Monday, November 23, 2015

CyberPowerPC keyboards

I love CyberPowerPCs and I have recently purchased 2 CyberPowerPCs, however, when I pulled out one of the USB keyboards that shipped with the PC, needless to say, I was not pleased!

As a developer, I do a tremendous amount of typing and with a typing speed of around 80-100 WPM (words per minute), I need a keyboard that can easily keep up as well as seamlessly fit into my typing style.

Unfortunately, the Azza keyboard that ships with CyberPowerPCs do not fit into either of these categories.

The keyboard is extremely compact and not suitable at all for standard typing.  My biggest frustrations with this keyboard is the very, very small backspace key as well as the very small Ctrl and Alt keys. 

For any user that types as much as I do, this keyboard can basically be considered completely useless.

It would be much nicer if CyberPowerPC shipped some Microsoft keyboards or Logitech keyboards with their PCs, but in lieu of that, suffice it to say, I am sending out my Azza keyboards for recycling and sticking with my comfortable Logitech keyboards and mice!

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Amazon Underground Games

With the recently released line of Amazon Kindle Fire tablets, I decided to give the new much touted "Amazon Underground" a spin and see what was really meant by "actually free" games.  Amazon advertises this feature as games that actually have free in-app purchases, lending new meaning to "free games".

Currently, free games means that the game is "free", but still charges for any in-app purchases that are made, thus leading the end-user/consumer to believe that the game is free but with hidden charges/purchases.

However, Amazon Underground now labels their games as "Actually Free" when you visit the Amazon Underground.

I tried out one of the Amazon Underground "Actually Free" games that I have played for a long time called Frozen Free Fall.

Well, much to my surprise, Amazon was not lying about being "actually free"!

When I first launched Frozen Free Fall, I was immediately awarded a large number of snowballs and ice crystal and ice picks before I even began playing.  In addition, all of the upper levels from the Seasons and Frozen Fever were also completely unlocked! 

When I browsed through a few more Amazon Underground games in the Amazon App Store, I was surprised to find several more expensive games such as Mickey Mouse's Castle of Illusions labeled as "Actually Free"!

I am really enjoying the Amazon Underground feature of "Actually Free" applications since it makes using the Amazon Kindle Fire as a much more enjoyable tablet for gaming vs. Android and iPad tablets which do not have this feature and still rely heavily on Free games with in-app purchasing.

Needless to say, when it comes to playing games on a tablet, I will stick to the Amazon Kindle Fire!!

Monday, November 2, 2015

Amazon Fire TV vs. Google Nexus Player

If you are looking for an affordable Gaming Console, then you might consider either the Amazon Fire TV or the Google Nexus Player.

First, we'll take a look at the Amazon Fire TV: http://www.amazon.com/Amazon-DV83YW-Fire-TV/dp/B00U3FPN4U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1446520957&sr=8-1&keywords=fire+tv

The Amazon Fire TV just released a new version which now includes support for Alexa which was originally shipped with Amazon Echo.  Alexa is Amazon's form of voice recognition software which allows you to perform a wide variety of operations from playing music to hearing about the weather, news reports or even jokes.  The other major update to the Amazon Fire TV is the newly added support for an optional microSD card which supports up to 128GB of storage. 

The main limiting factor for the Amazon Fire TV then becomes the lack of good, affordable games in the Amazon App Store.  This is definitely the greatest drawback to the Amazon Fire TV.  If Amazon were to make Google Play Store apps available to the Amazon Fire TV, purchasing the Fire TV would be a complete no-brainer.

Next up, is the Google Nexus Player: https://www.google.com/nexus/player/

The Google Nexus Player has many of the same features as the Amazon Fire TV with the main difference being that it runs a native version of Android thus offering full support for the Google Play store. In addition, it is much cheaper than the Amazon Fire TV with a cost of only $49.  http://www.bestbuy.com/site/google-nexus-player-streaming-media-console-black/2445015.p?id=1219542308629&skuId=2445015

Unfortunately, the major thing it lacks is the optional microSD card to expand the total memory storage on the device.  Even devices such as the Roku offer an optional microSD card for their streaming device.  The lack of microSD card is a major fail on Google's part.  The Google Nexus player only ships with 8 GB of memory, so if you are installing any particularly large games, you will have to uninstall them rather quickly in order to install newer games (the same limitation existed with the earlier version of the Amazon Fire TV as well).

In this comparison, there is no clear winner for Gaming Consoles since both the Amazon Fire TV and the Google Nexus player have severe drawbacks in the design of their systems.  If you are looking for the widest variety of available games, then the Google Nexus Player is definitely the console of choice.




Amazon Kindle Fire vs. Barnes & Noble Nook vs Google Nexus

I started researching new Android-based tablets for myself and I ended up comparing these 3 main Android tablets:

  1. Amazon Kindle Fire
  2. Barnes & Noble Nook
  3. Google Nexus
First up, the Amazon Kindle Fire: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00S5HFVGI/ref=fs_ods_fs_tab_ms

I have been a long-time Amazon Kindle Fire user and they are great tablets overall.  However, these are 2 major cons of these tablets that I have found over the years:
  • They did not have expandable memory options through use of an optional microSD card
  • They did not support native Android apps from the Google Play store.  The apps found in the Amazon Kindle store are still much more limited than the Google Play store.
Well, the latest version of the Amazon Kindle Fire addresses one of these 2 concerns by adding support for an optional microSD card.  This is a great selling point for the new Kindle Fire as well as the reduced cost of only $49 to buy a Kindle Fire with a 7" screen!

Next up, the Barnes & Noble Nook: http://nook.barnesandnoble.com/u/samsung-galaxy-tab-4-nook-tablet/379004262

I bought the Barnes & Noble Nook when they first came out with the Nook Color and the only reason I really bought it was its support for the ePub format as well as the optional microSD card which allowed me to expand its memory.

The new Barnes & Noble Nooks are a significant upgrade from the Nook Color by offering Samsung-based tablets that not only continue to have the optional microSD card but also have support for the Google Play store!

In addition, Barnes & Noble is now offering incentives to trade-in old Tablet devices towards credit for a brand new Nook!  http://nook.barnesandnoble.com/u/trade-in-your-nook/379004337?cds2Pid=49746

That is a pretty great incentive to trade up to the Barnes & Noble Nook in my opinion. 

Finally, there is the Google Nexus tablet: https://www.google.com/nexus/9/

It is the only tablet among the 3 listed tablets which does not have support for an optional microSD card making it an expensive and severely limiting tablet.  However, since it is Google's own creation, it ensures that everything from the Google Play store will work on it as well as always have support for the latest versions of Android.

If you are an Android user that wants the best of both worlds (Google Play store and tons of storage memory), I would definitely choose the new Barnes & Noble Nook.  However, if you are satisfied with the limited selection of Amazon Kindle apps provided in the Amazon Kindle App Store, the Amazon Kindle Fire will definitely be a much nicer tablet to use overall.