Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Asus Transformer Book T100TA – DK005H (Part 7) Apps Part 1


Asus Transformer Book T100TA – DK005H  (Part 7) Apps Part 1

 

I have started filling up the tablet with some apps in form of Utility, Tools, and Fun   

 

Day 1 installation

 

Clock Tile - An Useful little app that display the Time on Metro Start Screen 

 

Live Currency Converter – Automatically converts currency for you with information from 150 countries, with a disclaimer on the accuracy of the Exchange Rate.   

 

Google Keep Metro – My notes from my Android Device is now available in the Tablet,  It has other functions as well,  Google Drive is here as well.  This is good so I do not have to change my note taking apps on my Phone.    

 

Day 2 installation

 

CC Cleaner from Piriform – This is download direct from Website,  Its not available on Win Store,  A Useful app that I have been using it on other pc’s which basically clean up temporary & extra files that clutter up the PC memory thus affecting performance.    

 

Defragger from Piriform - This is download direct from Website,  Its not available on Win Store,  A Useful app that I have been using it on other pc’s which help to rearrange files for non slid state devices.    

 

U torrent - Download direct from Website,  Have been using it on other pc’s, Later while exploring Win Store Tool I found it here as well. 

 

7 Zip – a essential tool,  I Download direct from Website,  Have been using it on other pc’s.  Found it later in Win Store. 

 

Every Day Food – this is from webstore, came recommended by some of the website I read on apps for win 8, It promise “Right recipe for any meal and occasion@, Nice presentation, extensive recipe listings. 

 

Network Speed Test – To check on the speed of my internet service

 

Some Games

 

Red Alert – My old favorite from 15 + years ago, Not found in Win Store.  via Tom Guide  

 

Royal Revolt – Recommended by Google Alert for Free Win 8 games,  downloaded from win Store (took a bit of time), It’s a Reverse Tower Defense Game  

Friday, December 27, 2013

Chinese New Year 2014 (Horse)


One of the things My Family does every New Year, 
is to Purchase Dried Liver Sausages for one special shop in George Town,  Rope Walk that import
this delicacy from china.  It's not available any other time.
 
Normally this duty is perform by my late father, A few years back,  he have requested me
to drive him down to buy this.  Now this duty has to be perform by me. 
 

 
 
Cost  RM78 per Kg this year from this shop, (the other end of rope walk near the police station,  cannot find them any where else.  The Photo of the sausage is for slightly less then a Kg. 

We will usually have this steam,  occasionally grilled / pan fried.  It will bring back memories of my late father when we have this. 


Saturday, December 21, 2013

Asus Transformer Book T100TA – DK005H (Part 6) First Impression of Tablet and Windows 8.1


Asus Transformer Book T100TA – DK005H  (Part 6) First Impression of Tablet and Windows 8.1

 

Overall I am more than happy with this “toy”, especially with Bundle legal software, MS Office, Whatever its short comings are, its minor and I can live with it,  especially for a person migrating from a 10in Netbook running win 7 starter. 

 

First Impression  

Keyboard dock, read many review that complain about keyboard, about the small touch pad, its flimsy, its small, its cramp, the touch pad feel and so on.  For me I have no complaints in this department.  Have to make some adjustment though, due to key layout is slightly different.  The feel and the touch even with a keyboard cover is good.  I can type with speed (touch type), typo come when the key board key are different from the norm.    

 

Have to get use to Win 8.1 touch interface and Metro, the gestures etc need to be operate, need to experiment and some explanation, but once I get the hang of it, the feel is similar with Android.  Desktop is as familiar as Win 7 Starter. 

 

The Windows Store have some apps,  but not as extensive if compared with the other os,  I tried to look for an Apps to display the % of the Battery remaining, in Metro but could not find any,  but manage to find a Apps to display the time (Clock Tile).  I imagine it will be a matter of time pun intended till there will be an app for everything        

 

Battery Life:  supposed to last for hours,  11 hours as per ASUS,  it’s still too early to say

 

Porting Over:  No problems here, manage to transfer over my files without any problems,  have no problems operating IE11(think I will use this as the browser, but may download firefox as back up), and the MS Office programs. 

 

What I believe can be improved. 

The back of the Tablet / Cover of the net book is a Finger Print Magnet, its smooth glossy cover back will get smug in no time, similar with the screen (the screen protector I purchase helps), however the key board surface is ok. 

 

There is an E Manual pin to the Desktop task bar, but not at the Metro start, its somewhere in the Apps. I stumble across it by chance.    The E Manual explanation could be better, there are certain places where I was confuse.   

 

I connected an usb hub to the 3.0 usb at the dock, unfortunately I could only operate one item at a time, either a mouse, or a thumb drive, or a hdd (the hdd “hang” initially but work ok later on),    I prefer to transfer file by using a mouse. 

 

At the computer shop, the owner and I tried to connect an OTG cable, to the mini usb on the Tablet, however could not get any connection with the thumb drive attach.  Will try one more time.  Android is one up in this area.  So we have to dock the table to transfer files from HDD or Thumb Drive.  Or transfer it to a Micro SD Card or over the net. 

 

The Mini USB & Mini HDMI port look similar,  confuse,  and which side of the cable is up?? 

 

Switching on the Tablet is a bit of a trial and error,  there were a few time where I have to press a few times,  Does it cost that much to have some LED lights,  to indicate the Tablet is on?, Bluetooth is on?, Wifi is on etc? 

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Asus Transformer Book T100TA – DK005H (Part 5) Welcome


Asus Transformer Book T100TA – DK005H  (Part 5) Welcome Home

 

 

Well, after a long wait the Tablet/Net book has finally arrived (being ship in), It’s has been un packed, registered (with asus & Microsoft account), and being “optimized” for use, It has a few quirks, which I will be blog on the next post,  My First Impression. 

 

As Free Gifts together with the Tablet, I receive a Key Board Protector, a Tablet Sleeve, a cordless Mouse,  All this for RM1399,  In addition to that Other Purchases include a Canvas Messenger Bag via Lelong.com for RM74, a Screen Protector for RM25, a Power Bank (suppose to be 15000mah)for RM90 from a Camera shop at Tg Pinang Tesco)  all totaling to RM1588 investment. 

 

This does not include all the usb hub, cables, that is required, etc that I recycled from previous purchases. 

 

It took around a 1 hour lesson, to get the “Hang” of the basic Win8.1 touch interface,  like how to go to metro, desktop, before I was confident enough to go home with the table.  

 

An amusing side story is the reaction of the staffs at the Accessories Shop,  when I “broke” the laptop  To say they were shock is an understatement. 

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Asus Transformer Book T100TA – DK005H (Part 4) Games ?


Asus Transformer Book T100TA – DK005H  (Part 4)  Games ? 

 

One of the not so important reasons that swing me back to purchasing a Windows device is the ability to run legacy programs,  Which bring me to Games apps,  I use to enjoy playing the original Red Alert & Civ games,  Well will this now be possible again?

 

While the T100 is no gaming machine, Old games should be more then playable,  some games I will consider which I heard is in Win 8 apps are Red Alert, Battle Field, Tiberiun Sun & Free Civ.  I am sure there will be many more for me to consider.   

Monday, December 16, 2013

Asus Transformer Book T100TA – DK005H (Part 3) Apps ?


Asus Transformer Book T100TA – DK005H  (Part 3)  Apps ? 

 

Part of the “fun” or a “headache” in getting a new devise is the new “software”, the apps you can add in.  Windows 8 come late into the downloadable apps arena, but its catching up.   Why is this important?  It is basically the software and apps that gives the user the “right” experience and compliment the hardware

 

Some of the Software/Apps I will consider installing among others, (recommended by Tom Guide), to ensure I have the tools to run my netbook/tablet properly are   

 

CClean, is a Program that clean up the unneeded files that will clatter up your memory slowing down the computer, things like temp internet files, history, cache,   I have been using this program from 2 laptops ago,  on my Android Phone I Have install Clean Master for this purpose.  

 

10 bit Uninstallr 2,  design to uninstall programs, and it’s very portable as it can be install in USB drive and use anywhere.    

 

Qbit torrent,  currently am using U torrent on my net book    

 

Irfamview, this is a lightweight photo editing tool such as resize, text insertion etc, completely new to me.   Currently I am not doing any photo editing other then resize a photo, and that only on my phone with Reduce Photo Size.    

 

7 zip, unpack compress files, I find this usefull, and easy to use,  have been using this for 2 years back.    

 

Microsoft Security Essential, this come highly recommended,  general anti virus security,  may consider this over my current AVG anti virus.    

 

Mozilla Firefox,   A Internet Browser,  been using this for quite some time,  however I heard of rave reviews of the built in Internet Explorer 11.    

 

VLC Media Player, recommended to be highly compatible, suppose can load almost any video out there.  New, will give it a try as having some problems with some shows  

 

Defaggler,  defragment your hard disk,  remember to not defrag your ssd or thumb drive    

 

Adobe Touch Reader,  To read Pdf files,  have a collection of PDF files to read,  but have got use to Moon+ Reader on Android,     

 

Every Day Food -  Collection of Easy to Prepare Everyday Recipe,  seems to be a usefull app

 

Now I will Need to find, "Keep" a google note keeping app which I have been using on my handphone.   

 

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Asus Transformer Book T100TA – DK005H (Part 2)


Asus Transformer Book T100TA – DK005H  (Part 2) 

 

It’s a Windows (8.1) Tablet,  10in Touch Screen,  with a Detachable Key Board Dock which will transform the Tablet in to a Laptop.  Reviews on the internet, have indicated that this Hybrid,  offers a long endurance (11 hrs), relatively good resolution,  latest processor & operating system, bundle with MS office, and a 500gb hdd and most importantly affordably price. 

 

Some may say a 10in is too big for a tablet,  too small for a lap top,  maybe so,  However I have been using a 10in Netbook for Office Work  (Ms Words & Excel), with some light graphics,  Minor Photo Editing and Power Point), and frankly I am more than comfortable with this size. 

 

The new Bay Trail chip, is suppose to be twice as fast as the old Atom processors, and has boosted graphics prowess,  which is almost equivalent with a recent Celeron chip, has low power consumption which give great endurance, but with low heat production suitable for fanless tablets

 

Overall this hybrid, comes with a 1.2mp front camera,  no gps, no back camera (do not need one), micro usb port, micro hdmi, micro sd card slot, headset jack, volume controls on the tablet, with wifi a/b/n, Bluetooth 4.0.  and 32gb memory of which around 14gb is user usable. 

 

 

 

The Keyboard Dock is what transform the Tablet into a useable laptop,  It’s a full QWERTY keyboard,  with a touchpad,  full size 3.0 usb port and a 500gb HDD.   The Dock solidly connects with the Tablet with a click, and will only release when a button is pressed. 

 

The tablet operating system, is a full version of the latest Windows 8.1,  so you can run all the legacy windows software.  Bundling in MS Office Home and Student is a right move by ASUS. 

 

Overall it is relatively thin and light,  0.9in thick, weight 2.4pounds (tablet n Keyboard), the tablet weight in at 1.2pounds, which overall make this slightly thicker then an ultrabook, but lighter and cheeper!   

 

It’s a decent little device,  light enough,  powerful enough, have enough endurance to give other tablets and bigger laptops a good run for the money!

 

Saturday, December 14, 2013


 
Asus Transformer Book T100TA – DK005H  (Part 1) 
 
I am getting a Hybrid Tablet Laptop, as a replacement of my 10in Toshiba Netbook (NB305),  which will be “relegated” as the household general duty PC. 
 
For me the Asus Transformer Book T100TA – DK005H,  is the “perfect” choice available at this time,  this 2 in One,  Hybrid Tablet Laptop run on Windows 8.1 operating system,  which is supposed to be a improvement over Windows 8.  Comes bundle with a Key board dock, MS Office Home & Student, and have a built in 500g HDD in the Key board dock. 
 
Other Specifications are 10in touch screen,  micro usb,  32gb storage, Micro SD card, 2GB memory, Intel Atom Quad core, Baytrail T Z3740 up to 1.86ghz,  11 hours endurance on tablet.  There is also a 3.0 usb on the Touch screen. 
 
Why?  Basically, this is the first tablet with a keyboard dock,  that run on Windows 8.1, and comes bundled with MS office, with enough storage (500gb) suitable for “lite” office use all at the affordable (official) price of RM1388.
 
It will fit most of my requirements for an Office PC, portable, powerful, mainstream MS Office (Words, Excel, PowerPoint), long endurance, while having useful entertaining personal usage as well. 
 
Further at this time,  it’s the best compromise, cost,  form factor, size, others, as I am pretty comfortable with my 10 in netbook, doing basic office work with once in a while some light graphic and games.