PixlBit

It is Friday and I am here in front of my everyday laptop while listening to music off of my travel laptop. Before starting this entry I was ripping my CDs I bought yesterday to the travel laptop and while I had it open I might as well listen to some tunes on it, rate the tracks and add them to their respective groups. After I finish here I'm going to open up iTunes on this laptop and then copy the ratings to the travel laptop. More on this crazy later because it is Friday and it is time for Quick Hits.

 

Chris Watches

Dog The Bounty Hunter – A&E

Yeah this is still going on where I wake up an hour earlier than I normally do, just to watch, but I like the show. One of the episodes I watched Dog teamed with another Bounty Hunter who was just terrible and they were chasing his friend. After getting the run around Dog and Co. found out that the guy they were chasing turned himself in the night they were looking for him, got out and tried turn himself into Dog so he can claim false arrest. Instead they called him out on it, didn't touch him, and then called out the other bounty hunter on being trash (he really was).

 

Narcos – Netflix

With all the talk of House of Cards being put on hold for its final season I needed to find another show that I liked enough to keep the subscription going. I found the first season of Narcos. This show is so freaking good, and its worth watching with a bowl of popcorn. Since the Aztecs are on a bye week this weekend I might binge watch Season 2 and Season 3.

 

The Challenge Dirty XXX – MTV

The final finally happened last week, and since its the Dirty 30, MTV didn't reveal who won. Now I have to watch the two part reunion to see who won. Part 1 will reveal the third place man and woman and Part 2 will reveal 1^st and 2^nd place. During the show there will probably be nothing but yelling, cussing, talking trash, and other fun stuff that happens during the Challenge Reunions. Also the new Challenge Champs vs Stars is supposed to happen this month.

 

Chris Reviews Stuff (Usually Headphones)

This past week was the 3 year anniversary of the time I bought my first pair of bluetooth headphones the Beats Powerbeats2. I wanted a pair of Jaybirds but the Beats were $20 more so I figured why not. They are a solid pair of headphones that sound decent and after losing (and replacing) the ear plugs, gluing the arm with the speaker back to the body, having the metal skeleton on the ear hooks start to show because the rubber is starting to separate, having the microphone stop working, and most recently having the volume down button stop working, I knew it was time to start looking for a new pair of bluetooth headphones.

Before I jumped into buying another pair of $200 bluetooth headphones I wanted to try the $30 pair of Aukey bluetooth earbuds. I figured at worse this would hold me over until Black Friday when I could find something on sale. I like the Beats but I figured there should be something better. I held off on buying the Aukey headphones until Sunday morning when I decided to place an order and in a pleasant surprise I saw that the headphones were part of a lightning deal for $20. I opted for the $4 one day shipping because it would still be cheaper than the regular price and on Monday it was time to give them a try.

 

No frills packaging

 

The contents of the little box. I get a user manual that I looked at to see how to pair the headphones,

three sizes of ear blades, and three sizes of ear buds, the headphone unit, a product sticker (?), a nifty carrying pouch and a micro usb cable for charging. I let it charge for an hour and a half and then I went to pair the headphones with my phone

 

Size of Powerbeats2 and the Aukey Bluetooth headphoens

I tried these headphones for a week including an all day use on Thursday when I went to the mall to buy some CDs, check out the new Poke spot, and my other randomness. After five days of use I have some thoughts:

First I swapped out the ear blades for a smaller size because the default ones are too big. Next I replaced the ear plugs with some I bought for the Powerbeats2. I like the fit of these over the ones that came with the earbuds.

Pairing: Setting up the pairing wasn't that bad. One issue is that the power button is a little stiff. I had to push down with a little more force to turn it on than I had to with the Beats. This will probably change with more use. For actual pairing on an Apple device it was no problem, on the Android Phone I turned into an MP3 player it took a couple of tries before it recognized the earbuds. On a PC it was the same as Android.

Sound: I really can't tell the difference in sound compared to the Beats. The Aukey's have three presets for sound and I haven't messed with any of them, just with default. With the Beats I would have to activate Bass Reducer on the iPhone while, customizing an EQ on Rocket Placer on the Android Device. The one thing I did notice is that when I played a lower bitrate MP3 the track sounded dull on the Aukey's. When using the microphone it was like with the Beats, it wasn't as loud as music but it was still fine.

Build: The Aukey's seem to be made of a thick plastic and feel durable. On the ends of the earbuds there are magnets so when you hang them around your neck they can connect so you don't have them sliding around. The Aukey's came with a little clip like the Beats that can be used to adjust the size of the cable.

Bluetooth Range: The range is amazing compared to the Ausdom M08 over the ear headphones. I left my phone at one end of the house walked to the opposite end and the connection was still strong. With the Ausdom's they would have disconnected . They are about equal to the same range to my Beats.

Battery: Beats were rated at 6 hours (the new ones are at 12 hours), and the Aukey's are at 8 hours. I think its a solid length of time and after using it all day yesterday I think they're still at 50%

Comfort: The ear blades aren't bad, I didn't notice them after a couple of minutes, and the ear plugs I need to break in. I did however use ear plugs that didn't come with the Aukey's. I didn't like the feel of the ones out of the box.

 

Overall the Aukey's are solid. They don't have the recognizable Beats logo, or design, but they do deliver in sound and quality, plus I get to keep $180 in my pocket. The Aukey's will be my daily driver and we shall see if they can take a beating like the Powerbeats2. I'll keep the Powerbeats2 in my bag when I go on trips to use as backups.

 

If you want to check out these headphones here is the Amazon Link

 

Randoms

Last week my little town had a BBQ festival. It's nothing too fancy but a handful of BBQ teams from around the area come down for the two day event and this year there was a Horseshoe tournament, and a petting zoo for the kids along with the beer garden and stage for live bands. There were also informational booths like one for the satellite UC in the neighboring town as well as city services and other fun stuff. I wasn't here for any of that, I was here for BBQ meats. Last time I went I was late and I missed out on all the good stuff. This year I went an hour after they opened the gates and I looked for the line that was either the longest or had the most cops in line because this usually means good food. I hit two spots because one line was mostly cops and the other line was long.

The food was awesome at both spots but when I ordered turkey legs at the second spot, this was the event. When they brought out the legs one of the people working as a cashier said “good lord those are huge” and a couple behind me said “damn.” They were massive and another asked how much are the turkey legs. I said I paid $12 each and he thought it was a steal.

 

Here are the turkey legs with Lego Batman for scale. I brought the food home because I live 5 minutes away from the venue and there was no way the paper plates at this event could hold the legs.

 

Pickups!

Games

No Games, but I did find a couple I want to get during Black Friday.

 

Music

From the mom & pop

 

 

 

 

 

I added some new Jazz to the library, and from the regular section of used CDs I found the NWA EP that I didn't have.

I'll probably pick up the new Taylor Swift today just to listen to new Angry T-Swizzle.

 

Alright Pixlpeeps I am off. I want to continue rating tracks on the travel laptop. Have a good week!

 

That's all for now, more later!

-Chris