Computing Archives - Page 12 of 16 - TBNI.Blog

Late 2013 Apple iMac UnBoxing

October 17, 2013 by TomBoyNI

About 3 months ago I had a great setup for my computer needs, namely an early 2011 i7 2.2 GHz MacBook Pro with a Apple Cinema display for my desktop requirements.

As my requirements changed I decided it was time for a change in the computer. Now as any Apple user knows, ‘when you go Mac, you don’t go back,’ so it was time to upgrade. The rumour mill was going mad online of a new iMac coming at the end of August. I seen it is a good time to change. So towards the end of July I sold my MBP and Cinema Display set up and squirrel’d the money away to patiently wait on the imminent product refresh from Apple.

The end of August came, and no iMac refresh came. Then along came the iPhone announcement and its subsequent release on 20th September 2013. No new iMac. During this time life without a computer was pretty tough. I did get myself a Netbook to cope with the emergencies and the iPad was worked hard until 24th September 2013 when Apple announced the iMac refresh : http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2013/09/24Apple-Updates-iMac.html

Finally time to get my hands on this beast. I decided to bit of maxing out of the specs in order to get a long life out of it. As it was a custom build it had to be ordered online, the delivery time was given to me as some stage on 11th October 2013.

It was this date that it arrived. Delivered by UPS, whom I found to be bound down by red tape in relation to their deliveries but that is an entirely different story!

Anyway the iMac was here and specc’d as follows :

Specifications

3.5GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz
8GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM – 2X4GB
1TB Fusion Drive
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4GB GDDR5
Magic Trackpad
Apple Wireless Keyboard (English) & User’s Guide
Accessory Kit

So with this spec I decided to max out the processor, the graphics and take on a Fusion Drive (some nifty technology that combines a standard spinning hard drive and some flash memory – the storage capacity of a HDD, with the speed of an SSD). I stuck with 8Gb of RAM as this is user upgradable, and much cheaper to do yourself than having it done in the factory.

Having only been using the machine for a week I am already hugely impressed, the Fusion Drive seems as capable as the SSD I had in my MBP, the speed of regular tasks is supreme, I have done a little video editing (for the FAKE Otterbox video posted 2 posts earlier) and the speed of conversion was breath taking in comparison to what I was used too. I have a couple of USB 3.0 external drives connected and they are super sharp in relation to the USB 2 speeds I had been working with. The 27″ screen needs no comment other than ‘STUNNING!’

As yet I haven’t really pushed any aspect of this machine, I am looking forward to playing about with some GoPro footage to see how the graphics card handles some HD editing. It was this sort of tasking that my old machine had started to splutter.

So in what is ultimately a very quick initial thoughts posting I am massively impressed with this machine, it was expensive, but I can see this being an investment that I will continue to enjoy for many years.

Oh and of course I got AppleCare, something I have never had to use thankfully, but anyone who I know that has can not sing its praises highly enough.

Fake OtterBox Defender for iPhone 5s Damages Phone.

October 16, 2013 by TomBoyNI

Following on from my last post I put together this very quick video illustrating the damage that the FAKE Otterbox Defender for iPhone 5s did to my phone.

Thankfully this damage was able to be cleaned off, thanks solely (in my opinion) to the protective shield I had installed. I can’t imagine cleaning this off the aluminium would have been in any way easy!

[youtube=http://youtu.be/SyBNsnVzsj8]

My advice on this one is simply, avoid any FAKE Otterbox Defender cases like the plague!

FAKE Otterbox Defender for iPhone 5s – Unboxing, Review and Warning!

October 9, 2013 by TomBoyNI

IMPORTANT UPDATE : After making contact with Otterbox this case has found to be fake! A refund was received from the seller who claims it was a genuine mistake. The original post has been corrected by removing any reference to this case being genuine and any Otterbox related conclusions then, I would like to stress Otterbox were extremely helpful as was the original seller, however at this point I will use this post and associated gallery as an illustration of what you can look for for!

For clarity here is a copy of the confirmation I received from OtterBox informing me the case was fake :

Apple iPhone 5s – Does it Blend?!? – Just Kidding – Just a Regular Unboxing!

October 9, 2013 by TomBoyNI

I have temporarily fallen behind in my posts mainly due to the fact that I was without a computer for the best part of two months there. Well today my new iMac arrived in its 27″ of glory, so that’s me back on track. I am going to throw up a few quick galleries and posts of stuff that I gathered up in my computerless times, but in order to make some progress I wont be dwelling on them.

The first such gallery is my iPhone 5s unboxing. This is a release day model, 64Gb white, silver iPhone 5s, which I purchased with, the new to the UK, AppleCare+

It was picked up on release day from the Apple Store in Belfast, and I only had to queue from 3.30am! (Stocks were that low however that I had to updrage to the 64Gb model as the 32Gb were all sold out, there were only about 50 people in front of me!)

My initial opinions on this phone are great. This is another excellent device released by Apple, with the freshness of iOS7 a new lease of life has been given to the phone.

The camera is brilliant, the slow-mo addition is one of my favourite new additions and the fingerprint scanner brings a wee bit of the future a little bit closer.

I will throw up a few more tips / tricks / thoughts if and when I have them, until such times here is my gallery…

Will the Otterbox Defender for iPhone 5s work with an InvisibleShield?

October 4, 2013 by TomBoyNI

IMPORTANT UPDATE : PLEASE READ :

Having used this case for a number of hours I took it off to check that it was causing no damage. Something I do with each case I try and it is for exactly this reason that I do this.

The case has an Otterbox Logo embossed into the rear part of the case (inside the case). The rear of the phone sits against this. Upon checking my phone this logo had transferred itself onto the rear of my phone, in a big black ugly printed mess.

Much like if you left anything lying on a newspaper.

Photos will be added soon.

I have no idea if this transfer occurs onto the aluminium of the phone, however it certainly does if you have a shield / skin on the rear of your phone.

My advice is simply do not use this case if you have a skin on your phone.

The transferred logo did come off the rear of my phone with a lot of clean and scrapping with a fingernail however it was a mess.

I will be contacting Otterbox and will advise in due course.

IMPORTANT UPDATE : PLEASE READ :

For me this is one of the biggest questions I have in relation to any case. I have dedicated this post to this question so anyone else searching for the answer to this question should hopefully find it easily.

1. Will the Otter Defender for iPhone 5s work with a Zagg InvisibleShield?
– No. Watermarks are present across the entire surface of the Otterbox and thus massively affects the screen clarity and usage.

2. Will the Otter Defender for iPhone 5s work with a Best Skins Ever?
– No. Watermarks are present across the entire surface of the Otterbox and thus massively affects the screen clarity and usage.

3. Will the Otter Defender for iPhone 5s work with a Body Guardz?
– No. Watermarks are present across the entire surface of the Otterbox and thus massively affects the screen clarity and usage.

4. Will the Otter Defender for iPhone 5s work with a Matt / Privacy Screen Shield?
– Yes. No watermarking occurs. Although the clarity of the screen will decrease as does the sensitivity of the screen it will function.

In relation to the above if you have one of the other screen guards on you can apply a Matt screen protector over the top of it. It will prevent the watermarking. However the clarity and sensitivity of the screen will decrease. It does mean you can keep your invisible shield etc for when you change cases.

I will add images to highlight the above when I get my computer back.

Might even do a quick video, but don’t hold me to that.

20/09/2013 – Happy iPhone 5s Day

September 21, 2013 by TomBoyNI

So I completed my annual iPhone queuing yesterday at the Apple Store, Belfast returning home with a new white iPhone 5s 64GB.

Stocks were certainly low and the gold variant sold out almost instantly.

I can anticipate that desirability will increase rapidity now as stocks of other models sell out. Prices on eBay are already well inflated.

I will follow up with my thoughts and feelings on the IPhone5s and iOS7 in due course.

If you got one, enjoy!

The Last of Us – This Gaming Generation’s Perfection?

September 4, 2013 by TomBoyNI

This isn’t so much a review,there are loads of them out there, from professional review sites which all describe this game in great detail. Also it isn’t a preview, the Last of Us has been out far too long for that!

Instead it is just some thoughts I felt I had to share after spending close to 17 hours in this beautiful but devastated Naughty Dog view of the Zombie Apocalypse.

I started this game when it came out a couple of months ago, but due to other commitments only got about an hour into the story, after a (unintentional) long break I got to sit down in front of my ps3 again and decided it would be rude to try and start from where I left off, so I started again. Believe me that’s no big deal as now that I have finished it I will easily sit down again and start it from the beginning.

A week without a computer

August 19, 2013 by TomBoyNI

So it has been seven days since I sold up on my Mac set up. I have been ‘computerless’ for a full week and I have to say it is grim.

My set up consisted of an i7 MacBook Pro (early 2011) with an Apple Cinema Display (24″). The MBP was used in clamshell mode with an Apple wireless Keyboard and Magic Trackpad.

I had decided that I wanted to update to a new iMac as the portability of the MBP was something that I did not utilise.

iPhone 5 Lunatik Taktik Case : UnBoxing

October 21, 2017August 8, 2013 by TomBoyNI

I firmly believe a picture speaks a thousand words, so as with many of my unboxings, this unboxing is based around a photo gallery.

The Lunatik Taktik Case is a hardcore monster of a case. It started its life on KickStarter (a crowd funded startup site, that helps fledgling companies get the money they need from the public often by offering great incentives to ‘backers.’

As you can see from the photos this is a big case, nothing about it says subtle, it needs its own tool just to get it on your phone! The gorilla glass adding further protection to your phones screen and the overall styling shouting ‘go ahead, break me, I dare ya!’

Although obviously nothing is unbreakable, just ask the Titanic! However if this thing breaks in your pocket, there is a good chance your leg is broken too, so you’ll be more worried about that!

UnBoxing Gallery :

Nike Fuel Band… 9 months on!

August 8, 2013 by TomBoyNI

So it has been 9 months since I got my Nike Fuel Band and I have been using it regularly ever since.

In fact for 8 months it pretty much never left my wrist, however for this last month it hasn’t even been close to my wrist!

And I will state from the start that is not the fault of the fuel band.

So forgetting the past few weeks that I haven’t been wearing the Fuel Band what are my opinions?

Simply put this is a great device, it makes you set a goal to achieve an amount of Nike Fuel, which isn’t any real measurable unit, people think it is calories, it is not, others think it is steps, again it isn’t. It is Nike Fuel. Nike would tell you this is a figure that takes into account your movement throughout the day and converts it into Nike’s own unit, the ‘Fuel.’

So you set your limit, I set mine at 3,000 Nike Fuel Units in a day. It took me a few days to come to this figure, but for me it means that a normal working day won’t hit this value, for me to hit it I have to go out and do a run or a long walk.

A value of 2000 I could hit just by getting up and going to work, so I set it high enough that some actual exercise had to occur for me to hit it.

Specifications

Disclosure :