Studio711.com – Ben Martens

When I built my latest PC, I specifically left out a graphics card. I generally don’t play graphically intense games on my computer and I wanted to see how the integrated HD 4000 graphics from Intel worked. That experiment worked well and most of the time I didn’t notice that there was no dedicated graphics card.

With the release of the latest Sim City and Cities in Motion 2, I decided it was time to get a real graphics card. $200 was my target budget so it pretty quickly came down to the GTX660 and the Radeon HD 7870. While the 7870 has slightly better performance, I opted for the NVidia card because I’m still boycotting ATI graphics cards after they screwed me over twice.

This GTX660 isn’t a top of the line card by any means, but it’s a nice fit for my system. I can crank the Sim City graphics settings up to the max at 1080p resolution and the card is still nice and quiet. So far it gets two thumbs up!

A week or so ago, we caught our first glimpse of the Xbox One which will be launching later this year. This was the first speech in a three part rollout and it focused mostly on the TV and entertainment options in the box. (Part 2 is E3 for games and then part 3 is Build where they’ll talk about developer stuff.) With all the talk about TV, the internet was once again buzzing about the possibility that the Xbox will be a DVR or that it will allow you to connect tuners to it.

I have no inside information, but there’s no way this is ever going to happen. First of all, those of us who are willing to connect to cable TV with anything but the box from the cable company is extremely small. On top of that, DVRs are a stopgap measure for a dying medium. Do you really think that in 10 years we’re really going to have to cache content locally? It’s ridiculously inefficient for cable companies to simultaneously pump 100s of channels to millions of individual consumers who then put that content back on hard drives to watch it later. Sooner or later (and we’re already making big strides in this direction) we’ll just pick the content we want to watch and it will appear on our TV. Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon are showing us what that might look like and the cable companies will either jump on board or they’ll die a slow death.

So with that future ahead of us, why would Microsoft, a company that also sells TV and movies digitally, want to invest any time in a solution that’s not going to be needed before the Xbox One hits the end of it’s lifecycle?

If you’re building a campfire to cook your food, there’s a lot of wasted energy. A company called BioLite has come up with an ingenious device that converts some of the heat from your campfire into power to recharge your cell phone or other small USB devices. It also uses that power to power a small fan that helps keep your fire burning strong. It’s only $130 or you can spend an extra $60 to get a grill attachment for it. There’s no fuel canister to carry around. You just stuff it full of twigs and leaves. The fan helps keep it burning hot so there isn’t a lot of smoke. What a great idea!

With our son coming any day now, I feel like we’re about to really ramp up our battery usage. For the past couple years, I’ve been investing in Eneloop rechargeable batteries. They hold a charge very well in storage and can be found at a decent price. I charge them with a La Crosse BC-700. It’s a wonderful little device that gives you detailed readouts about the state of your battery and provides a variety of charging speeds and options to get the most life out of your batteries.

I recently also picked up some spacers which lets me put AA batteries into a device that takes C and D batteries. They won’t last nearly as long as a full C or D cell, but those suckers are expensive so using a rechargeable is an attractive proposition. I suspect it will be a fine substitute in many cases. There are also bigger C and D rechargeables but I’ll need a new charger for those and I haven’t made the commitment there yet.

Based on current Amazon prices, a rechargeable AAA or AA battery is about 4 times more expensive than it’s alkaline counterparty. That means that I don’t generally use rechargeables in extremely low draw situations like clocks, but we use them everywhere else. And I suppose if you look at a big enough time span, even using them in clocks would pay off.

Is there anything you like better than Eneloops? Do you use C or D cell rechargeables?

In an earlier post, I explained that my new skis were partially paid for by my company with a new part of our benefits package. You only get the credit if you decline the gym membership, and since the gym membership is quite a bit more money than the credit, I think HR wants more people to pick this credit. They recently contacted me (and some other people) about doing a short video on us and sending it out in a newsletter to all the employees. That in itself seemed pretty cool to me, but they also said they would send us GoPros to capture footage of us using whatever athletic equipment we bought with the credit.

My camera arrived in the mail, and while it wasn’t the new Hero3 model I was hoping for, it did come with the Wireless BacPac. There are a variety of BacPacs that you can attach to the back of the camera, and obviously this one provides wireless capabilities. You can connect to the camera via a phone app or a remote control (not included). It lets you control all the various settings of the camera as well as starting and stopping recording. If you’re using one of the phone apps, you can even see a live view of what the camera is seeing. This is incredibly useful for setting up shots since there is no viewfinder on the camera.

I was originally a little bummed about the wireless kit because GoPro currently only has an app for iPhone and Android. A Windows Phone app is supposed to be in the works and was demoed at CES, but it’s not out yet so it doesn’t do me much good. The wireless protocol must not be too difficult to decipher because there were a few homemade GoPro apps for Windows Phone and to my surprise, they actually work quite well. The UI design leaves something to be desired, but hey, it works. Basically you start up the wireless on the camera and it creates a WiFi network. You have to switch your phone to connect to that network and then you can communicate with the camera. The BacPac contains it’s own power source, but if it runs out then it will suck power from the main camera battery.

I was also able to try out the proper GoPro app for Android thanks to Ken. He traded me one of his old Android phones (HTC Thunderbolt) for one of my old Windows Phones (HTC Trophy.) And additionally I’m finally able to experience the world of Android.

As for the HR video, I’m hoping that when it’s completed, I can get a copy of it. But since it’s an internal video, I doubt I’ll ever be able to post it publically. It’s probably for the best. They want us to interview ourselves and no matter what I do, I end up looking like a complete tool. There’s a reason I prefer being behind the camera.

Our new 2013 Escape SEL is full of gizmos and gadgets. Now that we’ve had about a month with the car, I figured I’d review some of the technology in the car.

There are three versions of Ford’s interior computer system: 1) SYNC 2) MyFord Touch 3) Navigation. If you pick a higher number, you get the lower numbers too. So for example, you can’t get a navigation system without also getting SYNC and MyFord Touch. Sync is the part of the system that is responsible for voice prompts and listening when you talk to the car. You can tell it to play music, read you the news, get the latest weather, give you audio based turn by turn directions, or read and reply to text messages over your phone. It’s mostly done via audio though you might also get a simple one or two line display on your radio.

MyFord Touch adds a visual touchscreen to Sync. The functionality is roughly the same except now you can do everything either via voice or with the touch screen. It also adds internet connectivity. If you have a USB mobile broadband modem from your cell phone carrier, you can plug it into the car and your car turns into a rolling Wi-Fi hotspot. When the navigation upgrade is added into the MyFord Touch system you get an on-screen display for route guidance. It will come as no surprise that our Escape has the fanciest tech package we could get, but how well does it work?

It’s a bit overwhelming when you first get into the driver’s seat. There’s an 8” touch screen in the center of the dashboard drawing your attention to play around with climate settings, entertainment options, navigation or cell phone connections. And then there is an LCD screen in the center of the dashboard between the speedo and the tach. It can show you a ton of different info light miles per gallon, distance to empty, a little flower showing how efficiently you’re driving, which wheels are currently receiving power from the engine, etc. and it is controlled with buttons on the steering wheel. Once you get used to it, it’s really handy, but while you’re getting used to it, you really need to remind yourself to focus on the road!

There is a plethora of ways to connect audio to the (very nice!) sound system: HD radio, CD, Sirius satellite radio, USB, SD card, RCA jack for audio and video, and Bluetooth audio from cell phones. It’s nice to have so many choices! It’s the first time I’ve ever heard HD radio and it really is impressive, though I’d never pay extra for it since I rarely listen to the radio. We bought the world’s tiniest 16 GB USB stick, loaded it up with MP3s and that will stay in the car. Tyla’s Zune is connected to the car via the RCA jacks because it’s actually easier to control using the Zune itself than going through the car menus plus for some reason it kept trying to re-index the music on the Zune. It’s our first time with Sirius and that has some great channels. Unfortunately reception cuts out as soon as you get into the threes (like Hwy 522 up to Monroe or out in the San Juan Islands.) I’m guessing it’s because we’re on the edge of the country out hear in Seattle. It’s annoying enough that we probably won’t keep paying for it after the free 6 months are up.

The voice part of SYNC is the part that has taken us the longest to figure out. There are a lot of things you can say, but it’s not anywhere close to a full natural language interface, When you speak, you’re navigating through a series of menus and if you don’t know ahead of time what you can say, you have to listen to it read out all the options. That’s pretty ineffective. I found a button on the touchscreen which will display the various things you can say when you push the voice prompt button and that has been helpful in the learning process. I don’t think we’ll use voice too often, but there are times when you really do need to use it. For example, when the car is moving more than 5mph, many of the touchscreen functionality is disabled. So if you need to do something like navigate to an address, you need to do that with the voice commands (or pull over and use the touch screen.) You can do silly things with the voice system like control the temperature in the car, but I don’t know why you’d do that instead of reaching down and using the physical button (and yes, it’s on the touch screen too.) I feel like the voice system could be really cool, but I’m not that impressed at this point.

Car features are kind of like cable TV. You pay for some specific features you really want and then get a bunch of other stuff bundled in. Here are some gizmos that we didn’t specifically seek out but came bundled in our car:

• You can pick from a variety of colors for the ambient lights that show up in the foot wells, inside the cup holders, and behind the door handles. Tyla loves this because her car glows purple.
• There’s a 110v power outlet in the back seat which cranks out about 150 watts.
• There are three memory settings for the driver’s seat and side mirrors. This is way more awesome than I thought it would be considering the height difference between Tyla and me.
• The car came with remote start. Since it rarely gets below 35-40 degrees, I don’t know if we’ll use this but it’s there.
• There are three buttons on the visor that can be programmed to control garage door openers. We have three garage doors so this fits us perfectly.
• It’s the first time I’ve owned a car with automatic climate control. It’s so convenient! I now get annoyed driving my Subaru and fiddling with the fan and temperature controls.
• The ignition is just a push button that will activate whenever the key fob is present. Likewise if you walk up to the car with the key fob, the doors unlock when you reach for the handle. It’s handy, especially for Tyla who doesn’t have to dig through her purse to get in the car or start the engine. Shortly after getting the car she asked if I could make our house doors do that too!
• The power tailgate is another feature that is more useful than I expected. You can raise the tailgate with a button on the dash, a button on the key fob, or in the hand grip under the license plate. Likewise there are about three buttons you could press to close the tailgate. You can also set the maximum height that the gate will open in case you have a low garage.
• Lots of cars have that power tailgate, but Ford took it to the next level with a foot sensor. You just walk up to the rear of the car with the key fob in your pocket and wave your foot under the bumper. It took a little practice to figure out the location of the sensor but now it works great. Walk out with bags of groceries in your hands, kick your car in the butt and watch the tailgate open.
• The rear bumper has sensors that beep if you’re backing up into something.

Believe it or not, even with all the tech we got in the car, there are a bunch of features that we didn’t get. For example, there’s an option that will automatically parallel park the for you!

For a non-techy, I think this could all be a bit overwhelming. I was a bit nervous putting Tyla in a car like that but I think she’s getting it figured out and enjoying the various features on the car. It will never replace the love she felt for that Beetle, but I think it’s growing on her.

Personally I love the form factor. It’s big enough that I can fold the seats down and get some good utility out of it, it has a roof rack that will carry skis or the box, it has their fancy four wheel drive system that activates automatically only when you need it and it gets 30 mpg on the highway thanks to the EcoBoost engine technology. Plus, on the invoice it says “FORD TRUCK”. I told Tim I finally owned a truck and he replied, “Yeah, but it has purple lights inside.”

Tyla and I have had the Surface RT for a few weeks now. I’ve been putting off this review, but I’ll explain that later. First off, the device is great. If you want to step into the world of tablets, I have no trouble recommending this. It’s competitively priced and it has some strong differentiators.

Our device came with the touch keyboard. The first thing I did when I pulled it out was try a typing test. On my desktop keyboard, I average 100-110 words per minutes. On my first test with the touch cover, I got 66 words a minute and that includes backspacing to correct my errors. So yes, it’s slower, but it’s very usable and I expect that the type cover would be even faster. This unique keyboard/cover is the probably the single biggest win for the Surface. It removes one of my biggest complaints with tablets. You’re never going to type a two page email with an on-screen keyboard, but with one of these covers, it’s not too bad. However, unless you really want the super thin cover, I’d recommend getting the slightly thicker “type cover” which has keys that physically depress.

Word and Excel are included in the price of a Surface RT. I don’t use them a ton on the device, but if that’s something you need, your search stops with the Surface RT because no other (non-Windows) tablet can do this.

If you’re already heavily invested in the Apple world, stop reading and go buy an iPad. We know that’s what you’ll end up with anyway. Yes, they have more apps. I haven’t had a problem finding apps to do what I want on the tablet, but if you have some very specific app that you require, you should see which platforms carry it. You’ll only be able to run CascadeSkier if you’re on Windows 8. I’m sure THAT will drive millions of Surface sales.

So why did I say I’ve been hesitating to write this review? Well, it’s because I’m still trying to figure out why I want a tablet. Even Tyla will grab the laptop first if that’s closer. The only reason I pick up the Surface is because I’m bored while watching TV and it’s a novelty. Pretty soon I think it’s going to start gathering dust in the corner. I’m either in the mood to really use a computer in which case I’ll use a laptop or desktop or I want to kill time or play a game. In that situation my phone is already in my pocket. Why would I get up to get a tablet? That problem isn’t specific to the Surface. We don’t have an Android or Apple tablet for the same reason. The sweet spot for me seems to be as child entertainment or as a small device to take on planes. Neither one of those things apply very much to us at this point. I’m much more excited about devices like the Dell XPS 12 which functions most of the time as a laptop but can lay flat like a tablet.

I’m not going to complain about a gift from my company, but having a tablet in my house has convinced me that I’ve been correct in not spending my money on any device like this. If you have a need/desire for a tablet and want to try out a Surface before deciding, let us know! We can’t gift or sell this device, but you’re welcome to come play with it.