Review - NATPC M009S Android Tablet PC

The NATPC M009S is the internet darling of tablets, being cheap, solid and reliable. For under £100, you get an Ice cream sandwich (Android 4.0) tablet with a solid spec. It actually goes by several other names too (Including MIT 900) but I'm reviewing based on the model I have.

NATPC M009S

Hardware
In the box, you get a questionably translated user manual, charger and also a handy converter cable so that you can plug full size USB devices into the tablet's micro USB slot.

The build quality of the machine is surprising given the price point. It feels very sturdy without the added weight that other tablets carry around. In fact, its one of the lighter tablets I have used. The device is also very thin.

The downside to the thin tablet is that the slightest pressure on the back (just from normal holding) causes a slight screen ripple.

The screen brightness, although good in a dark room fails miserably under sunlight and is quite reflective.
Storage standard is 8GB with a microSD slot that can expand it by a further 16GB, there are also "ultimate" editions available on Amazon which come with 16GB of storage as standard.

Software
The OS is surprisingly quick and responsive following a slower boot than I would have liked, I had expected it was going to run like a dog the whole time, like many other cheap tablets so this was a pleasant surprise.
The basic apps selection tends to vary by model and seller, but generally includes adobe flash, the google suite (Gmail, Play store, Maps etc) and a video player.

The default browser is a tad sluggish, becoming more unusable on a flash-heavy site.

Graphically, the tablet was able to run Grand theft auto on low settings but the controls were not particularly responsive. More lightweight games like angry birds space and cut the rope ran absolutely fine.

Overall
This is a great little tablet for someone who doesn't want the earth or isn't a gamer. Well worth the money for a solid, reliable gadget. The downsides are the lack of peripherals for a generic device though accessories for the HTC Flyer seem to work fine.

IT GUY SCORE: 8/10

vs. SofasWorld.co.uk Part IV - The Ragin' Climax

I recieved a letter toward the end of July, from my "friends" at WorldStores/SofasWorld which I have neglected to scan and post until today.

Draw your own conclusions...

So there you have it. A rare written admission of fault by someone senior at a big company.

Anyone want £25 off online?

Painter's Door

A list of current problems on my home network, in no particular order...

• Router having regular outages where wifi or ADSL stops responding, DNS issues.
• Old laptop overheating, doesn't recognise DVD Drive
• Replacement laptop for above had faulty hard drive, had to go back to seller, awaiting replacment.
• PC network card failing, connection impossible
• Roku can't keep connection (likely due to router)

Like the expression says, a painters door is always the last to be painted...

"Not YouTube Dad, I want Angry Birds!"

Recently my kids have become enamoured with tablet PCs.

It started when my three year old son asked if he could watch Thomas the Tank Engine on my NATPC M009S (review to follow) to which I obliged.

Within about an hour, both kids were on tablets playing a Thomas app that I bought them. It was the quietest I have ever known them to be...all for less than £2.00! Bliss!

Now, before dudley doright gets on my ass; I work in IT and will naturally encourage my offspring to embrace technology - just like a teacher will be much more uptight about their kids education. I don't agree with constantly sticking kids in front of screens to keep them quiet and nor do I agree with those who say kids should not be playing with such things so young.

Mobile Technology has become a big part of everyday life and is only going to get more bedded in by the time my kids fly the nest and I don't want my kids to miss out on opportunities because they can't work the latest iBerrydroid HD.

Of course the kids use them to make pictures, watch videos and play the occaisional game but it is teaching them to use the touchscreen (poking what they want on screen is ideal for a pre-schooler!) and one day might make a difference.

Until then they can crush those pigs.

Windows Explorer Favourites Issue

An issue a lot of our users encounter is the explorer favourites list in Windows 7 failing to load/expand or being "stuck" where you can't drag something onto it to load it.

Windows 7 Explorer Favourites

In our case, this is caused by the roaming profile either not creating or not correctly resolving the path to the links directory.

All that is required to fix this is to create a folder called Links in the C:\users\username\ directory and a quick reboot to flush things out. (A log off/on would also likely suffice, but i'm cautious!)

Alternatively, you may find that the Links folder has been renamed. Simply rename and logoff/reboot to fix.

I will predict that this will also be an issue in Windows 8...

New Template

I've changed the template for the blog because it kept scaring me. Too much black background is bad for the eyes...

The slow death of RIM

Today Research in Motion (RIM) announced that it had hired bankers to give its finances a health check and to look at pairing it up with other businesses.

It's the latest in an exceptionally long line of death knells for a company that once revolutionised mobile communications.

The new version of their OS is playing catch-up with the lowly windows phone, let alone market leaders iOS and Android and their new handset prototypes look like budget android phones. The much hyped playbook tablet is a heavy, clunky mess even with the 2.0 software. with

Financially, RIM is making almost no money and unless they can pull off a miracle then there will be no turning back. Unfortunately, most of the key players who built the company are now operating in reduced roles or have jumped ship, leaving the problems to new generation of management. The consequences of a RIM collapse today would be devastating to many businesses because the BlackBerry system relies heavily on "phoning home" to the mothership for many key services, including BBM and enterprise activation. This could cause companies on budgets who rely heavily on mobile comms to "go dark" if things were shut down. If parts of RIM were sold off, the company could possibly survive. Their hardware build quality is very high, It's the software that deserves to be put out of its misery...could you imagine a BlackBerry running the Windows phone OS or Android? Is this the future or has research lost the last of its motion?

Bye Bye DVDs - Microsoft strips DVD playback from Windows 8

Today, Microsoft announced in a blog post that they will be dropping support for DVD playback from Windows 8. The only way new systems will ship with this ability is if the hardware manufacturers (OEMs) take on the cost, otherwise the end user takes on the cost.

WTF!?! was my initial reaction, as whilst we are slowly but surely moving toward an all-digital cloud-driven future, dropping support for a still popular and basic medium seems short sighted and cheap.

For a company which is floundering without much direction, this seems like yet another blow for Windows 8, which will henceforth be referred to as Vista II: This time It's personal.

By passing the option and cost onto OEMs, the consumer will see prices shoot up unnecessarily on kit that features an optical drive. I could see this decision making sense if it was only for the tablet version of Win8 or if the consumer would see any kind of benefit from this at all.

And what of Mr DIY PC who buys an OEM copy of Windows for his custom PC? Will Windows be cheaper to offset this extra cost? Oh hell no....

What of 3rd party programs/apps that rely on the OS to be able to play DVDs? Will VLC player function as a DVD player in spite of this? Or will it be the next in a long line of casualties of Microsoft ignorance?

If Windows 8 was exclusively for tablets, netbooks and ultrabooks, this would be a OK decision, but everyone will suffer from this ignorant choice.

Review - HP dm1-4004sa laptop

The HP dm1 is described by some as a netbook, which is an unfair label. The laptop provides enough power and battery life to do almost anything and has a good graphics core so that some gaming is also possible, all whilst maintaining a small footprint, making it ideal for my commutes to and from work.
My model is the dm1-4004sa, which was bought direct from HP, I can't see any difference between it and the other dm1 available from other retailers (dm1-4125ea).

HP DM1-4004SA

Review Conditions
In the interest of "journalistic integrity", I will state here that I always format and reinstall on a new laptop to kill the bloat of the OEM software.
Unfortunately as HP wants circa £30 for a restore DVD, my laptop is running Windows 7 professional rather than the Home Premium available out of the box.
Specification
AMD Fusion E-450 APU 1.65 GHz with Radeon 6320M graphics
4GB DDR3 RAM
500GB Hard drive @ 5400rpm
11.6" Screen (1280x800px)


Physical and Hardware
This laptop is all shiny black and silver plastic, which looks fantastic. In practice it attracts dust and fingerprints like nothing on earth. The touchpad design is a series of bumps across the bottom bezel, but it is very responsive and beats the terrible all in one clickpad things that HP had in most of their laptops last year.

The keyboard uses the now-defacto "island" design, which keeps each key seperate from the others. The key size is slightly smaller than I would like, but this is down to the choice to use the island design.

The vents are located on the left side and unlike many other laptops, don't lend themselves to being easily covered up in use so overheating is not a large issue.

The display is excellent, even when brightness is turned down to minimum levels I could still use it fine. Some people with poorer eyesight may find this more of a challenge.

The sound quality of the system is phenomenal, the beats audio speakers put those in my larger laptop to shame. Using appropriate headphones only enhances the experience.

It is very lightweight and can be comfortably held in one hand.

Operating System and Software
The laptop comes with Windows 7 Home Premium preinstalled (as mentioned above) along with the usual OEM "goodies", including an Office 2010 home and student trial, Antivirus trial and lots of unnecessary bloatware.

One very good bit of software included is the AMD Fusion Catalyst control centre (or center, depending on which side of the pond you are reading this from) which enhances the power management and has allowed me to get over eight hours of battery life from the dm1, when doing basic office apps and watching some video.

Gaming has been pleasantly surprising on the machine. It's not going to run the latest Call of Duty/Battlefield at high framerate, but it ran The Sims 3 and Tropico 4 on standard settings without issue for me.

Overall
HP has scored a huge goal with this laptop, its ideal for those who want a portable Windows 7 device with the power of larger counterparts.


The laptop is lightweight, can hold a battery charge for a long time and (if you're OK with dust and fingerprints) looks very flashy too.

Buy one, buy one now!

IT GUY SCORE: 10/10

Review - HTC One S Android Smartphone

I made the decision to upgrade my contract to a HTC One S over the quad core One X purely based on size and availability at the time.

I knew I wanted an HTC phone as having had various flavours of Android, HTC always seems to provide a more seamless interface with a lot of neat social features.

HTC One S

Physical and Hardware
The phone immediately reminded me of the original HTC Desire in terms of size and layout. The screen is bright and vivid although purists will argue about colour accuracy.

The micro USB charger is sensibly placed on the left side rather than on the base, so it should attract less dirt. A little cover for it would've been welcome though!

The same can't be said for the front facing camera, which sits inside an awkward little dip and, in the two weeks that I've had the phone has accumulated quite a bit of pocket grime.

Size-wize, its a little large to comfortably use in one hand for texting or browsing compared with previous HTCs I've owned, but others will likely find this is a non-issue.

HTC has made much of the military grade coating applied to the phone shell and whilst I doubt it adds anything to the lifetime of the phone, it does look very nice and polished.

The phone boasts a dual core processor from qualcom with a healthy dose of RAM. It runs the OS without any lag or issue that I've come across.

The battery life is on the high end for a HTC, lasting for a full day of normal use. Unfortunately, the battery is not removable so I hope it lasts!

Operating System and Software
The phone runs the latest version of Android 4.x, known to most as Ice Cream Sandwich. It also features a new version of HTC sense, which is simply a skin and some extra widgets and social features.

As ever, HTC maxes-out the Android experience like nobody else can, with fantastic features like the keyboard which knows what I'm trying to say even when typing drunk.

The social integration is also still on the ball, searching your Google, phone, Facebook and Twitter contacts and linking the data together to form detailed profiles for each contact.

The camera, previously the bugbear of HTC Android phones is the complete opposite of its ugly, slow, blurry predecessors. The camera is ready to go straight away when the app loads and takes microseconds to process a photo. It also has new effect filters you can apply. Another very nice feature is that you can take pictures whilst recording video.

I've experienced no lag at all whilst using the phone, even when running high end games.
This phone also features the Beats audio system which does give a clearer sound experience across the apps, not just in the stock media player.

Overall
To keep it simple, this phone is excellent. It combines speed and ease of use with some fantastic hardware to provide the best Android experience yet. The only issues I have are with the front camera attracting dirt and the lack of a cover for the charge port. A user replaceable battery is also a key thing for me.

One thing I have noticed is that my phone hangs when switching data networks, but turning off data roaming helped this somewhat, your mileage may vary.

These issues aside, this phone could be a dark horse for 2012...bridging the price gap between the top-end One X, Galaxy S3 and inevitable iPhone 5 and the low end nasties.

IT GUY SCORE: 9/10

vs. SofasWorld.co.uk Part III

Email to WorldStores Customer services dated 30th April 2012 13:35

Dear Sir/Madam,

On Friday, I was due to recieve a replacement leather candy corner sofa (a replacement for the original replacement - which turned out to be two 2 seater sofas and a random corner square) and instead the courier company wanted to drop off a 3 seater sofa and a 2 seater sofa. These were turned away at the door because somehow, yet again they were the wrong item!

How is this so difficult to organise?

It has now been seven months since the original order was placed. Four months since the sofa was actually recieved and we had hardly any use of it at all before it started sinking. Your company offered a replacement or a refund and I made the mistake of accepting a replacement. I have now had enough of these farcial attempts at replacments. I asked for a phone call following the failed delivery on Friday but have yet to recieve one, so I assume that your company is going to handle this with its usual level of service....none.

I want my money back, not some...not a token gesture...all of my money back. This was £599.99 After I recieve my money back, you can have the two 2 seater sofas and the corrner square back at your expense.

I will be consulting with a solicitor later this week and have also contacted BBC's Watchdog programme.

Regards,

vs. Sofasworld.co.uk Part II

Last year I blogged in great detail about my feud with Sofasworld.co.uk here

Since then we have had problems with the sofa starting to sink, a behaviour you wouldn't expect in a couch that was barely 3 months old.

I contacted my "good friends" at Worldstores (the parent company) via their new email contact form - no doubt implemented following a lot of abuse to their customer services email address because I simply didn't have the energy to go through yet another 30 minute hold music festival.

In a shocking twist, they offered to replace the sofa at no charge. We readily accepted and (as history should have taught me) things went downhill from there...

They told us that the new sofa would arrive yesterday and it would be collected by a seperate courier firm. Of course, the collecting courier arrived and took one look at the sofa and ran fast, claiming it was too heavy. The new couch never arrived. I continued to not hold my breath.

Last night (you know, after the couch was supposed to have been collected), I recieved a returns form via email to attach to the couch.

Today, I recieved a phone call apologising for the lack of collection or delivery and promising that everything would happen today and indeed it did.

Approx 40 minutes ago, Sofasworld collected the old corner unit couch and provided us with... two two-seater sofas and a random corner section of a couch, not discovered until the couriers had run away at speed. Colour me unimpressed.

After yet another exciting phone call, I'm now promised ANOTHER replacement for Thursday (which will no doubt mean Friday).

I hate Sofas.

Facebook goes public, Kodak goes bankrupt

Two unrelated stories in the news right now are the fact that Facebook is preparing to go to initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange.

Seperarately is the saddening story that Kodak is filing for bankruptcy.

The thing that binds these two stories is the fact that Kodak was in a much more dominant position than Facebook just 15 years ago.

EVERYONE used a Kodak service back then, be it a camera, film or for developing films. Much like today where millions use Facebook on home computers, laptops, mobile phones, TVs etc.

Kodak became a victim of changing trends in technology and a failure to keep up with the times.

As Facebook goes public, I wonder where it will be in 5, 10 or 15 years? Will it still be a dominant force in communications or will it's best days be behind it, much like Myspace and Bebo (remember them?) peaked a little over 5 years ago.

Can Facebook stay ahead of the game and continue to innovate or will it rely on a mass of patents to pay off it's debts and open an ill-fated printer division?