Drobo Mini & 5D

A valuable solution for the traveling nerd, Drobo’s brand new Drobo Mini is the world’s smallest full-featured storage array that operates off combined disk and solid-state technologies, making it also one of the fastest. Like Drobo’s other products, the Mini has four hot-swappable drive bays that allow you to manage as much storage as you can afford to purchase. Along with the Mini, Drobo has also released the 5D, a mega storage solution that works with up to five hot-swappabl drives and both have an extra SSD bay which drastically increase the responsiveness of the system.

For the mini you will require 2.5″ Hard Drives (Laptop Size) to fit into it unlike the 5D which can take any type of Hard Drive. The cool data-protecting design features automated SSD acceleration, as well as Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 interfaces—a which I don’t think any storage array has yet on the market. The way these bays have been designed is to make it easy for the drives to slip in and out, and when it comes to design I have to hand it to Drobo they have always perfected that with their products. If you are looking for an external storage device to be connected directly to your computer then this is the solution for you, I have always recommend it to people, for me I prefer network connected storage devices but for some people speed is important and in this case Thunderbolt & USB 3.0 are lightning fast.

The Drobo Mini ($599) and 5D ($799) both already on sale on Amazon without the drives.

Link: More Details @ TheVerge

I have always loved my Kindle Fire, the content was perfect, lots of access made it perfect but the only real issue is that it was lacking in firepower. So here comes Google with help of Asus announcing the new Google Nexus 7, throwing its punches all around. Powered by Android 4.1 (jellybean), this less-than-a-pound tablet features a 7-inch 1280×800 HD display, front-facing camera, the Tegra-3 chipset with a quad-core CPU and 12-core GPU, and comes in 8GB and 16GB flavors. It packs in all of the standard Google apps and works seamlessly with all of the Google Play content. And it is said to get over 8 hours of HD video playback, 10 hours of web browsing, or 10 hours of e-reading. The only difference is that it won’t have the automated platform that Amazon has but at the same time I just want a powerful compact pad to carry my magazines and reading content with me, and streaming if needed, for now this will do wonders.

Price ($200 for 8GB, $250 for 16GB)

So now will Apple make an iPad mini.

(Ordered Mine, and so did Qortuba, couldn’t help it!)

I for one love KVM Switches because I have two screens for dual view and multiple computers, I have had my run of dual display KVMs for some time now and I always end up going back to IOGear, they are the best at it and their hardware lasts a long time, with excellent support over the years. Now they have come up with the innovative “4-port DualView Mini DisplayPort KVMP Switch” (GCS1924). Most graphic cards these days come with Display ports, a few of them in fact and for a while I didn’t know what to use them for since most KVMs are DVI and some are VGA but now with this KVM you can use them for this KVM, and the best part is the cable is so small and the KVM switch itself is so small. Its MSRP price is for $880 but you can find it on Amazon for about $650 and for a lovely piece of hardware such as this, its a great price. One of the best things about this KVM is it’s size, it is very small and I like that the connections for the screens are on two different sides, usually with my KVM when you have four machines connected there are a lot of wires to keep connected but this one is really different then the rest.

Video resolutions:

• Single Link 1920×1200
• Dual-Link 2560×1600
• Supports special monitors with 3840×2400

IOGEAR’s newest KVMP product also improves on previous KVM designs with the latest Mini-DisplayPort and Mini-TOSLINK connectors. The connectors ensure ultra-high resolution audio and video performance for dual-link 2560 x 1600 resolution and ultra high resolution up to 3840 x 2400, with vivid picture quality and convenient surround sound.

Last year and the year before RIM was struggling, now they are just a sinking ship, when a few years before that it was everywhere like wildfire, everyone had a Blackberry. I still kept mine because of our Dewaneya being on it, and honestly it is still the best group communication App out there, I think they should have sold it off as an App in the App Store and Android Market, it would have helped sustain Blackberry on the software side.

They held on for so long and still RIM didn’t turn around at all, and a lot of people got fed up with it, they even switched to Android because some people didn’t want Apple. The whole of 2011 didn’t change anything for RIM, and Android & Apple just kept coming up with more updates and better handsets. People started shifting, it feels odd when people start leaving your contact list, at first its normal but then it just got ridiculous, floods of people disappeared. It was honestly sad some of these people were gone, it was nice to to star in touch with them. To be honest up to this point there isn’t an application that is better then BBM and nothing beats a good Qwerty keyboard but they had their problems and they didn’t progress. We are still stuck with the 10 MB which is pretty much useless when roaming, it gets used up in two or three days at most. I don’t know why but it feels like I was abandoned when I see the status update “BBM OFF – WhatsAPP +965##$##$##”, as if the person just gave up and left.

Now the migration has begun, very few people are left on Blackberry, I’m still holding on to it and using it when I can. I’m not a fan of WhatsApp even though pretty much everyone shifted over to it. I tried ChatON and a few other Apps they weren’t that great either. I think I’m probably going to stick to it until this piece of hardware quits, then I don’t think I will be getting another Blackberry until I see some drastic changes in the coming future.

The Dewaneya Media PC has been running for a good 6 years, and I think the age is showing. Since I have made some major changes to the dewaneya I was going for a bit of a hardware upgrade, starting off with the media PC.

New Specifications

• Intel® Desktop Board DH67CF – Mini-ITX – Media Motherboard
• Core i5 2300 – 2.8 GHz
• 8 GB Ram (2x4GB)
• Corsair 90 GB SSD – Sata 3 (For The OS)
• Pioneer BluRay RW

Total 187 KD From Professional Computer

What I Already Have

• Thermaltake Case
• Power Supply
• 2TB HD – Sata 3 (For The Media)

I almost store nothing on my PC’s these days, everything is stored on a network storage device which in this case is the Netgear 24TB Storage Unit. This little Unit is gonna pack a punch with the upgraded hardware and will be able to handle everything that I throw at it. Gonna install Windows 7 on it and from there I’m going to configure XBMC for my network, gonna take some tweaking and getting used to but I’m sure it will work perfectly. Other hardware upgrades are taking place in the dewaneya but that will be forthcoming in another post.

I’m not usually posting about hardware updates from Apple but this one seemed very interesting and enticing. These new Mac Book Pro with Retina Displays are supercharged machines in a smaller size then expected.

The one thing that is oddly changed is that power socket for the new MBP Retina Display models. That means if you have been collecting the power cables for your Mac Book Pros & Mac Book Air for all these years then you can’t use them for the new machines, going to have to collect a whole new bunch of them.

As usual the price is also up there, for a while I have been thinking of getting a new laptop, probably a Zen Book, but this update has thrown a wrench into that idea with a very lovely spec sheet below. Still its a bit on the pricey side, I think I want to see one in real life before making a decision.

Standard Model: 2.3Ghz quad-core i7, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, Intel HD 4000 & NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB [$2199]

Premium Model: 2.6GHz quad-core i7, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD, Intel HD 4000 & NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB [$2799]

Just to get an idea, this is the difference between the MBP 15 Inch & MBP Retina Display 15 Inch, and it packs a bigger punch then it’s predecessor.

Physical Comparison Between The Old & New MBPs

• Height: 0.95 inch (2.41 cm) vs. 0.71 inch (1.8 cm)
• Width: 14.35 inches (36.4 cm) vs. 14.13 inches (35.89 cm)
• Depth: 9.82 inches (24.9 cm) vs. 9.73 inches (24.71 cm)
• Weight: 5.6 pounds (2.56 kg) vs. 4.46 pounds (2.02 kg)

This is just a simple look into the Apple update on the Mac Book Pro. For a full breakdown check out all the articles over at Jacqui’s CouchAvenue she covers the Mac Book Pro, OSX Lion, iOS 6, and Other Minor Apple Updates. (She is the Apple Girl)

I’m always interested in Google Products, and I have been very interested in their Chrome platform, basically the online all the time OS. There are very few times when we aren’t connected to the net and this case it is the only way the Chrome Books operate. Right now the Chrome OS received a major update and you can get a laptop and desktop/box version for it. The Verge has a fantastic article below which goes into every freaking detail of Chrome OS and basically giving you the breakdown of what is really useful for you and how it could improve and whats great about the update. The video below is a simple review of Chrome Book, and what major improvements they have done and the feel of it, and the capabilities of the Samsung hardware. The video review really got my interest, I’m tempted to pick one up a laptop and try it.

Link: TheVerge

Right now you have a lot of choices for Cloud storage, the first player to the game being DropBox and they have integrated seemlessly into so many services and a lot of people use it naturally. Right now there are several cloud storage services out there: Microsoft SkyDrive, Apple iCloud, Google Drive, Box, & DropBox.

I for one shifted my iTunes and current Apple services to the iCloud, it just helped me access my iTunes from my other machines mainly and get my music on the cloud. SkyDrive interfaces with Microsoft very well but thats about it for me, doesn’t really fit my needs since I barely use Microsoft Office. Google Drive is very Google Docs oriented, a bit on the stiff side for me, stills its new and I haven’t had a chance to try it out completely. I haven’t really tried Box which is another independent service. DropBox has all my needs covered for now with an excellent updated online interface, works perfectly with Android & iOS, and does exactly what I need between my machines. Below is a comparison chart between the different services, the comparison done by Gizmodo, and the only major difference is that DropBox is a bit too expensive and I think they should bring down their prices but it is their core service in this case. You can also check out a more detailed analysis at the link below from Gizmodo, for now I’m sticking to DropBox.

Link: Gizmodo

The cloud dashboard for your mobile phone

Simply enough its a service that lets you manage your phone calls, text messages and contacts from a remote browser. Discover a new way of managing your phone calls, text messages and contacts remotely from the browser. Currently its working for Android only, and I think some sort of integration with Nokia, not iPhone integration because of the way the application works.

• Syncs your contacts, messages, and history to this application which you can control online
• They give you lots of statistics about the people you call, who you call the most, the number of messages sent, if you like statistics you will love this program
• The only thing to keep in mind is that they do have access to your phone, your messages, and you phone book which can be a bit freaky but it seems to be a legitimate company
• The simple idea for me is that if my phone is somewhere in the same building but I’m on the laptop, I can see who is calling and answer or reply, its a very cool and simple concept

Link: PhoneDeck

Its been a while since I have upgraded or messed around with any of my desktops. I have two which are running pretty good, they do the multitasking job that I need and I can open up about 100 tabs without even causing a hiccup. But the other two are in dire need of upgrades, one of them has ceased to function and it houses my iTunes which is making things very annoying to update playlists. Apple has some very screwed up ways of managing iTunes which makes me really hate them.

I have been thinking about getting a Windows Laptop for a while now and the one that I have been eyeing is the Asus ZenBook but I just heard that they are going for major hardware upgrade this summer so I’m going to wait on that.

Also one of the reasons I want to upgrade my hardware is the release of Diablo III in May, I want a machine that can handle the abuse so I will be building that soon, once I have searched the depths of New Egg for the hardware I have in mind.