upgrades – SomeGadgetGuy

November 21, 2023November 21, 2023

The LAZIEST (maybe DUMBEST) Upgrade for my NAS! Let’s Fix My Plex!

There’s a right way to do something, but sometimes it’s fun to “slum it” with the LAZIEST way to do something. I have a problem. My NAS doesn’t support hardware transcoding, and I can’t use my NAS for work while someone else is streaming Plex remotely.

Is there a way I can “upgrade” my NAS without changing anything on my network or replacing my NAS enclosure?

Of course there is!

Let’s fix this problem the “lazy” way!
Continue reading “The LAZIEST (maybe DUMBEST) Upgrade for my NAS! Let’s Fix My Plex!”

November 11, 2014November 11, 2014

SomeGadgetGuy Videos Moving to High Frame Rate 60FPS HD!

The bummer is, I’ve been shooting 60fps video for a couple weeks, but Google has only just now graced my Youtube channel with the ability to broadcast high frame rate video.

Thankfully the first video to feature the extra frames is my review of the Galaxy Note 4 (which is embedded below), so I’m happy to see that monster review actually benefit from the extra time it took to render that huge file.

If your browser supports it, hit the quality settings in the bottom right hand corner, and you should see the option to stream in 60fps on all videos moving forward. Delight in the almost unnaturally liquid-y smooth motion, and know that my workstation is melting in producing it.

January 20, 2014

AT&T Next early phone upgrades now available to all customers!

It has been fun recently watching cell phone carriers do a little more sparring for our business.

AT&T’s version of the fast phone upgrade is now available to all customers, even those already signed on to a two year contract. NEXT allows users to swap to a newer phone for $0 down after being in good standing for six months.

To see if you’re eligible dial *NEW# from your phone, and it’ll check your upgrade-ability. If you’re a phone junky who always wants to have the latest and greatest, AT&T might be making this process easier for you to stay bleeding edge.

Full PR below! Continue reading “AT&T Next early phone upgrades now available to all customers!”

January 1, 2014

iFixIt gives new Mac Pro 8 out of 10 for upgrades and repairs!

Good news everybody! Apple has apparently figured out how to manufacturer a powerful and compact workstation which is fairly easy to upgrade and repair! Someone should tell their laptop and tablet divisions, but I digress…

iFixIt tore the sucker down and found a refreshing lack glue or proprietary screws. Opening the casing allows you to easily get to the RAM. The SSD is proprietary but easy to swap out, which hopefully might encourage some companies to build 3rd party solutions. Even the CPU, while buried deep into the internals, is a stock Intel socket. iFixit estimates you could save almost $1000 buying a low end Mac Pro, and then swapping out the processor yourself.

Maybe the harshest criticism came from the proprietary graphics cards. Flanking the triangular heat sink, Apple had to design their own connectors and shape so they’d fit in the casing. iFixIt worries that this might prematurely age the system if Apple can’t keep up with newer graphics chipsets and offerings.

All in all though, this assuages most of the concerns I personally had over the construction of the Mac Pro. No machine badged a “pro” should ever lock out the user. A workstation is a MUCH longer term investment than a regular destop, and this radical new design from Apple looked like it might have followed in the same footsteps as their MacBooks, glued shut and with RAM soldered onto the logic board. Happily this is not the case, and I’m surprised that Apple themselves didn’t make more noise about it. The ability to improve the system over time larger destroys the perceived “Apple Tax” and should make homebrew OSX systems a little less cost/time effective for those looking at Bang for Buck.

If you’re shopping a high end workstation, I’d highly recommend checking out the iFixIt teardown guide, as they detail the whole process of stripping the machine with their usual wit and humor.

November 4, 2013November 4, 2013

Ask Juan: Should I Upgrade my Desktop (non-touchscreen) to Windows 8.1?

From one of our readers using our contact page:

Hey,I have an older quad core AMD desktop running Windows 7 and was going to put in a SSD. While I was doing that I thought maybe I should upgrade to Windows 8. I don’t have a touchscreen though, so I was curious if you thought that would be a good idea? Thanks, Alex

First of all, I run an older quad core in my workstation, and installing a solid state drive (specifically a Kingston HyperX) made my system feel brand new. I think you’ll really dig it.

The upgrade to Windows 8.1 is a slightly trickier question. It’s pretty obvious that Microsoft is using this new interface as their first attack on tablets and touchscreens. Microsoft’s job moving forward isn’t to “save” the PC market, but redefine the what a PC is. If you’ve read much on this site, you would know that I’ve been fairly positive on their progress so far.

Stepping outside the tablet-y stuff however, I think Windows 8 can offer up some benefits to non-touchscreen users as well.

First of all, boot times are seriously improved. The combo of Windows 8.1 and an SSD will feel like an absolute screamer compared to Windows 7 and a spinning disc hard drive. My low power Windows 8.1 ultrabook with an SSD cache boots in about half the time as my desktop did with Windows 7 and a proper SSD. My Lenovo absolutely destroys my Nexus 7 in a cold boot race.

Second, I think Microsoft has made some solid improvements to file management. It’s not the sexiest aspect of an OS upgrade, but you get substantially more info when moving files, better estimates for completion, and the entire file browsing experience has been more stable. I would run into issues on Windows 7 with folders that had tons of files. As my computer would scan through creating thumbnails it would occasionally just get stuck on a file and never finish the scan. What ever file it would lag on would just become completely inaccessible, and I’d have to jump through CMD prompt nonsense to fix it. I haven’t had any issues like that with Win8.1 so far (knocks on wood). Continue reading “Ask Juan: Should I Upgrade my Desktop (non-touchscreen) to Windows 8.1?”

October 29, 2013October 29, 2013

Motorola Intros Phonebloks-Style Modular Phone – Project Ara – UPDATED with new Phonebloks Video!

I WANT THIS!

I posted a little while back about Phonebloks, a Lego-like phone concept allowing smartphone users to customize exactly the kind of phone hardware they want. I thought it was exciting as it would allow people to upgrade over time, while hopefully preventing a significant amount of e-waste. When one piece of your phone becomes obsolete or breaks, just swap it out for an upgrade. You don’t have to throw the whole phone out.

I got A LOT of cynicism on social media from a BUNCH of people who said it could never work, further reinforcing the notion that people online don’t really want actual NEW things.

Well wouldn’t you know it, today Motorola announces that they’ve been working on this very idea for over a year now! It doesn’t get much more legitimate as a concept device than that. Dubbed Project Ara, Moto is trying to push an open hardware standard which would compliment software like Android. In an age where increasingly our magic glowing rectangles are often glued shut, this would be a refreshing change of pace, especially for someone like me who still prefers building his own workstations.

Best of all Moto knows that they aren’t first in pushing this concept out to the masses, and they’ve reach out to Phonebloks to do some community building and partnerships, while moving forward during the development process. Really classy move.

Get the full scoop at Moto’s blog!

***UPDATE***

Now there’s a video showing Phonebloks and Moto working together!

September 19, 2013October 2, 2013

Live Ask Juan: Upgrades to help an older PC with Video Editing?

Got another great reader question. Thought I’d take to the Youtube’s to answer it!

From Youtube viewer TableReadTheater:

Hey Juan,
I have an older PC, like 3 or 4 years. It still runs ok, but I want to start doing some video editing. I can’t buy a new system yet, but I can spend a little on a few parts. What kinds of upgrades can I do to help it run better for video?