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Introducing the MSI Claw

Read More ROG Ally Now enter the ROG Ally from Asus. The ROG Ally will address all the things that I wanted in my Steam Deck: Windows, faster chip, better screen, higher resolution, pleasing looks, and the ability to dock in their enhance graphics … Lenovo I bought the Lenovo Legion T5i 26IOB6 Gaming PC for $850 today from MicroCenter. This is a great price, it’s about 40% off the original asking price. Most of that money probably goes to the Nvidia 3060 video card. … Steam There’s no more waiting… You can now buy Steam Deck, right now, without reservation. According to steampowered, it’s been more than a year since it was first announced, but due to numerous supply chain issues and …

The handheld gaming space is heating up with another contender: MSI Claw A1M. This PC handheld gaming device was announced at CES 2024 (Consumer Electronic Show).

I’ve been following this gaming space for a while now, and always happy to see something new… especially, if the competition will bring in better performance and pricing.

I can’t afford another handheld, having own the Switch, the original Steam Deck, and ROG Ally, I just can’t justify spending another $700 on either the Legion Go or MSI Claw… but, I am looking into them and seeing what they can bring to the table.

So what makes the Claw stand out with all these handhelds? It’s the first one to use Intel, instead of AMD that all previous handhelds have used… so it could be a game changer. I’m a fan of Intel actually… as all my desktops that I own are powered by Intel i7 or i9 chips.

If the Claw’s Intel chip can produce a more powerful gaming experience, I will be the first in line to shout its praises. Again, I probably won’t be buying it, unless I see some massive improvement over my ROG Ally.

In my own experience with both Intel and AMD, I found that games and software run better and faster on Intel. AMD are generally much cheaper in pricing, but runs slower (but since it’s inexpensive it’s forgivable).

The other cool thing about the Claw, besides that awesome/awful name, is that MSI will be supporting the device with a custom dock with External GPU to enhance the Claw. Right now, the only viable eGPU solution is the ROG Ally, because of its proprietary connection, is very, very expensive. I am going to assume the Claw’s eGPU/Dock solution is also expensive. There’s a lot that we don’t know about… but I’m definitely interested in seeing more of the Claw.

Anyway, I’m excited to see another entry… but it’s probably too little and too late.

Here’s a comparison chart below. I have not included any Chinese companies, such as Aya Neo or OneXPlayer, because they do not have a US presence. You can always import their handhelds, but you’re never going to see their product at Best Buy or MicroCenter, etc. You will probably find MSI in stores, if they push it into retailers… I wouldn’t mind checking them out at Target (and who knows I might make an impulse purchase).

The other thing to note is that the Rog Ally was (perhaps it’s still on sale?) on sale for $599, making the AMD Z1 Extreme version an amazing deal and value.

The biggest thing between these handhelds is the software. Most people love the ease of use of the Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck… and Windows 11 might not be for everyone. These Windows devices all have special software to make it useable on the handheld, for example, ROG Ally has their Armoury Crate and Command Center and Lenovo has Vantage… MSI will have their own software called MSI Center M. We don’t know anything about it yet… but I can tell you that since ROG Ally came out in June, they have been updating their software to squeeze out bugs and add a lot of new features.

Compare	Nintendo Switch OLED	Steam Deck OLED	ROG Ally	Legion GO	MSI Claw
Release Date	September 20, 2019	November 2023	June 13, 2023	October 2023	March 2024
Price	$349	$549	$699.99	$699.99	$699.99
O/S	Nintendo	Linux	Windows 11	Windows 11	Windows 11
CPU	ARM 4 Cortex-A57	AMD Zen 2	AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme	AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme	Intel Core Ultra 7
Memory	4 GB LPDDR4 @ 1331/1600 MHz	16 GB LPDDR5 @ 5500 MT/s over 4x 32-bit memory	16 GB LPDDR5 @ 6400 MT/s on dual channels	16 GB of 7500Mhz LPDDR5X RAM	32 GB of LPDDR5-6400
Storage	64 GB eMMC with microSD	512 GB NVMe SSD with microSD	512 GB NVMe M.2 SSD with microSD	512GB of PCIe Gen4 SSD with microSD	512GB of PCIe SSD with microSD
Screen	7-inch OLED at 1280×720 @ 60hz	7.4-inch OLED at 1280 × 800 @ 90hz	7-inch LCD 1920 × 1080 @ 120 hz	8.8-inch LCD 2560×1600 @ 144 Hz	7-inch LCD 1920x1080 @ 120 hz
Controllers	Removeable Joycons	Standard controllers with two touch pads	Standard controller	Removeable controller	Standard controller
Power	4310 mAh Li-ion battery at 39 watts	5200 mAh Li-ion battery at with 45W Charger	40 watt 4S1P, 4-cell Lithium-ion battery with 45W Charger	49.2 Watt 900mah Battery with 65W Charger	6-Cell, 53 Watt Battery with 65W Charger
Weight	420 g (15 oz)	669 grams (1.475 lb)	608 grams (1.340 lb)	854 g (1.88 lb)	675 g (1.48 lb)
eGPU	No	No	ROG XG Mobile (expensive)	Yes but limited to USB-4 speed so not much to be gained	MSI eGPU with dock designed for the Claw

Yours,

Weekend Gamer

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vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Weekend Gamer: PC Handhelds 2023

Read More Steam There’s no more waiting… You can now buy Steam Deck, right now, without reservation. According to steampowered, it’s been more than a year since it was first announced, but due to numerous supply chain issues and …

Steam Deck OLED
steampowered.com

Faced with competitions from Asus ROG Ally and the recently-released Lenovo Legion Go, Valve announced the new Steam Deck OLED.

The Steam Deck OLED addressed most of the complaints of their first version of the Steam Deck… mainly a better display and a better battery life.

While I’ve had the original Steam Deck since August 2022, I didn’t immediately notice how bad the screen was until I had the ROG Ally to compare it to. Looking at a side-by-side image, you can clearly see the clarity of the ROG Ally display vs the original Steam Deck.

Since Valve decided to keep its original 800p display, I don’t believe it will compare to a native 1080p or better resolution. However, looking at 800p on an OLED display will probably look fantastic.

Almost everything inside the Steam Deck have been upgraded, including larger cooling fan and maximum storage to 1TB (previous Steam Deck maxed out at 512GB).

Unfortunately, the processor is still relatively the same speed… which means the ROG Ally and Legion Go still have a speed advantage over the Steam Deck. The other unfortunately thing is that the Steam Deck still uses SteamOS, which is based on Linux… meaning that some Windows-based games (like all the anticheat software) will not run on the Steam Deck.

As a handheld gaming enthusiast, I am very interested in playing around with the Steam Deck OLED… but as someone who owns the original Steam Deck (and with a gaming budget), this is probably a pass for me.

NOTE: There’ll be a limited-edition version of the Steam Deck OLED which has a transparent case. It looks great, but I would imagine that it will be priced above $700. For that price, I would rather get the Legion Go.

Read More Lenovo I am very excited about this, because I am currently rocking a Lenovo Legion Gaming PC since Nov 2022, and it’s a pretty solid desktop PC. It comes with an NVIDIA 3060 card that can run any modern games. …

Legion Go
lenovo.com

You know I’ve been interested in the Lenovo Legion Go since August 2023, and now, in November 2023, the Legion Go is out now.

In my original writeup, I said that Lenovo is somewhat late to the game. And as much as I am interested in testing out the Legion Go, I already own the Steam Deck and ROG Ally, so I don’t really need yet another handheld in my life.

The pricing is the same as the ROG Ally, but for $50 more you can upgrade the storage to 1TB. However, for $100 more, MicroCenter will upgrade the storage to 2TB for you… making the total price $800.

If you don’t own a PC handheld gaming device, all the devices offer something different. Steam Deck is Linux and user-friendly, ROG Ally is Windows, and now the Legion Go offers the largest display (8.8 inches) and detachable controllers. The two standout features of the Legion Go might tip gamers in their direction, but unfortunately the size and weight doesn’t exactly make it portable. If you’re looking for a large display and controllers (including first person mode), the Legion Go sounds like it’s for you.

For me, I’m all in the ROG Ally world, because the 1080p/120hz display is so good, and it’s small and portable. It’s smaller than the Steam Deck, which is a monster (it’s larger than you think).

I say all this, but if I have the extra cash and I see it in stores, I might bite and do an impulse buy.

Read More ROG Ally Now enter the ROG Ally from Asus. The ROG Ally will address all the things that I wanted in my Steam Deck: Windows, faster chip, better screen, higher resolution, pleasing looks, and the ability to dock in their enhance graphics …

ROG Ally
asus.com

I’m more interested in seeing the upcoming Switch 2 or “Super Switch”… even though I probably won’t buy it. The original Switch processor is very slow and any current modern games won’t even run on the Switch. The last game I bought, it suffered from horrible stutter, I realized it’s not a great gaming device. I’m hoping the Switch 2 will be much faster.

If Switch 2 games are not compatible with the original Switch, then I definitely will not be buying the Switch 2. I don’t want to re-buy all my games… no one does.

I hope there’s a Steam Deck 2 (unlikely since they just announced the Steam Deck OLED) in the works… and I’m hoping for a new ROG Ally 2. What I would like to see in a future ROG Ally is the ability to use any eGPU, two USB-C, official dock, better battery life, better grip/design… maybe take a cue from Valve and put in a great OLED screen.

While we wait for the ROG Ally 2, Asus released the inferior (but cheaper) version of the ROG Ally. The cheaper version uses the Z1 chip (vs the faster Z1 Extreme chip) and costs $599. Personally speaking, I suggest spending the extra cash and getting the Z1 Extreme chip, which is currently selling for $620 because of the upcoming Black Friday Deals.

If you really want to save, the Z1 version is currently on sale for $500 because of Black Friday, and it’s a fantastic price.

Right now, my handheld gaming device of choice is the ROG Ally. When I’m not gaming on the go, I have it docked with the ROG Azoth Keyboard and a 32 inch monitor, for a desktop experience. The device is powerful enough to run all my Windows software and I can use it as a secondary productivity device.

Yours,

Weekend Gamer

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vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Weekend Gamer: Lenovo Legion Go

Lenovo Legion Play Read More Lenovo I bought the Lenovo Legion T5i 26IOB6 Gaming PC for $850 today from MicroCenter. This is a great price, it’s about 40% off the original asking price. Most of that money probably goes to the Nvidia 3060 video card. … ROG Ally Now enter the ROG Ally from Asus. The ROG Ally will address all the things that I wanted in my Steam Deck: Windows, faster chip, better screen, higher resolution, pleasing looks, and the ability to dock in their enhance graphics …

According to Windows Central, Lenovo will be entering the handheld PC gaming market with its Lenono Legion Go device.

Based on what we know, it could look similar to their Lenovo Legion Play product, which shown in 2021, but was never released.

I am very excited about this, because I am currently rocking a Lenovo Legion Gaming PC since Nov 2022, and it’s a pretty solid desktop PC. It comes with an NVIDIA 3060 card that can run any modern games.

However, is it already too late, especially with the market dominated by Steam’s Steam Deck and Asus’ ROG Ally? For enthusiasts, they might also imported other handheld makers like Aya Neo, OneXplayer, GPD Win (all from China). I guess it depends on pricing… if the Legion Go can offer something better, at an affordable price, I can see a scenario that fans like myself, might end up owning both the ROG Ally and Legion Go.

According to Windows Central, the standout features of the Legion Go will be a bigger 8-inch screen, the latest Windows 11 OS, and AMD’s new Phoenix (Ryzen) processors.

According to the Legion Play listing at whatmobilez.com, the handheld had a network dual SIM (5G), had a duo camera system (64MP and 16MP), with a AMOLED display was a 1080p at 388PPI. Hopefully these features will carry over to the Legion Go, especially that AMOLED screen.

If Lenovo is smart, they would focus on a better software experience and emphasis on better, longer battery life.

Everyone who owns the ROG Ally will tell you that setting up the device was a nightmare, taking over four hours to work out the non-popup keyboard or doing all the Windows updates. Plus, the Armoury Crate Software is not a great experience. The software is slow and is very buggy. Sometime it works, sometime it doesn’t. It’s not good.

Since I already use the Lenovo Legion, I’m already familiar with their Lenovo Vantage software, which is used to control its lighting and monitor/manage GPU/CPU. It would make sense that Lenovo would implement the software on the Legion Go to easily switch to controller mode for their handheld.

Another advantage that Lenovo could do is allow the Legion Go to use any eGPU to boost its gaming capacity. This would be a massive saving, since the ROG Ally uses a proprietary external GPU connection.

On top of that, Lenovo recently released the Lenovo Tab Extreme Tablet, which is a giant 14.5 inch Android tablet… but can double as an external monitor! Imaging gaming on the Legion Go on an OLED 3k screen!

Another idea is that Lenovo can also release an official dock that comes bundled an external HD and a small-foot print mechanical keyboard and mouse, with all Legion Go branding, I can see a compelling reason to go with the Go.

Lenovo’s biggest problem is going to be price. If they sell the Legion Go for anything above $800, it’s going to be a ‘no’ for many people (especially if they already own the cheaper Steam Deck).

Having said all that, the Legion Go may never be release, Lenovo hasn’t officially made any announcement yet.

P.S., I’ve previously mentioned that I would love to see MicroSoft, if you’ll excuse the pun, get into the game, with its own Xbox Go handheld. Think about it, I can see it running a Windows 11 “Handheld Edition” or perhaps a custom Xbox OS, scaled for handheld.

Read more Technology and Weekend Gamer .

Lenovo to enter in the handheld PC market with the Legion Go

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Weekend Gamer Update: Memorial Day Weekend

Windows 11 Pro Product Description Instantly productive. Simpler, more intuitive UI and effortless navigation. New features like snap layouts help you manage multiple tasks with ease Smarter collaboration. Have effective online meetings. Share content and mute/unmute right from the taskbar (1). Stay focused with intelligent noise cancelling and background blur. (2) Reassuringly consistent. Have confidence that your applications will work. Familiar deployment and update tools. Accelerate adoption with expanded deployment policies. Powerful security. Safeguard data and access anywhere with hardware-based isolation, encryption, and malware protection built in. Read More MicroSoft That’s because I just bought the Microsoft Office Professional 2021 lifetime license for $30, after reading about it on C-Net. The article referenced Stack Social, which I’ve never heard of until today. …

It’s Memorial Day Weekend, which means I have this Monday off and it’s a long weekend for me. As usual with these holidays, there are a lot of sales and deals all across retailers. I’m planning on going to a few Half-Priced Books to take advantage of their 20% instore purchases. The problem with HPB is that their stocks are limited and are vastly different from store to store. You never know what you are going to see, day to day, store to store.

Best Buy is selling a lot of Bluray for under $10… but the cool thing is that the new Pixel 7a is being sold for $450, the first sale price since it was launched on May 10. That was fast! Even though it’s a $50 savings, it’s still not enough for me to want it. I’ve already committed to buying the upcoming iPhone 15 Pro Max, so I need to set aside roughly $1,200. I was never an iPhone guy, until I started using the $25 unlimited data/phone service from Visible. Now, it’s impossible for me to break away from the Apple ecosystem.

Anyway, over at Stack Social, I just purchased Windows 11 Pro for $40. This is the full product key, not an “upgrade” key, meaning you could use it on a freshly built computer. I just basically upgraded my Windows 11 Home on my current computer.

For most people, Home is just fine for everyone. There are some differences, such as local accounts and Hyper-V and some extra security options (as well as more faster updates), but for the most part, I personally didn’t need to upgrade to Pro… But the sale price was so good (it’s normally $199), that I couldn’t pass it up. As of this writing, I don’t have buyer’s remorse.

When Windows 11 first launched in late 2021, video gaming was a problem with stutter and lag… but it was related to driver issues for video cards. Now that it’s been out for a few years, there are no issues with gaming. Since I started using Windows 11 Home in Nov 2022, I have been impressed with its performance over Windows 10.

Fallout New Vegas Ultimate Edition

Speaking of games, Epic Games is offering Fallout New Vegas Ultimate Edition for free. You guys know I love Fallout, so naturally, I’m going to encourage you guys to get it for free. Of course, I already own this on various platform (GOG, Steam, Xbox, etc.), and you can usually find it on sale.

This is the Ultimate Edition, which means all the DLC are incorporated in this game, so there’s a ton of great content to go through.

Of all the Fallout games, New Vegas is one of my top three. A lot of fans did not like the game when it first came out, but over time, I believe they’ve turn around and would agree with me that it’s a great game. The game is 13 years old, and it could benefit from a remaster or remake of the game, in my opinion.

Also, ROG Ally Update: On the day that it was available to pre-order on May 11, 2023, I overreacted and immediately ordered it from Best Buy. It was at a location and a time (noon-ish) and at Best Buy, that I normally don’t buy from online, and at such a high amount, that the unusual activity alerted my bank to issue a stop on my bank card. I had to basically go to the bank and told them that I did purchase the ROG Ally. Unfortunately, the bank already put a stop on the payment. That’s fine, I suppose I’ll just have to go to the physical store on June 13th to see if I can just buy one at their store. It kind of sucks because my local Best Buy closed this year, so I need to travel to another city to visit a Best Buy now. You know, all this could have been prevented, if ROG Ally would just make it available at all retailers… meaning if I had purchased it from Amazon, my bank would’ve just allowed it.

I suppose it’s probably better this way. Now that I’ve seen early reviews, it’s not exactly “twice as fast” as they’ve been claiming. The truth is, it sounds like the ROG Ally is about the same as the Steam Deck… the only difference is that the ROG Ally runs Windows 11 out of the box. Basically, once I get the ROG, I’m calling it my ROG GOG because it’ll be my GOG and Battle Net machine. I just cannot wait to play Diablo IV on handheld.

Yours,

Weekend Gamer

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vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Google I/O 2023

Read More Google a Google home, as everything is built around the Google Home Hub application. If you don’t mind giving Google your information, you can use many of their services - for free. That’s the attractive thing, it’s mostly free. …

Here’s all the products announced at Google’s I/O 2023.

Pixel Tablet
We’ve seen similar designs from Lenovo, but hopefully the upcoming Google Pixel Tablet will be a faster and better experience. Like that other design, the Tablet is a picture frame when you dock it to the magnetic charger and speaker. If you want to use it as a tablet, you just pick it off the stand… think of it as a tablet that is always charged.

I’m not entirely sure if I will use it on a daily basis, since I already love my iPad 12.9 for the big display and fast processor… the Pixel Tablet is kind of a step down.

Pixel 7A
At $500, the “A-Series” of Google’s phones are the affordable version of their Pixel phones. I’ve been unimpressed with their previous A phones. The phones are not fast or flashy, they’re basically a budget/cheap version of their regular phones… Having said all that, I think the 7A is the phone that I’m actually interested in. That’s because, for the first time, their A phones are going to include wireless charging. I have been all-in on wireless charging, it is hard for me to go back to the old way of charging my phone.

While I’m not in the market to replace my iPhone 14, I might pick up the 7A as my backup phone… mostly because for a limited time, Google is throwing in a free Pixel Buds A-Series if you buy the new 7A phone. I have a Pixel Bud Mint Color and I think it’s one of the best earbuds I own. I love that rubber nub that locks the buds in my ear.

I guess it all depends on if I can buy the Asus ROG Ally (the better and faster Steam Deck) or not. I have already devoted my budget of $800 to buy the new handheld gaming PC.

Pixel Fold
As soon as I saw the price for this upcoming Google’s folding phone, at $1,800, that’s a hard pass for me. As cool as it looks, there’s no way I’m spending that kind of cash on sometime that is unproven. I would love for the price to be sub $1,000... that is the magic number for me.

As a fan of technology, I’m always interested in seeing new products. My complaint about Google has a bad reputation about introducing something and then not supporting it. Plus, I hate to say it, but their products look boring.

Still, I love the fact that I can find any Google products in retail stores, such as my local Target or Walmart. Knowing me, I might just end up buying their Pixel Tablet on a whim, while standing in line at a Best Buy or something.

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vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

My Movies 4 Pro

Read More DVD I usually put on one of my DVDs (see picture) and sleep mode on my television, the noise it makes gentle puts me to sleep. ...

As many of you guys know, I’m an avid collector of DVDs since 1997. I even bought my first DVD of Reservoir Dogs before I had a DVD player! I love this format, because coming from VHS and Laserdiscs, this new DVD format was smaller and more versatile and collectible.

I had a very large collection of DVD, so it made sense, at least for me, to keep track of them using an application on my computer. And since 2000, I was using DVD Profiler. When they released their software for iOS in 2010, I was one of the first people to buy it. It was great for a while… but unfortunately, the software has not been updated since 2018. There are some bugs in the iOS software that drove me nuts. For example, you couldn’t create a brand new DVD entry - it would only add DVD that exists in their catalog.

Then recently, when I bought my Lenovo Legion Gaming PC, I tried to sync my DVD Profiler on my phone to my computer and my DVD was destroyed through bad syncing. I didn’t have a DVD Profiler backup (my only backup was on my old Fallout Gaming PC). No problem, I guess I can start over. Unfortunately, scanning in the UPC of DVDs and Blurays was not great on DVD Profiler. It took forever for the camera to focus on the UPC, it would be impossible to scan in my entire collection.

The final straw happened on Friday, when nothing worked on DVD Profiler, because their servers was offline. It was time for me to move on.

Looking online for alternatives, I came across My Movies 4 Pro for $15. There is a ‘demo’ version for you try out, if you aren’t convinced. The demo only lets you add 50 entries.

So far, it’s a massive improvement over DVD Profiler. The UPC scanner is amazingly fast, and if you have a lot of films, like I do, this will save you a lot of time.

My Movies 4 is also available for the PC, but it actually works a little differently on the PC. It’s more of a movie streaming application that uses Windows Media Server… so I recommend just using the My Movies 4 app as a standalone app.

My only complaint is that My Movies 4 may take forever to “synchronize” with their servers. It takes a long time sometimes because the app takes a moment to download the high resolution front and back cover of the DVD or Bluray. Since I set my app to the highest resolution, it takes a moment for everything to sync. When it syncs, the app won’t allow you to add anything, so you’ll just have to wait until it is all downloaded.

The beautiful thing about the syncing process is that any DVD/Bluray that you add on your phone will magically appear on your iPad. This works much better than the old DVD Profiler, which requires you to manually sync to your PC (since the database is stored on your local computer).

For the most part, My Movies 4 catalog works well. Sometime I do run into a film that is not on their database. You can manually add in the UPC and photos of the cover artwork, so it works as you would expect (you couldn’t do that on DVD Profiler if you have a new iPhone).

Pro Tip: If you own a lot of discs, set the scanner to Multi-Scan and also set the Country to “All”. This is especially useful if you own a lot of movies from other countries. I wish I had known this when I started rescanning my collection!

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Humble Bundle

Read More Humble Bundle Game On: Humble Bundle I already own at least five of these games (on discs and digital), but I couldn't resist paying the average price to get these games again. When I donated, they gave me a breakdown of how ....

I’m currently a Humble Bundle subscriber since September 2022 when I got my Steam Deck. I previously joined for one year, starting April 2019 to April 2020, because it was a great way to building up your Steam library without paying too much. The only downside is that you don’t actually know what you’re going to get.

It’s a good deal, but unfortunately, because you don’t know what games you’re going to get - you may end up getting duplicate copies (if you previously own these games).

Anyway, there are some great charity Humble Bundle going on this month.

The Essential Content Creator Bundle

First, I wanted to spotlight the The Essential Content Creator Bundle, from Magix. You get six software (one of the software ProDAD mercalli v5 is only good for two years), but the clear stand-out product is the video editor VEGAS Pro 18 Edit. This is a $250 software that you can get for $25. For $25, it’s worth it just for Vegas alone.

Just a little background, but I used to use Vegas when it was own by Sony, it was one of the best video editor that rivals Adobe’s Premiere. Sometime in 2016, Sony sold it to Magix.

I own Vegas Pro 14 and I recently tried to install it on my new Lenovo Legion PC and it wouldn’t register unless I de-activate previous installations. Keep that in mind if you intend on installing the software on various computers.

When I installed it on the new computer, last month, I contemplated on actually paying $150 to upgrade to Vegas 18… but I decided against it because it’s just too expensive. I’m glad I waited, because now I can upgrade to Vegas 18 for $25.

The other amazing deal is the Black Friday Encore: Lone Wolf & Cub and More by Koike from Dark Horse. If you missed the Black Friday deal (like I did!), here’s your second chance. For $18.00 you are getting over 7,000 pages of Lone Wolf and Cub. That, by itself, is an amazing deal. You also get Kazuo Koike’s other works like Crying Freeman and Samurai Executioner. I’ve own most of Koike’s works, so was happy to see they’ve included some books I’ve never read before.

I started reading Color of Rage, and it’s a hoot. It’s about two prisoners who escaped from a slave ship. One of them is a ronin and the other is a black man. The two travel throughout Japan helping people and trying to survive. It’s about racism, it’s about a stranger in a strange land... it would make for a great television show.

I’ve been reading the manga on my iPad Pro 12.8, and although it looks fine… the battery life is terrible and reading for an extended period time on a glossy LED screen is not recommended. I’ve been giving a lot of thought on buying the new Kindle Scribe (10.2 inch) or the Boox Nova Air Color (7.8 inches) to read comic books. They’re both e-ink, but the Boox having the ability to display in e-ink color (which is what I need if I want to read digital color comics).

Yours,

- Weekend Gamer

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vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Black Friday 2022

Read More Black Friday Sure, I didn’t need all those extra things in my life, but I couldn’t pass up these deals. The prices are Black Friday level (even better in many cases). …

With Black Friday coming up this Friday (November 25), we are already starting to see some really good deals on Bluray/UHD discs. Some of my favorite A24 films are on sale, including X, Everything Everywhere All At Once, and The Green Knight. I bought a ton of discs this week. Most UHD discs are $10 and Bluray are either $5 or $8. It’s really the only time that I make mass Bluray purchases.

Over at Target, the best deal I’ve seen is $200 for the Xbox Series S. That’s $50 off and a $50 Target Gift card (which is as good as cash). I’m very tempted to try and buy it, even though I already own the Xbox Series X (the superior version). But the price is so good that I’m really thinking about it. If you are going to buy an Xbox this year, you might as well get Elden Ring for $40. This is the lowest price I’ve seen for this amazing game. Honestly, Elden Ring is my Game of the Year.

Walmart has the best deals on 4K TV. They have a 50 inch ONN 4K LED for $150. Onn is Walmart’s brand, and for that low bottom prices, I’m not sure if it’ll have the quality. On the bright side, the TV has Roku built into the television. If you want to upgrade, Walmart also sells a TCL 65” 4k TV for $228 (also with Roku).

If you’re looking for a Macbook, Best Buy is selling the M1 MacBook Air 13.3” for $800 (a $200 savings). If you want this year’s MacBook Air, with the M2 chip, you can get it for $1,050… but from what I’ve read, it’s not worth the upgrade.

LG 48” 4k WebOS TV for $570

Also, the best OLED TV prices I’ve ever seen is for the LG 48” 4k WebOS TV for $570. This is a $730 savings, and I’m definitely looking at this very closely. I think the biggest problem is that I rarely watch TV. I spend all my time sitting at my computer and watch YouTube videos or movies I’ve ripped from my Bluray…

So maybe the better money might go to another 4k monitor? My current favorite monitor is on sale for $230. I bought the monitor for $320 in Apr 2022 and absolutely love the “Picture in Picture” feature: “There is another feature that they highlight, and I found it really useful. The monitor has the ability to do Picture in Picture (or as Samsung lists it PBP). What this means is that the monitor can display two simultaneous sources on the monitor at the same time. You have some options, side-by-side or a small popup screen (which you can position in four areas and with varying sizes). The P-i-P is the best thing about this monitor.”

If you’re looking for a new PC or laptop, I would recommend looking at MicroCenter’s Black Friday sale. They have my Lenovo Legion PC for the same amazing price of $850. I’ve said it before, the video card (3060) costs $400 by itself(!), so to have it come with your computer, it’s a steal.

MicroCenter also sells really cheap Wyze cameras. Their v3 camera with color night vision is $30. I currently own two Wyze cameras that I use for my security cameras.

This year, I’ve already started my Black Friday shopping last week. Most retailers already started their sale last week. I’ll be looking at bigger purchases sometime this week, since some retailers won’t unveil their biggest deals until closer to Friday.

Read more Black Friday, Movies and Television.

Vu’s Early Black Friday Bluray/UHD purchases

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

TP-Link Deco W6000

Read More Tracfone The other day, I ran into an endcap display of Straight Talk Home Internet. I was interested, because two months ago (in September 2022), I got rid of my DSL home internet service and was basically using my phone’s internet as a hotspot. …

In the latest Straight Talk Home Internet saga… I had to upgrade my Wireless access.

So here’s the recap. The Straight Talk router is upstairs to get the best 5G signal. My main desktop/gaming PC is downstairs in my bedroom. My old Fallout iBuyPower PC struggles to connect to Straight Talk router, and when it does connect, speed was slower than my cellphone’s 4mbps.

I bought a new Lenovo Legion computer with the latest WiFi 6, hoping it will fix my slow speed internet. While it did fix the problem, the speed was not great (20mpbs) and there’s barely a one-bar WiFi connection. This tells me the connection is weak or too far away.

Basically, what I needed is to have more access point for my home network. The solution is to get a some sort of home mesh network. After looking at Google Wifi (now called Nest) and TP-Link Deco, I decided to go with the latter, based on features and pricing. I bought the Deco W6000 (aka AX3000 Whole Home Mesh Wi-Fi 6 System) two-pack for $150 (so about $75 for each Deco).

Between the two Decos, it promised to cover up to 5,000 square feet, so this should fit my needs. In addition, TP-Link’s app would monitor congested network and also parental controls, if you need it.

Setting up the device was easy. You need to hook up one base via an ethernet cable to your modem. This Deco is now the primary base station. Other Decos that you install in the house will be satellite station, passing on the internet. The system is smart enough to see if your PC can use the 5Ghz band and will automatically connect you to the fastest lane.

Download Speed

After some firmware updates and rebooting and re-adjusting the location, it would seem that I’m now rocking with fast internet on my Lenovo Legion computer.

Everything is working. I’m fully satisfied now.

I’ll give it a few days to see how the new Deco network holds up. If it’s rock solid, I will probably be buying another one to cover the garage area (which is a deadzone).

Yours,

- Weekend Gamer

Read more Technology.

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Weekend Gamer: Warhammer: Vermintide 2 free on Steam

Read More Warhammer 40,000 I got the free promotional game Warhammer 40,000: Darktide - Imperial Edition when I bought the Lenovo Legion. At first, I thought the game code is inside the box, but that is not the case ....

Weekend Gamer here. Just a reminder that the Warhammer 40,000: Vermintide 2 is free until November 7th. The giveaway is due to Fatshark’s next game Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, released seven years ago.

In addition to the free game, Steam is also giving away a free DLC Trail of Treachery, starting November 8th (mark your calendar!)

This is exciting, considering that if you bought a NVIDIA 3060, 3070, 3080, or 3090, you were also given a free copy of Warhammer 40,000: Darktide - Imperial Edition (which I happily redeemed Nov 2).

There’s never been a better time to be a Warhammer 40k fan.

Additional details:

November 30th marks the release of Fatshark’s next game Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, an intensely brutal cooperative game set in the Warhammer 40,000 world. This release will be the 3rd installment of “Tide” releases over the past 7 years and adds to the already critically acclaimed Vermintide series.

Throughout November and leading up to the release of Darktide, there'll be activities and updates from Fatshark for all "Tide" players to celebrate its launch. This includes a free copy of Vermintide 2*, a free update to Vermintide 2 (Trail of Treachery DLC), access to play Darktide early for pre-order players, and a free download of the Devoted Rejects DLCfor all Vermintide 1 or 2 players who jump in and play Darktide.

For a limited time only, you can download Vermintide 2 for free and keep it in your library forever

Read more Weekend Gamer.

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com