Welcome to my blog - Read and enjoy

Thank you for visiting my Scooby1970 blogspot. I update whenever I can and when I have something interesting to share. You will also find published work of mine at Gaming Illustrated. Gaming Illustrated is where most of my work now takes place, but I will transfer some of my more popular articles from there over to this blog, in extended format.


Feel free to email me at:
MGAdams1970@gmail.com
Google+: www.google.co.uk/+MarkAdams1970
Feel free to add me to your PS3: scooby1970
Flikr - My Photos: www.flickr.com/photos/markyboyo/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/scooby1970
Twitter: www.twitter.com/markyboyo

I've just started a new blog for my upcoming book releases: http://mark-adams-writes.blogspot.co.uk/

Also check out my 10 Quick Facts for more sites I run.

Enjoy the blogs, and relive my ups and downs in life, view some interesting reviews and just enjoy the site. If you are interested in learning something about some of my favourite music then click here it's the official Jan & Dean Site that has taken me and my friend from across the sea, June many years to keep updated.

:) Mark

Wednesday 25 January 2012

Browser Review - Pale Moon

You know I'm a bit of a geek, and today's review is probably one of the geekiest reviews I have posted. Hopefully though it will be helpful for those looking for a browser for their 64-bit Windows 7 environment.

First off, my browser of choice for as long as I can remember has been Mozilla's Firefox. It's a great browser, fast, highly customisable, stable and secure. So, when I heard about Pale Moon, I was mighty excited. Pale Moon looks like Firefox, acts like Firefox and is indeed 100% Mozilla Firefox code, however, before you ask "whats the point" or "what's different then" just let me explain.

Firefox for all its good points has been a bit bloated on the memory resource front these last few years. It takes what seems like an age to load up, and can hog huge chunks of valuable memory. What the Pale Moon project have done is gone through the code, taken out all the system processes that are not 64-bit, cut out all the unnecessary crap and turned a brilliant browser into an awesome browser.

What we have with Pale Moon is a browser much lighter on resources, much faster due to being aimed specifically at 64-bit users and compatible with all your favourite Firefox add-ons. Pale Moon also have a version for standard 32-bit processors, and I use this in the office in work, again its much lighter on resources which means my work PC doesn't grind to a halt all the time now compared to when it did with Firefox.

Overall then, if you're looking for something fast, secure, modern, light on resources and reliable, Pale Moon should fill your needs. You have to use it to really appreciate it, but those little tweaks really do make a huge difference.

Mark Adams
25-01-12

Saturday 14 January 2012

HTC Chacha Review

Recently I was in the market for a new handset. Prior to buying this new handset, I had been using a HTC Hero. The HTC Hero was a brilliant Android based handset that won handset of the year a couple of years back, and was considered better than the iPhone 3GS.

Of course, time moves on and I wanted something different. I wanted an Android based system because of their customization qualities, I wanted a touch screen because of the convenience, but most of all I wanted a physical keyboard. I missed physical keyboards, there's something about them that just can't be replicated by even the best touch screen mobile phone.

I like the look of Blackberries, but of course they are not Android based, so a phone that has been taking my fancy since it was released in the later half of 2011 was the HTC Chacha.It's stunning to look at, with arguably the best keyboard on any mobile phone available out there now. It also fulfilled all my points I was looking for, which of course makes it perfect for me.

Inside the HTC Chacha is a 800mhz processor, pushing the 2.6inch gorilla-glass screen and latest version of Android (2.3.5). The screen resolution is superb, and images and text are crisp and clear, even more so that my old phone. The 800mhz processor is just the right size for the size of the screen, and everything is silky smooth. The buttons are nice and large enough for my huge thumbs to type accurately and fast!

What this phone has that really makes it useful in this day and age is a Facebook button at the bottom of the phone. One press of this button and Facebook appears on your screen, making it ideal for people like myself who use Facebook. You won't believe how useful the button is, and it will soon become an everyday part of your life. Its the simple things that really work and make this phone stand out from the crowd.

The HTC Chacha has seven screens that you can flick through. Mine has been configured for all the things I need, including pages for the Calender, Twitter, Facebook (live feeds) and more. Although you may think a 2.6inch screen is small by todays standards, it is larger than most Blackberry screens, and because of the resolution, looks bigger than it actually is.

Of course, for me, a phone wouldn't be a phone without the Internet, and the Android Browser that comes with the phone is simply stunning. I access websites and use the internet as I would on my laptop. The keyboard frees up all the screen, so when writing blogs or responding to forums, things are clean and simple and everything just works perfectly.

Battery life on the phone seems pretty good in this day and age of short life batteries. I usually charge it overnight and it runs all through the day until the next morning when I charge it again for about 30 minutes before leaving it charge overnight once again. Of course, because of its multimedia properties, I am always playing with the phone... which is not always a good thing.

For those interested, games play well on the phone. I have installed a number of games including Angry Birds Rio, and on the high-resolution screen they look lovely. For any retro-gamers out there, its easy to install emulators too, and I have a Master System/Megadrive emulator on the phone with many games, and control them with the keyboard. They all work fantastically, and it's a god-send when you need to kill those spare minutes.

Overall then, the HTC Chacha is a brilliant phone. Far better than I ever expected, it does everything you could possibly want from a phone, plus it has a brilliant keyboard making things so much easier.
If you want great call quality, brilliant HTC features, all the power of Android and a good little multimedia machine, then look no further!

Mark
14 January 2012