April 2012
61 posts
3 tags
Google Maps: 8 Bit Maps →
Once in a while, the creative people at Google surprise the public with funny and often unnecessary services/products. For April fools day, Google has announced 8 bit maps for NES!
You can actually go to www.maps.google.com and click the top right icon that says “maps” and switch it to “quest” mode to test drive this new mapping feature. I personally think it’s...
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Spring LTE: 2014 Target →
If Sprint wants to get this much coverage by 2014, they better get started soon!
March 2012
88 posts
1 tag
HDD Prices Will Drop Soon →
As Professor Hubert Farnsworth would say , “Good news everyone!”
It looks like prices for those spinning discs that store a ton of your precious data will soon come down in price. The floods in Thailand which closed down some manufacturing plants caused prices to skyrocket last year, but now prices should begin to reduce back to what we were seeing in early 2011. The good part about...
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A5X vs. Tegra 3 [Benchmarks] →
Long story short, it seems that Apple’s claims about their own A5x chip being 4x faster in graphics than Nvidia’s Tegra 3 chip are not well founded based on more benchmark tests. Turns out that the Tegra 3 is an all around great performance chip, whereas the power of the A5x chip for graphics can be “seen” only when it is processing in the background and not actually...
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World Backup Day - March 31, 2012 →
Back your stuff up frequently and religiously!
They also have a sweepstakes to win some free backup gear!
Enter here: http://bit.ly/HnJ92v
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Dell Stops Selling Smartphones in the USA →
No shock here. Dell hasn’t had good any luck selling their smartphones in the United States. They had some great ideas and concepts, but the eventual execution of those devices were poor and the marketing was even worse.
I do have to say their Venue Pro Windows Phone caught my attention more than once, so I know what they could be capable of. Dell may return some day, but probably not...
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ICS Blink Detection [Samsung] →
Samsung has added blink detection to the face unlock feature of ICS. This is only available on their devices at this time. It helps get around the issue of being able to unlock the phone using a photo of the owner.
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$199 Nexus Tablet? →
Rumor has it that Google may work with Asus to launch their own Nexus Tablet. They may price it at $199, which may force other tablet manufacturers to lower their price points.
Google I-O 2012 attendees may get their hands on one of these if the rumors turn out to be true.
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New Caddies w/Vibrating Seats →
Looks like Cadillac is actually implementing the vibrating driver seat to alert drivers of impending doom, or if they start to change/drift across a lane line without signaling first. I have a feeling some people will be riding the white and yellow lines all day long.
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Income Study [Survey] →
http://bss.sfsu.edu/psych/hr
A friend of mine is looking to complete her Thesis in Graduate School. Please take the time to help her out. She’s studying something that has actually started becoming national news lately.
Thank you all!
Giant QR Code on Roof of New Facebook Headquarters →
It’s not very often you see a QR code on top of a building…
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Angry Birds Space: 3 days & 10 million downloads →
It only took 3 days for consumers to download 10 million copies of the Angry Birds Space game. I wonder how much profit Rovio has made from just this one game.
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Google Voice Coming To Your Carrier? →
Looks like the folks at Google are in talks with other carriers - besides Sprint - to see if they can strike a deal to get carriers to integrate their service. Sprint already has this deal and for the most part I think they’ve ironed out the bumps in the road.
I personally would just like to see improved Google Voice apps/integration on devices in general.
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Dropbox in SF →
We get an inside look at what happens during hackers week at Dropbox in their new SF office.
I really like the culture there! Check out the video that documented that week.
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AT&T Deleting Complaints? →
Looks like AT&T is starting to randomly delete posts without warning to users in their support forums. Even posts that do not violate the user agreements.
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LinkedIn Stats for Apple →
Check these charts out. Apple’s hiring practices are definitely different compared with those in the same inudstry.
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Lots of Returns from iPad Resellers →
Apple’s new iPad is in good supply this year. Even with the usual early buyers who resell a bunch of iPads for a profit have had to return all their iPads because the black market price is so low. Maybe Apple’s launch weekend success was not as successful as they had thought?
Nyan Cat on iOS →
You know you want it!
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Next iPhone: LTE and Still A ~3.5" Screen? →
Apple maybe considering keeping the display on their next generation iPhone about as small as the current screen. I’m not sure that’s such a good move on their part, but there is definitely a lot of users out there who don’t want a big phone taking up a ton of pocket/purse space. I’m not sure a 3.5” screen would suffice. I currently use a 3.8” screen and...
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Angry Birds Space Coming To Windows Phone →
Finally…Rovio is bringing the ever so popular and addicting game to the Windows Phone platform.
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Don't Tell Employers Your Password [Facebook] →
This is really a case of don’t ask, don’t tell. Employers shouldn’t ask and prospective and current employees shouldn’t tell. Our government is still wrapping their heads around social networking/media, but it looks as though our senate is pushing a bill that will help protect job applicants from even being asked to provide potential employers with passwords to their...
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UPDATED: Google Voice for ICS →
If you’re one of the lucky owners of a Galaxy Nexus or other ICS equipped Android device, who also happens to use Google Voice, you now have visual voicemail!
Check for updates on your device.
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HTC Vivid Gets ICS! →
Don’t have an HTC Vivid? No one really does…but if you know someone who has the Vivid, let them know they can get Google’s latest flavor of Android for their device via a software update.
Looks like HTC is keeping with their ICS rollout promises.
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Photoshop CS6 Beta is FREE →
In case you missed the initial posts last night, go to the source and download it!
I find it funny that the version for Mac is much smaller than for PC.
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AIM Troubles? →
I didn’t seem to have issues today but apparently others did.
Some passwords were automatically reset for some reason and AOL support had no clue why. In order to get your password reset you have to verify the email tied to your AIM account. Does anyone really remember which email they used over a decade ago?
All of this comes after a bunch of layoffs, which has stopped the future...
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HTC Sensation ICS Camera Mods →
Just check out Engadget’s post. It’s crazy what some software modifications can do with existing hardware. The future is looking brighter and brighter!
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Zynga Buys OMGPOP - $200 Million! →
I rarely ever play games, but even I got sucked into OMGPOP’s Draw Something game.
Sadly it looks like Zynga will be buying the company. Hopefully Zynga won’t inject their typically horrible “DNA” into this game when updates come around.
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Trouble Charging Your New iPad? →
Here’s an early adopter problem…
It seems like the new iPad is having issues that some of the high end smartphones have been having: the supplied charger does not keep up with the power draw of the device when it is being pushed hard.
So aside from the new iPad running a bit warmer than the old ones, it takes 2x as long to charge (~5hours from 0 for me) but lasts the same 10...
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The Nano-SIM Fight →
To be completely honest, I’m not quite sure what’s going on here. I think I actually learned more about this fight reading the comments than the post itself.
From what I understand Apple is in favor of a sim that works with a tray system (as they’ve employed since the early days of the original iPhone. This is because a tray would allow devices to have non-removable backs or...
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AT&T Wants To Help Reduce Drop-Out Rates →
Lately, AT&T has not been in the press for good reasons. Today, however, they are going to spend $250 million over the next 5 years to help education. Their main goal is to make sure that every student graduates high school with the knowledge and skills to be a productive member of society.
More companies should be concerned about their future workforce too with such high drop-out rates.
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A5X vs. Tegra 3 →
After selling 3 million new iPads in just 3 days, a lot of bloggers and companies have run some tests on the new iPad to verify claims that A5X chip offers 4x the graphics power of the Tegra 3. Looks like it is indeed more powerful than the Tegra 3 but because the A5X still has the original A5 cpu, it doesn’t outperform the Tegra 3 in terms of raw data crunching.
It’s also...
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iPad Getting Too Hot To Hold? →
We all know the new iPad has a fancy display which requires a more powerful GPU to run the graphics. We also know the battery capacity was almost doubled but battery life has [thankfully] remained the same as the iPad 2.
Here come the complaints. Most early adopters of tech have handled a powerful piece of tech wrapped in a metal type chasis. We know things tend to be a bit warm or downright...
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4G Phone Owners Dissatisfied →
This is no surprise…a recent survey shows that people who own 4G devices are not happy with their battery life.
Hopefully before the end of 2012, we’ll see 4G devices with optimized battery life. Apple had to shove in twice the battery capacity into their new iPad to compensate for a more powerful GPU and LTE…so there’s still work to be done!
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The Vergecraft →
Any fans of Mindcraft and The Verge out there?
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The iPad (2012)
There’s no point in writing a review for this particular product. It’s been thoroughly covered.
Bottom line, if you are able to see clearly from a distance between 6-20 inches, you will no doubt appreciate the retina display on this device. Held next to any previous generation iPad and the difference is far more significant that I had guessed.
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Western Digital Thunderbolt Drive →
These super fast and low temperature drives allow owners of computers with Thunderbolt technology (mostly Macs) to transfer massive amounts of data at fast speeds. When I was at MacWorld (2012) I visited WD’s booth to check these guys out. The speedtests sure show off their speed, especially when daisy chained.
The representative at the booth was certainly right…everyone should...
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Google I/O Game →
I love Google and their random games!
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New iPad Apps: Up To 5x Larger →
Well…this could be a problem for someone with the 16gb model of the iPad.
I have the 16gb iPad 2 and the size of some apps already eat up a good chunk of space before I load on any kind of audio/video content. If the apps become 5x larger…I wont have space to create, edit, and/or store anything. How am I supposed to take advantage of that new 5mp camera that can take great HD video?
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VZW LTE: Too Much Too Soon? →
A well written post on TechCrunch about how and why VZW’s LTE outages could get worse in the near future. Kind of reminds me of what Steve Jobs said AT&T Wireless told him about wireless service, “it will get worse before it gets better”.
If you haven’t noticed, VZW no longer airs their “can you hear me now” ads and no longer uses their “Most...
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Turns Out People Do Prefer 4"+ →
Take the poll on their site.
After owning and using touch screen phones of all different sizes, I think my favorite has to be 4”.
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AIM Will Be DEAD →
I believe AIM was my first instant messaging program I ever used. In fact I still use AIM today. However, AOL has fired their development/support team and therefore we can assume there will be no more updates etc. to the client/service in the future. Also, because AIM has almost always been a free service to anyone and everyone, AOL probably has the right to shut it down at any time.
Begin the...
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Samsung Galaxy S II w/ICS →
Samsung began to roll-out ICS updates to some of their GSII devices yesterday in some parts of the world. The Verge has a quick review of the changes (or lack of changes).
Check out the video and you really need to listen to the man narrating the video. In short, he’s bored and disappointed. I imagine most users are or will be underwhelmed by the update as well.
