Anker Power Bank Review (10,000 mAH model)

This is a review of my Anker 2nd Gen Astro E3 Ultra Compact 10000mAh Power Bank. I got this for Christmas last year from a friend of mine and I have found it immensely useful. I was looking into these portable chargers after my Galaxy S3 was limping on its last leg. My battery was dying throughout the day and I found that it died in inconvenient moments. I was searching for a way to charge it portably (I already have two backup batteries), and saw that power banks were now becoming a popular thing to have. I’ve had good experience with Anker in the past, so I decided on that device and figured that 10,000 mAH would suffice for quite a couple charges, and put it in my Amazon wish list. My friend noted that I liked the powerbank and got it for me for Christmas.

This thing is HUGE

My first thought when I got it was that this thing had some weight to it. I compared it to my S3 at the time, and it was larger than my S3! At first, I questioned whether I would use it, but quickly realized that it would be a fantastic help. The power bank comes with two USB ports to plug your devices in, and it can be charged with a standard Android charger. The pouch it came in is quite good, and I am able to store an extra charging cable in there so that I am never without one.

The device itself is a plain black brick has 4 LED’s on it that dictate how much battery the bank has left. Since this one is 10,000 mAH, each circle is roughly 2,500 mAH of power. When you plug your device into it, you press the center button and the device starts charging whatever is plugged into it. I’ve charged my Bluetooth headphones, my smart watch and my phone using it and have had no problems with any of it. It is worth noting that the charger weighs a good amount, 8.16 ounces, which is about half a pound. It took be a back, so I felt that it was worth noting. It can charge within 6 hours according to Anker if you use a 2 Amp adapter and the provided cable, but I tend to charge this power bank over night so I can’t vouch for that claim.  

The device is overall very solid and I fully recommend it to anyone. It has enough charge where I can go without charging it for a week or so and still have enough. My friends use it more than I do to be honest and they all find it to be a great help. I even bought my mother a smaller version of mine when she went to visit family in India and she said that it was the most useful there since she was out and about taking photos on her phone and it was able to keep her charged until she got home to charge the bank and her phone properly again. 

Read more →

Perception- My Venture Into Ableton Live 9 And What I've Learned

Perception in music is such a strange thing just because of how many angles they are. You could be a person who listens to music all the time, or just a causal listener. Maybe a fan, or a musician. Each person is lead to perceive music differently, and that's great. This discussion of sorts is based on my recent ventures into Ableton Live 9, a popular Digital Audio Workstation which I am learning in order to create drum beats for my music since I do not have the space for drums due to location and literal space, and because I wanted to learn the software. As I used the software more and more, I started thinking about how I perceive guitar, bass, drums and the like in a musical sense. My mind wondered to artists who create their own music using an instrument, and those that use a computer.

Take for example three very different, yet accomplished musicians. David Grohl of the Foo Fighters, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, and Deadmau5. David Grohl played drums for Nirvana and would later on found the Foo Fighters. Throughout all of that, he never used a computer to make his music or play his parts. He find that music should be played by humans because it both feels and sounds more natural and well... Human. Trent on the other hand makes industrial rock music and welcomes the use of computers in both the creative and producing processes. He is a very capable and accomplished multi-instrumentalist outside of the computer, but he uses the computer to further his music making capabilities. The last example is Electronic Dance Music musician Deadmau5. He exclusively uses computers to make his music. There is nothing wrong with the way that the music is made, but it makes me wonder as to how we as people perceive music.

I take lessons at a music school and spoke to my instructor about drums. Everything from where to place a fill, and how one should go about making one, to pushing the best or keeping it laid back. I also analyzed the drum beats he played and tried to tab out how it would sound in Ableton in my head. It was during this that my initial curiosity in perception started to ferment.

I was looking at drums as a means to an end if you will. Songs need drums, at least 99% of them do, and I don't have a way to learn drums, record them, or pay someone else to do them. In my early analysis of drums, a instrument I paid little attention to, I sought out the basic patterns and the core fundamentals of it all. Of course I didn't have to worry about stick control or proper toe to heel positioning on the bass drum pedal, but I was still interested in the subtle placement of a kick drum in a Brad Wilk beat, or the placement of a fill that Bonham used.

Because of all of this, I viewed drums differently than my other drummer friends did, mainly because I wasn't a drummer. I showed my drummer friend my basic rock beat and asked her help for a fill. She gave me a fill that would work, and it sounded familiar, but odd. I've heard used it other songs before, but when I wrote it out, it sounded odd. But to the drummer, it correct, good even. That's so strange to me. David Grohl discussed his approach to writing guitar lines for his band and he stated that a lot of his guitar parts sort of act as drum part. He synchronizes some of the guitar parts to the kick drum, and others to the snare. Of course, he is not the first musician to do this, there have been countless others, but it was interesting for him to actually explain it and state it all. But even then I find it odd. It didn’t make much sense to me until I really looked at how it was made. Another example would be the way that progressive rock bands such as Protest The Hero make music. I recently heard the drummer from Protest The Hero record his playing on their song “Drumhead Trial”. The beat at its core was very basic, fast, but basic. The guitars that were layered on top of it though were doing completely different things that worked with the song, but didn’t sound like it should  have. On paper, it may not have sounded good, but in practice it did.

It was through this entire analysis of music and perception that I came to the realization that…well… that’s what makes music so cool to me. That David Grohl could write a guitar riff based on one idea, but if he explained the idea to say, Josh Homme or Tom Morello, it could be perceived completely differently and then played differently. Perception is such an odd thing in music.

Read more →

Sleepbot- Tracking Your Sleep Should Be Easy

Sleeping has been something that we have always craved as people. Applications can now track how well a person sleeps. Utilizing your smart phone, you can now not only track how much sleep you get, but your motion can be tracked as well which dictates your REM cycle. Even the sounds you make can be tracked.

The application I would like to bring to your attention today is Sleep Bot. I initially started using this application a year ago during my sophomore year of college. I wanted to make sure I was getting good sleep and I wanted to improve my sleeping habits so I downloaded this app. Since then, it has gone through quite a few changes, and I feel that I now have enough experience to discuss it

The application in itself is quite simple. You open the app to see the amount of hours you got in sleep last night through swiping through the screens, you can see the charts they offer you. I prefer the swiping to access these things as opposed to a clutter of menus that some other apps offer because I find that for this type of application, I don't need a lot.

On the first screen you can see the three functions that are available to you. The first being Smart Alarm. Smart alarm sets an alarm based on when you go to bed and how many hours of sleep you want. Based on those facts alone, it will create an alarm to slowly wake you up and ease you into the day. Personally, no alarm is going to 'ease' me into the day so I generally stay away from that feature. The second feature is the track motion feature and it is the one I use the most. I leave my phone plugged into the charger at bedtime and then leave it in my mattress. It detects when I move and graphs the entire thing. I find it useful to see if I ever reached my REM cycle. The final feature is the record sound function. Since I don't talk in my sleep, and nothing great really goes on around me, I don't record my sleep. I've had roommates before and no one has come to me confessing I snore like an elephant, so until then, I will shy away from that feature as well.

The screen to the right of it displays your sleep and how much you got everyday. The date start time, end time, sleep earned, and how much in sleep debt you're in are all displayed. Now, sleep debt is not as scary as it sounds. You set how many hours of sleep you want every night. It defaults to eight, but I lowered mine to seven. After you get sleep, it shows sleep debt, which is the hours you wanted subtracted by the hours you actually got. If the number is negative, it means you got more sleep then you intended.

The settings are pretty straightforward. It is worth noting that you do have the option to backup and restore your information. This makes it less stressful to deal with crashes and accidental wiping of the memory. Some other unique settings are the bedtime reminder, which is self explanatory, and the punch offset. Punch offset let's use select a predetermined measurement of time, say ten minutes, and use that as the offset. Now, if you click the button to start monitoring your sleep, it will not start until ten minutes later. This compensates for how long it will take you to get to sleep. I see mine to 10 minutes and have encountered no issues with it.

This application fit all of my needs to a 't'. I wanted an app that wasn't cluttered. Don't get me wrong, I love my features in apps, and I love having a lot of them, but with a sleeping app, I find I don't need much. This app was easy enough to understand and use within five minutes and after that, I was set. I recommend this app for anyone who wants a straightforward app that has good features, but isn’t overly complicated to use. 

Read more →

Satoru Iwata - The Happiness Behind Nintendo

Satoru Iwata passed away yesterday, July 11, 2015. Nintendo has released a statement that he passed away due to a tumor in his bile duct at the age of 55.

I never got to meet Iwata-san. Truth be told, I knew about him as the President and CEO of Nintendo, my favorite gaming company. He worked on games that became part of the childhood of millions like Earthbound, Kirby, Balloon Fight, and would later work on Pokemon, Legend of Zelda, and Animal Crossing. Take a moment to look at the titles I listed. I guarantee you can recall at least one character from those franchises combined, whether it be Link, Pikachu, the Villager, Meta Knight or Ness.

Iwata is one of the main reasons that Super Smash Brothers Melee finished on time, and he was the reason Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal had a second region to go to, the Kanto Region from the original Red/Blue/Yellow. Linger on that thought, it was the only major Pokemon game to date to feature two regions and 16 badges.

I find myself at a loss when I think about all the things that Iwata has done for Nintendo, for all the fans he indirectly had by making the games that would be apart of the childhood of millions. I was born in 1994, so I was lucky enough to play Pokemon Yellow when it came out. I remember buying it from Costco and getting a Purple Gameboy Color to boot. I still have them sitting next to me. I play it from time to time, just because it was such a classic. I also play Crystal, because it is the only 2^nd Generation Pokemon game I have, besides Heart Gold for the DS, that I can play. I remember being completely blown away that I could get 16 badges. That was so cool to me. And it was his idea.

Super Smash Brothers Melee was the first true party game that I played, and I was introduced to it because of my cousin. After that, I was hooked on Nintendo. I was able to see all of these cool characters, and instantly bought the games they were from. I was enthralled by Legend of Zelda, laughed and enjoyed Kirby’s Nightmare in Dreamland, fascinated by Star Fox and obviously obsessed with Pokemon.

To think one man had such an impact on an entire company, industry, and audience completely blows my mind. I wish I got to meet you Iwata-san. Thanks for everything, I never met you, but you made my childhood amazing.

Read more →

Digitech RP 500

Ever since my Digitech RP 255, I've bought a couple more Digitech products. This one will go through the RP 500. The RP 500 is a huge step up and advances on the shortcomings of its 255 brother.

Let's first discuss the back panel. The RP 500 has XLR outputs in addition to its 1/4 inch outputs. The outputs now also have a hex nut around the jack for better durability. The mp3 and headphones make a return to the RP 500. These two features are quite handy and were very useful to me as a bedroom guitarist. The USB output lets the user connect right to their pc or laptop, making recording a breeze. The last point worth noting for the back panel is that it is powered by the 9v power adapter that comes with the pedal.

Now that the back panel has been taken care of, let's look at the physical build of the product and the actual pedal itself. Just like the RP 255 and all of its predecessors, the 500 has a metal bottom and strong reinforced top. The wah / volume pedal has a rubber grip on it making it easier for the user to use their shoes and get a grip of the pedal. This model comes with five dedicated effect switches on the bottom. Compression, Distortion, Chorus/FX, Delay, and Reverb can be quickly accessed by the press of a switch, a nice strong vacuum switch I might add. I feel a lot more confident pressing down on these switches then the plastic bump of the RP 255. This also means that the user doesn't have to switch presets for a new effect. They can just hit the distortion for that nice gritty tone and then kick it off once it's done being used. This saves a lot of time when it comes to presets and lets the use experiment and focus on one preset as opposed to switching back and forth.

With the update the pedal received a couple months after its release, it also has a 30 second looper. The looper works great, but the switch to start and stop the looper is located on the right hand side of the board with the two switched near the wah. This makes it frustrating to hit the switch based off of the angle you need.

On the left hand side of the board you have the bypass and tap tempo buttons. Bypass lets the user quickly go to tuning mode. The display becomes a tuner and denotes whether the note is in tune or flat. Pretty straightforward and functions great. The tap tempo button is for the delay to dictate the frequency of it all. I use is to normally synchronize with the bass drum when I am playing a song that needs delay. Otherwise I tend to not use it. I have heard people complain about the tap tempo and how they are unable to do intricate patterns with it, but I don't find it to be an issue for me just yet.

The presets and the user presets are the next order of business here. There are a hundred of each of them. As I clicked through them, I noticed a lot of the presets focused on the delay pedal, but otherwise, I found a clear variety of effects. Some names are Acoustic, Metal clean, Satch, Legacy, Whammy, Mr. Clean, sci-fi, and EQ-Best. Some presents are covertly modeled after musicians such as ACDC Joe Satriani, SRV, and Black Label Society. Being able to tweak any preset makes for some very interesting changes since you are filled with numerous things to change.

Since this is a multi-effects processing system, it is meant to emulate amplifiers pedals, cabs, effects and more. I’m going to go take one preset as an example and then go down and describe each aspect of the preset that can be changed and how. This preset is going to be number 82, Mr. Clean. Mr. Clean uses a DigiTech Clean Amp with a Twin 2x12 Cabinet with EQ, Noise Gate and two effects, a Digitech Dual Chorus and a reverb that is based on the EMT 240 Plate Reverb. The first of course is whether the user want the wah wah pedal on. The expression pedal normally acts as a volume pedal until the user presses down on the pedal, turning on the wah effect. The next is the compressor followed by the distortion. Just to give you an idea as to what you have to work with, the RP 500 can simulate a Boss CS-2 Compressor, a Digitech Main Squeeze and a MXR Dynacomp. There are more than enough distortions to name, but some noteworthy ones are the Ibanez TS-9, Pro Co Rat, MXR Distortion +, Boss DS-1, and the Electro Harmonix Big Muff Pi. Again, these are simulations based on the original pedal.

The amplifier and cabinet are probably two of the more important features that this pedal has to offer because in my opinion, this is where the real tweaking and simulation begin. Due to the amount of sheer possibilities between effects and amps and cabs, the type of sound you can get is definitely limitless. The RP 500 simulates a ’57 Fender Tweed Champ, ’65 Fender Blackface Twin Reverb, ’83 Marshall JCM 800, ’93 Marshall JCM 900, ’62 Vox AC 15 and Sunn 100S. Within the Amp settings, the user can adjust the Gain, Bass, Mid, and Treble settings as well as the overall max volume. Clicking the first button brings the user to the cab simulation where they can pick from a Fender Blonde Bassman, 4x12 Marshall 1969 Straight w/ Celestion G12-T70, Hiwatt Custom w/ Fane Speakers, or a 1x12 '62 Vox AC15 w/20W Vox Speaker to name a few. The same Gain, Bass, Mid, and Treble settings are offered to the user for the cab as well. Going down the adjustment options, the user can then adjust the equalizer, noise gate, delay, or reverb settings. The final setting that I felt should be noted individually from the aforementioned effects are the Chorus and FX.

Now, Digitech compiled a lot of effects and put them under this label to save space. This is understandable considering anyone can get really specific with these FX and provide even more categories than needed.  The FX options range from Choruses such as the TC Electronic Chorus, DigiTech Multi-Chorus, Boss CE-2 Chorus, to Flangers and Phasers like MXR Flanger, Electro Harmonix Electric Mistress, ADA Flanger, MXR Phase 100, Digitech Phaser and Electro Harmonix Small Stone. The pedal also offers Pitch Shifters like the Digitech Whammy, Digitech Pitch Shift and the Dgitiech IPS. Lastly, there are also tremolos, Envelope Filters, and Vibrato/Rotary Models.

Now, editing these settings can be a little bit of a nuisance since the font on the pedal is really small. This prevents editing important settings on the fly, something that you cold normally do if you were to have a dedicate pedalboard with individual effects. This is definitely a drawback for a lot of people, but I find that this does not personally bother me since I have not yet started to edit settings on the fly. This pedal is fantastic for the value and what it can bring to the table. It lets me record directly into my laptop and by plugging in my headphones, whatever I hear through my headphones is what gets recorded on my laptop since I record directly into my laptop and not through an amplifier.

The pedal overall is fantastic, especially at the $200 price range. It really opened my eyes to what is possible with digital effects processing systems. I would give this pedal a shot if you see it in a store and really put it through its paces. Go through a couple of the presets and change some stuff around. I recommend trying the Solo Delay Preset (#3), Mr. Clean (#82), Sci Fi (#100), Acoustic (#10), and Satch (#64). 

Read more →

Fleksy Keyboard Has Gone Free! But What's Fleksy?

In the past couple days, the popular keyboard app Fleksy has decided to go free in order to increase their userbase. It's my personal keyboard of choice, and I have been using it without complaint for the past six months, but what actually is Fleksy?

One of the greatest things about the Android OS as a whole is that you have options. The user is not tethered to the same calendar, photos, camera, or even Twitter app anymore. You have the option to switch at any time. Keyboards are no different. Now I started with the stock keyboard on my Samsung Galaxy S III and then went on to the stock keyboard Cyanogenmod offered in their CM 10 and CM 11 versions of the ROM. After that I switched to Swype, Google Keyboard and eventually Fleksy. I've tested SwiftKey, Minuum, and touch pal. Nothing comes close to the usability I get with the Fleksy keyboard.

I initially selected Fleksy because it was the only keyboard to let me have my enter button back on the bottom right as opposed to the silly emoji icon that I never use. As I user it more, I found that Fleksy offers what other keyboard don't offer and that's gesture typing. The term gesture typing in this case is not to be confused with Swype where the user drags their finger from letter to letter to create words. In this case, it is swiping to the left to delete, and swiping up and down to go through the autocorrect options. Although it takes a little getting used to, you will find that your words per minute, WPM, will greatly improve.

What I liked about Fleksy the most from the get go was that the letters were large. I know there are some users that want their keyboards to take up as little space as possible, but I like the larger keys because it helps reduce error for me. Error is then terrified even further with the fantastic autocorrect that Fleksy offers. I have not the slightest clue how it is nearly as accurate as it is, definitely has something to do with intense algorithims, but I enjoy it thoroughly. I find that although I miss swyping, I type faster with Fleksy. The gestures are intuitive and easy to pick up. If you swipe up on a word, you can automatically add it to the dictionary.

Fleksy offers themes for the user, but I was never really into it so never delved into it besides picking the black keyboard theme. It may be a tad gimmicky, but Fleksy also has badges. They are simply for aesthetic purposes to show progress in areas such as auto correct, typing with the invisible keyboard and so on. Nothing that really breaks ground, but a nice touch

.

My favorite feature of Fleksy is definitely the extensions. These extensions add extra, free features to Fleksy. Again, most of these are gimmicks, but they do prove to be useful. For example, the one extension I have on let's me swipe on my keyboard to add a number row. This makes my life easier when typing in numbers because now I don't have to click an extra button to get to the numbers. Another extension lets me add certain apps as hot keys so that I an quickly jump to them. I have my email, texting, app store, and writing app all hot keyed so that I can quickly get to them when needed.

Fleksy is simple at its heart. There are no external ads that plague the app and it is quite easy to use. It is definitely different with its gesture typing, but once you get used to it, your overall speed in typing goes up dramatically.

Here is a gif of me typing on the keyboard and using some of the functions that I described above. I do not know why the keyboard looks skewed. The accurate depiction of the keyboard is in the screenshot above. As you can see the gestures take a little getting used to, but it becomes second nature after you use it. Here is a link to the Google Play Store for Fleksy. 

Read more →

Coheed and Cambria's New Single- You've Got Spirit Kid

It's been a while since we've heard anything from the Nyack rockers Coheed and Cambria. Yesterday, the band released their first single, titled 'You Got Spirit Kid', for their new album

The Color Before The Sun. The band also announced that this album would not be a concept album. This would be their first ever album that they have released that is not a concept album. Claudio Sanchez, the lead singer and guitar player for the band, stated that the band never had any limitations as to what they could do as artists and that they would like to try the writing and creating an album that would not follow the Amory Wars, the fictitious world created by Claudio.

The single itself has a very poppy sound to it. It does not sound like Welcome Home, A Favor House Atlantic, or anything else they have released thus far. This is an interesting change for the band. That is not to say the single is bad, it is quite good actually and it grows on you. I was unsure about the song at first because it wasn't the Coheed and Cambria that I was used to, but that's okay. That's normal. There were a couple drum fills that I heard that kept the same prog feel that Coheed is known to offer. Vocals were good, but they left a little something to be desired.

I am looking forward to what the band has to offer since this will not be a concept album. The album is due to release on October 9, 2015 and I'm sure we'll get more news about the album as it comes closer, and probably another single.

Check out the single below.

https://youtu.be/Ydkfdq0Xggo

What do you guys think about it? Like it, hate it? Talk to me about it.

Read more →