HTC Dot View Case

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 $45-49. 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 for this. Instead, I got it for around $12 and a month delivery time from China. At  $12, 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. I think your money will be better spent on a Spigen case that would offer better phone protection.

PogoPlug V4 now $8.

Adorama (via Amazon) now has the V4 PogoPlug for $8.

Dang, this thing is getting cheaper by the day. Sure, it isn't as fast as the E02s but they are good for hacking ArchLinux and converting these to cheap AirPlay servers running Shairport. I currently use two of them in my 12 AirPlay Speaker set-up. They're also good to use a micro RSYNC servers, TimeMachine backups, or Linux Motion camera servers.

If you've been reading my blog for the past few years, I love running Linux on these low power ARM devices. You can read my up on original review of the V4.  At $8, you can't complain. You can find a use for them if you want to dive into ArchLinux.

BTW, I've been asked a few times on this. PLEX media server. You can install PLEX but this thing isn't fast enough for transcoding. You'd need to rip your media into a suitable format so no WMV, MKVs,etc. People have been using these as cheap Chromecast servers. Even then, I don't recommend it for running PLEX.

UPDATE: 2014-07-28. Sale is over. That went fast!

iStabilizer Dolly Short Review

OK. I saw this in one of my Facebook feeds and it was marked down 40% off so I went for it.

The gadget is called the iStabilizer Dolly and I snagged one for $40 at this link.

It is a Panning "stabilizer" dolly for small cameras. It is targeted for iPhone and smartphone users. However, my larger HTC ONE M8 didn't fit the cradle. It has a standard tripod screw head so you can use any small camera/dSLR with it. Think of this as a mini tripod on wheels. I've always been trying to get the perfect panning shots and I figure $40 is a small price to pay for something that will improve my shots. You can read my short review and watch my demo shot to conclude if this is a cheap thrill gadget worthy of your consideration.

First, the packaging is real simple. The wheel base, the adjustable pod, and a smartphone cradle. I didn't even find any instructions nor did I need it. It is pretty easy to set-up.

Next, it has adjustable wheels so you can have it go in a curve, certain angle, or straight. The tripod stick articulates like a Joby and similar gadgets. This allows you to do crazy angles or pan an object in circles. It could come in handy if you wanted to shoot something like jewelry on a table.

Here are hero shots with the iPhone and Olympus Micro 4/3 OM-D camera. This is how it looks like with cameras/phones attached. It is very low to the ground.  I think it is too short to be of meaningful use. I guess you can prop it up if you plan to improvise.

Next, I would not call this a "stabilizer." Panning Dolly, yes. It does work as a Panning Dolly but stabilization is out of the picture. I think the name is a bit misleading.

However, you will need a pretty flat surface. You can use plywood or something flat to help smooth out the panning but the wheels have no articulation or suspension to stabilize the shot. Shooting with an  iPhone, I could not get any decent shots. This is mostly due to the focal length of the iPhone's lens. After most tries, I found it too jerky to be of any good. I had to resort to using my Olympus OM-D which has optical and digital built in stabilization. I shot in various locations around my house with hardwoord floors.

Here is a sample footage shot with an Olympus OM-D in 1080p.

Was it worth $40? I don't really know. I'd need to be in a situation where I needed that panning B-roll shot. Still, I think it is cheaper than rolling my own contraption with various bits and pieces from a hardware store.

Oddities at Frys - car shaped mice

I don't go to Fry's Electronics much but when I do, I always get a kick of some weird stuff they carry.

Today, car shaped computer mice (mouse) that light up. I don't think they're very ergonomic but my kid likes them. They also go for $40. The Lambo and C6 Corvette looks pretty sweet.

Android Wear and the Moto 360

Google recently announced their new wearable platform, Android Wear. They will concentrate on watches first. The platform is suppose to extend the reaches of the Android eco-system to wearable gadgets.

One of the first announced piece comes from Motorola in the form of the moto 360.

And apparently, it is frothing with enthusiasm on the Internet. Really? Elegant? Classy? Yep, those are the remarks I've been reading. Really? The watch looks like cheap Movado, Citizen, mall watch knock-off. And another comment, why does the guy in the coffee shop  (pictured above) needs a cappucino AND an expresso? I get it, they want you to think he is some cool,hip dude with a cool, hip watch in a cool, hip coffee shop.

I have pretty high standards when it comes to wristwatches as many people know, I collect them. But this moto 360 is really ugly. It is the kind of watch you see on lay-away at the local mall.

I don't know enough about Android wear to even speculate but in terms of wrist-watches, I'll definitely stick to my mechanical Swiss made Chronometers. It must be my age but I don't see the appeal in these items as they're disposable. Unlike an IWC or Breguet, these aren't the type of heirlooms you want to pass down another generation. Unlike a Rolex Sea-Dweller, Omega Planet Ocean, Blancpain 50 Fathom, or Panerai Luminor, these aren't the type of watches you want to take rock climbing or snorkeling. I like patina on my watches. I wear my Omega Seamaster Professional SM300 to fix the car, rigorous housework, or anything dangerous. So what if my $2,000 beater diver's watch gets scratched up. It gives it a natural aging patina. Electronic gadgets? They look like crap when they're all scratched up. Battery life? Who knows. All I know is when I am on vacation, I don't even want to think about an electrical wall outlet. Which reminds me of my youth; backpacking abroad. I remember having nothing but my Rolex GMT Master II in Bali for a week. I never had to plug it in every night. Never took it off to do any physical activity. I can't imagine the same thing with one of these electronic watches that need daily recharging.


It must be the sign of the times or I am getting old.This is an area I won't even get into.

Links: 

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/sharing-whats-up-our-sleeve-android.html

http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/18/google-android-wear/

http://motorola-blog.blogspot.com/2014/03/moto-360-its-time.html

P3 KILL A WATT Load Meter and Monitor

I've been using a Kill-A-Watt meter these past few weeks. This is one gadget everyone needs to get.

You basically plug it in between the outlet (or strip) and to the device you want to measure. It measures the load and gives you good metering options. For example, you can plug it in and run it a few hours to days to see the average kWH consumption of a particular device. Multiply that by your energy rates and you can pretty much sum up how much a device would cost you to run monthly. With tons of gadgets and electronics, the electricity bill can get pretty high so this device helps you reign in on those costs.

You can get one at Amazon (here) or NewEgg (here). The hundreds of 4.5-5 stars from users is enough to tell you this is a decently good product.

I was pleasantly surprise to find out which gadgets were consuming too much or too little power. For example, leaving my  various AirPlay speakers had little to negligible power consumption at 2-4 watts on standby. Leaving a few RAID and external drive enclosures plugged into the power strip while being unused by a powered down computer yield 25-30 watt of power.

I definitely changed some of my usage habits after using a few of these Kill-A-Watt meters around the house. For example, I had an older AMD Athlon machine running as a ESXi server running a DVR for my cameras. It was also serving iTunes and Plex Media server. At idle, it was still running at 85 watts and easily ramp up to 110-130 watts on load. This was a bit costly to run trivial things 24x7. Hence, I  switched to running to an older unused core i5 laptop and my average use is now 20 watts for those same services.

I highly recommend a device like this. Just read the hundreds of customer reviews. Sure, there will be a few lemons here and there but the general consensus is that these pretty much pay for themselves.

Short Review: Kanex DualRole portable Gigabit plus 3 port USB 3.0 hub

Here is an interesting little gadget for the road-warrior.

Kanex DualRole Gigabit Ethernet + 3-port USB 3.0 hub. Designed with Macbook users in mind, it is a small portable USB 3.0 hub with a VIA USB 3.0 controller and a fairly popular ASIX AX88179 USB 3.0 to Gigabit chipset. These are currently shipping for $50 on Amazon.

I've dealt with this type of hardware before in other hubs and USB 3.0 gigabit adapters. So the performance is pretty much standard fare if you ever used a VIA USB 3.0/ASIX gigabit adapter. What makes this device unique is the packaging and portability.

I previously toted a Thunderbolt Gigabit or another ASIX USB gigabit adapter along with several SSD drives in my backpack. I've been trying to slim my carry-on weight down so I've been investing in 64GB USB sticks to substitute for 2.5" SSD shuttle drives. Other four port USB 3.0 hubs I have tend to be bulky so this pretty much solves my problem. I figure this is something to have in the bag in the event I need it.

The hub has 3 ports instead on the usual four but I would often end up using the fourth port for Gigabit anyways.  Since I already have four other ASIX gigabit dongles, this one was a plug-n-plug for me. If this is your first USB 3.0 Gigabit adapter, you will need to install thew pre-requisite ASIX 88179  drivers.

Overall, I really like it. I wish it had an aluminum finish instead of the mid-2000s iMac/White iBook white finish.  The ports are fairly evenly space and you will be able to add some thick USB devices. Still, I wish the ports were a little further spread apart like some of the cheap 4 port Anker USB 3.0 hubs. For example, in the picture below, I could not add two Patriot XT sticks side by side. With different arrangements, I can still all use three ports.

There is no extra USB cable to plug in which is nice. The short cable folds in when not in use. I've read some complaints about the length of the short cable. If you are using this mobile as pictured above, it shouldn't be a problem. However, if you use this in a docked desk environments, I can see where people can complain. Below is a picture of how it dangles when connected to a Macbook on a desk stand like the mStand.

Next, it does not come with an aux power adapter. It does have a hole for an AC power adapter if you plan to power something that requires a little more juice like some 2.5" 7200 rpm drives. This is fine with me since I would only be using this as a mobile gadget.

Conclusion:

I think this is a fair price item. Most USB 3.0 four port hubs cost as little as $30 and a USB 3.0 gigabit adapter will run you $20-$30 on how aggressively you discount shop. The lack of a fourth port is made up with the Gigabit adapter. It uses the standard VIA and ASIX controller IC which works well with other products. I personally love the small footprint and short cable for portability reasons. However, I can see where people would prefer a longer cable in a docked desk environment.

The current competitors are SIIG and Startech. They cost a bit more ($60-$90) and are not as portable as the Kanex. They also use bulky longer USB cable which makes them more suited for a permanent docked desk environment. The SIIG and Startech USB3.0 combo Gigabit hub below. Another alternative are the DisplayLink PC USB 3.0 docking stations. They run $150 and up and provide USB 3.0 video which I don't need.

LapDock 100 update

A few weeks ago, I  got a Motorola LapDock 100 in the hopes of using it as an external HDMI monitor like the original Atrix lapdock. Apparently, the newer ones (100 & 500) have some electronic authentication that Motorola implemented. The older Atrix docks were great as dumb monitors.

These new ones are a bit more complicated.

After getting a bunch of cables and adapters, I came to same conclusion a few people had. The unit only powers up for 8 seconds and shuts down. 

Pictured here below, I was able to get a signal from the HDMI output of my Macbook Pro. Then it shuts off.

Fortunately, I was able to sell mine on craigslist and found a willing buyer very quickly. Good luck to those who want to use the LapDock 100 for their hacking causes.

I'll be getting an original Atrix LapDock.

Old school geek and his watches

Watches is another interesting subject for this geek.

Today, one of my regular geek blog, Gizmodo, has an article on Chronograph watches. It show cases a nice Heuer, old school Rolex Daytona, and an Omega Speedmaster Professional. It is kind of light on content. An introduction to Chronograph should explain some of the features. For example, the Tachymeter and how to use it. Not all Chronographs have Tachs. The watch I am wearing today is a Sinn 156 Military and does not have a Tach. It is a military watch with an unusual dial arrangement fitted with a Lemania 5100 automatic complication. It also has a 24h our sub-dial which leads to an interesting subject of discussion for watch geeks.  In short, there are different chronographs of all sorts.
So, I was a bit disappointed in the Gizmodo article.

However, today is a good day to profess my love of mechanical watches as a geek.

First of all, watches are oldest form of gadgets for the gentlemen. You have a hundred moving parts that require high precision and tolerance. Like most 30,40 something tech geeks. I started my watch habit during the dot-com era. When money was flowing, I was buying a high-end time piece every 3 months and spending my time with other dot-commers on timezone.com.

I was always a big fan of NASA and astronauts in general. Buzz Aldrin was my hero so one of the first watches I got was an Omega Speedmaster Professional. Notice in the second picture below, Aldrin is wearing his Speedmaster professional strapped outside his spacesuit in m*therf*cking outer space. How cool is that. That watch can take a serious beating as it passed many tests by NASA.

Over the years, I collected a great deal of watches, My entire collection is mostly "tool watches."

Tool Watches are worn by professionals (NATO pilots, astronauts, bomb squad,exploreres)  and most of them are military watches or ones used by adventurous types. I'm one of those collectors you can call a "Desktop diver." I have diving watches that can go 300 to 1000 meters deep but the deepest I'll go is a 9 foot pool. I have no biases like some (Omega vs Rolex). I collect them all.

This youtube video explains it all.

In this day an age, most people ask why do I still wear a watch when you can get your time off a phone or computer. Well, I have two good long answers for this.

1. Appreciation. I don't think of watches as an investment but all of my watches have doubled or increased in value. The Sinn 156 pictured above can no longer be bought. It has a rare Lemania movement sought out by others. I can easily sell it for three times what I bought it for. In 1996, I traded an Apple Wall Street Powerbook (worth $600 at the time) for a rare 168000 Rolex Submariner. The laptop is worth $80-120 on eBay today.On the other hand,the Rolex Sub is worth over $6000 in the secondary market. It is highly sought after by Japanese collectors due to the fact it was a transitional model (matte dial pre-lumia). In 2001, I bought a brand new Rolex GMT Master II for $2700. To buy one now will cost you over $6000. The Speedmaster professional you see Buzz Aldrin wearing, well, I bought one brand new in Europe for $1200 in the early 2000. Today, speedmaster "moonwatches" still fetch over $3,000. In short, electronic gadgets will depreciate faster as the next and greatest item replaces it. Unless you have a rare first edition Apple II, electronics are disposable gadgets. My watch collection is a family heirloom I can easily pass on to my kids.

2. Doesn't need a battery. Very simple. I realized how important this was early this year when I was hospitalized for a few days. I had my iPad, laptop, phones and they all died on me on the first day. I was constantly asking nurses to borrow their phone chargers. In the end, all my electronic gadgets died on me. Waiting and waiting for hours in the emergency room for the next blood tests, the only thing keeping me sane was measuring time. I would wake up in the middle of the night and my wristwatch was the only thing that kept me in check with the reality of the world. Knowing what time it was, I could easily meditate myself to sleep; knowing I didn't have to stay awake for 3 or 4 hours. I'm surprised my hospital didn't have wall clocks.

There you have it. Watches and why this old school fortysomething geek plays with them.
And those talks of iWatches, I won't be buying one. Digital watches will never have the same breadth of cool as any mechanical watch.

Syba 5.25 Dual Bay Rack w/ USB 3.0

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 $30-40 which tends to be a bit more expensive compared to $20 single bay units. Unlike the $20 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.

Not all products are perfect so here are the cons I can think of:

There is no locking mechanism in the front.

There are no fan or cooling.  The lack of fan may be an issue in the future for higher rpm drives and cases with inadequate air flow.

Here it is in my case:

And most importantly, it supports SATA 6.0 Gb/s. I've found other docks I've used in the past only support SATA II/ 3.0 Gb/s so this is a nice. Connecting directly to the SATA bus of the motherboard will always give better speed than USB 3.0 or eSATA.

Product Link on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Syba-5-25-Inch-2-5-Inch-3-25-Inch-SY-MRA55006

USB 3.0 header adapters.

After a building a new computer, I often have various USB sticks and dongles that stick out the back of the case. I like to hide some of my USB devices. Operating systems like FreeNAS, OpenElec and ESXi can run and boot off USB sticks. Why waste a full drive when a 4-8GB stick is all you need. Furthermore, why have a USB stick dangling outside where other people can yank them; especially little children.

Well, the solution is USB headers. This post will cover two different types of USB 3.0 header adapters I got from Amazon.

I got a Y Cable:

http://www.amazon.com/8-inch-20-Pin-Motherboard-Connectors-Y-Cable/dp/B007PODI1W

and a dongle type header:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0076RJE3Y


The Y cable comes in handy for those older cases that uses USB 3.0 passthrough instead of header connectors.

These use the 19/20 pin motherboard adapters for motherboards that support USB 3.0 headers.

Here, you can plug in a wireless keyboard/mouse dongle and hide them from view.

Here they are inside the case and in the motherboard.

You can plug in USB sticks. Wifi, bluetooth dongles, license keys (some software uses USB dongles for authentication). I am thinking of putting in a 7" USB display to fill up the side of my atx-case.

Here, you can have USB stick shown as a hidden boot disk.

The dongle is great in theory but on my motherboard, it takes up too much clearance. It covers up another USB header. Here the Y-cable works perfectly and now I have 10 USB 3.0 connections along with 6 USB 2.0

SSD RAID 0 in an eSATA enclosure box

What happens when you try to stripe 4 SATA 3 6G SSDs inside an E-SATA enclosure?

Just for fun, I tried two Samsung 830s and two Crucial M4s into a Mercury Elite Pro Qx2 raid box set to RAID 0 striped.

The results? Very disappointing that I didn't even bother to take screenshots.

Using e-sata connected to various Macs, Windows, and Linux boxes, I barely got 150-180 MB/s. I was better off just using 7200 rpm normal hard drives.

In short, don't even bother doing this at home.

The reasons are pretty obvious. E-SATA's capped bandwidth is around 200 MB/s. Then you have the fact that 99% of the consumer/prosumer raid boxes out there only support SATA 2 (3G) which barely taps the speed of SSDs. Don't expect to get speeds like the Pegasus R4 Thunderbolt which I've seen top 800MB/s with platter hard drives.

So the cheap solution is to expect someone to come out with a decent USB 3.0 Raid box with SATA 3 (6G) interfaces.

Now, for fun, I tried striping a few of the SSDs off a PC motherboard. Using a bootable Linux Mint USB, I built a striped software array in Linux with two Samsungs 830s. I was able to sustain 700MB/s through some various tests. Unfortunately, that doesn't help me because I need DAS (Direct Attached Storage) for my various computers.

Newer Technology USB 3.0 to eSATA adapter

Here is a 2012 Macbook friendly accessory to stuff in your travel bag. A Newertech (Newer Technology) USB 3.0 to e-sata adapter. This device retails and sells for about $30. You can probably find other adapters cheaper from other brands but Newertech has a great reputation for Macintosh capabilities.

My only real gripe is the short USB cable with both A end piece connectors. You can't simply use a different USB cable if you want to.

The reason I got this cable is that many of the current/existing e-sata/usb 3.0 combo boxes are flaky with USB 3.0. I've looked at over a dozen different makes (Mediasonic, Sans Digital,etc) and models. I've read hundred pages of forums and reviews (Amazon/NewEgg) to know USB 3.0 raid enclosures are iffy at best. They drop connections, sleep causes issues, transfer speeds are problematic, there are chipset incompatibilities,etc. I have a few boxes and docks where my Macbook Pro's USB 3.0 port does not work. An example is the Voyager Q HDD dock.

I tried this cable on various e-sata devices and it works great. I get about 180 MB/s reads and 160 MB/s writes which is about correct. Most e-sata boxes in RAID or SSD top out at 200 MB/s. With some USB overhead, 180MB/s reads is pretty respectable. The only thing faster for a Macbook is Thunderbolt.

Overall, I am happy with this device.


A short summary for those interested:

• Plug-n-play operation. No drivers needed for OSX.
• Not bus powered. Does not support esata-p
• Respectable USB3/e-sata speeds.
• USB A to USB A end cable.
• Does not support port multiplier.

Transform the Galaxy Nexus into a desktop computer

With a simple adapter and bluetooth, you can convert a Samsung Galaxy Nexus into a full desktop computer.

You will need a micro USB  to MH/HDMI adapter, a HDMI compatible monitor, and a set of bluetooth keyboard and bluetooth mouse. I use the Apple keyboard and bluetooth mouse.

This will basically mirror everything you see on the phone to the monitor. If you don't have an HDMI monitor, you can use a HDMI to DVI adapter like the one I use on this 24" Samsung.

The screen res will be what is on the phone, 1280x720. Some apps don't work quite right due to the fact they require or shift from landscape to portrait mode. For example, pulling up Netflix's movie browser looks like this:

Overall, it is a silly demo to show off your friends and colleagues. Running ICS on a large monitor is not really that intuitive  when you consider the oversized icons and UI elements designed for a 4.65" phone. The phone should have outputted a 1920x1080 display which would have been my preference.
Now, if this could dual boot into something like Ubuntu, then I can see the value of it. The original Atrix and their webtop was a very promising idea in 2011. Since, it the concept and execution has sort of fizzled into obscurity.

One last note, the MHL adapter requires power. You will need to use the existing micro-usb power adapter to power it. This sorts of kills the whole idea of using the Galaxy Nexus as a portable presentation machine. In comparison, the iPhone 4S and iPad 2/3 can be docked with a 30pin-HDMI adapter and run on battery alone.






LINK for MHL adapter: http://www.amazon.com/Menotek-Adapter-IMPROVED-Protocol-Sensation/dp/B005F9W6DU/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1342718283&sr=8-3&keywords=MHL+adapter+nexus

Torque on Android. An ODB-2 car reader application

One of the best piece software for Android is Torque.

Torque is an ODB2 diagnostic app than can be used to clear error codes and diagnose your car. Pretty much all cars after 2003 or so have ODB-2 as a standard protocol. You can buy a ODB2 reader at your local Kragen or get your fault codes cleared at your dealership. Torque, brings that capabilities to your smartphone.


This is a $5 app that deserves some attention and praise. To use this, you need a bluetooth ODB-2 reader. The most common is the ELM327 bluetooth dongle that can be found on ebay. Most of them are cheap no-name Chinese no name ones. I wouldn't be able to tell you which one works better than the other. I got lucky, mine works.

I use it just to fart around. Nothing serious. You can time your zero-to-sixty times or measure the oil pressure if your car doesn't have a oil gauge. Frugal types can check your MPG in real time. There are countless of things you can do with and it helps you get a better understanding of your car. All my cars are fairly new so I don't have to worry about clearing fault codes yet. There is a GPS tacker built in so you download your tracks. You can use this as a blackbox computer recorder. .


I do have one funny story to tell. Last year, I was looking to buy a used truck and brought my ODB2 setup along. The seller (in a used car lot) panicked when I told him I was going to check the car for any error codes. He quickly shun me away and didn't want to sell me a truck any more.