Archive | Promoted

RSS feed for this section

Usually stuff I’ve written personally, stuff I think is pretty good.

SteelSeries 7H for iOS devices review — behind the scenes

My review for the SteelSeries 7H headset for iPod, iPhone, and iPad will be up a little later today over at MacTalk, where you can read the full review, but I figured I might as well publish something that didn’t quite make it into the final version (okay, was never going to be included in the final version, was never intended to be included in the final version). A behind-the-scenes look, if you will.

Little backstory: the SteelSeries 7H comes with a pretty unique micro-USB connector:

There’s one curious thing about the cable though, and that’s the fact it attaches to the headset on the left hand side, using none other than a micro-USB connector that our European friends seem to be so fond of. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, and certainly makes the 7H headset a little unique in that regard.

Unique, yes, but also interesting: I’ve been looking for a new gaming headset for a while, and while the 7H ticks all the right boxes in terms of comfort and sound quality, the version that I reviewed comes with a strange plug that only has one 3.5mm plug for both headphones and microphone.

No matter, no matter — one support ticket and about 5 Euros later, a replacement audio cable for the standard 7H is in the post. The thing about the standard 7H is that’s it’s far more “normal” in that it has two 3.5mm plugs — one for audio, and one for microphone, just like PC manufacturers like it.

As it turns out, I guessed correctly — SteelSeries must make one version of the headset, then just vary the micro-USB cables that comes with it (and the packaging, obviously) to split it into separate products. The replacement cable plugs into the micro-USB port on the headphones just fine, and turns it into a standard 7H headset — which means the 7H works perfectly as the gaming headset I always wanted, but was never able to spend the money on (says the guy with AudioEngine 2 desktop speakers).

+1 ingenuity for me.

This post part of Blogtober 2011, just a little thing of mine where I (attempt to) post something up on my blog every day in October 2011.

Deja Vu

Blogtober 11 catch-up, part IX — at this stage I’m only a day behind, but this is for October 20th

Almost exactly five years ago, a few kids posed in front of some giant guitar in the middle of NSW.

Almost exactly five years ago, a few kids participated in something known as the Science and Engineering Challenge.

Almost exactly five years ago, a few kids from a tiny school in a small suburb in the equally-tiny state of Tasmania came fourth in the country,

Almost exactly five years ago to the day, a few kids had an absolute blast.

A few days ago, a different set of kids, to be sure, but with perhaps one or two of the same teachers, made their reprise in the Science and Engineering Challenge.

A few days ago, a few kids from the tiny school from a little suburb in the equally small state of Tasmania, managed to place fourth in the country.

A few days ago, a few kids may or may not have posed in front some giant guitar…

…but one thing’s for sure: they probably had just as much fun as we did.

This post part of Blogtober 2011, just a little thing of mine where I (attempt to) post something up on my blog every day in October 2011.

My iPhone 4 Home Screen

It’s been a while since I updated my homescreen.me profile, and with the official release of iOS 5 and needing something to post up on my blog, I figured now was as good a time as any… Here goes!

Like many Apple faithful my home screen is fairly similar to what Apple provide as the default – with a few important changes.

Three years of iOS ownership means quite a bit of customisation. My home screen is organised in a loose Ben Brooks configuration, with a few stock Apple apps, some fantastic replacements for a few of the stock Apple apps, and some other great apps that I’ve found over the years.

First row: Mail, Calvetica, Maps+, Photos
Calvetica is a very good Calendar replacement set in beautiful Helvetica. It’s changed quite a bit since the original release, but it’s still very fast, and very capable.
Maps+ is like the original Maps app with much more of a focus on the actual maps, and less UI chrome to boot, while still staying highly functional. Packing all the same features (and then some) as the stock Maps app while having a very minimalistic UI is a winner in my books.

Second row: Camera, Clock, Articles, Dropbox
Articles gains a spot on my homscreen because it’s a really nice app that reformats Wikipedia articles for the iPhone, and Dropbox, well, that’s so useful for PDF documents (bus timetables, mainly) that it also earns a spot on my homescreen.

Third row: Instapaper, Soulver, Elements, Reminders
Here’s where things get interesting; Instapaper is just, well, Instapaper. By far one of the best apps to ever grace the iOS platform — it makes reading on the go an absolute joy.
Soulver makes calculations easy, even fun. It’s available on every Apple platform, and even syncs with Dropbox if you use it on more than one platform. You can write stories in it, and then calculate things using numbers in those stories. It’s not so much a calculator than it is a scratchpad for numbers, and it’s fantastic.
Elements is my new favourite text editor. Plain text, Dropbox sync, and Markdown support means that it ticks all the boxes — word count and a nice interface means that it goes the extra mile. It’s the one app that started me off with Markdown, and now almost everything I write is written in Markdown. Elements is the best text editor on any platform I’ve come across, period.
Reminders, as included in iOS 5, has meant that I’ve given up every other reminders/notifications-type app. Geo-fences and repeating reminders tick all the boxes — if you know what I mean.

Fourth row: Phone, Verbs, App Store, Settings
Phone is here because I rarely use my iPhone as a phone – perhaps that’ll change when people actually decide to call me, but for now it stays here.
Verbs is a great IM client for the iPhone. Admittedly, I seldom use IM when I’m mobile, but when I need to, Verbs is incredibly simple and has a great UI.

Finally, the dock: Tweetbot, Messages, Safari, Music
I’ve tried every Twitter app worth trying on iPhone, and Tweetbot wins all the awards. It’s the one app that made me come back to iOS from Windows Phone 7 and Android, and it’s not hard to see why — all the features you need (and then some!), a beautiful UI, and it just works for everything I need it to do.
My only gripe with this row is that Apple separated the iPod app out into two separate apps — Music and Videos. I liked the idea of my iPhone having its own little iPod inside…

I’m not sure where I got the wooden background from, but if you want it, it’s available here.

This post part of Blogtober 2011, just a little thing of mine where I (attempt to) post something up on my blog every day in October 2011.

Android Addendum, Part II

Blogtober 11 catch-up, part V

When I went to Melbourne a few months ago I was faced with a bit of a dilemma. One of the most enjoyable dilemmas I’ve had to face, but a dilemma nonetheless.

You see, it was right around the time I was experimenting with various smartphone platforms, and it just so happened that I had all four smartphones at that time — the Dell Venue Pro, the HTC 7 Mozart, a Samsung Nexus S, and of course, my trusty iPhone 4.

The only problem was that I didn’t know which phone to take. Like I said, a pretty enjoyable dilemma.

On one hand, I needed something that would serve me well. Something that I was already familiar with — and that meant my iPhone 4, capable of pretty much anything I wanted to throw at it.

On the other hand, there wouldn’t be a better test case for how well Android would hold up in an unfamiliar city, in unfamiliar surroundings, where a few seconds could make all the difference in the world.

I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to take the any of the WP7 phones — as this was pre-Mango, I didn’t think they were quite at the level I wanted them to be for every-day use.

For the record, I ended up bringing both my iPhone 4 and my Nexus S. I used the Nexus S as my primary phone, but my iPhone 4 was always waiting for me in my other pocket, or in my bag.

And you know what? The Nexus S wasn’t too bad, with perhaps one issue: the GPS was incredibly, incredibly slow to get a solid lock. I mean, you don’t appreciate just how fast the GPS lock is on iOS until you’ve experienced the same thing on Android. Now, I’m fully prepared to admit it might have been my particular phone and software combination — but then I ask myself, if this is the experience that Google mandates, I can only hope that other manufacturer and software combinations are much, much better.

Once it got a lock it was fine, though. The 3D navigation stuff was particularly impressive, even on foot.

Bottom line: Android isn’t bad, but I still prefer iOS.

This post part of Blogtober 2011, just a little thing of mine where I (attempt to) post something up on my blog every day in October 2011.

Up and Down

It’s like a rollercoaster over here.

The past few days have sucked completely because I’ve been very unproductive (and that will have some consequences I’ll face some other day), and for a moment there, it was almost funny — I’d think about how much work I had to do, do completely none of it, then think about the consequences of not doing so. This led into a spiral of doom which me feeling pretty sucky; getting angry at myself for not doing any work, knowing any consequences I would have to bear would be all my fault, writing semi-depressive blog posts on the subject under the guise of unanswered questions, questioning all sorts of things.

Yeah, it kinda sucked.

But the thing is, now those deadlines have come and gone, I got a whole heap done today. There’s no hugely pressing deadline per se, but I did have to get a few things done by tomorrow or the end of the week — and today, I pretty much ticked off every single thing on my list. Weird, right?

It’s not that I can’t work under pressure  — arguably some of my best work is when I’m thrown into the deep end. So what is it? The pressure of doing my best work knowing that someone is looking over my shoulder every step of the way? I used to say that I did my best work alone, but now I’m not so sure. Perhaps I need that pressure of being accountable, that pressure of knowing that I’ll have to answer to someone for my work— someone other than myself.

You know what? I’m actually not sure what it is. Perhaps it’s the fact that when faced with a million seemingly-insurmountable tasks and the lure of a good game, I’ll choose the game every time. Or perhaps it’s the fact that sometimes I just can’t be bothered — I could do the work if I was bothered, but man, sometimes I just don’t see the point.

In any case, I got a few things done today that I’m pretty proud of. Unfortunately, I’ve also made some pretty poor decisions in the past week — the consequences of which I’ll face some other day. No sense getting dragged down by the past now, is there?

Over and out.

This post part of Blogtober 2011, just a little thing of mine where I (attempt to) post something up on my blog every day in October 2011.

 

Unanswered Questions

Blogtober 11 catch-up, part IV

Sometimes, just sometimes, I have many questions. Many, many questions, and too few answers.

Sometimes, stupid little questions, like: why did that girl stare at me? Is my fly undone? Do I have something unpleasant coming out of my nose? Is there something wrong with my face? Did I say the right thing? Did I act the right way?

These questions don’t really matter. I usually forget them after a few minutes, and then I move on to some of the more important stuff.

More important stuff, like: what kind of message do I want to convey when writing? What do I want to write about? Should I hit publish on this piece, knowing that it might not be my best work yet? Or should I publish that piece anyway, and just throw caution to the wind?

These questions matter a little more. They don’t really affect anyone apart from myself, and even then they’re usually forgotten the next day, or a few days later. There’s nothing wrong with these questions, per se, and sometimes they should definitely be asked, but the real, life changing questions are where it’s at.

Questions like: what should I be doing with my life? Am I really happy doing this Uni degree? Why can’t I seem to get the right work done? Why does the reward always seem to dictate the amount of effort I put into things? Where is the light at the end of the tunnel? How am I supposed to feel about various things? What kind of an effect does that have on my life? Where do I want to be in 5 years? Where do I want to be in 10 years? What is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything?

If only I could answer all these questions. I know no-one has all the answers to everything, but why are there so many unanswered questions anyway? Where do I get the answers from? How do I get out of this rut?

And finally, the most important question of all: what graphics card should I get for Battlefield 3?

This post part of Blogtober 2011, just a little thing of mine where I (attempt to) post something up on my blog every day in October 2011.