New tablet Samsung Tab S2 8
Windows 10
Well I have had 2 days with Windows 10 on my laptop. The upgrade process was painless I’m not quite sure how long it took as I set it going and then went about things. All my installed software is working and I haven’t lost any files, no back for me.
I only had one issue the gestures on my trackpad did not work properly after upgrading to Windows 10. In particular using two fingers to scroll screens didn’t work in any application. I didn’t realise how used to this feature that I had become. A quick check online revealed that this had been an issue with Lenovo laptops. I downloaded the Synaptics driver from Lenovo which seemed to be the same version installed by Windows 10 but it fixed the problem.
Everything appears to be working fine including Pinnacle Studio which in the past has given trouble with upgrades to Windows.
Not sure about the new Internet Explorer replacement seems ok but my preference is Chrome. The start menu is probably a welcome return for Windows 10. I had become used to the Start page in Windows 8.1 so not a deal breaker for me.
Android 5.02 woes
Upgraded to the much hyped Android 5.02 Lollipop. So far my experience sucks. I waited patiently for the OTA version hoping that the initial bugs would be gone.
My tablet a Nexus 7 2012 with sim card capacity runs as though it is full of glue. It slows down progressively to the point where the only solution is an irritating reboot. I have deleted unused apps. Taken away the live wallpaper and so on.
I even tweeted about with the has hashtag #LollipopUpdate. Got a fairly quick response from @googlenexus. Their recommendation was to restart in safe mode. Did that and the tablet seemed to spring into life. Now I have to determine which apps are causing the hassle. I only install apps from the google play store. Haven’t noticed any warnings about compatibility with Lollipop.
Despite my rant I have managed to type all of this on the tablet whilst using a hotspot from my iPhone.
Jawbone Woes
I was given a Jawbone Up in February this year mostly to monitor my steps. My job has me sitting in front of a desk the jawbone keeps track and I have been averaging over 10,000 steps each week. It also tracks sleep and has an alarm. After about six months it simply stopped working. The Jawbone website was full of helpful things to do but in the end I had contact Jawbone. They were helpful and the faulty Jawbone was swapped over where it was bought on the spot. Three months later the second Jawbone up started playing up. The problem this time was related to the outer covering which seemed to be stretching. This interfered with the button thus making switching modes very difficult. At the other end of the band the stretched cover making recharging the device almost impossible.
I went back to the place of purchase expecting another changeover. After some discussion I was offered a Fitbit Charge as a replacement. Interesting that they offer a rival brand as replacement.
So I have had to abandon all my accumulated data with Jawbone and start again with Fitbit. The battery life isn’t as good as the Jawbone. On the plus side the band syncs via bluetooth and has a displays.
Time will tell if this is better. This is really a 21st Century First World problem
Nexus 7 not charging
Much to my horror my favourite tablet stopped working. Well not exactly it wasn’t appearing to charge. The screen kept asking for the tablet to be charged. Even after 24 hours still the same message. Facebook was also behaving badly.
I reset the tablet to factory settings and this didn’t help either. Only thing was that I lost all my settings. The Google recovery worked well putting back most of my apps and I didn’t really lose anything.
The problem was a loose battery connection. Fortunately its relatively easy to get the back of with your thumb nail.
It’s all good now and I can still enjoy my tablet.
Windows 8.1
I have installed the new version of Windows 8.1. The upgrade process was smooth and easy. I have an enterprise edition and updated from an ISO file. The ISO loaded from an internal hard drive so no optical drive involved. I preserved all my settings and apps; so far so good.
I did have an issue with one piece of software Pinnacle Studio 16. Being a long time user I have had previous disappointments with OS updates. However much to my delight the Pinnacle forums had a link to a solution provided by Corel the new owners of the product. That’s the only hiccup so far.
Finally a native Facebook app for Windows and again I’m quite happy with it. I use Facebook across iOS7 Android and now Win 8.1, the iOS version is the most functional and the nicest looking.
The start menu update is welcome, clearly a response to user feedback. I do like the new arrangement whereby you have to put things on the start menu rather than everything cluttering it up.. However I still use the task bar for frequently used applications. Then there is the return or the start menu. It is underwhelming reminding me of redundant air scoops on faux sports car. It is really not necessary.
Overall it is a good and welcome update. Windows 8 was OK not quite another Vista moment. I suppose the interwebs are already abuzz with Win 8.2 rumours.
iOS 7
My first impressions of iOS 7 are positive. Everything I have tried works. I like the new camera app. It’s much simpler to use and now there is the capacity for square photos. Additionally my iPhone 5 supports the filter feature.
The new font and keyboard look great. It was really simple and easy to adjust the font size as well. The release was accompanied by a slew of new app releases. Twitter and Facebook both adopted the new look and layout on the day of release.
I haven’t mentioned the new control centre which is useful and practical. The only thing that isn’t on the up is my battery life.
A new router and such
Got a new router after the existing one started slowing down. I have always had dlink routers three in fact over the years. My original reason for going with dlink that tgey had print servers. This was in the early days of home networking.
Since then printers have come along way and print servers aren’t really needed any more. My main printer is a wireless HP black and white laser printer so a print server is redundant.
The new router is a Netgear D6300 which supports the new 802.11ac standard for wife. It was a doddle to set up. Now I have not one but two home networks identified by their respective frequencies of 2.4 and 5.
The main hassle was setting up the wireless printer. The ip address on the network was in a different range and windows 8 didn’t want to let go of the old one. So I uninstaller the printer and reinstalled via another USB port. The HP 1102w requires a wired connection for the first connection. It was plain sailing there after with the other devices, an assortment of iPhones android devices and a mac book all identifying the new printer.
All good so far.
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A Drive on Windows 8
Here is a bit of nostalgia Drive A on Windows A. Long time no see! I bought a USB powered floppy disk drive when I upgraded a computer years ago and
decided to leave the floppy dive in the past. It must only be the second or third time that I have used it since I abandoned floppies. Nice to see that Win 8 still has the icon for this drive.
I have just removed the CD/DVD drive from my laptop……
Samsung SSD
I have just completed some upgrades on my laptop. Nothing special in that but I have taken the optical drive out and replaced it with a hard drive. In-fact the 750 GB hard drive had been the primary drive of the laptop. This is now a data drive. The new primary drive is a Samsung SSD series 840. It’s a 250 GB drive which hosts the software on my system. The RAM has also been boosted to 8 GB. Continue reading “Samsung SSD”