Review: Acer Iconia A500 Tablet.

Before you point fingers at me and calling me a tech-hog, let me clear this up. My uncle bought this tablet for his use last week. Today he asked me to swap his tablet with my Nook Color for the day and I agreed. I think it be rather daft if I bought this when I already have other tablets like the Nook Color, and the iPad (and not to leave out it's older but smaller companion, the iPod Touch)..Moving on.

What I have on my is Acer's rather new Iconia A500 Tablet. It's a $500 slate equipped with the following:
 Two cameras (front cam @ 2MP, and rear @ 5MP)
Nvidia Tegra 2 1Ghz Dual-Core CPU
16GBs internal storage w/ up to 32GBs max via Micro SD(HC)
2GB DDR SDRAM
b/g/n wifi and Bluetooth 2.1 EDR
TFT LED @ 10.1" w/ a display resolution of 1280 x 800 (to simplify, it's capable of outputting more detail than the iPad)
1 micro HDMI port capable of 1080p output
1 Micro-USB port
1 Regular USB port (host capable)
and it weighs in at 1.5 pounds...which is on the heavy side if compared to other tablets in it's class.

Don't mind my NOT iPhone

The back looks pretty slick. Note the dual Dolby speakers

The build is rather sturdy and for a regular joe kind of LED screen, it produces a lot of nice color and imaging.

When compared to the iPad....and the blue cup

Initial reactions to the A500 was well..."meh." Let's face it (..well I should face it), the iPad has spoiled me. It is a very intuitive and responsive slate that tailors to what I need out of a mobile device. It's not a gimmick like what a lot of people use it as. Because of my iPad, I no longer have to bring my laptop to school, because I can access, create and edit .doc files (as well as powerpoint, and excel if needed). It's netflix capable, and since Apple's iCloud went into beta, I have access to my music without actually having any music on my iPad. Granted there are solutions on the Android front (like Amazon and the upcoming Google Cloud), but nothing as streamlined as the iCloud. In that respect, I have gotten spoiled over the ease of use, and vast array of tablet apps. Going back to the A500, it's not the hardware or current apps that make this tablet underwhelming. It's the amount content made exclusively for it's operating system. Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) is a fairly new OS, yet it's been out for almost a year, and there is little to app support for Honeycomb...of course with the exception of the apps that were designed for older builds. This tablet has great potential to rival the Xoom and even the iPad, but at it's current state, Honeycomb is holding it back. Honeycomb also seems to be a little buggy with minor response times, and processing. I played the same YouTube on the A500 and iPad, and while the A500 has much better hardware specs than the iPad, the A500 struggled to process some parts of the video and started to lag. The video even loaded and played on the A500 first, but because of the setbacks, the iPad finished first. This may be something minor, but if you really look at it, Honeycomb is just not utilizing all of the A500's power. Another issue that I found annoying is the constant crashing of certain apps. I tried to finish a little more of this review using the default browser and it kept crashing as soon as I logged in. I then tried the same thing with the Dolphin Browser app that  works really well with my other Android devices. Suffice to say that the results were the same. I even tried small apps like Bug Smasher (addicting btw), and even that crashed!

While we're on the subject of power, the battery life is rated at around 10 hours with wifi enabled. Coming from an Android device, I find that hard to believe. The problem with Android is it's ability to force multitask. While improvements have been made to the built in application manager, you still need an app to manage and kill tasks if you have to. This is one of the main reasons why an iPhone can outlast an Android device. Unlike Android, iOS has a simple multitask menu that you can bring up on the fly and shut down any (or all) apps that you happen to have on. Not only will that save on system memory, you save on battery life. The Android OS is just not good at that because a lot of the apps  available force data to be pushed, or for some reason that's not your own, an app is opened on it's own. This is very apparent with the A500 because I notice that it   awakes on it's own indicating that an app has opened on it's own. Don't worry. It's not some hacker trying send you bullshit. It's really just how Android is built. The open source nature doesn't leave guidelines as to how an app should be built, so a lot of developers pretty much have free will over this matter. 

In conclusion, IMO, blah blah blah, the A500 can be a lot better than it's current state. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad tablet. I seen far worse. The OS just doesn't seem to utilize the available hardware as well as it should. If you have the means to buy a tablet for 500 dollars, make sure you do your reading first, and know what you exactly want out of your tablet. At this price, the A500 is by no means a cheaper alternate to the iPad, and the only people I would see buying this is the hardcore Android lovers or anti-Apple folk. I can't say much to the Android fanfolk other than more power to ya, but for the anti-Apple crew, might I suggest that you wait until Windows based slate is released. In fact, if you're patient enough, Windows 8 is being designed with tablets in mind. You might want to wait on that because based on what has been shown, it looks very promising. Then again, when Windows Vista was just called Longhorn, it looked very promising as well...that until RC & Final was released and Vista took a nose dive into oblivion. And people wondered why I stuck with XP for so long...hmph.

Review: Splitfish FragFX Shark

BEFORE I BEGIN: Yes, I haven't been on in awhile. Yes, I still put stock into this blog, No, I will not finish my review of Gran Turismo 5, and let me tell why. This game came out in November buggy and incomplete. PD has been patching and fixing the game since, and it has improved considerably. I enjoy the game. The realism factor is much better than Microsoft's Forza Motorsport 3 (though irony strikes me because I play FM3 a hell of a lot more), as well as the textures and true resolution. Other than that, no...FM3 beats GT5 in presentation and customization. Anyway, The way PD has been approaching this game, with no DLC of any kind yet, all these patches seem to be the stuff that they should have looked into before releasing the game. They are essentially finishing the game up before they even decide to upgrade or release new stuff. On those grounds, I can't give an accurate review because these updates change the scope of the playing field.

So onward to a new device that I have...and this will be a quick review. The FragFX series of controllers have been around for quite a bit. It's suppose to give the feeling of playing your FPS game on a PC, which the players are much more accurate (which is also why you don't see much games with cross platform online because it would suck for pro console players to lose to mediocre PC players..this was actually tested from Microsoft quite some time ago.) with aiming. I bought it because as much as I tried to be, I can't be good at both a controller and a mouse. Plus, the aim assist that consoles are plagued with (and for some, give the illusion that they're actually good) throws me off quite a bit. You can turn it off on titles like Call of Duty, but it's forever on for games like Killzone, and Bad Company 2.

This controller somewhat levels my playing field so I can enjoy my investment a lot more. Afterall, I did buy the damn game, it's no good to me if I can't enjoy it the way I want to enjoy it. Some people can't seem to grasp that concept. Anyway, The Frag FX Shark is the newest variant to (I believe) 3 other versions. It is supposed to be fastest responding model in their line, and it's wireless. It is currently compatible with the PS3, PC, and the Mac. As you can see below, It's a 4 piece set with a mouse pad, the receiver, the chuck controller and the mouse .

Click for larger image..I think..

The the chuck, the typical PS Home button is above the analog stick. The shoulder buttons are large and very responsive, and the extra 3rd button act as a function switch and works in conjuction with the D-pad, and select button. The two functions you would be dealing with are the stick swap and button remapping functions, and I will tell you why shortly. Below and to the side of the chuck is the power switch and the deadzone wheel. The deadzone wheel allows you to change the dpi levels on the mouse mainly for the PS3.

On the receiver, there is a switch that you have to hit in order for it to work on your computer. 

While we're on computers, initial playing  was not pretty good. The test game was the very consolized Crysis 2. I figure I try a game with that was ported to the PC and was ultimately designed for the consoles. For starters, I couldn't set it up so I'm using a controller (for the analog movements of the chuck), and a mouse for aiming since that is somehow associated with the keyboard. Because of this, your movement on the analog stick is binary based, and it acts as if you're hitting the default movements keys (W/A/S/D). As for the mouse, it runs at 1800 dpi, so people who only run their mouses at around 2000 dpi, than the mouse is fine. It's very responsive. My PC mouse has the ability to change the dpi on the fly therefore, I never stuck with the Shark mouse. 

Gaming on the PS3 is an entirely different story. For those who are dominant PC but always wanted to tap into the console world to play with your friends (because lets face it, for most people, their friends are gaming on a console over a PC), the Shark is your ticket in! It's not by any means a seamless translation of the mouse movement you would experience with a mouse on a PC shooter (1:1), but it's much more responsive and controlled than any analog stick at full sensitivity. Another factor is how the game is setup. For starters, the mouse reacts differently to most games, and it's a matter of getting comfortable with it. For instance, the most titles that the mouse emulates PC style aiming is Modern Warfare 2, and Black Ops. In fact, I had to tone down the sensitivity (Deadzone: 4 - 5. in-game: 8 - 9). Another thing I do is turn the aim assist off so your movement is not hindered...Of course, you can be a diseased phallus shaped object and leave it on you cheating console only punk (U MAD? :P).

Another game that ran well with the Shark is Bad Company 2. Currently, I have the Deadzone at around 3 - 4 and the ingame sensitivity at max. It's responsive enough to dominate in your K/D department, although unlike the mindless arcade action you get with Call of Duty, Battlefield is completely role based and strategy based. IMO, you shouldn't worry about that, but a lot of current console BC2 player just play it like CoD and end up losing the match. /rant ANYWAY, the Shark will definitely add to your response time when arming an MCOM, checking for fools who want to take shots at you. One thing I don't agree with (but it's just me) is the fat that the aim assist (yes, that again) is forced in this game so at times, your down sight aiming is hindered with stair stepping, especially with a sniper scope. That is when Stick Swap comes in handy (refer to Other Thoughts).

The last game I tried is Killzone 3. This is where you'll have an upper advantage over all the Move users. I have the Deadzone at 1 and again, the ingame is at 100% for both axis. When you're using all non-sniper related weapons, the reaction time is spot on. Sniping is ridiculous using the mouse. It's possible if you're in a rather good position where players are just chilling in the killbox, but leading a target is also plagued with the staircasing effect and you have to make long than normal movements to fine tune your aim. I also don't recommend Stick Swap because of the faster pace this game has over BC2. What I do recommend is only get center-mass shots. Yeah, you'll miss out on an extra 50 points, but I found no justification to fine tune your shot for the head with the Shark. If you're used to sniping well with a controller, just use the controller, BUT I recommend using this mouse for every other weapon.

OTHER THOUGHTS...FANBOYISM.. 

A bit of advice for those console-only players: if you ever get a chopper gunner killstreak, you're not going to like the movement the mouse makes when aiming. That is when the Stick Swap function is for. Just press and hold the F button and press select, after the LED flashes, tap on the Stick Swap function, repeat the first step and presto! Another neat feature is the Button Remapping function. With the exception of game-specific features (if any), you can your controller up so the layout remains the same for all the games you play. My personal changes for Call of Duty is that I swapped the grenade button (R2) with stance button (circle). Now I have I can just right click to change stance (which is important to me for CoD). I also changed the melee function to the sixaxis gyro in the chuck. For BC2, I haven't changed anything. For KZ3, all I did was change the ingame control layout to Alternative so my L1 is the aim.

Another thing I want to touch up on is the state of whiny fanboys who cry about people who use the controller. I only had the Shark for a week and I was called a wallhack on Black Ops for getting a 18 - 7 K/D in Havana jumping in mid-match. I forgot that they can see the moments leading to their demise with the killcam and they can see my mouse movements as I snapped to his center-mass and pressed the mouse button. Let's get one thing straight. Everyone has a preference in how they want to enjoy their gaming (much like life). No one has to conform with the controller. I never bitched about the dude using their Move orb thing to snap and kill me. It's just how it is in KZ3. Besides, those very people shouldn't be bitching in the first place since they rely so heavily on their aim assist to make their kill. And don't tell me you don't use it. People on Reach tell me that everytime, but oh, a little feature called Replay Theater tells all. To top it off, the Shark in the right hands are destined for dominating constantly. If you're like me, you're average at playing. Your K/D is either slightly above or below 1, and you're inconsistent with your score and kills. For instance, I played a conquest match on BC2 a couple nights back and managed to get 21 - 7 with almost 5000 points. Tonight, I had a K/D on the same map of 4 - 14 with a score no higher than 300. It's easy to get frustrated with the person who keeps killing you, but one: don't blame the input method and two: It's just a game...calm down. No one cares (unless you're a 12 year old with a mic).

IN CONCLUSION: 
For me, the Shark is an asset to my gaming enjoyment on the PS3. I recommend this to any PC dominant player who has a PS3 and want to play with their friends. I also recommend to any console-only player. Once you get used to the movements and layout, you're going to realize how much better a mouse is over an analog stick. Be aware to the fact that you do need a desk, or a table to effectively use the mouse. There is a reason why the mouse pad is larger than normal, but I highly recommend using a flat surface that doesn't rest on your leg or arm rest. You also want your wrist parallel to the rest of your arm unless you love being uncomfortable and Carpel Tunnel.

LAST LAST REMARKS (to 360-only folk)
Jealous of this greatness. I think most are not because the community is pretty snub and arrogant to begin with (yet, I only have 2 games now). Either way, don't be jealous! Splitfish didn't leave you out. They are releasing their FragFX Shark to the 360 soon. They also have a very powerful (and many claim a much better addon than the Shark) but rather expensive device called the XIM3 which allows you to plug in your keyboard and mouse and download firmware layouts for games.

VIDEOS!

FragFX Shark Black Ops

FragFX Shark KZ3

FragFX Shark BC2

XIM3 MW2 (w/annoying, whining 20 year old...seriously..)

XIM3 Halo Reach (although this was cheap w/ the camping)

XIM3 Halo Reach (last one)