A stereo Bluetooth headset. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
After watching the commercial on Sony SBH50 Bluetooth headset (using NFC tech), I have to say I’m drooling for one. Sure, the price tag of whatever is never a pleasant thing, but me me me see what a beautiful way to relinquish that cumbersome smartphone. When it comes to a smartphone, some people like it big like a tablet so they can call it as a phablet. I do like to have a phablet moment too, but there are times that I just want to be free from a phablet (i.e., smartphone with big screen) completely. I can see that Sony SBH50 Bluetooth headset is definitely going to set some people free from a phablet (somewhat… as NFC has a wireless range limit), and hopefully this thing will be just as awesome as how it’s being advertised. Check out Sony SBH50 Bluetooth headset (using NFC tech) video right after the break, and you will see what I mean as this little gorgeous player does a lot more than just being NFC poster whatever.
Is Chromebook Pixel real or just a concept? It seems that arstechnica reported that Chromebook Pixel is indeed a real product. According to arstechnica’s “Google’s new touchscreen Chromebook Pixel: a $1,299 laptop for cloud dwellers” article, Google had just announced the existence of Chromebook Pixel. If Chromebook Pixel is real, so? The buzz about Chromebook Pixel is that it’s an exotic animal. By this I mean it’s basically a machine which mainly focuses on staying connect to the Internet only, but it’s a very gorgeous only online machine (if we discount that it does have some offline features). I’m sure it got some offline features, but it is designed to be working with the cloud. It’s no surprised really since Chromebook Pixel is a more expensive version of other Google’s Chromebook products. So, Chromebook Pixel is more of a beast among Chromebook products, but its core functionality is still all about cloud functionalities. Simply really, Chromebook Pixel is just a lot more gorgeous in terms of screen resolution and other whistles and bells.
arstechnica reported that Chromebook Pixel has screen resolution of 2560×1700 with 239 pixel per inch, 1.8GHz Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB RAM, 32GB flash storage for Wi-Fi model and 64GB flash storage for LTE model. By purchasing Chromebook Pixel, a customer will get 1TB of Google Drive cloud storage for free for 3 years. Cloud storage? If you never heard of cloud but know of Dropbox, then Google Drive is somewhat similar to Dropbox. 1TB of Dropbox would be nice eh? So, if you like Dropbox that much, then I guess 1TB of Google Drive is definitely one of those temptations that is hard to refuse.
It seems that the screen resolution for Chromebook Pixel is the main focus, because 2560×1700 is a lot. It’s a beast! I’m not a fan of i5 processor, therefore in term of processor Chromebook Pixel is a let down for me. 4 GB of RAM only? In my opinion, 4GB of RAM for any machine from today onward isn’t enough (but you might think otherwise and I don’t mind). Since Chromebook Pixel is an always online machine, 32 or 64 GB of flash storage does make sense until it doesn’t. How come? In my opinion, the 2560×1700 screen is a waste on Chromebook Pixel. I’m reasoning that whoever wants to work with such beautiful/exotic screen resolution might need to store humongous sizes of visual data (e.g., videos, photos, etc…), but what Chromebook Pixel doesn’t carry — Chromebook doesn’t support USB 3.0 and 802.11ac Wi-Fi speed — will hamper the productivity of whoever wants to use Chromebook Pixel in a more hardcore manner.
Now, if Chromebook Pixel supports USB 3.0 and 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard, even though Chromebook Pixel doesn’t have huge local drive storage space, I will definitely want a Chromebook Pixel for myself, even with the current might be Chromebook Pixel’s price range $1200 – $1400. How come? Let pretend that I’m a real photographer (because I’m only an aspiring one), I definitely have tons of photos and videos to store, to make backups of, and the likes. With USB 3.0 support, I can use USB 3.0 capability to speedily transfer my videos and photos back and forth between the external hard drives and Chromebook Pixel, because making data backups is so important to people like the photographers. Let say I’m a paranoid data integrity and data redundancy freak, and so if Chromebook Pixel supports 802.11ac standard, I can definitely speed up my backup of data to the cloud.
You see, I think Chromebook Pixel lacks some really important features even though it is obviously designed to be an online only machine. I think Chromebook Pixel should not emphasize an online only machine to the point that alienates the good features that it supposes to carry for offline needs. Instead of carrying USB 3.0, Chromebook Pixel carries USB 2.0. We know USB 3.0 is the way forward, but people are also comparing USB 3.0 against Thunderbolt too. This is why it’s so weird for me to see Chromebook Pixel carries only USB 2.0. Perhaps, not carrying any USB support at all might make more sense than not carrying USB 3.0? Also, faster Wi-Fi is always a must have feature. We know that we have the faster Wi-Fi capability through 802.11ac standard/capability, but Chromebook Pixel decides to not support 802.11ac?
Besides the lack of various important features I mentioned, Chromebook Pixel does look like a very nice toy. From what I’ve seen of it, it looks nice! The screen, the body, and the shape of Chromebook Pixel speaks to me in a very positive manner. Simply put, I love the overall look of Chromebook Pixel. Unfortunately, it reminds me of Macbook products. Fortunately, I think it might look even better than Macbook Pro, but I’m not sure unless I can see and touch it (only see a video of it). Oh yeah, if you think I’m a Mac fanatic, then you don’t know me at all. Obviously, that should be the case since you don’t know me at all in real life. Nonetheless, let me reveal to you something about me, I’m also a Windows 8 and Linux fanatical sort of person. If I know another good sort of OS-brand-hardware type out there, I might as well be a fanatic for such too…
Before I end this post, let me say that you can also reach out and touch that beautiful Chromebook Pixel’s screen. How come? It’s a touchscreen yo! Check out the Chromebook Pixel in the video right after the break. Enjoy!!!
Went to Apple Store and got a replacement for iPhone 5. The one that Apple sent to me the first time around was Wi-Fi glitchy (i.e., disconnected and super slow) and camera glitchy (i.e., purple halo/flare glitch). The replacement fixed the Wi-Fi connectivity issue, but the camera glitch had not yet resolved. Anyhow, while I was at the Apple Store for the iPhone 5 replacement, I took two snapshots of Apple Store with the replaced iPhone 5. Afterward, I used Lightroom 4 to stylishly glitch up the snapshots. Check out the results right after the break.
Original iPhone 5 Photo Of Apple Store Image 01
Lightroom 4 Retouched iPhone 5 Photo Of Apple Store Image 01
Original iPhone 5 Photo Of Apple Store Image 02
Lightroom 4 Retouched iPhone 5 Photo Of Apple Store Image 02
I have a mixed bag of a personal customer satisfaction for iPhone 5 really! On one hand, it’s a more powerful device than the older iPhone iterations, but on the other hand iPhone 5 does have few quirks that are really bothering me. Such quirks are Wi-Fi slowness occurs from time to time (i.e., sometimes it’s fine) and purple halo camera glitch. Nonetheless, with that being said, I find iPhone 5′s adoption of true LTE (i.e., real 4G speed) is quite pleasing. Please check out the video right after the break to see the speed test of iPhone 5 LTE on AT&T LTE network.
Technology brands such as Cisco are beginning to push out new Wi-Fi gadgets that adhere to the the new Wi-Fi standard which is 802.11ac. 802.11ac Wi-Fi adhered gadgets will be able to wirelessly work with much higher data transfer rate than wireless equipments that support 802.11n and older Wi-Fi standards. Theoretically, 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard will be able to allow wireless equipments to transfer wireless data at 1.3 Gbps speed which is 3 times faster than wireless equipments that support the 802.11n Wi-Fi standard. Nonetheless, in practice the 802.11ac Wi-Fi adhered equipments may push wireless data at a much lower speed than the advertised 1.3 Gbps wireless data speed, because it’s all relative to the network bottlenecks. Such bottlenecks might be that a network is simply being too busied (i.e., too many computers hog the same router for data transfer at the same time), too many wireless signal interferences that weaken the 802.11ac router’s 5 GHz wireless signal (e.g., physical barriers, out of range, more than one devices that use the same wireless channel), and so on.
For Cisco, the company announces that it will release EA6500 router which will adopt 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard. While Cisco is working on to push its new EA6500 802.11ac router out, D-Link Cloud Router 5700 (DIR-865L) which also supports the new 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard has just came out and you can buy it on Amazon for around $190. Nonetheless, Buffalo AirStation WZR-D1800H wireless router was the first router that supports 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard, and this too can be bought on Amazon for roughly around $180. Buffalo AirStation WZR-D1800H wireless router doesn’t seem to go beyond regular router features besides its adoption of 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard, but I could be wrong. Nonetheless, the other two routers that I had mentioned (i.e., Cisco EA6500 and D-Link Cloud Router 5700) are supporting cloud features in addition to the support of 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard. These cloud features in these new routers promote usages such as allowing users to control their network remotely and easily through mobile apps. Furthermore, users can install apps onto the routers to allow even more cloud features. Nonetheless, I’m not sure how these cloud features will exactly enhance the experience of using a router since I have yet to own and use a router which has cloud features.
With few 802.11ac wireless routers are now available for purchase, I think people are eager to grab them. And they should do so!!! How come? Obviously, more wireless electronic brands will most likely release wireless electronic equipments that support 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard. Some people might worry that replacing an 802.11n wireless router with an 802.11ac one will render their current 802.11n and older wireless electronic standard equipments unusable, but this worry of theirs is pointless. It’s most likely that new 802.11ac routers are backward compatible to 802.11n wireless electronic equipments.
With 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard becomes evermore popular, we can expect that more wireless electronic equipments will abandon the older Wi-Fi standards and adopt 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard. Nonetheless, as of now, you probably will not be able to find that many wireless electronic equipments that support 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard. This is why I think if you want to purchase a future proof wireless electronic equipment starting today, you should think twice about purchasing a wireless electronic equipment that supports any Wi-Fi standard that is slower than the 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard. After all, faster wireless data transfer is definitely better than otherwise, right? Still though and relatively speaking, don’t let me stop you from wanting to buy wireless electronic equipments that have yet to support 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard — because in the end it’s you who know best in what you need most.
Although Apple simply names the newest iPad yet as the new iPad, I prefer to refer to the new iPad as iPad 3! Why? It’s simply making more sense to call the third version of the iPad as iPad 3 than calling iPad 3 as the new iPad. This is my personal take anyway!
Should I buy iPad 3 even though I already have iPad 2? This question must be running through any iPad 2 owner’s mind lately. Of course, the answer to this question cannot be generalized since everyone is different in regarding to how one wishes to use iPad 2 or 3. Personally, I think I stick with my iPad 2 for the obvious reasons.
My iPad 2 looks shiny and new as the day I first unboxed it!
Although my iPad 2 is 3G capable, I don’t use it with 3G but with WiFi only — so iPad 3′s 4G LTE will not be useful to me!
iPad 2 has a camera which I rarely use, and so iPad 3′s better camera might be just as useless. A camera on iPad might be only useful for FaceTime, but taking photos with it would be rather cumbersome since it’s not easily to be handled as a smartphone or a real camera.
It turns out the speed of iPad 3′s processor is not much improved over iPad 2′s processor (i.e., hardly noticing). This website has a post on the comparison of the speeds of the processors of the iPad 2 and 3.
It’s well known iPad 3′s graphic is hugely improved over iPad 2, but come to think of iPad 2 graphic, it’s not bad. Plus, if I really want to see something gorgeous digitally, I would use my big flat screen TV anyway. Also, my Windows Desktop has a very nice 25″ monitor which works beautifully in term of displaying gorgeous images. I think iPad 2 is perfectly OK as displaying things on the go as it is. Perhaps, iPad 6 or 7 comes out, then I’ll upgrade just for the heck of it to have a how many more times gorgeous display on the go (i.e., how many more times better graphic than iPad 3).
iPad 3 has more RAM than iPad 2. Even though iPad 2 has half of the RAM of iPad 3, I don’t see myself doing anything that is so RAM expensive on a tablet that I have to go for iPad 3. Come to think of it, iPad 3′s 1 GB of RAM isn’t so much more than iPad 2′s 512 MB RAM, because anything RAM heavy in traditional sense might have to be 2 GB of RAM or more. Well, that’s my take anyway on RAM spec for iPads.
iPad 2 is thinner and lighter and has the similar battery lifespan as iPad 3, I think I’ll stick with iPad 2 for now!
iPad 3′s design isn’t so different or better than iPad 2, therefore I don’t see iPad 2 is out of fashion in term of trend.
Perhaps, when I buy iPad 9, I can brag I still have iPad 2 all along — and it looks shiny as the day I first bought it!
The reasons above are my take on why I should not buy an iPad 3! Of course, the people who never have had an iPad ever, they should not follow my reasoning on why I should not buy an iPad 3, because they don’t even have an iPad yet! Plus, I think the first generation iPad owners should consider an upgrade to iPad 3, because the specs for iPad 3 are vastly improved over their first generation iPad. It’s just that I think iPad 2 owners might need to think twice before they decide to upgrade their iPad 2 to iPad 3, because it’s just too expensive and too early to do so (i.e., the improvements of iPad 3 over iPad 2 aren’t vast). To end this post, I have to say the day I see myself upgrading from iPad 2 to whatever iPad newest version yet is the day that I have to use an app that is too powerful for iPad 2 to handle!
