Switched from Samsung Galaxy S6 to S6 Active, huge improvement!

S6 ... great phone, a little bit fragile (broke the screen once already) and utterly rubbish battery life. Just switched to the S6 Active. It's marginally larger than the S6, but has all the same specs PLUS waterproofing, a generally more resilient build, an extra shortcut button and a 3,500 mAh battery compared with the insufficient 2,600 mAh in the standard S6.

When I say resilient build, I refer to reinforced bumper corners, a raised lip along the edge of the screen, making a face down drop much less dangerous (that's how I broke my S6), and the back is rubberized plastic for extra grippiness.

You can buy the AT&T version unlocked at full price and then unlock it via the AT&T website. I'm using it on my provider in Hong Kong (Smartone) with no issues. The unlock page is here:

https://www.att.com/deviceunlock/

Fill the fields out, wait 2 business days, and you're set.

BATTERY, BATTERY, BATTERY, BATTERY

Samsung Galaxy S6 Active Unlocked

Sony Z3 Compact vs Samsung Galaxy S6 - 13/05/2015 Update

1/5/2015 First notes

Samsung did a great job but the battery life is garbage. Way to ruin a good phone!
I'm in Tokyo on business and I don't have access to chargers that much, down to 10% from just using it 11AM to 7PM. What the hell! I'm even locked onto 3G signals only to save some battery life.
So tempted to go back to my, Z3C but ugh, this camera and screen are so nice...

13/5/2015 Update

The battery life continues to be an issue. With relatively light use, I am getting about a work day but dangerously low in the evenings. GPS is a surprisingly huge draw. I was using a lot of Google Maps while I was in Japan a few weeks ago and it was very annoying having to top up all the time.

That been said, I don't think I can go back to the Z3C. The G6 is undoubtedly better in the camera department and I use it all the time for work and play. The screen, form factor and fit and finish are also awesome. It doesn't feel fragile so I haven't felt the need to put it in a case yet. The glass back, which I hate because of potential durability issues, has held up fine and the colour of it is beautiful, a deep shade of blue/black depending on how you hold it. Bizarre that I like it so much but there you go.

The phone will launch the camera if you double press the home button ... such a great feature, I don't know why no-one else thought of this!

What I learned: Samsung reverses the App Switch button and the Back button from what I'm used to. There's an app called All in One Gestures that allows you to switch them as well as any hardware button. 

2015/05/23 Update 

Well, battery life barely lasted me a five hour car ride. Also, dropped my phone once and the screen cracked badly but is still usable. Those drop videos they have online are bullshit! 

Thinkpad X1 Carbon 2015 Audio Switching from Speakers to Headphone Fix

I noticed a new feature that has caused a bit of inconvenience. New laptops including the X1 Carbon running a Realtek audio chipset will allow you to "multi-stream", i.e. play audio from both headphone jack and speakers simultaneously. However, when I plug in headphones, it usually means I want to keep my audio private because I'm in a public place. What instead happens is my music blares through my speakers and I continue wearing my noiseless headphones like a big idiot.

To fix:

Go to Realtek HD Audio Manager

Top right of the window, advanced settings

Switch from Multistream to Classic mode

Voila!


WhatsApp Web and Stamina mode

I normally don't use Stamina mode on my phone but recently, I had left it on by accident. Around the same time, I noticed WhatsApp Web was disconnecting itself a lot. Turns out Stamina mode does what it's meant to and disables data for WhatsApp on the phone, preventing WhatsApp Web from working properly. 

It should be possible to add WhatsApp as an exception in Stamina mode to make it work, though. 

Dell XPS 13 (2015 model) vs X1 Carbon (2015)

One of my colleagues at work just got the latest XPS 13, I got to noodle around with it. Spec is i5, 8gb, 256gb SSD, 1920x screen

Some notes: Fit and finish of the machine is great, as good as my X1 Carbon (2015). The top and bottom of the case are aluminium and overall the laptop has a solid, premium feel. 

The size of the machine itself is surprising. Dell claims it is the equivalent of an 11" laptop chassis and I think that's about right. The most noticeable feature is the super thin bezel, allowing for a 13" screen to be paired with the compact body.

They also fit a full size keyboard on there. Keyboard travel is shallow but the keys have a nice, stiff mechanism, feels like typing on a Macbook keyboard which is perfectly acceptable to me. The trackpad is decently sized and works well. 

I was a little let down by the 1920x screen. I don't find it as nice as the panel on my X1 Carbon (2015). The viewing angle is slightly shallower and there is a slight shimmer to the screen. It is a matte screen and it is still more than acceptable. I'd imagine the 3200x screen is on par if not better than my X1 Carbon screen. 

No HDMI but has an SD card slot which is great. 

Unfortunately I did not get a chance to test the battery life. 

Out-of-the-box, the laptop is relatively bloat free though it tries to connect to Dell to download extra stuff if you let it. 

Overall, my comparison between the XPS 13 and the X1 Carbon can be summarized as:

Screen (not like-for-like comparison)
X1 Carbon using the 2560x IPS option is nicer than the XPS 13 1920x option. I'd imagine the 3200x option for the XPS 13 performs on par or better than the 2650x. The extra inch of screen space is very much appreciated on the X1 Carbon.

Keyboard
X1 Carbon is better because of deeper travel and slightly more spacing between keys but XPS 13 is not bad, especially given the compact size

Fit and Finish
About equal. X1 Carbon is no-nonsense, XPS 13 is a little more "premium" because of the aluminium panels on top and bottom. 

Size & Weight
X1 Carbon obviously bigger footprint but weight quite similar. AC adapter sizes for the two laptops also quite similar. 

Miscellaneous
No SD card slot on X1 Carbon, SD card slot on XPS 13. HDMI on X1 Carbon, no HDMI on XPS 13.

Conclusion
I personally prefer the X1 Carbon (2015). Its a little pricier but the bigger screen and better keyboard clinch it for me. That been said, the XPS 13 is really no slouch and had I bought it first, I think I would think hard about trading it for an X1 Carbon.

Read my X1 Carbon Notes here


Obligatory Amazon Product Link

2015 Newest Model Dell XPS13 Ultrabook Computer - the World's First 13.3" FHD WLED Backlit Infinity Display, 5th Gen Intel Core i5-5200U Processor 2.2GHz / 4GB DDR3 / 128GB SSD / Windows 8.1

Z3 Compact Cases - Ringke Fusion + Terrapin Extra Slim

I dropped my Z3 like an idiot and broke the screen so I decided to reverse my cases suck policy for my replacement, the Z3 compact.

I tried the Ringke Fusion case and the Terrapin Extra Slim Hybrid Rubberized, bought both from Amazon. The Fusion is definitely better. It's a little bigger but fits nicely and looks like it could survive some abuse. The Terrapin case is thin but seems brittle and only good for scratch protection.

Of course, none of this would happened if the phone didn't have a slippery glass back causing the phone to slip off of anything with even the slightest incline.

Update 7/2/2015 : Really loving the Ringke Fusion ... a little shocked how much I've taken to it. Headphones seem to fit fine, there's a slight cutout around the jack to help with that.

Obligatory Amazon Link

Xperia Z3 Compact Case - Ringke FUSION Case

X1 Carbon 2015 - All is forgiven!





I never thought this day would come ... an X1 Carbon with a sensible keyboard (F U 2014 X1 Carbon) AND a proper screen AND the touchpoint buttons back. I got the 2560x version, non-touch and it is a good looking screen. Good viewing angle, decent colour rendition. I don't think I've been this pleased with a laptop in a while! 

Downsides? We lost the SD card slot which is really too bad. Updates to follow over the coming days.

1/21/2015 - Update on battery life

Charged it fully last night, took it to the office at 3pm and have been using it for 4.5 hours so far. Brightness at 90%, max CPU at 50%, wifi on and in heavy use all day because it was syncing my Dropbox account, I have 19% battery life left with an estimated 1hr 16 mins. Picasa has been indexing photos which is relatively CPU intensive as well. Looks like 5+ hours is easily achievable, maybe 6.5 at a push. 

Still loving this machine, no complaints. Screen is great, great viewing angles as expected from an IPS screen. I missed you so much Trackpoint!!

Also, really pleasantly surprised by the total lack of bloatware. Essential Lenovo stuff pre-installed, Norton (which was easy to uninstall), Office, that's about it. 

1/22/2015 - Look at that viewing angle



I don't need to mention how crappy the viewing angle used to be on Thinkpads ... 

Obligatory Amazon link:

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon 3rd Generation - 20BS003AUS: 14" Screen, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD

New X1 Carbon 2015

Holy shit they fixed EVERYTHING :-O

I had an X1 Carbon (great), then X1 Carbon 2014 (shit, returned it) and now I am going to get the X1 Carbon 2015. They listened, seems like they put in a way better screen, fixed the "adaptive keystrip" gimmick, added back trackpoint buttons and looks like we could have a winner again!

Sony Z3 D6633

Great phone, loving it. Back is a little slippery but battery life is great, screen is great, form factor is great, etc.

There was an issue with it not working with UK EE sims but if you update to LATEST firmware you should be fine.

I got the D6633 which is the dual sim model. I have noticed that sim slot #2 is not capable of 4G but sim slot #1 is! Slightly bizarre because it means you have to swap your sim cards when you travel from country to country to maintain 4G access. 

HTC M8 - Great phone but had to let it go! Two reasons ...

Used the M8 for the last few months, really, really liked it, even the low-res but high sensitivity camera. However, two major reasons kept me from keeping it.

1. I travel a lot and spend a lot of time in Europe, USA and HK. The M8 models tend to have quite limited bands available. The Asia version does not have the necessary bands for USA, for instance. It pains me to say it, but the M8 does not make for a good travelling phone as a result!

2. I like to tinker with firmware. Also, given that the M8 has a Google Play Edition (GPE), which allows easy access to the latest Android operating system builds, I thought it would be easy to flash GPE. Wrong! I can unlock the bootloader, I can get root but I cannot get S-Off (security off). This is a limitation of the hack used to get S-Off that affects certain models, apparently most of the newer ones. A disappointing turn of events indeed!

I have since replaced my M8 with a Sony Z3 D6633. Much better in terms of bands though I prefer the feel of the M8 in the hand.

Foris FS2333 and FG2421

The first LCD monitor I ever owned, back in the year 2000 (!) was an Eizo. It is a Japanese brand that has specialized in high quality, colour accurate displays for any industry to do with "looking at stuff". They recently launched a line called the FORIS which is designed for gaming. I haven't owned an Eizo in a number of years but in the last 12 months, I've bought 3. 2 x FS2333's and 1 x FS2421. 

I normally use the Eizo FS2333 with my computers, they really are one of the best monitors I have ever used. Relatively cheap, easily available online, great colour gamut, matte-finished and responsive enough for gaming. I highly, highly, highly recommend them for any user. I do a lot of photo-editing on them and have always been happy with them, especially after colour calibration.

I recently got an FS2421. I needed a new monitor and was fascinated by "120hz" monitors. The FS2421 does 120hz and also an "overdrive" feature to 240hz, most likely some sort of frame interpolating to come out to 240hz. The 2421 is great as a gaming monitor. Going from a 60hz to a 120hz setup (and also in 240hz mode) movement feels noticeably more crisp, much like good ol' CRT days or a quality plasma display. However, the colours feel a bit off and it doesn't seem to take well to my colour calibrator (Colormunki Display). It may be that the screen has a slight gloss to it that is throwing it off. I had a similar problem with the Thinkpad X1 Carbon (late 2013/2014) that I tested. 

What I learned: The ability to display 120hz is dependent on cable. It's an issue of bandwidth. Some cables and interfaces can provide the bandwidth, others cannot. 

Generic HDMI cables will only give up to 60hz as an option. There also exists an HDMI HIGH SPEED spec cable that may be able to do 120hz but I was not able to test it. HDMI HIGH SPEED is a requirement for 4k displays it seems, so there should be enough bandwidth in there to do 120hz. 

DVI can do it but I was cursed with not having the right version. 120hz is listed as a setting in Windows but you will get a signal error unless you use a DVI DUAL LINK cable. SINGLE LINK doesn't have sufficient conductors in the cable to do 1920x1080 @ 120hz. Here's a handy diagram to tell what cable you have. 

What I settled on using was DISPLAYPORT (because I had the cable handy). It's similar to HDMI but without licensing issues for manufacturers. Now I live in a 120hz world. Microsoft Excel's animations have never felt more crisp.

SUMMARY

FS2333 - great all-purpose monitor, beautiful colour, low input lag, no 120hz but whatever

FG2421 - great gaming monitor, ok-colour. low input lag, 120hz so nice

Topre Realforce Keyboard YK2100



Owned the Topre Realforce for about a week, learnt the hard way that the YK2100model is the "high-profile" model. That does not mean it's higher-end than the regular models, it means the keys themselves are higher and are more strongly angled towards your fingers (in theory). The arrangement might be ideal for some users, but I prefer a less steel angle, hence the keyboard is going back to be exchanged for the standard model.

I have to say though, the typing feel is GREAT. It is not as clicky as a buckling spring but it has a very satisfying clunk at the bottom of each keystroke. Quality of the hardware is pretty decent and I like the layout and spacing of the keys. In particular, they significantly reduced the size of the windows key and increased the size of CTRL and ALT which made a lot of sense to me. 

No, it's not cheap, but if you love good input devices, you will love a TOPRE. 

The 2014 Laptop Saga - Macbook Pro Retina 13" (late 2013) v HP Elitebook 1040 v Thinkpad T440s v Thinkpad X1 Carbon (2014)



I bought all these laptops trying to find the best one to carry me through the next 12-18 months. I didn't mean to go through this many but I can't seem to settle on one and be happy with it.

What I'm looking for:

Runs Windows
Has at least a 1920x1080 screen
Has great colour and viewing angles
Has at least 8gb of RAM
Has at least 256gb SSD storage

Why?

I work with a lot of photos and graphics
I'm impatient

Macbook Pro Retina 13" (late 2013)

I used to bootcamp a Macbook Air in 2012, it was a good machine and I enjoyed using it for Windows. I've never warmed to OS X but the Apple hardware is definitely awesome. Thinkpad keyboards are still my favourite but the Macbook keyboard is good enough. 

I found out: the Retina screen definitely has some QC issues. I exchanged 4 Macbook Pros until I got one I liked. There were noticeable colour casts in two corners, always green and red in opposite corners, definitely noticeable on a white background. I really appreciate Apple being flexible about returns. They let me keep opening up new Macbooks until I found the right one. When I did find eventually get the right screen, I was impressed. It's a really beautiful screen.

Using Windows on a Mac is generally a good experience. The drivers work decently and there are some basic two finger gestures for the touchpad. The biggest weakness is battery life. While you may see 8+ hours on OS X, you are likely going to find around 4-5 hours in Windows. This was also the case when I used to use a Macbook Air 2012 with Windows. Why is the battery life so much weaker in Windows? Perhaps unoptimized drivers? 

Thinkpad X1 Carbon (2014)

I bought the i7 model with the 2560x screen.
Initial thoughts:
Screen is pretty nice but a lot of programs are really not ready for it. Particularly stupid is that Lenovo's own programs sometimes appear with miniscule icons when in 2560x. Screen is bright, it has a slight haziness due to the touch screen. Still, at least no screen-door effect.
The keyboard is a disaster. This adaptive row is driving me crazy. Firstly, it ships defaulting to controls rather than function keys, so things like brightness instead of F keys. You can switch between the different adaptive row layouts but you have to have minimum TWO (F keys + bright/vol/mic controls). They have some other ones like Internet Explorer control, too. .
The ESC key is gone from its usual spot. It's now next to 1. FN has replaced the ESC key.
Backspace is not the last key on the right edge of your keyboard now, DELETE is. Backspace is right next to that.
Double tap shift to caps lock works pretty nicely. I haven't really noticed the new location of the Home/End keys since I don't use them that often.
The feeling of the keyboard itself is good, actually feels a little better than my old X1 Carbon.
Touchpoint/pad. WHY. What was wrong with the original touchpoint buttons?
Nice bonus - comes with an ethernet dongle and a dedicated mini-proprietary port to plug it into.
All-in-all ... it's a nice laptop marred by very stupid design decisions on the keyboard. What the hell, Lenovo.
Update:

Quote Originally Posted by urbanglowcam View Post
Awesome, congrats! Can you comment a bit more on the display/panel? Glad there's no more screen door effect, though I was never really bothered by it. I just didn't like theclortemperature and viewing angles weren't the best. Have they improved on these things? Also, what do you mean by haziness from the touchscreen?

Also, are you surprised by the keyboard? Or did you do research and already know beforehand what you were getting yourself into? I hope that didn't come off rude.

Thanks!
For comparison, I also have this year's Macbook Pro Retina 13". The screen is similar but the Macbook Pro seems marginally brighter and with slightly better contrast. I have never had a touchscreen on my laptop before so I wonder how much of a difference the touchscreen overlay makes. I normally calibrate my screens so colour temperature is not too much of an issue. What is a bigger issue is poor contrast, which is usually a lot more eyestrain for me because I will crank up brightness to brighten the whites which increases legibility for me. The haziness is a slightly grainy look, I'll see if I can get a photo to explain. It's not that bad, I'm a stickler for screens that's all.

Compared the the last 1600x900 panel on the X1 Carbon, it's definitely an improvement BUT it really depends on if your eyes can handle that 2560x. It's definitely a bit too small for me at 100-125% scaling.

Not rude at all, it's an important question. I have used Thinkpads for ten years starting with the T23. I was ok with the major chiclet change but this new layout really takes the . I had seen all the notes about the adaptive strip, etc but I overlooked ESC has moved, which has been one of the more difficult changes for me to deal with. The actual feel of the keys when typing remains good and arguably the best out there.

What I would like to know is if the 1600x900 option is the same as the old X1 Carbon?

Update 2:

I just noticed, I can change the adaptive row to just show 1 row of stuff and be non-toggleable. However, practically speaking, two is still better for changing brightness and volume using hardware keys. Alternative is to adjust via windows settings.

TO BE CONTINUED

Brief Updates:

I bought the T440s and the HP Elitebook 1040 as well. I bought the T440s with a non-touch 1920x1020 panel.

I Found Out: there are two suppliers that can provide Lenovo with the parts for the T440s. LG and AUO. I got the LG version and it is unacceptable. The primary problem is its crappy viewing angle. The AUO is meant to be much better but I could not get a replacement part, Lenovo was out.

I Found Out: HP ... uses the same LG panel, suffers from the same problems. SUCH A SHAME. I was really impressed with the machine and was ready to jump ship until I saw that screen. 

Useful knowledge marked - I found out:

Random but useful knowledge is marked with I found out:
I started this blog because equipment often has little idiosyncrasies and solutions that you only find about through trial and error. My notes on the items are based around I found out: so hopefully someone else can save some time instead of putzing around!

B&W A7


Great speaker, really happy with it.

Does better in smaller rooms.

Cranks pretty loud.

Sounds: rich, warm.

Positioning: prefers to be near a wall.

Inputs: 3.5mm minijack, optical and USB.

Setup is a real dog. Took me a long time to set up because it would not play nice with my wireless network. I found out: Turns out it needs to be on a G network. It doesn't like N, have not tried it with AC. I changed my wireless network settings to allow G clients and it was smooth sailing.

Airplay is Airplay. Sometimes it works, sometimes it will cut out intermittently, possibly due to wireless network congestion / the way it interacts with your router.

Messed around with AirFoil, which transmits Windows audio to any Airplay speaker. I found out: there is a delay when using the Airplay protocol so it's no good for trying to watch a movie. The audio and video will be out of sync.

Comparable Products owned:

Geneva Labs XL - massive speaker. CD slot can easily fill up with dust and the inputs will start auto-switching. Otherwise, the XL has superior sound but with a bigger price and footprint.

Dynaudio XEO 3 - if you don't need to mess with Airplay and don't mind having two speakers, just get these. Really fantastic. I replaced my A7 with these.

Orb Audio Mini-T amplifier, Mod1X speakers and subMINI - was disappointed by these. Definitely a gap between the lows and the mids because of the super small speaker + sub configuration. Not saying the 2.1 setup is useless, but it doesn't work well in this case.

Ubiquiti UniFi AP


Holy shit, super impressed. How often can you be impressed by wireless access points??

My apartment is a weird shape and a lot of doors, I can't get coverage all over. I bought two of these expecting: one wifi network but running from two AP's. They won't interfere with each other and will work in unison.

I bought two of the basic models, only 2.4 ghz, no 5ghz. Wireless N but no AC.

Super scared about flaky WDS / mesh network setups. Ubiquiti has its own way of doing things that just seemed to work. Process: install Ubiquiti's utility (lightweight, no bullshit, runs in browser and well made!), wire both into your network via ethernet, "adopt" both your AP's in the utility, set network settings and set both on same wireless channel, physically disconnect one, give it a minute, it will still be available through Ubiquiti's utility, click "uplink" on the unwired one and that's it.

I found out: PoE (Power over Ethernet) but runs 24v instead of 48v, not all PoE routers will work. Does come with a power injector.

 I found out: yes, power injector to give it juice over a regular network cable, but no network cables included! So, you will need at least 1 network cable to hook it up to the power injector and 2 network cables if you are hooking it into access points. I almost ran out of network cables setting it all up. (o noes)

I found out: not all network cables are created equal! Check your cable heads and make sure all 8 of the contacts are wired up otherwise you won't be able to use it for power! You can do data with only some of the contacts wired so some cable manufacturers don't wire them up completely. What the hell?

I found out: you want the UniFi controller. There are other downloads on Ubiquiti's website but they no work!

Super like:

One alone already has great range. Two together make for great coverage.

Cheap! (considering its abilities)

UniFi controller utility! So good!

Sony RX100 vs Sony A7 vs Olympus OM-D E-M1 - Updated 2014/01/13

Who comes up with these names?

Quickly:

Using the E-M1 is a joy. Great everything, super responsive. If you can deal with the smaller sensor and respectable performance at high ISO, just get it. So many external controls means less faffing around in menus. No, you won't get FF image quality, but the camera is such a pleasure to use and the quality is "good enough".

I want to like the RX100 very much. The  image quality is spectacular and I love the lens (35mm F2!) but focusing is a little unreliable. It occasionally hunts for accurate focus and gives enough focusing false positives to be annoying. I have it with the EVF and I do prefer it with it.

A7, improved over the RX100 but with an increase in size. Not as responsive as the E-M1 but pretty decent. The shutter! So loud!! Still a bit of focusing problems and am very curious if the A7r improves the focus speed. Also, what is up with the 35mm f2.8? The RX100 had a beautiful 35mm f2. Would love to try the Zeiss Touit lenses someday.

Why am I still messing around with m4/3 if I have full frame? I really like my m4/3 lenses. Voigtlander 25mm f0.95, 17.5mm f0.95, Panasonic 20mm, Olympus 17mm f1.8. Goes to show, the feeling of the camera matters a lot!

Update - 2014/01/13

Took the E-M1 on the road with me instead of the A7. Damn, I am glad I did that. Such a joy to use. Reliable, responsive, good image quality (though definitely lags behind the A7 in both resolution and ISO performance), well thought out ergonomics. The stabilizer works great, I managed a lot of good candid low-light shots thanks to it. ISO up to 3200 is fine for web and small print sizes. The dynamic range is better than previous generations of m4/3 as well. The Olympus 17mm 1.8 performed admirably as well.