Owen Johnston - *Enthusiast

OCZ Needs to Leverage their Brand and Get Out of the Price War

2013-05-28T22:40:00.001-07:00

OCZ has fallen on troubled times. The stock price plunged in the latter half of 2012, and it now rests in the ~$1.30 range, losing nearly 75% of its value year over year. The depressed stock price is due in large part to the company's failure to report earnings, prompting threats of de-listing from NASDAQ. Beyond these accounting woes, OCZ faces another huge obstacle; the SSD market is a crowded place. While OCZ makes fantastic solid state drives featuring their own in-house controller, they are finding it difficult to compete with Samsung on price. Samsung not only produces their own SSD controller, but they also manufacture their own memory chips, which helps them keep costs down. With Seagate recently entering the SSD market, things are only going to get more difficult for OCZ to price their drives competitively.

The OCZ brand, along with their PC Power and Cooling branded power supplies, does have a history of success with PC hardware enthusiasts. When I first got interested in PC hardware, OCZ was one of the most well known brands of high performance DDR memory, and PC Power and Cooling was the undisputed "premium" brand of power supplies. I feel that OCZ has tarnished their brands by focusing too much on cutting costs and trying to offer more appealing prices for a broader market. Given the decline in the industry in general, I think it would be a smart move for OCZ to go back to their roots as a high performance brand. Their will always be enthusiastic PC builders who want the best hardware, whatever the cost, and I think brand awareness (which OCZ already has) is the biggest barrier to entry to this market segment. OCZ should revamp their product lines by sourcing parts with top-notch performance and reliability and pass these additional costs onto the customer with high prices. OCZ cannot compete on price with giants like Seagate and Samsung in the value SSD market, but they can carve out a profitable niche as a high-performance high reliability brand.

EDIT: My article originally stated (incorrectly) that Seagate used their own controller and manufactures their own DRAM. They actually use Toshiba/Samsung memory and Link A Media Device’s LM87800 controller. Seagate should however maintain a DRAM price advantage over OCZ due to their undoubtedly larger order volume.

Android Studio Won't Open on Windows? Here's how to fix it.

2013-05-16T21:41:00.001-07:00

Android Studio, a new IDE for Android Development, was recently announced at Google I/O 2013. Versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux are available for download on the Android developer website.

I was excited to try out the new IDE, but I could not get the application to open on windows. I filed (along with lots of other people) a bug on the problem and today a workaround was posted in the bug thread. Apparently the problem can be solved by setting your JAVA_HOME environment variable.

Here are the steps for setting the JAVA_HOME environment variable (thanks to Marko for posting these steps):

Open Control Panel
In the top right search box type environment
Click the search result that says Edit the system environment variables
In the System Properties window, click the advanced tab
Click the Environment Variables... button on the bottom
In the Environment Variables window, under the System Variables heading, click New...
In the Variable name field type JAVA_HOME and the Variable Value field type C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.7.0_21\ (if that folder doesn't exist, you may have the 32 bit version of the JDK installed in which case you'd add C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.7.0_21\)
Click OK, OK, OK.
Double click the Android Studio Setup exe.

You may have to modify the value of the variable depending on what version of Java you have installed and where you installed it. It turns out I didn't even have JDK installed so I had to take care of that first. These steps solved the problem for me and I was able to run Android Studio, no re-installation required.

From the discussion in the bug thread, it looks like Google will likely address this issue during the installation process in future builds.

The International 3 Ticket Sale; Where did Valve go Wrong?

2013-05-09T22:57:00.001-07:00

A buying frenzy erupted on Tuesday morning when tickets for The International Dota 2 Championships were released in the game’s online store. Players and fans of Valve Software’s popular online game overwhelmed the company’s servers in a scramble to purchase the approximately 2,500 tickets to attend the live event in Seattle on August 7-11, 2013. The massive spike in traffic was more than the Dota 2 online store servers could handle, resulting in delays, timeouts, and failed transactions. The $50 tickets sold out in short order, and almost immediately began appearing for sale in secondary markets for more than $200 each, indicating some portion of the initial purchasers were looking to turn a profit rather than attend the event.

While failed servers and profiteering ticket scalpers are not unusual when only a limited number of tickets are available for a popular event, many were frustrated that Valve did not foresee these issues and take measures to prevent them. The Dota 2 community on reddit, for example, was flooded with posts complaints about the sale. Did Valve underestimate the load on their servers? Should they have planned to hold the event in a larger venue? Could they have thwarted the plans of scalpers buy imposing buying limits and preventing purchasers from reselling tickets?

I would like to discuss these three main complaints in further detail.

Server Load

Server crashing buying frenzies are commonplace online. It is not because the technology to combat them does not exist. It is not because companies don’t know how to predict traffic volume and provision resources to accommodate it. It is because it is not always in the best interest of a company to pay the costs required to handle traffic spikes. As long as a supply limited item sells out, the company makes the same revenue, regardless of how terrible the website experience is for the customers. If enough people are willing to purchase the item despite the technical problems, why should the company eat in to their own profits paying for the resources to handle temporary traffic spikes? Valve maximized their profits by not having sufficient server capacity.

Insufficient Supply of Tickets

In the case of The International Dota 2 Championships, Valve has the luxury of monopolistic pricing. Nobody else can supply tickets, so valve can set the price at whatever they want it to be. Given this fact, there are two ways to address this issue, either increase ticket price to decrease demand, or hold the event at a larger venue. I think Valve probably had good reason to do neither. It would have been more expensive to rent a larger venue, and they would presumably have to charge less per ticket to fill it. It is certainly possible that the margin cost of a larger venue is greater than the marginal revenue from increased ticket sales at a lower price. In terms of pricing in the current venue, I think Valve could have charged more than $50 per ticket and still sold out while reducing the number of problems due to excessive demand. The problem is, they knew they could sell out at $50 per ticket because they did it last year. They did not however know they would sell out at $51 per ticket. I am 99% sure they would have, but raising the price any amount increases the risk of not selling out. And if they fail to sell out they miss out on a lot of revenue in other areas. Sold out events are more exciting for the teams competing, more exciting for the fans, more exciting for those at home buying compendiums at $10 each, etc. This hype translates into more people playing and spending money on the game in the future. A concerted effort to estimate the maximum price they could charge and still sell out would have cost money, and they may have made an appropriate profit maximizing decision to keep the price at $50.

Scalping

Eliminating secondary markets is a terrible idea. If people buy tickets and end up changing plans and not attending, if they cannot resell their tickets, it creates empty seats at the event which as I already discussed is undesirable. Scalpers also provide a service to people who are willing to pay excessive amounts to attend the event and did not manage to buy what appears now to be an underpriced $50 ticket directly from valve.

First AMD Z-60 (Hondo) APU Powered Tablet Announced (Kind of) Fujitsu Stylistic Q572

2012-10-09T10:39:00.002-07:00

Today AMD put out a press release about their upcoming Z-60 (Hondo) APU, targeting the windows 8 tablet market. It looks like it will be a worthy competitor to Intel's CloverTrail Atom processors which will fill a similar role powering Windows 8 tablets. AMD's APUs represent an interesting processor value, which I have discussed before, in that they combine a CPU and a powerful GPU in one package.

Fujitsu Stylistic Q572 - Presumably

While there seems to be many manufacturers announcing CloverTrail powered Windows 8 tablets, there has up until now not been a Hondo based tablet announced. After watching AMD's weird Hondo intro video I noticed a new video on AMD's youtube channel about a Z-60 based tablet. The video is also a little weird but it introduced the corporate IT applications of Hondo powered tablets. It also gives us the name of a Fujitsu tablet that will use the Z-60 in the video description:

"AMD Z-60 APU powers the new Fujitsu Stylistic® Q572 10.1" tablet, providing quality and performance to professionals on the move. The combination provides users with portability, windows compatibility and security in one tablet device. The AMD Z-60 delivers improvements in CPU and graphics performance vs. its predecessor, while maintaining unique Fujitsu features like an integrated Smart Card reader and removable battery."

I am not very familiar with Fujitsu's PC products as they aren't big in the US but they are the 2nd largest PC player in the Japanese market. Assuming the Fujitsu Stylistic Q572 will fill the same role in the product catalog as the Intel powered Fujitsu Stylistic Q550, this will be their mid range tablet. Based on reviews it looks like the hardware experience is pretty good on the Intel powered tablet was pretty good, will performance was on the sluggish side. Perhaps the Z-60 will give the tablet the muscle it needs to be a top shelf product.

Will AMD's tablet targeting Hondo APUs be a hit and give AMD some momentum to get out of its slump? Time will tell.

Update: Full details for the Stylistic Q572 are now available on Fujitsu's website
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This isn't the first time I have discovered a product before it's time. Check out my post on some leaked samsung smartphone pics.

Accredited Transcription Corp. (ACDU) Cannot Win a Patent Lawsuit Against Google(GOOG), Apple(AAPL), etc.

2012-10-03T10:53:00.002-07:00

News came out today that Accredited Transcription Corp. (ACDU) acquired the other ~34% of US Patent 6298326 (it already owned the other two thirds of it). ACDU is up over 38% today on the news, with many outlets saying this is a very valuable patent that will allow the company to sue Google and Apple for patent infringement on smartphone voice transcription services. This is simply not true.

The patent which pertains to digital transmission of voice to an offsite location to be transcribed, is being touted as ammunition against Google for their "Google Now" product, and Apple for "Siri." These services actually in no way fall under the umbrella of this patent. The patent clearly states that after the system converts the audio to digital it will "telephonically transmit the voice dictation to a transcription station, the transcription station that includes at least one human transcriptionist." As far as I know Apple doesn't have a sweatshop full of super fast typists churning out Siri transcriptions.

While the patent is useless is litigation against Google and Apple, there are some other potential targets, but they are much smaller players. They may have a case against transcription services that operate on Amazon's "Mechanical Turk.," which in some ways, is an e-sweatshop, churning out podcast transcriptions. There are also many small time transcription services that might fall prey to litigation from ACDU. In fact I used to work for one. However the potential payouts for lawsuits against these small players are very small, so much so that it is probably not worth it to even bring most cases to court.

Long story short, today's news on ACDU is actually not very newsworthy.

DISCLOSURE: I do not hold any positions on ACDU and I do not intend to enter anytime in the next 72 hours.

Dota 2 Hero Counters - Statistical Methodology Case Study

2012-10-01T11:03:00.002-07:00

"Don't pick Riki early, they will hard counter with Slardar and you will lose."

Have you ever heard this conventional wisdom for Dota 2 pub games? I wanted to take a look at how much it matters in pub games when your opponent picks a hero to counter your hero. Riki is a good case study in hero counters because it is easy to see what would be good against him. Because Riki's ultimate gives him permanent invisibility, it is logical to assume that heroes that have abilities that give truesight would be good against him. But how much affect to these counter abilities have on the game?

I pulled data from Dota Buff on overall hero play rate and win percentage and these same hero stats on games against Riki. I then transformed the overall hero stats to what they theoretically should be against Riki. Each heroes amount of plays should be 9.25% of their total plays, and each players win rate should be 96.25% of their overall win rate. I then compared the expected hero picks and win rates to their corresponding picks and win rates up against Riki.

This chart shows what I would call the top 10 Riki counter picks. I judge this based on how many more wins these hero gets than they theoretically should against Riki. I feel this is a good measure of how good this hero is specifically against Riki. The top hero on this chart, Bloodseeker, wins ~2.1% more games than he theoretically should against Riki. This is not a huge amount, but it still it is better than nothing. I really did not expect a huge win rate improvement because Riki is only one hero. Picking a bloodseeker may help to shut down Riki, but you still have to deal with the other 4 heroes.

Most of the heroes on this list make sense as Riki counters when you think about it. Bloodseeker, Bounty Hunter, and Slardar each have abilities that give long term true sight. Razor and Necrolyte have abilities that deal AOE damage in a radius around the hero, either permanently or for an extended amount of time. Other heroes on here don't have such a clear definable advantage.

As you can see from the pick percent pick differences, a lot of people must think Bounty Hunter, Slardar, and to a lesser extent, Bloodseeker, are good against Riki they are picked much more often than you would expect. However, even though Bloodseeker is a lot better than Slardar, and slightly better than Bounty Hunter against Riki, he is only picked 25% extra, whereas Slardar and Bounty Hunter are picked 55% and 65% more respectively. On top of that, Necroloyte, who I would now consider the third best counter to Riki, is actually picked 7% less than expected against Riki. No love for the Necrolyte?

This is the worst Riki counters, or in other words, who Riki himself counters. As you can see there are a lot of carries on here. Does this mean that Riki can outcarry all these all-star carries? Maybe. There are also quite a few junglers on here.

So should you be conscious of getting counter picked in Dota 2? Probably. But it doesn't play as big of a role as you would expect.

If you would like a copy of the full spreadsheet, or would like me to do this analysis with another hero, let me know and I will email you the full data. Thanks for reading!

How much will Vringo (VRNG) be worth if they reach a settlement with google?

2012-09-28T10:44:00.000-07:00

Vringo (VRNG) was brought to my attention a few months ago by a family member. He asked me what I thought about this company after someone suggested he buy it. After researching their company a bit I found that they make mediocre ringtone smartphone apps which made me think the company was a pretty lousy buy. However, a closer look at the company showed me that there was much more going on behind the scenes that makes this company much more than an "app" company. At the end of March they merged with a law firm that had a pending case against AOL, Google, and others, accusing them of violating a search patent the company acquired from Lycos. Shortly after the merger, Mark Cuban bought a significant stake in the company as a hedge against patent litigation threatening other investments he owns. My conclusion was that Vringo had become a publicly traded patent troll. So now everyone can get in on the trolling action.

Since my introduction to Vringo I have been keeping an eye on the stock and news about the company, and a few interesting things have happened over the last several months. AOL settled out of court with Vringo for an undisclosed amount, which bodes well for them in the upcoming October trial against Google. They also bought a sizable amount of patents from Nokia. They have already put some of these patents to use in a new case they have brought against ZTE. The Lycos and Nokia patents, along with the patents that Vringo itself was awarded (including some, in my opinion, broad reaching ringtone patents), constitute a large and potentially lucrative patent portfolio.

I'm not a lawyer so I can't really make any predictions on the outcome of Vringo's pending litigation. However, I would like to share my predictions on what price the stock will hit assuming Vringo wins receives a settlement from Google.

I found a paper by Ganapathi S. Narayanamoorthy and Hui Zhou called "Market Reactions to Announcements of Patent Litigation Settlements." In this paper the authors examine stock prices of companies involved in litigation and create a model to explain price fluctuations at the time of settlement. Here is their model (in my own words):

Above Market Return at Time of Settlement = .355*(Companies probability of bankruptcy) + .739*(Settlement Payment / Market Cap) - .604 * (Above-Market Return when litigation is announced) - .012

These are my best guesses at numbers that get plugged into this model:
Probability of Bankruptcy: 0.125
Settlement Payment (potential): 900 Million
Market Cap (at end of last fiscal year): 55.34 Million
Return when Litigation was Announced (In this case I'm going to use when merger became official): ~.94

Using these numbers with this model, if Google settles with Vringo the stock price will go to $45.60.

Given the current price of the stock, ~$2.90, and the worst case scenario that Vringo goes bankrupt if they lose (unlikely) the market thinks there is a 6.36% chance that Google will settle with Vringo. If we assume that Vringo will go back to its 52-week low ($0.68) if no settlement occurs, the market is giving Vringo only a 4.89% chance. If I go back and revise my numbers to be extremely more conservative, this model estimates a price of $11 at time of settlement. At this price the market is guess Vringo has between a 20.2% and 26.36% chance of a settlement.

So even if you take a very conservative approach to the post settlement price, if you think Vringo has a better than 26.36% chance of a settlement, Vringo is underpriced and you should buy. Personally, I think they have a better chance than that.

Any lawyers out there care to comment?

DISCLOSURE: I am long VRNG.

For Maximum Value: Best Desktop Memory

2012-09-20T05:58:00.001-07:00

DDR3 ram is so cheap. Ask anyone who has been building systems for a few years and they while tell you something like: "Back in my day I spent $80 on a 2GB DDR kit." Now (as you will see below) you can get 16GB of DDR3 for $60! That is astounding. That being said there are still some value decisions that you face when buying DDR3 ram.

My "$80" DDR ram that I just sold for $15! Value!

For maximum value desktop memory, it's about quantity over quality. The performance benefits gained from buying higher priced RAM with high speeds and tighter timing are not very significant. If you spend that same money on buying a marginally better CPU/GPU/SSD you will be better off. That being said if you can find memory with better specs for basically the same cost as low performance memory, go for it. The cost difference to go to DDR3 1600 from DDR3 1333 is usually only a dollar or two, but to go any faster than that, the marginal cost increases rapidly. With that in mind, the sweet spot for DDR3 is 1600Mhz.

As far as what capacity of RAM to get, it really depends on what you want to do. For most users 4GB is about all that you will be capable of using at this point. However if you are running memory intensive photo and video editing software, or some high end games, you may benefit from 8GB. Given that 8GB ram kits are only ~$10 more expensive than 4GB kits, it is probably worth it to go ahead and get 8GB, even if you don't think you will need that capacity right now. Who knows how operating system and application memory requirements will increase in the near future. When I bought my $80 DDR a few years ago, Battlefield 2 was the only game on the market that could benefit from 2GB as opposed to 1GB of ram, and I purchased 2GB as a luxury (certainly not for maximum value). Now Microsoft recommends 2GB of ram as the minimum for Windows 8. To jump up to 16GB of ram it is going to cost you nearly $30 so at this point I don't recommend 16GB of ram unless you absolutely need it. Now for my recommendations:

Top DDR3 Recommendation: Team Xtreem Dark Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 - $31.99 after coupon (code - EMCNAJB42) on Newegg

Team Xtreem Dark Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory
Cas Latency: 9 Voltage: 1.65V Multi-channel Kit: Dual Channel Kit Timing: 9-9-9-24 ECC: No Buffered/Registered: Unbuffered Heat Spreader: Yes Features: Team Group Inc. introduced the all new Xtreem DDR3 1600 with low memory timings for performance benefits to the user. Even though JEDEC specifications rate DDR3 up to 1600MHz, Xtreem DDR3 1600 offers 17% performance over the current modules on the market at DDR3 1333. However, the advantages of Xtreem DDR3 1600 are not limited to the rated speed, but the 9-9-9-24 (tCL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS) low latency design also offers greater performance . Working together with the 1600MHz data rate at just 1.65V, it is not difficult to see the strong R&D capabilities of Team Group Inc. in the products. Quality is the best policy. Xtreem DDR3 1600 uses 256x8 BGA...

So to be honest, I am looking at DDR3 as a commodity right now, it is all basically the same regardless of brand. I know people have their brand loyalties, but really there isn't much of a difference between different brands with the same capacity, speed, and timings. I haven't heard anything bad about team and their reviews on newegg are not any worse than other brands. However if you think the heatspreaders on the Team Xtreem Dark Series RAM looks terrible feel free to spend a few dollars more on some RAM with heatspreaders you like more. As far as 2x4GB DDR3 1600 kits go, this is as cheap as they come.

Honorable mentions:

Kingston Hyper X Blu 4 GB 1600MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL9 Desktop Memory (KHX1600C9D3B1/4G) - This is the cheapest price I can find for a 2x2GB kit of DDR3 1600 RAM. Plus Kingston is a pretty respectable brand. - $20.99

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory - DDR3 1600 is a little too pricey on a 16GB kit so I recommend this DDR3 1333 kit. - $59.99 w/ coupon code EMCNAJF32

Alternative recommendation for systems using an AMD APU: Patriot Viper 3 8GB DDR3 1866 - $34.99 after $10 Rebate w/ coupon code PATR921

Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 15000) Desktop Memory
Cas Latency: 9 Voltage: 1.5V Multi-channel Kit: Dual Channel Kit Timing: 9-10-9-27 Heat Spreader: Yes

There is one situation in which spending a bit more for high speed RAM is worth it. AMD APU's combine a CPU and a GPU on one chip, so better memory bandwidth to the CPU is also better memory bandwidth to the GPU. GPUs scale much more with better memory bandwidth than CPUs, so if you are using an APU you can get significant performance benefits from faster RAM. This Patriot kit is the lowest price for this capacity and speed so it gets my recommendation. Also if you think the heatspreaders on the previously mentioned Team Xtreem kit, you might want to pay the extra $4 for these sophisticated black heatspreaders.

Honorable mentions:

Crucial Ballistix 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory - Best price for this speed on a 4GB kit. - $24.99

GeIL EVO CORSA Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory - Prices for DDR3 1866 at this capacity are atrocious so my recommendation is a DDR3 1600 kit. Sorry about those yellow heat spreads... Just remember ugly is for maximum value! - $59.99 w/ coupon code HARDOCPX919F

For Maximum Value: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus & Antec Neo Eco 520C

2012-09-11T10:36:00.001-07:00

Kroger used to sell a generic brand called FMV, "For Maximum Value." In high school it was our go to brand for buying toilet paper for nefarious activities. 4 rolls for $.87 cents? That is value! Sure it wasn't double/triple ply(more like 1/2 ply) but it hit the price/performance sweet spot for our purpose (throwing on stuff).

This is the first post in what I hope will be an ongoing series of articles about products that I think hit the price/performance sweet spot. They may not be the best on the market, in fact they may fall anywhere on the performance spectrum. But they are "For Maximum Value," good enough(and sometimes even better) and cheap.

Here are today's picks(which I also happened to recently purchase):

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus (RR-B10-212P-G1)

Photo Courtesy of Cooler Master

My favorite site for CPU heatsink/fan reviews is Frosty Tech. I like them because they have a HUGE database of cooler performance benchmarks, nearly every cooler made by the major brands. They have developed a methodology for testing cooler performance that they have used for each of these reviews so it is easy to compare performance relative to other products. Here is their most recent performance comparison chart. This is by far the best way I have found to compare cpu cooler quality. As you can see from the chart, the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus is pretty high on the performance chart (about 80th percentile) and has less than a 5 degree difference between it and the best air cooler on the chart.

Direct Contact Heatpipes.

The secret to this cooler's success is its use of direct contact copper heatpipes. While heatpipe technology has been around for a while, only recently have manufacturers starting designing direct contact between the heatpipes and CPU. Before this heatpipes usually went through a chunk of aluminum or copper that made contact with the CPU, and the additional joints diminished heat transfer. Direct contact heatpipes dramatically improve performance at a low cost to manufacturers (I assume they just machine down the traditional heatsink to reveal the pipes). This technology has increased performance and lowered costs in general on CPU coolers.

Given that this product is available on newegg for $20 after rebate this product is "For Maximum Value!" Many of the other coolers in the same performance ranger as the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus cost ~$35 dollars and some cost as much as $80(!). If you are in the market for a high performance CPU heatsink/fan, the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus is currently hitting the price/performance sweet spot.

$20 Shipped ($30 w/ $10 rebate) on Newegg or $22.98 on Amazon

*Bonus* Newegg will give you a free DVI Cable with your purchase!

CPU Cooler Honorable Mentions:

Xigmatek Loki - Similar(slightly worse) performance and is usually cheaper(but not right now).

$24.99 on Amazon or $24.99 on Newegg

Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo - A slight revision with marginally better performance for a bit more money.
$27.99 on Amazon or $36.99 on Newegg

Antec NEO ECO 520C

Photo Courtesy of Antec

In my opinion power supplies hit the sweet spot of complicated/boring, meaning I don't want to spend a lot of time on selecting one. However this time around I did. And I will spare you the details of power supply technical specifications(which you can learn more about here) and just tell you what to buy.

One thing you may be interested to know is that many power supply brands do not make or even take part in designing their own power supplies. There are actually only a handful of power supply manufacturers and you can find who manufactures hard drives using this nifty Tom's Hardware Article. As far as manufacturers go, Seasonic has one of the best reputations (if not the best reputation) for making reliable, high quality, power supplies. They are the manufacturer behind many of the legendary(read overpriced) PC Power and Cooling power supplies, as well as their own respected Seasonic branded power supplies.

One thing I did not know is that Seasonic also manufactures a fair number of Antec power supplies. Antec is not generally known as a "high end" brand, but they are well respected in their own "mid range" tier. This is great news for consumers because "Mid Range" Brand + "High End" Manufacturer = "For Maximum Value!"

The Antec Neo Eco 520C is in many ways just a cheaper version of the SeaSonic S12II 520 Bronze. In my opinion 520W is about the maximum wattage you need out of a power supply as long as you are not doing crazy SLI/crossfire builds (definitely not "For Maximum Value"). In fact 520W should be sufficient for many lower end SLI/Crossfire setups.

$46.99 Shipped w/ Coupon Code: "CollegeSave10" on Newegg

Power Supply Honorable Mentions:

PC Power and Cooling Silencer MK III 500W - Also manufactured by Seasonic. Adds modular cables, fancy paintjob, and PC Power and Cooling "Street Cred."

$63.98 shipped ($83.98 with $20 rebate) on Newegg or 74.99 Shipped on Amazon

CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 (CMPSU-430CXV2) - Also manufactured by Seasonic (check that UL number). While 90W less than the Antec, its cheaper(if you're cool with rebates) and a good choice if you aren't using high end discrete graphics or a power hungry CPU.

$26.98 shipped ($46.99 w/ $20 Rebate) on Newegg or $41.99 Shipped on Amazon

Samsung Stratosphere Release Imminent, New Renders Leaked

2011-09-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

The Samsung Stratosphere is real and should be coming to Verizon very soon. Today Verizon Wireless released the new budget LTE phone, the Pantech Breakout. While viewing some images of the new device on the wirefly.com page, I noticed something strange. Some of the shots of the phone showed Samsung branding. As you can see from the picture above, this phone is clearly not the Pantech Breakout. It is an as now unreleased Samsung LTE phone with Verizon branding. As of now Verizon carries one 4G LTE phone from Verizon, namely the Droid Charge. This is clearly not that device.

These images match up closely to previously lower quality leaked renders of the rumored Samsung device. It is rumored that the Stratosphere will feature a slide out qwerty keyboard, and internals closely matching the Droid Charge. From a software standpoint, the status bar at the tops shows a blue battery icon, which also matched the Droid Charge, so this phone will likely ship with Gingerbread.

Given that these images are available to retailers like Wirefly indicate that the product should be launching very soon. A leaked Radioshack launch timeline indicates an October 6th release.

What the iPhone 5 or iPhone 4s Need To Outpace the Android Army

2011-08-27T11:15:00.000-07:00

Historically, Apple has brought the iPhone to market with specs and features that far surpass or are at competitive with the top android handsets. This persistent "first to market" advantage has played a major role in the iPhone's success. While the new iPhone 5 or iPhone 4s (whatever the name will be) will likely sell well regardless of how it compares to current high end Android devices, its sales will be profoundly better if it can beat, or at least closely match, the best that Android currently has to offer.

History
Before discussing what the new iPhone needs to bring to the table, let's take a look the history of the Android vs iPhone story.

iPhone and iPhone 3G
When the original iPhone (released June 29, 2007) and predecessor, the iPhone 3G (released July 11, 2008), hit the the shelves, Android handsets were still just a twinkle in Andy Rubin's eye. These two iPhone releases revolutionized and expanded the smartphone market. Before this time, smartphones were mostly produced by RIM and Palm, and primarily appealed to business users. The iPhone was the first smartphone to gain traction with the average consumer.

The Android operating system was revealed by Google on November 5, 2007, but it wasn't until October 22, 2008 that the first Android handset, the G1, was released in the US, well over a year after the first iPhone began shipping.

iPhone 3Gs
The iPhone 3Gs (June 19, 2009) was an evolutionary step up from the iPhone 3G. It was the first phone to feature a 600 MHz ARM Cortex A8 chip, offering improved performance over the previous generation processor. As well as an improved processor, the iPhone 3Gs offers twice the RAM (256MB) and PowerVR SGX 535 graphics. As with the previous two generations, the iPhone 3Gs featured a 3.5" HVGA display.

Android competition at the time of the release of the iPhone 3gs was very limited. In fact, the only Android handset available in the US at that time was the G1, manufactured by HTC. Compared to the iPhone 3Gs, the G1 featured a slower processor (528 MHz Qualcomm MSM7201), less RAM (192MB), and a smaller 3.2" screen. Given these hardware differences, the iPhone 3Gs was clearly the best phone available at the time of its release. It wasn't until several months later, when phones like the HTC Hero, Motorola Droid, and the Nexus One were released, that google handsets were able to hold their own against the iPhone 3Gs.

iPhone 4
The release of the iPhone 4 (June 24, 2010) was met with huge excitement, due to its revolutionary industrial design and top of the line internals. Visually, the iPhone 4 is a masterpiece. It just looks amazing. Major upgrades at this time included the high resolution "Retina" display, a faster processor (ARM Cortex A8 based "Apple A4"), a front facing camera and once again twice the RAM (512MB),

Despite the wonder that was the iPhone 4, Apple faced much stiffer competition from the Android crowd this time around. HTC released the Evo 4G only a few weeks before the release of the iPhone 4, as well as the Droid Incredible in April of 2010. These phones also featured ARM Cortex A8 processors, though they carried Adreno 200 GPUs, which are notably weaking than the iPhone 4's PowerVR SGX 535 graphics chip. These phones also have well known battery woes, and have difficulty getting through a full day on a single charge. Though the race was a lot closer in this generation, at the time of its release, the iPhone 4 was still the king of the hill.

The Present
Now the smartphone market is a crowded place, with high end android offerings available from Samsung, LG, Motorola, HTC, and others. From a hardware standpoint there have been a lot of innovations that have already been implemented in these Android handsets. Since the introduction of the iPhone 4 there have been major improvements in processor and graphics power, data speed, screen size and resolution, and RAM capacity. The follower are the minimum specs the new iPhone needs to catch up with the android competition that is already on the market:

Dual core ARM Cortex A9 based processor (likely the A5 that is now being used in the iPad 2)
768MB+ of RAM (there are several phones already on the market with 1GB)
4 inch screen (there is not a single high end android phone with a screen smaller than 3.7 inches, and most are 4.3 inches. Compare this to the iPhone's measly 3.5 inch screen)
8 Megapixel Camera, 1080p video
WiMAX, HSPA+, or LTE connectivity

Keep in mind that these are the specs the new iPhone would need just to catch up, not to be the leader of the pack like it has always been in previous generations. In order to differentiate its new phone, Apple will need to add something special, especially considering the phone likely won't see another refresh until mid 2012. Here are some ideas of things the new iPhone might have that will allow it to retain that magic at launch:

A 4 or 4.3 inch display in a phone that is small in comparison with other phones with that screen size
Given the bigger display, add in a very high resolution display, perhaps 720p
the first LTE phone available on AT&T

Netgear WNR2000 Review

2011-08-25T13:47:00.000-07:00

WNR2000 in Action

A couple months ago we signed up for cable internet with Comcast. After having bad experiences with "internet gateways" (devices that combine a router and a model into one unit) I opted for a seperate modem and router. I bought a Motorola Modem which had severe issues with our Comcast connection, so I had to return it and ended up renting one from Comcast, which works just fine. The router I chose to go with our modem is the Netgear WNR2000, a midrange offering from the well known consumer networking company.

The Netgear WNR2000 features 802.11b/g/n, dual internal antennas, and a theoretical bandwidth of 300mbps. Noticeably absent from this model is dual band wifi (this features 2.4Ghz only, no 5Ghz). All the usual security types are here (WEP, WPA, WPA2), as well as plenty of options available in the firmware.

Performance

This is my first experience owning a Wireless-N router and I am very pleased with the performance. My devices connect and have wonderful speed. I decided to do some speed benchmarking using speedtest.net. I ran 15 tests on wifi, wired connection through the router, and wired directly into the modem. I dropped any outliers and averages the ping, down speed, and up speed for each connection type. The ping varied with connection type, which is to be expected as devices are added in between your computer and the destination. Plugged directly into the modem, ping averaged 9ms, plugged into the router ping averaged 9.5ms, and connected over wifi ping averaged 10.14ms. Down speeds were very close for both the modem and wired router connections at 20.5mbps and 20.3mbps respectively. Wireless lagged a bit behind at 17.4mbps. Up speeds were all essentially thelagme at 4.3mbps across the board.

I also used a neat tool called heatmapper to measure wireless signal throughout my house. I walked around the house with my laptop and generated the following map. The arrow in the bottom left indicated the location of the WNR2000. As the color gets yellower it indicates decreased signal strength. As you can see I get great signal strength with this router throughout my home. While our house isn't very big, I am sure this router would offer complete ouverage to houses much larger than ours.

Quirks

T/is router has exhibited a very strange behavior which is mildly annoying but not a total deal breaker. Connecting with my 2 Windows 7 devices (a laptop and a desktop) works perfectly and IP addresses are acquired very quickly. However any other device that we have connected to the router has had serious issues. This includes a Roku, chromebook, Droid 2, and iPhone 4. The router will often to not issue IP addresses to these devices and they are unable to fully connect to the network.

I have discovered a mostly not very good workaround for this. Go into the router's settings setting by typing the IP address of the router (192. 168.1.1 by default) and enter the admin user name and password (username: "admin" password: "password" by default). Then click on "LAN settings" on the left side. There is an option to change the "RIP" settings at the bottom of the top box. If you change this value (say from RIP_1 to RIP_2B or vice versa) and apply these settings, the problem will be resolved temporarily and you can connect all your devices. However after a day (probably whenever the DHCP lease ends) the device will lose its connection and you will have to alter the RIP setting again to reconnect your devices.

Personally I don't know what RIP is or what changing this value does, all I know it that it temporarily solves the problem. It may just be that changing router settings in general is the solution, I am not sure. I have tried setting static IP addresses for my devices and the issue is not permanently resolved, even by this.

Conclusion

Overall I am satisfied with the performance of the Netgear WNR2000, despite the quirky error I experience. If you will primarily using windows devices, this router offers excellent performance at a decent price, and I would highly recommend it.

Who is Tim Cook? - The Man Who Will Replace Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple Inc. (AAPL)

2011-08-24T19:51:00.000-07:00

Tim Cook, newly appointed CEO of Apple Inc. (AAPL)

Although it comes as no shock given Steve Jobs' recent history of health problems, it is certainly HUGE news that he has decided to resign as CEO of Apple Inc (AAPL). Since his return to the company in 1996 he has transformed the company from a struggling "has been" to the leader of the tech parade. For years Apple seems to make hit products and everyone else plays catch up. Tim Cook, current COO of Apple, has been named Job's successor. Who is Tim Cook, how will Apple fare under his leadership, and can he effectively fill the shoes of Steve Job, who for much of the past 35 years has been one of the most influential characters in the tech industry?

First and foremost, credit must be given to Tim Cook for a long and successful career in the industry. He has worked for big name companies such as IBM and Compaq, and since January 2007 has played a major role in Apple's booming profitability as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the company.

So what is a COO and what unique skills has Tim Cook demonstrated as he has filled this role for Apple? The duties of a COO differ from company to company and the COO often plays a complementary role to the CEO, often having strengths in areas where the CEO has weaknesses. However, the COO is generally in charge of overseeing efficiency in production and distribution of products in services. This duty is more specifically called "Supply Chain Management." Tim Cook is well known for a being a master of cost cutting and efficiency in his role at Apple. During his time as COO Cook has demonstrated a remarkable ability to limit inventories and thus cutting enormous costs for the company. In the business world, allowing excess inventories to sit on the shelves or in warehouses is a huge strain on the bottom line, as resources that go towards maintaining inventories can be much better spent in other profitable endeavors. This is especially true in the tech industry as the rapid pace of innovation quickly makes products obsolete, and inventories "spoil" on shelves like rotting dairy. Tim Cook is also heralded as orchestrating the secrecy behind any launch of a new Apple product. Early news leaking about upcoming products seriously erodes sales of current products, and by tightly managing this information, additional earnings can be squeezed out of previous generation products.

Tim Cook has proven himself as a great businessman, slashing costs and squeezing additional profits out of current products. However, Steve Jobs has always brought a sort of magic to his position as CEO. Jobs is well known for being a very hands on executive, with a keen design vision, and ability to motivate employees to produce "miraculous" devices that are ahead of their times in terms of both industrial design and functionality. Whether Cook can perform miracles along these lines is yet to be seen. It is hard to overstate the importance of the company's ability to be the first to the market with innovative and desirable products and the role this has played in propelling Apple to its dominant market position. Steve Jobs was wise to appoint Cook to the position of COO, a move that has doubtless been key to Apple's success. However without someone like Jobs to fire up the fan base and generate that competitive advantage, Cook will be hard pressed to generate the same remarkable success with just supply chain optimization alone. To ensure success Tim Cook will need to find a wizard of design with an engaging personality to add to the executive ranks to fill the void, otherwise Apple will slowly change its market leading skyward trajectory as the pipeline of Jobs' inspired designs dry up.

For more information on Tim Cook, his history with Apple Inc, commentary on his ability to lead the computer going forward, and a great infographic on Apple's turn to inventory efficiency and profitability, check out CNN Money's 2008 Definitive Article on Tim Cook.

Smartphone 102 - The 5 Most Important Smartphone Specs

2011-08-18T20:13:00.000-07:00

This is a followup to my previous post which was pretty dense. Here is a simplified guide to what to look for in a new smartphone, broken down into the 5 most important specifications.

Screen Resolution - Having a good screen resolution is important for a nice looking experience. A low resolution screen is one of the easiest cell phone deficiency to notice. You need a resolution of at least 800 x 480 (WVGA) to have a good clear smartphone experience. High end smartphones with higher resolutions like 960 x 540 (qHD) are just that much more beautiful. Think of WVGA as the 720p of the phone space and qHD as the 1080p or the smartphone world. Anything lower and you are just "standard definition." And nobody wants that.
Screen Size - There have been a lot of low end phones coming out with screens in the 3.2 inch range. 3.2 Inches is too small to take advantage of a smartphone's capabilities! Even 3.5 inches or 3.7 inches is pushing it in terms of usability when it comes to web browsing and general text reading. These days you want a minimum screen size of at least 4 inches. And if having a small phone isn't important to you a 4.3 inch or larger is an excellent choice.
Battery Life - This is a difficult one to define because your battery mileage will vary depending on how you use your phone. You can find info for battery life while using cellular data, wifi data, and just talking. Smartphone have notoriously bad battery life, but some are much worse than others. Look for a minimum of 4 hours on cellular data, 6 hours on wifi, and 6 hours of talk time. Even with these numbers you may find your phone needing a charge by the end of the day, but you should be able to manage. The best phones get 5+ hours on cellular data, 8+ hours on wifi, and 8+ hours of talk time. A good place to fine battery life numbers are the charts you can find inside any smartphone review on Anandtech.
Processor Speed - This spec is pretty simple. You need at least a 1 Ghz processor. Less than that and things will get sluggish on your phone. If you are looking for something with a little more zip you can find phones with 1.2 Ghz dual core processors.
Data Speed - Only two things you need to know here: 3G and 4G. 3G speed is good but 4G is much better. While the difference between 2G and 3G was big, like the difference between dial up and DSL, the difference between 3G and 4G is harder to gauge, given that there is so much variance in speed depending on location and network. Depending on what service you have 4G will be 2 to 5 times faster than 3G.

For a more in depth discussion of cell phone specs, check out my Smartphone 101 post.

Smartphone 101

2011-07-08T10:37:00.000-07:00

The smartphone industry is exciting and fast paced, so much so that it can be hard to keep up with the latest and greatest information so you can make an informed decision when purchasing a phone. It has become a hobby of mine to keep up to date on the latest phone technology and I enjoy advising my friends and family on their phone purchases (probably a lot more than they would care for me to advise them). I am often asked the question "So where do you go to learn all this stuff?" This is a difficult question as there really isn't a beginners guide to being a cellphone geek. So this is what I am creating in this post, Smartphone 101.

What is a Smartphone?
Without boring you with the history, there are basically two types of modern cell phones: Feature Phones and Smartphones. Feature phones have a basic feature set covering calling, texting, and a low resolution camera. Some add features such as music players or slide out qwerty keyboards, but as a general rule a feature phone is limited in what it can do and limited on its ability to extend its functionality. On the other hand a smart phone is like a mixture of the now archaic PDA and a cell phone. They are basically a pocket computer. The standard feature set for most modern smartphones includes a large touchscreen display, installable applications, 5+ megapixel camera, email, web browsing, 3G or 4G data (more on this later), media player capabilities, and the ability to install additional apps. All of this in addition to the basic phone functionality which seems to have become more of an afterthought these days.

What to look for in a Phone?
I will now give a rundown of the different hardware elements of smartphones and give a summary of what is considered high end and what is passable.

Screen: The most important screen specifications can be divided into 3 catagories: Size, resolution, and screen type.

Size - Most phones have a screen size that falls somewhere in the range of 3.5" (iPhone 4) to 4.5" (Samsung Infuse). This size is measured diagonally from one corner to the opposite corner. Some phone have smaller screens but I really would not recommend them. My wife has an iPhone and it is about as small of a screen as I could imagine having a pleasant web browsing experience with. 4" (Motorolla Atrix, Samsung Galaxy S, Droid 3) is generally considered the sweet spot. Not too big to be bulky in your pocket and not so small that typing and browsing on the touchscreen is difficult. If you don't mind a little extra bulk 4.3" in my opinoin is the way to go (HTC Evo, Thunderbolt, Inspire, Motorola Droid X). Screens smaller than 4" seem to be going out of style and can mostly now be found on lower end phones, phones with slide out keyboards, and the iPhone. Summary: High End - 4.3+" Mid Range- 4" Low-End - 3.7" or less
Resolution - This is one area where there is not a lot of variance. Screen resolution measures the number of pixels the screen has, generally shown as height x width. Generally the more pixels the better as with more pixels your images and text will be sharper and more can fit on your screen. The standard seems to be the WVGA resolution which is 800 x 480 px. Some new high end phones have a qHD resolution which is 960 x 540 px. A few manufacturers use special resolutions such as FWVGA (854 x 480) on certain Motorolla phones, or Apple's special retina display with a resolution of 960 x 640. One additional factor that may matter to some is pixel density which effects the sharpness of your image. It is basically a ratio of how many pixels per square inch. The magic behind Apple's Retina display is that the pixel density is very high, given that the screen is only 3.5" and the resolution (960 x 640) is pretty much the highest resolution you can find on a phone. The makes for a very high pixel density, so high that Apple claims the individual pixels are packed so tight that the are indistinguishable with the naked eye. Summary: High End - qHD 960x540 px, Mid Range - WVGA 800x480 px. I do not recommend any phone with a resolution lower than WVGA.
Screen Type - This is where things get a bit more complicated so I won't go too in depth here. Just know that different phones have different screen types such as Samsung's Super AMOLED Plus which is known for very vivid colors and high contrast. I highly recommend Samsung's displays, they just look awesome. Other high end screen types include Super LCD and IPS. Summary: Super AMOLED is awesome.

Camera: Camera quality is a category which is difficult to gauge by just the spec sheet. For example the iPhone has only a 5 megapixel camera, but it is generally considered to take better pictures than many 8 megapixel cameras on other high end phones due to higher quality optical sensors and software. If you care a lot about having a good camera on your phone it may be worth it to read some reviews on different phones as there is a lot of variance in quality among many phones with the same camera resolution. However a few features to look for are LED flash, 5+ megapixels, and a front facing camera for video calling. Summary: High End - Dual LED Flash, 8 Megapixels, Front facing VGA camera, Mid Range - Single LED Flash, 5 Megapixels, Low End - No Flash, Lower resolution (3.2 Megapixels is common)

Battery: Battery slife is also hard to tell from the spec sheet. Batteries are measured in mAh (milliampere hours) and the higher the number the more juice in the battery. One benefit of getting a phone with a larger screen is that the manufacturer has more room to fit a big battery in the phone with a lot of juice. However just because a phone has a larger battery does not necessarily mean that it will get longer battery life. A larger screen will use up more battery than a smaller screen, 4G data will use up your battery faster than 3G or wifi data, and older generation processors or ones with higher clock speeds will drain your battery faster than newer more efficient processors or ones at lower clock speeds. Anandtech has very good smartphone reviews that include a table showing battery performance for each phone they review, and is a good place to look to compare battery life of various phones. 4 hours (Droid X, Nexus S) is about average for battery life when browsing on 3G, while 5 hours is good(Atrix), and 6+ is very good (HTC Sensation and iPhone 4). Summary: High End- 6 hours, ~1900 mAh, Mid Range - 4 hours ~1500 mAh, Low - 3 hours ~1300 mAh

Data Speed - A phone's data speed is normally specified as 3G (3rd generation) or 4G (4th generation), although these specifications are not very specific. However it is true that across the board the mores Gs the better. Different cellular networks have different technologies they use to implement their 3G and 4G networks. While most 3G networks have similar speeds (.5-1.5mbps) despite their different technologies, there is huge variance is "4G" data speeds due to varying definitions of what is really 4G. Currently the fastest 4G is verizons LTE network which they are rolling out to more and more markets throughout 2011. I have seen reviews showing average speeds of 13mbps download speeds over Verizon's LTE network. That is pretty amazing. This may be due to the low traffic volume on this network due to the relatively new technology, so these speeds may slow down a bit as adoption increases. ATT and T-Mobile use HSPA+ for their 4G data, which has impressive theoretical bandwidth (up to 42mbps), but from what I have seen average about 2-4mbps in practice. Sprint's WiMax fairs a little better averaging around 4-6mbps. Summary: High End - 4G LTE, Mid Range - 4G WiMax or HSPA+, Low End- 3G

RAM - Ram is a pretty straightforward category. RAM is a measure of how much space the phone has to store information on what it is doing right now. With more RAM you can have more things going on without your phone slowing down as it transfers data from long term to short term storage. When it comes to RAM, the more the better. Some high end phones have 1GB of ram while it seems that 768MB is becoming the high end standard these days. The minimum for a relatively modern high end phone is 512MB and should be plenty for most people. Summary: High End - 768MB-1GB, Mid Range - 512MB, Low End - 256MB or Lower

Processor - The processor effects how fast your phone runs through menus and applications, as well as the smoothness of 3D graphics and video playback. Things can get kind of complicated when comparing processors across different manufacturers. There are basically 4 big players in the marketplace right now. Qualcomm (Snapdragon), Samsung (Hummingbird), Texas Instruments (OMAP), and nVidia (Tegra). It can be confusing because processors with the same clock speed can have a lot of variance in performance. For example the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8650 is a 1GHz processor paired with Adreno 200 graphics. The Samsung Hummingbird is also a 1GHz processor paired with SGX 540 Graphics but it generally performs much better than the Snapdragon 8650. However the Snapdragon 8655 is an updated processor paired with Adreno 205 graphics and performs just as good, if not better than the hummingbird processor at similar clock speeds. For more general comparability, all these processors are based on ARM's Cortex architecture. Most single core processors are based on the Cortex A8 architecture and will have comparable performance at the same clock speeds across manufacturers. The dual core processors based on the Cortex A9 architecture are more efficient, thus using less power, while performing faster. Summary: High - Cortex A9 based processors, nVidia Tegra 2, Snapdragon 8660, TI-OMAP 4, Samsung Exynos, Apple A5, Medium - Samsung Hummingbird, Snapdragon 8655, Apple A4, Snapdragon 8650, TI-OMAP 3, Low - Other

Other - Other features like wifi, which is pretty much 802.11n across the board, do not vary much from phone to phone so there isn't much to say about them.

That is the basic run down of what to look for in a phone these days. Let me know if there is any more information you would like to see. Thanks for reading!

MSS Draft Color Breakdown, What are the best colors in Mirrodin Besieged/Scars of Mirrodin Draft?

2011-04-05T16:12:00.000-07:00

Today I did a little research on Gatherer to find which colors in the current Besieged/Scars/Scars look the best. For this analysis I only looked at commons and uncommons given you aren't going to see many rares or mythics beyond the first pick.

I find the two most important things in limited to be:
1. Creatures - Preferably ones that are bigger that your opponents creatures.
2. Removal Spells - Preferably ones that kill big creatures.

Now there are certainly differing opinions on other things that matter, such as card advantage creating card and evasion creatures with flying as strategies but I am trying to keep it pretty simple for this analysis and just see which colors are going to get you there by killing your opponents creatures and then beating them with big dumb fat guys. If your creatures are big enough then you can gain card advantage with profitable blocking and forcing them to chump block, and you don't need evasion if you kill all their dudes first.

First lets take a look at removal. Specifically creature removal, which in this format also includes artifact removal given the large amount of artifact creatures. Here is the breakdown by color and rarity.

Uncommon Removal:
Red: 3 (Arc Trail, Oxidda Scrapmelter, Into the Core)
White: 3 (Leonin Relic-Warder, Choking Fumes, Dispense Justice)
Blue: 2 (Volition Reins, Corrupted Conscience)
Black: 3 (Skinrender, Go for the Throat, Flesh Allergy)
Green: 2 (Virridian Corrupter, Slice in Twain)

Common Removal:

Red: 5 (Burn The impure, Galvanic Blast, Shatter, Blisterstick Shaman, Turn to Slag)

White: 2 (Divine Offering, Revoke Existence, Arrest)

Blue: 4 (Bonds of Quicksilver, Quicksilver Geyser, Disperse, Steel Sabotage)

Black: 5 (Instill Infection, Grasp of Darkness, Spread the Sickness, Fumespitter, Virulent Wound)

Green: 2 (Silvok Replica, Pistus Strike)

Looking at these numbers, clearly Red and Black and the greatest quantity of removal spells, as well as the most effective ones. Most of the white and green removal will only target artifacts and most of blue will only return to hand. Clearly if you are employing the strategy I outlined above, it isn't going to work without playing at least one of these two colors, red and black. Now lets move on to the big creatures side of things.

I analyzed the creatures in the format by sorting them by casting cost and then looking at their power and toughness. In general in the format 1/1 is average for a 1 casting cost dude, 2/1 or 1/2 is pretty standard for a 2-drop, 2/2 is standard fare for 3, 3/3 is the normal for 4, and 4/3 or 3/4 is pretty standard for 5. Lets see what colors give us creatures above and beyond these averages.

As far as one drops go, you don't really want to play any of them aside from the occasional fume spitter, but if you must, Azuri's Archers is the biggest guy here and it is a 1/2 for 1 green.

At 2 mana 2/2 is the best you will find on a guy. Green gives you carapace forger, red has Goblin Wardriver, and white has several, Leonin Skyhunter, Leonin Relic-Warder, and Auriok Edgewright. Other honorable mentions are the 1/4 blu Plated seastrider and the 3/1 white accorder paladin. Take note that 2 out of the 4 white cards in this slot are uncommon so you won't be seeing a ton of them.

In the 3 mana the biggest creature is the Black 3/3 flying Necrogen Scudder which is pretty sweet. The only other creatures that seem to be above the curve here are Koth's Courier, a red 2/3, and Glissa's Courier a green 2/3. These two cards usually go super later even though they pretty much can battle with every 1,2, or 3 drop and some 4 drops without dying which is pretty sweet. White has a couple honorable mentions here with some good blockers in the 1/4 priests of Norn, and the 1/5 Loxodon Wayfarer.

For 4 mana, the only two creatures I would call ahead of the curve would be the green 3/4 Tangle Mantis, and the Red 4/3 Ogre Resister, Both of which you can usually pick up pretty late. Even 3/3's for 4 in the current format are not super common, with red having 2, black and white each having one, and several colorless. If you can find a Dross Ripper or a Peace/Pierce Strider you can probably fill out this slot with some good playables no matter what color you are. green also has the venerable 2/4 infect blightwidow.

5 mana will get you Kuldotha Ringleader, red 4/4, Melira's Keepers, green 4/4, and bellowing tanglewurm, another green 4/4. There are also a couple 3/3 flyers here with the white razor hippogriff and the blue sky eel school. the red 5/3 molderbeast is also a consideration here for a big dude.

At 6 mana Alpha Tyrannex is king at 6/5. Green also gives you the very sweet Fangren marauder at 5/5 with an excellent lifegain ability. The red 5/4 Flameborn Hellion is another big dude in this slot.

Notice a pattern? Green green green, which is not super surprising given green is all about big dumb creatures. There are also a pretty good number of good red creatures as well. White has a few good defensive creatures at the low end and black and blue are pretty outclassed here.

Conclusion:
I would say that if you see the cards coming your way, there is no reason not to play red/green. It is going to be sweet, even without any bomb rares. Also if you pick up a veridian emissary and a horizon spellbomb you can throw in a swamp and splash for a instill infection, spread the sickness, or go for the throat. Next time I draft I will try out this strategy and I will tell you how it goes.

Black/Red Card Advantage Control Magic the Gathering Deck w/ Sarkhan, the Mad

2011-03-31T06:59:00.000-07:00

Recently I have been considering the viability of a red/black control or midrange deck that focuses on card advantage. There are a lot of two for one type cards in these colors and perhaps putting together the right mix of them could be an effective strategy. I start my analysis of this potential archetype by considering which cards in these colors in the current standard format would be good for this deck at different casting costs.

1 Mana: The main things available here are hand disruption

Inquisition of Kozilek - This card is getting a lot of hype right now and for good reason. Getting rid of a deck's two-drop will really slow down pretty much any deck in the format. There are a lot of good targets for this card: Stoneforge Mystic, Squadron Hawk, Sword of Feast and Famine, Fauna Shaman, Green Sun's Zenith, Lotus Cobra, some key kuldotha red card, etc.
Duress - Against some decks this card will be even better that Inquisition of Kozilek. This can take out their Jace, Gideon, or whatever other card they have in their opening hand that you will have trouble with removing or playing around later on.
Forked Bolt - Against the right deck this can be a two-for-one, but the sorcery aspect is kind of lame
Lightning Bolt - This is pretty much a given in any deck playing red

2 Mana:

Vampire Hexmage - The main purpose of this card would be to kill planeswalkers, but it is also pretty effective against aggro decks as it can kill most early threats without dying itself. This card can also be good against proliferate effects as you can remove all the counters from tumble magnet so they cannot proliferate anymore.
Sign in Blood - This is a fairly efficient card drawing card, that is even better than usual if you end up playing against any infect decks. It can even be used as a finisher if needed.
Arc Trail - Like forked bolt, this can be an effect two for one against many decks, but has the same sorcery downside. Specifically Arc Trail can take out a Stoneforge Mystic and a squadron hawk in one go (assuming neither one is equipped).
Necropede/Perilous Myr - These cards are fairly similar in function during early combat. They can trade in combat and usually kill another creature, making attacking unprofitable for your aggressive opponent. Also if they are burned away to make you open for attack, you still get to kill one of their creatures. The colorless aspect is good due to protection from black or from red which are somewhat prevalent with Kor Firewalker, Sword of Feast and Famine, Phyrexian Crusader, and Mirran Crusader.
Mortarpod - I keep thinking this card looks terrible every time I read it but whenever I see it played it seems pretty sweet. It can serve as a chump blocker that can then kill another of their creatures. It can also be used as a sacrifice outlet for your Abyssal Persecutor.
Marsh Casualties - Most times I have played this card it has been a blowout, but it is more of a sideboard card because against a lot of decks it will be worthless.
Go for the Throat/Doom Blade - It is kind of hard to say which of these is better because they are practically the same and are both solid spot removal spells. In this deck Go for the Throat is going to be better as it will kill your Abyssal Persecutor if you need it to.
Pyroclasm - This kills more stuff than an unkicked marsh casualties but it will kill all of your three drops. A second term pyroclasm will be good against some aggro decks.

3 Mana: The three mana spot is where most of your card advantage cards come in.

Gatekeeper of Malakir - While technically a two-drop, this is gonna be a three in pretty much every situation. If your opponent plays any creatures, this card is going to a sweet two for one. It also has the advantage of being able to kill creatures with protection from black as the sacrifice effect targets the player and not the creature.
Phyrexian Rager - Basically an Elvish Visionary with a bigger body and a higher casting cost. This makes him decent in combat as well as replacing himself which makes him pretty good in terms of card advantage.
Liliana's Specter - Kind of like the Phyrexian Rager. I can't decide whether drawing a card is better or worse than having your opponent discard a card. The flying is relevant as it can trade with squadron hawk and inkmoth nexus, although the spectrer is easier to kill than the rager as it only has one toughness. Also the specter doesn't cost you a life. It is kind of a toss-up between these two.
Mind Rot - Blightning was a huge card in standard during Alara block, mostly because you could cascade into it with a Bloodbraid Elf. Mind rot is pretty much a Blightning with an easier casting cost and no damage. It is a two for oe still and will be pretty good against a lot of decks.
Manic Vandal - I am not too sure about this card. It is certainly not worth maindecking. It is good for taking out your opponents Sword of Feast and Famine, but other than that it has a pretty limited use. It might be good against tumble magnet.
Staggershock - Another card along the lines of forked bolt and arc trail, although perhaps a little better considering the instant speed. The casting cost is a little high.
Mimic Vat - I have never played with or against this card so I don't really know whether or not it is good. In connection with rager/spectre it can be pretty good.
Sadistic Sacrament - I am not a huge fan of this card as it does nothing to advance your board presence but it can be good against certain decks that have few answers to your deck.

4 Mana:

Abyssal Persecutor - This card is a beating but with a major downside that you can't win the game while it is in play. I think we can have enough ways to kill it in our deck that it shouldn't be too much of a liability.
Bonehoard - This card can be a pretty sweet creature if your opponent is playing enough creatures, and you draw enough removal. I don't think this deck will play enough creatures to make this good even if your opponents aren't playing a creature based strategy.
Memoricide - See Sadistic Sacrament
Dark Tutelage - The extra card draw could be pretty sweet out of the board against infect.

5 Mana:

Sarkhan, the Mad - This planeswalker has some great synergy with other elements of our deck. All of our three drops are basically Gray Ogres after they resolve so it is not much of a loss to sacrifice them for a dragon. Sarkhan also offers us another way to kill our persecutor. The card drawing might be good in this deck as well.
Hoarding Dragon - This card is a possibility but probably doesn't fit in this deck. It can grab an artifact 6 drop and it is a dragon so it offers a bit of synergy with Sarkhan.
Precursor Golem - A lot of power for 5 mana. Good Synergy with Sarkhan.

6 Mana:

Wurmcoil Engine - 6/6 Lifelink/Deathtouch is sweet. Replacing itself with two more creatures when it dies is sweet. This card has some good card advantage potential.
Steel Hellkite - Steel Hellkite doesn't see any play in standard but I think it could be pretty good. A one sided ratchet bomb every time it hits is pretty legit.
Grave Titan - This guy can make lots of little dudes to sacrifice to Mortarpod or Sarkhan
Inferno Titan - This guy can kill lots of little dudes every turn.

Lands: It doesn't look like we are playing very much red so aside from dual lands we probably want all swamps

Lavaclaw Reaches
Dragonskull Summit
Blackcleave Cliffs
Tectonic Edge - I am not sure about this one due to some intense mana requirements(gatekeeper, hexmage, sign in blood)

That is all the cards I can think of at the moment for this archetype. Here is a tentative list. I will post an update once I have a chance to do some testing.

4 - Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 - Liliana's Specter
3 - Abyssal Persecutor
2 - Steel Hellkite

3 - Sarkhan, the Mad

4 - Mind Rot
4 - Inquisition of Kozilek
4 - Go for the Throat
4 - Lightning Bolt
4 - Sign in Blood

4 - Blackcleave Cliffs
4 - Dragonskull Summit
4 - Lavaclaw Reaches
12 - Swamp

Sideboard:
4 - Phyrexian Rager
4 - Pyroclasm
2 - Wurmcoil Engine

3 - Duress
2 - Memoricide

This deck certainly needs some testing and tweaking. Comment if you have any suggestions, thanks.

Mono Black Infect, Magic, the Gathering Deck Tournament Report

2011-03-09T21:55:00.000-08:00

From the spoils of my recent booster box purchase, comes forth a monoblack infect deck which I took to a local tournament tonight. Here is the report:

I ran my mono black infect deck at a standard tournament tonight and went 3-0. It was only a 10 person tournament so it wasn't huge, but it was nice to win as it is my first tournament since shadowmoor. Here is my list:

CREATURES:
2x plague stinger
4x necropede
4x phyrexian crusader
4x phyrexian vatmother

SPELLS:
4x Vampire Bite
4x Demonic Appetite
4x Virulent Swipe
4x Grasp of Darkness
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
3x Go for the Throat
1x Doom Blade

LANDS:
4x Inkmoth Nexus
18x Swamp

SIDEBOARD:
3x Marsh Casualties
4x Vampire Hexmage
4x Virulent Wound
2x Duress
2x Mind Sludge

FIRST MATCH 2-1 vs Some sort of homebrew Venser, Elspeth, Proliferate deck with Sun Titan
Game 1: He contagion clasped my crusader and proceeded to beat me down with Elspeth tokens while he used mystifying maze to shut down my inkmoth nexus

+4 Virulent Wound
+4 Vampire Hexmage
+3 Marsh Casualties
+2 Duress
-4 Grasp of Darkness
-4 Virulent Swipe
-4 Necropede
-1 Demonic Appetite

Game 2:
He got kind of mana screwed this game. Once he got out a venser I killed it with a hexmage, Go for the throat took out a sun titan, and pumped Inkmoth Nexus went in for the kill.

Game 3:
More of the same except he was manaflooded a bit instead of manascrewed. Inquisition took out a mana leak from his opening hand

SECOND MATCH: 2-0 vs Pyromancer Ascension

Game 1: I didn't get to see a ton of his deck this game. I played a second turn plague stinger and third turn phyrexian crusader which he bounced several times with into the roil. After several turns of this he tapped out for Galvanoth at which time I went in for the kill with some pumped inkmoth nexus. I held off on activating them all game because I assumed he had lightning bolts in his hand which turned out to be the case when I played an Inquisition of Kozilek on the final turn to take his into the roil so he couldn't bounce anything.

Game 2: More of the same, Inquisition of Kozilek to take out a Mana Leak and I proceeded to beatdown with crusader. His hand got pretty full of some preordains and other draw magic. I played a Vatmother which got countered, next turn he tapped out for a galvonoth. I then Mind sludged him for 5 (his whole hand) and proceeded to kill him.

THIRD MATCH 2-1 vs Quest WW

Game 1: I got dominated this game. I was on the draw and mulliganed to 6. First turn Quest for the Holy Relic, second turn ornothopter, glint hawk, ornithopter. 3rd turn he sacked his quest for an argentum armor but accidently equipped it to an ornithopter with summoning sickness (which didn't end of mattering). I played a crusader which was killed with argentum armor after he played a few squadron hawks, and i was dead in a couple turns.

Game 2: I mulligan to 6 on the play. I play a turn 2 necropede, which he follows up with a stoneforge mystic for argengtum armor. Turn 3 I hit him for 4 with a pumped Inkmoth nexus and trade the necropede with his mystic. He then plays another mystic and fetches another argentum armor. I beat him down with a crusader and inkmoth nexus and take the win.

Game 3. I keep 7 on the draw. He plays a land and I play Inquisition of Kozilek and remove a Mirran Crusader and he shows that he doesn't have anymore lands, which ends up slowing him down a bit. I get 3 inkmoth nexus out this game which he blocks with a trio of ornithopters, but they eventually get -1,-1'd to death. The inkmoths eventually overwhelm him.

It was a fun night but I don't know if it shows that my deck is particularly strong. My first matchup was the first time my opponent had played his deck, second matchup was just tilted in my favor, and third matchup was against a relatively new player who made a few mistakes. I think the Quest WW deck was the only tier 1 deck I played against. I also only played one vatmother the whole tournament and it was countered. The MVPs I would say were crusader, inquisition of kozilek, mind sludge, inkmoth nexus, and demonic appetite/vampire bite. Demonic appetite + inkmoth nexus = sorcery speed giant growth for black which is pretty sweet. I would play black/green infect but the mana base just is not there with the current format, although with birds of paradise and verdant catacombs it might be possible. I was surprised I did as well as I did considering I haven't gotten any Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon or hand of the praetors yet. honestly I am not sure whether these are needed as I did just fine without them, or even vatmothers for that matter. Any comments on how to improve my deck?

The Expected Value of a Magic: the Gathering Booster Box

2011-02-26T16:59:00.000-08:00

Magic: the Background Information

Magic: the Gathering is a trading card game, created by Wizards of the Coast, that I have been playing off and on since I was about 12. The game generally involves two players, each whom create a custom deck of 60 or more cards, who dual using creatures, spells, and artifacts, to inflict 20 points of damage to the other player. I have really enjoyed playing this game over the years, not only casually, but competitively in sanctioned tournaments. These tournaments often attract large crowds and fierce competition due to cash prizes for the winners. The game involves a lot of strategy and forethought, as well as a little luck, in both the construction of decks and during play.

Wizards of the Coast release new sets of cards approximately 4 times per year. The most popular tournament format, called Type-2 Standard, requires players to use only cards that have been released in the last 4 to 8 sets, depending on the time of year. While sanctioning tournaments of this type ensures that Wizards has a steady flow of income due to competitive players needing to constantly refresh their decks to be tournament legal, it also keeps the game dynamic and fresh.

The most common way to purchase magic cards is to buy what is called a booster pack. A booster pack generally contains 11 common cards, 3 uncommon cards, and 1 rare card, however one in approximately 8 packs will contain a "mythic rare" in instead of a rare. Due to the structure of card rarity, and demand for certain cards due to their usefulness in tournaments, some mythic rare and rare cards can become quite valuable. At the moment the most expensive standard legal card at the moment is a plainswalker card called Jace, the Mind Sculptor, which is currently selling for around $95. That is a lot of money for a piece of cardstock!

Booster packs come in boxes of 36 packs, that generally retail for around $100. This past week I decided to determine the expected resell value if I purchased a booster box, unwrapped all the cards, and sold them on ebay. Here is what I found.

Expected Value of a Booster Box
*warning, this section contains math*

The website magic.tcgplayer.com aggregates prices for cards from various online retailers and an compiles a price guide for each set of cards. Doing some statistical analysis I set out to find which set offers the highest returns on a booster box. I used the following math to calculate the expected resell value of a box of each set.

1. Take the average price of all mythic rares in the set by adding the price of each card and then dividing by the number of cards.
2. Calculate how many mythic rares will come in a box. One in eight packs contain a mythic rare so 36/8=4.5 mythic rares per box.
3. Multiply the number in step 1 times step 2 to find the expected value of all mythic rares in the box.
4. Repeat steps one through 3 for rares, uncommons, and commons. There will be on average 36-4.5=31.5 rares per box, 3*36=108 uncommons per box, and 11*36=396 commons.
5. Add the expected value for each card type from step 3 to find the expected value of the box as a whole.

The Results

Here are the expected values that I calculated for each set.

Mirrodin Besieged - $137.34

Scars of Mirrodin - $84.67

Magic 2011 - $98.16

Rise of the Eldrazi - $82.13

Worldwake - $131.77

Zendikar - $117.03

At this time I haven't quite figured out the distributions and variances for these values, but on average, this is the value of cards contained in a box of these sets. Fortunately(or unfortunately in some cases) these prices do not necessarily reflect on the price of the unopened box. For instance, on amazon you can find a box of Zendikar for $99.95, Worldwake for $239.95 (!!!??!!!), Rise of the Eldrazi for $99.99, Magic 2011 for $109.49, Scars of Mirrodin for $91.90, and Mirrodin Besieged for $90.95. From these number, it looks like Mirrodin Besieged is the one to buy. And that's what I did.

An Experiment

On Friday I received a box of Mirrodin Besieged from amazon.com, which cost me $96.19 including shipping. I had a wonderful time unwrapping pack after pack, especially when I found 2 Sword of Feast and Famine(one of which was foil), and a Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas. In all I ended up with at least one copy of 9 of the top 10 most expensive cards from the set. Here is a rundown:

$46.99 1x Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
$56.99 2x Sword of Feast and Famine (one of them foil)
$13.49 1x Thrun, the Last Troll
$10.22 1x Inkmoth Nexus
$9.75   1x Blightsteel Colossus
$6.95   1x Hero of Oxid Ridge
$6.00   1x Green Sun's Zenith
$8.50   1x Phyrexian Crusader (Foil)
$9.75   2x Black Sun's Zenith
$3.00   1x Contested War Zone
$2.89   1x Phyrexian Revoker
$4.14   3x Go for the Throat
$1.00   1x Phyrexian Vatmother

$179.67 Total

This is the total only counting cards with value $1 or greater, meaning this does not include any commons, most uncommons, and some rares. Just counting these most expensive cards, this constitutes a profit of $83.48. I will admit that I got really lucky with this box, and this only constitutes one datapoint, but I am very pleased with the outcome. I plan on selling the most expensive cards that I don't want to use to a point where I can break even, and keep all the rest. Free cards!

Some Caveats

There are a few caveats that I would like to add regarding this analysis.

The variance in these examples is probably super high, particularly in Worldwake and Mirrodin Besieged, due to Jace and Tezzeret being so expensive. I hope to figure out the probability of at least breaking even, given the expected value of the box and the cost to purchase.
It is not possible to sell all cards. No matter how cheap you make some cards, still nobody is going to want them. This is probably true in general for most cards under $.40
If you go the ebay route, seller fees and shipping costs will eat away at your payout. I am risk averse and only sell my cards at a fixed price, which costs $.50 plus 12% of the purchase price. In the future I will add in transaction costs to the break even function.

Roku XD Review

2011-02-13T09:51:00.000-08:00

Living as starving students, my wife and I have forgone some of the entertainment luxuries of life thus far. We do have a 24" CRT TV (well, now we technically have 3), a dvd player, bunny ears, and a digital converter box. Until last weekend this was our home theater system. This means no cable, satellite, blu-ray, 1080p, 720p, video gaming, internet (although we do have a benevolently ignorant neighbor that doesn't use encryption on their wireless network), etc. Yes, be jealous.

After straining to watch Groundhog Day on Netflix on demand on my small laptop screen with super quiet speakers and a tenuously ethical internet connection, we decided we needed a bit of an update to our entertainment options. We tried to find a cord to go from my laptop to the TV, but we failed to find anything that goes from VGA to s-video or component video. We considered some sort of VGA to DVI to HDMI to something kind of conversion but this was kind of getting out of hand. We did manage to find a 3.5mm headphone jack to component audio, but watching on the laptop while hooked to the tv for audio was not our favorite viewing experience.

I started looking into some other options for getting Netflix on demand on our TV. There are various ways to do this, including but not limited to, HTPCs, Xbox 360, PS3, Apple TV, Google TV, and Roku. Given budget constaints, spousal constraints (meaning no videogames), and local availability at 8:45pm on a Friday night, we narrowed our choices down to the Roku XD at Radioshack in Spanish Fork.

Set Up:

From a hardware standpoint, setup could not have been easier. It comes with an RCA cable that you hook to the back of the device and to your TV, and a power plug goes into the wall. That's it. There is also an output for an HDMI cable though the cable is not included.

The Roku will then power up and it will display a code for you to enter on their website. You must make an account on roku.com and then enter the code from your television screen to activate your device. A similar process is done for each channel you would like to add. Select the channel (such as Netflix, Hulu, etc) and a code will come up that you will have to enter on the respective website of that service while you are logged onto their website.

The remote is small and simple and works great.

Channels:

I was surprised by the quantity of channels available for Roku. Here are a few of my favorites.

Pandora-

I have blogged about my love for Pandora in the past and the love just keep growing as I gain access to it on more and more devices. After linking your account online, you can browse through and listen to your previously created channels as well as create new ones.

Ratatat album art screensaver!

Also while using the Pandora channel, your screensaver switches from the default Roku one, to whatever the album art is from the song you are listening to, which I think is pretty cool.

Netflix-

This is the service we bought Roku for in the first place and we were not disappointed. Netflix watch instantly service has a decent selection of movies and tv shows and the quality is great. They give you a month free as a free trial, which we have been enjoying for a few weeks now. The UI for their Roku channel isn't quite as snappy as some of the other channels, but it works for what it needs to do.

twit.tv-

twit.tv is one of my favorite podcast providers. Leo Laporte, formerly of techtv, has put together a huge lineup of tech shows on various topics, from android to iPad. The twit.tv channel gives you access to all the video podcasts, as well as the live tv stream. There is a special section that shows the newest content so you can keep up to date on the latest tech news.

Amazon Video on Demand -

As always, amazon delivers a great product with their video on demand service. When you link your amazon.com account with your Roku box, you are automatically awarded a $5 credit to be used for on demand video. Amazon offers both digital rentals and downloads of a huge selection of movies and TV shows. If we have thought of anything that we wanted to watch that wasn't on netflix, we have found it on amazon. We used our credit as well as another one we got from buying textbooks, on The Social Network, Freakonomics, and Juno, and each was a pleasant viewing experience. TV show rentals start at $.99 per episode, and movie rentals start at $1.99. I say this is a pretty good alternative to redbox.

Quality:

I was pleasantly surprised by the performance picture quality. Even with our spotty borrowed wifi connection, 90% of the time videos play without a sputter, and the image quality is great. I was expecting a youtube type low resolution experience but i was pleasantly surprised with even on our slow connection, the picture looked smooth and crystal clear. I was impressed by the strength of the wireless antenna of the Roku XD, because of poor performance by both of our laptops on the neighbors wifi network. We have never had a connectivity issue with our Roku. Of course, our television is no high definition, so I cannot speak for performance with high definition video, but for our needs the video quality couldn't be better.

Pricing and Conclusions:

There are three varieties of Roku available. The Roku HD ($59.99), Roku XD ($79.99), and the Roku XDS ($99.99). The HD gives you 720p video, the XD adds 1080p video and an upgraded wireless-n antenna, and the XDS comes with dual band wireless, component video, and the ability to play video from a USB drive.

If you are looking for a cheap and easy way to get your favorite internet content onto your TV, I wholeheartedly recommend the Roku XD. The quality is great, the UI is snappy, and it does just what we need it to do.

Sleigh Bells, LCD Soundsystem, and Arcade Fire. Three Albums I Have Enjoyed Lately.

2011-01-19T19:02:00.000-08:00

Treats by Sleigh Bells
I was tipped off to this album by Bob Boilen's of NPR's "All Songs Considered." It was featured as number 7 in his Top 9 Albums of 2010. I have followed "All Songs Considered" off and on for a few years now and I generally enjoy Boilen's recommendations and this album was no exception. Sleigh Bells is a duo, consisting of guitarist Derek E. Miller and vocalist Alexis Krauss. I found their sound to be quite unique. Derek produces a lot of noise, over (or sometimes under or around) which Alexis voice comes through melodic and sweet. Make no mistake, this album is loud and some might find it cacophonous, but coming from a someone that has been known to enjoy the music of Liars and Animal Collective, the musicality of it comes through easily, and this album is certainly not the most difficult thing I have ever listened to. Give Treats a couple listens and I think you will love it.

This Is Happening by LCD Soundsystem
The album "Sound of Silver" from back in 2007 was my first introduction to the music of James Murphy, also known as LCD Soundsystem. Murphy's often monotonous half talking manner of vocal delivery is often comical and always an interesting blend with his electronic riffs and beats. "This Is Happening," certainly lived up to my expectations. Again this is an album that not everyone will enjoy, it involves a lot of looping and repeating, an effect that some people have trouble getting into. Lately I have really enjoyed the first track "Dance Yrself Clean." It starts out slow with some witty vocals and melodies and builds up into the climax of Murphy's emotiveness, which is not as intense as some of the super high intensity screamo music out there, but really who wants all that. I recommend you invite some friends over and have a dance party to this album from start to finish, or any LCD Soundsystem album really.

The Suburbs by Arcade Fire
"Funeral" by Arcade Fire was an instant favorite for me, but I was somewhat dissapointed with their last album, "Neon Bible". I was a bit hesitant to try out "The Suburbs," but after receiving a free amazon credit, I decided to give this one a shot and I was pleasantly surprised. While not quite as rocking as some of the tracks on "Funeral," such as "Leika" and "Power Out," this album is full of songs that are just quality music. Out of the three albums I am highlighting today, "The Suburbs" is certainly the most accessible. While nothing in this album stands out to me in a huge way, every song is solid and the album as a whole is very cohesive and just a good listen. If my previous two recommendations scare you a little give this one a chance.

The Future of the Wireless Market in the Wake of Verizon's iPhone 4 Announcement

2011-01-11T12:53:00.000-08:00

After months of speculation, this morning Verizon Wireless announced that a CDMA version of Apple's iPhone 4 would be coming to their network on February 10, 2011. The pricing for a new iPhone on contract will be tha same as on AT&T ($200 for the 16GB version, $300 for the 32GB version). Clearly this announcement is huge for Verizon and their position in the smartphone market, but today's announcement is a big deal to all of the big 4 nation wireless providers (namely, Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile).

First let's talk about Sprint. Sprint was the first to launch of 4G (WiMAX) network earlier this year with the introduction of the HTC EVO 4G. Since then they have launched two more 4G equipped phones, the Samsung Epic 4G, and the mid-range HTC EVO Shift 4G. However with big launched from the other three wireless providers of 4G service Sprint's unique edge in the smartphone market is waning. For much of the past year the EVO flagship would have been enough to draw customers to the carrier, with its large 4.3 inch display, 4G connectivity, and exception HTC Sense UI skin. However both AT&T and Verizon just announced phones very similar (though improved) in the form of the HTC Thunderbolt (Verizon) and the HTC Inspire 4G (AT&T). They have specs almost identical with the EVO, with the addition of HTC's updated sense UI and a 256MB bump in RAM size. With no iPhone, or even windows 7 phones in Sprint's immediate future, the one thing it still has going for it is perhaps the best android smartphone with a physical keyboard, in the Samsung Epic 4G. Unless Sprint can pull a rabbit out of it's hat in the next couple months, things are not looking great for them.

T-Mobile is likewise not in an optimal position, although not quite as bad as Sprint. T-Mobile has recently launched its own HSPA+ 4G network and announced plans to upgrade it to 42mbps download speeds later this year. Another bright spot for T-Mobile is they seem to be the network of choice for the pure Google Android experience. They have been the network provider for the G1, Nexus one, and now the new Android 2.3 Gingerbread touting Nexus S. Also announced at CES this past week was the G-Slate, manufactured by LG, that will offer a pure Android 3.0 Honeycomb experience, a version of Android designs specifically for tablets. Another plus for T-Mobile is that they use GSM, allowing for unlocked iPhones to be used on their network. This is an enticing idea because of T-Mobiles cheaper talk and data plans, the cheapest of the big 4. But without any super exciting Android devices announced for the network recently, T-Mobile well still be playing at least 3rd fiddle to AT&T and Verizon.

The story of 2011 will be how things pan out between AT&T and Verizon. Along with carrying the hot selling iPhone 4, both carriers announced high end, Tegra 2 dual core sporting Android phones at CES. Both will soon be rolling out 4G phones in the coming months, with AT&T following T-Mobiles lead with HSPA+, and Verizon launching its LTE network. It has long been said that AT&T has the less reliable network of the two, but after CES it looks like they will have the most enticing and wide ranging lineup of smartphones by the end of this year. AT&T will be selling the Dual Core Motorla Atrix (which has some interesting desktop and laptop docks), the 4.5inch Super AMOLED Plus Samsung Infuse 4G, and the super slim Xperia Arc. However Verizon will also be launching an exciting Dual Core Motorola phone in the Droid Bionic, as part of a full lineup of android LTE phones. Now with the addition of the iPhone 4 to Verizon the fight between these two is tougher than ever.

The stakes are high in this 2011 smartphone battle. Come 2012 either my wife will be joining me on Verizon, or I will be joining her on AT&T. I'm excited to see how it pans out.

CES 2011 High End Android Smartphone Roundup

2011-01-08T13:50:00.000-08:00

This is my compilation of new high end android smartphones announced at (or shortly before) CES. Enjoy!

Motorola Atrix

Sony Ericson Xperia Arc

HTC Inspire 4G

Motorola Cliq 2

Samsung Infuse 4G

Motorola Droid Bionic

Tomorrow is a BIG day!

2011-01-04T18:39:00.000-08:00

I am so excited for tomorrow to come! It is a big day in three exciting ways!

1. The First day of Winter Semester at BYU!
This semester I am taking Intermediate Price Theory 2, Intro to Econometrics, SAS Certification, Fundementals of Mathematics, Physical Science, and Doctrine and Covenants. The first day of class for all of these classes except Docrtine and Covenants(which starts next Monday) is tomorrow, which will be intense. I am pretty excited for Econometrics and learning some statistical techniques to use on data, and it could potentially be useful at my new job at the BYU NOC.

2. BYU(14) vs UNLV(25)!
This is in my opinion BYU's biggest game of the season so far. I wouldn't say I am a huge sports fan, but I do like to follow BYU since I attend the school and all. UNLV is BYU's first conference opponent as well as their first ranked opponent. Led by Jimmer Fredette BYU has only lost one game this season, against UCLA. I am excited to see how BYU does against UNLV to gauge their chances at the conference title against the other ranked conference team, SDSU. It should be interesting. Maybe next year I will invest in an all sports pass...

3. CES Press Day!
CES(The Consumer Electronics Show) is arguably the tech industries biggest event of the year and I am super excited to see what is in store in the smartphone realm. Verizon has been teasing an announcement regarding Android 4G LTE devices and I am looking forward to seeing the launch of LTE in earnest with some new smartphones. Verizon will be the 3rd (kind of) of the big 4 cellular carriers to launch 4G smartphones with verizon being the first to use LTE(Long Term Evolution) technology, behind Sprint with their WIMAX network and T-Mobile with HSPA+(which some would argue isn't really 4G, but whatever). Even though I am not due for another upgrade until January 2012, I am still obsessed with knowing about the latest greatest smartphones, particularly whatever it is that HTC has been teasing the last few days.

My Favorite Free Android Games

2011-01-03T22:24:00.000-08:00

I have compiled a list of my favorite android games, all of which are free because I am cheap/poor. Some of them you should probably already have installed unless you live under a rock and/or don't have an android phone.

Slice It!

Slice It! is a simple game that is perfect for a mobile touchscreen device. The game design lets you pick up and play for a short session which is what I am into for a cell phone game. Each level gives you some sort of polygon that you must cut into the requisite number of slices in the requisite number of moves, no more, no less. At first the levels are fairly straight forward with regular polygons, but the shapes soon get more complicated and hard to divide. Add in some impenetrable blocks, mirrors, and a huge amount of levels, and this game stays interesting for a long time.

Slice It! in the Android Market

Angry Birds

I was super excited when Angry Birds came to android a few months back and even more excited to find that it was free and ad supported, which means I would own it. I would be surprised if anyone with an iPhone or Android phone hasn't played Angry Birds, but at the off chance you haven't, it involves catapulting several varieties of birds at green pig filled ice, wood, and stone structures. You must destroy all the pigs to pass the level. The most recent update introduced a big fat bird that totally owns the buildings which is fun to do. Also there are bonus levels that can be unlocked by finding golden eggs hidden throughout the levels and menu screens. If you have exhausted all playability out of the original angry birds, try out angry birds Seasons for some Christmas and Halloween flavored fun.

Angry Birds in the Android Market

Angry Birds Seasons in the Android Market

Mega Jump

This is another iPhone port and is probably my favorite game at this point. You play the role of Redford, some sort of creature that has a desire to jump high into the sky. By hitting coins you can go successively higher. There are also several types of power-ups that turn you into a balloon, a coin magnet, or a fireball. I have played several games of this jump-type-genre and this is by far my favorite. The replay value is high as well as you can use collected coins to buy upgrades to your power-ups, so there is something to work towards. There was a recent update to the iOS version of Mega Jump that made the upgrade system a lot more robust and rewarding and it will hopefully be coming soon to the Android version.

Mega Jump at Get Set Games

SNesoid

So this is not technically a game in its own right but it is a gateway to some super sweet games. SNesoid is a Super Nintendo emulator, which is at the moment my favorite classic gaming system. Console emulation is something that is clearly absent on non-jailbroken iOS devices and this is definitely something I appreciate having on Android. My top picks for SNES games are the Donkey Kong Country games. Pair this with another free app called romgripper and you have all you need to relive your gaming of yesteryear. The lite version lacks the ability to save your rom state, but thats cheating anyway so who needs it. Also available are emulators of Game Boy Advance, Sega Genesis, NES, etc.

SNesoid Lite via AppBrain

Rocket Bunnies

Rocket Bunnies, aside from having fun and unique gameplay, has some of the best graphics I have seen in an android game to date. Along with some of the other titles I have featured in the article, Rocket Bunnies stands out graphically from a lot of the offerings in the android market that look like they were programmed by freshman computer science majors. The gameplay revolves(no pun intended) around orbiting small planets and collecting the bunnies hanging out on them. As the game progresses there are more obstacles to keep you from your goal, like spiders that chase you, and bombs that are also orbiting the planets. Rocket Bunnies has a three star grading system like unto Angry Birds and Slice It, which adds to the replay value in a good way.

Rocket Bunnies via AppBrain

Thats it for this roundup of Android game favorites. Check back for my favorite nongame Android apps, coming soon. Hopefully.