No Bullshit Reviews » PDA /Computers

Archos 101 Android Tablet: Something to Smile About?

info — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 05:38:12 +0000

Archos goes monumental. Again.

The French always liked big things. Look at the Eiffel Tower. Now that’s big. Now it wouldn’t so surprising that France would then release one of the largest internet tablets around. It’s the Archos 101.
But while Archos goes big and heavy, it maintains its prices light and easy. After all, it’s the only way to compete against the likes of Ipad and Samsung. Why pay top dollar from a relatively new player when the Ipad offers a lower price, right?

Yesterday, on a whim I picked up the Archos 101. On first review, I find it is sleek and slim and comes in tad black matte finish. More PVC parts than metallic parts grace this baby all over. all over. There are less metallic parts and more hard plastic polymers for the body, making it lighter and easier to handle. It’s ideally constructed, allowing me to deftly flip it over while watching movies and surfing the web. It’s far lighter than the ipad!

One of the important characteristics for me is the screen. Most android tablets use the resistive screen which relies on pressure. That makes navigation a chore! Pressing down hard WAS mandatory to get any response. But thank God. This new offering now boasts a capacitative screen which allows the device to react more rapidly. No longer did I have to wait before an icon actually activated. Yes!

There is a problem, though. The screen is still TFT, meaning its next to useless under bright sunlight.

Let’s dive into the internals.

The Archos 101 is powered by a 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 CPU boasting the latest Android 2.2 Froyo. Like entry level Ipads, it’s got a 16GB internal memory which you can expand via the microSD slot on the side. The clerk told me it can accommodate cards up to 32GB. Now that’s a lot of movies this baby can handle!
I watched 300 and Underworld in HD. The playback was superb and enough screen elements were displayed. I give this an A+ for entertainment. Audio is subpar though. I felt like I was hearing sounds from the bottom of a trashcan by using the built in speakers. Best to use a headset.

The Archos 101 throws in more ports than an Asian throws arrows in a Chinese movie. There’s HDMI, USB and micro USB. That definitely allows meto hook the Archos 101 to almost any USB-capable device.

Many of the apps I downloaded from the app store work on this baby. The system is beefy enough, and the processor fast enough to handle perhaps 90% of the apps out there. I can’t say the same for the trashy chinese units like HappyMe which I tried in the past. Scrolling, launching, closing- all rapid. Not as smooth as that on an ipad, but definitely sufficient enough to get work done.

Would I recommend the Archos 101 after this review? You bet. It’s cheap and works better than 70% of the android tablets I’ve handled. It’s no Ipad, but it holds its own against the second best tablet out there: the Samsung Galaxy Tab

Try it out!

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MyWi 4.0 For Portable WiFi Spots

info — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 03:05:37 +0000

Got an iPhone or iPad with those unlimited data or Internet plan? Then you’re in luck. With MyWi 4.0, you can take that connection and share it with all your wi fi enabled devices. No need to get a separate Internet plan for each device. No need to hunt for wifi hotspots that are slow… Or worse… Spoofed to take your data.

MyWi works like a wifi beacon!

Think of the iPhone or iPad as a large antennae. Once you activate the software during an active Internet connection, your device broadcasts the signal within a range of 3 meters. That means you can connect to the iPhone with MyWi installed and surf!

The software has a chockfull of features. First, MyWi let’s you adjust the signal strength and range to conserve battery life. Higher strength equals higher battery drain. Second, you can allow devices to connect via bluetooth or USB. This connection is faster. And finally, you can password protect the protection. Unfortunately , it is only via wep. Wpa is not allowed. Don’t activate your connection in places prone to hackers since wep is easily hacked.

To date I’ve been enjoying seamless wifi sharing using MyWi. It’s light on resources and consistent, provided your signal is strong.

How do you folks find MyWi?

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Is Office 2010 Newbie Friendly

info — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 16:08:17 +0000

Just when I got used to Office 2007, Microsoft comes along to play with my mind again by issuing Office 2010.

But I went for it, dove right in and immediately fell in love. There are definite similarities to Office 2007-files are .docx like before-but the menus feel more like tabbed browsing on Internet Explorer or Firefox. Outlook has some great features; my favorite is below the body of email messages. It displays the picture of the person who sent you the email, as long as you have uploaded it to their contact info. This is very useful when there are many people cc’d on an email. Rather than having to read their names and try to figure out if they’re familiar, you can just view their picture below. For those who hate the round button from Office 2007, you’ll be happy to know it has gone on to a better place, or should I say your parents took it to a farm so it could run and play.

Erika Kenneth

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China Android PC Tablets

info — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 03:46:36 +0000

Since Apple released its smashingly good iPad, I knew it wouldn’t be long before chinese innovators would begin releasing their own versions. Now the market is flooded with them. Called the Iped, the Mid, the Mad, the ePad and what not, there are scores on the market. Check out Aliexpress.com You’ll find many under $100. The majority operate on the Google Android OS and offers a lot by way of features. But are these worth it?I ordered three from Aliexpress for gifts and personal use. Mine was a 512MB model based on the Android Operating system. Dirt cheap, the devices almost looked like the apple ipad, albeit the plasticky feel. But get past the physical, and you’ll realize that these are no ipad killers. It doesn’t matter that they’re cheap or have pretty icons. These things are SLOW and unreliable. It takes tremendous pressure to swipe icons or get text to appear on screen. This is unlike the apple ipad where a feather stroke gets things done. Obviously the microprocessors used in these units need work. Or they were last decades models.

The tablet pc is primarily used for surfing and facebooking. For these purposes, the China Android PC tablets are almost adequate. Wifi is ok, but pages render a tad slowly. There are occasional hangs too. What’s worse, is heavy surfers who like multiple windows open feel castrated. Why? No tabs. You can surf one page at a time.

The Android surfers are no good for serious business users. Leave these sub $100 toys to the kids. But then again…. even the kids may be frustrated at the slowness of it all.

Rates 0 stars

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Is 8GB Worth the Upgrade for Win7?

info — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:33:17 +0000

In the computing world, more is generally better. More processing cores. More hard disk space. More memory. Intuitively, one would assume that upping the ante for such components bring linearly higher yields. I tested this yesterday on the RAM arena.

Intuition fell flat.

You see, myAcer Windows 7 notebook comes standard with 4GB of RAM. It’s a 64Bit system, so all memory is used. Prices for RAM keep falling these days, so I got an extra stick for $80. It was cheap. I spend more on starbucks for a week. I plugged in the memory and expected a few things:

-Faster boot

-Quicker load times

-Rapid shutdowns.

Guess what? None of that happened. The PC took longer to boot, to load software and to shut down. That was puzzling. The only thing that improved was reloading apps or multitasking amongst myriad windows.

My first guess was that the ram was bad, but that theory went out the window after thorough testing. Hmmm… what do you think could account for this? IS more memory actually detrimental?

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Bill Really Wants You on Windows 7

info — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:45:04 +0000

Windows 7 Public Release Candidate goes kaput in few days and it’s time for users to upgrade to Windows 7 RTM or go back to their old Windows OS. Is that a bad thing? If you are still chugging Windows XP or Vista and missed the opportunity to try and test Windows 7 Public RC, don’t sweat. Bill really wants you on Win7, so you have one more chance to test Windows 7 Professional online for free without need of actually installing. Isn’t that cool? It’s like having an OS without the bloat!

Windows 7 Professional Test Drive website provides a simple way to try and test Windows 7 Professional. You just need to have Internet Explorer 6, 7 or 8 with JavaScript and ActiveX enabled. Once you engage the site, it’s like you have Win7 installed. Bottomline, Windows 7 Test Drive website lets you to enjoy Desktop Aero interface, Taskbar and various other features like Windows XP Mode, Remote Desktop, Location aware Printing etc.

It’s a great service by Microsoft… sort of like Win7 in pseudo shareware mode. http://win7pro.vlabcenter.com/

As for me, all my PCs are already on win7. Even the netbooks!

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AVG Internet Security 9 Review

info — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:46:45 +0000

AVG is a strong name in the antivirus industry, and just like the most important security solution developers on the market, also released an Internet Security suite. The latest version of the suite brings a total of 13 different components, all working for the safety of your computer and your personal data implicitly.

Unleashing the 110MB installer takes no hitches, with minimal user input required to complete the process. The package offers everything including the AVG Security Toolbar (useful for tracking down dangerous websites), as well as firewalls and the usual antivirus and antispyware complements.

I installed the whole package and must admit that the system didn’t slow down. Even when running process intensive programs like Photoshop CS4 or Bioshock, the system remained stable.

What I didn’t like though, is that several spyware did bypass the package as well as two bits of malware. I have a portable disc filled with about 20,000+ strains of malware and that horde really gave the suite a run for the money.

Oh well. Looks like I’m still sticking with Eset. Eset provided me with far stronger antivirus and antimalware protection.

AVG Internet Security [DISCOUNT] 9.0 Build 730a1834

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Google Docs Now taking 250MB Storage

info — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 16:21:14 +0000

Think you need to spend $300 for MS Office? Think again. Google Docs, one of the world’s first online Office Suites now lets you more than merely edit snazzy documents- you can store oodles of them on the web. Kiss those thumbdrives goodbye. Now everyone can collaborate on your latest poetry online.

From what G spokemen say, Google Docs will allow users to upload any type of file – music, photos, graphics, zip files, and more – into their accounts. The file size tops at 250 MB and there’s a bare minimum 1 GB of storage space coming with the account.

The luxury of storing files online has been here since Yahoomail. Remember back in 1999 when we e-mailed important documents to ourselves? Google Docs expands on that. The service goes beyond mere attachment file storage. It’s now a fullblown collaboration tool. Through Google Docs, others that you allow access to the file can go in and make changes without anyone having to worry about which version is the most recent.

Way to go google. Every idea you have is gold.

Except perhaps for that pagerank thingy.

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How To Create ISO Files- Free!

info — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 09:42:33 +0000

ISO files are those standard formats popular among those who want to transport huge amounts of data. It’s easy to create one. Simply purchase one of those ISO creators which cost $29 onwards. But now you don’t have to. Today, there is software that Opens & Converts UIF to ISO as well as forges ISO files from scratch.

Should you desire for the way to instantly create ISO files then ISO Creator is the right tool for you. IsoCreator is a straightforward, simplistic C#.NET 2.0 application created to empower users to create ISO 9660 Joliet CD images from a given folder or volume.

The application also allows you to create ISO with virtual files, given a tree representing a directory structure. I’ve personally tried it and it took less than a quarter of a brain to manipulate. In fact, it is so easy to use, my comatose granny actually got it to burn a few porn CDs for her favorite nephew (me.)

Okay okay, maybe that last bit was an exaggeration, but I kid you not when I say it’s really easy to master!

You know you want it:

Download: ISO Creator

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Chinese Programmers Create Ubuntu that Looks Like XP

info — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 03:20:13 +0000

It used be that Chinese Pirates merely bootlegged popular OSes like Windows XP, Vista and even Longhorn. Now they’re moving on. I read some reliable info on Download Squad that the pirates have now created a flavor of Ubuntu that looks and feels just like Windows XP!. Called Ylmf, this operating system deploys XP’s icons and even taskbar. What’s more, the Wine integration allows for Windows based programs to run. Then to attract those into bling, Ylmf supports Compiz effects and comes with a lot of pre-loaded freeware such as Firefox and OpenOffice.org. This Chinese group may not be doing Microsoft a favor, but they surely are doing a great service for end users like you and I. Packages like may tilt the balance in favor of open source software because ease of use is finally made available from the once arcane Linux/Unix based system.

Be aware, however, that under the hood, Ylmf OS is still Linux and will not run Windows based applications natively. The Wine fix won’t work for all software- just a few. If you want to know more, check out their website.

Some people muse at this point whether Microsoft will flex legal muscle over the alleged tresspass. I doubt it. If someone mimicked the look and feel of Windows 3.1, would they? XP is almost like Win 3.1 now. Support is being phased out, with a lot of marketing being diverted to Windows 7. And besides, there are next to no copyright laws in China!

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