Apple Released A Crayon Because of Course They Did
Today Apple finally held their education event that a fair amount of people were excited about, including me. While I was on the hype train hoping a new Macbook Air would be announced that never left the station, the big news was always going to be iPads. And guess what! There's a new iPad. It now has the A10 chip in it just like an iPhone 7 as well as allowing to use the Pencil as a stylus support. Oh, and of course it costs the same price. While allowing Pencil to be used on it is huge for the standard iPad for lower cost minded consumers, there really wasn't a whole lot else there. There is some new things for teachers, allowing them to gamify education assignments, allowing them to give students badges once they've completed them. Yay?
While a lot of this seems pretty cool for users, Apple still shouldn't expect to take over the classroom. The devices are still focused on a single user rather than multi so I don't see many schools hoping over from Chromebooks. They definitely should be purchased for art students and classrooms now that they have better support for the Pencil and stylus'.
For the single user however, there's a lot to like if you need a new iPad. There's better drawing features, and a better chip in it. It can do wifi and LTE, and has 1080p cameras on the back as well as the ever popular Facetime camera on the front. So if you need a new iPad, now is shaping up to be a good time to get one. Oh and if that Pencil is too expensive, they released a new partnership with Logitech, announcing the Crayon - a $50 USD Stylus because of course they did and a Logitech keyboard that auto connects over bluetooth. So if you ever wanted to be seen in public using a crayon as a full-grown adult you now totally have your chance.
If you wanna check it all out you can head over to Apple's site dedicated to the new new new new new iPad.
The Idea of a computer case.
Lets get into this. For around the past six or so months, I've been debating on getting a new computer case. Mostly as in the summer I rebuilt my computer into the sexy beast that it currently is. However at that time, due to funds, I just went with the cheapest computer available to me which ended up being some random new-ish Deepcool product called the Shield. While it is by no means a bad case, offering a power supply shroud for hiding wiring and a cheap acrylic panel to see those lovely parts inside, it is no where near to what I like to look at day in and day out. Seeing as I leave my computer on my desk usually as a statement piece (as well as not being an animal and leaving a multi thousand dollar tool that’s incredibly liable to things like dust by my feet on literally the dirtiest part of my house) as well as making it easier to hot swap things, I want a case that fits my style better. More importantly as well, I want a case that will allow my computer to be all that it can be. This has left me constantly going through things, always looking into what makes cases tick, and getting way too deep into the cooling game. I think at this point I've gone through enough research to be able to get concerned about the difference of a tenth of a degree difference when its delta over ambient in the same standardized test.
I might just possibly be in too deep. This is what happens when you've binged YouTube case videos for over six months.
It does however make for a decent conversation to have to me. What makes a good computer case? A vast majority of cases I've owned I still actually have. They still work in various builds. What is it that makes me want that new one? Is it really the reasons I've told myself? Or is it just a dick swinging contest to have over the internet? Well, yeah it is. Definitely. Yet it's still mostly due to what I want out of my computer. It lives on my desk, and I am the only person save for my girlfriend who has to look at it for over ten hours every single day. At that point, making it into a work of art makes sense.
When it comes down to it, if you are spending close to or more than $100 USD on a case it should have good thermals
So obviously given those parameters, aesthetics mater to me. It has to be a case that actually looks good by itself but also in the environment of monitors, speakers, accessories and IKEA desks. That leads me to wanting a clean design. That’s personally my design hard on. No logos, no glaring leds, no random plastic crap. Its something that should be able to be held up even in ten years and have someone think it looks as clean as the day I got it. On top of that thermals matter. A lot. If I end up going through with this, there's no point if the thing chokes current hardware, let alone not even leaving breathing room for the future. That’s actually the biggest problem in most current case designs. In the effort to make everything a beautiful piece of art of tempered glass, a vast majority of cases have completely thrown the function out.
For me personally, ease of the build matters much less than those two. I've been building computers for over ten years now, including in some of the cheapest cases money can buy. While how easy it can be to build is definitely preferred, and I would even rate highly for first time builders, this is of little interest to me. However, the main cases I have mostly boiled my list down to are breezes to work in which is nice.
When it comes to those thermals they mostly shine, with one taking the cake. When it comes down to it, if you are spending close to or more than $100 USD on a case it should have good thermals. I don't understand how for a lot of cases that isn't the case (boo). If I'm spending that much and don't have room for at least a 280mm radiator as well as enough fans to not choke the GPU then what's the point. If it chokes your hardware then you're just shooting yourself in the foot and ultimately wasting money. Luckily, these cases fit that bill.
The case I am most likely going to purchase as it leads the top of all of these criteria, as well as being by far the best at thermals is the Fractal Design Meshify C. The other big boy that I've limited a list down to is the NZXT S340 Elite. The S340 has arguably the better looks design wise, while the Meshify C comes close but just spanks it when it comes to thermals. Who would have thought. It's almost like leaving mesh on a computer so it can breathe can still be a good thing. Other cases that seem interesting however and have definitely been considered are the Cooler Master H500P Mesh (Make sure it’s the mesh version, the acrylic strikes me as crap), the Corsair 275, NZXT H700i, Fractal Define R6, Dark Base Pro 900, and Thermaltake for their wackiness. The biggest cases that could possibly change this however are the Lian Li O11 Dynamic and Air. These cases look great and seem to emphasize my entire list of what I find important. So that’s honestly why I'm waiting. I want to know if these cases are any good.
That’s my train of thoughts currently however, on the world of computer cases. Most of that list you definitely couldn't go wrong with. However, I'm curious as to what you might be thinking on this topic. What makes a case good to you? Or is it even important to you? Should it make a statement? At the end of the day, its importance is up to the user but regardless, for the love of however much you spent on it, get it off the floor.
Path of Exile has a new league! With Pokemon!
Okay, so maybe not exactly Pokemon.
However Path of Exile, the indie action role-playing game from Grinding Gear Games is seeing a new set of content coming out on Friday. In the new league, "Beastiary" GGG are adding items that allow users to capture monsters that are in the game to add to a collection. You can keep all of them in a menagerie and even look at them. Sounds adorable, right? Well in true Path of Exile fashion, a dark and gritty game in the Diablo vein of games, instead of raising these poke- erm monsters you just keep them until you have the right amount of them. Then you can use them as the games newest crafting mechanic, turning them into items, skill gems, and possibly more. How does one go about doing that?
SACRIFICING THEM AT THE BLOOD ALTAR.
Of course, you the player puts them all down in what appears to be a miniature boss fight to be able to use their powers, or corpses, for your new shiny loots. Also included in this full 3.2 featured league are the general loads on new items with interesting to down right amazing effects, as well as a massive rebalancing of the games classes.
If that all sounds interesting, check out the game here and I'll see you in the new league starting this Friday, March 2nd 2018 (or roughly one day and eighteen hours from this post).
EA Is Having A Sale!
From right now until March 6, 10 a.m. PST, Electronic Arts is having a sale on all platforms. Sales include games on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, as well as their Origin PC service.
Sales on the PC side that are worth noting is StarWars Battlefront 2 is already down to $23.99 (lul) as well as good deals on Battlefield 1 (9.99 for base or 19.99 for all content), The Sims 4 (including expansion pack bundles), Mass Effect, Titanfall 2, Fifa 18, and the Dragon Age Series. Also on sale is Spore for $5 if you once missed out on one of the most contriversial games released for its time spiking the conversation of DRM.
If you are interested in any of these sales, go check them out here.
Elementary OS First Impressions
Recently I switched my Linux distro to try out a new workflow. It turns out I didn't have to go very far. Crap, for me it wasn't even a huge switch, as my main stack workflow is done through Ubuntu. Yet I still wanted to try out a change. So I made the switch. At least to try.
Welcome to Elementary OS. So far, its been a beautiful change of scenery.
I've been waiting to be able to try this out, as for a while I frankly haven't been able to. Well, I could but couldn't be fucked. It would work on my old back up PC, but over the summer I switched to a new Ryzen based PC for video editing and gaming work. New architecture woo. So that meant no easy way for me to run the 4.9 based elementary OS 0.4.1 Loki. What can I say, I'm lazy. Especially once quick updates came out for what Elementary OS's base originated from- Ubuntu.
Now that I've finally switched, thank god. The UI is beyond gorgeous, not even in the Linux world but in general. Borrowing from previous ideas, the flow from the terminal to the apps are fantastic. And don't get me started on the beauty that is that fucking terminal. It's beyond great, from having multiple windows always open, to a sizeable beautiful window, to them acting together wonderfully. It has one of the best copy paste functions I've seen, as well as allowing notifications. It even has a great design language that’s beyond easy to notice the differences in legibility. Elementary OS has killed it here, and this terminal has quickly become my go to terminal on any machine I can get it on.
The built-in app store works great, and while is still limited in the sense a Linux app store always will be, it has some surprisingly good options. Ones I would highlight are productivity apps such as tomato, a timer app that keeps me focused on my time spent working. A similar version of sticky notes is also great for quick copy pastes. There's also some great apps for to do lists, that I keep on a second monitor at all times, as well as system monitoring apps. The best features of the app store however, are the paid apps available.
It does feel a little weird that there are paid apps in a Linux distro. It’s a bit more of a rarity nowadays since I haven't tried out new ones in a while. But they're good. And all of them are cheap. None of it's a money grab. Devs deserve to get paid, and most of the ones I've tried are completely worth the two or three dollars asked. On top of that elementary provides easy tools for others to build their own for the store, making it completely clear that all of them are a seventy thirty split in favor for the developers. So not only can you help a Dev out, but also encourage the continuation of the operating system for the long-term. While that might seem like an obvious thing to support, it's only paid Devs $197 in one year.
The more I've used it, the more I want to support it. While it's based on Ubuntu so a vast amount of libraries of various open source projects are supported, they've done fantastic work creating it into their own. They even use their own shell, that they've created from the better ideas of gnome. Pantheon is a fantastic UI, and shell. If you take a hop over to their website as well, they have open access to almost everything so that you can take it all apart and see how it all works, as its built on the Vala language as well as their apps being made with it providing a sense of unity. Coming in the next big update, 0.5 Juno, as well they've teased major changes to what is currently their text editor, scratch. By renaming it code and using decent design theory they are making it into what is seeming to be a very nice code editor. Needless to say I'm definitely intrigued to try it out, especially if it is anywhere as close to being as great as their terminal.
Overall, a few days into setting up elementary OS, I'm having a blast. I'll hold off on doing anything such as a review until I've spent more time with it, as while these last few days have me hyped I can't really give anything super in-depth yet. I wouldn't expect to write about any updates until at least the major 0.5 Juno update unless I hit a brick wall and continue testing out other distros. For right now though, If you have a weekend to spend messing around with a new operating system, I would have no hesitation suggesting giving Elementary OS a try.