Wal-Mart had a bundle deal going on where you could get a New 3DS XL and a game of your choice (from a limited selection) for $209 before tax. Tax for me was $11, bringing it up to $220. Out of all the games, most I didn't really want, and I already own Smash Bros, so I went with Fossil Fighters Frontier because I'd been looking at it on the eShop and it seemed interesting. If Mario Kart 7 or Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds had been a part of the offer, I'd have gotten either one of those instead.
Also, I have system transferred from my Old 3DS to the New 3DS. I'm not getting rid of my Old 3DS, rather, it now enables me to StreetPass myself for the purpose of the StreetPass games, as well as any other game with a good use of StreetPass. I do plan on doing some StreetPass shenanigans with Bravely Default on my Old 3DS, possibly involving purchasing another copy of the game. It'll probably be a digital copy from the eShop. I may also get a DS flash cart to live in its cartridge slot.
All of this happened on Monday, when it arrived at my doorstep. I decided to stay eerily silent about it until now, just because.
Because I was an idiot, there was a slight, non-fatal hiccup in the system transfer process. Basically, my wireless router is a piece of shit. The wireless interface on it goes down completely at random after it's been on for a few days, without the lights on the front updating to reflect this, and it went down during the wireless transfer of the SD card contents. For some reason, even though that happens over Local wireless, it interrupts the whole thing when my wireless router decided to stop being a wireless router. I cycled the power on the router and restarted the transfer, and this time it finished without issue.
Nintendo at least had the foresight to make the process as simple and guided as possible, to the point that before you even begin it, they refer you to their support website where you can select the options you want to use and get a step-by-step set of instructions. That's pretty neat. Though they say the wireless transfer will take 4 hours, mine took right around an hour. The big variables are data on your SD card, if you choose wireless transfer, and built-in software.
I probably should have had the forethought to reset the router beforehand, or to select the PC transfer option and just copy everything around using my computer. But the latter option would involve removing the backplate of the New 3DS to get its MicroSD card out, because Nintendo are a bunch of geniuses who don't think being able to access your SD card easily is a good thing.
After the break, we'll move on to my thoughts on the New 3DS.
Showing posts with label hardware reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hardware reviews. Show all posts
Friday, May 1, 2015
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Azure Tusk
...or, you know, Bluetooth.
With my new phone's ability to use Bluetooth, I naturally wanted to be able to use that. Especially considering how the network completely mangles the images and audio I send to it via MMS. I began my quest by poking around various TracFone-related resources for the phone, since TracFone likes to be a little bitch and disable or overly restrict all the useful features on their phones. There I found conflicting information, both suggesting that TracFone had disabled the ability to transfer files via Bluetooth, and that a good number of people had been using it on a regular basis.
I found way more of the "file transfer via Bluetooth works" sentiment than the "no, it doesn't work" sentiment. So, I hopped over to Newegg and ordered myself a USB Bluetooth adapter. Specifically, the IOGEAR GBU521 Bluetooth 4.0 USB adapter. $8 shipped, with promo code that despite being openly advertised on their website I had to subscribe to and then later unsubscribe from their email newsletter to actually use it. It arrived yesterday, and so my adventure in getting it installed and set up began.
The instructions that came with it gave conflicting directions for Windows XP. First, they said "oh, the driver disc has a driver for Windows XP on it". Next, they said "If you're using Windows XP, go to our website to get the latest driver". Lastly, they said "or you can just plug it in if you're using Windows XP SP2 or later and use Microsoft's Bluetooth stack, limited though it may be". Care to take a guess as to which one was the correct thing to do?
Well, I tried the driver they told me to download. Even though it's for the GBU421 and their site makes no mention of the GBU521. After installing that and plugging in the device, I got greeted with a Windows Found New Hardware wizard that never produced any results. So, that wouldn't work. I tried rebooting, just on the off-chance that it was actually required, and nope, still the same thing. So, I popped in the disc and installed from that. Wham, it worked.
So anyway. Pairing my phone with my computer was rather simple, and I got the non-ass-quality PNG version of my wallpaper transferred. I then tried to transfer the text message noise I'd made in FamiTracker, basically recreating my old text message noise (the Power Rangers communicator beep) in NES. It transferred, but didn't go into the ringtones folder because the phone doesn't recognize WAV files for some stupid reason. So I encoded it to MP3 and it took that.
Then it started acting up and not letting me transfer anything from the phone at all, saying I'd need to reboot, so I did. Then it worked properly.
Anyway. The things you should get from this are:
With my new phone's ability to use Bluetooth, I naturally wanted to be able to use that. Especially considering how the network completely mangles the images and audio I send to it via MMS. I began my quest by poking around various TracFone-related resources for the phone, since TracFone likes to be a little bitch and disable or overly restrict all the useful features on their phones. There I found conflicting information, both suggesting that TracFone had disabled the ability to transfer files via Bluetooth, and that a good number of people had been using it on a regular basis.
I found way more of the "file transfer via Bluetooth works" sentiment than the "no, it doesn't work" sentiment. So, I hopped over to Newegg and ordered myself a USB Bluetooth adapter. Specifically, the IOGEAR GBU521 Bluetooth 4.0 USB adapter. $8 shipped, with promo code that despite being openly advertised on their website I had to subscribe to and then later unsubscribe from their email newsletter to actually use it. It arrived yesterday, and so my adventure in getting it installed and set up began.
The instructions that came with it gave conflicting directions for Windows XP. First, they said "oh, the driver disc has a driver for Windows XP on it". Next, they said "If you're using Windows XP, go to our website to get the latest driver". Lastly, they said "or you can just plug it in if you're using Windows XP SP2 or later and use Microsoft's Bluetooth stack, limited though it may be". Care to take a guess as to which one was the correct thing to do?
Well, I tried the driver they told me to download. Even though it's for the GBU421 and their site makes no mention of the GBU521. After installing that and plugging in the device, I got greeted with a Windows Found New Hardware wizard that never produced any results. So, that wouldn't work. I tried rebooting, just on the off-chance that it was actually required, and nope, still the same thing. So, I popped in the disc and installed from that. Wham, it worked.
So anyway. Pairing my phone with my computer was rather simple, and I got the non-ass-quality PNG version of my wallpaper transferred. I then tried to transfer the text message noise I'd made in FamiTracker, basically recreating my old text message noise (the Power Rangers communicator beep) in NES. It transferred, but didn't go into the ringtones folder because the phone doesn't recognize WAV files for some stupid reason. So I encoded it to MP3 and it took that.
Then it started acting up and not letting me transfer anything from the phone at all, saying I'd need to reboot, so I did. Then it worked properly.
Anyway. The things you should get from this are:
- Install the IOGEAR GBU521 Bluetooth adapter's driver from the disc on Windows XP, not from the internet, and don't just plug it in and try to use it with Microsoft's shit, because it's, well, shit.
- TracFone-branded LG 420G phones can indeed transfer files via Bluetooth, and therefore not have to suffer through faggoty automatic-by-cell-network transcoding/lossy compression, and for free. If any later software version happens to change this, my phone's software version is LG420GHL_V10f.
- People always think that the Power Rangers communicator beep is something from Kim Possible.
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Logitech G930 Wireless Headset
So, the $20 Altec Lansing headset I bought at Best Buy seven years ago has been developing its fair share of issues lately, from the foam padding falling off, to the inline volume control causing static or a stereo channel dropout if nudged the wrong way, so I figured it was time for a replacement.
A friend of mine put together a computer a couple years ago and after doing so bought a Logitech G930 wireless headset, and pretty much had nothing but good stuff to say about it, so I grabbed one for myself off of Newegg.
Comfort
The G930 is large and weighs more than your average pair of headphones. Fortunately, this isn't too noticeable while wearing them, as the foam padding around the earpieces and across the headband helps keep them in the right place. The earpiece padding messes with my glasses, though, and makes me feel like they're not in the right place, which makes me constantly adjust both my glasses and the headset.
In terms of how the weight of the G930 affects practical usage, let's just say you may want to get a straw for that soda, because if you tip your head backwards there's a fairly certain chance that the headset will fall off your head.
Design
Rather than your standard headphones, which just place a speaker up against your ear directly, the G930's earpieces fully encompasses the ear. This contributes to their size, but also does a decent job of blocking out background noise.
The left earpiece is also home to the controls and the microphone boom. The microphone boom can be rotated into place, or up out of the way. When it's rotated up out of the way, it automatically mutes itself. The boom can be adjusted even further to position it properly relative to your mouth, to get less distortion or whatever the technical term is.
Controls and Software
The physical controls on the left earpiece consist of a volume dial, a mute button, the power button, a switch that I'll cover in a moment, and three programmable "G keys". The included software allows you to configure the "G keys" to control a variety of multimedia software out of the box, such as iTunes, Winamp, and Windows Media Player, and you can also download plugins to add support for whatever else you might need. I found a plugin that lets me configure them to send the Next, Previous, and Play/Pause signals from a multimedia keyboard, and thus control Foobar2000.
The switch on the left earpiece toggles the G930's 7.1 surround sound mode. If used with a regular stereo signal, it will apply some effects to it and have the sound coming from all channels, which in my experience seems to work better for music than voice. With voice, it sounds more like you're in a lecture hall, where the person talking has a microphone, and the acoustics aren't quite right so there's some reverb. Disabling the 7.1 mode puts everything back to plain old stereo.
I was worried that it would be confusing as to where everything was on the left earpiece, since it's impossible to see it without taking off the headset, but everything seems to be intuitively placed and hard to accidentally press.
The software affords a range of configuration options, from an equalizer to three different volume sliders. One volume slider is for the headphone volume, the second is for the microphone volume, and the third controls "Sidetone" volume. "Sidetone" allows you to hear what's coming in through the microphone, which I guess can be useful, but I prefer to turn it off.
The equalizer has a simple mode that has a slider for treble and a slider for bass, but you can enable the advanced mode and get more sliders for specific frequency ranges, allowing you to more finely tune the sound that comes out of the headphones. This is handy because the headphones have decent bass, but sound incredibly tinny at the same time.
There's also a surround sound mixer, that lets you fine-tune the volume level of each 7.1 surround channel. Note that if the 7.1 surround is off you will only be able to adjust the regular stereo channels. Amusingly, the volume levels go up to 11.
The software also has a few different voice morphing modes. I don't really know how much use anyone will ever get out of these in a practical setting, but they're fun to play around with.
Connectivity and Battery
The G930 comes with a USB charging cord that wraps up into a round base unit that has a USB port on it. This USB port is primarily useful for plugging in the headset's USB transceiver, so that with one USB port on your computer you can both use the headset and charge its battery simultaneously.
The battery ships with a minimal charge and takes upwards of six hours to charge initially, during which time the G930 can still be used. Once fully charged, the software claims an eight hour battery life. The included software has an option to provide notice that the battery is getting low both as an audible notice and as a system tray notice. Either or both of these can be toggled off if you so choose.
The specifications claim a usable wireless range of up to 40 feet. I would place emphasis on the "up to" in that phrase, because in my house I can barely get over 25 feet, which isn't enough to let me mill about the kitchen to get myself a snack while listening to music. I have the same issue with wireless game controllers, so it's most definitely an RF limitation and not a limitation specific to this one device.
Completely unlisted anywhere, and not configurable in the provided software, is the G930's automatic power-off feature. This serves to save the battery life by shutting off the headset when the software thinks it's not in use. Though I haven't encountered it, people across the internet have complained that it can occasionally power off while you're using it.
Also, since the headset installs as its own separate audio input/output device, independent of your sound card, if the application you're choosing allows you, you can choose to send some audio to the headphones and other audio to your speakers. One thing I'm surprised about is that the driver/software doesn't automatically swap your system's default output device back to your sound card when you unplug the USB transceiver. If this issue is OS-specific, I'm running Windows XP SP3 32-bit.
Overall
The Logitech G930 Wireless Headset is an excellent choice if you're looking for a headset. It's relatively easy to set up and use, and provides a decent range of configuration options and intuitive features. While I wish its battery life was a bit longer, it's decent enough that you can use it off and on during the day and then charge it overnight. The MSRP is $160, but if you look around the internet you can find it for around $120 instead. If you need yourself a headset, you could definitely do far worse.
A friend of mine put together a computer a couple years ago and after doing so bought a Logitech G930 wireless headset, and pretty much had nothing but good stuff to say about it, so I grabbed one for myself off of Newegg.
Comfort
The G930 is large and weighs more than your average pair of headphones. Fortunately, this isn't too noticeable while wearing them, as the foam padding around the earpieces and across the headband helps keep them in the right place. The earpiece padding messes with my glasses, though, and makes me feel like they're not in the right place, which makes me constantly adjust both my glasses and the headset.
In terms of how the weight of the G930 affects practical usage, let's just say you may want to get a straw for that soda, because if you tip your head backwards there's a fairly certain chance that the headset will fall off your head.
Design
Rather than your standard headphones, which just place a speaker up against your ear directly, the G930's earpieces fully encompasses the ear. This contributes to their size, but also does a decent job of blocking out background noise.
The left earpiece is also home to the controls and the microphone boom. The microphone boom can be rotated into place, or up out of the way. When it's rotated up out of the way, it automatically mutes itself. The boom can be adjusted even further to position it properly relative to your mouth, to get less distortion or whatever the technical term is.
Controls and Software
The physical controls on the left earpiece consist of a volume dial, a mute button, the power button, a switch that I'll cover in a moment, and three programmable "G keys". The included software allows you to configure the "G keys" to control a variety of multimedia software out of the box, such as iTunes, Winamp, and Windows Media Player, and you can also download plugins to add support for whatever else you might need. I found a plugin that lets me configure them to send the Next, Previous, and Play/Pause signals from a multimedia keyboard, and thus control Foobar2000.
The switch on the left earpiece toggles the G930's 7.1 surround sound mode. If used with a regular stereo signal, it will apply some effects to it and have the sound coming from all channels, which in my experience seems to work better for music than voice. With voice, it sounds more like you're in a lecture hall, where the person talking has a microphone, and the acoustics aren't quite right so there's some reverb. Disabling the 7.1 mode puts everything back to plain old stereo.
I was worried that it would be confusing as to where everything was on the left earpiece, since it's impossible to see it without taking off the headset, but everything seems to be intuitively placed and hard to accidentally press.
The software affords a range of configuration options, from an equalizer to three different volume sliders. One volume slider is for the headphone volume, the second is for the microphone volume, and the third controls "Sidetone" volume. "Sidetone" allows you to hear what's coming in through the microphone, which I guess can be useful, but I prefer to turn it off.
The equalizer has a simple mode that has a slider for treble and a slider for bass, but you can enable the advanced mode and get more sliders for specific frequency ranges, allowing you to more finely tune the sound that comes out of the headphones. This is handy because the headphones have decent bass, but sound incredibly tinny at the same time.
There's also a surround sound mixer, that lets you fine-tune the volume level of each 7.1 surround channel. Note that if the 7.1 surround is off you will only be able to adjust the regular stereo channels. Amusingly, the volume levels go up to 11.
The software also has a few different voice morphing modes. I don't really know how much use anyone will ever get out of these in a practical setting, but they're fun to play around with.
Connectivity and Battery
The G930 comes with a USB charging cord that wraps up into a round base unit that has a USB port on it. This USB port is primarily useful for plugging in the headset's USB transceiver, so that with one USB port on your computer you can both use the headset and charge its battery simultaneously.
The battery ships with a minimal charge and takes upwards of six hours to charge initially, during which time the G930 can still be used. Once fully charged, the software claims an eight hour battery life. The included software has an option to provide notice that the battery is getting low both as an audible notice and as a system tray notice. Either or both of these can be toggled off if you so choose.
The specifications claim a usable wireless range of up to 40 feet. I would place emphasis on the "up to" in that phrase, because in my house I can barely get over 25 feet, which isn't enough to let me mill about the kitchen to get myself a snack while listening to music. I have the same issue with wireless game controllers, so it's most definitely an RF limitation and not a limitation specific to this one device.
Completely unlisted anywhere, and not configurable in the provided software, is the G930's automatic power-off feature. This serves to save the battery life by shutting off the headset when the software thinks it's not in use. Though I haven't encountered it, people across the internet have complained that it can occasionally power off while you're using it.
Also, since the headset installs as its own separate audio input/output device, independent of your sound card, if the application you're choosing allows you, you can choose to send some audio to the headphones and other audio to your speakers. One thing I'm surprised about is that the driver/software doesn't automatically swap your system's default output device back to your sound card when you unplug the USB transceiver. If this issue is OS-specific, I'm running Windows XP SP3 32-bit.
Overall
The Logitech G930 Wireless Headset is an excellent choice if you're looking for a headset. It's relatively easy to set up and use, and provides a decent range of configuration options and intuitive features. While I wish its battery life was a bit longer, it's decent enough that you can use it off and on during the day and then charge it overnight. The MSRP is $160, but if you look around the internet you can find it for around $120 instead. If you need yourself a headset, you could definitely do far worse.
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