AOC e2343F2 LED Monitor Review

AOC is in the LCD/TV business for over two decades now, but you may have barely heard the name. Possibly a big player in Taiwan, from where the company originates, the name AOC is lost in this Samsung and LG dominated market. In fact, the company has only recently placed the UAE in its waypoint, first making an appearance at Gitex last year, showcasing what was then their ‘slimmest LED monitor in the world’. The LED was the AOC e2343F2, and though it’s lofty title may have been matched by its said competitors, there is no denying its remarkably slim figure that continues to give my big-boned presence a complex every time I look at it.

The LED was delivered to us incased in armor – or as close as a display could demand! Wrapped in what seemed like 5” of hard-to-tear plastic, the cover took a sharp scissor and a lot of brute force to deliver the actual box out of its cocoon. We are pretty sure the retail unit will be sans its Nanosuit, but if it’s not, don’t forget to sharpen your knives.

As I tore through the plastic, I started reading the bullet-points: 2ms response time, 50,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, illuminating touch keys, four PIP, VESA mount support, and more interestingly, two HDMI ports. Impressive, I thought. Inclusion of multiple HDMI ports and picture-in-picture, both premiums, told me that we are looking at one of their higher priced high-end models. But surprisingly, that was not the case. The AOC e2343F2 costs only AED 700, and with its loaded set of features, instantly made it an incredible bang-for-the-buck.

Well, at least that’s what appeared to be before we fired it up.

Design
The AOC e2343F2 is not particularly handsome, though from the pictures, the white model looks to be a lot better. Coming at just 12.9 millimeter thickness, the AOC is one of the slimmest monitors I have seen, and it certainly adds to the appeal to its glossy black plastic body.

AOC has made sure the display remains sleek and slim throughout. Instead of costing the display a slight bump on the back to accommodate the ports, AOC has rather intelligently shifted them to the foot-stand – finally bringing the largely neglected piece of the hardware to good use.

On the back of the foot-stand you will find two HDMI ports, one VGA, one headphone jack and the power outlet. There is no DVI-port – a priced paid for having two HDMIs, we guess. In our test, we found out that the HDMI port was unable to render input from the PC properly. It seemed as if the display was not able to produce a full HD image and settled for black bars around the screen. It worked perfectly fine with the PS3, however.

Also on the foot-stand are the “illuminating” touch buttons that controls the on-screen display. There are four buttons: left/presets, right, power on/off, source/enter, and menu. There is no clear indication of what does what at first, and the OSD doesn’t do much to rectify the problem as well.

As such, the menu is quite cumbersome to use and requires a lot of back-tracking to change simple settings like brightness or color as they are divided into its own category than bunched up into one. The icons that represent the settings are quite ugly to be honest, and it’s hard to decipher what they belong to.

The construction quality is another worry as well. For one, I really believe that the display frame would snap off the neck if I moved it around too much. It’s that flimsily joined. If you push the screen, the whole frame will wobble violently as if it was tied to the neck with a hairpin. This may be due to the lightness of the display and it may not be as cheap as it feels, but a little bit of better fitting would go a long way to give users peace of mind.

Interview with RIM’s Mike Al Mefleh

At Planet of the Apps last week, I had a chance to sit down with Mike Al Mefleh- the Director of Product Management at RIM Middle East. I spoke to Mike about RIM’s plans to introduce the App Store in the UAE as well as their upcoming tablet- the BlackBerry PlayBook. The following are excerpts from that interview.

Tell us a little bit about Planet of the Apps and RIM’s participation.

I think its a great event where we can educate the developers about the tools available and the kind of things that can be used to develop as well as share our vision and where we are looking for to really bring that rich and healthy experience to the consumers. So one of our colleagues is here from the development team and she has been presenting and talking about the whole journey of development aspects such as the tool that are available and how to develop Super Apps?

We have been waiting for a very long time for the BlackBerry App Store in the region and there seems to be some good news coming with it being launched in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait Jordan and Lebanon.

It’s been up and running for a week or two now in these countries. We have to go through the due diligence of bringing them to the market. We have actually had it turned on here (in the UAE) to test it. Aspects such as quality, the applications, the operations, the billing and everything else involved.

When can we expect it to be fully functional in UAE and KSA?

So we are working through this- obviously given that UAE and KSA are our biggest markets (in the region) with the highest subscribers base. We are working with the carriers and ensuring the quality- I mean we have to get the content, the applications and do all the testing to ensure the whole experience is right from get to go for the customers.

Was it hard for you to attract developers from the region because the App World didn’t exist until a couple of weeks back?

Not necessarily- we are engaging the developers and the good news about the App World availability has been coming- it’s up and running in other countries so its obvious it is coming here. It’s a matter of time to when we switch the light on?

Can you give us an indication on when that will be for the UAE?

It should be really within…not too long to go with that. It’s still going through some testing, we are engaging in discussion with the carriers etc. We have a few steps to finish up before we turn it on. So, like I said we turned it so you know it’s working here and we went through some testing and are now working on some things to make sure we have covered all the bases. We have a large base of consumers- the UAE is a big base for BlackBerry.

What about the Playbook? When will you officially launch the Playbook in the Middle East?

Today is the big day in the US for the Playbook. It’s targeted before the end of Q2 for this market.

Is Arabic supported on the device?

To start with, we support rendering of text but we are working for complete Arabic support in the next software releases. So to start with we will be able to browse in Arabic and you will be able to bridge and see you email in Arabic or BBM in Arabic.

Have you been working with developers across the region for PlayBook?

Yes, as a matter of fact we have been working with developers because we are obviously looking to enhance and localize some of the offerings that are available to the market here. So, some developers have been exposed to that in developing applications.

There is many developers globally as well who have been developing- there are over 3000 application submitted for the Playbook. I don’t know the exact number but there has been over 3000 submissions. And then we have been working with developers here as well for local flavor on the apps be it entertainment, gaming religious, planning application, travel, , touring etc.

Do you expect the PlayBook to compete well with the iPad in the region or are you targeting at a different sector- you’ve mentioned that the PlayBook being part corporate and part fun?

No, really to be quite honest I won’t say we are only here to compete. This is part of our strategy within RIM- to bring the tablet. And we are not just bringing one tablet, this is a road map. Like we announced, we will bring in the 4G, the LTE, the HSDPA version. So this is a line of products we are going to continue to bring. The difference here is that we are bringing this built on the success of the smartphone.

So this is complimenting your existing experience in a bigger screen, a bigger keyboard etc to be able to have the full fledged experience. It is unique in that and given that we have the QNX OS which is very reliable, very robust and very developer friendly. We have an edge there. The multitasking experience you have with us- it’s a true multitasking experience. You can run as many applications as you want- nothing gets interrupted, nothing gets paused, everything continues to run in the background. That’s another edge we have.

Finally, we are giving you the true full fledged flash support. With over three million flash applications and many many developers you are taking your playbook to the Internet rather than bringing the Internet (with a limited experience) to your Playbook. And lets not forget that we have lately announced support for Java and Android applications as well.

I’d like to thank Mike for taking the time out of his busy schedule and talking to us.

Razer Onza Tournament Edition Controller Review

My biggest complaint with the regular Xbox 360 controller, like pretty much everyone else in the world, was the D-pad. Its just, not good, for lack of a better word. I have tried some other 3^rd party controller, one of my old favorites being the Street Fighter IV pads, as well as the recent Xbox 360 Special Edition Controller. And while were all good, they still has some sort of caveat which left me unsatisfied with their overall performance. Enter the Razer Onza Tournament Edition Xbox 360 controller.

The first thing I noticed as soon as I took it out of the packaging was the trademark Razer motif on the bottom right. The second thing I noticed was the nice rubberized grip on the entire pad, which was pretty light and comfortable to hold. The lightness comes from the fact that the Onza has a 15ft. braided cable; it’s not wireless. Given that this is a professional gaming controller, having a cable makes sense, although some people may not like this.

Immediately you’ll also notice the two bumper buttons on either side, as well as the long trigger buttons. The Right and Left Multi-Function Buttons (MFB) can be assigned to function as any key on the controller. This immediately brings of a level of customization to those people looking to reassign the right/left analogue clicks, as well as any face buttons that may give out a competitive advantage. These buttons can be assigned from the back panel of the controller through depressed buttons for either Function Button.

One of the most peculiar changes to the controller is the Start & Select buttons, which have been moved to the bottom of the controller, while the main Xbox Guide button remains on top. This can be very disorienting for the first couple of hours of use, but later on it becomes a non-issue.

I have two simple complains with the Razer Onza, both of which are cosmetic in nature. Unlike a regular Xbox 360 controller that has the Guide button in a nice metal finish and glowing green plastic underneath, the Razer Onza simply has a plastic cover under which there seems to be a paper print of the Guide button. This gives it an incredibly cheap look. The second is the fact that once the controller is plugged in, the light coming from the face buttons also gives them a rather hollow, fake kind of look.

Rumor: Apple’s cloud service to be called iCloud

According to blog GigaOM, Apple’s still-underwraps cloud-based service will be called iCloud – not that we expected it to be called anything else.

Apparently, Apple has purchased the domain name iCloud.com from Swedish company Xcerion, who promptly changed their own service’s name from iCloud to CloudMe. Now why would they do that? A $4.5 million cheque supposedly did the trick.

As usual, Apple is yet to respond to the rumors.

Samsung ‘Alex’ Chrome OS notebook details surface

Samsung’s first Chrome OS notebook is on the horizon, and today we have the first details of the awaited device.

Codenamed ‘Alex’ (male or female, unknown), the Google OS-powered notebook will feature an Intel 1.5GHz Atom N550 CPU, 2GB of RAM, a SanDisk SSD of unknown capacity, 1280×800 resolution display, 3G, Synaptics TouchPad, WiFi, Ethernet, webcam and Bluetooth.

That’s all that was uncovered, so no pricing or launch details yet. But you can bet for some when Google I/O event kicks in next month.

Apple starts selling the white iPhone 4

The title of the post says it all doesn’t it? Apple after having us wait for what seemed liked years has finally started selling the white iPhone 4.

As always, you have two options to purchase the white uniform wearing stainless steel phone. You can get it online or if you want you can pay visit to one of Apple’s authorized retail stores and get it there and then. The price as well as the specs sheet remain the same. You get a 1 Ghz processor, 5 MP camera,retina display enabled 3.7 inch touchscreen and surprisingly iOS 4.3.1 and not iOS 4.3.2.

Currently the white iPhone 4 is available in US, UK, China, Australia and other countries which sadly doesn’t include UAE. But that won’t be the case for long. So, do you intend to buy the white iPhone 4 or are you waiting to get your hands on the new iPhone 5 whenever it becomes available.

Zalman Z9 Plus Mid-Tower Case

With the advancements in processor and graphics core architectures that the recent few months have seen, computer accessory manufacturers have been quick to produce parts and components that will match the new trends. Zalman’s Z9 Plus Mid Tower computer case is one such product. Retailing for about USD 70 on Newegg and similar e-tailers, the Z9 Plus certainly looks attractive enough. Blue LEDs throughout and a sleek black design make this case great eye-candy for technophiles. The more important question, however, is whether the case can deliver on the inside.

http://www.bjorn3d.com/articles/Zalman_Z9_Plus_Mid-Tower_Case/2026.html

AMD Athlon II X2 265 Processor Review by Ultimate Hardware

“We are testing the Athlon II X2 265 CPU against the Athlon II X2 255 CPU. The Athlon II X2 265 is clocked at 3300Mhz while the Athlon II X2 255 is clocked at 3100Mhz which is 7% slower. The Athlon II X2 265 supports MMX+, 3DNow+, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSE4A, x86-64 and AMD-V. We will be using some interesting Benchmarks for testing the Athlon II X2 265 and Athlon II X2 255 which are:- Windows Experience, Cinebench, Computmark, Everest, Geekbench, Nuclearus and Performance Test. Games are Hawk 2, Lost Planet 2, Mafia 2, Metro 2033 and Resident Evil 5.”

http://www.ultimatehardware.net/amd/amd_athlon_ii_x2_265.htm

Apple To Launch iPad 2 In Malaysia This Week!

Quote : People, we have just confirmed that Apple will be launching
the iPad 2 in Malaysia on Friday, April 29, 2011! The first batch of
Apple iPad 2 will be delivered on the launch date to selected
customers who pre-booked their iPad 2s but there will be plenty to go
around, at least in the beginning!

We also managed to obtain the official price list. How does it compare
to prices in the US? Check it out!

Link : http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=726

Motorola Xoom Tablet Review

“The Motorola Xoom is the first real competitor to Apple’s wildly popular iPad. The Xoom has hardware specs better than the new iPad 2 and it is one of the first tablets to run the new Android 3.0 (Gingerbread) operating system, so we were excited to take a look. Our review unit was the 32 GB Verizon model of the Xoom.”

Link: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Motorola-Xoom-Tablet-Review/1257

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