Nokia 1110 Mobile Phone (on Optus pre-paid)
The 1110 is an old 'dumb' mobile phone which my parents bought for me to replace an even older Nokia that was having battery issues. It was purchased outright for the huge sum of $64 and runs pre-paid on Optus $30/6month recharge plan.
The phone has a monochrome screen, about 2 inches square in size. Instead of a gray/white pixel colour it has a nice green glow. It has dedicated hardware keys covered in a soft gel-like plastic. It weighs next to nothing, and the battery will last on standby for about 6 days. Talk time is about 2 hours. It comes pre-installed with Snake, has an alarm, and a calculator. All these features are buried in the menu, but there is a shortcut key that when combined with a numeric or directional key, can go straight to feature pages.
The Good:
- Battery life. This phone beats most modern phones on standby. When used primarily as a SMS device and for receiving calls, this is very convenient.
- Alarm. Because of the low standby power drain, this phone can work as a miniature alarm clock. It even has snooze!
- Standby clock. In standby mode, the screen backlight turns off, and a digital clock is displayed that can be seen in daylight. So the phone can double as a timepiece without having to unlock.
- SMS. By limiting the phone to SMS, messages are kept brief and to the point.
- Physically diminutive. Due to the small non-touch screen, the phone size and weight is not an issue. It can fit in almost any pocket. I've even been able to temporarily hold it in those tiny coin pockets that are inside one of the normal pocket on a pair of tight jeans. It sticks out a bit and I can't bend forward, but you get the picture.
- Rugged. I could drop this phone from shoulder height and it would...break. But being so cheap, I wouldn't care. I'd just buy a new one.
- Phone. It makes and receives phone calls. There isn't a special way to hold it to get it to do this.
- It's dumb. Being a dumb phone, you will never find yourself using it like a smart phone. You won't be looking through it at a concert, because it doesn't have a camera. You won't be ignoring other people while they talk to you because it doesn't have internet. You won't find yourself addicted to it because it doesn't have anything fun on it (unless you find snake fun).
- Price. At $64 for the handset, plus $30 recharge that lasts 6 months, my total cost over ownership over the past 24 months is <$200. Since there is no data, there is no chance of going over caps or anything like that.
- Composer. You can write your own ringtone on the niftly included composer. It's only monophonic, but you can still create something that resembles the theme to Indiana Jones. You can even assign this tone to incoming calls, SMS, reminder, or the alarm.
- Simple. This phone is so simple to use, a senior citizen could use it. I was going to say so simple a baby could use it, but these days babies are able to write the driver code to get H.264 video to play natively on a 600x480 screen at 30fps. Most older folk I know prefer the uncomplicated things in life.
The Bad:
- No colour. Apart from the green and black, this phone has no colour. Since you can't put anything colourful on it anyway, this isn't such a bad thing.
- No pictures. This phone doesn't support pictures or any picture services. There a graphics but they are treated as text objects and won't be compatible with the graphical text systems used by modern smartphones.
- Talk time. Talk time is quite short as the electronics used to facilitate the audio transmission systems are old and their rated power envelopes are from the 1900s...oops, I mean 1990s.
- Radiation. From memory, this particular model had a lower than average radiation index, but this was compared to phones of the day. It doesn't have any other antenna's other than 2G, so this may mean less overall radiation, but I'm sure that when this thing handshakes the basestation I'm getting more rads pumped into the side of my head than the modern smartphone counterparts.
- Isolation. This phone has no social accessibility above the normal talk and SMS. As long as you use this phone you will never be a Foursquare champion.
- No music. There are polyphonic ringtones. This phone doesn't support them. I also haven't found out how to import/export the mono ringtones, so anything I want I have to create myself in the composer. This can actually be quite fun, so not such a bad thing.
- Storage. The memory capacity of the phone is quite small. If all the custom ringtone slots are full, then you can fit about 50 old SMS's alongside about 150 phone numbers. The memory is all shared, so having a lot of one reduces the space available to the other.
- Old. This phone is old. It looks old, it smells old, it is old. If you were a retro nut, or have trouble with complex devices, then this is a good phone for you. If you are anybody else, this phone is crap.
Conclusion:
- This phone is the premier phone in it's class. The trouble some people may find is that this is the only phone in it's class (as long as you don't count the updated 1110i), and that class is waaaay down the list.
If you don't make a lot of calls and only intend to receive calls, this phone and prepaid combo is perfect. There is just enough credit on the plan to lead a normal social life using SMS only. If you need simple functions like an alarm, calendar reminder, stopwatch, clock/watch, light to find your house keys, then this phone will service all those needs. If you need anything above this, then you should look into getting a more advanced phone.
Score: 5/10.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
Sugarfree cola.
Sugarfree Cola.
As far as I'm concerned there are only 2 players in the sugarfree cola market. For legal reasons, I will use fake names to represent each. Let's call the first one "Coco-Koalla Zoro" and the second one "Poopsie-Mix".
Firstly, for those who think there isn't a difference between the two and that they are actually the same product and that the companies are pulling the wool over our eyes in an attempt to produce a false sense of diversity, I can say without hesitation that they are in fact different. Regardless of whether they taste the same, there must be something in one of them that isn't present in the other, or is in differing quantity than the other. How do I know? Well, apart from the labeling on the side of the can, I get a neck ache from drinking the Zoro which I don't from drinking the Mix. This neck ache is unpleasant, so you can probably guess which one I prefer.
It might also interest you to know that the poopsie is usually the cheaper of the two, and also cheaper on a regular basis including sale times.
Due to fridge size restrictions at my place of work, large bottles (bigger than 600ml) are not able to be chilled without the threat of theft (we have a mini fridge at work next to my desk and the main building fridge is ages away and gets stuff stolen out of it sometimes). The only option is therefor cans. There is no difference in the quality and construction of the cans from both producers. They are equally able to contain the liquid within for approximately 7-10 years before the contents chew through the aluminium. I found this out the hard way (goodbye Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace themed cans. Goodbye).
The good:
- Stealth. For a quick pick-me-up or a refreshing beverage, nothing is stereotypically better than a cold can of cola. No one will judge you for cracking one open halfway through an intense keyboard workout session at the office.
The bad:
- Addictive. The caffeine present in these in on par with a cup of coffee, but whereas coffee has a tendency to leave one satisfied for the good part of the morning, I find a can of cola gets downed fast, and immediately induce a craving for more. Currently I'm running about 2-3 cans a day, up to 4 on a hectic or overly long day. This is bad. I can feel it eating away at my soul.
- Lies. The fact that these are sugarfree may lead one to believe that they will not contribute to you putting on weight. This is not always true. If you only drink the cola, then you aren't adding more sugar into your system. However, the increased stimulation from the caffeine may cause you to crave sugar. Adding a small 15g-30g chocolate bar to the can of 'diet' cola is defeating the purpose. Plus, the artificial sweeteners are thought to cause cancer. I'm not sure if this is true, but given the choice, I'd prefer to have a sugar loaded drink and no need for anything extra, than a drink and a chocolate and get cancer. Unfortunately, being a pig I would eat the chocolate bar anyway, so I'm sticking with the sugarfree.
Conclusion:
Sugarfree cola is like anything else. Use it in moderation. Unfortunately, it's been specifically designed to avert moderated usage. My suggestion: Switch to a skinny latte in the morning. This should get you past the halfway mark and curb any cravings. If you still find yourself needing a boost later in the day, drink a glass of water first. You may find what you're actually needing is hydration. Am I going to follow my own advice? Hell no. Should you? I don't care.
Score: 6/10. The only reason I drink this instead of coffee is because I can't fit a small barrista next to my feet where I work and even if I could, they probably wouldn't enjoy me chilling cheese and sliced meats inside them. Probably...
As far as I'm concerned there are only 2 players in the sugarfree cola market. For legal reasons, I will use fake names to represent each. Let's call the first one "Coco-Koalla Zoro" and the second one "Poopsie-Mix".
Firstly, for those who think there isn't a difference between the two and that they are actually the same product and that the companies are pulling the wool over our eyes in an attempt to produce a false sense of diversity, I can say without hesitation that they are in fact different. Regardless of whether they taste the same, there must be something in one of them that isn't present in the other, or is in differing quantity than the other. How do I know? Well, apart from the labeling on the side of the can, I get a neck ache from drinking the Zoro which I don't from drinking the Mix. This neck ache is unpleasant, so you can probably guess which one I prefer.
It might also interest you to know that the poopsie is usually the cheaper of the two, and also cheaper on a regular basis including sale times.
Due to fridge size restrictions at my place of work, large bottles (bigger than 600ml) are not able to be chilled without the threat of theft (we have a mini fridge at work next to my desk and the main building fridge is ages away and gets stuff stolen out of it sometimes). The only option is therefor cans. There is no difference in the quality and construction of the cans from both producers. They are equally able to contain the liquid within for approximately 7-10 years before the contents chew through the aluminium. I found this out the hard way (goodbye Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace themed cans. Goodbye).
The good:
- Stealth. For a quick pick-me-up or a refreshing beverage, nothing is stereotypically better than a cold can of cola. No one will judge you for cracking one open halfway through an intense keyboard workout session at the office.
The bad:
- Addictive. The caffeine present in these in on par with a cup of coffee, but whereas coffee has a tendency to leave one satisfied for the good part of the morning, I find a can of cola gets downed fast, and immediately induce a craving for more. Currently I'm running about 2-3 cans a day, up to 4 on a hectic or overly long day. This is bad. I can feel it eating away at my soul.
- Lies. The fact that these are sugarfree may lead one to believe that they will not contribute to you putting on weight. This is not always true. If you only drink the cola, then you aren't adding more sugar into your system. However, the increased stimulation from the caffeine may cause you to crave sugar. Adding a small 15g-30g chocolate bar to the can of 'diet' cola is defeating the purpose. Plus, the artificial sweeteners are thought to cause cancer. I'm not sure if this is true, but given the choice, I'd prefer to have a sugar loaded drink and no need for anything extra, than a drink and a chocolate and get cancer. Unfortunately, being a pig I would eat the chocolate bar anyway, so I'm sticking with the sugarfree.
Conclusion:
Sugarfree cola is like anything else. Use it in moderation. Unfortunately, it's been specifically designed to avert moderated usage. My suggestion: Switch to a skinny latte in the morning. This should get you past the halfway mark and curb any cravings. If you still find yourself needing a boost later in the day, drink a glass of water first. You may find what you're actually needing is hydration. Am I going to follow my own advice? Hell no. Should you? I don't care.
Score: 6/10. The only reason I drink this instead of coffee is because I can't fit a small barrista next to my feet where I work and even if I could, they probably wouldn't enjoy me chilling cheese and sliced meats inside them. Probably...
Friday, June 24, 2011
WD 2TB Elements external HDD
WD 2TB Elements external HDD.
I recently purchased a 2TB WD Elements external HDD for backing up media and what-not that was chewing up room on my PCs intenal HDD.
This was the third WD drive that I have bought (not including the WD Green internal 750GB drive in my PC). The previous two were 1TB each and but they are completely different models. The first one is housed in a metal casing with rubber ends that raise the shell above the desk surface regardless of which way you place it down. The connector is a large square USB type on the drive end of the wire and standard USB on the other. It's quite noisy and vibrates a lot. There is a bright blue (in colour, not intensity) activity LED on the back where the plugs go in. It's possible to open the case and get to the drive but I believe the drive and small circuit board are keyed to each other so salvaging is not possible with this product, other than moving the drive to an internal location within a standard PC.
The next drive has an all plastic enclosure and small rubber feet on the bottom to stop it vibrating against the desk surface. It's a lot lighter than the first drive and is silent, even when writing and reading data. It has a white LED for activity. The connector is the smaller micro-USB type often found on compact digital cameras.
The latest drive looks identical to the second drive and only differs in the model name on the sticker on the bottom. You can't really tell which is which is you have them side-by-side. The latest drive is actually noisier than the 1TB version but not nearly as noisy as the very first drive. I also think the two newer drives are the slowest rotating of the three. This is fine as the USB 2.0 interface is the limiting factor with these devices.
All three devices stack quite easily and there are no odd shapes to contend with.
I bought the 2TB drive to house media files which had become too large for the 1TB drive. The older 1TB drive holds system backups and old archive data which don't require so much space.
The Good:
- Price. The new drive cost AU$114 which is less than the $140 I paid for the first drive and only $15 more for double the capacity of the second drive. At the moment, the 2TB drive is on sale at Officeworks and various other retailers for $99. That kind of price is ridiculous considering the amount of space you get.
- Support. The power adapter on my first drive blew up when I plugged it into a friend's power outlet. The drive wasn't plugged in at the time so it didn't suffer any damage. A quick bit of researching on the net showed that this particular power brick was prone to failure and a short stint on the WD support website, and a couple of tech emails later and another power adapter was on it's way to me in the mail. As far as component support and warranty dealings are concerned this has been the best experience I have had with a company, including all face-to-face conversations with retail stores. WD didn't even bother asking for the old brick back.
- Stealth. Apart from the writing and reading noise when the disk is running, the drive is quite unassuming sitting next to my monitor. The black plastic case blends into the rest of the desktop equipment and the activity light is quite muted when pointed at the wall.
- Convenience. Having 2TB spare area at the flick of a switch (or plug of a ...plug), is very nice, especially if you need to move large amounts of data a far distance.
The bad:
- Noise. The latest drive has a gurgling noise as the read/head moves back and forth. It's very low frequency so not too annoying but as the previous drive was virtually silent, it makes you wonder about the longevity of the drive components.
- Bland. The black plastic case, while sleek, is quite boring. If you want something fancy looking to go with your fancy case you are better off with an aftermarket external drive case.
- Powered. These drives require power. Some say this is a good thing as you will never be caught out by an unpowered USB as you are sometimes with USB powered drives. I would have to agree with this view, but the opposing view is that you now have to carry around a power brick wherever the drive goes. I would argue that that is what USB key drives are for. Anything this large and you should really be seated somewhere where there is power. Still, I will put this as a negative since extra weight and equipment isn't really ideal.
- Default FAT32. These drives are preformatted to FAT32 which is fine for all Windows operating systems and Linux flavours but Mac may need some extra preparation. The problem with FAT32 is that files over 4GB will not be able to be stored on the drive out of the box, so you can forget about storing DVD ROM images unless you reformat to NTFS (or similar). This will lose you a few hundred MB of storage due to NTFS overhead, and it may take a while to perform the reformat. It also may limit the flexibility of operating systems that can read the drive. The worst part about this is if you want to store over 4GB and only realise AFTER copying heaps of data across already. I learned this the hard way.
- Slow. These drives are slow. The bottleneck is the USB2.0 interface but the drives themselves are slow by nature. When USB3.0 models come out expect a decent price hike to go with the hike in performance.
- Always on. If you want to leave the drive plugged in, the power brick will consume power even when the drive is powered down. I always unplug the data cable first which puts the drive into power down mode, then I unplug the power cable at BOTH ends. I always plug the power brick into the wall first before attaching to the drive. If something fails and the power spikes, at least it wont take the data with it.
- Seagate drive spins faster. The Seagate version of this drive spins at 7200rpm so it might have better raw performance. It's been stated though the WD drives have smarter hardware and firmware that make performance comparable, even though the drive spins closer to 5400rpm. For the average user, you won't see any noticable difference by going to a faster spindle speed, other than less money in your pocket after the purchase.
Conclusion:
- With SSDs becoming more popular, mass storage magnetic drive will only drop in price. The price is so low right now already that these drives are perfect for backing up systems and storing infrequently used files. They work great as a secondary cheap photo storage box for dSLR images captured in the RAW format.
Score: 7.5/10
I recently purchased a 2TB WD Elements external HDD for backing up media and what-not that was chewing up room on my PCs intenal HDD.
This was the third WD drive that I have bought (not including the WD Green internal 750GB drive in my PC). The previous two were 1TB each and but they are completely different models. The first one is housed in a metal casing with rubber ends that raise the shell above the desk surface regardless of which way you place it down. The connector is a large square USB type on the drive end of the wire and standard USB on the other. It's quite noisy and vibrates a lot. There is a bright blue (in colour, not intensity) activity LED on the back where the plugs go in. It's possible to open the case and get to the drive but I believe the drive and small circuit board are keyed to each other so salvaging is not possible with this product, other than moving the drive to an internal location within a standard PC.
The next drive has an all plastic enclosure and small rubber feet on the bottom to stop it vibrating against the desk surface. It's a lot lighter than the first drive and is silent, even when writing and reading data. It has a white LED for activity. The connector is the smaller micro-USB type often found on compact digital cameras.
The latest drive looks identical to the second drive and only differs in the model name on the sticker on the bottom. You can't really tell which is which is you have them side-by-side. The latest drive is actually noisier than the 1TB version but not nearly as noisy as the very first drive. I also think the two newer drives are the slowest rotating of the three. This is fine as the USB 2.0 interface is the limiting factor with these devices.
All three devices stack quite easily and there are no odd shapes to contend with.
I bought the 2TB drive to house media files which had become too large for the 1TB drive. The older 1TB drive holds system backups and old archive data which don't require so much space.
The Good:
- Price. The new drive cost AU$114 which is less than the $140 I paid for the first drive and only $15 more for double the capacity of the second drive. At the moment, the 2TB drive is on sale at Officeworks and various other retailers for $99. That kind of price is ridiculous considering the amount of space you get.
- Support. The power adapter on my first drive blew up when I plugged it into a friend's power outlet. The drive wasn't plugged in at the time so it didn't suffer any damage. A quick bit of researching on the net showed that this particular power brick was prone to failure and a short stint on the WD support website, and a couple of tech emails later and another power adapter was on it's way to me in the mail. As far as component support and warranty dealings are concerned this has been the best experience I have had with a company, including all face-to-face conversations with retail stores. WD didn't even bother asking for the old brick back.
- Stealth. Apart from the writing and reading noise when the disk is running, the drive is quite unassuming sitting next to my monitor. The black plastic case blends into the rest of the desktop equipment and the activity light is quite muted when pointed at the wall.
- Convenience. Having 2TB spare area at the flick of a switch (or plug of a ...plug), is very nice, especially if you need to move large amounts of data a far distance.
The bad:
- Noise. The latest drive has a gurgling noise as the read/head moves back and forth. It's very low frequency so not too annoying but as the previous drive was virtually silent, it makes you wonder about the longevity of the drive components.
- Bland. The black plastic case, while sleek, is quite boring. If you want something fancy looking to go with your fancy case you are better off with an aftermarket external drive case.
- Powered. These drives require power. Some say this is a good thing as you will never be caught out by an unpowered USB as you are sometimes with USB powered drives. I would have to agree with this view, but the opposing view is that you now have to carry around a power brick wherever the drive goes. I would argue that that is what USB key drives are for. Anything this large and you should really be seated somewhere where there is power. Still, I will put this as a negative since extra weight and equipment isn't really ideal.
- Default FAT32. These drives are preformatted to FAT32 which is fine for all Windows operating systems and Linux flavours but Mac may need some extra preparation. The problem with FAT32 is that files over 4GB will not be able to be stored on the drive out of the box, so you can forget about storing DVD ROM images unless you reformat to NTFS (or similar). This will lose you a few hundred MB of storage due to NTFS overhead, and it may take a while to perform the reformat. It also may limit the flexibility of operating systems that can read the drive. The worst part about this is if you want to store over 4GB and only realise AFTER copying heaps of data across already. I learned this the hard way.
- Slow. These drives are slow. The bottleneck is the USB2.0 interface but the drives themselves are slow by nature. When USB3.0 models come out expect a decent price hike to go with the hike in performance.
- Always on. If you want to leave the drive plugged in, the power brick will consume power even when the drive is powered down. I always unplug the data cable first which puts the drive into power down mode, then I unplug the power cable at BOTH ends. I always plug the power brick into the wall first before attaching to the drive. If something fails and the power spikes, at least it wont take the data with it.
- Seagate drive spins faster. The Seagate version of this drive spins at 7200rpm so it might have better raw performance. It's been stated though the WD drives have smarter hardware and firmware that make performance comparable, even though the drive spins closer to 5400rpm. For the average user, you won't see any noticable difference by going to a faster spindle speed, other than less money in your pocket after the purchase.
Conclusion:
- With SSDs becoming more popular, mass storage magnetic drive will only drop in price. The price is so low right now already that these drives are perfect for backing up systems and storing infrequently used files. They work great as a secondary cheap photo storage box for dSLR images captured in the RAW format.
Score: 7.5/10
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
StarCraft2
StarCraft2
Today's review will be very short as I need to get more sleep.
Overview:
SC2 is a Real-time strategy (RTS) game for the PC that came out in 2010(I think???). It allows you to control an army of either of 3 distinct races. Terrans, Zerg, or Protoss. Google it to find out more.
The good:
- Single player. The single player portion of the game is storyline driven and quite immersive. It allows you to learn all the controls and strategies in a tiered manner so by the end of the campaign, your skills are quite polished.
- Multi-player. All the action in the campaign is just a precursor to where the real fun in the game is. Multi-player. Opponents are selected intelligently based on your win-loss record, so you are usually never overpowered and vice-versa. This makes the online experience very enjoyable.
- Voice chat built-in. Very convenient and simple to use (albeit a bit buggy with some microphones).
- Achievements. Achievements are obtained by completing various specific tasks in the campaign and within a multiplayer match. Your score also leads to unlocking portraits that you can assign to your character profile so people can see how good you are at a glance. You can use this to intimidate, or throw opponents off with a low level portrait. Most of the time people use the former approach. Getting achievements is not easy and can end up becoming addictive.
- Price and availability. The game should be going fairly cheap now, and I think you can download it. As far as games go, I believe it's a worthwhile investment. There is no ongoing subscription and I've played many hours of it.
The bad:
- Addiction. I've just played a game and there is nothing like the feeling of winning a match that has been very close, or coming back from the brink of death only to steal victory at the last minute. That being said, I find this sort of entertainment to be addictive, with all the connotations of an addiction to go with it. I find myself itching for a 'fix' every so often.
- Not as good as the first. Overall I would say this is a more well rounded game than the first one, but I still love the first game a lot more.
Conclusion:
- It's probably one of the best RTS games I've played.
Score: 9.5/10 (not as good as SC1 IMHO but better than most).
Today's review will be very short as I need to get more sleep.
Overview:
SC2 is a Real-time strategy (RTS) game for the PC that came out in 2010(I think???). It allows you to control an army of either of 3 distinct races. Terrans, Zerg, or Protoss. Google it to find out more.
The good:
- Single player. The single player portion of the game is storyline driven and quite immersive. It allows you to learn all the controls and strategies in a tiered manner so by the end of the campaign, your skills are quite polished.
- Multi-player. All the action in the campaign is just a precursor to where the real fun in the game is. Multi-player. Opponents are selected intelligently based on your win-loss record, so you are usually never overpowered and vice-versa. This makes the online experience very enjoyable.
- Voice chat built-in. Very convenient and simple to use (albeit a bit buggy with some microphones).
- Achievements. Achievements are obtained by completing various specific tasks in the campaign and within a multiplayer match. Your score also leads to unlocking portraits that you can assign to your character profile so people can see how good you are at a glance. You can use this to intimidate, or throw opponents off with a low level portrait. Most of the time people use the former approach. Getting achievements is not easy and can end up becoming addictive.
- Price and availability. The game should be going fairly cheap now, and I think you can download it. As far as games go, I believe it's a worthwhile investment. There is no ongoing subscription and I've played many hours of it.
The bad:
- Addiction. I've just played a game and there is nothing like the feeling of winning a match that has been very close, or coming back from the brink of death only to steal victory at the last minute. That being said, I find this sort of entertainment to be addictive, with all the connotations of an addiction to go with it. I find myself itching for a 'fix' every so often.
- Not as good as the first. Overall I would say this is a more well rounded game than the first one, but I still love the first game a lot more.
Conclusion:
- It's probably one of the best RTS games I've played.
Score: 9.5/10 (not as good as SC1 IMHO but better than most).
Monday, June 20, 2011
Borders Bookstore.
Borders.
Borders is a 'large bricks and mortar' bookstore that has recently gone into Administration. As I understand it, this means that they are unable to pay their ongoing debts and need to pay back the money they owe, so they have handed over the business to an administrator who will try and recoup as much money from the sale of assets as possible.
Borders has an online component to the business as well, and I'm not sure if this will affect that too, of if they are two separate entities.
Personally, I like Borders. I have always liked the way the stores are laid out, not to mention how big they are. Entering a store always feels more like going into a library rather than a bookstore. This is in part to their policy which allows you to go in and read a book before you decide if you want to buy it. I've been to many bookstores that don't allow this and I always feel like when they ask me if I need any help, what they are actually trying to say is 'Just buy the book or get out'. Borders never made me feel that way.
Until recently, a few of the stores had a fully functioning coffee store inside, with tables and chairs around where you could read any book while enjoying a beverage. This has always been one of the great things about this chain and it will be sad when they close the doors for the last time.
The other great thing I liked about Borders is that they are among the few non-niche bookstores that source and sell Manga. All of it is in English too (the only exception being a few titles that are specifically for non-english readers). There are also a lot of graphic novels stocked too which you would only usually be able to see in smaller stores or comic book stores, and every comic store I've been to has been small, cramped, and smelly.
The good:
- Freedom. Able to read any book without being harrassed or made to feel like a free-loader. This actually made me want to enter the store regardless of if I was particularly looking for a book or not, and usually ended up in a sale.
- Range. The range of books has always been good. Much better than other stores due to the larger floorspace. Also allowed for more non-book items like boardgames and CDs/DVDs.
- Instore Coffee stand. Strategic placing of Borders stores around shopping centrers where there are other activities, such as movies and bowling, meant that you could plan to meet there, and while you wait have something to do. It might be inconvenient for me to buy a book while I waited 15 minutes and then have to carry it with me, but I wouldn't hesitate to buy a coffee and a muffin before a movies and grab a book to read. After the movie, I may end up going back to buy that book.
- Price. As of the adminitration anouncement, Borders have been selling everything in their store. Everything. Books, games, shelves, chairs, computers, displays, posters, magazines, trolleys, everything. They've also slashed prices by up to 50% so getting a hardcopy of something that previously put you off by the price is now a no-brainer(if someone hasn't already taken what little copies there are left).
The bad:
- Sometimes, their open atmosphere was taken advantage of by genuine freeloaders. Most of them are OK, but there were times when you would get the odd troublemaker, spoiling the experience for everyone. This wasn't often, but it wouldn't happen at a regular bookstore.
- Heating. Trying to create a cozy atmosphere in a store that large means there are going to be compromises in climate control in certain areas of the store. Unfortunaltey, these always seem to be located right under the Manga section and the computer book sections, so nerds like me got sweaty a lot.
- Goodbye. The fact that ereaders and tablet devices have made reading digital content more accessible has made real book sales take a dive. Large floorspace stores like Borders have huge rents, and the larger number than normal staff all need to be paid. Recently, even Borders have been offering an ereader branded the Kobo (which a friend of mine owns and works wonderfully). They also had the Sony ereader for sale at a few stores.
Conclusion:
As of writing, Borders is currently still open, but going into finale Administration soon. It is one of the best bookstore chains I have ever shopped at and it will be sad to see them go.
They did have a go at getting into elecrtonic distribution but I think they got into the game just a but too late and with such a large backlog of stock, it just isn't going to survive in it's current form.
That being said, I really hope something comes out of this, or another store opens up to fill the gap that Borders leaves behind. I would love if they could take the best parts of what Borders is, which is the freedom and the atmosphere, and migrate that across to the electronic book distribution scene.
I was speaking with a work colleague the other day and we came up with a few napkin ideas, such as making the coffee bar the central theme of the 'store' and have wifi acess to customers with free ebooks to read while within the wifi radius.
For those people with no device of their own, a separate section where they provide wired devices that basically offer the same thing at no extra charge to the customer. Apart from the inital cost, there would be not much maintenance, and the coffee part of the business would have minimal additional training requirements for staff, with the possible exception of a technical person on hand or on call if something goes pear-shaped. They could leverage that staff member too by offering technical support for customers' with ereader questions issues.
They could also still have various ereaders available for sale and do offers with pre-loaded books to make theirs more attractive than online or other standalone retail ereaders. I think giving the customer the option of buying the book at a reduced rate than elsewhere online might also be a good incentive. Deals like coffee plus the morning paper to download onto your device while you wait would be awesome.
Rating: 9/10 (as far as book stores go).
Borders is a 'large bricks and mortar' bookstore that has recently gone into Administration. As I understand it, this means that they are unable to pay their ongoing debts and need to pay back the money they owe, so they have handed over the business to an administrator who will try and recoup as much money from the sale of assets as possible.
Borders has an online component to the business as well, and I'm not sure if this will affect that too, of if they are two separate entities.
Personally, I like Borders. I have always liked the way the stores are laid out, not to mention how big they are. Entering a store always feels more like going into a library rather than a bookstore. This is in part to their policy which allows you to go in and read a book before you decide if you want to buy it. I've been to many bookstores that don't allow this and I always feel like when they ask me if I need any help, what they are actually trying to say is 'Just buy the book or get out'. Borders never made me feel that way.
Until recently, a few of the stores had a fully functioning coffee store inside, with tables and chairs around where you could read any book while enjoying a beverage. This has always been one of the great things about this chain and it will be sad when they close the doors for the last time.
The other great thing I liked about Borders is that they are among the few non-niche bookstores that source and sell Manga. All of it is in English too (the only exception being a few titles that are specifically for non-english readers). There are also a lot of graphic novels stocked too which you would only usually be able to see in smaller stores or comic book stores, and every comic store I've been to has been small, cramped, and smelly.
The good:
- Freedom. Able to read any book without being harrassed or made to feel like a free-loader. This actually made me want to enter the store regardless of if I was particularly looking for a book or not, and usually ended up in a sale.
- Range. The range of books has always been good. Much better than other stores due to the larger floorspace. Also allowed for more non-book items like boardgames and CDs/DVDs.
- Instore Coffee stand. Strategic placing of Borders stores around shopping centrers where there are other activities, such as movies and bowling, meant that you could plan to meet there, and while you wait have something to do. It might be inconvenient for me to buy a book while I waited 15 minutes and then have to carry it with me, but I wouldn't hesitate to buy a coffee and a muffin before a movies and grab a book to read. After the movie, I may end up going back to buy that book.
- Price. As of the adminitration anouncement, Borders have been selling everything in their store. Everything. Books, games, shelves, chairs, computers, displays, posters, magazines, trolleys, everything. They've also slashed prices by up to 50% so getting a hardcopy of something that previously put you off by the price is now a no-brainer(if someone hasn't already taken what little copies there are left).
The bad:
- Sometimes, their open atmosphere was taken advantage of by genuine freeloaders. Most of them are OK, but there were times when you would get the odd troublemaker, spoiling the experience for everyone. This wasn't often, but it wouldn't happen at a regular bookstore.
- Heating. Trying to create a cozy atmosphere in a store that large means there are going to be compromises in climate control in certain areas of the store. Unfortunaltey, these always seem to be located right under the Manga section and the computer book sections, so nerds like me got sweaty a lot.
- Goodbye. The fact that ereaders and tablet devices have made reading digital content more accessible has made real book sales take a dive. Large floorspace stores like Borders have huge rents, and the larger number than normal staff all need to be paid. Recently, even Borders have been offering an ereader branded the Kobo (which a friend of mine owns and works wonderfully). They also had the Sony ereader for sale at a few stores.
Conclusion:
As of writing, Borders is currently still open, but going into finale Administration soon. It is one of the best bookstore chains I have ever shopped at and it will be sad to see them go.
They did have a go at getting into elecrtonic distribution but I think they got into the game just a but too late and with such a large backlog of stock, it just isn't going to survive in it's current form.
That being said, I really hope something comes out of this, or another store opens up to fill the gap that Borders leaves behind. I would love if they could take the best parts of what Borders is, which is the freedom and the atmosphere, and migrate that across to the electronic book distribution scene.
I was speaking with a work colleague the other day and we came up with a few napkin ideas, such as making the coffee bar the central theme of the 'store' and have wifi acess to customers with free ebooks to read while within the wifi radius.
For those people with no device of their own, a separate section where they provide wired devices that basically offer the same thing at no extra charge to the customer. Apart from the inital cost, there would be not much maintenance, and the coffee part of the business would have minimal additional training requirements for staff, with the possible exception of a technical person on hand or on call if something goes pear-shaped. They could leverage that staff member too by offering technical support for customers' with ereader questions issues.
They could also still have various ereaders available for sale and do offers with pre-loaded books to make theirs more attractive than online or other standalone retail ereaders. I think giving the customer the option of buying the book at a reduced rate than elsewhere online might also be a good incentive. Deals like coffee plus the morning paper to download onto your device while you wait would be awesome.
Rating: 9/10 (as far as book stores go).
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Synopsis: Google it. There are much better synopses out there on the interwebs than anything I could ever write. Below is just a personal opinion so please read it as such.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
If you haven't read the book or seen the film, please be aware that there are spoilers in this post.
Village Cinemas are currently screening the first 6 Harry Potter movies prior to the new movie, running one each weekend up until Deathly Hallows Pt1 (which will screen immediately before the last film).
I have been going to see each one so far and today I saw the third installment in the movie series.
I like the Harry Potter films, don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't call myself a HUGE fan. I don't relate particularly with the main character much and I'm not really a fan of Daniel Radcliffe. His performances in the first two films felt too forced. That might have been to do with the director though. I believe there was a change in director going from the second movie to the third movie and it can clearly be seen in the film. Suffice to say that Daniel Radcliffe's performance in this movie is much better, by a long shot. He seemed to have come out of his shell and emotions and intensity was conveyed much better. The third movie also saw the change to Michael Gambon as the actor portraying Dumbledore. This was due to the passing of Richard Harris.
For me, Prisoner of Azkaban is my favourite (pending seeing the last 2 films) of the series. It also happens to be my favourite book in the series too. I'm not sure if it was the opening scene where Mrs. Dursley Snr. gets inflated to a balloon, Sirius Black's wanted poster on the walls, or Hermione's straight jab to the face, but this film seems to draw me into the story much more so than any of the others.
The Good:
- Time Travel. Anything that involves time travel outside of the normal 'forward at regular speed' variety is awesome.
- Emotion: The main characters (Ron not so much) show a much wider range of emotions than the first two films.
- CGI. The CGI effects in this film are better than the first two although more so for the things you don't notice such as integrating the CGI in with the live action sequences.
- Gary Oldman. Anything that involves Gary Oldman is usually awesome. I suppose in some ways he is quite similar to Time Travel.
- Hogsmeade etc. . We get to see the widening landscape of the wizarding world and this is a precursor to the expansion that will be witnessed in later films.
- School attire. The school uniforms are ditched in favour of casual wear.
- Plot Twists. The major plot twist in this movie got me. I could see it coming but I felt I could really relate to the main characters' confusion.
- Hermione Granger. In the first two films Hermione was a nerd, and an annoying nerd at that. In this movie, Hermione is HOT! Her femininity also starts to come through. This is contrasted quite well when she punches Malfoy. This is extremely attractive and makes me wish I was Harry or Ron, or to a small extent Malfoy (but lets not get into my personal life now, shall we? :D )
The Bad:
- Kids. I had to sit next to two extremely young children who couldn't understand the film and one of them kept asking the older one what was happening. It took all of my willpower to stop myself from back-fisting that 5 year old in the face when he fumbled around with his bag of chips, making scrunching sounds and asking his brother if that was Dumbledore or not, through a mouthful of chips, when quite obviously it was Cornelius Fudge.
- Final shot. The very last scene was ripped right out of The Matrix. It worked equally well in both films. That is to say, I didn't like it. You're mileage may vary though.
- Plot holes. Not so much holes but rather missed opportunities. There is a scene in the later part of the movie where Harry and Hermione witness themselves in the past entering a secret entrance, and then waiting for themselves to emerge later, knowing full well that they will be entering a rather difficult situation. During that time, I'm sure they could have done some preparation that would have allowed them to capture Peter Pettigrew without their past selves knowing of the future selves involvement.
- Age disparity. The actors are older than the characters they portray. This isn't something new to the world of movies, but is noticeable when watching the movie, especially the male cast members like Malfoy, Ron, and Longbottom.
- Hermione. It completely sucks that Hermione is now hot and if she were a real person that there is no chance in hell that she would ever go out with me.
Not much Hagrid. I like Hagrid, but we don't see much of him this time around.
Conclusion:
A great film that loses out slightly because it's not meant to be viewed as a standalone and needs to be in context of the other films. Much better (from a production point of view) than the previous two films, but which loses a little of the 'magic' that seemed to be evident previously.
Score: 7.5/10 (an average film is a 5.0)
Synopsis: Google it. There are much better synopses out there on the interwebs than anything I could ever write. Below is just a personal opinion so please read it as such.
SPOILER ALERT!!!
If you haven't read the book or seen the film, please be aware that there are spoilers in this post.
Village Cinemas are currently screening the first 6 Harry Potter movies prior to the new movie, running one each weekend up until Deathly Hallows Pt1 (which will screen immediately before the last film).
I have been going to see each one so far and today I saw the third installment in the movie series.
I like the Harry Potter films, don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't call myself a HUGE fan. I don't relate particularly with the main character much and I'm not really a fan of Daniel Radcliffe. His performances in the first two films felt too forced. That might have been to do with the director though. I believe there was a change in director going from the second movie to the third movie and it can clearly be seen in the film. Suffice to say that Daniel Radcliffe's performance in this movie is much better, by a long shot. He seemed to have come out of his shell and emotions and intensity was conveyed much better. The third movie also saw the change to Michael Gambon as the actor portraying Dumbledore. This was due to the passing of Richard Harris.
For me, Prisoner of Azkaban is my favourite (pending seeing the last 2 films) of the series. It also happens to be my favourite book in the series too. I'm not sure if it was the opening scene where Mrs. Dursley Snr. gets inflated to a balloon, Sirius Black's wanted poster on the walls, or Hermione's straight jab to the face, but this film seems to draw me into the story much more so than any of the others.
The Good:
- Time Travel. Anything that involves time travel outside of the normal 'forward at regular speed' variety is awesome.
- Emotion: The main characters (Ron not so much) show a much wider range of emotions than the first two films.
- CGI. The CGI effects in this film are better than the first two although more so for the things you don't notice such as integrating the CGI in with the live action sequences.
- Gary Oldman. Anything that involves Gary Oldman is usually awesome. I suppose in some ways he is quite similar to Time Travel.
- Hogsmeade etc. . We get to see the widening landscape of the wizarding world and this is a precursor to the expansion that will be witnessed in later films.
- School attire. The school uniforms are ditched in favour of casual wear.
- Plot Twists. The major plot twist in this movie got me. I could see it coming but I felt I could really relate to the main characters' confusion.
- Hermione Granger. In the first two films Hermione was a nerd, and an annoying nerd at that. In this movie, Hermione is HOT! Her femininity also starts to come through. This is contrasted quite well when she punches Malfoy. This is extremely attractive and makes me wish I was Harry or Ron, or to a small extent Malfoy (but lets not get into my personal life now, shall we? :D )
The Bad:
- Kids. I had to sit next to two extremely young children who couldn't understand the film and one of them kept asking the older one what was happening. It took all of my willpower to stop myself from back-fisting that 5 year old in the face when he fumbled around with his bag of chips, making scrunching sounds and asking his brother if that was Dumbledore or not, through a mouthful of chips, when quite obviously it was Cornelius Fudge.
- Final shot. The very last scene was ripped right out of The Matrix. It worked equally well in both films. That is to say, I didn't like it. You're mileage may vary though.
- Plot holes. Not so much holes but rather missed opportunities. There is a scene in the later part of the movie where Harry and Hermione witness themselves in the past entering a secret entrance, and then waiting for themselves to emerge later, knowing full well that they will be entering a rather difficult situation. During that time, I'm sure they could have done some preparation that would have allowed them to capture Peter Pettigrew without their past selves knowing of the future selves involvement.
- Age disparity. The actors are older than the characters they portray. This isn't something new to the world of movies, but is noticeable when watching the movie, especially the male cast members like Malfoy, Ron, and Longbottom.
- Hermione. It completely sucks that Hermione is now hot and if she were a real person that there is no chance in hell that she would ever go out with me.
Not much Hagrid. I like Hagrid, but we don't see much of him this time around.
Conclusion:
A great film that loses out slightly because it's not meant to be viewed as a standalone and needs to be in context of the other films. Much better (from a production point of view) than the previous two films, but which loses a little of the 'magic' that seemed to be evident previously.
Score: 7.5/10 (an average film is a 5.0)
Friday, June 17, 2011
The first post!
Hello World! Welcome to the first entry of my blog which will aim to review a random item or subject with each post. There isn't really a limit to what gets reviewed but most likely it will be something that relates to me or that I can relate to in one form or another, so without further ado, on to the next post for the first review...
ASUS EeePC 1015PEM-BLK
ASUS EeePC 1015PEM-BLK Netbook.
The 1015PEM is a 10" form factor netbook from ASUS. There are a few varying models(SKUs) available but the one I have has a matte screen, matte lid, and a 4400mAh 6-cell battery rated for 10hrs. It was purchased for AU$249 from Harvey Norman in June 2011.
Specs: Google them. The ASUS website has the full specs for this netbook.
First Impressions:
This is the 4th netbook I've ever used extensively and would have to be the one of the top 2. There is a lot to like about this unit, and only a few small downsides. Compared to the other units I've used, the interface elements (screen, trackpad, keyboard) are much better than those appearing on other brands, and also some of the older ASUS devices.
The good (things that are better than average):
- Price. At <$250(discounted from $428), this was a steal. The last netbook I owned cost $250(-$37 rebate) but felt like a $250 device. This one feels like a more expensive piece of equipment. If you have to pay over $375 for a mobile device though, you may want to consider spending a little more and getting a full fledged laptop which would be a much better buy in terms of value for money.
- Screen. The 1024x600 resolution matte screen is quite cramped but not unusable. It's on par with most of the other units in this class, but the fact that it's not glossy will come in handy if you happen to be outdoors or have a bright light source behind you. The screen is able to go quite bright if you turn it all the way up so using it in a park in the afternoon shouldn't be a problem.
- Trackpad. The trackpad is a standard layout and is large with a definite defined edge. This is good. You will find it very difficult to mislocate any mouse actions with this trackpad.
- Keyboard. I'm typing this blog on the 1015PEM right now and I have to admit it is a very nice experience coming from the previous netbooks. It's a chicklet/island style Windows keyboard with the cursor keys sitting below the return/enter key so the right side shift key is a lot shorter than a standard keyboard. There is a Fn (function) button on the left between the Ctrl and Windows key and another one to the right of the Up cursor key. F1-F12 function keys sit above the numeric keys and are slightly smaller than the rest of the keys. The F- keys also have most of the advanced functions accessible by use of the Fn key combo.
The feel and response of the keys are superb. Not much force is needed but there is surety when you have pressed a button. There is also a large amount of space between keys so mistyping is not as evident as with other key styles.
- Battery. The 6-cell battery I have doesn't protrude beyond the rubber feet on the base of the netbook when installed. This keeps the unit slim while also allowing for longer running times off mains power. This convenience is something that shouldn't be overlooked. The 3-cell netbooks don't come out much slimmer or lighter and their running times are less than half.
- Features. The 1015PEM has a lot of features that my previous netbooks either didn't have or were limited in some way. Here are a few:- BluetoothV3, dedicated button for lightweight alternate OS, dual-core processor, 3x USB2.0 ports across both sides, teeny-tiny power supply/brick, separate WiFi/Bluetooth enabling, sliding cover over the webcam.
The bad(niggling little things that I didn't like about it):
- Bezel. The case finish around the screen and between the keys is glossy. While this make the unit attractive, it kind of negates some of the benefit of a matte screen and makes the unit as a whole look slightly cheap. It wouldn't cost ASUS any more to make a matte surface and I think they have done this on later models.
- Trackpad. The trackpad buttons are integrated into a single rocker style bar. Some people prefer this. I don't. The trackpad also doesn't support gestures like pinch-to-zoom and two-finger rotate that can be found on most touch-enabled devices.
- Hard drive power management. The Western Digital hard drive installed supports Advanced Power Management to spin down the disk when idle, and to park the drive heads to prevent accidental damage due to sudden movement (such as dropping it on the ground). The algorithm used to park the heads is way too aggressive and I notice an audible 'click' each time it parks and unparks. This gets annoying very quickly as it happens every few seconds. It can be disabled but you need separate downloadable software and in my opinion is a pain to set.
- Webcam. The webcam is fixed in position and only 1.3megapixel. This is fine for Skype and video conferencing but useless for any creative content. The exception might be low quality video blogging.
- Bloatware. This netbook comes with tons and tons of bloatware. It's easy enough to remove, but takes a while. This isn't something that is specific to ASUS or even computers in general and I wish manufacturers would give the option at first-boot during the setup to select the options to be installed.
- Intel Integrated 3150 graphics. The 3150 based graphics system is slow. There isn't really any way around this. The 1015PEM is not a gaming laptop, but should have been paired with something with a little more grunt. Unfortunately nothing was available that could have take it's place without blowing out the production costs.
- Screen tilt. The screen opens up to about 135degrees which is just that little bit below ideal. When typing on a low surface (such as my lap), I found myself having to crane my neck down at times, or trying to open the lid just a little bit more but being unable to.
- No easy access to the hard drive bay. I like to tinker with my computers. My previous netbook allowed access to the hard drive bay so it would be possible to install an SSD once they come down in price. This would be an ideal upgrade for the 1015PEM as it would get rid of the biggest speed bottleneck and also eliminate once of my biggest gripes about this unit, being the noise from the hard drive parking which I mentioned above. It's doable, but ASUS haven't made it easy when it would have been no effort for them to do so.
Conclusion:
- As far as netbooks go, this is one of my favourites. I would go so far as to say it is the best one I have ever interacted with. The interface components are great and this makes using it on a daily basis less painful than with other netbooks. You could seriously spend a long time working on this device without much bother and that speaks volumes about the effort that has gone into designing it. With other netbooks, I have found that there is a certain threshold of inconvenience versus utility, below which the device effectively deterred me from using it.
With the 1015PEM, there are so few inconveniences or they are so small that I find myself actually wanting to use it.
Most of the newer ASUS netbooks going forward have adopted the same Seashell chassis design used on the 1015PEM and they are packing more powerful processors and graphics sub-systems. If you can pick up any of these for cheap, and if your needs fit into the netbook usage model, then you won't be disappointed.
Score: 8/10
The 1015PEM is a 10" form factor netbook from ASUS. There are a few varying models(SKUs) available but the one I have has a matte screen, matte lid, and a 4400mAh 6-cell battery rated for 10hrs. It was purchased for AU$249 from Harvey Norman in June 2011.
Specs: Google them. The ASUS website has the full specs for this netbook.
First Impressions:
This is the 4th netbook I've ever used extensively and would have to be the one of the top 2. There is a lot to like about this unit, and only a few small downsides. Compared to the other units I've used, the interface elements (screen, trackpad, keyboard) are much better than those appearing on other brands, and also some of the older ASUS devices.
The good (things that are better than average):
- Price. At <$250(discounted from $428), this was a steal. The last netbook I owned cost $250(-$37 rebate) but felt like a $250 device. This one feels like a more expensive piece of equipment. If you have to pay over $375 for a mobile device though, you may want to consider spending a little more and getting a full fledged laptop which would be a much better buy in terms of value for money.
- Screen. The 1024x600 resolution matte screen is quite cramped but not unusable. It's on par with most of the other units in this class, but the fact that it's not glossy will come in handy if you happen to be outdoors or have a bright light source behind you. The screen is able to go quite bright if you turn it all the way up so using it in a park in the afternoon shouldn't be a problem.
- Trackpad. The trackpad is a standard layout and is large with a definite defined edge. This is good. You will find it very difficult to mislocate any mouse actions with this trackpad.
- Keyboard. I'm typing this blog on the 1015PEM right now and I have to admit it is a very nice experience coming from the previous netbooks. It's a chicklet/island style Windows keyboard with the cursor keys sitting below the return/enter key so the right side shift key is a lot shorter than a standard keyboard. There is a Fn (function) button on the left between the Ctrl and Windows key and another one to the right of the Up cursor key. F1-F12 function keys sit above the numeric keys and are slightly smaller than the rest of the keys. The F- keys also have most of the advanced functions accessible by use of the Fn key combo.
The feel and response of the keys are superb. Not much force is needed but there is surety when you have pressed a button. There is also a large amount of space between keys so mistyping is not as evident as with other key styles.
- Battery. The 6-cell battery I have doesn't protrude beyond the rubber feet on the base of the netbook when installed. This keeps the unit slim while also allowing for longer running times off mains power. This convenience is something that shouldn't be overlooked. The 3-cell netbooks don't come out much slimmer or lighter and their running times are less than half.
- Features. The 1015PEM has a lot of features that my previous netbooks either didn't have or were limited in some way. Here are a few:- BluetoothV3, dedicated button for lightweight alternate OS, dual-core processor, 3x USB2.0 ports across both sides, teeny-tiny power supply/brick, separate WiFi/Bluetooth enabling, sliding cover over the webcam.
The bad(niggling little things that I didn't like about it):
- Bezel. The case finish around the screen and between the keys is glossy. While this make the unit attractive, it kind of negates some of the benefit of a matte screen and makes the unit as a whole look slightly cheap. It wouldn't cost ASUS any more to make a matte surface and I think they have done this on later models.
- Trackpad. The trackpad buttons are integrated into a single rocker style bar. Some people prefer this. I don't. The trackpad also doesn't support gestures like pinch-to-zoom and two-finger rotate that can be found on most touch-enabled devices.
- Hard drive power management. The Western Digital hard drive installed supports Advanced Power Management to spin down the disk when idle, and to park the drive heads to prevent accidental damage due to sudden movement (such as dropping it on the ground). The algorithm used to park the heads is way too aggressive and I notice an audible 'click' each time it parks and unparks. This gets annoying very quickly as it happens every few seconds. It can be disabled but you need separate downloadable software and in my opinion is a pain to set.
- Webcam. The webcam is fixed in position and only 1.3megapixel. This is fine for Skype and video conferencing but useless for any creative content. The exception might be low quality video blogging.
- Bloatware. This netbook comes with tons and tons of bloatware. It's easy enough to remove, but takes a while. This isn't something that is specific to ASUS or even computers in general and I wish manufacturers would give the option at first-boot during the setup to select the options to be installed.
- Intel Integrated 3150 graphics. The 3150 based graphics system is slow. There isn't really any way around this. The 1015PEM is not a gaming laptop, but should have been paired with something with a little more grunt. Unfortunately nothing was available that could have take it's place without blowing out the production costs.
- Screen tilt. The screen opens up to about 135degrees which is just that little bit below ideal. When typing on a low surface (such as my lap), I found myself having to crane my neck down at times, or trying to open the lid just a little bit more but being unable to.
- No easy access to the hard drive bay. I like to tinker with my computers. My previous netbook allowed access to the hard drive bay so it would be possible to install an SSD once they come down in price. This would be an ideal upgrade for the 1015PEM as it would get rid of the biggest speed bottleneck and also eliminate once of my biggest gripes about this unit, being the noise from the hard drive parking which I mentioned above. It's doable, but ASUS haven't made it easy when it would have been no effort for them to do so.
Conclusion:
- As far as netbooks go, this is one of my favourites. I would go so far as to say it is the best one I have ever interacted with. The interface components are great and this makes using it on a daily basis less painful than with other netbooks. You could seriously spend a long time working on this device without much bother and that speaks volumes about the effort that has gone into designing it. With other netbooks, I have found that there is a certain threshold of inconvenience versus utility, below which the device effectively deterred me from using it.
With the 1015PEM, there are so few inconveniences or they are so small that I find myself actually wanting to use it.
Most of the newer ASUS netbooks going forward have adopted the same Seashell chassis design used on the 1015PEM and they are packing more powerful processors and graphics sub-systems. If you can pick up any of these for cheap, and if your needs fit into the netbook usage model, then you won't be disappointed.
Score: 8/10
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