Disqus - Latest Comments for mjdinsmore

Re: Chrome OS is a productivity utopia but it needs one more thing

mjdinsmore — Thu, 07 Mar 2019 18:20:04 -0000

Non-gaming household. Gaming means nothing. I think you might overplay the importance of gaming.

I find the critical part is the Chtone Remote Desktop app. With that, I don't even care how powerful the local computer is.

Re: Google Pixel, Chromecast Ultra pictures leaked ahead of Oct 4th launch

mjdinsmore — Mon, 26 Sep 2016 21:20:23 -0000

Do that many people really have 4K televisions already? Are there many sources for 4K and content as well?

Re: Lenovo launches Air 13 Pro laptop in China for $750

mjdinsmore — Wed, 27 Jul 2016 18:11:46 -0000

What a deal for that price and all those nifty stickers on it! I won't need to add any decorations on it since it looks like someone already did! Fail.

Re: Samsung introduces the $179 Gear Fit 2 wearable

mjdinsmore — Fri, 10 Jun 2016 17:58:56 -0000

Totally disagree. For a fitness band the difference between a step counter and something tha can accurately track the distance, show splits, altitude changes and other details of a run is world's better than an inaccurate estimate of distance travelled. The Bluetooth and MP3 ability lets me omit a second device while running - one that probably wouldn't be waterproof and may break if get too sweat covered -- in addition to being annoying to have to carry a second device. Try looking up the cost of GPS watches - they aren't cheap!

Re: Deals of the Day (3-24-2016)

mjdinsmore — Thu, 05 May 2016 06:33:37 -0000

That's inaccurate. They both have the same amount of RAM, display, CPU, etc. I don't know what you're comparing but not what I asked.

Re: Deals of the Day (3-24-2016)

mjdinsmore — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 16:34:11 -0000

It seems like the only difference between the $900 Ubuntu Dell XPS 13 and the $800 Windows XPS 13 is that the cheaper one has a newer and better processor and the Ubuntu one has an Intel wireless card. Am I missing anything else? I am confused why they are much more expensive.

Re: Asus E403SA laptop has 14 inch FHD display, 4GB RAM, $399 price tag

mjdinsmore — Fri, 18 Mar 2016 16:34:18 -0000

This sounds like a really decent deal. I wish it was slightly lighter -- it's 3.3 pounds but that isn't a deal-breaker. Is the RAM upgradable? I'd hold off until I hear how well it works running Ubuntu (or whatever distro) as I don't feel like being a guinea pig for that!

Chromebooks make poor machines for switching to Ubuntu as the keyboards are missing required keys!

Re: Cat S60 smartphone has a built-in thermal camera

mjdinsmore — Fri, 19 Feb 2016 00:48:01 -0000

Seeing how it's wintertime, I'd be highly interested in how accurate it would be to find leaks and underinsulated spots around my windows, doors and walls.
New England winters can be brutal, and properly insulated homes can save boatloads of money.

Re: Archos unveils two phones with premium specs, mid-range prices

mjdinsmore — Fri, 19 Feb 2016 00:33:46 -0000

Archos has historically been always slightly behind the times and released hardware that has been slightly (or significantly) behind the current iteration of available hardware. However, the stuff usually has been decent enough that, as long as you are aware of it, worth getting if the price is right. Hard to compare with current gen hardware though.

Re: Deals of the Day (2-04-2016)

mjdinsmore — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 17:36:54 -0000

If it's just a rebranded Cube tablet, wouldn't it be cheaper just to get that? http://m.geekbuying.com/ite...

I won a Cube i6 (from Liliputing! Thanks!) and it works generally well. The wifi is piss poor and I constantly need to turn off the wifi and then re-enable it to get it working. It's stuck at Windows 8 too (it's a dual boot tablet).

Do you find the wifi decent on that machine?

Re: Spanish ship wreckage found with billions in treasure

mjdinsmore — Tue, 08 Dec 2015 11:12:38 -0000

https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

Re: Chromecast Audio Review

mjdinsmore — Thu, 22 Oct 2015 16:17:03 -0000

I've used this to plug into my receiver to play music. I used a S/PDIF cable to plug instead of the basic RCA cable. It works great from my iPhone and from my Android tablet. I typically stream Pandora or Songza -- and love the handoff so my device is free afterwards. My receiver is already set up for multi-room support, so that works fine too. I basically treat is as any other line input on my receiver.

Despite what the author says about it being designed to "live behind your speakers", I think it's true strength is to live behind your receiver. Many of us already have hundred if not thousands sunk into nice stereo equipment that this enables at a great price. My existing Mirage speakers and sub-woofer sound a lot better than these powered bluetooth speakers.

This device is great at modernizing your older existing stereo equipment into the digital age. I don't want to throw my perfectly fine NAD receiver just because it doesn't have built-in circuitry to stream Pandora or whatever. This little dongle breathes new [modern] life into it.

Re: Google Pixel C premium Android tablet coming soon for $499 and up

mjdinsmore — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 12:50:08 -0000

Over 1 million hits on a Google search 'nexus 7 2013 slow' (https://www.google.com/sear.... It is a known problem with that tablet, and I think the original poster was referring to that.

Re: Google Pixel C premium Android tablet coming soon for $499 and up

mjdinsmore — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 12:37:53 -0000

Would be nice to have a keyboard one could do programming on!

Re: Amazon’s new $100 Fire TV supports 4K video, Alexa voice

mjdinsmore — Thu, 17 Sep 2015 13:10:34 -0000

I wonder if they bundled a game other than DuckTales if they'd see even better sales?

Re: Motorola launches two new Moto 360 watches, plus the Moto 360 Sport

mjdinsmore — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 22:00:38 -0000

Looks like they finally added GPS!

Re: Sony SmartBand 2 fitness tracker has heart (rate sensor)

mjdinsmore — Sat, 22 Aug 2015 07:43:47 -0000

It seems pretty capable and advanced with so many functions. However, even though you wear it on your wrist like a watch, it cannot even give you the time. That's a deal breaker for me.

Re: Moov NOW is a $60 fitness tracker

mjdinsmore — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 19:41:36 -0000

IMHO, it looks a little ugly and it certainly doesn't seem to match up with the other options that are available out there today. Sure, it has a long battery life. But my FitBit ChargeHR has about a week battery life and that seems to be good enough (not too burdensome). Wearing two of them is novel, but I would also think it would be a royal pain in the arse. Minimal is good.

I'm still really waiting for the next (or 2nd next?) generation of fitness devices that also include GPS so I don't have to bring my phone with me when I go running. What a pain.

Re: Polar Loop 2 fitness tracker launches for $120

mjdinsmore — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 15:18:35 -0000

Don't get it. For just $30 more, you can get the FitBit ChargeHR that also has continuous heart rate monitoring, as well as an actual watch that displays the time and day on the dial. In addition, it has a decent app and dashboard giving you metrics on the data it collects. The Polar website doesn't highlight the app and dashboard part at all, and leaves you wondering what you'll be able to see/do with the data.

As an aside, I can definitely tell it's not a US-based company -- because the English language website has screen-shots of the app, but they are all in Finnish! Go to the "Polar Ecosystem" section and it's to the right of the headline "Polar Flow web service and app".

Re: Hands-on with the HP Pavilion x2 (2015) 2-in-1 tablet

mjdinsmore — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 09:27:23 -0000

Yeah, when more and more mobile phones are having 3 or even 4gb memory, just getting 2gb in your laptop definitely seems too little. To make matters worse, it's not like you can upgrade it either.

Re: Report: Google Photos apps for Android to spin off from Google Plus

mjdinsmore — Mon, 25 May 2015 20:31:27 -0000

This sounds like Picasa before they folded it into Google+.

Re: Razer Nabu X activity tracker now available for $50

mjdinsmore — Tue, 27 Jan 2015 17:16:28 -0000

Just throw in a cheap led watch with this. I don't want to wear a fitness band AND a watch.

Re: Google releases Android 5.0.2 for the Nexus 7 (2012)

mjdinsmore — Sat, 20 Dec 2014 07:27:14 -0000

I can't stress enough how much doing a factory reset on my 2012 Google Nexus has improved the performance.

I too was suffering from horrendous lag on my tablet with Lollipop. I tried the Dalvik cache wiping procedure without any success (in performance enhancements). Doing the factory reset made it feel like a whole new tablet.

I haven't tried this latest update, but now that it's running faster than ever (lately), I'm not inclined to mess with it right now.

Re: SEL unveils 8.7 inch 3-fold touchscreen display

mjdinsmore — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 10:29:25 -0000

This is so cool.

Re: Toshiba Satellite Radius 11 convertible notebook launches Oct 26th for $330

mjdinsmore — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 14:38:04 -0000

Only selling with up to 4GB ram, or is that the max supported ram?