Semi-technical thoughts

If you own a Bluetooth A2DP headset and any kind of personal computer, good chance is you tried connecting them together. Isn't it nice to watch movies and listen to music free from cluttering wires? Well, good chance is you hated that experience and if that was the reason for buying the headset, you might've even considered throwing it away (or using it only with your phone). Why do they suck so much? Everything points to the fact that it's not a hardware problem. The same headset most likely will work flawlessly paired with an android device or even the same computer under a different operating system (windows users report huge difference between, like, 8.0 and 8.1, and not in favor of the latter, surprisingly, I think only mac users report good stuff about their macbooks and beats although I didn't try it myself so they might all be faking it :) ). And most likely it's not even the drivers or other low-level stuff, android and desktop linux has mostly the same ...

Generation 2 of Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga was announced at this year's CES with both small and big improvements. They finally added Thunderbolt 3 ports with USB-PD charging support, which makes it slightly better deal than Yoga 910 (which is still visually more pleasing to me but no thunderbolt = muh). Anyway, the best part is it's virtually the only laptop with OLED display and I love OLED. I almost immediately decided that I'm gonna buy it eventually (not right now unless something happens, my Yoga 900 is not yet outdated, probably next year or whenever they make Gen 3) provided there are no deal breakers. Then I saw its keyboard: Apart from weird Home/End position (why not make it Fn-PgUp/Fn-PgDn like everyone does? F1-F12 keys are pretty small as a result. But maybe they could be used for some hotkeys with a little xmodmap magic?..) the obvious elephant in the room is swapped Fn-Ctrl keys: seriously, who does that? I even wrote it off as a dealbreaking thing and forgo...

More than once I've written about stuff made by Big Brand manufacturers so I decided to balance things out by writing about a mostly-unknown but good things. In short, if you need something small like HDD enclosure or some cable or USB hub or a dongle of some kind, check if ORICO makes it and chances are you won't be disappointed. It's usually slightly more expensive than low-end stuff from aliexpress but, in my opinion, it's usually worth it. Disclaimer. This post is a shameless promotion of their brand although, unfortunately, nobody paid me for it or even sent me any free stuff. Guys from ORICO and not, if you read this, I'll gladly review whatever free goodies you send me :) I only do honest reviews so better make sure to send the good stuff. At this point I own a USB hub, three different 2.5" HDD enclosures, and a precision screwdriver set from them. And probably something else I don't remember. Here are the pics: USB hub in its natural habitat...

While we are on the topic of sockets and chargers. UK three-prong plug (type G) allows you to put heavier things into the socket and they will sit there securely. Also it's rated 250V/13A allowing more powerful appliances and probably safer than any other plug type  (not mentioned there that almost every socket has an off switch, as an additional safety feature, apart from all the shutters, insulation, and built-in fuses). (Photo from Wikimedia Commons) If the world ever comes to a standard AC plug type, I hope it will be either that or at least something as robust and safe. And, let's face it, the only two alternatives (EU and US plugs) are not that universal, there are dozens of variations (where to put the ground prong, how to ensure polarity, even how big the prongs themselves must be) that makes either harder to adopt as a single universal standard.

Adapter I had for charging my laptop broke yesterday. Now I need to give you a bit of a background to explain what kind of adapter that was. So, Lenovo produces lots of different laptops. And, just like all other manufacturers, they have lots of different charger connectors. With Yoga series, it was always some weird variation of USB, not a (more typical until recently) round connector. In particular, for Yoga 3 and 4 it looks like this: (Photo from Aliexpress) It's unclear why apart from making people buy their stupid chargers. You hardly can use the port for anything else when not charging (it's not even 3.0). And I mean stupid, just look at this: (Photo from Aliexpress) How can even call it a "travel" adapter is beyond understanding. If you actually travel, you have either to buy a new one for every socket type, or use a socket adapter which (considering most wall sockets are located in walls) will make this massive charger fall out every few minute...

I have posted a review of Lenovo Yoga 900-ISK awhile back in which I concluded that it's probably the ultimate choice if you need a high-end machine for running Linux. Now that it got renewed to 900-ISK2 it's no longer the case and probably nobody should buy Lenovo products if running Linux is your intention. 900-ISK2 looks really sweet on the hardware side, even faster SSD, and slightly better CPU with IRIS video card (which is probably just enough for decoding 4k HEVC video) while everything else is the same old good. Yet, a slight change in its firmware hiding the AHCI option makes it virtually unusable, locked out without possibility to change the preinstalled OS. A thread on Lenovo forums (19 pages at the time of this writing) included both a Lenovo person promising to escalate this issue with the developers and quote from some other unknown person telling that it's been done this way per agreement with Microsoft. Someone also mentioned that it's possible ...

Today a delivery person came to collect my recalled Note7. I was given a temporary replacement S6 Edge for non-determined period of time, estimated about two weeks. And it sucks for two reasons: replacement is less than ideal and it's too long a wait. So, here's my short comparison of S6 Edge with everything else while I'm biding my time. First of all, I don't like Edge's curved screen, I would've been better off with a non-edge version. Yes, I also tolerate Note7's one (I wouldn't uses as strong a word as "like" here) and it's nothing weird. Note7 feels very natural in hand with its symmetrical body, narrow bezel, and very smooth round edges (less so when using a cover but still), while Edge is way more angular and even somehow bulkier (though Note is both heavier and bigger). Wider curves make Edge UI more useful than on Note, where it requires a very precise gesture to activate, but I'm not that big a fan of those panels and stuf...

As I was saying, for half a year I was a proud S7 user and everything was well except somewhat smallish display. My wife started playing Pokemon GO seriously and S6's short battery life was quite frustrating for her. Meanwhile, Note7 was announced and I had to think hard whether I want one. Good part was that hardware is just as good as in S7 (slightly better but who cares about one more gig of RAM and stuff like that) but with bigger screen and even bigger battery. Lack of a non-curved option sounded like a deal breaker to me though, I'd never buy an S7 Edge. Yet, after carefully watching all the video reviews I decided to try it. Curves are more sloped, with larger flat surface (mainly to make S Pen usable, I guess) and symmetrical design looked cool. Fortunately, my situation is not as it used to be a couple years ago and I don't have to limit myself with only one toy per year (although this year I did indulge myself quite a bit) and S7 didn't go to waste — I gave ...

I'm very new to Samsung devices, not so long ago I was sure that expensive phones are not worth it. You have to replace them every year or two anyway, they don't provide new features to justify the price tag, cheaper devices come in better variety and you don't feel bad throwing them away if you don't like them, etc. So for a few years I used whatever cheap Chinese brick was on the market. And before that, well before that I didn't actually own a smartphone. And it was quite all right, comparing notes with friends I thought that annoying bugs and lags from time to time are universal, even if you have four CPU cores and 2 gigs of RAM, that it's mostly a software thing and Java is a bad language for mobile platform, and all that. And then, quite recently, I changed my mind about those things. Partly because my income situation changed slightly. It all started when I needed a birthday present for my lovely wife last year and S6 was out for just a couple months. I...

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have way too many fitness trackers for someone who is not a fitness person. How did this start? Fitbit Charge HR, Huawei TalkBand B3, Samsung Gear Fit 2 Well, Huawei TalkBand B2 was my first wearable device ever and I quite liked it. This week I got a new TalkBand B3 to replace the lost one and it's slightly but better than B2, it's probably the only one I'll never get rid off because it's mostly a headset for me, not a fitness device or a watch. I actually never even considered getting a dedicated fitness device. Then last year I found a Fitbit Charge HR on the beach (whoever lost it on Ta Yai, khop khun krap). And, to my surprise I liked how it works. you see, unlike most of fitness trackers, it's really useful even for occasional tracking: it measures your heart rate continuously so you get a complete data about how intense that quick stair-climbing was (it also counts floors using altimeter), it estimates calories...

Even if Samsung branches in some countries would like to keep it so*, it's no secret that some Note 7 devices have been sold with a faulty battery and can catch on fire and even explode while charging or shortly thereafter. Samsung plans to replace all the devices sold to ensure our safety even though particular procedure is not always clear (in some countries, anyway). But it will definitely take a few weeks to replace those batteries and deliver everything so what can and should you do meanwhile? First of all, if you can, simply do not use the device at all. It's definitely the safest even though I'm pretty sure Samsung would replace it for you even it's caught on fire. Just turn it off, put it into the box, and wait for replacement. Samsung will probably appreciate its unused condition when refurbishing and restocking. Second, if you still want to use it, make sure it does't overheat. Don't charge overnight, don't leave unattended while charging, do...

Despite the fact that no manufacturer ever sent me any free gadget for review, I'm continuing doing it. Maybe I'll become a popular reviewer and they will change their mind. This post will be the first in this year's wearable gadget reviews. To put it into perspective for those who don't know me, I'm not a fitness person, like at all. I eat healthy, I walk kinda a lot, I do some aerobics and occasional cardio but that's it. I'm too lazy even for jogging. But, for some reason, I currently have not one, not too, but three fitness trackers on my wrists. Yeah, crazy, I know, but that was the only way to compare them properly. By the way, wearing TalkBand on the same wrist with anything else is super inconvenient, you can hardly take it out for calls. But more on that later. Why do I need any fitness tracker? Apart from knowing time, I like to know how active I'm during the day, and, more importantly, track my sleep. I have some issues in that department so...

"In-depth" meaning that you get to see some circuits here. But we'll get to that, let's put some background first. Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated in any way with any trademark holders mentioned nor am I any kind of hardware engineer. A few months ago I bought this laptop for mainly three reasons: cutting-edge hardware for ultraportables (including 512 GiB SSD, and especially 16 GiB RAM, something that leading competitors have yet to start including — RAM is not upgradable so it's important), normal keyboard without counter-intuitive keys (very rare among ultraportables), and super-cool wristwatch hinge, used also for ventilation which means that nothing usually blows hot air to your laps). And all that for price similar to the price of competitor laptops with the same chipset/cpu (keep in mind that even slower large SSDs are still quite expensive). I've found out that it's quite quiet for something having fans at all and quite powerful. I would very ...

Ok, so I've bought a new gadget. It was long overdue because I, being a MediaPad X1 user, sometimes feel uncomfortable pulling that monster of a phone just to check the time on answer a call. Of course, Bluetooth headsets are cheap and abundant but I don't really like the idea of keeping one in my ear all the time. And having it not in the ear usually makes it pretty much unusable. Various wearable gdgets that can show time and some notifications aren't new either, and there are a lot of cheap options, but, again, there are even cheaper watches and I don't care much about fitness tracking (I don't mind it though) and notifications (reading long texts is seldom convenient on a small screen anyway). So when I heard about the new TalkBand that combines watch and wireless headset I was all interested, read reviews, became even more interested, and waited a few weeks only because of the price and availability. The price, for most people around the world it might seem a...

As some of you know, I'm a happy owner of Huawei Mediapad X1. So far it's the best 7" phablet (not counting the new Mediapad X2, obviously, which has better hardware with the same size and slightly changed buttons) but this post is not about device itself, instead I wanted to write a few words about cables, cases, screen protectors available on the market. By "market" I usually mean Aliexpress but some stuff might be available in your local stores as well. I'm not endorsing any sellers or brands, especially not original accessories, and prices are for reference only (and usually are for one piece and include shipping i.e. if you're thinking to buy a dozen of something, you might be able to find a better deal). In almost all the cases there might be cheaper options but with worse quality, seasonal deals and everything tend to change every month as new manufacturers and sellers come to market. Unlike competitors' devices in the same form factor (I...