Ali's Tech Blog » Gadgets http://www.alistechblog.com technological accomplishments of our time Wed, 19 Oct 2011 10:24:08 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 I dedicate this to the iPhone 4S http://www.alistechblog.com/gadgets/i-dedicate-this-to-the-iphone-4s.html http://www.alistechblog.com/gadgets/i-dedicate-this-to-the-iphone-4s.html#comments Wed, 19 Oct 2011 10:24:08 +0000 Ali Naqvi http://www.alistechblog.com/?p=261 Ode to iPhone 4S

 

I WANT TO BREAK FREE – QUEEN

 

I want to break free
I want to break free
I want to break free from your lies
You’re so self-satisfied I don’t need you
I got to to break free
God knows, God knows I want to break free

I’ve fallen in love
I’ve fallen in love for the first time
And this time I know it’s for real
I’ve fallen in love, yeah
God knows, God knows I’ve fallen in love

It’s strange but it’s true (hey yea)
I can’t get over the way you love me like you do
But I have to be sure
When I walk out that door
Oh how I want to be free baby
Oh how I want to be free
Oh how I want to break free

But life still goes on
I can’t get used to living without, living without, living without you
by my side
I don’t want to live alone, hey
God knows got to make it on my own
So baby can’t you see
I’ve got to break free

I’ve got to break free
I want to break free, yeah

I want I want I want I want to break free ..

]]> http://www.alistechblog.com/gadgets/i-dedicate-this-to-the-iphone-4s.html/feed 0 My SUPERSONIC Android Smartphone – The Samsung Galaxy S II http://www.alistechblog.com/gadgets/my-supersonic-android-smartphone-the-samsung-galaxy-s-ii.html http://www.alistechblog.com/gadgets/my-supersonic-android-smartphone-the-samsung-galaxy-s-ii.html#comments Tue, 26 Jul 2011 22:58:23 +0000 Ali Naqvi http://www.alistechblog.com/?p=231 Don’t you think its amazing that you can now have a multifunction computer with a dedicated graphics processing unit, a high definition screen, high fidelity sound, speech recognition, touch sensitivity, satellite navigation, compass, full Internet connectivity, fm radio, voip phone, point and shoot camera and camcorder with 1080p, ftp server, print server, ebook reader, audio / video streamer, remote control and all the apps you will ever need in the palm of your hand? Crazy no? We are living in exciting times.

I have been a faithful android fanatic ever since it launched. I used to have windows smartphones before this, but I am sure you can understand why I would want to move away from that OS.

I just bought the Samsung Galaxy S 2, after flogging my Nexus S on fleabay.. what a device I tell you.. simply A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Its got a 1.2 Ghz dual core processor and all of the android communities prowess behind it. Its going strong and is currently the most advanced Android smartphone out there. Check out the monster specs sheet n GSMArena.com and a hands on review on Engadget

Samsung Galaxy S2

The kickass Samsung Galaxy S2

I wanted to try out homebrewed android ROMs after rooting my device over the weekend, as its the all the rave right now. I tried out a few including one called VillianRom. Although there are a few other ROMs out there, this seems to be the most mature. So anyways, I wanted to get the latest android release on my phone, which currently is Gingerbread 2.3.4 so after installing VillianRom I can report that the phone has become truly supersonic. The quadrant benchmarking scores are off the ROOF, and Linpack reports 86 megaflops on multithread.

There is a lot I can say about this phone, actually I can’t stop talking about it, so I’ll stop here. I will however list some of the apps I most frequently use.

Coolest Apps On The Android Market as of July 2011

  1. My Backup Pro
  2. Audiogalaxy
  3. Astro file manager
  4. Shazam encore
  5. Rom Manager
  6. Set CPU
  7. Root explorer
  8. HulloMail
  9. Whatsapp
  10. Remote VNC Pro
  11. Barcode scanner
  12. Zabihah
  13. Adfree
  14. Swiftkey X
  15. Shootme
  16. Skype
  17. Pulse
  18. Cube Extended
  19. Llama
  20. Google+
  21. Go Weather HD
  22. Tubemate (unavailable on the market right now)
  23. BBC news
  24. Total recall

Some screenshots for to make this post a little colourful.

 

Home Screen Galaxy S2 Stock ROM

Home Screen Galaxy S2 Stock ROM

 

Quadrant score for galaxy S2 on Stock Rom

Quadrant score for galaxy S2 on Stock Rom

 

Linpack Score for Galaxy S2 Stock ROM

Linpack Score for Galaxy S2 Stock ROM

I will do some more posts about Android in general and how to squeeze every bit of juice out of your android device including tips and tricks as well as some serious reviews on some Android devices I have tested and used including:

  • Motorola Atrix
  • Acer Iconia A500 tab
  • Samsung Nexus S
  • ZTE Blade
  • HTC Desire S
  • HTC Desire
Stay tooned!
]]> http://www.alistechblog.com/gadgets/my-supersonic-android-smartphone-the-samsung-galaxy-s-ii.html/feed 0 Carputers. Upcoming In Car Entertainment Systems? http://www.alistechblog.com/gadgets/carputers-upcoming-ice-systems.html http://www.alistechblog.com/gadgets/carputers-upcoming-ice-systems.html#comments Mon, 11 Apr 2011 23:07:39 +0000 Ali Naqvi http://www.alistechblog.com/?p=164 So just giving a little more thought to my “carputer” idea thing, I came up with a wish list.

  • Should have an Intel Atom processor
  • Micro ITX case and motherboard with horizontal PCI slots
  • 4GB DDR3 RAM
  • 1GB Radeon series GPU for 2 independent zones (front and back)
  • 500GB 2.5” HDD
  • Creative Sound Blaster X-fi low profile, second sound card for zone 2 maybe?
  • 7.1 SPDIF output to go straight into the AMP
  • Windows 7 Home premium OS
  • HDMI + DVI + D-Sub out
  • Wifi 802b/g/n (Should be good with the built in wifi access points in my smartphone)
  • 7 inch double din capacitive touch screen 800×640 res minimum (HDMI + D-sub + DVI)
  • Touch capable software based car home screen with big buttons
  • Bluetooth for phone calls, BT Audio and keyboard + mouse
  • Garmin or Tomtom SatNav application for Windows
  • FLAC Audio playback (possibly best with Winamp list management)
  • Slot loading Blu-Ray ROM
  • Intelligent power on and hibernate/shut down via ignition switch
  • Rear view camera automatic switch on reverse gear (ideally not controlled in Windows but a video source instead)
  • Front view camera via manual switch (separate video source)
  • Some sort of DVB receiver via USB or built in for TV and Radio channels
  • Internet radio HUB accessible with fat fingers on the touch screen

This can all go under a seat somewhere, I don’t think we can build an all in one double din that sits behind the screen in the dash.

I can already see flavors of Ubuntu being customised specifically for in car operation. I am all for innovation.

Food for thought.

Carputer

Car PC

]]> http://www.alistechblog.com/gadgets/carputers-upcoming-ice-systems.html/feed 0 My very first HTPC build http://www.alistechblog.com/gadgets/my-very-first-htpc-build.html http://www.alistechblog.com/gadgets/my-very-first-htpc-build.html#comments Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:44:47 +0000 Ali Naqvi http://www.alistechblog.com/?p=131 So I needed something powerful. Something that could cope with my routine resource hungry applications. Something that would effortlessly kick my HP small form factor workstation’s posterior into oblivion. So I embark on this very interesting and rewarding mission to build myself the ultimate Home Theatre PC. I had a budget in mind and I aimed exactly for that.

After a full 2 months of loitering around hardware review sites like Tom’s Hardware and Overclockers.co.uk forumsas well as taking on advice from trusted overclockers at my local “raging technophiles” committee, I started my quest for overclocking bliss. With all things IT, (or all things generally) just remember, the Goog is your buddy.

This was not built for gaming mind you, it was built to quench my thirst for super warp speed with applications as well as the desire to learn a little more about overclocking and why people do it. From the application list below, I will attempt to justify the build.

24/7 applications:

  • 29 mailboxes on my outlook 2010
  • Mozy Online Backup (8TB of continuous incremental backup)
  • Windows Media Server for streaming media across home (PS3, Android phones, Mac mini, Laptops)
  • Audio Galaxy (Android Music Streaming application)
  • VNC Enterprise Server
  • Windows Server 2003 virtual machine for FTP and UAT web server
  • uTorrent (always downloading something)
  • Microsoft Security Essentials
  • Time lapsed Ajax based web service calls for my 123vouchercodes.co.uk project
  • A very very strict firewall, I forget the name

On demand applications:

  • Sony Vegas Pro for editing AVCHD raw video from my Panasonic TM900
  • Adobe Photo shop CS5
  • Sitemap Writer Pro (takes 8 days to generate a sitemap)
  • Unusually large text and excel files with millions of records
  • The odd 1080p movie with K-lite codec pack

Ok, so without further ado, here is the list of components sourced for this build.

1. SilverStone Lascala LC17B HTPC full ATX case
Bland, but black and wonderfully vented. Does the job well.

Silverstone LC17B HTPC Case

Silverstone LC17B HTPC Case

2. Intel Core i7 2600k Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz
Fully unlocked and ready to be unleashed for overclocking supremacy.

Intel Core i7 Sandy Bridge

Intel Core i7 2600k

3. Asus P8P67 EVO Revision 3
The mobo with a mojo and automatic self tune and overclocking ON DEMAND (no really)

Asus P8P67 EVO Rev3

4. Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR3 1600 MHz
Goodbye virtual RAM, hello overclockable DDR3 awesomeness

Corsair Vengeance DDR3

5. OCZ 120GB Vertex 3 6GBps SATA 3 Solid State Drive
Will only be used for Windows 7 OS and all the program files. Currently fully booting windows in under 8 seconds… whhaacck (judo chop impression)

OCZ Vertex 3

6. 1GB Sapphire HD 5750 Vapor X Radeon Graphics Card
Crisis 2? Bring it. 1080p? yawnnn

Sapphire HD 5750 Vapor X Graphics Card

7. 5x Seagate Baracuda 2TB 5900 RPM 8ms seek Hard drives
All configured with RAID 0 for a single 10TB hard drive.. oh yeah. Any recommendations for what I should name this drive?

Seagate Baracuda 2TB

8. Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro Series 7.1 Sound Card
Avoid the built in mobo sound card like the plague. My MP3s sound like FLAC now, and the 7.1 through my Yamaha RXV 1700 amp is MAD. THX certified, DTS, Dolby Digital all out of the box.

 Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro Series

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. Noctua NH-U9B CPU Cooler Noctua NF-R8 silent fans
This cooler is MASSIVE. its as big as my size 13.5 shoe. Near soundless operation though.

Noctua NH-U9B

Noctua NF-R8

10. Cooler Master Silent Pro M 600w PSU
PSU? yeah, PSU too.. I will PSU your ass all the way to China with this mofo.

Cooler master silent pro

11. Samsung SH-B123L/BSBP 12x BD-ROM & DVDRW Combo Player
Why not huh? I have a PS3 too.. but why not… come on

Samsung SH-B123L/BSBP 12x BD-ROM & DVDRW Combo Player

So thats all the hardware list apart from the odd cable, fan splitters or sticky tape etc. I was pleased when I started up the beast, WHAM BAM THANK YOU MAAM.. boot up perfect. All hardware detected in one go, BIOS taking a bow. I would have loved a much nicer HTPC case I guess.. but all in good time right? Have a look at this beauty by OriginAE…

Origin AE

AND… here are some pictures of the finished build. Click on the images to see FULL SIZE!

 Build 1

Build 2

Build 3

Build 4

Build 5

Build 6

Build 7

Windows Experience Rating

windows experiance rating

SSD Life

CPU-Z

CPUZ

Although I have not had the chance to properly overclock the system to tested and stable 4.9GHz speeds, I am reading up on this threadto see how far I can push the boundaries. I have meanwhile used ASUS’s own auto tuning feature. It has overclocked the PROC to 4.2GHz stable. DDR3 next.

I am pleased with this sufficiently powerful piece of modern machinery, I may well find out that it is over powered for what I thought I needed with all that serious grunt under the hood. If that may be the case (should become apparent in a couple of months of use), I am happy to put the extra horse power to good use with the Folding@Home project. This will add to the 24/7 applications list above.

I have already gotten some useless feedback from a few people I told. Most of them came back with the same “why do you even need so much power?” retort to which my response is usually a projectile spit bomb.

My next project?

I came across quite an interesting concept recently while searching for ways to play FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) in my car.  Currently, there is no way of playing FLAC in your car with anyafter market in car entertainment systems. Do a search for it, you will see what I mean. But then, I came accross this very cool concept called the “Carputer“, yup, you guessed its a “car-computer”, imagine Windows 7 Ultimate in your car way hey! Perhaps my next project? Maybe………….

]]> http://www.alistechblog.com/gadgets/my-very-first-htpc-build.html/feed 3 I’ll show you my hardware if you show me yours http://www.alistechblog.com/gadgets/ill-show-you-my-hardware-if-you-show-me-yours.html http://www.alistechblog.com/gadgets/ill-show-you-my-hardware-if-you-show-me-yours.html#comments Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:17:46 +0000 Ali Naqvi http://www.alistechblog.com/?p=55 I always like to brag about the gadgets I have at home and what better way to do it than right here on my very own blog. I have always been a gadget freak and spent extravagantly on things that look and sound fantastic. I obviously spend without being able to afford it. God bless credit cards. I have friends with similar interests and we often challenge each other’s egos and pockets to get the best piece of kit before anyone else. Although I haven’t bought anything for a while now, I always feel the need to go to some electronics superstore and let my impulses loose.

My Kit

My efforts are nothing compared to these Gadget Gods

If you are a gadget freak like myself, I highly recommend registering on AVFORUMS. It’s the most active gadgets forum in the UK right now. There are a lot of American ones that I visit too. Google em’. Do get yourselves on the syndication feeds from these great websites.

Oh yes, for alerts about the top bargains on gadgets and stuff, plug yourself into an RSS feed from HotUKdeals.

Next on my hit list:

  • Nikon D200
  • Extra VAIO Laptop for my other half
  • 65 inch Pioneer Plasma behemoth for the lounge
  • Electric Jacuzzi
  • Solar panels for the roof (may use for extra juice for my gadgets)
  • Suzuki Hayabusa
  • Audi R8
  • Fighter Jet
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