One Minute Tech Reviews

Category Archives: Geek Life

Working From Home Isn’t So Bad – My Mac and Windows Gaming Setup March 2020

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With everything going, a lot of us are now required or highly encouraged to work from home. For me, it’s just another day as I’ve been remote working for over a decade. In fact, I love working from home because I can count on my own gear, have a large high resolution display and not work off a smaller cheap screen they have at most offices.

My Mac setup is also my PC setup too these days. I switch to Windows Bootcamp to run Windows Applications and plug in an eGPU with an NVIDIA RTX 2070 Super when I want to run some demanding games. Sure, it’s not the same as an actual dedicated gaming PC but being able to do all this off one device is awesome.

Stay safe, wash your hands and be sure to practice your social distancing!

How I Went Back to College University On a Scholarship at 40

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New video up!

You’re never too old to go back to school. You’re never too old to qualify for a scholarship either. I went back AND I was able to get a scholarship for the online accredited university I’m attending at Western Governors University.


Sterkmann Backpack Review and What’s in My Travel Bag

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A review of the – Sterkmann Expandable Carry on Backpack for men Overnight Weekender for Travel & Business Waterproof Fits 15″ Laptop With Packing Cube, Shoe Pouch & Laundry Bag (20L-30L Capacity, 3 lbs) – yes it’s a mouthful but that was basically the product description on Amazon!

This is a really great travel backpack with excellent build quality and a much lower price than the Nomantic backpacks without sacrificing the quality.

Note: I was able to fit my Sony A7III with the Tamron 28-75 lens AND the Samyang 35mm lens attached to the camera with all the stuff that’s already in the backpack!

Link to backpack: https://amzn.to/2uKIeuf


SMALL TIME YOUTUBER! Typical Saturday VLOG with no drones, boosted boards, or first class flying

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I am not Casey Neistat. I am not Logan or Jake Paul or those other awesome YouTubers! This video has no crazy wild adventures, skydiving, boosted boards… or even drones in this video. But hey, hats off and MEGA KUDOS to those guys!

This is my typical Saturday… and as I was editing it – a lot more uneventful than usual so I am going to warn you that it might get pretty boring. But hey, sometimes you just want to unwind and really not do much after a long week. Hope you enjoy some of this. A LIKE and Subscribe or even a comment will be greatly appreciated.


Three Minute Morning and First Drone Flight with DJI Mavic Mini

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This is the first video I’ve shot and edited in ages. Just picked up the DJI Mavic Mini and flew it for the first time. In face there are many things I haven’t done in awhile and flying a drone is also one of them. Last drone I had was a Phantom 4 which I sold sin 2017 before I moved to Austin. Hope to get back into editing videos again.

Non drone footage taken on Sony A7III with Tamron 28-75 lens.


What’s On My Desk Winter 2019

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Some changes since my last post in the summer as I added a monitor arm as well as a floating laptop stand!

  • MSI GS65 9SE – currently my main rig for work and gaming.  This thing is an absolute beast and can handle all the new games you throw at it. My Macbook Pro 13 inch is now assigned to being a travel laptop and Final Cut Pro machine.
  • Monoprice Zero G Curved Gaming Monitor UWQHD 100hz – I finally replaced my aging 32 inch display and went with an Ultrawide. I’ve been using 60hz for the longest time and 100hz is incredible lol
  • NB North Bayou Monitor Desk Mount Stand Swivel Arm Gas Spring – This thing is a game changer. I’m able to adjust my display however I want. I love it. Buy it!
  • EZM Notebook Arm Extension Desk Mount Stand – This is great too as t also frees up some space on my desk. Plus being able to adjust the height makes using it as a second screen a lot better too!
  • Sony SRSHG1 HearGo Bluetooth Speaker – Small but mighty. It can connect USB, bluetooth 3.5, Wifi, Google Cast… you name it. This thing is amazing and sounds great
  • Logitech MX Keys – Replaced my Steelseries Apex 7 keyboard and went back to a wireless setup. This keyboard, although not as clicky as a mechanical keyboard works pretty great
  • Logitech MX Master 2S Wireless Mouse – Kind of tempted into upgrading to the MX Master 3 for the USB-C but other than that, it’s not that much of a difference from what I hear. I have this at my desk and an MX Anywhere 2s in my laptop bag
  • Xbox One Controller (White) – for gaming. I sometimes use the PS4 controller for PSP emulated games
  • Razer Nari Headphones – Picked these up when they were on sale. Sound quality is excellent especially when playing FPS games like Overwatch or Modern Warfare 2019. I’ve also screamed and jumped sevral times playing Resident Evil 2!
  • iPhone 11 Pro Max 256GB – Didn’t think I was going to upgrade this year but I was sold on the low light capabilities of this phone and I sold my Sony RX100 V but still keeing the Sony a6300 (camera that took this photo). iPhone 11 Pro Max is still paired with my Apple Watch Series 4 smartwatch

What’s On My Desk Summer 2019

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Been awhile since I’ve done one of these. I normally have a MacBook Pro 13 2018 on my desk but I just recently got back into PC gaming and also sold my Xbox One X a few days ago. I’m still keeping the Sony PS4 Pro and Nintendo Switch for exclusives though. So here’s what’s on my desk!

  • MSI GS65 9SE – currently my main rig for work and gaming.  This thing is an absolute beast and can handle all the new games you throw at it. My Macbook Pro 13 inch is now assigned to being a travel laptop and Final Cut Pro machine.
  • HP Envy 32 – 32 inch display 2560×1440 resolution. I think I’ve had this for about 5 years
  • Sony SRSHG1 HearGo Bluetooth Speaker – Small but mighty. It can connect USB, bluetooth 3.5, Wifi, Google Cast… you name it. This thing is amazing and sounds great
  • SteelSeries Apex 7 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard – This is the best keyboard I have ever typed on. No joke. I don’t even care about the gimmicky lights!
  • Logitech MX Master 2S Wireless Mouse – I finally upgrade from an old Logitech M510 and the difference is night and day. Love how comfortable it feels to use and the horizontal scroll wheel is a game changer for working on spreadhseets. I have this at my desk and an MX Anywhere 2s in my laptop bag
  • Xbox One Controller (White) – for gaming. I sometimes use the PS4 controller for PSP emulated games
  • Sony RX100 Mark V Digital Camera – I just recently upgraded from the Sony RX100 III earlier this year and I’ve taken that across six continents. I am planning on taking this camera to 7 in a year or two. This camera is amazing to carry around on trips especially when you want to take better quality photos than your smartphone.
  • iPhone XS Max 256GB Space Gray – Trusty iPhone that goes everywhere with me. It’s a smartphone that does it’s job and does it reliably. Running the developer version of iOS13 and it paired with my Apple Watch Series 4 smartwatch


 

Hackintosh – Installing MacOS Mojave on MSI GS65 Stealth – Who needs a MacBook Anymore?

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So after installing a 1TB SSD on to the GS65, I wanted to see what more I can accomplish with this thing. I woke up this morning and wanted to challenge myself by attempting to install Mac OS onto this gaming laptop. I know there are Hackintosh guides on that and it has been done on other laptops and the process looks like a pain in the ass. Then I thought about doing a virtual machine, which although gets a huge degradation in performance, it basically will run within Windows much like how Parallels runs in Mac. My VM of choice was VMWare because it was free.

The process was actually pretty easy, however the challenge was getting FaceTime and iMessage to work because I believe it needs a valid Mac serial number in order for it to work on a Mac computer. It CAN be done but it does involve some gray area things that you have to do but it does work.

I used this guide to install using VMWARE: https://techsviewer.com/install-macos-mojave-vmware-windows/

And this guide to get iMessage and iCloud working: https://github.com/toshmatik/VMWare-iMessage/blob/master/instructions.md

Now that I finally have iMessage on my PC… who needs a Mac anymore?

 


MSI GS65 Stealth 9SE Hard Drive Upgrade Teardown Install

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I’ve been wanting to add some additional storage since I picked up my MSI GS65 9SE 2019 model since it came with only 512GB storage space. Sure it may seem like a lot now but this is a gaming laptop games take a lot of space and that will fill up pretty quickly. Fortunately, the MSI GS65 Stealth is up upgradable and you can put 2 M.2 SSD SSD drives into the laptop.

Unfortunately MSI doesn’t make the task as easy as most laptops out there to upgrade the hard drive and install RAM since the motherboard for some reason is flipped over and to get access to those upgrades, you need to physically remove the motherboard from the chassis. Sure it sounds pretty scary and it even looks scary doing but it’s not as tough as it seems. I did it in an hour by following a Youtube video which I will link below paid close attention to what I was doing. You have to be patient with yourself in this project but in the same time be confident and not too nervous. I was able to complete the task in about 30 minutes. Seriously, it wasn’t all to bad. I say the most difficult part through the whole thing was just stop myself from over thinking the whole process and just doing it. Once you pop open the cover at the bottom, just watch along carefully and gently remove the ribbon cables, screws, and some tape. Believe me, it will all start to make sense when you start.

Here’s what I Used

 

 


 

Powerbeats Pro First Impressions Coming from an AirPods and Beats X Owner

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I just received my PowerBeats Pro yesterday from Best Buy.

My first impressions is that they are pretty fantastic and I own AirPods as well as Beats X. They also fit very well too and I wear glasses most of the day. Having interchangeable ear tips is a total plus too. I’ve worked out with these yesterday and this morning and it’s almost impossible to get these to fall off my ears. They only way I see these falling off is if someone wears these while they are boxing lol. Other than that, I’m going to have a tough time transitioning back to my Beats X for working out.

As far as sound quality goes… they are definitely a step above the AirPods and I believe how they fit in my ears contributes to that as well. Bass is strong and if you like your eardrums taking a Beat-ing then you will definitely love these. Listen to Pop, rock, piano solos etc… they all sound great on the PBP. I sometimes watch YouTube videos or binge while I work out on the treadmill. Movie / speech dialogue, explosions, cars screeching and dragons roaring on videos are above satisfactory.

I’m having a tough time trying to see if there is a difference in sound quality between the PBP and the Beats X. Also for people who don’t want to spend the $250, the Beats X is a great value which you can find under $100, they fit well, you don’t have to worry about losing them if the buds happen to fall off your ears and they are pretty compact.

Making phone calls on the PBP is incredible. I’m walking through a sidewalk with cars zooming buy and the wind blowing, shopping center or crowded area and people can hear my as if I was indoors in a quiet office. With the AirPods, it does pick up some noise around you and oops… it falls off my ears while doing something as much as a slight jog.

I only have a few gripes with the PBP… The case takes quite a bit of space for an everyday carry bag and I wouldn’t mind the size so much if this thing at least have wireless charging. For a gym bag, obviously there would be no issue. You can forget about pocketing this thing if you are wearing anything besides cargo pants and gym shorts with big loose pockets. What does make up for the large case is that 9 hour rated battery life. If you are going out and about, you can buy a $5-$10 pouch on Amazon to carry this around in your pocket and leave the case at home or in your car.

My other issue is after about an hour an a half or longer, these are a strain on the ears. AirPods, while working on a desk, taking calls and walking around the office, I can wear these all day without any issues – except I have to pop them back in the case because battery life on AirPods are crappy.

I’m hanging on to these PowerBeats Pro for now. They are a great workout companion and I need more time to decide if this would replace my AirPods as an everyday carry. Before the PBP, I was pretty satisfied traveling with my Beats X as they were great for flights and I didn’t have to worry about losing them and they are great for the gym as well and cost less than half of the PBP price tag. If the PBP were $199 instead of $249 it would be a no-brainer for anyone. However, that $249 does give you a great true wireless experience and Apple’s H1 chip / pairing capabilities.