Here’s my review of the very overrated ASUS Transformer TA100TAF “2 in 1 PC” that I tried to send to Microsoft Store’s website but was moderated (to hide the ugly truth??? ):
The cracked screen of the ASUS Transformer TA100TAF
The title of my review was: ” Warning: The screen is very easy to crack.”
“Bought my unit at MS Store in SFO 12/11/14 for $199 plus tax during the Christmas sale. Used it about 3-5 times until the unit just won’t start on 1/20/15. Looks like it has power issues related to BIOS. Called ASUS for support since the MS 30-day return policy expired. Got an RMA# from ASUS since the tech person can’t resolve the issue by phone. Shipped my almost-new unit to ASUS RMA (Milpitas, CA) but they returned the unit back to me (nothing was done) since according to ASUS RMA, they received the unit with a damaged screen & that they attached pictures when they received it damaged. However, there were no pictures on the returned package. Assuming, it was damaged during the transit, and ASUS was not really at fault, it was within the one-year hardware warranty & they could have fixed the non-power-up issue even with a cracked screen. Nothing was done by ASUS. They simply returned it back – unrepaired nor replaced. Note I had the unit for only a total of 40 days and it had already power issues. My saga with this unit did not end there. I ordered a replacement screen at eBay (about $25) and tried to replace the cracked screen myself. It was in this process that I discovered that the screen is very flimsy. The screen is made of very cheap plastic and not the “Gorilla Glass” variety. Don’t flex the replacement screen (the replacement one that I bought also had the “ASUS” logo) or your tablet — not even a bit as it would definitely crack. Disgusted with how cheap the screen is, I decided to just take my loss and dump the entire unit in the garbage bin where it belonged. Then I went to the nearest bulk retail store in our area where they had the Acer Switch 10 on sale and bought one. That unit has a “Gorilla Glass 3″ screen and is well, well made than the ASUS cheapo that I just threw away. Never an ASUS again.”
In my 38 years of buying tech products, this was a first. I had only used it for maybe a total of about 15 hours and was in my possession for a mere 40 days and it went from store to the dumpster.
The reason why I threw the unit away was that after I had replaced the screen with a new one, it cracked again in the process of re-assembly. The screen is just too flimsy and too brittle. You will spend a lot of time in the disassembly process only to go back to square one of the problem.
Also, since ASUS’ RMA Dept. did not even bother to check and fix the non-power-up issues of the unit (which was very much under their 1-year warranty), how can I be sure that I will not have those issues even if I had a brand-new screen?
Where are the pictures (as proof that they received the product already damaged in their RMA Dept) that ASUS told me in their accompanying letter when they returned the unit to me?
New replacement screen before installation
So, the reason for this blog is to let other prospective buyers of the ASUS Transformer TA100TAF be reminded of my experience and look for something better.
CONCLUSION: A very poor quality product backed up by very lousy customer support.
On May 4, 2013, I purchased via hp.com an HP Pavilion 23xi 23″ IPS LED widescreen monitor for use with my new 2013 Mac mini. The purchase of the monitor was hassle-free. Ordered it online, and I received the order confirmation almost instantaneously. Bravo!
Two days later, May 6, 2013, I received the ‘shipping notification’ that the unit had shipped via FedEx together with a tracking number and, finally, four days later, May 10, 2013, the monitor arrived at my doorsteps.
I did not waste time and put the monitor into action. I hooked up the very sleek 23″ monitor to my Mac mini using the HDMI-to-DVI adapter included in the Apple package.
The HP 23xi monitor has 3 types of video connectors: HDMI, DVI-D, and VGA as well as an external power adapter to compensate for its thin, sleek design and very light overall weight.
The monitor performed flawlessly until late December 2013 when I noticed that the right portion that spanned about a quarter of the screen’s area, had turned red with a corresponding alteration in resolution in the affected areas although I had been using a predominantly white desktop background. Not a good sign.
HP founders must be turning in their graves if they knew how lousy HP Customer Support is these days
The tech in me did the basic checks: a). Turned it off, waited a few seconds, then turned it back on. The red tint was still there. b). Disconnected the power adapter connector at the back, waited a few seconds, reconnected, and then powered it back on. The red tint was still there. And, to add more damage, there was a very noticeable ‘image-ghosting’ of a window that I previously opened in the same area where the red tint was. c). I tried the monitor on a different computer – a Windows 7 Pro PC – that I use side-by-side with the Mac mini but the red tint, altered resolution & image ghosting had remained.
Thinking that the problem will eventually go away, I continued using the monitor for a few more weeks. However, by late January of this year, after I had turned on or woke my Mac mini from its ‘sleep mode’, the red tint, altered resolution, and ‘image ghosting’ problems persisted on the monitor — exactly in the same areas when I first noticed it.
After I had verified my invoice that my 23″ monitor is still under HP’s limited, one-year warranty, I decided to purchase an “HP 2 Year Next Day Exchange Service for Consumer Monitors” Care Packon January 27, 2014, through hp.com, so that I can have the replacement as soon as possible.
HP’s web site specifically mentioned that “while your HP product is still under the original standard warranty, you can purchase an HP Care Pack to extend the warranty of your HP product for another 1 or 2 more years by purchasing the 2-year or 3-year Care Pack respectively.”
My HP Customer Support “horror story” began two days after I purchased the 2 Year Service Care Pack. After I ordered, as with all online merchants, you get an ‘e-mail confirmation’ after your payment had been verified. A few minutes later after I finalized my order, the confirmation arrives in my e-mail’s inbox: ” HP Direct Orders – Order Confirmation 4xxxxx4.”
Two days later, on Jan 29, 2014, I decided to call HP’s Customer Order Support telephone number to ask them about the status of my order. After I had provided the HP customer support person on the other line with all the details of the order, he told me that “for my HP Care Pack order, there was no physical product.” And that It just needed to be registered and HP would provide me with a serial number for the Care Pack for the monitor that I was registering the care pack for.
Huh??? Hello, HP ??? Why did you not inform me about that in the Order Confirmation e-mail???
Besides, this was not my first time to buy an HP Care Pack for a monitor. In November 2010, I purchased a 27″ HP 2710m Widescreen monitor and an HP Care Pack for it but both items arrived at my doorsteps. There was a booklet with a serial number for the Care Pack. It was a ‘physical’ item.
Anyway, the first HP support person I talked to on the phone routed my call to another HP department that was supposed to give a serial number for the Care Pack. After about 15 to 20 minutes on the phone with yet another HP customer support person and had provided her with all the details of my purchase, our conversation ended like this:
HP support person: ” So, what’s the serial # of the care pack?”
Me: ” I don’t have a serial # and that’s the main reason why I was transferred to your department. To get a serial # for the care pack!”
Total number of cell phone air time I wasted on the calls on Jan. 29 — about 45 minutes.
Frustrated, I gave it a rest and decided to call HP Customer Order Support the following day or I might die of emotional distress just for a monitor. I cooked something good for dinner instead.
I finished my breakfast early January 30, 2014, and called the same HP Customer Order Support phone again and this time around, I got luckier.
My initial call that day to HP Customer Order Support lasted about 5 to 6 minutes and I got the serial number for the Care Pack as well as yet another HP Support phone number.
Now I can register the Care Pack’s serial number with the HP monitor that I was looking forward to getting a replacement. The day looked very promising. Nice. Or, so I thought.
Frustration, confusion, and dismay followed immediately after I placed the next call. I was informed that the Care Pack I purchased was ” from HP’s Small Business Unit” while the monitor I was trying to validate/use it for was purchased from “HP’s Consumer Products Unit.“
What #$%??? Say that again, HP???
The Care Pack I purchased on Jan. 27, 2014, was HP item # 234473 and the Item Description on the invoice was ” HP 2 Yr Nbd Exch Consumer Monitor Service Pack.”
The keyword is: “Consumer.” Given that I purchased it online from HP’s Small Business Unit, aren’t all HP’s products the same??? Consumer, Business, Enterprise, whatever, aren’t HP’s item # all the same???
Why can’t HP simply validate their damn Care Packs after I had even emailed them the invoice?
Total number of cell phone air time I wasted on the calls on Jan. 30, 2014 — about 40 minutes.
Before frustration and regret become my theme for the day, I thoroughly checked out HP’s various web sites on how to get an immediate replacement for the defective monitor.
So I tried filling out a form on HP’s “Technical support after you buy” located under “Email HP” at http://www.hp.com/go/assistance where you’ll have to choose your location and then enter your HP product number and you’ll be redirected to a page where you’ll need to enter your product’s serial # and product # again to verify the warranty.
If your product is still under warranty, you’ll be directed to another page where you can put in all the details of the problems of your HP product as well as a bunch of personal information. Don’t get frustrated if sometimes you get error messages after you clicked the “Submit” button.
For a company as big as HP and you get a lot of error messages on their numerous web sites, then, something’s really wrong about this company. They make all those servers and various networking equipments and all those modern technology and yet their web sites can’t even operate properly???? I was so dismayed that HP had gone this low.
On the other side of the coin, my frustration with HP’s Customer Support reminded me of why great companies like Amazon.com come to be.
I had ordered, returned, or exchanged lots and lots of items from Amazon.com since I became a full-time member in 2009 – in early 2012, I opted for their “Prime” membership – yet I never had used the phone to talk to an Amazon customer service person for any issue about an order.
Their e-mail system as well as all of their websites are just so reliable and efficient.
If Amazon.com is very, very efficient and handles customer service almost to a-T yet sells way more products than HP, why is the latter’s customer service so horrible?
Management is the answer.
Amazon’s Jeff Bezo’s clearly has the customers in his mind while HP’s management are thinking only about their pockets.
HP had cycled through six different CEOs in the span of ten years but the company’s downward spiral continues.
EPILOGUE: Did I finally get a replacement for my still-under-warranty HP monitor for which I even purchased an HP Care Pack?
Not yet. It’s been 6 days since I ordered the HP Care Pack and I’m on day #4 and still trying to sort out the maze of HP’s various 800 numbers just to talk to the correct department.
Feb. 03, 2014, I missed answering a call from a so-called, ‘HP Case Manager‘ who sent me an e-mail anyway that informed me that I can reply to his e-mail directly so that he can try to sort out my problems.
And so I replied to his e-mail three (3) times and attached all pertinent invoices & e-mails to explain my whole confusion & regrets about their entire customer support department.
He never even bothered to answer any of my e-mails neither did he try to call me again.
How’s that for customer support from an HP Support case manager, huh???
The entire process had left me dazed and confused and wondered why I had even bothered to purchase a product made by HP.
I now got this feeling that when an HP product goes bust while still under warranty, you must brace yourself for the agony and frustration that lurk beyond their entire customer support department.
By the way, HP is the same company started by Bill Hewlett and David Packard.
These iconic folks must be turning in their graves & wondering what happened to their great customer service and support when they were still running the show.
Jan. 2020 update:
The HP monitor did not last long either. Sometime in Aug 2019, the unit would sporadically overheat and render it unusable.
I replaced it with my old, stand-by monitor (Acer P244w – 24 inch LCD with DVI & VGA ports – no HDMI).
Amazingly, the Acer monitor -which I had purchased all the way back in 2005- not only looks good compared with today’s newer monitors but also works very well.
When my Mac Pro server’s HD crashed – and messed up my Movable Type database in the process – in 2012, I decided to get myself a backup server and that it was also time to take a closer look at WordPress and their claim to the famous “5-Minute Installation.”
WordPress, Movable Type (then owned by TypePad), Drupal, Blogger & others were at the forefront of the ‘blogging boom’ of the early 2000s. Virtually all were very hard to install & configure on either the PC or Mac platform. I had my luck with Movable Type in mid-2004.
I had been running Movable Type side-by-side on my main website (Kupitero’s Keep) on my web servers until my Mac Pro crashed in mid-2012 — which prevented me from putting up new blog posts since the database was messed-up real bad.
English: The logo of the blogging software WordPress. Deutsch: WordPress Logo 中文: WordPress Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
So on my shiny-new Mac Mini (with Intel’s quad-core Core i7 processor & 1TB HDD), I loaded Apple’s new OS, ‘Mavericks’ (aka 10.9.x). Note that this is just the standard version of Mavericks and not the server version for which Apple wanted me to shell out another $20 via their very lucrative App Store.
I decided to pass on the server edition & bought some all-meat Round Table pizza instead to keep me nourished for the hours of coding ahead. I had already enriched Steve and his cronies since he was still alive, and the reviews for the server version were not so good,
In the standard version of OS X 10.9.x (Mavericks), some of the tools to run your web server and blog are still there: Apache (the HTTP server), PHP (the scripting language) & FTP (the file transfer protocol). Although in Mavericks, Apple removed the way Apache & FTP were turned on/off easily via the System Preferences (under Sharing).
You can turn Apache & FTP on/off using the Terminal. This utility has been in Macs since 1984 to access some of the hidden features of the operating system).
To turn on Apache & FTP, respectively, via the Terminal, issue these commands (after you see the yourcomputername:~ yourusername$ prompt and take note that it might ask you for your password before it executes the command :
Those commands will enable Apache (to host your web server) and load FTP to allow the file transfer server in Mavericks.
To run WordPress – as was with Movable Type – under Mavericks (OS X 10.9.x), you will also need to enable PHP and install MySQL, the popular open-source database.
PHP is already installed in Mavericks, although you must enable it by uncommenting a line in the httpd.conf file. To do this, launch Terminal again and type the command below at the prompt. Please note that it might ask you for your password.
sudo nano /etc/apache2/httpd.conf
Once in the file, use the keys “control” + “W” to search for ‘php,’ and this will lead you directly to the line and uncomment by removing the # before the line:
LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so
Make sure to ‘Write Out’ (control + o) & save (just press return) & exit (control + x) from the file. Then restart Apache once again for the change to load:
sudo apachectl restart
Now that most of the requirements included in Mavericks are all in place, we need to download and install the MySQL database (use the Mac OS X ver. 10.7 (x86, -64-bit), DMG Archive – this is MySQL version 5.6.15) at:
http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql
OK, I’ll end the ‘requirements portion’of this post and explain the reasons why I decided not to use any third-party application like MAMP (or MAMP Pro), AMMPS, XAMPP, Bitnami, or whatever are available out there if you would like to install WordPress on your Mac.
The main reason: These 3rd-party apps are helpful only if you have the WordPress blog as your only website on your personal Mac web server, whether at home, school, or location of choice.
What if, just like me, you would like to have your main website developed using another application like Sandvox, Goldfish, RapidWeaver, or iWeb? And, have a separate installation of the latest version of WordPress (v 3.8) to complement your main website on the same Mac web server?
I found out that using the 3rd-party apps made it harder for me to work around the default or alternative port settings and the location of the files for my main website and WordPress.
For example, when I was trying out XAMPP, the choices for locating your ‘Websites’ were either:
/Applications/XAMPP/htdocs/
You can access it at http://localhost/
or,
Put your Websites in the Sites folder in your Home folder
And you can access it at http://localhost/~yourusername/
Sadly, in Mavericks, Apple removed the Sites folder when you go to the Home folder. So you will need to create this Site folder & give root permission.
And I have been so used to placing my main website files since OS X 10.0.x (aka Cheetah) in this location:
/Library/Webserver/Documents
When I tried out MAMP, the main issue I encountered concerned the Ports needed for Apache & MySQL (defaults are 80 & 3306, respectively, while MAMP put them at 8888 & 8889, respectively).
I had a hard time sorting their instructions out when I was trying to install & operate, essentially, two websites (my primary website and WordPress for my blogs) on the same web server.
I tried AMPPS, too. But, just the same, the seemingly ease of use of the application drove me nuts when I was trying to figure out the ports setting & files location within AMPPS, my Mac mini & well, yes, also my router.
So, in the end, I resorted to the basic knowledge I had when I started using Power Macs to host my website and blogs on my web server in 2004.
It took me about two days, lots of coffee, soup, ice cream, and patience to get both the main website & WordPress blogs hosted in the Mac mini.
English: Backside of a Power Mac G5 (left) and a Mac Pro (right) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We were out when the crash happened.
There was a brief power outage in our area while we’re away & saw the usual signs: flashing timer lights in our oven, audio amplifier, coffee maker and the Mac Pro server was off.
The Power Macs had been hosting my website since 2004 as well as a Movable Type blog that I included in my “Kupitero’s Keep“ website (as an ‘offsite page’) in late 2004 (I started with MT version 3.121) .
I started hosting my website in 2004 using a Power Mac G4 (with OS X 10.3.x aka Panther) and upgraded to a Power Mac G5 (running OS X 10.5.x aka Leopard) in late 2006.
After I had saved enough money, in January 2010, I upgraded to a MacPro Dual Quad since the latest incarnation of OS X during those days – yes, until today – only supported Intel processors. And, that was the server I was using when the power outage happened.
I powered the server back on – no problems with the hardware – but the OS just won’t load. Uh-oh, here comes the hard part.
I worked frantically the rest of the day & managed to load the OS from the Time Machine backup I had. Great.
Everything seemed back to normal until I tried to make a new blog post in Movable Type that fateful day in 2012. There were errors here and there. The Movable Type installation was busted and the related MySQL database & PHP scripts were all messed up.
I was able to restore the database and the Movable Type installation several weeks later but there was still a minor problem with one plug-in: Image::Magick.
And, that was the day I decided to do the following:
Buy a UPS (uninterruptible power supply)
Have a backup for the server – I got a Mac Mini (quad-core Intel Core i7)
Move my blog from Movable Type to WordPress
Revamp my website so that it will be more accessible to the latest and greatest browsers found on phones, tablets, and computers.
I accomplished all these until early December of this year with the exception of the 3rd one on the list above: porting my blog from MT to WordPress.
On Valentine’s Day of 2010, immediately after I ported my blogs from Movable Type v. 3.38 to v. 4.33, I made an entry that documented my key observations during the entire transition process.
Although optional – but it will make your main blog page livelier – one of the most difficult tasks was how to insert an image on the main style sheet.
I even wrote on that very same blog that I will try to make another entry on how I managed to do it.
Well, life goes on and people forget but here it is anyway.
However, after looking back at the entire process, it was really simple.
The simplicity was emphasized after I re-coded my main website to render it in the HTML5/CSS3 version.
So, here’s how I did it (note: your MT blog must be up & running already) on my MT 4.xx blog site, so just change the URL, the image size, position & alignment on your own blogs:
—-start tutorial—-
On the server hosting your MT blogs, go to–>mt-static–>support–>themes folder.
Depending on your blog theme, you will see the folder of the one you used. In my case, it was minimalist-light-green
Open that theme folder and you find the exact .css file that you’re using. Again, mine was minimalist-light-green.css.
Open that .css file, go to the /* Header————————-*/ section and add these lines:
#header-content {
width: 925px;
margin: 25 px 50px 26px 15px;
background: url (“enter your website link here“) no-repeat bottom right;
padding-right: 1px
padding-left: 0 px
}
—-end tutorial—-
Note that the key entry line is the background: url since it is where your image is to be looked-up by your main style sheet.
That was easy, wasn’t it?
The hard part in Movable Type is just in what folder where to look for the right .css file to insert and edit your image since there are so many files and folders after the installation of the software.
Hope this helps all MT users who like to put up an image within the style sheet !!!
On February 9 of this year, I bought a remote-controlled micro helicopter, the Syma 107G, for $17 at a discount store near our house in one of the cities comprising the East Bay of California.
I had so much fun flying this 7-1/4 inch long toy which I had mastered in just a few minutes. And this was when my obsession began. I ventured into aerodynamics, physics, chemistry, and microelectronics. And countless Google searches.
To start with, I had a brief fling with R/C back in 1982 when I was a contract worker in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. To kill my boredom, I bought the glow-powered Cox Cessna Centurion set, the radio system (made by Sanwa of Japan for Cox), and the maintenance kit, all for about $300.
Cox Cessna R/C trainer kit
I had memorable days flying this molded-foam glider (powered by the Cox 0.049 ORC engine) in the deserts of Saudi Arabia, especially when the wind was almost at a stand-still during the hottest months.
Fast-forward to 2004. The guy I purchased an Apple PowerMac G4 from somewhere in Lodi, CA, just gave me all his truck R/C stuff, including all accessories & transmitters – – for free!
As a concession to his generous gesture, I bought his still-in-the-box HobbyZone Firebird Commander ready-to-fly (RTF) R/C plane for $30. He informed me that he only flew it once and crash-landed without damage. The set also included a brand-new, molded-foam wing – as spare – for this beginner’s R/C glider.
I played with the R/C truck – powered by a ROAR-approved, 4000Kv brushless motor that ran on Dyna-Sport 1700 mAh NiCd batteries – for a few days with my niece and just got bored with a land-based R/C afterward.
The beauty of R/C airplanes & helis – let alone flying a kite – as a hobby is that it seems you’re also trying to control your destiny. Nothing can compare to the feeling you get when you have that plane or heli up in the air and that you’re now using your skills to command it to the direction you want it to go. It’s simply exhilarating!
After getting my feet wet again in R/C with the Syma 107G heli, I bought E-Flite’s RTF Blade 450 3D. The set came with Spektrum’s DX6i transmitter – a popular 2.4GHz, 6-channel programmable radio. It is compatible with newer R/Cs using six (6) channels or less) – with the glorious thought that I could quickly fly it outside my backyard.
I was wrong; that was lesson #1: The Syma 107G is co-axial while the Blade 450 is a collective pitch helicopter.
A collective pitch heli has a single set (if you consider a pair of blades to make one straight helicopter blade) of non-curved rotor blades. Changing the blades’ angles by tilting them along the longitudinal axis lifts the heli. Hence, the altitude is governed by how much pitch you apply to the rotor blades while in flight.
A co-axial helicopter is the easiest to fly since it has two sets of rotor blades that spin in opposing directions. Hence, the torque generated by the spinning blades cancels each other out, resulting in a very stable helicopter.
But, all this type of heli can do is hover up & down, move forward & backward, and forward flight is generally on lower altitudes. You can’t bank the heli as it makes a turn.
My attempts – both inside & outside the house to hover my Blade 450 3D a few feet in the air resulted in costly trips to several hobby stores – to replace damaged rotor blades, main gear, and just about all the small parts above the swashplate.
Frustrated and humbled, I Googled to find out what would be the easiest way to fly a collective pitch heli without having to learn the technical details – I just wanted to get one up in the air & control it!
I was so wrong again, and this was my lesson #2: You can’t learn to fly a collective pitch R/C helis unless you’re willing to learn & understand the underlying science and art of the hobby.
During my continuing education, I also purchased John Salt’s e-book “Setup & Tips For Electric Collective Pitch RC Helicopters.” I tried as best I could to understand all the new terminologies and jargon in this now getting-to-be-complex-and-expensive hobby.
So on February 23, I purchased the E-Flite Blade SR (RTF) – there is no BNF (Bind and Fly) version – plus an assortment of extra parts at a HobbyTown branch in Vacaville.
Learning from my Blade 450-3D fiasco, I also ordered the Phoenix RC Flight Simulator V3 from Amazon to hone my flying skills on a computer screen before I even attempted to hover the new Blade SR.
E-Flite’s Blade SR
Wrong again, and that was lesson #3: A simulator can help you learn how to control your transmitter and pilot your model heli. But, in the real world, no flight simulator can genuinely recreate the environment you’re flying your model R/C.
And so, just as I had with the Blade 450, my dream of simply hovering a collective pitch with my new Blade SR (which E-Flite touted as “the heli to make your transition to a collective pitch as smooth as possible“) ended with “shattered results” also.
I broke the wooden 325 mm rotor blades, bell mixer & pushrods and almost broke my right middle finger when I tried to stop the erratic heli while spooling it up.
Back to the drawing board, I assumed I was trying to fly a big-sized CP heli too fast.
So, why not try a small collective pitch heli – so I can even try practicing with it inside the comforts of the house?
And so, on March 3, I went to a discount hobby shop – Low Price Hobbies – in Newark, CA, and purchased the E-Flite Blade mCP X2 (BNF version), plus an assortment of spares for the Blade SR.
I also bought an aluminum case for my Blade 450 3D. I knew it would take some time to fly this bird, so I wanted it protected from the elements.
The Blade mCP X2 is a small collective pitch heli that measures about 9.5 inches in length. It is also flybarless, so it only weighs about 46 grams.
Another R/C heli in the collection – — Blade mCP X2
A typical collective pitch heli comes with a mix of the Bell & Hiller rotor heads, which has a flybar. It is oriented 90-degree to the main rotors. The flybar helps stabilize the heli by changing the pitch angles of the main rotors in gusty wind conditions.
By removing the flybar and placing all the servos in a single system board, E-Flite made the mCP X2 very light.
And so, was I successful in, at least, hovering this ultra-micro collective pitch heli?
Yes, I was, but the duration of all my attempts never even lasted a full minute.
It takes a finely tuned transmitter –pitch & throttle curve and all other crucial transmitter settings – plus a very steady hand to deftly guide a CP heli.
What separates the Blackberry PlayBook from Apple’s iPad and other Android-based tablets?
The answer lies in the operating system.
The PlayBook runs on QNX which is a true micro kernel operating system.
Apple’s iPad runs on iOS which was derived from its core Mac OS X. OS X was basically Darwin – an open-source, POSIX-compliant OS which was derived from the Steve Job’s founded NEXTStep OS (which Apple bought in 1997), BSD and other free software projects. These are mostly UNIX-based derivatives.
Google’s Android is basically Linux – another UNIX variant – plus a lot of free-Java implemented codes. Google basically patched-up the Android OS which they bought in 2005.
It’s interesting to note that UNIX, as well as most of Microsoft’s OSes like Windows, NT as well as the OS/2, have huge core OS codes. And this is what slows them down.
Hardware makers tried to compensate for these monolithic OSes by using faster processors.
However, faster processors had been a bane on the battery life of these portable devices.
Remember the battery issue with Apple’s iPhone 4GS? Apple issued a software patch.
The QNX OS on Blackberry PlayBook is what makes the device run so fast compared to the iPad and any other Android-based tablet.
QNX is a true micro kernel implementation of an operating system. It’s so ideal for embedded platforms.
QNX is not new either. It has been around since the early 80s. The last gadget I had messed with that runs on QNX was the very ambitious Netpliance device released in 1999. See post on my old version of my web site here.
Given that all hardware components inside the guts most tablets are sourced from the same suppliers. And, given that some designs may be better than others, it’s always the OS that run the hardware that makes the most magic.
And so, I thought my 16GB Blackberry PlayBook – which I had scored for $199 during their November 2011 sale – will be relegated to the junk bin in my closet after only a few weeks of use.
I was wrong.
No, no, no. Hands down, it’s way much better than Apple’s iPad or any other Android-based tablet out there in the market today.
Now, I intend to get a second one – the 32GB this time while it’s still on sale.
And, I’ll say it again.
Some companies, no matter how good their products are, don’t always serve the best interest of their customers.
Cape Verdean –Cape Verde is a string of islands off the coastline of West Africa and a former Portuguese colony– songstress, Cesaria Evora passed away last Dec 18, 2011.
Since most of her songs were rendered in Portuguese, I thought – when I first heard her music -that she was Brasilian. My mistake only proved, once more, the universality of music as a medium.
Most of my late afternoon to early evening music listening hours were punctuated by her songs which seem to always have a sense of longing for something we can’t have in this materialistic world we, unfortunately, live in.
At least, for me, she was the female counterpart of Milton Nascimento.
My deep respect goes to all world music persona who always seem to find a way to soothe away the pains and worries of plain mortals like us…of the difficulties of living in this world.
One of my favorite songs is “Crepuscular Solidao” which is literally translated in English as ” solitude in twilight”.
And the last few lines of the track goes something like….
“There are people, too many people
Who suffer from loneliness
There are people, too many people
Who are almost dying, by the fading twilight
By the fading twilight, by the fading twilight”
I had to get home early after our Thanksgiving party in Fremont so that I can get to bed early.
By 10:00 pm, after watching a streaming video – “Bride Flight” – via Netflix, I dozed-off and dreamed about the gadgets I planned to buy for this year’s Black Friday sale, version 2.011.
On top of my list was Roku’s HD-XS video streaming pod. The only other gizmo on my list was Blackberry’s Playbook tablet.
Roku 2 XS box (Photo credit: rushaw)
These two were by painstakingly culled from the numerous gadgets that were playing tricks on my head as Nov. 25 slowly crept in. My reasons were as follows:
For the Roku HD-XS, I plan to give it as a Christmas present. Two BFs ago, they had a similar sale for their then, top-of-the-line, Roku HD-XR at half ($65) their selling price of $130.
The choice of the Blackberry Playbook was one that was arrived at after days of careful research and thoughtful considerations.
Did I get both?
And so, my biological clock roused me up at 5:30 am. Made and poured me 3 cupfuls of coffee unto my thermos and by 5:50 am, I was already at the front door of the nearest Office Depot store.
At the door, the sales person handed me a piece of paper which served as my ticket to get my Blackberry Playbook 16GB at the limited-time offer price of $200.
Blackberry originally sold their 16GB version of the Playbook for $500. After Amazon began shipping their “Fire” tablet last Nov 15 for $200, Blackberry joined the tablet price-cut fray by offering their Playbooks $300 less out of your wallets. This offer is good until Dec. 3, 2011 only.
But, I want my Playbook now and so after taxes ($17.50) & the CA recycling fee ($6), my new BF toy set me back at $223.50.
By 6:45 am, I was already back at home.
Got another cup of coffee & checked out Roku’s website.
There was a Roku HD-XS deal but it was not the similar deal they had back in 2009.
You have to buy two HD-XS boxes just to get a $40 discount.
And – this was the part that really turned me off – you have to kiss their ass via Facebook.
English: President Woodrow Wilson addresses the United States Congress early in his first term. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
A once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, 11/11/2011 had been deemed by the Chinese as the luckiest day to get married. For them, it’s the best day to leave the single life behind.
In the U.S., 11/11 is Veteran’s Day – a national holiday. It was President Woodrow Wilson who proclaimed this holiday on November 12, 1919 to celebrate the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I.
It’s merely coincidental that holiday is on its 92nd year of celebration in 2011. The sum of 9 and 2 also yields 11.
For this author, 11/11/11 is the luckiest day in his lifetime. He gets all the 11s and a 6.
This author salutes all the war veterans – as well as all the newly weds – on this special, once-in-a-lifetime date!!!
