Amazon Shopper: May 2014

Monday, May 26, 2014

What to Buy on Amazon : SD/SDXC Cards

There seems to be a slew of deals for SD cards, both the standard sized and the micro version. The major brand would be Sandisk and the most bang for the buck would be SanDisk Ultra 64GB MicroSDXC Class 10 UHS Memory Card Speed Up To 30MB/s With Adapter, Frustration-Free Packaging - SDSDQU-064G-AFFP-A at $37.99 currently. This card is rated Class 10 and Sandisk claim it can do 30MB/s.

Those who wanted more speed will have to go for the Extreme version,SanDisk Extreme Plus 64GB MicroSDXC Class 10/U1 Memory Card Speed Up To 80MB/s With Adapter, Frustration-Free Packaging - SDSDQX-064G-AFFP-A. Sandisk claimed up to 80MB/s and will set you back $69.99.

Transcend is another reputable brand in the States and they currently have a very good offer for the Transcend 64GB MicroSDXC Class10 UHS-1 Memory Card with Adapter 45 MB/s (TS64GUSDU1E). Transcend claimed 300x for this card and at $29.99, it seems to offer the best value.

Lastly, Samsung recently introduced a brand new line of SD cards sporting a bright orange colour. The Samsung Electronics 64GB EVO Micro SDXC with Adapter Upto 48MB/s Class 10 Memory Card (MB-MP64DA/AM) is currently going for $39.99. Samsung claimed a slightly higher speed at 48MB/s.

Before you rush out and buy these, do note that if the 64GBs are SDXC cards and you do need to have a compatible SD card slot on your devices (smartphone, camera or laptop) in order to utilize them. If you're going to feed them to your laptop/PC via a card reader, you'll also need a USB3 capable one to realize the claimed speed.

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Current Deals : Kindle Reader

Thanks to Mother's Day (We all love you Mom!), Amazon is running a promo on all the Kindle Reader lineups which starts at just $49!

The Kindle Fire lineups get the same treatment too!

I must say these are very attractive prices. On top of that, you also get 20% off selected Kindle accessories.

On the Mac : Macbook Air and Macbook Pro SSD Upgrade Kit

Good news fellow Mac users. A couple of days ago, Transcend announced a series of SSD upgrade kits for some of the Macbook models. Specifically -

Late 2010 and mid-2011 Air - JetDrive 500
Mid-2012 Air - JetDrive 520
2012 and early 2013 rMBP - JetDrive 720

The JetDrive 500 comes in 240/480GB while the 520 and 720 comes in 240/480/960GB versions. For more details on the specifications and compatibility, you can refer to the Transcend JetDrive Product page. In short, all the non-PCI-e SSD based Macs will find one model which suits it. Transcend said you'll have to wait a while for the PCI-e version for the mid-2013 Air and rMBPs.

The kit comes with all the tools that you need to open up your Mac, be it the Air or rMBP. It also includes a nice little housing where you can pop in your original SSD and turn it into an external drive with a USB3 connector. Follow the video posted on the Transcend page for the installation instructions.

When you're done, do remember to set your spanking new drive as the boot disk and also install the Transcend toolbox software that comes with the kit. This toolbox software will enable TRIM on your new SSD. For those who are wondering why we have to do this - because Apple does not like 3rd party SSDs and will not enable TRIM on them. SSD without TRIM is not the wisest of choice to make.

Initial reviews from some early adopters are very positive, including ease of installation and better performance than the stock Apple SSDs.

Transcend made all these models available on Amazon -

At this point, all the base models list at $189.99 and some models has a ship time of between 2-4 weeks. All qualifies for free international shipping to Singapore. Take note that only the 240GB versions are GST exempted while the 480/960GB version attracts import tax.

This is definitely going to give my 128GB mid-2011 Air some new lease of life.