Do you own a NAS and are you looking after it well?

Posted on September 21, 2018 by tamsons

Synology, one manufacturer of NAS box’s

A strange question for the uninitiated. What is a NAS and what sort of food does it eat and how should I be treating it?

My focus recently has been all about storage and the space we are each using to store our data. (Whatever that data maybe). From faster drives to access the data to storage solution on the cloud and in the office. It is one of the most important and common questions I am asked.

One solution doesn’t meet everyone’s needs. But a combination of solutions is usually what people use and sometimes chaotically with no thought on how this will progress and what the strategy is or should be.

So what is a NAS?

Well, it isn’t a small creature that keeps you company and helps with your storage and access to data. Well, that is not completely true it does allow storage and access to data in various ways and will cleverly backup said data in different ways. NAS stands for Network Attached Storage. A system of storage media that is attached to your network at home or work. Over the years this type of storage has become more and more intelligent and can literally be a self-contained computer system that runs all your data and data access. It can be a small unit to a much larger unit. Various companies make them and they are, well what can I say I am biased, brilliant.

I have used one for business for over 8 years now and it has served me well. I can store data on it and it has internal drives that automatically backup to each other creating what is called a mirror of my data. I also can, and have configured it to back up to a cloud drive and have chosen the important data to back up in this way. So I have offsite data as well.

The NAS unit allows me to access it remotely over the Internet, (Through a secure connection), so my own personal cloud drive with access. I can add users and give them a proportion of the space and they can store their data there and we can collaborate on data.

Benefits

This is a lower costs system to having a fully-fledged file server in your office and still allows multiple access by users and storage and remote access. It has a configuration panel that is easy to understand and configure. An admin is appointed and can add users, block users and configure all the aspects of the system. The amount of storage is up to you and your budget. But it can be easy to handle and allow for expansion to a cloud drive or even to add extra space at the NAS unit itself.

Remember the biggest asset to any business is data and the importance of data and how easy it is to access it and collaborate using it is important.

So if you are considering storage and where it all goes?

Relaunch video for parent organisation

Posted on June 7, 2018 by tamsons

Check out the new video from our parent organisation. (Sorry for the bitable banners)

Chromebook Acer R11 Review

Posted on April 26, 2018 by tamsons

So it’s been a while and I thought I would start with my latest piece of kit. Chromebooks have been around for a while and haven’t captured a lot of the market in the UK. In the USA, however, they have been competing with Apple in the education market and have taken schools by storm as the students love the idea of a keyboard and the lightweight functionality of a Chromebook over an IPad.

There are various manufacturers of Chromebooks and I did a little research before I purchased my one. So what did I go for?

Acer R11 Chromebook

This is a relatively new Chromebook in their range and this allows it to run Android Apps from the Google Play Store, as well as the Chrome-based apps, from the web store. This appealed to me as I wanted something to replace my ageing Nexus 9 tablet as it seems that Google has decided to drop the tablet market and launched all their Pixel Books instead, which are rather prohibitively priced.

This particular Chromebook is lightweight and 11-inch screen makes it very clear and visible. It also has the lovely function of flipping 360 degrees to create an 11-inch tablet. So it ticked a lot of my boxes. Larger than I had been carrying around, but I was prepared to make that sacrifice.

Battery life claimed to be around 10 hours when charged as well. However, I am finding when fully charged it is telling me around 7 hours…. Slight discrepancy there Acer.

However after some initial problems when I received it, I finally got a working Chromebook and have been using it as my tablet replacement for a few months now. Boots up fast as all SSD drives. 4 GB of Ram and 32 GB of internal storage, the rest of the cloud. High relation screen and camera for video calls etc.

Here is the full spec: –

Processor: 1.6GHz quad-core Intel Celeron N3150 (quad-core, 3MB cache, up to 2.08GHz with Turbo Boost)
Graphics: Integrated Intel HD Graphics
Memory: 4GB DDR3L
Storage: 32GB
Screen: 11.6 HD, 1,366 x 768 touchscreen, LED-backlit IPS
Camera: 720p webcam
Wireless: 802.11ac (B/G/N) dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0
Ports: 1x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.0, 1x HDMI with HDCP, 1x 3.5mm headphone jack, 1x SD card slot
Weight: 2.76lbs
Size: 11.57 x 8.03 x 0.76 inches (W x D x H)

It is Blue the one I got as you can see from the photos attached.

So how do I feel it has been going?

So far it has been good going and I have been able to do all I want on this device. It is fast enough and covers all my bases. The only faults are that the use of an emulator to run the Android Apps is sometimes very buggy and resizes the screen and crashes at times. I have wandered over to the web-based apps for so many things and they run marvellously on the Chromebook. It allows me to carry out all my online worm and to edit a document using the Google Apps suite and then save them to the cloud and access them at my desk and phone when I need to.

I haven’t outputted the display yet through the HDMI port, but I have cast it through a Chromecast and it works well. Chrome as an OS is adequate and easy to get to grips with. Automatically updates and keeps me on top of what is happening.

It connects to any Wi-Fi I have tied so far and does it fast. Speakers seem OK as well and can play audio nicely.

I think this is a good replacement for my Nexus 9 and will be happy to use this into the future.

Talking about the future.

Acer, after I purchased this, have launched a Chromebook Tablet. 10 inch. Again to compete in the Education market in the USA. However, it is making its way to the UK market in May time. So that will be one to watch. Will run Chrome OS and allow the use of Android apps as well.

Let me know what you think and do you think the age of Windows ruling devices is over?

What do you use and why?

I’ve Upgraded……..but which bit of tech?

Posted on January 9, 2017 by tamsons

I’ve upgraded

Christmas time always brings me some form of new tech, or at least I hope it does. Last year, yes it was last year already, I decided to put a money present to use by upgrading my Android wear. Now there is a lot of speculation about wearable and the lack of uptake etc. so read on and get my views on it and why I have stayed with it.

How it all began?

Well, I have covered this really in my blog about getting the LG G watch and using it to see if it could better my work and life tech experience. You can check it out here. This was always a first generation watch and was expensive when it first came out, but also rather limited in what it could do, still as per my blogs on the usage of it I found that it became part of my everyday activities and it was now something that when my watch strap broke on one occasion I felt I couldn’t function as well without it. So it became a part of how I handled my daily tech and all the emails and social media I deal with.

So why Upgrade?

I did, however, realise that it was limited and the next generation of devices was out there and when funding permitted I would upgrade to a more recent version of Android Wear and see what the new features would offer me. My son had told me he had researched and ordered the Huawei W1 watch. I had known about this watch but the price was very high when launched and not something I would invest in. However checking the deals around Christmas I found it at a reasonable price and purchased it. To the chants of you copied me, dad. (OH, well)

December excitement

I was lucky enough that the supplier delivered before Christmas and I have been using it for around 3 weeks now. I opened and set it up quickly and hence no unboxing video, but the photos show the impressive box and the kit inside. It felt like quality indeed.

Specifications

Here are the specs for the watch: –

Body	42x42x11.3mm
Build	Stainless Steel (Cold forged 316L) IP67 certified – dust and water resistant Water-resistant up to 1 metre and 30 minutes 18mm straps
Display	AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colours 1.4inch 400×400 pixels (286 ppi density) Multitouch: -Yes Sapphire crystal glass Always on screen
Platform	Android Wear OS
Chipset	Qualcomm MSM8926 Snapdragon 400
CPU	Quad Core 1.2Ghz Cortex – A7
GPU	Adreno 305
Memory	4Gb internal, 512Mb RAM
Sound	Vibration, MP3, WAV Ringtones Loudspeaker: – Yes
COMMS	WLAN 802.11 b/g Bluetooth V4.1, LE
Features	Accelerometer, gyro, heart rate, barometer Messaging: – SMS, Email, IM Fast Charging MP3 Player Photo Viewer Voice dial/ Commands
Battery	Li-Ion 300 mAh battery Talk Time: – 48 hours (mixed usage)
Misc.	Various strap options available on purchase.

These knock the first generation LG G watch into a cocked hat so my excitement is beyond bounds. I know I am a GEEK.

What do you get?

The box as you can see is amazing and reflects the top end price.

Inside this nice looking package was the following: –

Outer shell box with all the labels and tech details
Inner box with spring loaded flip open lid
“Timeless design, smart within”, as the tagline in the lid.
Top watch mounting padded shelf, Watch was fastened to this with cover on screen for protection, this was in the removable inner section and had two metal pins to remove shelf from box
Inner section now has a tab the lifts the small container holding the handbook and manual
Under this is the charger and charging cable and base, all in white.
The whole package felt of quality and the weight was quite substantial, even when empty.

I ordered the leather strap and wore this until my metal replacement arrived after Christmas. So now have two straps that are very easily changeable due to the small pins with pull sections allowing quick strap changes. Even this is a clever idea.

Easy strap removal pins

Usage

The watch had to be charged and, I have, to be honest, the claim of fast charging is amazing, it charges in no time at all. I then went through connecting it to my phone via Android Wear and this was painless and happened easily. I had disconnected my old LG G watch and asked it to forget it. Then paired up the new watch. All went well. The watch itself comes with 48 watch faces to choose from so no hunting initially for a new watch face, my LG had a rectangular face so now needed circular one. Some lovely build in options….

It works a treat and gives me the extra options of heart rate monitor and answering phones calls on the watch not even needing to remove my phone from my pocket. To be honest, I have only done this once so far at home, but it went well and I could hear the caller and they could hear me. Useful indeed. I and my phone were in different rooms.

The other thing is that this particular model is one that Android Wear have been using to create Android Wear 2 that is due to launch this year. The rumours say this will create much more functionality and allow you to do even more things. I am now a convert to using a smart watch and think that I will always use one unless the whole project gets dropped. I now glance at it every time an email or post comes in and can vet if it needs an instant response or can be dealt with later. I can mute my phone from my watch and even locate my phone from my watch. Open the camera on my phone and see it on my watch for photos etc. I am still finding all the things I can do but I feel this has been a great investment and look forward to the things I will find over the coming months and the upgrade to Android Wear 2 when it comes out.

Wearable tech what are your thoughts?

IoT’s, I don’t have any IoT’s do I?

Posted on November 9, 2016 by tamsons

IoT devices, do I have any?

Here is a newish term that has been getting brandished around the Internet for some time now. At first as a techie I may think, Institute of Technology devices, Oh, I don’t have any of these. However, I would be so wrong. So what are they and what does it stand for?

IoT’s or Internet of things devices are now all around us whether we like it or not. They are devices that require an IP address to access the network or Internet. I like to think of them as Internet on Technology.

Your mobiles and any tech wear that you have, card reader machines, cash points, smart TV’s Tablet computers and any smart home devices that you may own. Your car, security cameras, home thermostats, amoung other things, even ticket machines and some vending machines.

What does it mean?

It means that things have progressed along a road that had been predicted, but the faster broadband speeds and methods of connectivity have meant it is now a reality.

Let’s rewind a little, A few years ago we have a desktop PC and then maybe a laptop and at first they did not connect to the Internet at all. We then got dial up Internet and we all tentatively put our toes in the water that was the Internet. Well, from there speeds just got faster and faster and Mobile phones came along, then they became smart. This meant connecting to the Internet and using it as a resource to feed you constant information. This meant improving phone signal strength and so we got up to 4G with 5G on its way.

Other devices then came along and allowed us to stream content around our houses and cars, how great was all this connectivity. Well, it is amazing how far we have come in such a short time.

So what’s all the fuss about, surely this is great news?

The reason that these devices are in the news a lot today is that there are now hundreds of thousands of them, being made by well-known companies and also so not so well known but less expensive alternatives and they all connect to the Internet. Now, securing our stand alone network that had no Internet connection was easy, what you put into it was the only danger. Now that these devices are on the Internet all the time they are able to pull all sorts of data into your device and if it is connected to your network, then onto your network as well.

You would think that this was matter of the device being smart and you being able to configure all the settings and hence protecting all that is does. However, loopholes in the software on these devices, not them all, but some are causing the security world a massive headache and some of the attacks to systems that you have read about recently have been because the software on these devices is not well written and is very insecure. Hackers are catching onto the fact that the world has a massive amount of these types of devices and there are more switched on each day and they are targeting their weaknesses.

So really the question is, “When is a smart device not so smart?” when it runs badly written software that has security holes that you can drive a programming bus through.

Here are a few articles to give you some more information: –

http://www.csoonline.com/article/3119765/security/hackers-found-47-new-vulnerabilities-in-23-iot-devices-at-def-con.html

http://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities—threats/internet-of-things-contains-average-of-25-vulnerabilities-per-device/d/d-id/1297623

What are your thoughts about this and have you bought into any of these devices and are you using them. I have to admit I have some.

So much to report on, where to start……….?

Posted on August 30, 2016 by tamsons

So much to report!

Hi guys, I have so much to report on that I am writing this all inclusive blog post.

So, what are the main headlines then? Well, I have had so much that here are the areas I will touch on in this blog post.

Nexus 5X usage and how that is going
Nexus 9 revival and discovery
Android Beta Testing Nougat 7 and the final version, on the Nexus 9
Update on Android Wear from last year, how is that going then?

My everyday life

I am really letting you into my everyday life, my devices that sustain and support me as I go about my daily tasks from business to personal. How I interact with them and how they perform and allow me to do what I need to do or not as the case may be…

So where to start? Well, let’s start with my mobile phone, as we all have one and it ends up being our mainstay most of the time.

LG Nexus 5X

So, to recap I have been using the Nexus 5X for the last month or so and it was to replace my older Nexus 5 that was a tremendous phone and caused me little to no problems. The main thing about the Nexus 5X is the slimmer shape and the more up to date hardware and the fact that it today as I finish this article has updated to Android N (Version 7, Nougat). It has fingerprint launching and better camera etc.

So how has that been going?

A quick update is that the battery still drains very fast and when taking photos and running Bluetooth all the time it seems to drain even faster. I am hoping this will be much improved now I have updated to Android N. Which has better battery saving than ever before. It does have the USB C connection and fast charging so as long as you can access that or a power pack that I carry a lot, then it can be back up and running quite quickly. The camera on the rear is excellent and creates great photo shots. The only problem I have had with this so far was that after about a week of having the phone, the camera refused to focus on anything and made a clicking noise when trying to focus. A tad scary as I hadn’t dropped or miss-used it. I Googled it to see if anyone else had experienced this and found that many had. A simple restart cures it. So restarted and it corrected itself and it hasn’t raised its head again since.

Strange one that. I have put a slim Spigen case on my Nexus 5X and this has great grip and acts as a bumper to protect in case of a drop or bump. But all in all loving the phone and no issues other than the camera weirdness to report.

Nexus 9 Revival and Recovery

Yes, yes, yes. I know the Nexus 9 don’t go there device and all the bad reports I had posted. Well if you remember the last report I stated that I had stuck the Beta testing of Android 7 (Nougat) on it. Well, it seemed worse and everything was just confirming my fears that this device had missed the plot a lot and really needed to be avoided. I kept running it, however, as I am persistent if nothing else, I noted that the battery was running out very fast and I constantly had to recharge it and that the processor was running hot. This intrigued me and I installed a few apps to see what the processor was doing and why it was hot etc. I found it was running at 89% to 94% most of the time. Further checking revealed that the Facebook Messenger App was responsible for my battery dying and probably the processor usage. I uninstalled it and guess what happened? Go on have guess?

The processor went to normal and was hardly running and the battery lasts up to two days unless heavy use. Thanks a lot there Facebook. That won’t be going back on anytime soon. It is important to note there that this App runs on my mobile phone and has none of the above aspects there. So I can only assume that Facebook hasn’t optimised it for Android 7 yet. Which will now be interesting as my phone has just updated?

So, the tablet was behaving a lot better, still slightly unstable with some things, but remember that I was running a Beta version of Android 7. The good news is because I was enrolled on the Beta programme I have now been fully upgraded to the finished version of Android 7. The tablet has improved again with the apps being much more stable and the tablet being more responsive. Some Android 7 features won’t work with some Apps but that is the Apps suppliers needing to get their apps updated. This will come. So I am slightly more positive and happier with my N9 than I have been for a while. Time will tell, though.

Android wear

Well, only a short update here. I am still wearing my LG G Watch that I got last year and have only needed to replace the strap as the original failed on me. Easily done though and it is performing well apart from the following: –

Charging when it sits on the docking station. Sometimes does not charge overnight and I find it has not been pushed in fully or has just not done it?
I have replaced the charging cable and repositioned the charging base to try and help and I still get the fear that it won’t charge overnight.

Other than this it is a great piece of kit and I missed it when I had no strap until my new one arrived and was fitted. It is so convenient for all sorts of apps that allow walking info and all messages coming in to be quickly reviewed. The phone can be muted from the watch and this saves taking it out my pocket in my jacket. Talking and sending a text quickly from the watch is another great feature. No, it is well worth a look and I think I will be looking at the next generation of these devices to see what they are building into them as it can only improve and get better.

Desktop PC

Thought I would just pop this in at the bottom, I still haven’t gone up to Windows 10 as there still seem to be some major issues floating around with it.

I hope that gives you a flavour of my devices and how they are developing and improving with updates and patches etc.

What are you using and how do you use them? For business, pleasure or both?

Hands on with the Nexus 9 Tablet

Posted on November 3, 2015 by tamsons

Nexus 9 Review

Have now been using the Nexus 9 for a few weeks now and it was to replace my Nexus 7 2013 model.
First impressions is that it is obviously larger with the 8.9 inch screen. I got the 16 GB model the same Storage I used in the Nexus 7. No issues there. Speed seems OK and it upgraded itself within a day of getting it to Marshmallow the latest version of Android.

Here are the specs for the Nexus 9

Display 8.9inch screen

Resolution 2048 X 1536 pixels, 288 pixels per inch (PPI)

Storage 16GB

Processor 2.3 GHz

Ram 2 GB

Rear camera 8-megapixel, flash – yes

Front Camera 1.6 – megapixel

OS Marshmallow

Battery Capacity 6700mAh

Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

Weight 425g

So how does it compare with all my daily work tasks?

I use my Nexus every day for work tasks and handle all my social media feeds and emails. As well as typing up documents and accessing the cloud and Internet. I mean I REALLY use it from morning until night it is at my side and always on hand for all the various activities that I do throughout my working and leisure day.

The Nexus 7 handled all this and I never had an issue with performance and battery life. I do run a good number of apps and have multiple desktops. Which is why I find using a tablet computer so useful.
The Nexus 9 has handled all the work loading, but the main things that are different are: –

Battery life is less than good. It lasts less than a day, where my Nexus 7 lasted up to two days. The screen being larger seems to burn all the battery power. I have drained it down and recharged it to try and recondition the battery. It hasn’t helped. I find myself charging it during the day and every night. This is not so good and some online trawling of the net suggests that others are finding a similar thing. The upgrade to Marshmallow was supposed to help this but in fact I have noticed no improvement.
The screen sometimes also is sluggish and doesn’t respond. Not sure what is causing this.
It is larger to carry but the pay-out is the better display and larger screen to display data and show clients what I want them to see.
It also has no QI charging, which I got into with my Nexus 7. Place it on a pad and off it goes and charges up, no fiddling with connectors anymore. Then they drop it. No fast charge either. Which I did not have with my Nexus 7 but hoped it might be a standard for Nexus devices. But seemingly not with HTC as they produced the Nexus 9 and my Nexus 7 was ASUS. Come on Google get it together.

I am going to continue using it and see how things go. If a cure or fix comes out for the battery life this would be great. So Google if you are reading this what you are up to and what can be done? Get in contact.

What about you guys?

How do you go mobile as they say and is the move to Phablet phones taking away the market for tablet computers? The sales statistics suggest that the sales of tablets has dropped due to phones becoming larger and I have met a few associates who have gotten rid of their tablet computers as their phones are large enough for them to do all they want to do.

What do you use and how is it performing?

Comment below and let us know.

Andoid Wear Brief Update.

Posted on July 27, 2015 by tamsons

Thought I would update my Android Wear post and let you know some of my experiences…

Watch and screen Protection

Well, I wore the watch for w few weeks before my son suggested that we get screen protectors for the glass. He had sourced a tempered glass stick on protector that did protection to level 7. Which meant it was shatter and scratch proof. Sounded like a great idea.

They arrived and my son fitted it to his watch and then to my watch. I used it and all went well. Time for holidays came and I was loading the cases into the boot of the car and the watch clunked of a case or the edge of the boot and I glanced down to see grinded edge on the glass protector.

This happened and few more times as I went about everyday actions and the bottom edge of the protector had small cracks heading upwards. During my holiday I managed another grinded edge of the protector making the look of the watch face not very appealing.

My son had not managed anything and his was still perfect. He said it was because I wear my watch on my right wrist and that is the hand I do everything with. Hence I abuse it. He may well be right. I tended to think that the glass protector was just sticking up enough to be vulnerable to being caught.

I eventually gave up and ordered a stick on flexible cover for the screen with high scratch rating. I prized the glass one off and you can see in the picture how I liked that.

Screen Protector?

It cracked from the small hairline cracks up through the glass. So my experience would be to avoid these particular protectors and stick with the flexible ones, which I have had on for week now and no problems reported even though I have bumped the watch a few times. You can see the small ginded edges at the top left and side of the screen.

Watch usage

On another probably more interesting note. The watch has been performing well and I have found it beneficial to have an instant pop up of the emails and posts coming up on my watch so I can glance and decide if I action them now on my phone or leave them until a more convenient time.

My son also informed me about a wonderful app that in Scotland is very useful. It is called Rain Alarm Pro. It scans various weather and rain pattern feeds at set intervals and lets you know if you are about to be hit with a downpour. I have used this a few times recently as it installs onto the watch as well and shows me the likelihood of you getting soaking wet. It has enabled me to take cover and watch as others run for shelter.

Battery has been OK, really depending on how many notifications I get to the watch and how I interact with them. I charge it every night by default anyway.

First usage summary

So my first summary would be to say that it is still a bit of a novelty and I am not sure how useful this will be, but as Apps develop and they become more interactive it may well make life easier. The benefit I am finding just now is the fact that I do not need to delve into my pocket every time my phone makes a bleep, as my watch shows me the gist of it.

Watch this space for more, no pun intended….or was there?

Android Where? Or should I say Android Wear.

Posted on June 29, 2015 by tamsons

Android Wear

Yes, I have succumbed to the phenomenon that is Android wear and a testing a LG G Watch with my Nexus 5 phone to see what it can do and if it is really a great benefit to me in what I do.

I run a business and use mobile a lot as I am generally out and about and not tied to a desk as much as I used to be. This is a good thing and I like it, I use my Nexus Tablet and my Nexus phone to juggle all the information that is generally thrown at me every minute of every day. Up to this point the combination of my tablet, Phone and desktop have sufficed in keeping me mostly on top of the information overload.

Being a techie and as some would say a Geek I have also been aware of new developments and the hype around Android Wear, (and the Apple watch, bank loan wear).

So Father’s day came and I asked my sons to give me some money and I would add the rest and treat myself to not the top end but the lower end of the wear market as I am still uncertain how this will make my life better.

First Impressions

I have been using the watch now for around two weeks and here are my first impressions.

Ease of setting up was good and it immediately updated itself as the previous wear software had been getting bad press. The new software has changed the watch interface and usage considerably.
It connects to some of the popular Google Apps immediately and gives some interesting interactions through the watch face. Other apps are downloadable and there are a multitude of watch faces that can be installed to change the look and interaction with the watch.

The watch arrived with the watch itself, strap attached and a charging USB cable and cradle.

When placed on charge it automatically switches on and starts the charge. I have found that over the time I have been using it the battery charge survives depending on how much interaction you have with the watch, early on not long as I was using it a lot in setting up etc.

Connectivity was excellent and it connected to my Nexus 5 with ease and has interacted no problem. All though through Bluetooth and my other fear was the phone battery not lasting. At the start this may have been an issue as I was playing with the watch and downloading and changing settings etc.

But generally it has not drained the battery as much as I suspected it might. So that’s a good thing.

I have tended to place the watch on the charging cradle overnight and not worry about it during the day. It charges using pins on the rear of the watch body. I have cycled through some watch faces to get the one I use the most as well as playing with the LCARS one being a huge TNG fan.

Apps that have impressed

The usage of it I suppose is the question and I am still evaluating the benefits. However when an email pops in and I glance at my watch to see the heading and gist of it, I can take action quickly or just swipe it off to tackle it later. So I am finding that quite useful, not having to rake my tablet or phone out of my pocket every time it buzzes. Weather on the phone face and Google NOW journey times are useful at a glance.

My scary moment was the first time I used my phone for Google Navigation recently with the watch and it pinged the route navigation to the watch face. This caused me to giggle glance at the watch and loose concentration on the road. So good or bad thing I am unsure at this time with that one. I am sure you can disable it and I haven’t as yet.

Early days

So it is early days and I am sure I will find more intriguing benefits of having this Android wear device, I haven’t as yet answered a call from it in private or public. Looking like Dick Tracey I suppose. I suppose the answer to the title is Andoid everywhere.

I may post another update soon, but is anyone using these wear devices to great effect?

If so what are you using and what are you doing with it?

It would be great to hear from you.

Sniffing Around CES2014 in Vegas!

Posted on January 8, 2014 by tamsons

Consummer Electricla Show 2014 in Vegas

I have always wanted to put that as a title. However sadly we are not at CES 2014 in Vegas but we are sniffing around some of the reports that are appearing online to see what is being displayed and demoed this year.

The news if heavy with all sorts of reports from all our favourite electrical companies, Samsung stealing a lot of the press with their Ativ Book 9 2014 edition and of course their curved televisions 50-inch OLED.

LG have released their curved phones, which use OLED technology. They have also been showing off their Fireweb Firefox driven phone and not to be left out of course have launched and showed of their 4K curved OLED TV, 77-inch in size with a picture that is stunning.

Sony is producing facts and figures about sales of the new PS4 against the Xbox One and it looks like Sony is in the lead now and if the figures are to be believed, well in front.

Other news, is that Android devices are to top 1 billion in 2014, so not much slow down there.

One of the most interesting facts is that there are more wearable devices than ever before and a lot of talk about Intel moving in this direction. This is firing up rumours that Intel might be giving up on its mobile ambitions to pursue the wearable market. Time will tell.

Lenovo are still prominent this year with their Lenovo Thinkpad 8, they claim this newest offering, “will put a full PC in the palm of your hands.”

Other memorable news feeds are talking about the progress of self-driving vehicles, again this technology is developing fast and the computers are now able to handle more data than ever before, so watch out for the self-driving vehicle coming your way soon, no pun intended.

I will leave you with this link to a 3D food printer that has appeared at CES this year, it prints chocolate and candy….now there’s a printer for the office……

3D Food Printer

Yes, CES 2014 has once again not let any of us GEEKS down. There are developments from the hardware manufacturers like Tegra and snapdragon showing off where things are going next right down to new travel experiences and viewing delights.

Check out some of the feeds online and start to get excited about what is happening in the world of tech.

What would you like to see come sooner rather than later, let us know?

Ian Thomson
IT Turning Point

IT Tech Point

Ian Thomson Tech Blog

Tag Archives: gadgets