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Nexus 7 2013 and Chromecast Mini reviews

Nexus 7 2013

I have been a very happy original Nexus 7 owner since day one, but the tablet has gotten quite a bit slower as it ages.  It seems this is a problem with the I/O and android 4.0+. (4.3 is said to improve this, btw).  I decided to upgrade mainly because of the increased storage (upgrade from 16gb to 32gb) and better screen.  So far I am not disappointed at all.  Below are my quick thoughts. Great full length reviews are also online from The Verge, Anandtec, Engadget, Android Central, and others.

 

Pros

  • The screen is a game changer.  Colors are great, it’s bright, and the high resolution (Think “Retna”) looks fantastic.  It’s an improvement in everything.

  • Blazing fast. Everything is much faster. Even the processor itself is faster. I think the biggest difference is the faster storage.

  • The build quality seems to be a large improvement. Despite being plastic it really seems like a solid construction.  It also feels much thinner in the hand.

  • Standby battery life seems to be improved over 50% when on WiFi.  I no longer need to charge it nightly.
  • Notification LED is a nice touch.

 

The Questions

  • Why is the power adapter on the Nexus 7 2013 edition smaller at 1.35A vs the Nexus 7 2012 edition which was 2.0A?

 

Cons

  • Audio – The speakers are a bit of a disappointment.  While stereo is nice, I was really hoping for more volume. I like to listen to podcasts or stream radio stations while in the same room, and the volume is just not that loud.  The internal noise when headphones are plugged in is vastly improved as well.

  • Google needs to differentiate in the Play Store between the versions of Nexus 7.  Currently by default they are just listed as “Asus Nexus 7” and the last date they were used.  Google should at least change the icon of the new Nexus to reflect the one they are using on the box and in promos.  You can go in and rename devices, but users should not have to do this.

  • Touch on my tablet seems to be a bit off once in awhile.  I am going to have to investigate this further to see if its an app problem or maybe a hardware issue.

  • There seem to be some GPS issues with certain apps.  This looks to be more of a 4.3 problem than a hardware problem in the new tablet.  Over time apps should update and this will get fixed.

Chromecast

When this was announced it was a surprise for pretty much everyone.  At $35 this is pretty much a no-brainer.

I had been looking for a way to get music to my receiver in the living room but be able to control it from my tablet or phone. Ideally I wanted the music source to be from my Google Music account, since I have everything uploaded there.  Initially I thought this would be an app and I would plug in my tablet to act as the server, but control it from my phone.  Turns out the Chromecast has this feature and it works really well.  From my tablet I can power on the receiver (TV can remain off) and  start music playing, all from anywhere in the house.  It’s pretty slick. I have my Chromecast hooked up to my Yamaha receiver in the HDMI 2 position with AC power.

Chromecast

There are 2 methods of the Chromecast streaming content.

Mobile Device to Chromecast

Right now there are only a handful of apps that officially support this.  Youtube, Google Music, Google Movies, and Netflix.  It’s really easy to use; you start a video or song playing and then hit the Chromecast button, and within about a second it starts playing on your TV/Receiver.  What is actually happening here is the Chromecast is playing directly from the cloud, allowing you to use your device to do other things, like social media etc.  You can create queues, pause, next, etc from your mobile device.

 

Computer to Chromecast

Computer to Chromecast works a bit differently than Mobile to Chromecast.  Computer to Chromecast requires you to use the Chrome browser, and install the Chromecast plugin.  From there it allows you to share a tab to the Chromecast.  You can display the text of a web page or most video.  The computer is transcoding this information and then sending it to the Chromecast over wifi, so it does take some power on the computer side.  I tried this on my i7 920 desktop and things worked well.  I tried a few websites (Crackel, JaylenosGarage, Vimeo) and everything worked.  There is also a trick that you can open local media files in Chrome using CTRL + O and these cast too.  The MP4 files that were H.264 encoded played well.  I also tried some MKV files I had and the video in these played well, however the audio did not.  Hopefully this is something that is added in the future.

Pro’s

  • Low Price, Small Size.  At $35 this is a no-brainer, Since I ordered early I received 3 months of Netflix as well, which makes it even cheaper. It’s a small dongle that fits about anywhere.

  • Setup could not have been easier with the app on my tablet. My one tip is if you have a long complex wifi password, email it to yourself first, and make sure you copy to your clipboard before you start the setup on the phone/tablet.

  • To steal a famous quote, “It Just Works!” It just works, as Google said it would. It’s only likely to get better from here.

 

Cons

  • AC adapter. This is one of those styles of adapters that can cover up the plugin next to it. On the positive side, Google did include a nice piece of velcro to keep the extra cord nicely bundled.

  • Limited native app support right now, but this should get better since the API is open.

  • No support for Mobile Chrome to Chromecast. Hopefully this will be added soon. I have a feeling that it was due to most hardware not having the power needed to transcode video fast enough.

 

The future potential of the Chromecast is huge.  While it’s not a Roku or Apple TV replacement quite yet, it’s still very useful.  At the $35 price level, you can’t complain about much.  It makes getting Youtube and Google Music/Movie content to your TV/Receiver super easy.  Beyond that, being able to quickly move a chrome tab from your desktop to tv is easy too.

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Wide Range Broadband Review

Please make sure to see my updates at the bottom of the page.

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I have talked with Lincolnites citywide who share similar frustrations with the ISP options in town.  The big guys tend to overpromise, underdeliver, have over utilization problems, and reliability issues.  For me, the last 6 months have been worse than average, with huge fluctuations in speed, especially during peak times.  I had techs out, replaced modems, talked with support and there just was not much that could be done.  On top of this, new fees and a fairly high bill have been enough for me to start looking at other options.

In Lincoln there are not a ton of options.  Lincoln has a fairly limited market.  We have one cable provider and one traditional POTS phone provider.  There are a few resellers but they mainly use the infrastructure of the first two, thanks FCC.  There have been other options, but they typically have not been able to offer the price/performance ratio I was looking for, especially delivering a faster upload speed.

The Solution

Wide Range Broadband (WRB) is a small, locally owned and operated ISP, wanting to give Lincolnites another option to get Internet, phone and TV service.  When I first ran across them in late 2012 they didn’t have service in my area, but this has recently changed as they expand to cover more of the city.  View a coverage map here. WRB is a point to point line of sight Wireless ISP (WISP).  They use a RF technology and mount an antenna on a high point of your home and then run CAT5 inside.  More on the install later.  They are using fiber for the backhaul between their current 5 towers in town.Their main provider is Level 3 who dumps to the internet in Dallas TX.  The transmissions from the antenna to the providers tower is encrypted using 128 bit AES, which is a great thing.

Rooftop AntennaThis is the rooftop antenna on my house.

The Install

The install at my house took about 1.5 hours on a weeknight.  It was refreshing to have an appointment time that was not a 4 hour window.  During the install, Aaron, the company owner,  installed an antenna on my rooftop.  They had a lots of options, and I chose to put it on the side of my chimney.  Another common install point was the PVC exhaust vents many roofs have.  This is a good choice if you can’t put holes into the structure. The install is similar to a satellite dish install, with the mount actually being from a satellite dish.  From there he ran a length of outdoor rated CAT5 wire down the eave of my house and inside, with the rest of the service wires.  The antenna and CAT5 blend in pretty well, I think.  You can see them if you’re looking for it, but if not it blends in pretty well. Inside there is a simple small POE injector that plugs into electricity and a patch cable to your router.

Performance

I will admit I was a little skeptical at first of a wireless point to point service.  I have two pretty heavy users (Gaming, Streaming, Online Backup and more) in the house, so low lag and performance is a must. Point to point systems of the past are associated with having problems when there is weather, and high ping times.  So far I have not found this to be the case.  I am on the top residential package (21×5) and am seeing download speeds between 18-20mb/s and uploads of between 5-7mb/s   Upload speeds to seem to vary some, but they don’t dip that low, and are still significantly faster than I was previously receiving with my old ISP. Higher speeds are being seen at non peak times. The speed test screenshots speak for themselves. There are no bandwidth caps with the service either.

Speedtest

Service is dependent on distance from the towers, and according to Google Maps I am about 2.5 miles from the tower.  My housemate reports his ping times when playing online games are about 1/2 or 1/3 less with the new service.  Ping times to Google during peak hours are less than 30ms.   Youtube and Netflix performance are a lot better; much less buffering and no throttling. So far we have not had any thunderstorms roll through to see how that affects the service.  WRB told me that rain or snow would not affect the service.  So far in the one storm we have had I didn’t notice any performance differences.

After having the service about a week, I can easily say it’s the best ISP experience I have had in Lincoln and the best value.  The top package is quoted as a (21×5) for $60 a month.  With my old ISP I was paying $65 for (15×1) and that was not being delivered, so this is a much better value. Other packages are available as well with various levels of speed and price. I also like supporting a local company.

WRB also offers a referral program.  If this post has made you interested in signing up please let them know LiquidRetro referred you.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them below or find me on Twitter at @Liquidretro and I will reply back.

UPDATE1: I just wanted to write a quick update on the performance in the crazy weather Lincoln has had in the past 2 days.  On Tuesday some very significant thunderstorms rolled through town.  These brought with them some intense hail, that did cause a problem with my service.  After talking with the ISP they acknowledged a bit of downtime due to the weather. The hail had struck some of their antennas.  This was unexpected and they were looking deeper into the cause of the problem.  Good news is the outage only lasted about 20 minutes.  During the rest of the rain in the later thunderstorm there were no problems.  Today Lincoln has received a at times heavy wintry mix of precipitation   I have not had any problems with reliability or speed.  Speeds are still nice and fast.

UPDATE2: As of October 2017 I no longer was a Widerrange customer. I had the opportunity to get Allo Fiber to the home which is the best thing to happen to the Lincoln ISP market. It’s a fantastic service with great customer support.

Since my Update 1 My service with Widerrange declined in speed, because unstable and customer support suffered greatly. Running a WISP takes knowledge of the wireless spectrum above general networking and it woudl appear the new owner is lacking in this. My service required resetting due to vulnerable firmware that was known to the ISP but instead of being proactive they were reactive when users called in about a problem.

At the current time I do not recommend Widerange if you have other options.  The product being delivered did not meet expectations nor did the customer service. Lincoln now has better options, and I would recommend using one of them if possible.

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Yellowstone 2012 Photos

In August of 2012 I visited Yellowstone National Park with my family for a short vacation.  The weather ended up being great and it was really a photographers dream trip.  There was a lot of people but we really did not have to wait in line much around the park.  I took a ton of photos but narrowed them down quite a bit to my favorites. I have 5 photos posted below and then more in my Gallery Link.  The new gallery is HTML5 so it’s compatible with all of your mobile devices!

 

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Minestrone

This morning I decided I need to make something hearty and mostly healthy to eat for the next couple of days.  After looking through some things I decided on Minestrone Soup.  This is a favorite of mine but one I had not made before.  After looking up some recipes it was not difficult and decided to go at it. I really like Allrecipies.com to find good dishes.  They always have lots of reviews, with people making suggestions on how to make them better.

Minestrone soup is most often a vegetarian dish, however I had some ground beef I wanted to use, so I started with that.  Next added the aromatics to make a mirepoix with some red wine and tomato paste.  I added about 1/2 of my stock and some Quinoa in place of about 1/2 the pasta to make the soup healthier.  Since this has a long cooking time I added it early.  I added the rest of the ingredients minus the spinach and zucchini since I did not have any.  I let it simmer for probably about 40 minutes until the vegetables were al dente added my pasta and let it cook for about another 10 minutes.  Minestrone Soup I  and Jamie’s Minestrone.

The end result was quite good.  The quinoa was a good substation and I am glad I put it in.  This made a dutch oven full so lots of taste leftovers.  It should freeze well too.

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Bill Nye – Science!!!

A couple of weekends ago I was able to see Bill Nye @TheScienceGuy speak at the Homestead National Monument in Beatrice NE.  It was a beautiful fall day for 300-400 people to sit and listen.  I was expecting a few basic experiments similar to the TV show, but instead it was more of a speech lecture.  The topic varied but some of the main points were sustainability, and the future and importance of science.

At the end there was a long Q&A session, and the topics were all over the place.  Controversial questions were asked and they were handled in a dignified way. Bill Nye did not try and stay in the middle of the road, instead voicing his strong opinion on some topics such as global warming, nuclear energy’s future, etc.  He did keep stressing finding a way to store energy efficiently and that it could “Make you Rich”!

I took several photos during the speech, and a few are below.  I was glad I went.

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Live Music: Silversun Pickups

On Monday night I went to a great concert in Papillion, NE at the Sumtur Amphitheater .  It was a cold night but a great concert.  I was able to get up very close to stage. Close enough to reach out and touch the band at times if you wanted.  I was able to capture these pictures with my old Motorola Droid X smartphone.  I was shocked at the results I got, but they got even better after I did some noise reduction in Lightroom.  This was one of the first performances the band had with the new (Temporary) bass player.  She did a great job, but you could tell was a little rattled by the support of the crowd.  Other than that it was a great performance.  The bands sound live is very similar to the recorded sound, but you could tell it was live, no lipsync here.  Overall it was one of the better shows I have seen this year.

A couple of Videos too

 

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Cooking Chicken Marsala

I have not updated the blog in a while so I figured I would post an update showing some of the cooking I have done recently.  Below is some Chicken Marsala I made for the first time last night.  It turned out great, considering it was the first time I tried making the dish.