Bill Loguidice's Blog, page 107

Review: NetReset NR-1000US Automated Power Cycler for Modems and Routers

If you have ever had to reset your modem or router in order to refresh the connection due to connection problems,congestion, etc., then the NetReset NR-1000US Automated Power Cycler for Modems and Routers is probably for you. Simply put, the NetReset is a fancy power timer. It resolves connection issues through sequential power cycling of both the modem and router, first applying power to the former, then a minute later applying power to the latter. The NetReset crew calls this the Network Power Sequence, or NPS, and it’s performed on initial setup, every 24 hours at a time you set, and if a power failure occurs.

The box.

What you get.

In the package you get the unit itself and an instruction manual. Since the NetReset has battery backup in case of a power failure, you’ll want to first charge the device for one hour before plugging in your equipment (it also of course works with combination modems/routers; you would just use one of the two plugs in that case). Once charged, you set the time, then set when you want your router and modem to reset. Mine is set to 3:30 AM, since that’s probably when I can most ensure we won’t need access.

Another angle.

All hooked up!

In my tests, it did exactly what it was supposed to when it was supposed, so it’s definitely finding a permanent home on my network. If you want to avoid manual power cycling of your network equipment and you want to automatically ensure your connected devices will always have an optimized connection, then the NetReset NR-1000US Automated Power Cycler for Modems and Routers is a quality solution to an annoying problem.

Thanks to NetReseT for the review unit.

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Review: UtechSmart Venus MMO Gaming Mouse

There are gaming-centric mice with buttons, and then there’s the UtechSmart Venus MMO Gaming Mouse for Windows XP or greater computers; testing is taking place on my Windows 10 desktop computer. The mouse features a full complement of top buttons with a scroll wheel button, as well as 12 side buttons, numbered 1 – 12. Almost all of these buttons are programmable.

The box.

Just a peek.

In the box is the mouse itself with six foot long braided permanent cable with gold-plated USB connector, weight case, replacement skids in case the ones already on the mouse wear down over time, multi-language instructions, and mini CD. Inside the mouse is a set of eight removable weights so you can customize how heavy or light the mouse is. Once you weight the mouse to your satisfaction, any or all spare weights can go in the included weight case.

What you get.

A closer look at the top of the mouse.

A closer look at the bottom of the mouse.

Although this mouse comes with a mini CD with drivers and software, you’re probably better off doing what I did and going to http://utechsmart.com/download and downloading the latest version from there. Note that the software on the Website is in a single .rar file, so you’ll need something like 7zip to extract it.

The weights are individually removable and go either inside the mouse or in the included weight case.

Choose what weights, if any, to put in the weight case.

The setup.exe file starts the UtechSmart 16400DPI Venus Gaming Mouse Setup Wizard; just follow its instructions. Once finished, you’ll have both the driver installed and UtechSmart Venus Gaming Mouse software that allows you to tweak and program every feature of the mouse. These features include button functions, resolution (aka, Dots Per Inch, or DPI), polling rate, acceleration, LED lighting colors and “breathing” speed or lack thereof, and all kinds of other functionality. The level of customization available here is truly impressive. Up to five profiles can be stored directly on the mouse, so of course you can use different settings and button functions for up to five different applications or games. Interestingly, there’s also a small profile button on the bottom of the mouse that can be used to switch between your stored profiles if you need to do it in the middle of a game and don’t want to switch out to the mouse software.

The UtechSmart Venus Gaming Mouse software. There are lots of options.

While the UtechSmart name may not be well known outside the MMO community, the company clearly knows what they’re doing when it comes to mice. The design of this mouse is both attractive and comfortable with a nice textured matte finish. From the buttons to the scroll wheel, everything responds exactly like you’d expect. While the 12 numbered side buttons are on the small side for obvious reasons, with some practice, you’ll definitely start to get a feel for each of their locations, plus I never found myself accidentally hitting any of them no matter how hectic a game I was playing. All of that paired with the surprising low price for a gaming mouse of this quality adds up to something well worth checking out if you’re in the market for a good wired mouse with amazing customization options.

Thanks to UtechSmart for the review unit.

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Review: Atari Vault (PC)

Atari is back at it again with another value-packed collection of Atari 2600 VCS and arcade games, which is now available on Steam. Of the 100 games, which I listed yesterday, 18 are arcade games, of which the majority are vector-based. That leaves 82 Atari 2600 games that span the launch titles from 1977 to the final released (and unreleased) titles into the early 1990s.

Menu

The menu system is particularly well thought out and intuitive to navigate. Not only is there a visual view with spinning arcade cabinets and Atari 2600 game boxes, but also various text-based game lists that you can browse and sort in various ways.

The menu system is visually striking and intuitive, with lots of options.

Selecting a particular title gives you access to a variety of options. There’s a gallery for arcade games, which contains various scans of related material like marquees and sales flyers, and scanned manuals for all of the Atari 2600 games (both the gallery and manuals have much-needed zoom options). There are also Leaderboards for the arcade games, but not the Atari 2600 games, and multiplayer options for both, including online play. Since this was just released, I have yet to test out these online multiplayer features.

Audio-Video

The background music at the menu is non-descript, but not unpleasant. Overall sound in the games seemed to be adequately emulated, although a few games, like the notoriously difficult to emulate Atari 2600 unreleased prototype of the otherwise excellent Save Mary, sounded off-key.

I have an ultra-widescreen monitor, so my resolution is a somewhat unusual 2560 x 1080. In fullscreen mode at that resolution, it displays correctly with black borders on the right and left for pillarboxing, but there is some bleed-through of the background in these areas, although probably not to the point of distraction.

The vector arcade games, like Asteroids and Black Widow as two examples, have an odd filter applied. Instead of the vector lines being sharp, they have a softened, halo-like effect, which I assume is meant to simulate the glow of real vector graphics. Unfortunately, it really detracts from how it’s supposed to look and is a curious design decision. At the very least I’d like to see a Graphics option to have this particular filter turned off and the lines displayed unfiltered.

A screen capture from Major Havoc. As you can see, there’s heavy filtering of the vector lines.

Non-vector games on the other hand look unfiltered, with excellent display qualities.

REVIEW UPDATE: There are now various vector display options enabled in the options, so the vector games can be displayed any way you’d like!

Games

I tested every title, and, in general, had no issues. Just about everything is emulated well and functions as expected. However, there is one exception, and that’s Secret Quest for the Atari 2600. Since there’s no TV TYPE switch option like there is on the original console, the in-game Status screen is not accessible. Hopefully this can be patched at some point to make that particular game fully playable.

Controls

Atari Vault supports Xbox 360/Xbox One-style controllers, keyboard controls, and, in spinner and trackball games, a mouse. There’s also support for the Steam Controller, which can emulate both the Xbox-style controls and mouse controls, but since I don’t have one, I can’t test that particular functionality. For reference purposes, on my Windows 10 desktop PC, I used an Xbox One Elite controller, which mapped to exactly what was shown on the screen for each game.

A mouse, while not perfect, proves a suitable substitute for a spinner (arcade) or paddles (Atari 2600). The analog stick is not as precise, but I do like the fact that you can adjust the sensitivity of both that and the mouse per game, and per player. Keep in mind, however, that your desktop mouse driver and its settings can affect how well it works with this particular collection, so you may need to make some adjustments on that end as well.

Interestingly, Atari 2600 games only work with the d-pad on the Xbox controller, but not the left analog stick. I would hope both would be active and I think most gamers would expect that as well. Hopefully that’s something else that can be patched in at some point.

Conclusion

This is a really great package with a lot of gamer friendly features. While there are some minor nice-to-haves that I pointed out above, the only major flaw (outside of a partially functional Secret Quest) is the filtering applied to all of the vector-based arcade games. As stated earlier, there really should be an option to adjust this filtering or to turn it off entirely. Real vector games are meant to be razor sharp with at best a mild glow. Regardless, as it stands, and particularly for the price this is on offer for, it’s an excellent value proposition for fans of classic gaming.

REVIEW UPDATE: There are now various vector display options enabled in the options, so the vector games can be displayed any way you’d like!

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Atari Vault: The Official List of 100 Games

Now that Atari has officially revealed the list of 100 games included on the soon-to-be-released Atari Vault for PC, which includes a mix of Atari 2600 and arcade games, I can share my own list, properly alphabetized with the corrected names, for reference:

3-D Tic-Tac-Toe (2600)
A Game of Concentration (2600)
Adventure (2600)
Air-Sea Battle (2600)
Asteroids (2600)
Asteroids (Arcade)
Asteroids Deluxe (Arcade)
Atari Video Cube (2600)
Backgammon (2600)
Basic Math (2600)
Basketball (2600)
Black Widow (Arcade)
Blackjack (2600)
Bowling (2600)
Brain Games (2600)
Breakout (2600)
Canyon Bomber (2600)
Casino (2600)
Centipede (2600)
Centipede (Arcade)
Championship Soccer (2600)
Checkers (2600)
Chess (2600)
Circus Atari (2600)
Code Breaker (2600)
Combat (2600)
Combat 2 (2600)
Crystal Castles (2600)
Crystal Castles (Arcade)
Demons to Diamonds (2600)
Desert Falcon (2600)
Dodge ‘Em (2600)
Double Dunk (2600)
Fatal Run (2600)
Flag Capture (2600)
Football (2600)
Golf (2600)
Gravitar (2600)
Gravitar (Arcade)
Hangman (2600)
Haunted House (2600)
Home Run (2600)
Human Cannonball (2600)
Liberator (Arcade)
Lunar Lander (Arcade)
Major Havoc (Arcade)
Maze Craze (2600)
Millipede (2600)
Millipede (Arcade)
Miniature Golf (2600)
Missile Command (2600)
Missile Command (Arcade)
Night Driver (2600)
Off the Wall (2600)
Outlaw (2600)
Pong (Arcade)
Quadrun (2600)
Race (2600)
Radar Lock (2600)
Realsports Baseball (2600)
Realsports Basketball (2600)
Realsports Boxing (2600)
Realsports Football (2600)
Realsports Soccer (2600)
Realsports Tennis (2600)
Realsports Volleyball (2600)
Red Baron (Arcade)
Return to Haunted House (2600)
Save Mary (2600)
Secret Quest (2600)
Sentinel (2600)
Sky Diver (2600)
Slot Machine (2600)
Slot Racers (2600)
Space Duel (Arcade)
Spacewar (2600)
Sprint (Arcade)
Sprint Master (2600)
Star Raiders (2600)
Starship (2600)
Steeplechase (2600)
Stellar Track (2600)
Street Racer (2600)
Stunt Cycle (2600)
Sub Commander (2600)
Super Baseball (2600)
Super Breakout (2600)
Super Breakout (Arcade)
Super Football (2600)
Surround (2600)
Swordquest: Earthworld (2600)
Swordquest: Fireworld (2600)
Swordquest: Waterworld (2600)
Tempest (2600)
Tempest (Arcade)
Video Olympics (2600)
Video Pinball (2600)
Warlords (2600)
Warlords (Arcade)
Yars’ Revenge (2600)

 

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Review: Morningsun XG Milanese Loop Magnetic Wrist Band for Apple Watch

The official Apple Milanese Loop watch band is undeniably cool, but also undeniably expensive at almost 40% the price of the already expensive Apple Watch itself. That’s why something like the Morningsun XG Stainless Steel Milanese Loop Strap Magnetic Wrist Band for Apple Watch is so appealing. It’s a small fraction of the cost of the official Apple version and offers similar performance.

How it arrives. Is the love mutual? Read on.

The packaging.

The Morningsun XG band comes in black, gold, rose gold, and silver options in both 38mm and 42mm sizes. I’m reviewing the rose gold 42mm for my space grey Apple Watch Sport. As with all watch bands that are compatible with the Apple Watch, installation was easy. Press the button on the back of the watch, slide the existing band off, and then slide the new band on.

The band.

Sliding the band on. One side to go!

While this watch band comes with no instructions, it’s relatively easy enough to figure out. One side of the watch band gets looped, then you unfurl the magnetic clasp. That last part is important, because otherwise, as can be seen in one of the photos, it creates an unsightly bulge and doesn’t stick like it’s supposed to. Once you have it looking like it does in the later photos, as you can see, the band’s profile is slim and I can tell you that the magnetic latch sticks securely.

Putting the watch on.

Remember to unfurl this last bit!

Despite its low cost, the Morningsun XG band is a winner. It’s designed to fit your wrist perfectly and doesn’t require any tools or additional adjustment once you gently press the magnetic clasp in place. The best part is if you can’t decide on what color to get, get all eight–they will all end up costing just a little more than the price of just one official Apple Watch band.

Success!

Looking good.

Looking real good.

Thanks to Morningsun XG for the review unit.

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Nikkei: Nintendo ceasing Wii U production

Thanks to NeoGAF for the heads-up on an as-of-yet unconfirmed report that Nintendo will officially be ceasing production of the Wii U by the end of this year. This follows several months of “stock shortages” in Japan, as well as the official end of production for select Wii U accessories.

As you may know, I’ve been following the sales trends in this area for some time, and it was clear that even before this announcement that the Wii U’s days were numbered and that the upcoming NX is meant as a replacement for both the failed Wii U and aging 3DS. If this unconfirmed report holds, then the Wii U will be Nintendo’s worst selling platform by far and likely won’t quite reach 15 million units (compare that to Sony’s PlayStation 4 at about 36 million units and counting, and Microsoft’s Xbox One at about 25 million units and counting, both of which came out a year later than the Wii U).

The previous worst seller for Nintendo was the GameCube at just over 21 million units. Of course, that’s discounting the tabletop console, Virtual Boy, which Nintendo themselves doesn’t even include in their list of platforms for which they provide historical sales data. That was discontinued shortly after it launched and ended up selling just a little over 750,000 units.

The challenge for Nintendo with what I expect to be their announcement at E3 of the NX for a holiday release is to have that system launch with positive buzz and good momentum. That’s something the Wii U lacked, and it was one of many reasons that that platform ultimately failed.

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Quick Thoughts: Potential for PlayStation 4.5 and Xbox One.5

Both Sony and Microsoft have been dropping hints about potential hardware upgrades, and as usual where there are those types of hints, there’s probably some substance to it. This of course got the community in a tizzy, and conjured the expected comparisons to Sega’s dalliances in the 1990s with the Sega Genesis and its Sega CD and 32X add-ons, neither of which arguably did the main console, or Sega itself, any favors. In my opinion, I see no scenario where we’ll get an add-on or upgrade from Sony or Microsoft that allows for exclusive content just for that add-on or upgrade (sort of like the few dedicated releases for the Nintendo New 3DS versus their standard 3DS/2DS), but instead something a bit more subtle, and ultimately something harder to argue against.

Sega Genesis Model 2, Sega CD 2, and Sega 32X. No one wants this scenario again. Image attribution: By Evan-Amos – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...

Although both Sony’s PlayStation 4 (PS4) and Microsoft Xbox One can support 4K video output as-is now, they can’t do it for gaming, only video. I can therefore see both companies releasing versions of their respective consoles that support 4K game upscaling, meaning that the 4K display sees it as native content and not something it has to upscale itself like with 1080p content. And perhaps some software could then be written to output select games in actual 4K resolutions, i.e., if it detects an original console it will output at the usual 1080p, but if it detects a 1.5 console (with its extra horsepower), it will output to 4K. It could also be a situation where a game may run in 30 FPS on an original console, but 60 FPS on the 1.5 console (again, thanks to the extra horsepower). I think those would be reasonable compromises and concessions in lieu of releasing completely new systems, which it’s far too early for.

This strategy would of course have some parallels to what goes on with PCs today. The more powerful the PC and associated video card, the higher resolution and frame rate. As long as you meet the minimum specs, you can still run the same game on a less powerful PC, albeit with some compromises. Of course, in the case of a near mid-life console upgrade, you wouldn’t run into the issue of the software not being able to run at all like you still can on the PC side, particularly for a PC that hasn’t been upgraded in a long time. Of course that’s assuming that the upgrade is done as I described in the second paragraph and not more like the Nintendo New 3DS route, where there are in fact some titles that only work on the later upgraded, stand-alone system hardware.

There’s also another possibility on the PS4 side and that’s not only allow for the 4K stuff, but perhaps even build in the PlayStation VR breakout box, helping to eliminate some clutter. That’s probably unlikely though as that might place a limit on future VR upgrades that follow a similar path, i.e., PlayStation VR 1.5 that automatically ups the resolution, but is still otherwise fully compatible software-wise both ways.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. I realize they’re perhaps more logical and optimistic than we should necessarily give these companies credit for, but until we know otherwise, I think that’s the best case scenario. After all, we have to believe that there are people in both camps who know both their markets and history, right?

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Review: Kopack KT-01 Anti-theft Slim Business Laptop Backpack

The Kopack KT-01 Anti-theft Slim Business Laptop Backpack, with Tigernu branding, promises a safe backpack. Not only is it padded and water resistant, but it also features two-way anti-theft zippers.

How it arrives.

The front.

The black backpack features a classy all-black design and generous padding throughout, right down to the straps. While it’s designed to hold up to 15″ laptops, the various pockets and compartments make it far more versatile than just a computer bag. There’s also an exterior sunglasses pocket, an interior headphone slot for wired headphones, and two slide slots with straps to hold items like water bottles.

The back.

A look at the lower sides and closer look at the material.

As you can see from the photos, this is a stylish backpack with generous protective features, yet still designed with comfort in mind. If you’re looking for a backpack that can take some punishment, look no further than the Kopack KT-01 Anti-theft Slim Business Laptop Backpack.

The interior features are rather nice as well.

Thanks to Kopack for the discounted review unit.

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Review: Novapolt USB 2.0 External DVD-RW and CD-ROM Drive

Although CD and DVD drives for computers have declined dramatically in popularity, and are virtually non-existent in today’s laptops, there are still times when you might need one. The Novapolt USB 2.0 External DVD-RW and CD-ROM Drive aims to fill that need with incredible convenience and an equally incredible low price.

The box.

The Novapult is compatible with a wide range of computer operating systems, including Windows XP and later, as well as Linux, and Macintosh OS X. It’s designed to not only read CDs and DVDs, but also write to CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, and DVD-RW discs.

What you get.

There’s not much inside the box. You get the CD unit with attached USB 2.0 cable (also compatible with 1.1 connections, obviously) and a small, one-sided instruction sheet. After plugging the Novapult into the USB port on my Microsoft Surface Pro 3 running Windows 10, it was immediately recognized as the D: drive. Unfortunately, it didn’t want to work well with my Surface Pro 3, losing the connection and not being able to get it back. I checked it on my wife’s Surface Pro 3 and got the same result. I did also try it on my Windows 10 desktop computer, though, and it had no issues reading or writing discs (it showed up as the F: drive since I already have an optical drive as E:), so perhaps it’s an issue specific to the Surface Pro 3. In fact, that’s likely the case, because I also tried it on my middle daughter’s Asus Ultrabook (also running Windows 10), and it too worked perfectly there.

A closer look. The cord is quite short.

The unit itself is a good size, little larger than a CD and not much thicker than a CD case. It’s also powered over USB, so it really is self-contained. Keep in mind, however, that the USB cord is really short, so if you want to use it on a less accessible USB port, you’ll need an extension cable. The only other issue of note is that there’s no eject button present on the unit, so you’ll have to do your ejecting from your operating system.

It ended up not working right on my Surface Pro 3, but did on my other systems.

While this drive does appear to work as advertised, the issues that I had with my Surface Pro 3 makes me think that this may have compatibility issues with certain systems. If you run into similar issues, by all means take advantage of Amazon’s generous return policy. Otherwise, if you need a CD/DVD drive that also burns discs, this is a pretty compelling offering.

Thanks to Uhsupply for the review unit.

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Review: Edows 3D Glasses VR Virtual Reality Headset

Google Cardboard offers a simple, low-cost way of providing a workable virtual reality (VR) platform for use with our existing Android- or iOS-based smartphones. Not long after literal cardboard-based Google Cardboard-like devices hit the market, so too have premium takes on the simple concept. The Edows 3D Glasses VR Virtual Reality Headset is one such offering.

The box.

In the package you get the headset itself, a simple instructions manual, wet and dry wipes, cleaning cloth, and two foam tension pads. The headset’s design is particularly impressive, with a sleek motif capped off with a padded leather face.

What you get.

The Edows VR Headset accommodates phones from 4 – 6 inches, which includes my Apple iPhone 6 Plus. For phones greater than 5 inches like my Apple device, you have to remove the EVA mat for additional room. Although my iPhone didn’t fit with its thick Rokform case on it, it fit perfectly with the case removed.

A closer look at the headset.

Although there are no magnets or conductive levers to control the phone, there are side vents to feed headphones or other accessories from the phone. In any case, as-is, this is only for VR apps that are controlled via the phone’s motion, i.e., you can walk around the VR environments, or some other non-physical means (there’s also no QR code for automatic syncing with the Google Cardboard app). For this test, I chose the Vrse – Virtual Reality app.

Depending on the size of your phone, you may need to remove the insert.

Once you place the headset on your head, you adjust the head strap until it fits comfortably. You then adjust the focal distance and PD from the adjustment switch and dial at the top of the headset. I didn’t have to remove my glasses, but for comfort, you’ll probably want to (and depending upon your prescription, the optical adjustments may be enough to negate the need for glasses–for me, they weren’t quite enough). And speaking of comfort, it would have been nice if they padded the nose piece, as the pressure from the heavy phone can wear on your nose bridge after a while.

This insert will be removed for my phone.

Once everything was adjusted to my satisfaction (and making sure my phone was perfectly centered in the holder), I ran the Take Flight video from the Vrse – Virtual Reality app. It was a nice experience with good optical quality, although the field of view felt a bit more square than widescreen. In any case, in comparison to similar devices I’ve tried, overall clarity is rather good.

Placing my phone. Make sure it’s centered.

Although not perfect, this is one of the better devices in its class. While I don’t care for the lack of nose bridge padding or for it to not come with any means to control the phone, requiring me to take mine out each time I want to move on, it gets the job done for “passive” VR viewing.

Thanks to Golden Ray for the review unit.

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