dual Piezoelectric Cooling jets.

These looking interesting from gadget perspective to me.

But I think I would go with Thermoelectric Cooler (aka Peltier), with water cooling for heatsink if I was going for exotic cooling.

Below is a VOD showing Peltier/TEC cooling of a CPU (not the best quality VOD for audio)

Nerd Gear: Battery Life of 10 & 7 inch Tablets compared

http://blogs.which.co.uk/technology/tablets-ebooks/which-tablet-has-the-best-battery-life-infographic/

I'm sure all of you have read individual reviews of most if not all of these Tablets, but this short article shows battery life in minutes of all the main Tablets in two charts/graphs for easy at a glance comparisions.

They measure in minutes, not hour:minutes, which makes sense, but threw me at first glance.

They used 200 nits and running video, so if your browsing your gonna see less time with most of the platforms.

Nerd Gear: "Sub-Zero Weather: Can Your Smartphone Stand The Cold?"

http://www.pcworld.com/article/249134/sub_zero_weather_can_your_smartphone_stand_the_cold_.html

Came across this interesting article, while doing some research, my gf is planning on biking to work all winter, ordering studded tires for her Bike this week, and she was wondering about taking her work laptop back and forth that way when it is really cold.

Told her condensation would probably be biggest problem most days she felt like biking in the winter vs taking car.

Seems like that is probably the case, as long as you let device warm to room temperature before using.

I know I have used Feature Phones (aka Dumb Phones) in the past when it was very cold, approaching -40 Fahrenheit/Celsius (-40 is same in either system).

The phone was in my coat or pants pocket, always worked when I needed it to, but I was in and out of the car, so not sure how cold the phone really got then.

Was delivering News Papers on weekend one Fall/Winter, mainly rural and one small town, also burned out tranny in my car with that job busting snowdrifts over the hood of my car! 

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: The Difference i5 vs i7

This is the best article I have found for clearly explaning the difference between an i5 cpu and an i7 CPU http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2404674,00.asp

I don't know if it will help if your comparing a something like a laptop with  http://ark.intel.com/products/50072/Intel-Core-i5-2540M-Processor-3M-Cache-up-to-3_30-GHz  to one with http://ark.intel.com/products/52231/Intel-Core-i7-2620M-Processor-4M-Cache-up-to-3_40-GHz?

Or similar gap for a desktop.

I think for most people the i5 is going to be a better choice, if you want or need an i7 then by all means get one.

This is something I agonized over for at least 3-4 weeks before getting my newest computer.

I am not a bleeding edge gamer, I don't do video editing, and while I will probably do some video editing sooner or later, it will only be occasionally, not every day.

Based on that, I couldn't think of a situation were I personally would be limited by a fast i5 and not with an i7 CPU.

So I decided to go with i5 quad core that runs at 3.1 GHz, a good but not great GPU, and only 4 GB of RAM.

Except for the RAM, which I am planning on upgrading to 16 GB on my birthday, this has worked out very well

I am using more than 90% of my RAM on a daily basis, so going to upgrade it to 16 GB so I don't have to worry about it.

Additional Links:

• http://www.anandtech.com/show/5872/intel-dual-core-ivy-bridge-launch-and-ultrabook-review
• http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-l3-cache.htm

Nerd News: Lumia 920 Brick Fix (try at your own risk)

I have no way to evaluate this, I don't have a Lumia 920 bricked or otherwise.

If you attempt this you might make things worse.  This youtube channel only has one other VOD uploaded, so no way to tell anything from that either.

Link to Youtube http://youtu.be/O4tU4oRkyAs

Nerd Gear: Beer Keyboard!

"Do you know what you get if you combine 44 beer cans with an Arduino board and a Raspberry PI ? I tell you : fantastic user engagement!" from http://arduino.cc/blog/2012/11/19/the-arduino-powered-beer-keyboard/

More information at http://robofun.ro/create/beer-keyboard/

Nerd Gear: Android Controlled LED Lamp

See http://www.myledlamp.net/ for more information.

They offer a free version of the app for Android, and instructions for Arduino, and other information you need to build your own.

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: Phonebuff's "Samsung Galaxy Note 2: Top 10 Features"

The written version of article can be found at http://www.phonebuff.com/2012/11/samsung-galaxy-note-2-top-10-features/

As I have mentioned before, the Galaxy Note 2 is the smartphone that I am planning to upgrade to, though I keep looking for more information, that is just the way I am, I don't assume there isn't something more to learn.

I liked this review, hope you find it useful as well, if you know of any other really good reviews, either Pro or Con, about the Note 2 please leave a reply.