Hands on Hisense Sero 7 Pro tablet review

This tablet is available at Wallmart for $150 and it is a very nice tablet. The reviews are starting to hit the web and every review that I have encountered is positive.
The tablet comes in a simple box, with charger, usb cable and a simple manual included. Nothing else is in the box, which is to be expected at this price point. The tablet itself is very well made. I had access to Nexus 7 for a few days and I can tell that the Sero 7 Pro is built just as well. The case has a rubbery feel to it with textured back and it does not feel slippery at all. The case does not have any give or does not creak as some people say. It feels very solid and well made.  The tablet has a 5MP camera with flash on the back and 2MP front facing camera on the front. On the back in the bottom part of the tablet there are 2 speakers. All connectors are concentrated on top and the buttons are on the right side. I personally like connectors being on top since it is more comfortable to read and listen to the music although any tablet can be rotated this way.

The screen quality is excellent. Pictures are vibrant and videos are very nice. The screen is a bit too bright on minimum setting when reading in total darkness even in the night mode. Maybe I should find a reader that can adjust brightness lower than FBReader by putting overlay over the text. Reading experience is very pleasant, similar to my Galaxy Player 4.2 but better because pages do not have to be turned as often. The tablet is not too heavy especially comparing to iPad and it is comfortable to hold over long periods of time. Overall this makes an excellent reading tablet.

Camera quality is reasonable. Better that the one on the Galaxy player. LED flash is OK and the whole setup works in a pinch. I would not use it for anything important since any $100 camera would blow this tablet away. Any dedicated camera would blow away iPad or iPhone as well so this is not surprising. Front camera is good enough as well, for a tablet that is. Camera app has a stock panorama feature which may be useful for a realtor or someone who wants to make a quick panorama in good light.

Battery life is amazing to say the least. I am not sure if this is new Android or processor or anything else. My Galaxy player is loosing about 6% of charge a day even if not used. It can go about week and a half with about 30 minutes of reading every day with the screen at the minimum brightness and all communications off. The Visio 8 inch tablet performed the same way. The Sero tablet only looses about 1% of charge a day when not in use. I have not had long enough usage to estimate how long I can read on a single charge but initial numbers are very good. I will update this post when I get firm numbers. Please note that most of my battery measurement are done with display brightness at the minimum. I read in the low light environment and minimum brightness is all I need.

Internet browsing is very good - pages load fast and render correctly. It is OK to use for browsing but I still prefer my PC. For quick stock check, traffic check or weather forecast it is fine. WiFi signal strength is shown to be less than the Galaxy player in the same location but the network works fine. I have tried few simple games and they work well. Other people report that 3d games run OK. My main interest was in reading books and playing videos for which it works really well.

There are no accessories designed specifically for this tablet but I am sure that this should be forthcoming. Over all I am very pleased with this tablet and would recommend it for any use. I would especially recommend it if you want a good quality tablet on the cheap.

 Battery Life Update

After 5 days of standby with 40 minutes of reading the battery is down to 87%. This is much better than Galaxy Player 4.2. The player shows 77% of battery after 2 hours of reading and 2 days since the last charge. The standby consumption of the Sero 7 appears to be very good.

 Battery Life Update 2

After 19 days of standby battery level is at 43%. The conclusion is that standby time is excellent. I expect it to last a month on standby. My next tests are to use it for reading.

Roku new interface review

I received Roku interface update about a week ago. Before the update I was looking for reviews of the new interface but aside from paid "technology writers" I could not find any unbiased reviews. There are voices of criticism on Roku forums but they are quickly drowned out by the "you have no rights to criticize" crowd.

Here is my review in a few words - the new interface SUCKS! It has a few differences from the old one, mainly that is is now grid of icons versus strip of icons in the old one. The icons are much smaller and the text is smaller and harder to read. The ad on the other hand is much bigger. Ad takes up more than a third of the screen and so annoying that it prompted me to find a blocking solution.

This new interface was designed by a marketing person who has no idea about usability of interfaces on TV. Previous interface was not a usability example but it was tolerable. The font was readable, the icons were large. The new one goes against all good design guidelines, except if your guidelines are to show giant ads and piss off all users of the device.
Navigation to a given icon is now faster since one can navigate in two directions instead of one but the interface startup is slower. It also takes more memory or maybe the new software is slower over all. It affects other apps and they are slower to start and have to fetch images more often. Home button now brings you in to the menu instead of the application icon as it used to do. To navigate back to the app screen you need an extra press.
Roku tried to better integrate the app store but I think they failed. Roku store is still as ugly as ever and loads very slowly. The settings now a menu item on the left instead of an icon and has greater chance to be selected by mistake. Search is also a menu item which is an improvement as it can be reached faster.

The video, when streamed from the local server, starts faster. Positioning within the video is also seems faster. New software fixed crashes when navigating within MKV files. I only tried with one file so this conclusion may be a bit premature. When position is changed within MKV file that is streamed over HTTP, most of the time first few seconds of video is broken but audio is OK. After few seconds video recovers. Previous version locked up the box, which rebooted after watchdog is expired. The new version seems to hold up.

The new Roku interface is definitely worse than the old one. It is slower to start, icons are smaller and ad is much larger and obtrusive. The software over all seems to slow down old apps. On the other hand video navigation is faster and MKV files  play better when streamed. I am disappointed with this update and will try to figure out how to prevent Roku from auto updating in the future.

Logitech G400s mouse

In my previous post I complimented Logitech customer service and now I wanted to give my opinion on the new mouse they sent me.

My old mouse is G400 as far as I can tell. It is dark grey with black bottom and has a Logitech logo on top. The new mouse is G400s and has a large G in place of Logitech logo. It is also different color - dark blue with the black stripes and silver markings. The buttons are same size and in the same positions. The weight of the new mouse is the same as the old one although I did not measure it precisely.
One thing that did change is the mouse cable. Old mouse had thin and very hard cable. There was no issues with it, it just was different from the older mice that I had. The new mouse has same thin cable but it is not as hard. It is more pliable and softer on touch. They also added grommet on the mouse end of the cable which should help this cable to last longer.

Sensitivity and button presses feel exactly the same. Wheel rotation feels "clicker" on the new mouse. In use this mouse feels identical to my original G400 and performs identically.

I still like G400 a lot and would recommend it for gaming and everyday use. I really like sensitivity adjustment buttons which do not require any special drivers. The mouse performs flawlessly on my cheap mouse pad and does not jerk or skip. No matter how fast I move it, it tracks really well.

Excellent customer service from Logitech

My older Logitech MX300 mouse finally gave up to ghost and after some research I purchased Logitech G400 to replace it. I like G400 a lot. It has a nice weight and comfortable to use. The only downside of this mouse in my case that it is right handed and I prefer ambidextrous mice. This mouse served me for over a year really well but developed very annoying squeak when pressing the wheel down.  Ordinary mouse can be opened and cleaned but G400 is sealed. The screws are located under the gliding pads, which are glued shut to the body. In theory the pads can be pried away to access the screws but I did not want to ruin the mouse.

I contacted Logitech tech support in hopes of getting some tips on cleaning this mouse. Few emails later they send me a brand new G400. I was pleasantly surprised to say the least. It is unusual to see a company being so forthcoming in replacing their products. I used Logitech products before as their mice are very good and reliable. Now they got a devoted customer. Knowing that they stand behind their products makes me confident that they are interested in maintaining quality. I can not imaging that their business model would be selling a bad product and then replacing it for free.

Update on RT-N12B1 router - still recommended

We have had this router for about a month now and so far I am very happy with it. Original .38 firmware was relatively stable but it rebooted for some reason about every 3 to 5 days. I have not noticed the reboots and only knew about them from the router logs. I upgraded firmware to the 2.1.1.46 and will report on stability later in the month.
Other than the unnoticed reboots, the router is great. I handles all the traffic splendidly without a hitch. There are no issues with VPN or tunneling or anything else for that matter. Router can handle two Roku boxes streaming at the same time - one locally and one from Hulu. There is really nothing bad I can say about this router and would recommend it to anyone.

Update

After 11+ days there is no reboots with the firmware version 2.1.1.1.46. So far this update working out nicely. Before reboot write down router settings and after reset the router to default settings and restore the settings you have written down. Without that I had trouble reconnecting with my wireless devices.

Update #2

After 12 days router finally rebooted. I think from now on I will reboot it after 10 or so days if I remember.

Update #3

It appears that the router does not reboot as I previously thought. The uptime in the interface changes to indicate the router is rebooted but the system log has no indication of reboot. That would explain why I have not observed service disruption upon reboot. I will try to contact support and see what they say.

Asus RT-N12B1 router review, initial impression

I was looking to replace my home router for a while now. I was still using Netgear MR-814 which is a 802.11b router and was getting slow. I was looking for a router capable of running DD-WRT or any other open firmware in case original firmware proves to be inadequate.

After some research I picked Asus RT-N12B1. This router is priced reasonably (around $40), capable of running OSS firmware and supports 802.11N single band. It comes with dual 5db antennas and provides good coverage for our house. Asus backs this router with 2 year warranty which should be sufficient since electronics in my experience ether fail shortly or run for a long time. This router equipped with 8MB flash and 32 MB ram and uses Broadcom BCM5357B0 chipset. It looks nice in white and has cool blue LEDs.

I did not update or change stock firmware and performance and stability so far are pretty good. The router came with 2.1.1.1.38 firmware which is not available as download from the Asus site. I have not encountered any problems configuring it or connecting devices to it. After connecting router to my cable modem and rebooting the modem, my connection came up and tested at over 50Mb/s. My old router was able to only achieve about 19Mb/s (which was plenty for my purposes). The weak point of models sold many years ago was stability under BitTorrent download. This router does not have any issues and I downloaded different Ubuntu iso files just to test it. Port forwarding, which I use for VPN connection, is also works without a hitch. I probably need to note that the router runs without encryption and with open authentication so the described performance may change if encryption is turned on. I have no plans to do this however.

My goal was to run 2 Roku boxes at the same time, which was not possible with the old router. This seems to be possible with the new Asus router and it performs well. I have no video drops or buffering with both Roku devices playing at the same time.
Firmware on Asus site is updated regularly and was updated as recently as Dec 2012. Hopefully the Asus keeps up the good work and there is always DD-WRT for backup.
I wanted to mention that there is no temperature problems. The unit is cool to the touch from the top and the bottom. There is slight warm spot right above the main chip but only few degrees warmer than any other place. It is cooler than my cable modem or even my Pogoplug. I do not anticipate any issues in this area.
My first impression is favorable and I would recommend this router if one needs a simple N router without fancy options.

DELL Lattitude E6510

Recently I got a new Dell laptop at work. This new laptop replaced a 6 year old Lattitude D600, which was still working well but became too slow to run all the software, that IT installs on our work computers.
I love new computers. They are slicker, faster and better than the old ones. A lot of technology is packed in the new laptops. In any event this was my mood until I started to use this machine.
The one I got was nearly top of the line Lattitude E6510. It has Core i7 with 4 cores and 8 total threads, 4GB of ram and 250GB hard drive (our standard memory size to run a 32 bit OS), 1920x1080 led screen, decent video card and what ever else came in the bundle.
When I just started using it, I was pretty impressed how fast this machine was. I also liked the back-lit keyboard which allows you to work in the dark environments, like an airplane. The fingerprint reader is a nifty gadget, as well as built in camera and the microphone. I guess these things were around for a while, I just never had a laptop that had them all.
I was quickly disillusioned after using that machine for a few days, especially away from my desk. The keyboard on this laptop is terrible. The internal design has metal parts rubbing against each other during the key press, so all of the larger keys squeak in a very annoying way. I had to pop most of the keys and put a small dub of lithium grease one the metal parts. This becomes old very fast, especially when you are traveling and don't have the grease handy. Also powerful processor does come with the price - heat and short battery life. The machine is hot and noisy. The fan makes annoying purring noise and almost permanently turned on. The battery lasts under 2 hours, which is less than my 6 year old laptop did. I can't figure out how to make it last longer. All I want is to edit a file in Word or a text editor and have the machine last for longer than 2 hours, is that too much to ask?
The speakers are next to the keyboard and protected by a grill with the small holes drilled through it. The holes accumulate dust and grime and are impossible to clean with anything but a brush. I prefer speaker grill to be easier to clean or at least be some place that does not get dirty easily.
The machine is heavy but this is not a complaint. I knew how heavy it was when I ordered it. It does not bother me, but people looking for a lighter machine should avoid this laptop.
The bottom line that I miss my old laptop. It was slow but it was solid and had pretty good battery life. With my 2 batteries it could last a whole flight across Atlantic. This one not so much.
On the bright side, looking on how poorly this laptop is made, it will not last 6 years and I will have to get a new one in a year or two.

2009 Hyundai Sonata Limited Review

I have been driving my Subaru Impreza Outback for 11 years. The Subaru was working well but I simply wanted a new car. We actually wanted hatchback or wagon but could not find one with good combination mileage and reliability. So we decided to go with a larger sedan.

After much research and test driving we settled on Hyundai Sonata SE. Unfortunately combination of color, style and 4cyl engine that we wanted is rare so we got Sonata Limited instead. I am not disappointed in this choice. OK may be just a little since I am not a big fan of leather and sunroofs. Other than that I am simply thrilled with this car.

*** Room
Sonata has plenty of room. It is as large as our 2008 Camry or maybe even larger. Trunk space is good and split folding rear seat make it even bigger. Trunk opening is large too. Of course this is not a wagon but I think it will do in the most cases.

*** Features
This car is loaded with features! Where do I begin? Telescoping steering wheel (not powered), XM radio, Infinity stereo system with MP3 and WMA playback. My favorite feature of the stereo is ability to play your music from USB drive. There is a USB jack in the armrest compartment in which you can plug your USB drive with music. Car stereo will recognize it and play it just like it would CD with mp3 files on it. Saves you from burning CDs especially if you are like me, like to listen to podcasts. I used to have small mp3 player just for that.
XM radio is very good as well. The car comes with 3 months subscription so you can sample the radio and see if you like it. I like it but not sure if I want to continue. Regular FM reception is great too.

There are 2 power jacks in the cabin - one in the center console and one in the armrest. I think modern car needs more of these, I'd say at least 4. So in this department Sonata is a bit short but few cars have more than 2.

Leather seats are comfortable but the leather is rather hard. Of course you don't pay for the luxury car so you can't expect top quality leather. Power driver seat is nice, controls are intuitive and work well. I have not used heated seats but looking forward to use that feature in the winter.

Another feature that will come handy in the winter is heated outside mirrors. It should improve visibility a lot especially when I leave work in the evening.

Auto dimming mirror with compass is a nice feature plus built in garage door opener adds to the long list.

Comparing to our 2008 Camry LE V6 which cost us nearly the same, Sonata is loaded with features.

One feature that I would like to have but it is missing from Sonata is rear window shade. Camry XLE has that as an option. I would like to have one even manual.

*** Ergonomics
Ergonomics are excellent. All control are where you expect them to be and work as you expect them to work. Clock is clearly visible during the day and at night. This was one of the problems with Impreza. Very good experience over all.

If you are like me, trying to maintain your car yourself, you will be pleased with the placement of the oil filter and all of the dipsticks. They are easy to access and when oil is drained it will not run all over your engine. You also do not need to jack up the car or put it on the ramps to access the oil filter (unlike Camry V6).

*** Build quality
Build quality is better than expected. Materials are high quality, all parts fit well. Car has expensive feel to it. Comparing to our 2008 Camry it wins hands down. Toyota's quality has been slipping over the last few years.

Door panels made plastic that feels and looks good. Leather wrapped steering feels nice. There is no large gaps in the panels (unlike American cars) and exposed edges finished well (unlike Camry). Excellent job Hyundai!

*** Peformance
Performance is very good. I have not had a situation where I would say that I needed more power. I drive this car to and from work, mostly on the freeway. Engine power has been more than sufficient. Maybe if I take the car to the mountains 4 Cyl engine will show its deficiencies but that is to be tested yet. Transmission shifts when you expect and it is very smooth. Since the car is new I have not pushed it much and in general I do not push my cars. I am more after comfortable ride then after performance and Sonata delivers there.

*** Fuel Economy
WOW! That is all I can say. Car is rated to 32MPG on highway and that is where I drive it. When the car was brand new I was driving it rather slow to break in the engine. I was getting 35MPG consistently and few times as high as 37.5MPG. My record per tank was 35.5 MPG.
Now I am driving more inline with the traffic with speeds between 60 and 70 MPH. I am getting 33 MPG without even trying. This car exceeded all of my expectations in the fuel economy department. I think having computer that monitors MPG helps since you see what you are getting and you can adjust your driving accordingly. It would be nice if Hyundai added instant MPG readings but even average is a big help.

*** Ride
Ride is very nice. Car is quiet but there is some engine and road noise. Nothing bad though. You can comfortably talk and listen to the radio. Comparing to my Impreza it is a HUGE improvement. Car behaves predictably on the road and over all is a pleasure to be in.
We love our Camry ride which is very quiet, probably due to very powerful V6. Sonata does not fall far behind even with 4 Cyl engine.

*** Shortcomings
- Gas tank easy to overflow and spill during top off. Somehow it is constructed in a way that if you try to top off it will spill pretty much immediately. Just need to remember that and do not top off.
- You cant turn on or off audio from steering controls but have to use a power knob on the radio. Not a big deal but Camry can do this with half the buttons.
- Few too many buttons on the radio controls. You do not need all these buttons. Mute? You can just turn radio off. It should be safer with less buttons. This is not a big deal since you can just not use them.

*** Over all
I am very happy with my Sonata, save for a few minor details. If you are on the market for midsized sedan and do not mind how Sonata looks, I strongly urge you to give it a try. Sonata exceeded my expectations in all aspects, especially for the price. Our family tends to keep cars for a long time and long warranty should help us there.
Toyota Camry and Honda Accord have a worthy competition and should be worried.