USB Type C - It's Here to Stay

          Charging cables have been around since charging batteries has been a thing. There used to be the dark and scary days of Samsung fat-chargers, Samsung thick-chargers, Mini-USB, Micro-USB Type A, Micro-USB Type B, and Apple's 30-pin dock connector. Times were confusing. Thankfully, both the 30-pin Connector and Micro-USB Type B emerged as the victors in the charging port wars. However, Apple made a great leap forward with the Lightning connector. It was one of the first reversible connectors, and definitely slimmed down its size from its 30 pin predecessor. USB tried to beat out Lightning with Micro-USB 3.0, which offered faster file transfer speeds and faster charging, but alas, it failed due to its size being twice as large as Micro-USB 2.0, thought it was backwards compatible with the smaller, older 2.0 cable for a bonus.

          This still didn't solve the size issue, or the fact that the cable wasn't reversible. Which is where USB Type C has come into play.

          USB Type C is almost the inverse of Lightning. Looking at the image below, you could almost swear that Lightning- the middle cable- could fit into USB Type C - the leftmost connector. Unlike its Micro USB 3.0 predecessor, the USB Type C is smaller, faster data transfer, faster charging capabilities, and is reversible. Also unlike its predecessor, it is in more than just the Samsung Galaxy S5. It is already in the new Apple Macbook, the Nexus 6P, the Nexus 5X, the Chromebook Pixel, the OnePlus Two, the OnePlus X, the Nokia N1, and the Chromebook Pixel. However, these are devices just from 2015, and there will surely be 10 times as many devices. The fact that Apple adopted this standard in 2015 surprised many people, and is another but unlike Micro USB 3.0, USB Type C is here to stay.

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The Life of a Flashaholic

          I know. I can't help it. I've tried for 3 years, but it just won't go away. It all started when my mom and sister had problems with their Android phones. HTC no longer supplied updates for the phone, so it was stuck on Android 4.1. However, it was worse than that. Since carriers had to approve of Android updates, my carrier, I-Wireless, didn't ever approve of the 4.1 update EVER, so my mom and sister were stuck on Android 2.3.2. They faced numerous crashes daily, freezes, TERRIBLE battery life, and just overall many bugs, and unfortunately, there was nothing either of them could do, since they had no access to updates. So I spent the course of a week learning everything I could about Android, root, bootloaders, baseband versions, S-OFF partitions, hashes, bootloader versions, kernels, ROMs, recoveries, nandroid backups, and a lot of overall confusing things, in the hopes that I could get their phones running an up-to-date Cyanogenmod, an OS that I could install and run to remove all of their problems. I ran into a lot of problems along the way, and nearly gave up after Cyanogenmod would install, but then crash the moment I would try to launch an app. However, once I finally got it to work by flashing (installing) a million different things, and nearly crying at midnight with what I thought was a bricked (software-locked, unusable) phone, I finally got them to work, and felt accomplished. This feeling would forever-more carry on with me throughout my teenage years.
          I later got my own smartphone a year later. It was a Windows 8 smartphone, but I quickly found out that it too suffered from having to wait for updates from carriers to reach it. "Who designed this system?!" I thought to myself. I soon found out that there was a developer program where, if I applied as a developer, I could install the latest OS updates right as they came out...with the risk of minor bugs. However, I didn't care, I needed to have the coolest features, like Cortana or Windows 10 Mobile. That continued for a year, until I got my very first Android phone. The phone was awesome! It had a 50MP camera feature, and it ran pretty well...but then, I too discovered that there was a Beta program that allowed me to run the latest software. So, I did some modding, and started running the latest software. However, my battery life soon started to drop, and I also started to hate the aftermarket look of the OS...it had skins all over the icons, and everything just looked too kiddish for me, soooo....I decided to modify this phone as well, and install a custom ROM called GummyROM on it, which was basically a ported Cyanogenmod. Well, that was all dandy, until I got a new phone 6 months later, which came preloaded with a version of Cyanogenmod, known as CyanogenOS. So...whoopee! That meant I didn't have to do any flashing of ROMs, and I could just live with the phone and be happy....well, that lasted for maybe 5 months, before I realized that CyanogenOS was slow to receive the updates I was eager about, as it was an actual corporate product, not a MOD, and thus, had to go through testing and Google certification....blah! -_- So I installed custom ROMs on it, such as Ressurection Remix ROM, which was very stable, fast, and gave me great battery life and the latest features. However, eventually, I got tired of running ROMs, and my phone could not use my carrier's LTE, so I wanted to get a phone that would run the latest software, give me the latest features, and be a great performer, with LTE that would work with iWireless. That led me to the Nexus 6P.
          The Nexus 6P has great features and specs, but most importantly, it runs stock Android with no ugly skins, gets great battery life, and, since it is a Nexus sold by Google, it is the FIRST to get updates! It has been a match in heaven for me. However, after owning the phone for a week and a half, I have found myself still wanting to install ROMs, as although I am running the latest bleeding-edge software, I no longer have a million customization options anymore that I had with my old modded phones. So, even on the latest and greatest, as well as cleanest, software, I find myself still churning for more, as I happen to be a strong Flashaholic.

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Microsoft: From Windows to Services

           Windows 10. It ushered in a whole new era to the PC. It fixed the seemingly unlimited complaints that came from Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 days, where former CEO Steve Ballmer had attempted to steer the company into a 100% unified ecosystem by making all operating systems exactly the same, between desktop, tablet, and (almost) phone. However, this turned out to be a huge flop, as it was not properly optimized for mouse and keyboard usage, and it took away the nostalgic Start menu that had been in use since the turn of the PC era in the early 1990s. However, with the inauguration of the new CEO Satya Nadela, Microsoft began its new journey down the road of a new mission. Nadela decided to turn Microsoft into a services company; no longer would Microsoft turn the majority of its profits from Windows, but instead, would give away the new version of Windows, Windows 10, for free for one year, and would instead make money off of monthly licenses for products such as its cloud Azure program for business, Office subscriptions, OneDrive subscriptions. and later additional Windows 10 licenses.
           While many believed that this strategy would fail, it has actually turned quite a success for the company. Office is bringing in more revenue than ever, and better yet, Microsoft is almost guaranteed a certain monthly revenue, instead of the shady releases of Office every 2-5 years that may or may not sell a million copies, or maybe 200 million copies. The numbers were never for sure, and company profitability would greatly fluctuate year to year, making the success of the company very hard to determine from stock brokers' perspective. Almost everything in our lives is turning into monthly payments, from cell phone plans, Office subscriptions, electricity, mortgages, cars, Spotify, Amazon Prime, etc. Everything is turning into monthly subscriptions, so I was not surprised with this transition to giving away Windows 10 for free for a year in an effort to claim more consumers for their other products, almost like a subsidized trial that gives you the basic foundation to work with, but then lures you in with temptations of productivity and efficient cloud storage! AHHHHH! Its a trap! Just kidding. It really is a quite intelligent way of going about business, and so far, Windows 10 has been a large success. It has taken over 9.96% of the Windows marketshare (which Windows claims roughly 90% of the total operating system marketshare, so its 10% of 90%, or 9% of the global OSes, for people that like to do math), and its marketshare and reach is still spreading. While it may not sound very exciting to have 10% of Windows users updating, that just happens to be 75 MILLION upgrades in just 5 months- that's roughly half a million people clicking the download button a day! So while many may question whether Microsoft should have given away Windows, I believe it was a smart choice, because it will, in the end, ensure that customer's both 1) feel happy for getting a free gift (a Windows upgrade), 2) will ensure that consumers are up to date and protected from malicious attacks, and 3) ensure that Microsoft can better control and market its products to its Windows 10 users.

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3D Printers: Anything is possible!

          3D printers. They can almost do anything! I could make almost anything, from air funnels for more effective PC cooling, to true manufacturing demos and prototypes, it seems like the possibilities are endless. However, 3D printers are slowly starting to work their way into the medical industry as well, not just in geeky manufacturing plants. At the University of Iowa, a cat by the name of Vincent was found to be missing rear tibias, so he could not walk. An avid cat lover myself, I would be so sad to see such an animal suffer like that. However, the folks over at Iowa State University managed to construct 3D legs that would attach to his current bone structure that allow him to walk. Just take a look for yourself, and be amazed at how far printing technology has come!

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Mobile Payments=Messy!

          Cash. Change. Its a pain to carry around. It takes up additional space, and metal coins tie your pockets down with weight. Then came checks: sure, lets just carry along a pen and a large checkbook, make sure there is a large enough balance in your checking account, and boom, people could spend a solid minute or two writing out a check for $35 in groceries. But that wasn't faster than cash, and it only reduced the weight of coins with the risk of bouncing checks and the extra size a checkbook would take up. So we still needed a new solution. Ah-ha! The credit card! Sure, lets just swipe a piece of plastic with a magnetized strip, and we will no longer need to bring along cash! Well, sure, that worked, until....well, you couldn't pay a friend quickly for some help he gave you with your computer, or the neighbor boy for helping out with some quick yard work. So the payment methods continued to live alongside each other. But heck, why did we need cheap pieces of plastic sticking in our pockets? Weren't we more advanced than printed pieces of paper and plastic cards? Sounds a lot like playing fake shop as a kid with the fake dollar bills and sometimes, the fake, thick plastic credit cards.

But then, came the smartphone era, and by 2011, companies such as Google and Paypal realized that, if we could purchase things using our smartphones online, such as while browsing Amazon.com or Ebay.com, why couldn't we transfer that ability to pay with our phones to the physical stores as well? And that, my friends, is how the idea of mobile phone payments, such as Android Pay, Google Wallet, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Walmart Pay, PayPal Mobile, etc., started to take their infancy.
          In 2011, both Google and Paypal dropped the bombs with Google Wallet and Paypal Mobile, respectively. Both were designed to run on the Android ecosystem, and made contactless, or tap to pay, payments possible through a low-powered wireless standard called NFC, or Near Field Communication, the name itself implying that it is both extremely short range (within 8mm) and low power-consuming.  Large stores such as McDonald's immediately took charge and replaced all of their old credit card scanners with newer, shinier ones that could both scan credit cards, but also accept NFC payments. However, the technology didn't ever take off as Google and PayPal had planned. It was quite unfortunate, however, as the technology seemed years ahead of its time: hell, the iPhone 4 had just been released a little more than 7 months prior, and that phone still was connecting through 3G data. Meanwhile, here was Google, pioneering the way with wireless payments made on your phone, putting the time era into place. Several years later, and by several years, I mean 3.5 years later, after Apple released the iPhone 4s, the iPhone 5, the iPhone 6, and finally, the iPhone 6, Apple decided it was their time to take a crack at wireless payments, and released Apple Pay. Sure, it was almost 4 years behind, and it didn't work with some of the largest credit card companies, Discover Card included (which is the 4th largest credit card company in the world), but it did assist in marketing the product better than Google and made partnerships to make sure that tap-to-pay kiosks were more widespread, such as in Starbucks. So three wireless payments? I can handle that...but this is where things start to get messy.
          Even though Google Wallet existed for Android, Samsung felt that Google wasn't doing enough to push the service, and thus, decided to release Samsung Pay, in direct competition with Apple, and featured its own marketing campaign. However, then Google rolled out its revised Google Wallet, dubbed Android Pay, which was built into the operating system as of Android 6.0, and had full compatibility with their integrated fingerprint service. So now we have reached 5 services, or really 4.5, as Google Wallet still ran on older devices not updated to the latest software....hmm. But it is now that Walmart has created their own app as of this week, dubbed Walmart Pay, which is rolling out in stores slowly over the course of the next year. As the name implies, this wireless payment system only works with Walmart, but allows you to better manage receipts and returns. However, it made me wonder and makes me ask, why do we need 5.5, or 6, or otherwise, more than 2 or 3 mobile payment systems?! The fragmentation is getting outrageous- I do not want to be required to have Walmart Pay, Target Pay, Android Pay, American Eagle Pay, Casey's Pay, etcetera. I see what Walmart was trying to do with the receipts management system included, but they are just adding on to the already polluted system. I also see what Samsung was trying to do, as Apple and Samsung are highly competitive companies, and Samsung needed some catchy advertising to stay relevant, but now Samsung should try to work with Google to convert people to Android Pay at this point and end their service I believe and end this terribly messy fragmentation that is the mobile payments system!

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Dear Mr. Lightbulb

Dear Mr. Lightbulb,
           Thank you for everything you do. Centuries ago, when the sun would make its spectacular presentation of setting, the world would come to a halt. Like the plants must stop photosynthesis at nightfall, us humans also were forced to put everything we were working at on hold, at mercy of the bright sun. While days in the Summer near the equator would be long and plentiful in light, Winters north or south of this mark would present utter amounts of darkness, with my homeland of Iowa struggling with only 9.5 hours of light per day in December. Not to mention, you have made it possible to travel through the dark hours of night and fog, your light leading the way like Rudolph’s glowing red nose. Rest assured that, while many have forgotten your presence in everyday life, I remember you, and I won’t forget you. I’ve watched you grow up over the years alongside me, from your young, immature incandescent days, to your maturing teenage CFL years. Look at you now though, in the prime of your adult years, sprouting into such a strong LED bulb.
          Now, I know you have done terrible things in your life. You have helped create the factory system, enslaving millions of children at the turn of the 20th century for nickels on the dollar, 24 hours around the clock. You have wasted billions of gallons in fossil fuels to power your previously inefficient ways of bringing light to the homes and families that were dependent on you. You would be dropped and would explode like a bomb, with glass shards and metal filament splintering into the feet of both the innocent young or the elderly old looking to simply lighten up a dark hallway.
           But where you have enslaved millions of our children, burned through a multitude of our limited fossil fuels, and stabbed and punctured your very creators and gods, you have always tried to brighten our lives, and that is an unreputable fact. The day Mr. Edison revised your filament was the day that you started feeling needed, and we need you. Without you, our world is dark, our world is full of dark corners filled with scary monsters, and our attics remain black caves for only the cats and bats to roam. So for every time you have done one thing wrong, you have committed to doing ten rights, and for all of the illuminating you for us that is commonly under appreciated, I thank you.

Stay bright,

Tyler

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Why the iPad Pro is Not So Pro

          The iPad. While revolutionary in a time when Android tablets were just running a blown up phone OS (Android at the time was only programmed for small, portrait mode smartphones. Companies such as Asus, HP, and HTC recognized the need for tablets, and thus, modified the crap out of Android 2.0 to make it run in landscape and portrait, but all it did was create a buggy user interface and a stretched out experience.), the iPad is no longer holding such an innovative title in my eyes. When Apple announced the iPad Pro, I just laughed, It is merely a 4 year late Microsoft Surface Pro with a stylus that stupidly recharges through the iPad itself, ready to break off, and features the discontinuity of not featuring Apple's 3D Touch. Normally, Apple would unify an experience on devices, such as transfering Retina Displays or Touch ID. If someone knows how to use an iPhone, someone knows how to use an iPad, an iPod, and an iPad Pro. However, if someone now buys an iPhone 6s, and starts using 3D Touch to interact with everything in the UI, when they pick up, they would learn fast their new fancy device does not necessarily do everything their phone does, and this creates discontinuities, something unlike Apple. Not only are there discontinuites, but Apple has completely copied Microsoft's screen size, high resolution, and pen idea, slapping revolutionary on the front, but you know why I hate the iPad Pro so much? Because without Windows 10 running on it, it is just an overglorified paperweight in my eyes, as apps are never powerful enough. PROfessionals need real software, not App Store apps and Angry Birds blown up on an oversized iPad. And that, is why the iPad Pro will never be a real Pro version, as no professional in their right mind would rely solely on App Store apps.

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Custom Computer Cases

While most people would consider computers to be colorless and boring, with blan HP and Dell logos branded on the front, and commonly featuring black chassis, flat sides, and a slightly arced, glossy black front.

However, these stereotypical cases are just blan OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) cases that ship for millions of PCs. and have customization as high as Death Valley. So if cases from OEMs are very boring in nature, what is this blog post about? That, my friend, is where we wander into the world of custom cases.

Custom computer cases are from manufacturers tha usually sell computer parts on their own for computer building enthusiasts looking to actually assemble their own system. Cases can range from $20 to $1000, as crazy as that may seem. However, cases are usually priced very fairly based on what you get for your money, and cases can range from any shape to any size. Some are a mere popcan-and-a-half tall, while many can be easily waist height (for those shorter people out there, they can get almost as tall as 3 ft!). There are about 4 different sizes of consumer cases (there are also enterprise cases, which are basically U1 and U2, that can be used as server cases to fit lots of hard drives into the thinnest, stackable case possible). In order of smallest to largest respectively, there are Mini-ITX, Mid Tower, Full Tower, and then Ultra. On a technology site such as Newegg.com or consumer site such as Amazon.com, it is very easy to find more than a thousand cases that are Mini-ITX, Mid Tower, or Full Tower. However, finding an Ultra tower on these sites would be near impossible, as Ultra towers are something that is sold only on individual websites from really small companies that build systems that are sometimes as large as 4 feet by 4 feet by 1.5 feet. These massive systems take completely custom shipping approaches and weight in from the great amounts of metal put in, so expectedly, they are VERY expensive, but with them, you could be declared as the ultimate bad-ass!

However, for most of the PC crowd, the first three sizes would work fine, and thus, come the decision between the three. At first, I started with the largest Mid Tower possible, as it was actually almost the same size as a Full Tower, but half the price, at about $65.

It was an amazing case, with room for a large radiator in the top for water cooling, and plenty of red fans to keep everything cool. However, over time, this case was just too large for me to move around to go to my dad’s house, so after 3 years, I changed things up and went Mini-ITX.

I went with a $45 case that was about 5 times smaller in volume than my previous case, and is actually just a cube that is 2 pop cans x 2 pop cans x2 pop cans in size, as wacky as that dimension sounds. Inside, it packed a large front fan (200mm) and options for mini fans (80mm) in the rear. Overall, I’m very satisfied with the small size, as it is very maneuverable and light, however, it does sacrifice the ability to cool my computer as well, but overall, the thermals are very good. If you ever decide to purchase a computer case to spice things up a little bit, be sure to check that the case you order will:

1. Fit and house all of your components properly, especially your motherboard, graphics card, and CPU heatsink
2. Make sure there are an appropriate number of slots in the rear to house all expansions cards coming off of the PCI and PCI-Express slots.
3. Make sure that the number of fans in the case will be adequate to cool, or that there are extra spaces left for you to add fans should cooling be inadequate.

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What is root?

Root? What is it? A root is both a structural and nutritional supplier to vegetation that….NO! Not a plant root silly, Android root! So what is Android root, you might be wondering? Well, lets start at the basics. Android root is similar to having administrator access on a Windows computer. Doing certain things on Windows requires elevated privileges, or administrator rights, to make certain system-wide changes, such as installing certain programs, deleting certain system files, and whatnot. We’ve all probably seen that pop up that says,”enter the administrator password to proceed”, especially anyone that has used school computers. Anyway, android has a very similar process built in….but not at the same level. Android’s “administrator” access is named,”root” access, as like a plant, root is the very bottom-level of the operating system. However, the main differentiating factor here is that almost all android phones have no access to root by default. The user only has limited access to their own files and installing applications from the Google Play store, but modifying the system for audio equalizers, making modifications to the OS for battery saving, or secretly saving Snapchats, root can do almost anything that a user would normally think would be impossible. Its disabled by default in the OS to protect the user from accidentally installing malware that could break a person’s phone and cause it not to boot, which makes sense, but it can be enabled through a few simple hacking methods. Personally, I used to use it to save Snapchats secretly AND without the time stamp in the corner, and also be able to have an unlimited caption length, but now I just use it for a mod named “Viper 4 Android” that allows me to have amazing sound audio equalizers, but again, there are thousands of uses. It is very similar to jailbreaking an iPhone, if you've ever heard that term coined, but it allows even more possiblities, and if you're willing to sometimes risk your warranty, it can open many cool and functional doorways for experienced users.

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