Nexus Prime To Be Announced in 2 Weeks?

Samsung are having another “Unpacked” event on the 11th of October at CTIA. At Samsung’s last “unpacked” event we saw a number of announcements like the Galaxy Tab 7.7 and the Galaxy Note. With the latest installment of Android dubbed “Ice Cream Sandwich” scheduled for release in October/November, it seams like the perfect timing to announced the highly anticipated Nexus Prime, Google’s next flagship phone.

NVIDIA’s Kal-El Actually has 5 Cores

It turns out that NVIDIA’s upcoming Kal-El processor that was believed to have 4 cores actually has 5 cores. The fifth core will handle mundane tasks such as syncing, background tasks and audio. Which in turn will boast the battery life of the device.

Kal-El equipped devices are expected to arrive before the end of the year and was one of the main reasons that I don’t own an Android tablet yet.

Link

Upgrading The Mac Mini

I have been a mac user for almost 5 years now, and the Mac Mini that I got a couple of weeks ago was my first Mac desktop experience. And because I downloaded OS X Lion a few weeks earlier on my MBP and experienced some slow-downs. I knew I had to get extra RAM for the Mac Mini if I intended to use it as a proper desktop with somewhat intensive tasks.

A good thing that the Mac Mini RAM upgrade is fool-proof. All you need to do is unscrew the bottom, both RAM sticks, put in the new RAM (2x4GB sticks in my case) and the just screw the bottom back on. its that simple.

The RAM kit I got from Amazon was for $44/KD12 and works beautifully. [Link]

Samsung Might Have Just Announced My Next Tablet, And Possibly Phone

IFA 2011 kicked off today and Samsung quickly announced a number of hardware product. The 2 major ones were a tablet and something in between a tablet and a phone. First was the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7, the successor to the original 7″ Galaxy Tab. It comes with a dual core 1.4 CPU, A 1280 x 800 7.7″ super AMOLED plus HD screen, SD card slot and a reduction in thickness as this new 7.7″ will be as thin as the new Galaxy Tab 10.1. The device still has shortcomings, The device won’t have a full size USB port as I think Samsung will try to push its dongles on the consumers but I would have preferred the Tab to have a full USB port as the Android OS can make use of it in a lot of scenarios. And will have samsung’s Touchwiz UI. Even though the Touchwiz UI is great, I prefer the Android’s Vanilla experience.

The other Samsung announcement was a little weird one. A phone named the Galaxy Note that has a 5.3″ super AMOLED plus HD with a resolution of 1280 x 800 that should “blur the line between smartphones and tablets”. The Dell Streak-esque device also has a stylus tucked away underneath to remind us of the glorious Windows Mobile days. and it also comes with similar specs to the Tab 7.7. The phone is a little humongous for my taste but we will see when it gets released Q4/Q1 2012.

You should note the Nexus Prime, google’s flagship device for 2011, that had its specs leaked last weak had similar specs to the Galaxy Note, but I doubt that Google will release a phone with a 5.3″ screen, 4.5″ is more practical but we have to wait and see if Samsung can squeeze their new Super AMOLED Plus HD screens in a 4.5″ frame. I hope so.

The Razer Blade – The World’s First True Gaming Laptop

If you are a PC gamer, you would definitely have heard of Razer before. They produce some high quality PC accessories form mouses and keyboards to gaming headsets.

But they seem to be getting into the PC manufacturing business. After all, HP will be leaving a huge gap with it leaving the consumer PC market. The laptop code named “Razer Blade” is the thinnest 17″ laptop in the market today and packs an impressive spec sheet, 2.8GHz Core i7 CPU and NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M graphics 2GB of GDDR5 VRAM and a 17.3-inch LED 1920 x 1080 display. It also takes a cue from their own “SwitchBlade” concept they revealed at CES. Implementing a LCD trackpad that also can be used as a secondary display for game info and quick shortcuts.

With a price of $2800, just over KD750, I think it is an excellent gaming laptop considering that 17″ MacBook pros start at $2500/KD700 almost.

The Mac Mini 2011

I have been playing around with the new Mac Mini for a couple of weeks now, and I find it a very capable machine. I initially got it to replace my Windows based media center but after being

handed a second generation Apple TV I decided to use it as a desktop PC instead of my MBP. There have been a lot of talk about the Mac Mini not having a DVD drive. I personally rarely ever use the DVD drive in a PC, and if I do, I am ripping a dvd. But I use my trusty old Windows PC for that heavy-lifting.

I find that OS X Lion is a bit slow, or slower then Snow Leopard. but it comes with a number of new features and tweaks. The device itself is quiet unless you are encoding something and the fans start spinning in full speed then you will definitely hear it. It has all the necessary ports that most of the users will need and comes in a small but capable package. a 2.5 i5 Intel CPU, 4GB RAM a dedicated 256MB Radeon graphic card.

While most people are moving towards laptops and tablets. I am a desktop guy, I only use a tablet or a laptops when I need to. I love sitting on a desk using a 27″ screen and a full size keyboard and a mouse. And thats why I might recommend the Mac Mini to whoever is curious and what to dip his toes into the Mac world.

The image above is a size comparison of the Mac Mini to the Time Capsule.

The 3TB Time Capsule

I recently bought the newly upgraded Time Capsule from Apple. I wanted a dual band router ever since I got my original Airport Extreme, but I thought that having a built in hard drive is a plus I’m having a little trouble with my WHS.

As you can see from the picture above, the Time capsule is a bit bigger than the Airport Extreme. Thats due to the built-in hard drive. I am planing to put my iTunes library on it so that it can be shared by all the household PCs.

It’s Too Damn Hot!!

Last friday, when I was coming back from friday prayer. I had my iPhone hooked up to the car charger/transmitter and was listing to some podcast. When all of a sudden everything went silent. At first I thought that the connection was lost or that the iPhone simply crashed since I’m using the iOS 5 beta software.

But after further inspection to my iphone I noticed an onscreen caution/warning that I never have seen before. apparently the device got too hot it shut itself down. Keep in mind the car was air conditioned at this happened after roughly 5-10 minutes after getting into the car.

So me and my phone got into an air conditioned car at the same time but after about 10 minutes it just couldn’t stand the heat and shut down to cool itself. What about me? Am I expected to tolerate heat more than a gadget?

Acer Iconia Tab A500 Available at X-Cite

I posted last week about why i’m not getting the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and what alternatives are available out there right now. One of those alternatives, the Acer Iconia Tab A500, was available at X-Cite when I was there yesterday. Due to the stupid pricing system that both X-Cite and Eureka uses, I am not sure if the final price is 211KD or there is a 25% discount on the listed price which brings the price down to 169KD.

The Samsung Galaxy S II is Tougher Than it Looks

When I first got the Samsung Galaxy S II I was really impressed by how light it is. And when I tried to put in the battery and sim car I knew why it was that light. The back cover is virtually non-existent, I was afraid I would break it. But I came across this video that assured me that it is tougher than it looks.