FreakTab Storytellers

[JDfense]

Hi guys,

after the last Give Away action, we like to open a topic for the amazing story we got from this contest.

Maybe we get more exiting TechNerd stories from FreakTabUsers, who like to write something special for all of us.

Anyway I want to start this thread with jukiveins winner story in the next post.

Here we go.

JD

[JDfense]

Box Wars: Episode III – The Perfect Mini PC


Once upon a time between the borders of the Milky Way there was an avid movie and music fan, whose sole purpose was to enjoy his media the way it was meant to be. From Tarantino to Scorcese and Pink Floyd to Queen, he couldn’t help himself but wonder – how would it feel to be part of a brilliant movie scene or standing next to his favorite singer on stage? This thought could not escape his mind...

So he went on a journey into the realm of TV boxes to find his perfect match, the only one who could fulfill all of his desires. His first love was an unlikely one: they met on a cold winter night in the eastern part of Europe in a common electronics store. He wasn’t looking for her, but there she was, standing on the shelf with DVD players. He saw her and then he slowly walked towards her. All the technical specifications in the world didn’t matter at the moment. And then they thought – why not give it a shot? He came home with his brand new Minix Android TV box and the next one year was like a fairy tale. Problems were nonexistent and his experience with it was nothing short of great. All apps he regularly used worked like charm. Buttery smooth playback, stable Wi-Fi with excellent signal, fast quad core CPU and a NAS-full of media. What more could he ever want?

But one day, there was an unexpected rift in their relationship. It was an ordinary summer day, the birds were still singing and children were playing soccer in the park nearby. He just got back from work and decided it is time to try that new video format, what was it called? A-ha, a H.265 video file. Because his colleagues with media center PC at their homes told him it is superior to H.264. And so was the truth. So he put it in the download queue and waited for like an hour. Then he went to his beloved box and pressed “Play” on his remote. He waited for a minute, but it seemed like eternity. Cold drops of sweat rolled down from his forehead and after that - another two. The box reacted. It uttered those five, terrifying for every video and music lover, words:

“Can’t play this file.”

Sudden moment of shock. His heart in his throat, he went to his computer and typed on the keyboard

“cant play H.265 solution”

In this very moment, their connection ceased to exist. There wasn’t hardware decoding support for H.265 on this TV box. He already knew this relationship is doomed and could not continue. Not a single week passed by and the box was already gone. Brokenhearted, this gave him no choice - the Great Search was on again.
He rearranged his priorities and put on top of the list

“H.265 hardware decoding”

He wasn’t ready to splash the cash again, so he considered some cheaper alternatives. In the meantime, his CNX-software RSS subscription alarmed him about a new article. There was a review posted about a new box by Beelink with an Amlogic S905 CPU – the Mini MX. The hardware potential was there, but the software was still at a very early stage. This little black box quickly became his new interest. He couldn’t stop thinking about it through the day and dreamt about it through the night. It was obvious what would follow from this new situation – he opened a new tab on his browser and loaded ****.com into it. Then he proceeded to search for a top-rated seller who would provide him with his dream TV box. And then clicked on the big, blue button that said:

“Buy now”

The wait for the new sweetheart from China was a long and epic one, but our hero did not lose faith and checked his mail box every day before work. 23 days later his lucky day finally came. An unreadable postal notification with the word “China” on it made him smile. He ran to the post office with the speed of light to pick up his beauty. He couldn’t wait to get back from work to play with it.

At the evening he started to breathe again. The grass suddenly became green and the sky smilled at him with its fluffy clouds from above. The long awaited new beginning was finally here again. Life continued at its usual pace and its previous harmony was restored. The new TV box worked flawlessly with every audio and video format he could throw at it. Wi-Fi was not perfect and automatic refresh rate switching didn’t work, but he knew that every rose has its thorn and was patient enough to wait for an OTA update to solve those issues. After all, she was a in a new surrounding and problems were to be expected at first.

The OTA updates started rolling one by one, every two weeks. But none of them seemed to solve either one of those issues. At his 23^rd birthday his friends and collegues from work presented him with a brand new AC router and an external USB 3.0 hard drive to complement his new TV box. He then realized an important fact – it didn’t support Wi-Fi 802.11ac, nor USB 3.0. This was a big problem and the box was soon retired to the bedroom, next to the 32’’ LED TV. His search for the perfect TV box had to continue.

But one week after this decision, something unbelievable happened. He saw a thread on Freaktab - his favorite Android device forum - about a giveaway of a TV box with incredible technical specifications – the Vorke V1. The kind folks at Freaktab and Geekbuying offered a lucky user the chance to win one of these incredible machines. A powerful Intel CPU with a low TDP, which is a significant upgrade to the Cherry Trail platform, 4GB DDR3L RAM at 1600 MHz – just enough for a casual user - and a ton of fast storage, along with an option to expand it significantly and dual-band AC Wi-Fi (which meant that he could properly use his AC router), USB 3.0 ports (external HDD at USB 3.0 speeds) and gigabit LAN for less than $200 with a Windows 10 license included? Even Linux runs on top of it. This tiny desktop computer deserved a proper review! In this moment, the hero of our story felt like never before - every single detail about this device just ticked the right boxes and filled his soul with deep enthusiasm He didn’t want the Vorke V1, he CRAVED it and soon realized that if paradise had another name, it had to be Vorke. The perfect mini PC.

Excitement and joy dispersed in the surrounding air. The whole Galaxy felt the presence of this incredible force. The search was finally over.

written by jukiveins
FreakTab Storysteller

[cyber7]

I would like to put my bit of knowledge into this topic. I would never want to be known as a "story teller", I would like to be known as a "knowledge giver"...

just my 10c

[JDfense]

Sorry cyber7, you are off topic.
I remember, you got your playground in the TV-Player section and feel free to open a thread as "knowledge giver" where you want on FreakTab. Your content should only fit to the topic of the section..

Here is the place for storytellers and everbody can decide what he likes or not.

JD

[Stzo]

Congratulations to the winner! It's really a nice job. jukiveins deserves the prize!

[sxemata]

Alice (and I) in (the Smartphone) Wonderland

Yesterday my girlfriend, Alice, took me to a party in the Smartphone Wonderland. We were guests to a smartphone family -– in my opinion, they are too touchy and square (well, rectangular, to be fair), but my girlfriend likes them because they have built-in cameras and a bunch of other stuff that we people just don't have.

"Button up your shirt", said my girlfriend before we rang the doorbell of our hosts and I immediately was sorry that I wasn't a smartphone and because of that I had to worry about all those buttons. The female smartphone opened the door and right there she offered us some refreshments. I asked for a straight whiskey, but they had only batteries (including a giant automotive battery with bamboo straws sticking out of it, as if it were a cocktail) and AC power adapters.

"Sorry, but I'm in no mood for an electric shock, so could I have a glass of water?", I asked. However, the hostess refused, rather coldly, because they didn't have any water they - were a non-waterproof family of devices. So I stood there dry as a desert, while my girlfriend was trying to be polite and to sip electricity out of a battery.

I looked at the other guests. The smartphones had invited their parents - four rotary dial telephones who didn't stop ringing. They were so noisy and annoying that for a brief period of time I had to plug my ears. What did I plug them with? With cheese, of course! (To use in such occasions, I always keep some cheese in the pockets of my pants).

Also, there was a very lovely walkie-talkie couple - they were radiating although for some reason they kept repeating it was "over" after every sentence. And two beepers - well, actually one of them insisted to be called "pager" because he thought that "beeper" was offensive. I told him the old sentence (and when I say old, I mean one second old -– the time it took me to think of it) –- "A beep over a word doesn't mean the word is offensive", and we nearly got into a fight, but my girlfriend, somehow sober and alive despite all the battery-sipping, stopped us.

Suddenly, the screen, or should I say face, of our host –- the male smartphone - froze. His wife cried (dry) tears because she thought he was battery-dead, but I assured her everything was alright and he probably just needed a little rest-arting. For my surprise however, that was not the case. I tried to give him CPR (cold processor reboot) but his face (a.k.a. screen) remained frozen as if it were the ninth circle of hell in a lame rip-off of the famous Dante poem.

Thank God, my girlfriend came to the rescue. She kept her cool, wired our host to the automotive battery and the electric current brought him back to life. His screen (a.k.a face) lit up once again, but so did the bamboo straws sticking out of the battery –- they literally caught fire. And because there was no water in sight, we had no way of putting the fire out, so we took all that we could and we ran. Naturally, we left some batteries, and naturally, they exploded -– and so did the house of our smartphone friends.

Alice insisted that we invite them to spend the night in our apartment, and I was stupid enough to fall for it –- she had asked me not out of kindness, but because she was having an affair (sort of) with the male smartphone. I saw her touching his screen just this morning. He didn't touch her back though, but I don't know whether it's because he doesn't actually love her and he's using her, or because he doesn't have any hands.

Either way, I'll brake up with Alice first thing tomorrow. And now I'm thinking of getting a smartphone for a girlfriend. Because, yes, smartphones might really be touchy and square (well, rectangular, to be fair), but they sure make our lives a lot more interesting and wondrous (and also, I couldn't find a girl like Alice in a million years, and once I brake up with her, a smartphone will have to do).

[Da1k1ray]

Smartphone Wonderland

Long-long time ago(actually not so long time ago), there was a kingdom called Smartphone Wonderland.

In this Kingdom lived happily smartphones of many types and calibers.

Small and large.

Old and new.


Cheap and expensive.


And they could've live happily after, if not for their neighboring Apple Kingdom which was ruled by old nasty Apple Queen.


Apple Queen didnt want for such happy smartphone kingdom to exist, and that's why she hired Army or Mad Reviewers to destroy those poor smartphone fellows. They kept dropping them from the heights, bending em and drowning in coca-cola.(don't ask why).



At last, Wonderland inhabitants couldn't bear this madness and asked for help of Sir Oukitel K4000 de Lite, humble and loyal smartphone lord. He gladly agreed to help and ventured to the Apple Kingdom to end queen's plans for good.



The way to the Apple Kingdom was hard, but sir Oukitel managed to overcome all difficulties and finally he reached Apple Queen's castle.



Army of Mad Reviewers was here as well. They tried to destroy Sir Oukitel but one after another they failed, because apparently he was very sturdy build and even had magical armor called "Asahi Glass" on him.



With Mad Reviewers defeated, Sir Oukitel stepped into Queen's Chambers "Puny little smartphone like you can't defeat me!" - yelled the Apple Queen and burst out in evil laughter.



But Sir Oukitel was no fool! He noticed almost invisible little cord(probably with his 13.0 MP Sony Camera) that led to Queen's Throne and just pulled it out. Apparently Queen's battery was dead.(on other hand Sir Oukitel had 4000 mAh battery that could last long without recharging)



And this is how nasty Apple Queen was defeated and Smartphone Wonderland was saved! All thanks to Sir Oukitel K4000 de Lite!



The End.

[Willa Foster]

haha, interesting story!

[JDfense]

Hi Guys,

I hope we can soon before Christmas start another FreakTab Giveaway Event for Storystellers.

JD