cover
Nathan B.

Nathan B.

Joined on 07/14/03

0
0

Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 8
Most Favorable Review

Not an iPad, but who cares?

vitalASC 9.7" IPS 10P Touch screen Android 4.0 Tablet PC - 1.2 GHz,1GB DDR3 Ram, 16GB Flash RAM , WiFi
vitalASC 9.7" IPS 10P Touch screen Android 4.0 Tablet PC - 1.2 GHz,1GB DDR3 Ram, 16GB Flash RAM , WiFi

Pros: Absolutely brilliant screen. IPS is the way to go. The price is fantastic, as well is the speed of the processor. If you are comparing this to an iPad (which it looks almost identical to at first glance) there are ups and downs. It is lighter, but has a plastic back instead of a metal one. It has two cameras, front and back, but they are placed on the landscape edge rather than the portrait edge. It has usb (client and host) plugs (through included adapter), a mini-HDMI port, and an external micro-sd car slot. In a lot of ways it is much better than an iPad, but in some minor ways the "it's not exactly the same," can be slightly annoying, if that kind of thing annoys you. Bottom line: if you were to get your grandma a tablet for Christmas, get her this one, and your mom one as well, instead of buying a single iPad.

Cons: Somewhat slower than average touchscreen response combined with somewhat grippier screen equals harder to play games on. This does not detract from Netflix watching, internet browsing, and general use.

Overall Review: Hulu doesn't work, but this is Hulu's fault, not the tablet's fault. It would be nice if the usb port were micro instead of mini, but it comes with the necessary cables.

11/29/2012
Most Critical Review

Unreliable in the long run

Tenda P200 Powerline Mini Adapter
Tenda P200 Powerline Mini Adapter

Pros: They worked fairly well, and were extremely easy to set up. I bought a second pair because I liked the first so much. Definitely easier than running wires through the house. They also look very good and take up very little space.

Cons: After a certain amount of time, for me, on average about 1 year, they fail. Three out of the four I owned failed in the exact same way. I assume the fourth would have failed as well, but a single device was useless by itself, so it was filed in the round bin. The failure mechanism was quite annoying as well. When they starting to fail they would emit a high pitched squeel that was audible throughout the house, but quiet enough to be hard to pinpoint.

Overall Review: After an autopsy on one of them, I found that the main capacitor in the power supply had blown. As these devices get quite warm, I'm sure the problem was that the capacitor was not rated for the environment. I'd still be using these if they had spent an extra few cents on a better cap.

Exactly What I Wanted

Synology DS213+ Diskless System DiskStation - Where Robust Performance and Energy Efficiency Come as One
Synology DS213+ Diskless System DiskStation - Where Robust Performance and Energy Efficiency Come as One

Pros: Extremely easy to setup, lots and lots and lots and lots of configuration options beyond just being a NAS. There are tons of plugins that do everything from being a webserver to an authentication server. All of it is quick and easy to use, and if you really want, you can log in to the shell and manually install whatever you want.

Cons: One of the drives I bought did not line up with one of the sata connectors in the back. I switched which drive was which slot, and that fixed it.

Works, but not through power strip

Tenda P200 Powerline Mini Adapter
Tenda P200 Powerline Mini Adapter

Pros: It works fantastically. Very plug and play if connected correctly (ie. if you follow the directions and actually plug it directly into the wall).

Cons: Gets a little warm. The odd shape disallows other plugs right next to it on a power strip, but since it works Vastly better not on a power strip, the odd shape is fine. The "reset" button has three different functions depending on how long you depress it: 2-3 for find a device, 9-11 for disconnect, over 15 seconds for restore to factory defaults. None of the cons beat out the awesomeness of it once it is set up, which is very easy to do.

Overall Review: The LAN light doesn't blink on data transfer, but rather the "device is connected to another device" light blinks. Seems odd.

12/11/2012

Great Product

Sylvania SDVD1048 Portable DVD Player
Sylvania SDVD1048 Portable DVD Player

Pros: Does everything you could want it to do: plays off of sd card, plays mp3s off cd, easy to use interface buttons. Great price, included carrying case, and adapters wrap up the deal. A definitely worthy buy.

Cons: It wasn't free? It's not a bluray player? Nothing worth not buying it over.

Overall Review: For me I use it as a stand-alone CD player for listening to books on tape mostly. The on-board speakers are loud and clear enough to be heard over the three fish tanks in the room I use it in.

11/29/2012
Color LCD Display
Color LCD Display

Pros: Bright screen with wide viewing angle.

Cons: The bracket only connects with 2 screws. If your case doesn't secure the floppy bay on top and bottom it can move up and down by being bumped.

Overall Review: I'm only using it to view the temperature, and for that it works perfectly.