Im-Geeking-out

Coding like a maniac…. Please standby

justinhub2003 — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 22:28:42 +0000

Watch this Space! Interesting Ideas are in the works.

Android is Catching Up in Mobile Web Browsing

justinhub2003 — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 02:57:11 +0000

Man, Android has been really picking up steam lately. AdMob has released its data for the month of February and Android is now only trailing iPhone OS by 2 points (44% vs 42%). This is impressive being as Android is not just up against iPhones but against iPod Touches as well. Keep in mind, this is only in the US as Android hasn’t been the success in other parts of the world (or as widely available) so its still has some catching up to do in the world wide market. I have supported Android months before its release and rode out those rocky times during the release of the G1 but still never lost faith that not only would Android grow into a very mature OS but also that it would one day dominate the Market. Its Not a matter of IF anymore, its a matter of when and that day is coming very soon.

http://metrics.admob.com/2010/03/february-2010-mobile-metrics-report/

gdgt gadget list

justinhub2003 — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 02:39:21 +0000

Nexus One: Thoughts, Customer Service Experience and Protecting it

justinhub2003 — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 17:20:55 +0000

So its been a good while since my last post, what can I say I have been a busy (but also very lazy) man lately and I have since made the move to a Nexus One and I thought I’d share some of my experiences with the device so far. I’m gonna break it into a few parts since its too late for a review and I have had the device a few months now and have run into some issues that no one with any sort of good luck would have run into. That said here goes:

My Short Review and Thoughts on the Device

The day the Nexus One was announced, all I could do was pull out my credit card and drop down a good chunk of my hard earned cash. I mean WOW, I was in love, Google had finally put together everything I wanted in an Android phone: A big beautiful hi-res screen, blazing fast processor, amazingly thin design and most of all, it was being sold by Google, so I can pretty much expect updates coming to the device very fast. I was literally Blown away. I was even more blown away that I received the device the next day and anxiously tore through the packaging like a kid on Christmas morning. It was the most beautiful phone I had ever held at that point and certainly the most well built Android device on the market. I was in love (and still am) with this phone, the interface was polished and the hardware was stunning. It was all I was asking for in an Android handset.

Performance wise, this thing was a beast. I have owned the T-Mobile G1 (rooted and unrooted), The Mytouch 3G (rooted and unrooted), & The Motorola Cliq (not for long on this one, terrible phone!) and became accustomed to what I called “Android Lag”, but man the Nexus One showed me that if Android is on state of the art hardware , it runs smooth as butter. Things like the app launcher and the new the Photo Gallery were just giant leaps of progression from early Android handsets. I can’t count how many times I have pulled my Nexus from pocket, to have a stranger ask with excitement “what phone is that”. I honestly can’t say that ever happened with my G1 which proves that after some failed attempts, HTC and Google had finally nailed formula. To conclude: the Camera was great (flash was a nice touch) , the screen looked amazing, the software was fine turned and the hardware was just the right balance between beauty and durability.

The Glitter is Gone: A Run in with HTC Customer Service

They say good service can overshadow a bad product but bad service can ruin the best of products. This almost happened in my case when my Nexus One had came down with a very pronounced rattling sound that could be heard when the phone was sat on a table or shaken (the rattling sound was present the day I received the phone however worsened daily). I had never once dropped the phone (not even into my pocket, I protected it with my life and gently guided it to the bottom of my pocket each time) and still I had this issue. I searched the web and found no wide spread issue so I assumed my issue was isolated and in need of a replacement. Here is where the trouble started: I then called into HTC’s Nexus One customer line and spoke with a rep who advised me that he had escalated the issue and that I would be contacted in 2 days about a DOA replacement of the device. Needless to say 2 days past with out a call. So Five days later , I decide to call in myself to see the status and low a behold, they tell me that I again would be escalated and to expect a call in 2 days. 3 Days pass and I finally call in and demand a manager and am told that the escalations department already has my case and will be again calling me in 2 days, I decide that, that answer is not good enough and am finally able to get the DOA replacement set up. The DOA replacement required me to have HTC hold $50.00 of my money and required me to first send in my device to have them check for user inflicted damages. I send in my device on a Monday and they receive it on a Wednesday. I was promised that since it is a DOA replacement, that my new phone would be shipped back either same day they receive it or the next day. However 7 days go by and I don’t receive any word from HTC, just that they received my phone. I call in numerous times for the status and am told they could not tell me anything. Every HTC rep I spoke with was more clueless than the last. I finally had to send a very angry email to HTC’s demanding for at the very least my old phone back because this was not the process I was told about. So in conclusion, yes I finally received my device and yes it took them a total of 10 days after receiving it and yes I was deeply pissed off and not because of the wait but rather because it’s not the process I was explained it to be and the lack of knowledge from the Reps.

Thats only half my bad luck as just 2 weeks ago I am pulling my unprotected Nexus one from my pocket and I lose a grip on it and literally watch in slow motion as it hits the hard pavement taking chunks from the phones metal encasing and destroying the power button. My heart was broken into tiny little pieces however a wave reassuring calm over took me as I remembered that a few days after purchasing my Nexus One, I had contacted T-Mobile about adding Assurion Insurance for my Nexus One. So literally after a brief inspection of my phone and deciding I could not live with the damage, I decided for the first time to utilize my options of an insurance claim. I called Assurion, and they set up the claim for me however I was told that the phone is out of stock currently and It would be in stock in five days and I would be contacted when it was. Hmm, this felt oddly familiar, being called back by a company with out me having call in and inquire about it? What a novel concept! As you can expect, 7 days had past (5 full business days) and I had not received a call, so I again had to be proactive and make the phone call to Assurion. Again I was told that the phone was out of stock and that they should be in stock any day now. I waited two more days and finally decided I’d had enough and wanted to speak with a manager and low and behold, the manager tells me that Assurion has NEVER had any Nexus One’s in stock and that the only option was for me to repurchase the device and then have them reimburse me 400.00 (I paid 530.00 but there is a 130.00 deductible). I was again appalled, not by process but rather because if they would have told me this from the first day I would have had a phone the next day and been closer to getting my money back from Assurion (it takes 3 to 4 weeks to receive a refund). Wow, was my luck bad, not only did I have to go without a Nexus One for 10 days when I did the DOA replacement, I had to go 10 more with a broken device because of ill-informed Assurion reps. In the end, I have a working brand new Nexus One (though I still haven’t received my money from Assurion) and got what I needed however I made a total of 25 phones between HTC and Assurion and spoke with countless clueless reps that really left a bad taste in my mouth. GRRR

Protecting My Nexus One and Protecting me from Assurion and HTC

So the worst thing is that I broke my phone on Monday and my 2 cases I ordered online arrived the next day, how ironic! When I received my new device I was now hell bent on protecting it and keeping my ears away from the misinformation of HTC and Assurion. I purchased 2 cases, One from Cimo which is a Hybrid of silicone and rubber for the bargain price of $8.99 and one from Case-Mate which is 2 ply case with a rubber part that covers the device as a normal rubber case would and then the second piece is made of hard silicone that wraps around the rubber the protect the back and the corners and provides a very nice reassuring grip, for a whopping $30.00. I was torn between the sleek design and shiny back of the Cimo case and the ultra protective but bulky look of the Case-Mate. The case I used on the broken Nexus One while waiting for a replacement was the Cimo case. It made it look like an Iphone 3GS with its slick shiny back and I loved how it added only the slightest amount of additional thickness but I don’t think I could trust it in protecting my precious Nexus One in a serious tumbling accident on concrete.

When my new device came in, I right away carefully placed on a invisible shield and a popped on the $30 Case-Mate and haven’t looked back since. Though it adds a great deal of bulk, I just can’t afford to break this phone. While it adds a considerable amount of bulk to my pocket, its not to point where its uncomfortable. IF you’re looking for the best protecting for a very expensive phone I highly recommend the Case-Mate and if protection is not of the utmost importance, but rather look and feel then I gotta say the Cimo case is a great buy (especially at $8.99). You can find the Case-Mate here HERE and the Cimo HERE.

The Cimo Case

The Case-Mate

Dell Studio 1555 Review

justinhub2003 — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 03:11:00 +0000

So now that I’ve had some real hands on time with my new Dell Studio 1555 laptop, I’ve been wanting to write a review to help others in making the Studio series purchase as I had some real trouble finding reviews on said machine. This is my first higher end laptop and also my first time reviewing a computer as in general my forte is smartphones, however an obsession with smartphones led me to an obsession with computers (by computers I mean PC’s and Linux, not those fancy fruit bearing play things, No! im talking real computers) so here I am caught up in a gadget storm.

So first up, the tech specs and my config:

Model: Dell Studio 1555

Color: Midnight Blue

OS: Windows Vista SP2 64 bit w/ free upgrade to Windows 7 64 Bit

Screen: 15.6″ HD 900p 16:9 w/ glass edge to edge display

Processor: Intel Core2 Duo T6500 2.10 ghz

Memory: 8gb DDR2 800mhz

Hard Drive: 320gb 7200 RPM

Graphics/Video: ATI Radeon Mobility 4570 512mb DDR3

Wireless Card: Intel 5100 A/G/N

Bluetoooth: Yes (2.1)

Webcam: 2MP

Optical Drive: 8x Slot Load Super Multi (DL DVD+/-R Drive + Ram Support

Sound Card: Sound Blaster X-Fi (express Slot) W/ Integrated HD Audio 2.0 Speakers

Keyboard: 86 Key Backlit Keyboard

Other Standard features of the Studio 1555:

2x USB 2.0 ports

1x USB/eSata combo port

HDMI port

34mm Express Card Slot

8-in-1 Media Card Reader

2x Headphone 1x Mic Audio Jacks

4-Pin IEEE 1394 port

15-Pin VGA Port

Weight: about 5.6 LBS

Gigabit Ethernet

Standard 6 Cell Battery

So now that we got the tech specs out of the way on to the review.

This is my first time actually owning a Dell PC as a consumer, although I’ve used them in the corporate world as their Optiplex series is the desktop standard in the business world and never really had any issues but I wasn’t blown away, simply put, business PC’s are generally pretty Whack and mildly boring. That being said, I was slightly nervous about losing my high end PC virginity to Dell and was really hoping it didn’t leave a bad taste in my mouth. To be totally honest, I wouldn’t have went with Dell had my company not offered us to use its Dell Corporate discount and letting us have it taken out of our paychecks over the next year. I was already in the market for a high end PC but they just enabled me financially and more importantly, they wheeled me in with a nice discounted price point and an option to customize. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse and when they let us know the base model they decided to go with this year was the Dell Studio 1555, a mostly consumer intended flavor of dell, I was even more compelled. Long Story short, I customized the crap out of it and added features that would, with out discount, Cost around $1300. The laptop it would be replacing was an Acer Aspire 4073-Jal90, basically a low-end lightweight laptop I scored on sale at Best Buy for $400. Surprisingly my cheap Acer performed well at just about anything I threw at, minus its overheating issues when I put it to work and would transfer a ton of files without a cooling pad conforting its over worked insides. Honestly it was a great machine and I give props to Acer for providing a cheap product with the features and performance of the big dogs, however the geek in me is never satisfied and I had to send my Acer packing to a new home to some less nerdier people who will provide with a much needed break full of Myspace and Facebook visits.

My laptop took about 12 days from production to shipping to arrival, which in my opinion was pretty impressive being as I changed my processor last minute because I realized I mucked it up on the submission form. 12 days is an eternity when your awaiting something your so pumped about, you can barely sleep.

My first impression of the laptop was that it was very well built and was surprisingly lightweight for being so well constructed and having a 15.6″ screen, I believe the Macbook Pro 15″ weighs 5.5 lbs and the Studio 1555 weighs roughly 5.6 lbs. Right after the intial setup of the OS I went straight to the control panel and un-installed all the programs that dell bundles that I didn’t want, which was surprisingly not many (at least compared to Acer’s bloatware mess). After that I installed all my favorite (mostly torrented) software like adobe CS4, MS Office 2007, VM workstation, Google Chrome and others and then upgraded the OS to Vista Sp2. I imported all my data, music, pictures and documents which is always tedious but painless process nonetheless and I then finally was ready to start really putting this new toy through its paces.

Hardware

As stated above, I was instantly impressed with the build quality and to this day 2 weeks later, I am still very pleased, outside a few minor hiccups. One of those hiccups being a sticky backspace button that made a mouse like squeek upon every press, it was redicuosly annoying and I was honestly kinda pissed. I was pissed, but not for long, as I opened up a browser, started a Dell Chat session with a Technical Support Rep and was able to get the issued fixed in matter of 10 minutes. Dell support had easily and willingly offered to send me a brand new keyboard free of charge, and literally 2 days later, it arrived at my door. I was impressed and even more happy because my squeeky key problem had ceased to exist before the replacement even arrived at my door, so I just gained a free backup keyboard even if I ruin it later because of user fault.

The screen is downright beautiful and took me a couple hours to get used to as my previous Acer’s screen was not much to look at. The colors were beautiful and videos/movies looked amazing. I honestly can’t imagine how the full 1080p screen could have looked any better as this one is just nothing short of amazing at 900p. It makes apps like Tweedeck look awesome in full screen mode and pictures just seem so crisp, the screen is just amazing. I haven’t tried any HDMI connections or anything just yet but I will update with my results. Any one planning to purchase this should really look into the Edge to Edge display option, which eliminates the plastic bezel around the screen so it just looks amazing and I lucked out because on Dell’s business site, that’s only a $10 upgrade and $10 well spent in my opinion.

One aspect that I’m usually not impressed with on any laptop (especailly my old Acer) that I have really liked on the Studio 1555 is the trackpad. The trackpad, though not huge, is big enough where I am totally comfortable using it and never seen a need for a mouse. The 2 buttons are entirely there own buttons and are very easily pushed not like my Acer where I would hear a loud snap when I attempted to press the right or left buttons, basically they just work. Another nice feature of the Studio 1555 is the multi-touch gestures, the standard Dell Synaptics driver comes with the “pinch to zoom in” already by default, however I downloaded the latest driver from Synaptics which is the way to go. The Synaptics driver has the typical pinch to zoom multi touch but also has 3 finger gestures, photo rotating, tap to click and assigning application short cuts to the four corners of the touchpad for quick launch. In any case, I reccomend picking up that driver, you get everything that dell offers and more. I also love that its not overly sensitive like my Acer was, it was so annoying when I was typing in a text input box and the my hand would slightly bump my touchpad and I would be writing in an another area of the paragraph all of the sudden… Lame.

On to the keyboard, which has been great minus the issue of a sticky backspace key out of the box which has worked its way out even though I have recieived a replacement and since then I’ve actually received a backlit keyboard, which I can’t as of yet review because I simply haven’t had enough time to install it. In any case, the keyboard is large enough and provides a fantastic typing experience and I have no real complaints. Those of you who are big users of the F1-F12 keys may want to make them the default keys in the BIOS or you’ll be typing FN + what F key you wish, as by default the F keys are also the media key, the wifi on/off keys and all that good stuff, which is in no way bad, I hate touch sensitive media controls buttons and Im glad they done away with such, simplifying the look.

In general the hardware has been impressive, it feels and looks high end. Weight wise its a perfect blend of “heavy enough to feel expensive but light enough to carry around” and I couldn’t be happier as I am truly a mobile user of it, it mostly never leaves my side.

Performance

A pretty laptop is nothing without snappy performance and performance thus far has been damn good for a laptop. I believe I could truly use this machine as a non movable desktop replace hooked up to an external monitor and have no problems. The Intel Core2 Duo T6500 processor does a great job of keeping everything up to speed, it was a $50 upgrade on the Dell site up from the default Intel Pentium Dual Core T4200 and $50 cheaper than the P7350 which actually benchmarked lower and cost double the price. All in all the T6500 was a good choice without spending $350 on the really high end stuff that would never even come close to maxing out. I ran some benchmarks and the processor on this machine outperformed every other model using the t6500 and even a few machines running a better processor.

For video and multimedia this machine is idea for what I do. The graphics chip (ATI Radeon 4570) is powerful enough to run most any game at medium settings and a lot of games on full settings, which is pretty impressive for a non gaming laptop. I have Adobe CS4 master collection installed and it runs Photoshop CS4 Extended very well, not really hiccups in the imaging. I’ve only watched a few DVD’s with it but they all looked pretty amazing and playback was damn near perfect. The place where this laptop really excels over my previous is streaming video over the internet. I’m not sure if its the graphics chip, the upgraded processor, the N Intel Wifi card or some mystical magic, but this machine plays back video AMAZING. Watching you tube videos in HD on my old laptop was damn near impossible and Hulu desktop would become my old Acer to its knees, whereas my new Studio handles it with ease and looks great in the process.

Listening to music with or without heaphones plugged is nothing short of amazing, but could be a little louder. However for me sound quality is more important that volume, and the quality of the Studio speakers really shine and the built in subwoofer vibrates your legs a little when its resting on your lap which really gives you a cinematic experiene when your watching an intense flick. When listening through the heaphones I’m amazed at how much volume it pushes to my Sennhiesers, I’m a maxed out volume kinda guy but thru the laptop I cant even get past half way up, so I imagine normal folk wanting to get there rock on could easily get by with a quarter on the volume bar. When I use the Sound Blaster X-Fi notebook sound card it sounds like I’m at a concert, its intense to say the least and awesome my dad gladly gave his over to me.

As as for general performance, its been well. Full reboot times could be better though, I love the Dell dck and have made good use of it, I can’t say that Ill be keeping when Windows 7 rolls around. It just takes a couple minutes for it to load up but a couple minutes is a long time in computer time and I’m waiting very impatiently for Windows 7 and its 50 second start-up times. After we get over the start up hiccups everything runs smooth and I don’t have many wait tims for everthing and I notice my Windows Sidebar Gadgets appear alot quicker on start-up than my old Acer. However as whole, this machine and this config is has perform very well and there really isn’t anything that I can’t do.

Overall

Though the Dell Studio 1555 is not Dell’s highest end model and really is there more consumer driven series, they don’t skimp on options to customize and turn it into any kind of PC you want it to be. As stated I have a had a few hiccups but Dell customer support has been amazing, whether I’ve been on the phone or over there chat service online, all has been top notch. Performace has been nothing short of consistent and fast and I’d say this is one of the better electronic purchases that I have made in life. It combines slick looks, with great performance, unmatched versatility, and in a lightweight well constructed package. If you thinking of purchasing this, Do it, but make sure to make it yours and customize it your needs, I did and I went a little extreme but having a beast of a laptop is never a bad thing.

Im a Pack-Rat Geek!

justinhub2003 — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 01:49:00 +0000

So the folks over at Engadget posted the contents of there Laptop bags and what they carry around day to day to make there lives easier. I thought this was a great idea, I found some items in there bags that I didn’t have in mine that would make my life easier, so maybe mine will your’s (mostly likely not but us nerdy type are showoffs). For a geek, a laptop bag is like a woman’s purse: overprotected, stuffed full of shit you really dont need and at the same time, shit that really comes in handy.

I used to use a over the shoulder messenger style bag however I found that its space was limited and that it really can put a strain on one side of my back. A few days ago I decided to upgrade to the Ogio Street Politan Backpack style laptop carrying case (69.99 at best buy). My options were limited based on Best Buy’s selection as I have a 15.6″ 16:9 laptop and most of the backpack style cases accomidated laptops with 15.4″ screens, however the Ogio stated it would fit up to a 17″ laptop and looked nice and had the room I was looking for. I was impressed with cool options like a felt lined audio/mp3 player pouch with a cutout hole for a your headphones to run out of and listen to your tunes while the device is safely protected in your backpack, freeing up precious pocket space. It also had well padded shoulder straps and a durable build backed up by a lifetime warranty. Overall I’m happy with the quality and space of the new bag though I haven’t throughly put it through its paces.

As stated in the title and as shown in the photos, I AM A LAPTOP BAG PACKRAT!!! I carry an excessive amount of things like flashdrives for that “just in case” moment.

Now on to the good stuff

Inside:

-Dell Studio 1555 15.6″ laptop*(more on this in a futurepost)

-5 USB Flash drives (4gb,2gb x3, 1gb)

-1 4gb SD Cards

-1 Iogear USB flashdrive adapter w/ 4gb microSD inside

-1 microSD to SD adapter

-1 NetgearWG111v3 Wireless Adapter (does it serve a purpose o purposely serve)

-1 Targus 4 USB hub

-1 Ethernet cable

-1 micro USB cable

-1 Old Spice Red Zone D.O. (gots ta have that shits)

-1 Umbrella (for those shitty raining days)

-1 mini USB wall Charger

-3 T-mobile G1 batteries inside a felt pull string bag

-Black T-Mobile G1

-HTC Unviersal Adapter mini USB to 3.5mm, 2,5mm & audio Mini USB

-HTC Mytouch 3G 3.5mm headphone adapter

-1 HTC Mytouch 3g backup Battery (never had to use it yet)

- Sennhieser in-ear headphones

-White Mytouch 3G w/ 8gb Class 6 microSD card

-Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Notebook Sound Card w/ carrying case (sounds amazing w/headphones)

-Mytouch 3g mini USB cable and wall Charger

-2 Pens

-1 Blue Marker

- Abreva (for freak break outs of the herpes infection from my reckless teens..jk..cold sores)

-Targus Corded USB Mouse (really need a Bluetooth Mouse)

-5 Electronic Cleaning Wipes

**Not Pictured** Dell Studio Laptop Charger

WHOO!! that was exhuasting… Thats alot of stuff!!

Are you as bad as me or am I the lone geek with a desk full of stuff in my bag??

Introduction

justinhub2003 — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 01:15:00 +0000

Hello World…..my name is Justin Hubbard (known around the Internets as justinhub2003) and I’m a total geek. I spend more time than whats probably healthy for me indulged in the world of technology, and I some how still cannot get enough. With that said, I’ve decided to start this blog to try and weed out all my thoughts, reviews and comments I have on the technology world and put them down in black and white. If you follow me on twitter (www.twitter.com/justinhub2003) you know that I tweet 50% of the time about the tech world (and I’m avid hater for anything apple) so I’m hoping with this, I can get my tech release and starting tweeting about important stuff like when I take a shit and what I’ve had for breakfast and how my girlfriend doesn’t give me enough “sexy time”.

Things in the tech world I’ll be writing about a lot and I’m hella super uber interested in:

Android

Windows 7

Apple’s downward progression

Smartphones/cellphones

laptops/netbooks/desktops

Anything Google

Zune HD

Android/Iphone Applications

Cell Phone Carriers

and tons of other stuff.

OK, maybe I’m not a total geek. I have a bias toward mobile technology and Computing, but generally if it has buttons, a beautiful screen and can make my life easier, then I’ll probably talk about it (maybe even dream about it) and most definitely write about it.

Do I care if anyone actually reads this? not really, its more of a place for me to put my thoughts down and can give me some kinda release for my gadget-lust (yep, I made that up) and if people find it amusing or if fanboys find it appalling, then that’s beautiful and I’ll plant a tree in their honor.

Fanboys: feel free to let me have it in the comments when I get to dissing your boys in Cupertino.