Tag: tech

Hands on with Iphone 4

Posted onAuthorTruXter

I got my hands on the IPhone 4. After a week of arguing with the macfaqs at work about how Apple is not super man and the pope rolled into one and how the Iphone really does have a signal issue.
One of the co-workers brought an Iphone 4 in to the office and let me get a hands on.

one of Iphone4's Cameras.

IPhone 4 With camera on

The camera on it is amazing. (yeah I’m in the background gathering pictures with my G1).

Back Of IPhone 4

You can actually have a full on video chat with someone who has an IPhone 4 also.

Front Camera

The resolution is remarkable. The thing is nice and heavy feeling. Very sturdy. Somehow though it looks like the old nano and a Motorolla birthed an Apple. Video quality is up to 720p 29 fps recording.

screen area

  • 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen Multi-Touch display
  • 960-by-640-pixel resolution at 326 ppi
  • 800:1 contrast ratio (typical)
  • 500 cd/m2 max brightness (typical)

512mb Ram 1GHz processor Really impressive. That could play GTA liberty City Stories easily.

Well that’s the best I can do with my limited time with the phone. The co-worker that brought that with him is now as we speak on a plane to somewhere on vacation. HTC needs to build more like that. or Motorolla needs to build more like that. Then again, just be motivated by that to make something better. So if I did not make it clear reception was fine. a room with 7 computers 6 of them running and reception was fine. No matter where I placed my fingers on that phone, the signal was good.

(((((1 video was removed)))))

I really appreciated the chance to check that thing out. It was the feeling of when you are holding a brand new hard drive that you know is fast and has tons of storage. It just felt sturdy very well built and nice and heavy.
I will not be buying one simply because AT&T has chased me away already with their bad signal in my area. Sure wish it was on Tmobile. Not much better but better.

Toshiba A75 S2112 Review

Posted onAuthorTruXter

Just received a laptop computer as payment for replacing a motherboard on another laptop. The laptop I received as payment is a Toshiba A75 S2112 Satellite.

Specs:

CPU Arch : 1 CPU – 1 Cores – 2 Threads
CPU PSN : Mobile Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.06GHz
CPU EXT : MMX, SSE (1, 2, 3)
CPUID : F.4.1 / Extended : F.4
CPU Cache : L1 : 12 / 16 KB – L2 : 1024 KB
Core : Prescott (90 nm) / Stepping : E0

Freq : 3066.8 MHz (133.34 * 23)
MB Brand : TOSHIBA
MB Model : EDW10
NB : ATI RS300/RS300M rev 02
SB : ATI SB200 rev 00
GPU Type : ATI MOBILITY RADEON 9000 IGP
DirectX Version : 9.0c

RAM : 448 MB
RAM Speed : Unknown (Unknown) @ N/A

Rundown

Goods

Very nice looking. Keys move fast. Screen is very shiny. Images look clear and crisp. The on board memory and yes I do mean “on board”, the memory is actually part of the motherboard. There is one slot for an upgrade stick. Hard drive is quite though you feel it spin up for sure. There are two fans under the motherboard and a large copper heat sink. Volume knob on the right side. A media button on the left (can assign it to any .exe). Two speakers in the front, they function well with no cracking noises. Latch lock works flawlessly. At times the computer is super fast. DVD burner. good solid housing. Battery works and charges up within just minutes. Built in WIFI is strong and has not failed once. 3 usb 2.0 ports 1 lan port and one modem connection. All lights function. Plenty of bundled software, came with Microsoft Office, tons of editing software like video and image (I’m still going to download and use GIMP it’s what I am used to)

Bads

When I got the laptop, the power button was inside the housing rattling around. Line going up the screen on the left. Some times the computer slows way down. Over heating despite the dual fan and large heatsink.If laptop is set on a table while running it will shut off in a blink in less than 20 minutes.  Battery about 4 hours as long as I keep airflow unobstructed. There are many old posts on this 5 year old computer talking about solder failure due to overheating.

Fixes

Got the power button to stay on by use of a Soldering iron and a pen cap.

Worked to repair the overheating issue cleaned fan and heatsink pulled out half a wig of hair, dust and funk. (fail) Still crashes when sitting on a table.

Screen having a line up the left if I push on the screen, sometimes the line goes away. Someone showed me how but i kind of didn’t start listening until I saw it work. So I have to go back and re-ask.  If I can get it to fix by Doing so, then I will locate the issue better and solve it.

For the work I did on the other computer and the fact this thing actually runs ( This post is being done on the Toshiba), is a great factor in this review. It’s like a free computer . I spent seven hours on that other computer. She spent $100 on this computer. Who got the better deal ?

Score

I give this laptop – notebook a

7/10

GTA IV PATCH 7 / EFLC PATCH 2

Posted onAuthorTech Review Man1 Comment

A new update is now available for both GTA IV and EFLC through GFWL. Downloadable versions will be made available on the Rockstar Games Support site.

GTA IV

v. 1.0.7.0 / 1.0.6.1 (Russian) / 1.0.5.2 (Japanese)

– fix a bug causing tree leaves to look transparent
– fix a bug that prevented uploading of rendered videos to Social Club when attaching certain music tracks
– fix for clip capture “OFF” slowdowns occurring when near waters edge
– expose “detonate” in custom key mapping options menu for Grand Theft Auto IV, Lost and Damned so users can remap “down” arrow key

EFLC

v. 1.1.2.0

– fix a bug causing tree leaves to look transparent
– fix a bug that prevented uploading of rendered videos to Social Club when attaching music tracks from the Ballad of Gay Tony
– fix for clip capture “OFF” slowdowns occurring when near waters edge
– fix for slowdown occurring when getting in a boat during “Sexy Time” mission in The Ballad of Gay Tony
– expose “detonate” in custom key mapping options menu for Lost and Damned so users can remap “down” arrow key
– EFLC now has it’s own settings file called “SETTINGS_EFLC.CFG” to avoid possible conflicts with GTA IV installations

From What I see, There is nothing lost on my end. The game plays very good. The shadows still look  good like they did in patch six. The trees look quite well also. Game play was very smooth. Some of it felt a tad too smooth. But i am not complaining about that. it’s just i am used to certain things lagging a whole lot . When it doesn’t I kind of over steer.

one tiny error during install.

Install Error

This error is nothing. It just confused windows lol. Everything was fine.

Patch seven, very good. I didn’t even have to update drivers this time. But still waiting on latest Nvidia and ATi drivers to be released.

GTA IV PATCH 7 / EFLC PATCH 2  Gets

9/10 from me.

I would say full ten but there is a tree issue I see from time to time.

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Computer Parts Shopping

Posted onAuthorComputer Tweaker1 Comment

At a local electronics store in America. I am sure many have one in mind when I say that. I decided to go to the video card section and check out some of the video cards when a ( I am uncertain if they are sales associates or stocking clerks with a strange desire to sell you something slightly more expensive) walked up to me and offered to help me. I told him I was looking for an Nvidia GTS250 1gb, this card was right behind us about mid back. The guy reached up and grabbed an Nvidia 275 card.$70 difference. He began to suggest I needed a card that was more expensive, before asking me if my computer can even handle it. Like do I have a strong power supply, Do I have pci express? Do I at least have windows xp. So I chuckle and said ” Why you gotta call me out??? I don’t have that much money”. We both chuckled at how I did that. I then broke out with specifics. I told him ” I am looking for a match to my card so I can run SLI” He started to butt in with ” this will run SLI” I laughed and continued with ” I need specs like  ‘Shader Clock 1836MHz,Memory Data Rate 2240MHz,GDDR3,RAMDAC 800 total to match exactly what I have” He looked at me with his eyes glossed over and then muttered ” well if you need me my name is” blah blah blah I got glossed eyed. He walked away

While I was walking around in the video cards section, I noticed that one of the video card’s box had the shrink wrap open. The price was kind of ok, and the box was super heavy. This usually means a large card or a really heavy heatsink. I actually had that exact same video card. It was a BFG 250. It broke on me. I was trying to see if it was the same exact model as what mine is Or if it was going to be a low profile with no sli. Mine isn’t completely broke I wanted to see what I could do with mine in SLI. An employee of the store walked over to me an said that I needed to take that video card over to the manager’s station . I told him that I just wanted to confirm that the video card was what I was looking for. He said that he was (I’m paraphrasing) certain that was what i was doing then he assured me that company policy was the way it was. So I waddled up to the counter/command center (lol), and when I get up there I explain what the request was of the employee. By that time I saw all I needed to see. So I asked a question. I said ” I notice there are a whole lot of items on the shelf that had the “returned item” price marked down sticker, Why is that?”. The guy at the stand looked up and had a look in his face that I can’t explain and said “well a lot of people do not know much about what they are buying and what they have. They get home and that parts do not match so they bring it back to us certain that it is broken”. I tried to have no expression as I replied ” Wow that’s a whole lot of people”. I then walked back to the video cards section.

 

I then walk over to the motherboard section and start looking at the motherboards, I mean since I do have an extra Athlon II processor and brand new, non functioning motherboard.

I noticed it was the same thing going on in the motherboard section as the video card section. Tons of stickers (well not as many but quite a few) of returned items with prices being marked down.

while standing there , my favorite motherboard associate was there telling some story about a video game. So I started to tell my story of how games for windows live some add in code to my GTAIV told me that I installed the game to many times and the whole uproar it caused for a week. The dude looked at me odd and walked away. So I finished my video.

Now my big question is : Why are there so many products on the shelves like that? Is it normal for that many products to be returned? could that many people not know much about what they are buying ? Could it be an occasional bad item gets returned then reshelved, and no one wants to buy the returns, so they build up in time? Is it because they have been burned so many time they just figure it’s easier to let the customers test it, if it comes back they finally send it back to manufacturer? Is it cheaper that way instead of sending a truck back once a month like all other companies do ?

I asked Greg from “Greg’s Snippets” and he had a great answer. He suggested that you have to consider the foul customers and the not very knowledgeable, the random dysfunctional parts, display items and items just like the one I stumbled across that was on the shelf and already open. Each of those items have to weighed in as some factors as to why these products are back on the shelf like that. This is a guy who always sees the deep seedy truth about everything he hears and sees, so him giving that response was a bit out of character. but hey it made sense.

You tell me what you think it could be.

Free Useful WordPress Themes

Posted onAuthorTips Of Tech1 Comment

The guys at Zenverse have some really useful powerful wordpress themes. The themes they provide have advertisement tools out the wazoo (lol I said wazoo). Many free themes with tons of  plugin options already built in. They have some for sale, I never made it that far. I found some free ones that seem to have changed my whole website efforts. On that note I have to take time to tell you to look for their donate button, Their efforts are worth a simple donation, and or a thank you.

WordPress themes

I am in the process of editing two that I got from theme. Not much but enough to make it closer to the appearance I need. You know, colors shades and adding a little bit of flash

BFG GTS 250 Review

Posted onAuthorTech Review Man2 Comments

BFG 250 GTS

Purchased one month ago aVideo card, BFG 250 GTS 1gb from the local fry’s store for $123.49. Heck of a deal coming from two Nvidia 9500gt 512 mb Video cards. Played a few games of Grand Theft Auto IV  with it. Saw the best in game benchmarks over my past video cards. Fan was quieter than my old cooling system on my  twin 9500 gt cards. Temperature was much Higher. On first boot with that card Speedfan saw the temperature at 105 degrees Fahrenheit. While my 9500 gt cards saw temps of 90 on average, 105 after stress, boot temp was around 85. My son’s 240 card temp after stress reads 95*. That’s after about an hour of playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2.

Gpuid aka Gpu-Z benched

GPU Z Screenshot

BFG NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 OC 1GB PCIe 2.0

Performance
GPU NVIDIA® GeForce® GTS 250
Core Clock 750MHz (vs. 738MHz standard)
Shader Clock 1836MHz
Shader Model 4.0
Texture Fill Rate 48 Billion/sec.
Stream Processors 128
Memory
Video Memory 1GB (1024MB)
Memory Type GDDR3
Memory Data Rate 2240MHz (vs. 2200MHz standard)
Memory Interface 256-bit
Memory Bandwidth 71.7GB/sec.
Connections
Bus Type PCI Express® 2.0
Display Connectors 2 Dual-Link DVI-I
RAMDACs Dual 400MHz
Multiple Monitor Support Yes
HDCP Capable Yes, Dual link (Requires other compatible components which are HDCP capable. Designed to meet the output protection management (HDCP) and security specifications of the Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD formats, allowing the playback of encrypted movie content on PCs when connected to HDCP-compliant displays)
HDMI™ Capable Yes (Requires adapter and audio cable, sold separately)
NVIDIA® SLI® Support Yes, 2-Way & 3-Way

I got frustrated with the temperatures being so bad. Sometimes in game I would see temperatures all of the way up to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. So I removed the heatsink to see what could be causing it.

Actual Board

After close inspection, I noticed a part had been hitting the heatsink.

Flaw in BFg 250 gts 1gb Design

Looking at the heatsink I see they had designed the heatsink to accommodate for this issue, but about 1/2 an inch away.

I tried sanding down the heatsink to get more clearance, I tried drilling holes the size of the part. That actually helped. So no longer was the heatsink pressing on it, it also wasn’t vibrating against it. Look at the wear.

One month later

The temperature had not lowered no matter what I tried (while still using factory parts). I boot up my computer and start to play Need for Speed Carbon. The screen filled up with speckles. I had to reboot the computer. After the reboot I let the computer idle for a moment and then I checked the temperature with Speedfan and statistics with cpu-z.

Read outs after crap out

Not a good read. 16x card reading at 4x. after 1 month.

but for the one month of testing, the card was amazing. It played every single game I threw at it. It’s speeds never hesitated, except when it got hot. once the card would get hot, I would see some pretty tragic lag. The nvidia 240 my son has plays modern warfare 2 with high resolution and never once budges or lags. The clock speeds of that card are a bit lower than the clock speeds of the 250. If you have a low budget a warning  because the one I got died after a month of occasional hard gaming light video editing and plenty of cad design and photoshop work.

I must inform you that I did not overclock my card. I did not overclock my motherboard. I did not overclock my memory or my processor. I save that for after I get new parts. I was happy with this card so, I never bought a new card. now I have to. Tigerdirect.com, here I come.

Frys Let Me Down

Posted onAuthorComputer Tweaker2 Comments

Ok, Story time.

15 days ago I was given $150 to upgrade someone’s computer. This computer was very old. pc100 ram. Max of less than 1g capabilities. It only had a 40 gig hard drive and the processor was a Pentium II. I take the $150 and go to fry’s and walk around in circles for an hour as I always do. The frys in Houston Texas off I45 and West Road. It hit me, I cam up with an idea. I put together in my head all of the parts that where on sale and with in a budget I could handle and a good enough upgrade to be near worth the change of parts.So I look at my son who has been on his Intel e2200 processor for 2 years. And I think about my Athlon 5600+. I see that you can buy a gigabyte motherboard and an AMD 440 for $59. Ok that is not bad, not bad at all. Below I see 4 gigs pc 6400. I grab two of the cpus/motherboard packages and the 4 gigs memory. I rush home and yank only $80 out of the pot that I was supposed to use to build this kid’s computer with, I stuff that money in my pocket. I yank my two gigs of memory out of my computer and my 5600+. Throw a triple core Amd 440 and 4 gigs of memory in my machine, chunk my memory and my old processor in one of the new boards, toss it into the kid’s computer and install windows from one of my unused disks. There he is set. I take the other mobo and cpu combo and build a triple core 3.0 gig CPU  and 4 gigs memory computer for my son. We all came out with very nice machines for under two hundred bucks.

The kid’s computer is running like a monster. My son’s computer however had gone through a huge series of bsod (Blue Screen of Death) . I go to return the motherboard and processor for his machine and forgot the dang backplate. They sent us back home to get that. We go back up there. A different person was checking us out the next time we get there. They said the box for the cpu did not match. Even though the processor I was returning had the serial code on it, and that serial code matched my receipt. ok I go home and get the box. I get back up there with both boxes. This time I am being checked out by a third person. He now says that the box for the motherboard does not match the serial code on the motherboard. Even though the serial code on the motherboard matched the receipt. 3 trips to that place. This is the last day of the 15 day Warranty. It takes me 30 minutes to get home, 30 minutes to get back. I am standing there in front of the dude and it is 30 minutes before they close. He walks to his manager and explains what has been happening. The  manager some skinny dude with a nasty comb over and a suite that is 4 sizes too big for him shrugs and laughs and says I need the right box.

I asked the manager to come talk to me and hear what I have as the situation. I just wanted to see if he would laugh in my face within kicking distance. As soon as he walks up he says ” there is nothing i can do without the right box” . I tell him it is my 3rd trip up there and it would have been helpful if someone would have covered all of this the first time I came up there. I explained that one of the boxes are at some kid’s house and I will not be able to get it back. He grins and stares at me with a “ok figure it out dude” look on his face. I grab my stuff and start to walk out the door. I turn to the guy and very angrily started to say ” this is how you satisfy customers” I have no idea what I was going to say with that. The dude doesn’t care, he is just there to stand in goofy poses and look important. I got half way through saying it and just stopped and walked away.

On the way out of the door, the door guy who is suposed to check your bag and mark your receipts stepped in front of me with his purple highlighter, I looked him in the face and told him to F off. I know it wasn’t his fault. I just didn’t want to have to go through  a hokey pokey of explaining that I am walking out of the store with a handful of parts and a receipt that already has a highlighter check on it from the last person who didn’t actually inspect my stuff. I just knew that this time I would be accused of something I didn’t do so I stopped him right there. He replied with a “woaaaah!!!???” . I continued to the car and left for home. I got home 5 minutes before they closed. I would never make it back.

If the lazy bunch had their act together (yeah I know I had the wrong stuff) they could have double checked all that i was walking in and out with to let me know what else I need. they were not helpful at all.

From now on I am buying everything I need from http://www.tigerdirect.com/ They have better deals anyway. You only have to wait a few days though. and I am not one to go around saying that Fry’s sucks, But they really let me down. The biggest  tech review site in Houston, and the most common writer here, treated like a nagging 12 year old.

Epic Meme Videos

Posted onAuthorComputer Tweaker

Over the years, the internet has given us some ftunny, yet weird, still kind of cool videos. Here are the all time favorites for this site. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

What is a meme

WEEEEEEEEEEE

Peanut Butter Jelly

All your Base


Star Wars Kid

UmaNuma

Banana Phone


Badger

Tech Tv Blooper

In the spirit of the funnies.
some of my oldest videos

The boss

The Run Away

Apple Ipad Sketch

Posted onAuthorGame News

Well I saw the video of the Apple Ipad Sketching.

I was quite impressed. In fact I was amazed. I was actually thinking about my old psp and how that Ipad totally destroys everything my psp could do. Then I realized I was aiming to low.

Focal Point Device

(pdf about Focal Point)

I realized that Microsoft’s 8 year old operating system is used on a thing called focal point. It is a full blown Windows XP. We have installed Autodesk Autocad, Photoshop, Gimp and even grand theft auto iii on that device. It runs on Tmobile network .

I know it is worthless argument of it’s portability and durability, against apple’s really nice looks. It would seem they are of two separate classifications. Can’t wait for the Android version of the mix of the two :-)

We can be certain the Linux group will put this thing down by the end of the month and have  (most likely) Kubuntu or something on it. Innovation comes when  the Windows freaks to reverse engineer Windows 7 Mobile (if it actually comes out) and seeing them slap that onto one of these Ipads and make something actually useful of it. Strange enough, there are groups who like to put windows on everything, but Microsoft sues them or sends a cease notice as soon as they do it. That is why linux is the better choice .. The pure simple freedom to learn and be creative. Microsoft needs that. Apple needs that. Micorosft most of all. it says ” our software is so strong and versatile it can be installed on anything that can hold an o/s, and it might actually even work.”  for now it’s the linux group doing all the work.

Crazy deal is, no one has wanted the touch tablets. but apple puts out a tablet and the sells are crazy. could be an early adapter thing, could be just for claiming greatness before anyone then in five months when everyone else has one saying ” yeah I bought one, they suck” could just be a hipster thing. I am hoping it is for the techies. the real techies who will break that thing down, format it and see what they can load on it.

Let’s hope the best.. I just hope computers don’t all go touch screen. I want my keyboard … spread sheet would suck after about 300 words, your fingers would hurt.

If anyone has anything cool to show about their Ipad, please post.. I want to see it. The world wants to see it.

Windows 7 Beta 7100 Ends 2 days

Posted onAuthorGame News

Sure did not feel like very long on that dang thing. 2 days as the drum beats and it’s lights out or upgrade.
I did find few Windows Vista installs that come with free windows 7 upgrades. for around 130. To me that sounds like
a peach of a deal. Found it at zipzoomfly, not going to link it because heh. I’m not getting any kick back.. nah because I don’t feel like searching for it till I’m ready, but I did saw it earlier today. So I know it’s there

Good Luck