Fortysomething Geek

I have to admit, since I got my iPhone 6 Plus, I haven't been using my HTC ONE M8. It has been sitting in the carry brief for more than a month. However, I like to keep current gadgets relevant so I got me the HTC Dot View Case. As a result, I pulled it out this afternoon to try on my new case and there it is.



If you want to know what it is, it is a gimmicky folio case that is unique to HTC and gives you some notifications through the case.

The case retails for 45ドル-49. I strongly do not recommend anyone purchase it at retail. It is simply not worth it. There is no real protection and the case makes it really hard to hold in the hand when making phone calls.

You can tell by looking at this picture that a flip out case like this will effect the ergonomics; especially one handed use.

However, I didn't pay 45ドル for this. Instead, I got it for around 12ドル and a month delivery time from China. At 12,ドル it is still gimmicky. I can see the weather and the time.
I can answer calls and cue my music playback tracks.



The dot view notifications are pretty limited. It supposedly supports text messages but none showed for me. Rather, it prompts you to open your case. It would be nice to have it delete messages.



So far, I'm not that impressed. It would be nice to get at least GMail or calendar notifications.

It does support some theming.






In conclusion, I think this is gimmicky at best with no real value. Especially at 45ドル. I think your money will be better spent on a Spigen case that would offer better phone protection.

Now this looks like an interesting product coming out this summer. Sonnet will be releasing a Thunderbolt Docking station named the Echo 15 Thunderbolt Dock. It has up to 15 ports of expansion with the ability to add an internal 3.5" HDD along with an optical DVD or Blu-Ray drive.

I'm intrigued because it has all the ports I want in a docking station - eSATA, multiple USB 3.0, daisy chain Thunderbolt/MDP, Firewire and Gigabit. This will start at 400ドル and definitely be price competitive with Belkin and Matrox.

Link: http://www.sonnettech.com/product/echo15thunderboltdock.html


HengeDock also has an interesting traditional laptop docking system. It is a horizontal docking station for Macbooks with availability sometime in Q3 of this year. It has Ethernet, Firewire, audio, USB 3.0 and what looks like 3 mini display ports for 3 external video display.



Link: http://hengedocks.com/order_horizontal_dock.php


I'd personally get the Sonnet Echo 15. It is not tied to one particular device.

The Zagg Keys Flex keyboard may be one of the best keyboards for the iPad.


At the time of this writing, the Zagg has them on sale for 39ドル.99 from the regular 80ドル.

So what makes it so great? Answer: portability and flexibility.

I have a few iPad keyboards and they work great for the most part. Except, they tend to get bulky and negate the advantage of having a tablet. Next, when you get a different tablet, the keyboards are often form-fitting for a specific generation of devices. You end up buying a different one when you get a new tablet. Importantly, the bulk wears you down. You may not need a keyboard/case combo all the time. When you are watching Netflix, you definitely don't need a keyboard. Hence, many of keyboards tend to fall into my desk drawer.


The Zagg Flex keyboard is compact and there is a simple cover that is used as a kickstand. The kickstand can even carry the weight of some covers. I don't have to remove the existing cover to use the kickstand. As you can see below, it is smaller than even the Apple Bluetooth keyboard.


Now, I just leave the keyboard in my bag and use it whenever I want.


Like most tablet keyboards, this one uses micro USB for charging. There is a toggle for iOS/Android. I assume this is for the key mappings for certain functions like home and menu.


Overall, this is very flexible. I can easily use my 7" Galaxy tablet or various smart phones. Overall, I am happy with this purchase.

Here it is with the iPhone 5 running some MidWay arcade classic games, Defender.





Link: ThinkGeek's iCade Jr Product Page.

Here is another geek short review of another handy gadgets for those who build their own computers.

The Syba 5.25" Dual Bay mobile rack for both 2.5" (ssd/laptop) and 3.5" drives plus USB 3.0 headers. It sells for around 30ドル-40 which tends to be a bit more expensive compared to 20ドル single bay units. Unlike the 20ドル single bay units, you get USB front ports and a second bay which justifies the price differential.

My computer case has 5 front 5.25" drive bays unused so I try to fill them with useful stuff. This is very handy. I've installed many dockable drive bay enclosures but this is the first one to neatly provide two drives along with USB. Hence my recommendation.

As you can see from the press shots, you can pack quite a bit. The USB 3.0 front connectors connect directly to an available 19/20 pin USB 3.0 connector on your motherboard. The bay requires only one SATA power connector (it also comes with a MOLEX adapter) to power both drives.

You will also need two available free SATA ports.

The nice thing I like about it is the power switch that you can turn off and leave the drives off. You simply flip the switch to make the drives available when you need them.

I really like my new Cooler Master’s Hyper 212 Evo heatsink.

This 35ドル heatsink is definitely a good buy. It is pretty big and supports two 120mm fans.
It keeps the i7 3770K very cool without resorting to water plumbing. Only drawback is some cases will not enclose it due to its girth.

It runs about 21-28 degrees celsius at idle. At full tilt, I have not seen it go over 60 degrees. For most use, it hovers around the mid thirties.

Here it is running 94-96% CPU load across all cores running a BluRay Handbrake to 1080p h.264 file and creating a 10GB 256 bit AES encrypted Truecrypt file container at the same time. Both are very CPU intensive. 96% load and it never went over 60 degrees.





Impressive indeed.


Link:

http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/product.php?product_id=3053
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Hyper-212-RR-212E-20PK-R2/dp/B005O65JXI


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With some accessories, the 7" Galaxy Tab 2.0 can be turned into a productive desktop workstation.
Docked in an Arkon fold-up stand and connected to a Graybean USB OTG hub, the Tab 2 can be propped up with extended storage and input I/O.

The Graybean OTG USB hub supports 3 USB inputs and various sd/tf/mmc cards. I already have other OTG cables but I like the fact this sport several USB ports.

Here, I attached the Tab to a USB docked 2TB SATA drive, various USB sticks, USB keyboard and mouse.

A few notes on this setup:

A power adapter does not come with the hub yet it has a port for external power. You can't even power a keyboard or mouse without external power. I don't know if this an oversight or missing items from my order. Luckily, I had a spare power adapter on hand that worked with this hub.

Next, you can't have more than 3 USB drives connected. I've tried and it will randomly unmount drives until it has two available. The hub's sd card reader will override the internal micro-sd card. This is with a stock non-rooted device. Rooted, you can probably mount more devices.



Everything else works since Android's ICS supports USB HID and storage device. The mouse and keyboard works great. I noticed that many applications do not work as well as their desktop counterpart. For example, in Chrome, you can't right click and open a link in a new tab nor can you create a tab with a keyboard. Scrolling is reverse (aka natural scroll) similar to what you would find in OSX Lion. If you move the mouse down, the page scroll ups. Furthermore, I can't seem to disable the on-screen soft keyboard. It gets annoying whenever I reach an text input area and the soft key pops up.

So far, I use the Tab to type up simple Word compatible .docx notes and use connectbot to turn the Tab 2 into a SSH terminal. I tried a few RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) apps but the 7" screen is too small to make it useable even with a mouse and keyboard.


I am using an Arkon stand and I think it is amazing piece of accessory for 8ドル. It is compact, folds up easily, and works with 7" and 10" tablets like the iPad. A few people I know who have seen the Arkon stand rushed out and ordered ones for themselves. I seem to prefer using it over propping up the Tab 2 with a folio case.



Overall, this new setup has renewed my interests with the Tab 2. I prefer the 10" Tablet size and I'm constantly trying to justify the 7" form factor. This now keeps my interest on the Tab 2 from waning.



LINKS:
Arkon Fold-up tablet stand at Amazon
Graybean USB OTG Hub at Amazon

Here it is externally connected to the esata cable. Average read rate of 261.8 Mb/s. This is 2-3 times faster than using USB2/USB3.



For comparison sakes, if you were to plug the drive in internally, it averages 394.9 Mb/s with a maximum read of 560.6 Mb/s. Note, this is with the native internal SATA6.