It is a given that Logitech make good Keyboard/Mice and the webcam range is second to none. Microsoft got better at Webcams of late compared to the earlier models (which were terrible). Checking the prices of the two, you can get a Microsoft Lifecam Studio for £52 while the Logitech C910 can be bought for £54, so about the same price. They both started life closer to £90 and on paper they both seem to handle HD, have good optics and a very good picture.
The last update on training was the Christmas rest period (the gym was closed) and this was a perfect time to change my routine, a change is a good as a rest they say. There is a lot of information online with each one claiming that this is the routine of choice, instead of this, I just did my own thing. To remind everybody, I started training in March 2011, so we are approaching the one-year marker.
I Currently run a collection of Windows 7 machines and the Apple iMac 27”, until recently I was always on the PC more than the Mac, why you ask? Windows 7 for most part just works just fine and I most of the software I need is on this platform. Not wanting the iMac to be just a mere second thought, I started to use the machine a lot more. I decided for example it was easier to have all my media into MP4 format and this is were the Mac comes into play using Elgato Turbo.264, ripping through media files faster than any PC can. Everything worked just fine, until some updates come along.
The Motorola Xoom is a 10.1” Tablet that runs Android 3.2 (honeycomb) with Ice-cream Sandwich (4.0.3) coming to the UK Soon. This started life as a £399 device competing again the iPad 2 but came with a default of 32GIG storage instead of 16GIG. It first dropped to £329 (which it currently retails at) but for a short period of time, a couple of stores had it for £249, which made it somewhat of a bargain. I managed to get the last on in stock while passing Carphone Warehouse, would this have the same issues as the Blackberry Playbook or would I end off keeping this device?
If you have been following my blog of late, it has a Tablet slant and the reason for the sudden need for me to buy a tablet is the various companies dropping prices of the said items. I had already written about the Motorola Xoom dropping in price to £249 and how I struggled to actually buy one from a bricks and mortar store. I was out and about yesterday and thought I would try my luck at buying a tablet, any issues and I was happy to walk away – I just do not need a tablet that urgent.
I came across DC Universe on my PS3 while looking around for some new stuff and it took forever to download and install (and update etc). You can also download and play this for free on Windows, not 100% sure if they are the same servers. The game is a 3rd person viewpoint and you get to choose Male or Female, Good or bad and various skill types to start the game with.
The Motorola Xoom started life as a £399 10 inch tablet, competing against the iPad 2, the theory was it had double the ram for the same price as the baseline iPad 2. Sales were bad and soon they dropped the price down to £329 and in November 2011 brought out the Xoom 2. Recently a few retailers have slashed the price down to £249, such as PCWorld & Carphone warehouse (the same people who also slashed the prices of Blackberry Playbook). I thought I would pop along to local PCWorld and see if they had any in, online stated they had none in stock.
The Playbook started life at full price, about the same price if I recall as the iPad and then we had the first drop which saw the device go for 16GIG – £249, 32GIG – £329 and 64GIG – £409. We next had another price drop just the other week and now it was 16GIG – £169, 32GIG – £200 & 64GIG – £329. They are having another go with the prices going up instead (and down on the bigger models). As you can see from the screenshot, 16 GIG – £249 (£80 Increase), 32GIG – £259 (£60 Increase) and 64GIG – £269 (£60 decrease). If the £169 did not seem worth it – cannot see why people would spend more now?
Spiceworks is a free browser-based network management and administration program. It provides the user with a single dashboard from which he or she can inventory, monitor and troubleshoot the network.
When you first install it, Spiceworks scans your network. It checks Active Directory, does a NetBIOS scan and pings the addresses in your specified IP range. It took us a fair bit of fiddling with the firewall to get all the devices on our network inventoried, and even then our locally attached printer wasn’t found. This was a bit odd, given that it was attached to the PC Spiceworks was installed on.
Once it has its inventory, though, Spiceworks is refreshingly intelligent in the way it uses your information. For instance, wherever it can it will identify a client PC’s make and model. It will then automatically link that PC’s entry to the driver download page on its manufacturer’s website. It will also show you the machine’s spec, the programs that are installed on it, the amount of disk space free and so on.
BlackBerry Playbook
I currently own an iPad 1, wife has an iPhone 4S and I have a Windows Mobile 7 Phone, so I have enough devices to do what I need on the go. I have been looking at tablets for a while now and a few caught my eye such as Sony Tablet S, Blackberry Playbook and the Motorola Xoom. The end choice is always about money, splashing out £400 for an iPad 2 was too much money in my books and even the £329 price points of Android Tablets seem a bit high. The two machines that are at the £200 price point are the Blackberry Playbook and Arnova 9 G2.
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