Shmee.Me

June 1, 2015

Controllers Keep Eating Batteries? Try The Nyko Charge Base!

The Xbox One controller is way easier on the batteries than the Xbox 360, but that doesn’t mean you will not burn through batteries at an alarming rate. Finally I decided to do something about it, and I bought the Nyko Charge Base for the Xbox One. It is about $15, and well worth the price. The main reason that you will buy this base is to charge your controllers, and I am happy to report that it works quite well for that. The other features of this base are lit indicators on the front telling you if the controller is charging, and which ones are ready. It also gives you a place to set your controllers when you are not using them.

They are not perfect however. The batteries don’t last as long as standard AAs, but since you will be charging them after every use that doesn’t seem like that big of an issue. Though if you are a marathon gamer it is something to keep in mind. The other downer is that since the base uses batteries with contacts on them to do the charging you need to replace your battery covers with the ones they have included for you. This isn’t a problem except for the fact the covers are shiny and the controllers have a matte finish. You will not be looking at the back of your controllers a lot, but it is disappointing the colors don’t match.

Not having to worry about batteries for my controllers was well worth the money. I kind of wish they had a four controller option, but if I ever get two more controllers I guess I can buy another one. There are a lot of good charging options out there, but the Nyko Charge Base should be at the top of your list. It looks like they make a version for just about every major platform out there, so if you are in the market for a charging station it is worth a look.

May 1, 2015May 1, 2015

Star Trek Might Be A Reality!

So something amazing happened in the last couple of days, according to the Daily Mail NASA tested an EM drive in a vacuum. Now I know what you are saying, “That shouldn’t be possible! There is nothing for the ions to bounce off of in a vacuum to create thrust!” I know, I thought it was nuts to, but NASA says it has done it. They are just waiting for a peer review.

Even if you don’t understand the physics, and trust me don’t feel bad almost no one does. Well actually no one does because it is supposed to be impossible, but the reason this is so amazing is that these drives can be powered by radiation from the stars and propel objects near to or even faster than the speed of light. At the current theoretical rate of travel with this drive it would only take 100 years to get to Alpha Centauri. A long time sure, but 9,900 year less than the current method, and almost within a human’s life span. Plus it could get us to the moon in 4.5 hours. Crazy.

While I doubt we will be using these drives soon, or maybe not even in my lifetime, Little Shmee may be alive to see the first person leave our solar system, and that is an amazing thought. In fact it is almost making me cry.

April 29, 2015April 29, 2015

Sucking It Up With The Dyson DC25!

And now for something completely different. I do write tech reviews from time to time, but this is probably my first home appliance (I could look up if I have done others, but I don’t want to). I give you the Dyson DC25 Ball All-Floors Upright Vacuum Cleaner (a nice short name). Mrs. Shmee and I have always used midrange to cheap vacuum cleaners in the past, but with the arrival of Little Shmee we decided we needed something a little bit better, and something that worked well in the kitchen. Then Woot.com had the Dyson DC25 refurbished and on sale. It was meant to be, and it is a big improvement.

First off it is way quieter and lighter than our previous machine. It was so quiet I was almost worried that it wasn’t actually working, but low and behold it was, and it was picking up stuff that the other vacuum had left behind. It was kind of amazing and gross to watch it all get pulled in to the clear waste area. On the subject of the waste bin, it has a handy little button that drops a trap door at the bottom, so the dirt falls directly in to the trash. That way I don’t pour it all over the place. A fun little improvement.

I was skeptical about the ball. It seemed like it would be more of a marketing trick than something that mattered all that much, but it does make the Dyson DC25 much more maneuverable. It is not a big thing since the vacuum is pretty light, but it is enough of a change that I noticed the difference as soon as I made my first turn. Like the trap door it is a little thing, but still better.

There are a couple of downsides to this vacuum: Its hose is short, so you have to keep the vacuum base right next to you at all times. It can get a little awkward to handle. I have not noticed a way to raise and lower the front of it, so if you have deep carpets you may have to get a different model. By different, I mean more expensive. Woot.com or Meh.com would be your best options to save some cash.

The Dyson DC25 is not the prefect vacuum, but it is a very good one, and it is way better than what we had before. It has good suction on flat floors and carpet, and it maneuvers well. If you can live with a short hose and don’t have shag carpet, I think this will work well for you. The Dyson DC25 Ball All-Floors Upright Vacuum Cleaner was definitely a step up for us.

April 1, 2015April 1, 2015

Shmee Glides With The Logitech G402 Hyperion Fury!

It was a sad day around the Shmee household. Their trusty Logitech MX510 wasn’t gliding well, and it was coated with gross human skin deposits. I tried to clean it, but it just wasn’t working like the same mouse I bought ten years ago, so I had to replace it. As you can tell by my recent computer build, I am fairly brand loyal when it comes to computer parts and accessories, so if a mouse has served me well for over a decade, I am going to replace it with a member of its family. I selected the Logitech G402 Hyperion Fury.

Besides the terrible name. I mean really, Hyperion Fury? This mouse has everything I could want: A super high 500 image per second (IPS) rate, up to a 4,000 DPI resolution that you can change on the fly, and a built in processor to keep all that info heading to the computer without any lag. Though by far the best part is just how it feels. It is the perfect weight, and it glides like a dream. I don’t know how Logitech does it, but their gaming mice make everything else feel like trash once you have used them. I almost grimace every time I grab my mouse at work. A good mouse makes all the difference.

There are mice with better specs out there, and even some in Logitech’s product line, but after awhile they are just flashing big numbers that you will never use. You are never going to be able to control a mouse with 8,000 DPI well. 4,000 is even pushing it. The big deal is the IPS. The higher that is, the less chance there is of your mouse missing a movement, and at 500 IPS the Logitech G402 isn’t missing anything. The only good reason to get a different mouse is to get a different button layout, or the super nifty braided cable on the Logitech G502.

I know spending $50.00 on a mouse seems a little steep when you can get a mouse for under $10 these days, but trust me if you use your computer a lot a good mouse makes it much more enjoyable. Thanks to my job I get to try out a lot of different mice, and the Logitech G402 Hyperion Fury is by far the best one I use. You may have good luck with some of the cheaper or fancier gaming mice out there, but for my money it is Logitech all the way.

March 5, 2015March 5, 2015

GDC 2015 Highlights!

Usually there isn’t a lot of news that comes out of the GDC (Game Developers Conference) since it is primarily a show for developers not the public, but this year was a little different, so I thought I would give you some highlights.

Everyone is in to VR now:

Oculus Rift showed that VR could be done well and cheaply, and since then everyone has jumped on the bandwagon. This year Sony showed off more of its Project Morpheus which will work with its PS4 due in 2016, but Valve and HTC’s Vive stole the show. Apparently it is the best VR headset ever demonstrated, so we will see how that turns out.

More Set-Top Boxes:

Valve is not content to stay on your computer it wants a piece of your TV as well. It announced that Steam Box, a PC based console, will finally launch this year, and it is also launching the Steam Link. A little box that Streams your PC games to your TV, so that if you already have a gaming rig you can play your games anywhere in your house. It is an interesting concept, and for a certain subset of gamers I can see it being very attractive. nVidia announced a new Android TV based console that is part of their Shield line. It can stream games from the internet as well as play games locally. We will see how that works when it launches for $200 later this year.

nVidia wants AMD out of the game:

nVidia has been busy launching new video cards in its great GeForce GTX 900 line, while AMD can’t seem to get their Radeon R9 300 series out the door, so nVidia went for the knockout blow by announcing the Titan X. It has 12 GB of RAM and 8 Billion transistors. I am sure this card will cost a mint, but there is nothing faster than it on the planet.

Game development is now free to try:

You can now download and try to make your own games using the Unreal Engine 4 or Unity Engine 5. Tools like these used to cost upwards of $10,000 a license, but now they are available to anyone. These are not the stripped down versions either. You are getting the full set of tools. Once you are start to make money you will have to pay for them, but if you just want to try it out you are free to do so.

Microsoft’s one OS world comes in to focus:

Microsoft is getting serious about only having one OS. At the GDC it explained more about its universal app store, updates on the new DirectX 12 API, Xbox to Windows 10 cross play and cross buying, Xbox One to PC streaming, and lastly a bunch of new games coming out to its platforms using the ID@Xbox program. Most notably Elite: Dangerous. I think it is clear that Microsoft sees itself as an underdog at this point, and is working really hard to try and be a dominant player again. We will see how their plans work, but at least it is good to see them truly trying again.

It has been a great GDC, and still has a couple of days left, but all the major players have had their say. If anything else noteworthy happens I will update this post. I can only hope next year’s GDC is as interesting.