Tech – Page 2 – Adam's Blog

October 5, 2014October 5, 2014

DirectX 12 coming to Windows 10

Unreal 4 Engine 4.4 Supports DirectX 12!

So as expected, the upcoming Windows 10 will have DX12. Technically, DX12 can make things better and smother on development side. Still not sure on the upgrade but things looking good on the gaming side. I’m waiting for more information and actual test before deciding on getting windows 10 but like I said, exiting PC gaming days are ahead of use if and only if developers started to use the full power of PC gaming instead of using the bench mark set by PS4 and Xbox One.

I’m currently building a new PC and thinking of going 64 now that 4GB is becoming standard and newer games may require more soon. Will update you all once actual testing takes place. Hoping that Microsoft starts taking PC gaming seriouse again.

October 1, 2014October 1, 2014

My thoughts on Windows 10

Microsoft surprisingly announced Windows 10 totally skipping the 9th version. Technically windows 8.1 is a stand alone windows so that could be counted as 9 but oh well. Any way, my opinion on why Microsoft made the decision to drop the 9th version name and jump straight to 10; Corporate market.

But before I get into that I would like to bring forward my two main reasons to upgrade.

Resources usage: I had XP for God knows how long before upgrading to 7 skipping Vista (Well I tested it but nothing serious). When I upgraded to 8 I noticed increased performance and smoothness in games. And since my main usage of the PC is gaming (I know I sound stupid but it is what is its) I welcomed the upgrade with open arms. Now will the same apply to Windows 10? I am yet to discover.

Compatibility: Software and games. Drivers seems to auto load and games and software that I have all supported. Nothing to complain about.

Now why did Windows 8 do so horrible or should I say not as expected on the corp side? Ignorance and touch phobia. See, Microsoft made a huge and stupid mistake of auto loading the touch interface with every restart and that scared the corps away. The problem with most corp including our own is that they fear change, especially when the current setup is working fine.

The removal of the Start button was another disaster which angered me personally for about 3 days and then I moved on with my life worrying about other stuff. Corps didn’t like that hence another reason to hate Windows 8. Another valid reasons is that some legacy software is not compatible with Windows 8. In-house software development wasn’t big on 8 and so we never moved.

Now did Microsoft do the right thing jumping to 10 to further itself away from 8 as much as possible? My answer is yes and no. Yes for the corps that know nothing but counting and 10 seems further than 9 so they might give it a chance especially that the Start button is returning. No, as hatters gonna hate. Many may see 10 slimier to 8 and skip it all together regardless.

At the end of the day, companies upgrade and will have to jump to the next thing as support ends for older windows so we will see how things play out. My concern; make it as smooth and less system demanding and I’m sold. Let me know what ya all think. Adam signing off.

September 27, 2014September 27, 2014

IOS 8.0.2 is out

Apple released an update for IOS 8 that was supposed to fix some issues, instead two new serious problems were created. Not long after, Apple released another update to fix the first update’s problems including Finger scan and mobile network problems. Now while I agree that Apple made a huge disappointment, the problem was handled fast and I can confirm that it is indeed fixed as I personally tested it on my iPhone 5S. Reports allover the web confirm the same thing as well.

I really hope that Apple take testing more seriously as another major screw u like this will send the company backwards. Never the less, this is not the first time that a big corp release a faulty update, nor will this be the last time. At least the problem was fixed quickly and everything should now be in the correct working order.

I understand the disappointment of people who do business by phone as they are effected the most but like I said, at least IOS 8.0.2 came out quickly.

September 25, 2014

Windows 9 may go 64 bit only

While I agree that 64 bit is not yet mainstream, it has to happen. Windows will eventually have to go 64 bit only as 32 bit support only up to 4 GB of ram. The unconfirmed reports suggest that windows 9 will make that switch but don’t worry, it is not yet time. I cant read the future but I do know that the current windows 8.1 requires 2 GB and not 4 so I highly doubt that the next one will suddenly require above 4 considering how windows 8 runs faster than 7 while using less resources.

Once again I do not know the future nor work at Microsoft but logic and common sense suggest that we will still get a kick out of our 32 bit hardware for about 4 years. Awaiting the official confirmation from Microsoft soon.

September 24, 2014

Why am I not getting the iPhone 6 yet

I would like to start with the fact that I am getting a new phone yearly for the past 3 years starting with iPhone 4s, Note II and iPhone 5s. Now while the phone is free, the monthly data is not cheap but considering the fact that I use the phone allot for both business and personal use I was hoping to get the iPhone 6 plus this December. Well, that was the plan until reports of the new iPhone bending in one;s pocket.

iPhone 6 owners claim it's bending in their pockets http://t.co/fwl0RCbaw6

— TIME (@TIME) September 23, 2014

Well considering that I keep the phone in my pocket most of the time, this cannot be good news. The next logical choice would be to get my always wanted HTC One.

Nothing but good things are said about the One. Knowing HTC, I am sure the phone will be a better option than Galaxy S whatever. The last option would be to hold out or cancel my plan altogether but with my high calls volume I started to question that derision. The problem is, as much as I want Apple to fix this, they probably wont and will just ignore it. Not sure about the future but I await an official response as I must make a choice by December which happens to be my birthday as well. We wait and see.

September 19, 2014

iCloud is here, but

The long overdue and awaited by apple fans, iCloud is finally useful. Problem is, you still need to jump over obstacles for full reliable use. The iCloud now accepts all kind of files and offers 5GB free. Anything more and you will need to pay; pay way more than the competition with less features. For starters, there is no stand alone client on mac, PC or even iPhone. You can only upload using the browser interface which is great but not for a serious backing up purpose. Support and possibly a stand alone app is promised in the upcoming OSX 10.10.

The prices are as follow:

Country	Currency	20 GB	200 GB	500 GB	1 TB
Australia	AUD	$1.29	$4.99	$12.99	$24.99
Canada	CAD	$0.99	$3.99	$9.99	$19.99
China	CNY	¥6	¥25	¥68	¥138
Denmark	DKK	7 kr	29 kr	69 kr	139 kr
Euro^{2, 4}	Euro	0.99 €	3.99 €	9.99 €	19.99 €
Hong Kong	HKD	HK$ 8	HK$ 28	HK$ 78	HK$ 158
Iceland^{3, 4}	USD	$1.24	$5.01	$12.54	$25.09
India	INR	Rs 60	Rs 250	Rs 600	RS 1200
Indonesia	IDR	Rp 12000	Rp 45000	Rp 119000	Rp 229000
Israel	ILS	NIS 3.50	NIS 13.90	NIS 34.90	NIS 69.90
Japan	JPY	¥100	¥400	¥1200	¥2400
Mexico	MXN	$12	$49	$129	$249
New Zealand	NZD	$1.29	$4.99	$12.99	$24.99
Norway⁴	NOK	8 kr	29 kr	79 kr	149 kr
Russia	RUB	39 p.	149 p.	379 p.	749 p.
Saudi Arabia	SAR	SR 3.69	SR 14.99	SR 36.99	SR 74.99
Singapore	SGD	S$ 1.28	S$ 4.98	S$ 12.98	S$ 24.98
South Africa⁴	ZAR	R11.99	R49.99	R119.99	R249.99
Sweden	SEK	9 kr	35 kr	89 kr	179 kr
Switzerland⁴	CHF	CHF 1	CHF 4	CHF 10	CHF 20
Taiwan	TWD	NT$ 30	NT$ 120	NT$ 300	NT$ 590
Turkey	TRY	1.99 TL	7.99 TL	19.99 TL	39.99 TL
United Arab Emirates	AED	AED 3.69	AED 14.99	AED 36.99	AED 74.99
United Kingdom	GBP	£0.79	£2.99	£6.99	£14.99
United States	USD	$0.99	$3.99	$9.99	$19.99

As you can see, getting a 1TB is allot cheaper on Dropbox, OneDrive and even Google Drive. I cant read the future but if apple wants to fulfill the late Steve Job’s wish of killing dropbox then they will need to do something more, way more and at affordable prices considering the cloud war is raging. Let me know what you all think.

September 16, 2014

Why I switched to OneDrive

As a long time Dropbox user, the switch was hard and not even on my radar until I found out about the new Microsoft offer. While Dropbox’s 1TB for $10 was a good move, that only gets you an amazing sync tool with 1TB of online backup storage. Microsoft on the other hand offers the same space along with a few important extras:

1 year subscription includes the latest full Microsoft Office applications1
Share your subscription with up to four members of your household4
Office on 5 PCs or Macs plus five iPads or Windows tablets3
Easily access your docs with Office Mobile apps for iPhones, Android, and Windows phones
1TB OneDrive storage per user, for up to 5 users
Call phones in over 60 countries with 60 minutes of Skype calls per month2

A great offer indeed considering I am a heavy office user. A free 60 minute skype credit is a great bonus for the people that can use it, too bad Ukraine is not supported.

My experience so far

Upon syncing all my camera roll, I only got 1 error which was fixed by re syncing. The web interface looks good and works good. Not sure if my work PC or auto refresh is not working but everything seems fine.

I will be testing Office once I am home and the 5 PCs share option is great considering I have 2 and my brother can use one as well.

There are a few privacy conference as Microsoft might be monitoring for porn and other unacceptable materials but I have nothing to hide so no worries here. Will also start using OneNote as its part of the package. Great deal, well done Microsoft.

August 30, 2014August 30, 2014

New more powerful 3DS is coming this October

3ds

Neoseeker just reported that a new more powerful 3DS with extra Ram and better CPU is coming this October in japan. A new small analog stick is also added on the right above the buttons. With this news comes two important questions; A. Will this be available outside japan? B. Will developers take note of the extra power?

The 3DS is no PC so introducing new, more powerful version will force developers to readjust or configure future game plans. So far Xenoblade Chronicles upgraded version will only work on this and not any other 3DS. I just hope that future games will not be divided between the new and old hardware. Upgrades are always welcomed provided they are done right and to be honest, a 3DS could use some upgrade. Didn’t expect this news at all so lets hope Nintendo brings this outside japan.

July 30, 2014

Using Firefox for one week: the results are in

As agreed, I made a promise of using Firefox for 1 week to test the web browser after all the years spent on Google Chrome and the results are in.

SPEED

No noticeable speed difference although some sites lagged and crashed a few times namely Facebook. Things got better after using it non stop and the lag went away.

Extensions

Same stuff as Google Chrome’s although I started to see ads on my own blog and the ad block plus asked me to remove it. Strange indeed. The Evernote web clipper is more polished on Chrome but that’s about it as far as my testing went.

Themes

One thing Chrome lakes is a theme. Although there are many themes available, non compares to Firefox.

Conclusion

Truth be told, I like Firefox more now although I cant say I will be switching back or no but one thing is for sure: I will be using both back and fourth, Testing different stuff is always good.

Will update with the new versions as they come.

July 28, 2014

New favorite addon discovered

So how is everyone? Been little busy progressing in Resident Evil 6 and yes, still on Chris’s story. Anyway, while surfing the interwebs I finally decided to try Evernote Clearly. If you don’t know what Evernote is, I suggest heading to the official site and start using it.

I’m surprised it took me this long to try it out as I am a heavy evernote user for storing my documents and important work related stuff.

Not only dose it clean the blog posts on destructive websites like LifeHacker, it can also save it to read later on your main Evernote note. Go ahead and try it.