Category: Hardware

New Windows Hardware

Greg Leave a comment

[sc:hardware-category ]A while ago Microsoft announced that licensing on Windows devices 8″ and under would be free to license Windows on.  It took many by surprise, but it seems to be working.

Recently there have been a host of announcements of new partners for Windows Phone and Microsoft has even brought the Blu Win Jr and HD to the Canadian Microsoft store as unlocked phone.

This is something I’ve been saying for a while, unless constrained by a carrier exclusive, every Microsoft store should have every Windows Phone device available as an unlocked version.  It’s good to see at least a little movement in this direction.

One the Windows front, lots of tablets have started to come out in the 8″ and under category, including some really dirt cheap ones under $70 (US presumably) for a 7″ tablet.

If Microsoft can continue to push these kinds of devices it would seem to be a great way to grow the market.  Especially with Windows 10 and a big push towards universal apps on the horizon next year.

Nokia 930

Greg Leave a comment

[sc:mobile-category ]I’ve been using my Nokia 925 for just over a year now and I am very happy with it, however a friend has been using a BlackBerry Z10 since it came out and he’s recently converted to a Nokia 930.

The first thing you notice about the 930 is the significantly different design esthetic in comparison to the 925.  The 925 is round and subdued, where as the 930 is more square and bold.  I have to admit I like the 930 design, it looks good and sits in your hand nicely.

It is a larger phone, the 5″ display looks beautiful but does increase the overall dimensions of the phone.  It’s not nearly as large as I thought it would be and is virtually the same width as my 925, just a bit taller and thicker.

It is heavier though, the larger screen and battery do take their toll.  It’s still a pretty light phone, but after having the 925 for so long it is noticeable.

The camera is very impressive, the 20MP sensor really does a great job of capturing images.

There are a few other thoughts:

  • Miracast support is cool, projecting your phone on to a big screen may not be really all that useful but just doing it for the first time is neat!
  • 6 rows on the home screen looks good on the HD display, but unlike the 925 which has an option if you want 4 or 6, the 930 only supports 6 which seemed a little weird.
  • No support for glance mode.  That display looks great but doesn’t have the required mode to support glance and I have to admit I have really become accustomed to glance.
  • No SD card slot.  Really?  REALLY?
  • Wireless charging built-in… yea!

One of the other advantages to the 930 is that Microsoft pushed out WP 8.1.1 to it first.

It’s a great phone, I won’t be trading in my 925 for it but if I was buying a new phone right now for some reason the 930 would be a the top of my list.

 

Smart Watches: Moto 360

Greg

[sc:hardware-category ]There hasn’t been a year go by that I haven’t looked at a smart watch of one kind or another and they all have shared a single common theme; rectangular.

The Moto 360 is the first smart watch that I can remember that has tried to break that mold and it looks like it going to succeed quite well.

I’m still not completely convinced of smart watch makes much sense as we all carry our phones with us these days, but the industry is very much behind pushing them so we’re going to see a flood over the next couple of months.  Google is pushing hard, Apple and Microsoft both look to have them coming out later in the summer/fall.

Most people who spend hundreds of dollars on watches (and I’m one of them) look for several things; shape, size, premium materials and features.  The previous generation of smart watches ignored almost all of these categories and failed.  The next generation is looking to have started to learn and the Moto 360 is the best example of this.  Smart watches have never wanted for features, but when talking about watches, features take on a whole new meaning that most tech companies haven’t gotten yet.

It’s not about heart rate monitors or pedometers, it’s about telling time.

I don’t care how many steps I took today and after the novelty of it wears off 99% of the rest of the population won’t either. After that, these “features” just become battery drains.

The single biggest remaining issue is run time.  A smart watch needs to run at least a week on a charge, we’ll see what this generation can do, but I won’t wear a watch I have to charge every day.

European Power

Greg

[sc:hardware-category ]I’m going to be traveling to Europe shortly and I’ll be taking my laptop with me, so it was time to look in to what I’d need to charge my electronics while traveling.

There are three electronic things I’ll be taking:

I’ll be traveling to several countries so the first question was did I need a plug adapter or a power converter?

Checking my different power adapters it turns out that the ZenBook and Braun both support both 110 and 220.  The Nokia just uses USB to charge so not a problem there as I’ll just be plugging it in to the ZenBook more than likely.

So a plug adapter should be all that I need.  I went to a local computer shop for something else I found a universal adapter that included a USB charging port, which pretty much dealt with everything I needed.

While there I also found a good deal on a Konnet Power Bank, as I’ll be in the air for 8+ hours I might need to boost the phone if I watch some movies or play some games.

Dell Venue 8 Pro and ASUS Miracast adapter

Greg

[sc:hardware-category ]When I purchased my Dell Venue Pro 8 I didn’t notice that it supported Miracast and quite honestly it wasn’t a feature I was really looking for as the only Miracast adapters were far too expensive.  Recently that’s changed.

I started looking for a Miracast adapter a while ago for my notebook, but I was unsure if it supported Miracast and didn’t want to shell out $150+ to find out for sure.  However I found the ASUS Miracast Adapter for a reasonable $56.99 over at Mike’s Computer Shop so I decided to take a chance.

The adapter comes with everything you need, a 90 degree HDMI adapter, a MicroUSB cable and power adapter and the Miracast adapter itself.

Plugging it all in was easy enough and in just a couple of seconds I had it waiting for a connection on my TV.  The ASUS unit displays on-screen instructions on how to connect to it, however it does assume your running an Android tablet.

Windows 8.1 has Miracast support built-in and swiping in from the right and selecting the devices charm let’s you project your screen on to the Miracast adapter.

The ASUS adapter uses a very long and complex name, which includes the device firmware version in it.  It’s a bit of a weird choice on ASUS’s part, but not a big deal overall.

After connecting the display is duplicated and everything worked fine… for about 30 seconds and then promptly disconnected.

This happened every time I connected to the adapter.

I decided to check the ASUS support site but there was nothing talking about disconnects, there was however a new firmware version.

If you’re using an Android tablet, firmware updates are pretty easy to do.  Otherwise you have to connect to the Miracast adapter via WiFi and manually upload the new firmware to the device.

It didn’t take long and after a few minutes it was back up and running.

After the update though the name of the adapter changed as the new firmware was no reflected in the adapter name.  This required me to delete it from my Venue and re-add it.  An annoyance at best but worth the effort as the firmware update resolved the disconnecting issue.

Once everything was up and going, the display was crisp and reasonably responsive.

Windows 8 on the Venue Pro is a very smooth experience in general, but the overhead of Miracast does make it a little jerky.  Nothing that makes it impossible to use, just not the butter smooth experience it usually delivers.

So far everything I’ve tried; Netflix, YouTube, Windows Media Player and more, has worked just fine.

Over the years I’ve tried to find a good media center PC to drive my TV, but I may have found a better solution in Miracast.

The only one small grip with the ASUS dongle is how wide it is near the HDMI port.  One TV I tried it on had another port right beside the HDMI connector and the ASUS adapter just would not fit.  Other than that, it does run a bit hot, but works quite well.