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Vulcans and Andorkians
Vuart (May 2012)
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Merry Christmas!
As I figure, no one, and I mean no one, is working this week. Everyone is on holiday, with their loved ones and family. I'm also taking a little break.
So, here are a couple of non-music things that I've been using:
IPAD MINI
It's hard to believe that it's only been three years since the iPad was introduced. Despite me thinking what a crap name "ipad" was, I think the name is probably well-accepted with people now. Originally, I said that I would wait for the iPad 2, but, of course, I didn't take my own advice and bought a cellular first generation iPad. I love it, but I should have waited for the iPad 2. As a punishment, I waited three years to upgrade to the iPad Mini. Again, I wanted to wait for the iPad Retina, but the price was right for the iPad Mini.
Hardware
I honestly don't have an issue with the non-retina display of the first iPad Mini. The screen still looks incredible, and playing 720p videos on it looks amazing. I may change my mind if I got around to playing with a retina screen, but again, I think at the "smaller" size, the image looks great.
As for the physical size, it's larger than typical android 7" tablets. At first I didn't think I liked the "fatty" size of 4:3, but watching old television shows (all the Star Trek pre-Enterprise for example), I love it. I spend most of my time watching TV shows anyway, so I don't mind the 4:3 thing.
Software
I have iOS7 running on the iPad which is awesome compared to old outdated iOS. Last night, just in time for Christmas, it was announced that iOS7 is now jail broken. I really want to jailbreak, but I don't know. Any great/must-have applications that is available on Cydia that I must own? Probably not.
One of my main reason why I decided to stick with the iPad (and not go to Android) was that I previously already own a ton of (paid) applications, movies, television shows, on all my previous Apple device. The unfortunate thing is that I just didn't want to re-pay for the same applications on other platforms.
Plus, I know that videos (with subtitles) ripped on Handbrake will work on the iPad with hidden closed caption or subtitles. I'm not familiar with the Android Video player to know how it handles .H264 or subtitles.
Cellular
So I bought the Verizon version. I mainly want the cellular version of iPad for the built-in GPS.
I tried activating Verizon in Chicago, but it failed. Now I can't seem to reset the cellular. After connecting to regular wifi, it said the iPad was activated, yet it doesn't connect to cellular. I think it wants me to "add" the iPad to my existing Verizon account (which I don't have). So basically it keeps asking me for a Verizon phone number, which, again, I don't have one. It sucked. My previous AT&T iPad experience was awesome, I turned on and off their service whenever I felt like it - I never had this much problem before.
On top of their expensive data plan ($20 for 1gb of data), I'm not going to recommend a Verizon iPad. Get an AT&T iPad instead, you'll thank me later.
GATEWAY DX4870-UB318
I've been rocking this since August. For $400, you get a great Intel Core i5-3330 and pre-formatted Microsoft Windows 8. The 8gb of DDR3 ram was a vast improvement over my previous AMD computer, which, by computer's standards, is a dinosaur.
For the price, it's perfect. I rip movies, watch movies, and write/publish on this thing without any problems. Gaming works fine for the most part, but more intense games like Witcher 2, forget about it because the graphic card is integrated and it can't process high intensive graphics. None of the modern graphic cards sold today will run on this thing because the power supply is at bare minimum of 300 watt.
I think eventually somewhere down the line, I will have to replace the power supply and graphic card, which will set me back an additional $200.
However, I would likely just wait for five years and buy another computer for $400 and it will probably be a vast improvement over what I own now.
As I figure, no one, and I mean no one, is working this week. Everyone is on holiday, with their loved ones and family. I'm also taking a little break.
So, here are a couple of non-music things that I've been using:
IPAD MINI
It's hard to believe that it's only been three years since the iPad was introduced. Despite me thinking what a crap name "ipad" was, I think the name is probably well-accepted with people now. Originally, I said that I would wait for the iPad 2, but, of course, I didn't take my own advice and bought a cellular first generation iPad. I love it, but I should have waited for the iPad 2. As a punishment, I waited three years to upgrade to the iPad Mini. Again, I wanted to wait for the iPad Retina, but the price was right for the iPad Mini.
Hardware
I honestly don't have an issue with the non-retina display of the first iPad Mini. The screen still looks incredible, and playing 720p videos on it looks amazing. I may change my mind if I got around to playing with a retina screen, but again, I think at the "smaller" size, the image looks great.
As for the physical size, it's larger than typical android 7" tablets. At first I didn't think I liked the "fatty" size of 4:3, but watching old television shows (all the Star Trek pre-Enterprise for example), I love it. I spend most of my time watching TV shows anyway, so I don't mind the 4:3 thing.
Software
I have iOS7 running on the iPad which is awesome compared to old outdated iOS. Last night, just in time for Christmas, it was announced that iOS7 is now jail broken. I really want to jailbreak, but I don't know. Any great/must-have applications that is available on Cydia that I must own? Probably not.
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Guess I'm watching Star Trek tonight
Vu's iPad
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Plus, I know that videos (with subtitles) ripped on Handbrake will work on the iPad with hidden closed caption or subtitles. I'm not familiar with the Android Video player to know how it handles .H264 or subtitles.
Cellular
So I bought the Verizon version. I mainly want the cellular version of iPad for the built-in GPS.
I tried activating Verizon in Chicago, but it failed. Now I can't seem to reset the cellular. After connecting to regular wifi, it said the iPad was activated, yet it doesn't connect to cellular. I think it wants me to "add" the iPad to my existing Verizon account (which I don't have). So basically it keeps asking me for a Verizon phone number, which, again, I don't have one. It sucked. My previous AT&T iPad experience was awesome, I turned on and off their service whenever I felt like it - I never had this much problem before.
On top of their expensive data plan ($20 for 1gb of data), I'm not going to recommend a Verizon iPad. Get an AT&T iPad instead, you'll thank me later.
GATEWAY DX4870-UB318
I've been rocking this since August. For $400, you get a great Intel Core i5-3330 and pre-formatted Microsoft Windows 8. The 8gb of DDR3 ram was a vast improvement over my previous AMD computer, which, by computer's standards, is a dinosaur.
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Gateway DX4870-UB318
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I think eventually somewhere down the line, I will have to replace the power supply and graphic card, which will set me back an additional $200.
However, I would likely just wait for five years and buy another computer for $400 and it will probably be a vast improvement over what I own now.
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