ASUS Google Nexus 7

ASUS Google Nexus 7 32GB WiFi-only

A recent sale at Dick Smith had the 32GB WiFi Nexus7 (N7) on sale at AU$279. I was hoping to pricematch this (and get the 5% difference discount = $329-$279 * 5% = $2.50 off!) from Officeworks, however the closest store had a problem with their barcoding system so the backroom staff member wasn't able to determine where the stock for the device was located. He also appeared to have a cold so I decided to head to the next closest store and discovered they had already discounted to $279, which meant I couldn't get a pricematch discount, but still saved me a 20minute drive to the nearest Dick Smith.

Pretty soon I had the device unboxed and downloading the latest Android update off my home WiFi. This took around 10 minutes and another few minutes to sync my Google profile to the device.

If you want the full specs for the N7, just google it. My reviews tend to be more subjective so you're getting a feel for my experience with the device, and hopefully some insight from a user that you don't get from a dedicated gadget review site.

In the hand, the soft-touch plastic on the back is extremely comfortable and just feels nice to hold. It's a different experience than the all aluminium unibody of an iPad, although apart from the size, the heft is very much like that of an iPad2 (I wish Apple would just call it that rather than calling each new one "The New iPad" each iteration). Embossed in the soft-touch is the nexus logo and a small ASUS logo. For some reason I like them there and think the back would feel a bit bland without. The tall, skinny dimensions of the device basically forces a 2 hand hold in landscape and a one hand in portrait, and the thickness and weight don't impinge on this.

In portrait, the headphone jack is on the top and well placed to be out of the way when in either orientation. Bottom centre is the microUSB port. There are dual speakers facing backwards on the rear and these can get quite loud, enough to vibrate the device on a hard table surface.

I believe the screen is Gorilla Glass 3 but double-check that on google. It picks up fingerprints quite readily, but you don't really notice any smudges when an image is being displayed (unless very dark such as a scary movie). Images and text are very crisp and has a very high resolution. Even so, I don't notice any lag or tearing when swiping to other screens. The GPU in the N7 is definitely up to the job in 2D apps, but in 3D, I've noticed some lag and stutter when there are a large number of object edges on the screen or lots of shadows/effects. Coming from a Galaxy S2, this is like the polar opposite of that phone where the low resolution and great (at launch) 3D performance meant never hitting a processing ceiling. In terms of touch, for me at least, the accuracy almost seems too fine. On-screen objects that I would touch on my phone don't seem to register on the N7, or would miss by a very small distance. I expect I'll get used to it in time and then curse my phone for being so innacurate (until I get the Nexus 5  :D   ).
Leaving the screen on auto-brightness I don't really notice the changes in brightness when moving from room to room at home and honestly, as a WiFi only device you can probably set the brightness to a static value and leave it there. If you get the LTE/4G version, the auto-brightness will be infinitely more useful when outdoors, where the screen is able to go VERY bright when needed. Colours are good but I do notice a shift in both colour and brightness when changing viewing angles.

Overall performance is snappy and apps launch quickly. The back of the device does get hot during gaming, but in casual use you won't notice anything.
Battery life is excellent and I can watch a ton of YouTube content @ 1080p without making much of a dent in the battery. Games drain quicker but you can get a good couple of hours gaming in and still have enough left for the rest of your daily usage such as email, youtube, music playback, and ebook reading. Charge time is really good and a quick stint plugged in will give you enough to be away from power for a good while, although this is only from the wall plug, not over USB.

The Good:
- Value. For the price you get a lot of bang for your buck. ASUS and Google have cut corners to get the price so low but they've done it mostly in all the right places and you generally don't notice. It feels a lot more premium than slightly cheaper no-name brand devices and definitely performs better.
- Ergonomics. The dimension and weight of the device make it easy to hold and portable enough to take anywhere you could take a large phone. I'm able to lie in bed and hold it straight upwards with both hands in landscape at arms length away from my face and still get good visuals and audio without getting too tired.
- Stock Android. As with all Nexus devices you get no 3rd party skin overlay on top of the OS. I've had a ton of fun activating apps and initiating google searches with just my voice. I haven't turned on Google Now just yet as it seemed to deactivate my voice control options but if I get it working I might try using it.
- Display. The display resolution is great and even small text is easy to read.
- Battery life. My battery widget reports about 1 and a half days left of light usage. I think I could probably get about 6 hours of solid gaming before having to recharge.

The Bad:
- Build quality. While overall the device feels solid, it's still a plastic device. You can ever so slightly twist it when holding in landscape with two hands and I wouldn't want to sit on it. The power and volume buttons are also plastic and feel wobbly and insecure to the touch. This is probably the cheapest feeling aspect to the N7. I wish they had done something closer to the nexus 5 and had ceramic buttons.
- Button placement. I also wish they were slighly further apart. I keep hitting the power button when I want to increase the volume.
- Heat dissipation. When it does get hot, you can feel the heat concentrated to the top (headphone side) section. This is slightly worrying as it indicates limited or no heat sinking and the imbalance of temperature make holding the device less comfortable.
- No expandability. As with all Nexus devices, there is no removable battery or memory expansion slot. In saying that, I haven't found this a problem and would still have a lot of space left, even on a 16GB model.
- Speakers are rear-facing. A major dissappointment is the lack of frontfacing speakers like in the HTC One, especially when there is so much real estate for it in those large landscape orientation handholds.
- Camera placement. I would have liked the rear camera slightly more centred than in the corner where it is now. Also the front facing camera needs to be tilted slightly downwards to give the user a more centred appearance during video conferencing. I also hate that you have to longpress and slide to the camera switch option to toggle front/back camera. They already have permanent buttons taking up room on the interface so why not put it there, or at least give the option to put it there.
- Camera quality. I haven't transferred any photos to my PC but looking at photos taken by the rear-facing camera only look good when zoomed in. As soon as I zoom in any amount I start to see artifacting. There doesn't seem to be any compression options for photos in the default camera app.

Overall:
I have to say, since getting the N7, I'm liking it more and more as I use it. I'm finding out little things that make it so much more enjoyable than using my SGS2. As of now, I've moved 90% of my games to the N7 and only kept the ones such as Simpsons Tapped Out on my phone that store data online so I can play from both devices. I've also turned on Forced 4x FSAA for OpenGL 2.0ES apps as I prefer a better image over smoother frame rates in the slow paced games I tend towards.

Another unexpected bonus with the shift to a tablet is that my phone no longer needs charging every night. As most of the media consumption and mobile gaming is handled by the tablet instead of my SGS2, I can get away with going to work with a ~50% charge and make it to bedtime without the phone dying on me.
I haven't even used the NFC or wireless charging aspects of the N7 so I'm keen to get into that also. I really hope someone mounts this in the console of a car and puts a video up on YouTube. It seems like the perfect budget alternative to an in dash iPad. At the current price I would recommend this tablet to anyone who can do with using a device smaller than 10inches. If your phone has portable WiFi hotspot functionality, then you could probably do with the WiFi only version, but if all you want to bring is the tablet itself and you are away from WiFi, the LTE version is an option, but it's more expensive. It may not be worth it given the Nexus 5 just got released.

Score: 9/10

If you read this far and have any questions/comments about anything I may have missed that you think is important, please let me know and I'll try to answer.

Ninja Master Prep Professional system

Ninja Master Prep Professional system.

I recently went to Japan and while I was away my sister commandeered my Breville Optiva blender. She had just purchased the Ninja Master Prep Professional system (which I will henceforce refer to as 'Ninja') for the purpose of creating smoothies, but had found that some of the ingredients were not liquifying. Since the smoothies that I make usually don't require such thorough blending I agreed to leave the Optiva with her and test out the Ninja to see if I could live with it. As such, I don't have a price for the Ninja.

If you've watched any telemall/homeshoppingnetwork style commercials then you've no doubt seen the Ninja ads and the overly enthusiastic hosts. For those who haven't, the ads have the hosts running through all the main types of uses of the Ninja, and also comparing the Master Prep system to other food processing/blending/juicing systems.

After using the Ninja for a few weeks now, I can honestly say that the device works as advertised. Sure, the editing doesn't show every little quirk of the Ninja, but the main claims are all true.
It chops, blends, or purees based on how long you hold the button down and how many pulses you give it.

The actual design of the system involves a container portion with blade stalk, a lid portion, and the 'power pod'. There are 3 container sizes, 16 ounce (2 cups), 40 ounce (5 cups), and 48 ounce (6 cups) respectively. Each container has it's own blade set, either 2, 4, or 6 blades with the 2 blade stalk in the smallest container able to accept an additional pair to bring it up to 4 blades if needed.

When the blending lid is on a container, a hole in the lid allows the stalk holding the blades to protrude from the top of the lid and the power pod spins this to actuate the blades. When not in active use, the blade stalk can be removed from the container and a flat, sealed lid can be attached and the container stored in the fridge or freezer.
The fact the pod must be pressed down to spin the blades means the system is extremely safe in that you don't ever get in a situation where the blades can spin without the lid on the container and without downward pressure on the power pod. This ensures there is never the situation where you turn on the blender and have a mess everwhere or more importantly, something that can take your fingers off.

In terms of performance, the motor in the pod is a 450W motor, a lot less powerful than the 750W motor in the Optiva. The Optiva however only has 2 small blades at the very bottom of the glass container, so most of the power is being used to create the vortex to circulate the contents of the container. The Ninja has multiple blades at differing heights within the container so it doesn't need to swirl the contents so much, which makes even chopping of things like vegetables possible with a quick push or two on the pod. Longer pulses or holding down the button for extended periods will start liquifying the contents and allow them to settle and fall down to the two lowest blades.

All the parts other than the power pod, obviously, are dishwasher safe and can be stored in the fridge or freezer, and also microwaved once the blades are removed. The containers are plastic and despite being light and thin walled feel extremely sturdy. They also have rubberised rings on the bottom so it won't destroy your counter and is quieter than just bare plastic or units with the motor on the bottom closer to the countertop. The blades are extremely sharp and you need to be careful when handling them. The stalks which hold them feel very sturdy, and are most likely metal cores coated in plastic. The large active lid has a spout cover so you can go straight from blending to pouring immediately. This lid is interchangeable between the 48ounce and 40ounce container, but the 16ounce container has it's own lid without a spout.

Thus far, I've chopped garlic, onions, cabbage, carrots, and made countless banana smoothies and apart from a bit of trouble the small container had with the cabbage the system worked fast and the results were great.

The Good:
- Fast. The act of chopping takes no time at all. The multi height blades make short work of most things.
- Tidy. Using the Ninja is a lot less messy than a chopping board and also lets you dice onions and garlic without crying or getting smelly fingers.
- Safe. It's impossible to process your hand, even though you can cut yourself on the blade when extracting the blade stalks. Treat it as you would a sharp knife and you won't have any problems.
- Storage. The physical dimensions of all the pieces combined is fairly small. You can remove the blades and change to the sealed lids and store the containers and contents in the fridge/freezer.
- Versatile. Having a single activation button which allows pulsing or blending depending on how long you hold the button down means you can get variable results from a single, simple design.
- Fun. One thing the Ninja has that I haven't found with other blenders or food processors is the 'wow' factor. Everytime I press the large button I feel more involved in the chopping or blending than with a standard food processor or blender. I suppose it can be compared to driving a manual or automatic car. They both get the job done but one is more involved and rewarding than the other.

The Bad:
- Small. The 16 ounce container is just a tad too small. If it was just a bit deeper with the optional blade pair slightly higher, it would be perfect for chopping cabbage. As it is, it doesn't fit large leaves and sometimes leaves behind unchopped parts of the cabbage floating on the top. The sides of the container rise up quite high, but as the lid dips down in the centre, the actual space inside when the active lid is on not very large.
- Leftovers. There are ridges on the inside of the containers which give the structure strength and potentially also aid in the mixing of the contents, but when extracting the contents out of the containers, they can sometimes get in the way and trap food.
- Slippery. The power pod has textured sides which are supposed to help you grip it, however the angle of the flat cutaways cause it to slip if your fingers are covered in oil or other liquid. Either the cutaways should be wider at the top, or there should be some kind of wide lip on the current design so you don't slip right off the end.

Overall:
Without knowing how much was paid for the Ninja, I can't make a comment on value for money. What I can say is that it does everything it says it does on the ad. It can cater to almost all of my chopping and blending needs in a way that doesn't require a high power motor. It also sometimes puts a smile on my face when I get the number of pulses just right.

Score: 9/10.

Gameloft

Gameloft.

Gameloft are a publisher and distributor of games for various platforms including Android and iOS. As you know from my previous posts, I'm a fan of the recent My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic television series. As soon as I could, I searched online for a related mobile app and found the MLP: FiM game from Gameloft which tied into the franchise

Initially the game was great with no bugs, few slowdowns, and great animations and voice acting.
The quests and rewards were also numerous and straightforward to complete. I was very much addicted and my level was reaching in the mid 50's with a level 60 cap. Then one day I opened up the game and found myself back at level 0. Everything was gone. None of the items or in game currency I had collected was there.
I contacted Gameloft and asked if they could restore my game. I was told that they could not. When I questioned them on the existence of a server side backup there was no direct answer to the question, only a reiteration of the fact they couldn't restore my game state, with an apology and a promise of some in game currency to compensate me.
The trouble I had with this is that the ingame currency they promised was only about 1/4 of what I would need to get me back to where I was. There was also no easy way to translate that in game currency to certain items as some of them were luck based and required hours and hours of gameplay to aquire, including a 24hour wait for the mechanism which allowed a chance to get those items to reset.
I replied back to them with my grievances but have not had a reply since.
I decided to re-attempt the game and wait for the compensation to arrive but it never did. The latest update that was pushed out also made the game unplayable for me as I could not even get resources sent by friends without the game crashing. These resources are needed to progress through the game. All the while I am waiting though, the game is producing antagonist creatures (the ones which impede your progress and can only be cleared by using luck based resources. You have a better chance of getting those resources if you spend real world money on the game, which is what the game is hoping you will do).
Since the email of promised in game currency I've since written 3 emails all of which seem to have been ignored.

The Good:
MLP:FiM. The franchise is great and I really love all the canon stuff as well as the fan produced material.

The Bad:
Gameloft customer service. Apart from an empty email promise, it doesn't exist.

Overall:
1/10.
It was nice that they responded to my initial complaint. It was infuriating that they couldn't follow through with any of my requests and didn't even get back to me on the status of the issue as a followup. I've basically dropped all desire to use any of their services or games and stopped recommending anything associated with them until they get their act together.