Cool Gadgets and Things ...

Recently I had to do some emergency house repair: few planks of my entrance staircase gave up under my foot after rain turned to blazing heat. I went on replaced them with Trex. I needed some new tools for this project and that how I ended up with Compact drill and Impact driver M18 kit from Milwaukee. I had to upgrade a circular saw as well and as many people who read review

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-M18-18-Volt-Lithium-Ion-6-1-2-in-Cordless-Circular-Saw-Tool-Only-2630-20/202196549#.Uege7RZHY_U

I was a bit confused. Will Milwaukee M18 circular saw work with compact batteries I got in drill/driver kit? Some people said, no, it will not even fit in. You need big, XC one. Others said that it will work just fine and indeed from outside both batteries looked about the same, with XC just a bit bigger.

I picked tool only saw in HD and my compact batteries worked just fine. I looked trough manual, but could not find anything mentioning batteries. Yes, M18 circular saw did not seemed as powerful as corded Hitachi I had before, but it did what I need and set me free from long an annoying cord that was tangling on my deck.

Few days ago I finally found a website that explained the mystery :) and I run downstairs to check my tools and batteries.

The key is in special plastic guide rails on M18 battaries. It is very small and unnoticeable feature unless you know it is there :) The post I came across claims that compact battery have two rails and XC only one. Some tools have only one and that should prevent inserting incomparable battery even if it looks like it will fit.

Apparently both reviewers are right and it may depend on version of battery. My compact battery has only one rail, just like XC should and my saw has only one guide, while both driver and drill has two.

Speculation was that Milwaukee incorporated some overload protection in XC and probably they did same to compact version as well.

XC should certainly give more run time (40%) and it also claims 20% more "power" - it may be a good idea for more power demanding tools like saws. As for me, compact M18 batteries worked just fine on all 3 tools I got so far.

I love Milwaukee M18 tools and doing my deck without Impact Driver would be virtual impossible. Drill came very handy too, as despite a special composite deck screws that suppsodly can drill itself in, it was only working half of the time and I switched to pre-drilling to get a better results. While I did front deck with corded Hitachi - major workload of cutting, I switched to Milwaukee cordless circular saw for backyard and under deck repairs and it worked great (if not as forgiving when wood grabs the blade :)) and I loved cordless freedom.

I got this bug too: iPhone 5 on AT&T "burns" cellular data on WiFi while idle and locked at approximately 5Mb per hour rate in my case. It started with suden battery drain on Monday, December 3. iPhone was out of juice in 4 hours  while in the pocket. It munched on about 20Mb of cellular data.

Labels: ATT, bug, cellular on WiFi, iPhone 5

As you all know, iPad mini is out :) great, but how to get it? I was looking to get Kindle Paperwhite but no luck - 5-7 weeks wait?! I liked it - one of my friends got one, going through all generations and he confirms that it is a best Kindle so far. I called Apple store but no luck, so I went to another super secret local store and was able to compare iPad 4 and mini. I wanted to upgrade my generation 1 iPad. Not because I did not like it - still use it everyday but because I need to pass it over and get myself a new gear - I really have no issue with the old version device number 1, even if it only goes up to iOS 5. I mostly use Safari, Kindle, the mail app, and games - all works just great for me, but 4 generations, may be I do need an upgrade. So I was naturally thinking about iPad 4 - I like the size and I like smaller Android tablets less. But it was enough to just hold the iPad mini and I was sold - screen size is not that much smaller but it weighed like half of the android tablet and was so small - magic :) it also cost less, worst margin for Apple ever - so it must be good. When I saw the box I was thinking that brought me iPod touch so small and light, but it had 'mini' written over :) so, how does it compare?

First, iPad is awesome device - love it, but mini is so cute and light - it fits my coat inside pocket - I was afraid it will not as it looks like almost same screen size as rearguard iPad but it does . I can hold it with one hand! So it maxed out on screen and made as big as it would fit your hand or pocket :) half the weight:)

It is bigger than Nexus 7. Just a bit. My wife have really small hands. She can hold Nexus 7 comfortably but mini is a bit of stretch . Still she likes it. It feels more like a new iPad than mini tablet - just same feeling when I moved from 15'' MacBook Pro to 13'' Mac Book Air - size and bulk gone but all experience and screen size is same or better (faster - it is much faster than my iPad 1 :))

In comparison Nexus 7 feels like mini tablet or big Android phone - just a small difference but it change the feel.

Now, of course mini is 64G of memory and 2 cameras. Main camera is quite decent. This alone put Nexus 7 to shame - still very very angry on Google for saving 2$ and curing off camera.

So, mini is awesome. Fast, luxury elegant and think, you can max out specs to load your music and even videos and you can get cellular - I skipped it as it was not used much in my iPad where I had it - I was too greedy I think and used iPhone when I need connection :) anyway, to get anything cool it is extra 30$ a month and I passed to save a 140$. I may regret it but oh, well :)

While iPad mini is half power and resolution of iPad it has same pixels and just tad smaller but half lighter and less expensive :) winner, clearly, for me anyway.

Compare to Kindle Fire it is much lighter and thinner and of course, it is a full iPad expirence.

I do not feel a need for Kindle paperweight - Kindle app works very good and the screen is awesome plus it is about the same size and weight :)

Just one warning: if you will find iPad mini in store and hold it in your hand ... You may just find yourself going out with one. :) yes, it is that good (I am an Apple fan , sorry - take it with a grain of salt. :)

I went to pickup iPhone 5 to Apple store. As I did some research, I opened box right there and lo and behold - few dings in bezel. While it is minor, I was kinda shocked to get this from Apple - it must be hard to keep up with demand and keep quality. Device itself worked brilliant and is best iPhone I had so far (from v1). Of course Apple ordered me a new one and I swapped it in two days - no scratches :) Apple care about customers and this is just a annoyance of course but I think execution have to be better as such issues should be easy to foresee - what kind of dumbass at Apple designed such a high travel area from anodized or tinted aluminum ? Even brushed aluminum could be a better solution. While most people use protective case, I dislike back - it gonna scratch like hell and looks nasty - what are these panels? Why it is not one part? IMHO - fugly, just like iPhone back was on 1. 3 and 4 for it right - plastic or glass - one smooth and good looking back, but 5 has a mess again with it ugly glass/scratchy aluminum - why, Apple? I know it may improve strength and reception but looks and design was always important for company. Oh, well, we just slap a cool case on it ;) front still looks iconic , thank you for that :)

So far, everything else works fantastic and fast - beat iPhone ever.

LTE is noticeably faster than 4G - browsing Internet is a blast and camera even more responsive - two key features we use every day. You will see less in games - Angry Birds still looks and play the same - just great :)

Lighting seems cute, but redundant - Apple should be curing the wire ;)

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsofts-windows-phone-8-finally-gets-a-real-windows-core/12975

1)"As of Apollo, the Windows Phone OS will include the same file system (NTFS), same networking stack, same security elements, graphics engine (DirectX), device driver framework and hardware abstraction layer (HAL) as "big" Windows. Apollo also will include the mobile variant of the same browser -- Internet Explorer 10 -- as Windows 8."

2) Microsoft execs have said repeatedly that existing Windows Phone 7 apps will run on Windows Phone 8. The two phone platforms are binary compatible, Sullivan reiterated.

3)Developers cannot take their Windows app binaries and just run them on Windows Phone 8. However, there is a high degree of code reuse possible, Sullivan said.

4)We know Windows Phone 7.x apps can run on Windows Phone 8, according to Microsoft. But what about the reverse? Can Windows Phone 8 apps run on existing devices? Short answer is no.

5) "The Silverlight-based Windows Phone developer environment is going away in Windows Phone 8, and is being replaced by WinRT-based APIs like those in Windows 8. Why? Two reasons. First, Silverlight is dead, cancelled internally by Microsoft. And second, Windows Phone 8 is Windows 8 for all intents and purposes."

6)Microsoft has decided not to include XNA support for WinRT/Metro in Windows 8. It's only supported on the Desktop. With Windows Phone 8, according to one of my tipsters, Microsoft still will support XNA in the Windows Phone 8 software development kit, but will be pushing developers to write games for the platform using DirectX and native code, not XNA -- just like the case with Windows 8.

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Microsoft's advice to phone developers going forward, just like it is for Windows 8, is to use native code, meaning C and C++

It is beyond me why Microsoft keep the bits out of our hands even after OS is ready and frozen. Apple start sharing years before release and this is a way to go, IMHO. 

Some folks take Zombicalips literally: they stock up on guns and ammo and Twinkies, using Zombiland DVD as interactive video manual. But how you charge your iPhone when all goes down?! BioLite stove is coming for your rescue. First, it does not need any real camp stove fuel: twigs you can find nearby may be quite enough, assuming you stocked on fire starters. Second, it can charge USB powered gadgets if you are ready to keep this fire going :) biggest question is internal battery - how long it will survive in post - apocalypse world? I like my camping gas Primus and use it on every camping trip - but BioLite is very promising and I will keep on testing it. It does work, but you need keep adding twigs and there are only two power settings - hi and lo - not a problem for boiling water, but may be more problematic with pancakes. We will see. So far it is very promising.