- A Fake iPad 2 from China (0) April 11, 2012
Yesterday, the VP of my company stops by my desk and shows off the tablet that he picked up during his trip to China. I glanced at it and said, “Oh, it’s an iPad 2.” The VP said, “Yeah, I picked it up for around $180. Here, why don’t you try it out?”
Right away, I noticed something wrong with this “iPad 2.” The feel of the tablet felt rather fragile and cheap. The markings on the back of the “iPad 2″ had the Apple logo and the typical markings, except… the label said it was a 128 GB version (which doesn’t exist) and a Google Android OS copyright.
Doing some online research, this fake “iPad 2″ is actually a Grefu M97 tablet. Booting it up, I was greeted with the green Google Android robot. Once loaded, the desktop layout was reminiscent from a old version of Android. The performance was slow, and touch capacitive was extremely poor; I had to apply greater pressure than usual for it to register my actions. I was a bit cautious, as the screen was made of cheap plastic and made a slight crackle noise whenever I pressed on it. The battery life was also rather poor, as the battery only seemed to last for a few hours.
Upon checking the system settings on this fake iPad 2, it said it was running Froyo 2.2 (which is almost three years old at this point). With this $180 fake iPad 2 claiming it had 128 GB storage, I checked to see if it had any validity. Of course, that claim too was false, as it actually only had 4 GB of internal storage.
The VP asked me to see if there was any way to improve the usage experience of the fake iPad 2. As this tablet only had access to some third party app market (which barely had any usable apps) and no access to the real Google Market, rooting was the only option. Unfortunately, rooting this tablet is proving to be a bit difficult, as there is barely any information on this device to begin with. We’ll see how this goes.
UPDATE:
Shortly after I posted this, the screen on the Grefu M97 cracked, as I had feared. As the screen was made of some cheap plastic, it just couldn’t handle all the touch pressure. Let this be a lesson in why counterfeit electronics should be avoided, no matter how tempting the price is.
- nVIDIA Unveils GeForce GTX 680 (0) March 22, 2012
Today, nVIDIA has launched it’s newest high-end graphics card, the GeForce GTX 680. The GTX 680 is a replacement of the GeForce GTX 580, which was released way back in November 2010. The GTX 680 uses the new 28nm process and utilizes the new Kepler architecture, which succeeds the Fermi architecture that was found in the previous 400 and 500 series.
According to most reviews, the new GTX 680 performs well, with it generally outperforming AMD’s three-month old Radeon HD 7970 in most games within a margin of 5-25%. The GTX 680 is also very energy efficient, as the idle power usage seems to be extremely minimal, with load power consumption being less than the HD 7970 .
nVIDIA has launched the GeForce GTX 680 with an MSRP of $499.99 USD, which makes it $50 cheaper than the Radeon HD 7970. It will be interesting to see how AMD responds, as the current price for the Radeon HD 7970 now makes it a hard sell against the cheaper (and generally faster) GTX 680.
In the meantime, reviews of the new flagship nVIDIA card can be found below.
Sources:
AnandTech: NVIDIA GTX 680 Review: Retaking the Performance Crown
Hard|OCP: NVIDIA Kepler GPU GeForce GTX 680 Video Card Review
Guru3D: GeForce GTX 680 review
Tech Report: Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 680 graphics processor - Raspberry Pi Now Available at $25/$35! (0) February 29, 2012
The long-awaited Raspberry Pi (a mini ARM-based computer) is now available for purchase, after being in development for quite some time by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. For those that are not familiar with Raspberry Pi, it is a credit-card sized computer utilizing cost-effective components to create a cheap, affordable computer for $25-$35 per unit.
It has several ports such as composite VGA and HDMI for video output, USB 2.0 ports, 3.5mm audio jack, RJ45 ethernet port, and a SD/MMC/SDIO card reader for storage. There are two different units, a Model A and a Model B. Model A is priced at $35 and will feature two USB 2.0 ports and a ethernet port, while Model B is priced at $25 and will only have one USB 2.0 port and no ethernet port. It is capable of running ARM compiled distros of Linux, offering a full computing experience. It has been shown to be capable of running 1080p videos on XBMC, which makes it very suitable for use as an HTPC.
Right now, traffic on the Raspberry Pi vendors’ websites is extremely high, as there seems to be great demand for these units. Raspberry Pi is expected to be available internationally, but will be initially available in limited countries, due to limited supply. You can currently purchase the Raspberry Pi units from Premier Farnell and RS Components.
Source:
- Rooting & Flashing the Nook Color (0) February 21, 2012
The 7" Nook Color.
I recently purchased a Nook Color, an Android eReader device from Barnes & Noble. With the recent price drop on the Nook Color, it seemed like a good time to get an eReader/tablet device, as I’ve been wanting to get one for some time.
The Nook Color is a pretty solid device. For a 7″ eReader/tablet, it’s pretty sturdy and a bit heavier than expected. In terms of physical appearance, it’s no iPad 2 or Galaxy Tab, but for the price, it’s not too shabby at all. In terms of ports, the Nook Color has a headphone jack, a miniSD card bay for storage expansion, and a mini-USB port for charging.
The stock OS on the Nook Color is pretty rudimentary, as it is a fully locked down Android OS and restricted to viewing Barnes & Noble content. There is no access to the Google Android market and none of the usual Android applications are available. Not being content with locked down devices, I decided to root & flash the Nook Color to become a more “capable” device.
When the Nook Color initially came out in Q4 2010, several Android modders were able to root and hack the Nook Color, completely opening up the device to become a full-on Android tablet. The CyanogenMod team released CM7, which is based on Android 2.3.7 Gingerbread. In the last several months, they have ported over alpha builds of CM9 (based on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich) onto the Nook Color. Given the nature of these alpha builds, these builds are expected to be unstable and full of bugs, but as active development has progressed daily on CM9 for the Nook Color, things are improving.
Given my recent enthusiasm for ICS on the Galaxy Nexus, I decided to try out the latest CM9 build for the Nook Color. Thanks to the tutorials available at xda, rooting and flashing the Nook Color was extremely easy. Before getting started, you will need a miniSD card to root and flash the Nook Color. I used a 32 GB miniSD card from my old Motorola Droid phone that was recently decommissioned. I then used the following post on xda (by eyeballer) to root and flash the Nook Color.
[GUIDE] Install CM7 or CM9(!) + Clockworkmod to EMMC – ALL NOOKS!
Following eyeballer’s guide step-by-step and flashing the latest CM9 nightly build, I was able to get ICS running on the Nook Color! I am able to get full access to the Android market, install Android apps, and utilize additional hardware features that were locked out on the stock OS, such as Bluetooth support. I even installed a few games such as Angry Birds and some emulation apps such as SNESoid. Not too bad for a device that was previously restricted to Barnes & Noble content!
While it was cool to open up the Nook Color, there were definitely several bugs and performance issues, such as lack of hardware acceleration of the GUI, sluggish 3D support in games, occasional SODs (screen of death), no YouTube HD videos, etc. It was definitely no where near as smooth as ICS on the Galaxy Nexus, which was to be expected. In an effort to improve performance, I flashed the latest CM9 OpenGL-enabled build from eyeballer, as well as enabling some tweaks found here: [CM7][CM9]Speed and Smoothness Tweaks. This improved performance somewhat, making it a bit more usable.
Although buggy, CM9 is tolerable on the Nook Color and it is nice to be able to use the Nook Color for other purposes. I am still able to use the Nook Color as an eReader, thanks to apps like Alkido, Kindle for Android, and Nook for Android. I may decide to try out CM7 later on, but for now, I’ll probably stick with CM9.
UPDATE (2/21/2012): I’ve found another performance tweak that will prove useful to Nook Color users on CM9. The V6 Supercharger script (a performance script developed by zeppelinrox) is compatible with the Nook Color. mateorod over at the xda forums has created a easy step-by-step guide for implementing the script on CM9 for Nook Color users. It’s definitely worth checking out, as my Nook Color seems to be more responsive after applying the V6 script.
Sources:
xda developers – [GUIDE] Install CM7 or CM9(!) + Clockworkmod to EMMC – ALL NOOKS!
xda developers – [UNOFFICIAL][ICS][NIGHTLIES] CM9/ICS Nightly Builds
xda developers – [USER] ICS/CM9 Discussion
xda developers – [CM7][CM9]Speed and Smoothness Tweaks - Intel's Ultrabook Pop-Up Theater Promotion (0) February 17, 2012
In an effort to promote it’s Ultrabook brand, Intel recently put together a flash mob demonstrating Ultrabooks. It’s pretty cool, check it out!
The Ultrabook that they are using is the ASUS Zenbook, which is what I am currently using as my main notebook. It’s been working well ever since I got it and has suited my mobile notebook needs.
