Mistical.com

My thoughts on “Google Play”

// March 10th, 2012 // No Comments » // Blog, mistical.com, News, Reviews, Tech

Around a week ago Google decide to rename Google Market to Google Play as well as other services such as Google Music to Google Play Music. I think it is one of the most ridiculous name changes I have seen especially in the longest time. It does not make much sense to me, other than the complete obvious.

What was wrong with “Market”? It is the most simplest name for anyone non-tech-savvy to completely understand where to get applications, games, music and much more from.

Then you also have the new icon for it; shown above, which I think is one of the most ugliest and hideous icons Google has ever given us too. I know this is my own opinion but I am sure there is at least a large group of other people out there that will agree with me on that too.

Customer loyalty means nothing to T-Mobile

// December 17th, 2011 // 1 Comment » // Blog, mistical.com, Tech

I really wish that customer loyalty meant at least a little or more to T-Mobile or any other company for that matter. While this post will be directed towards T-Mobile, I already know that 99.8% of other companies out there do not care about customer loyalty either, and most, if not all, should.

Why is there not some type of loyalty program or something similar to existing customers that have been around for say more than 6+ or 8+ years at T-Mobile? I have personally been a loyal customer of theirs; since I have always loved T-Mobile for that matter too, for over 8 years now. I have I never been with another carrier, and I hope to never especially the death star AT&T. Which I am glad they pulled out of the merger! :)

I am a huge tech geek I guess you would say. I normally happen to pick a phone that will last me more than 2 years not just because of the horrible decisions cell phone companies make for a customer to only be able to upgrade your phone every 2 years with contract renewals. However, in my case, a newer and better phone has since come out that I absolutely want but do not necessary need per say. That phone is the Samsung Galaxy S2 and on T-Mobile it is called the “Hercules.”

I would honestly love to see some type of loyalty program exist to where maybe you could upgrade your phone, with a renewal contract, every year once you have been with them for an x amount of years that they would decide rather it be 4, 6, or even over 8 in my case. Could this program have other perks? Sure, why not, I mean you are showing a company that you are indeed loyal to them already, would it be that hard to offer you more than they would a newer customer? I know some people might say, they are just a company, what makes them feel they have to reward you for your loyalty? I am sure anyone could argue back and forth on this all day, but in the end all that should really matter to them is that you are giving them your money rather than you giving another carrier money instead of them.

Every time I see a great new deal for T-Mobile, it is almost always just for new customers more than half the time, and the other half of the time for existing customers you can only get it if you are eligible for an upgrade. This is just wrong and should not be the case for long time customers. I do understand why in its current state but also 2 years is just a long time in today’s world.

The phone I currently have is the Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant and I bought it Day-1 at the T-Mobile store on July 15th, 2010. I absolutely love this phone, the problem? No official updates, period. There also seems to be none coming out out the foreseeable either. Before this phone I bought the T-Mobile G1 about a month after its release and used it up until the Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant.

But with that said on no official updates, you can still get the latest Android version (or almost latest sometimes) over at the XDA Developers forums because of the great community of developers working together to still bring us updates for all our Vibrant phones. There are some developers right now, one in particular by neobuddy, already providing a Android 4.0 rom (ICS Passion) to the Vibrant. It is still a work in progress and while I have not personally tested it yet, has had for the most part great feedback from the community. I am waiting for another release or two post 8.0 until I flash mine but at the moment, it seems like it is really stable to use now.

I just wish there were plans to bring an official update to our Vibrant. Now why will they not provide an update? Simple answer, because T-Mobile considers it an ancient phone, so why provide an update when they longer support or sell it. They would rather you pay, likely more money too, to get the latest and greatest phone instead. They make money that way.

I still want the Samsung Galaxy S II (S2) “Hercules” branded T-Mobile phone though, even when I do get Android 4.0 on my Vibrant because of the latest hardware inside of it such as the 8.0 MP camera, flash, front facing camera, screen size, and so forth inside of it.

Do you feel as if T-Mobile should have some type of loyalty program? If so, why? What would you love to see them offer in such a program?

Update 12/13/2011: Samsung has stated that we will not be getting Android 4.0 on any Galaxy S phone because of TouchWiz as well as the Galaxy Tab. Source: CNET and other many sites.

Disappointed with the Razer Onza

// May 29th, 2011 // No Comments » // Blog, Gaming, mistical.com, News, Reviews, Tech

So today is the day where I no longer use the Razer Onza yet alone any other future Razer product.

I preordered the Onza the minute it was made available for preorder back in January 2011. I had been waiting to play with it for over a year since it was announced. It was finally shipped to me just over 2 months ago. I loved it at first, but will not even bother to love it anymore. Read on as to why.

I was actually told to contact Min-Liang Tan on Twitter via email, the CEO of Razer, week ago about my issues with the Onza. I was actually going to email a lot of what I said below in an email to them, but decided not to. Why? Because I do not feel as if these issues have been fixed, not only does my brother’s controller and girlfriends have the same issues but people online around forums and other comments elsewhere have reported the same issues as mine or similar. Plus I would be without the controller for who knows how long aside from using the main Xbox 360 controller.

Now that that has been said, I will get to the main reasons why I am disappointed with the Razer Onza, Razer and just overall think the product is terrible to purchase.

• 1st issue (big issue/main problem): The left joystick will always stop you from running in games. To be more specific, games such as Call of Duty: Black Ops, where when the left joystick is clicked, this allows you to run. It is always a damn problem, usually a hit or miss each time you use it, for me, it has frequent use. I have tried disconnecting and reconnecting the controller to regain control of the left joystick but that does not work. The only time it starts to work right for a short while it when I have shut down the Xbox 360 and turned it back on.
• 2nd issue (big issue/main problem): The right joystick (very rarely the left joystick) will sometimes physically get stuck in a position. The position it nearly always gets stuck in is towards the right and slightly downwards, think of it getting stuck around the 0 degree angle towards 320 degree. It actually gets stuck, it does not move back into position if I let go over the joystick.
  
  This does not happen on a constant basis but I can almost always get it to happen and it will normally happen about 6 times (guessing) over a course of around a 5 hour gaming session.




• What happens in-game with this above, 2nd, issue?
  I use the controller for all games, but its main purpose is for each Call of Duty title online/multiplayer, right now it is Black Ops. When the right joystick gets stuck, it causes me to spin in the game until I physically remove the joystick from being stuck at that position.
• 3rd issue (minor problem): The X button feels like it has begun to act like it has worn out when it is touched/pressed. It feels different when “touched/pressed” versus the other Y, B, A buttons that feel perfectly when pressed/touched. I hope this makes sense.
  
  It has not rendered the X button inoperable though, it still works just fine and the response time just does not feel the same anymore over the last 31 days of usage when pressed.
• 4th issue (minor problem): After the first week of using the controller, the sticker on the back containing the serial number among other information has started to peel off. I have tried to stop this process from happening but with no luck. I definitely try to avoid touching that area but I do have big hands and I cannot just constantly think about making sure I am not touching it and have to play the game. How I use the controller is how I hold the controller too, so I cannot just easily change how I hold it, it should never start to peal off within the first week anyways.

I would personally suggest to avoid purchasing the Onza controller. I also do not see them fixing the above issues anytime soon, and even if they did, I am sure people like myself and others who have had these problems are screwed anyways.

So with that said, what issues have you had with your Onza controller? Do you still use it? Please comment!

Linksys WUSB600N v2 on a Hackintosh

// January 13th, 2011 // 6 Comments » // Blog, Guides, mistical.com, Tech

I recently just put a cheap, but also great hackintosh system together while also dual-booting with Windows 7. It is my first hackintosh, however, not my first Mac.

This post will explain how to get the Linksys WUSB600N v2 to work with your Hackintosh build. There is just 1 minor problem that exists with this wireless usb device, and that you will have to replug it in each and everytime you either restart/boot or awake from sleep. Otherwise, I’ve had absolutely no other issues and no disconnects or slow speeds.

Real quick, here is my build specs for the hackintosh running Snow Leopard 10.6.6:
GIGABYTE GA-H55M-S2V Motherboard
Intel Core i3-550 Clarkdale 3.2GHz Processor
XFX nVidia GT240 1GB DDR5 Graphics Card
G.SKILL 4GB DDR3 Dual Channel Memory
Samsung Spinpoint F4 HD322GJ/U 320GB Hard Drive

Now you will first need to install the Mac drivers for an Ralink RT2870, which is what is inside of the Linksys WUSB600N v1 and v2 (version 2). You can grab those from downloading them at Ralink’s website.

Now as of this post, I am using driver version 3.0.3.0. These work great, I’ve heard of success with earlier drivers as well though I never tried those nor did I ever obtain links to them. If you are having any issues with later drivers after 3.0.3.0 then please contact me, I will be able to provide you with driver version 3.0.3.0 if you are unable to find them.

Once you have these installed, restart OS X.

Once you have restarted OS X, open Terminal. Follow and type the following commands correctly and then press the enter key after each line listed below.

cd /System/Library/Extensions

chmod -R 755 RT2870USBWirelessDriver.kext

chown -R 0:0 RT2870USBWirelessDriver.kext

cd

cd /System/Library/Extensions/RT2870USBWirelessDriver.kext/contents/

sudo nano info.plist

At this point, you will be asked your administrative password, type it in and continue the following:
Look for the following line below, you will find it faster by using the page down shortcut ctrl+v.

Linksys – RT2870 – 2

Then right under this key, find this line (integer)

<integer>113<integer>

Then change the value of 113 to 121.

<integer>121<integer>

That will be the only line you need to edit and touch in this. Now press the following keys to save what you just did.

ctrl + o

Make sure to use the exact same file name, info.plist, as it will already say. Then ctrl+x to exit out.
There are just 2 more fine steps and you will be able to use a wireless connection!

cd

sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions

Now restart your computer, as I said earlier, you will more than likely have to unplug and plug back in the Linksys WUSB600N device as well as each time you restart/boot or awake from sleep.

You will use Ralink’s Wireless Utility to connect to your network. Save a profile so you do not have to constantly keep typing your security key as well. You may close Wireless Utility once you are connected, you do not need to leave it open.

Special Thanks go out to aldeem over at InsanelyMac for most of this guide, and then myself for the rest of it and additional information.

Force non-compatible extensions to work with Firefox 3.6

// January 21st, 2010 // No Comments » // Blog, mistical.com, Tech

Here is a simple way to get non-compatible extensions to work with the new version of Firefox 3.6.

Just open up a tab to the following page “about:config” without the quotes. Click the button that says “I’ll be careful, I promise!” to get into the configuration file. Then right click anywhere in the list, select New > Boolean and type the following in as its name “extensions.checkCompatibility.3.6″ with a value of False.

Restart Firefox 3.6 and your previous disabled extensions should now be enabled. I had to do this because a few extensions I use have not been updated yet, one of them being Easy DragToGo 1.1.2.4 and Super DragAndGo 0.2.6.3d1. However, if anyone is using DragIt 0.6 or QuickDrag 2.0.2.1 this will work for you as well to get them to work.

If you at all encounter any problems and this is not working, in about:config find the name “extensions.checkUpdateSecurity” and set it to false. You should not need “extensions.checkCompatibility” set to false.