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Samsung Galaxy S4 First Impressions

Published on May 12, 2013 by in Daily News, Gadgets, Reviews

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Hands on with Samsung’s hottest smartphone!

Note from editor: Please keep in mind that this is just my First Impressions and is not a FULL REVIEW. I know there is A LOT to cover on this feature packed phone so I want to give the Galaxy S4 as much a fair chance as possible. Please don’t flame me just yet!

The Samsung Galaxy S4 is one of the most anticipated phones this year along with the HTC One and the upcoming iPhone 5S (or whatever the next iPhone is going to be) and is the follow up to the best selling Galaxy S3. Packed with a boatload of new features such as Air Gestures, infrared TV Remote, pedomoter, etc… on top of a more powerful 1.9Ghz Snapdragon Processor (or Octocore Exynos if you get the international model) 2GB RAM, and 13-megapixel camera just to name a few. The S4 does just about everything, but one the tough questions it must face is that does it do them well? I spent a few days with the Galaxy S4 and am going to give my initial impressions. It’s not possible to review this phone over the weekend since there are just so many things to cover over this feature freak of nature!

Check out my full article at Put that Back!

 
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Geek Life March 14th to May 5th

Published on May 5, 2013 by in Daily News, Food, Gadgets, Geek Life

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It’s been crazy over the past few months and I worked on quite a handful of reviews. In doing that, I’ve rotated through some notebooks, smartphones and other gadgets going from an iPhone 5, to a Note 2, back to an iPhone 5 and now I am rockin’ an HTC One 64GB Developer Edition! I’ve also gone through some notebooks and tablets too such as going from an iPad Mini to a Microsoft Surface Pro, an Asus Transformer, Razer Edge Gaming Tablet to a Retina iPad, and now I am back to the iPad Mini once again. And on the notebook side, I went from my MacBook Air 11″ to a Dell XPS 12 and now I’m loving the MacBook Pro 13″ with Retina Display! I like to play around with the latest and greatest and I probably have an addiction where I will never be satisfied with what I currently have. At this very moment, my trio of the MacBook Pro 13″ Retina, iPad Mini LTE, and my new HTC One will do for now. I still plan to keep the iPhone 5 because as my backup and “in-between” phones to use while I look for something better! Again, lots of tech and lots of food within these two months! Read more…

 
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Nest Thermostat Review

Published on May 4, 2013 by in Daily News, Gadgets, Reviews

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A few months ago during the winter, I took a Caribbean Cruise and had a house sitter to feed the cat and check the mail. When I came back from the cruise, my house was hot like an oven and it turns out that the house sitter forgot to turn off the heater for the two weeks I was gone! When I got my electric bill, it was a whopping $200+ and I normally pay less than $90 for two months on my electricity!!!

I heard a lot of things about the Nest Thermostat, which is basically a smart thermostat which can control your central air-conditioning or heater from your smartphone. It seemed like a smart solution where I can control my AC from anywhere in the house, or anywhere in the WORLD if I wanted to. But at a staggering $249, is this really worth it?

Check out my review on Put that Back!

 
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Nest Learning Thermostat

Published on April 22, 2013 by in Daily News, Gadgets, Geek Life

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I just picked up one of these up at the Apple Store yesterday and I must say so far, this is probably the best impulse buy I’ve ever made. Priced at a staggering $249, the Nest Learning Thermostat was worth every penny. I will post a review of the up shortly within the week, but let me give you a walk through of how easy it was in setting this up! It took me a total of 25 minutes from unboxing the unit, removing my old thermostat, and mounting it on my wall!  Read more…

 
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Dell XPS 12 Review

Published on April 14, 2013 by in Daily News, Gadgets, Reviews

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At the time of this writing, there is a large variety of Windows 8 based notebooks, tablets, and hybrids giving you some choices that would best suit your needs. The Dell XPS 12′s swivel screen convertible tablet is unique, but really nothing new as it takes a page from the Dell Inspiron Duo which was released in 2010 but the design was ahead of it’s time since Windows 7 wasn’t really built for a touchscreen interface. Now that we have Windows 8, the Dell XPS 12 combined with it’s flip screen convertible notebook to tablet design makes it a very attractive product.

Is this the one product that Windows 8 users are looking for? Or should we look past the “gimmicks” and find a dedicated notebook and tablet instead? Let’s find out!

Check out my review on Put That Back!

 
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Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch Retina Display Review

Published on April 3, 2013 by in Daily News, Gadgets, Reviews

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When the first 13-inch MacBook Pro Retina was released in Q4 of 2012, it received a mix response. It was praised for being one of the most beautiful 13-inch notebooks to date with an amazing retina display, however it was highly criticized for being way overpriced starting at $1,699 with only 128GB of storage with no dedicated graphics card. Just recently, Apple did a refresh of their notebooks and the 13-inch MacBook Pro received a slight upgrade in hardware and most surprisingly a $200 reduction in price. Is the 2013 13-inch MacBook Pro now worth it? Let’s find out!

Read my review on Notebook Review!

 
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Razer Edge Pro Gaming Tablet Review

Published on March 28, 2013 by in Daily News, Gadgets, Reviews

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With the launch of Windows 8, there have been some really decent tablets such as the Microsoft Surface Pro, Lenovo Yoga, and the Dell XPS 12 but none of these are meant for any type of hardcore gaming. Sure you can play Angry Birds or Fruit Ninja, but wouldn’t you rather have Devil May Cry or Tomb Raider on the go instead?

Razer has introduced its gaming tablet, the Razer Edge, which is more or less the Surface Pro on steroids packed with some powerful hardware that will cater to those who wish to take their desktop PC games on the go with the least amount of compromise as possible.

Is the world ready for a device like this? Or should gamers stick to heavier laptops or continue to launch birds at pigs on their mobile device for portable gaming? Let’s find out!

Read my review on Tablet PC Review!

 
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I am sticking with the Note 2 – You can SEE why

Published on March 26, 2013 by in Apps, Gadgets, Geek Life

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Sure there’s a ton of lengthy articles of why people have switched from iPhone to whatever Android device, I am going to skip that and show you my biggest reason. The Note 2′s screen is awesome. At first I thought it was overkill and silly carrying a device as large as the Note 2, but after getting used to the size of the phablet, going back to an S3 and even an iPhone 5 was almost unbearable. I have to hold the phone close to my face to read it on it! Also the Note 2 eliminated my need of having to carry around an iPad Mini which ironically helps me travel lighter. On the go, all I need is my MacBook Pro 13″ Retina and my Note 2 and I’m all set. No need to carry an extra tablet, charger, and screen cover. And if I need more battery life, I can just carry an extra battery!

Other great selling points on the Note 2 and most Android phones:

  • S-Pen is really handy when needing to jot down notes. There have been many situations where I had to quickly scribble some notes and it does a great job at that
  • Swiftkey is the best keyboard out there period. I love the Swiftkey Flow feature (swype) and how it predicts your typing patters. Great for people who use hashtags with Twitter and Instagram
  • Freedom to play just about any video format. AVI, MKV, MP4, Divx, Etc… Just load it onto the memory card and you’re ready to go. No required software needed
  • Oh yeah – the memory card! Load your music, movies, etc on it up to 64GB!
  • Customization – I can be in control of how my phone works and how the interface is laid out. I can set which default browser, video / music player, document reader I want to use!
  • Apps integrate with the OS. Unlike iOS which is limited to Twitter and Facebook, I can share to just about anything such as Instagram, Flickr, WhatsApp or whatever app I have. It’s really convenient

I still think the iPhone is great. I love the form factor and ease of one handed use, but the Note 2 better suits my needs! Hope Apple impresses with the next iPhone!

 
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Microsoft Wedge Touch Mouse Review

Published on March 20, 2013 by in Daily News, Gadgets, Reviews

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The launch of the Windows 8 touched based operating system makes a very blatant statement that the computer industry is heading in the direction where the computer mouse will be irrelevant. Ironically, Microsoft has released the Microsoft Wedge Touch Mouse to compliment Windows 8 devices such as laptops, tablets, and desktops. With the starting price point of $69.99, lets see how well the Wedge handles on both Windows 8 and OSX Mountain Lion.

Check out my review at Put That Back!

 
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Geek Life February to Mid March 2013

Published on March 12, 2013 by in Daily News, Food, Gadgets, Geek Life, Photography

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I don’t get the chance to post as often as I want to these days but I do update my Flickr and Instagram pretty frequently so you can see a lot of my food porn on both of them. If you haven’t noticed already I’ve switched from using the iPhone 5 and am now proudly sporting a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 which better suits my needs because of the customization, larger screen, and expandable capabilities. Although the iPhone 5 is a nice phone, I like most people have gotten bored of it and tired of Apple’s restrictions on how I can use my phone. I love the fact that I can load as many songs and videos I want in several different formats and it’s great that I can pop in a 32GB MicroSD card and not worry about space. I like it so much that I’ve pretty much broken free of the Apple eco-system and eliminated the need for having an iPad Mini because it was redundant having both. The Note 2 is good enough to cover both the phone and the tablet for my uses. The eco-system thing is all hype anyway. I have no issues surviving without iMessage which can easily be substituted with apps like LINE or Facebook Chat. The people who matter to me have them already and if they don’t, they like me enough to install them! PhotoStream was an annoyance and uploading photos to Dropbox is a better solution. I could go on and on but people who gave Android a chance and love it have already said the same things over and over.

This session of Geek Life covers the usual food, tech, and I also went to Mardis Gras in New Orleans as well as take a cruise to the West Caribbean! Don’t worry, I wasn’t stranded on that Carnival Cruise! Read more…

 
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© the geeks office, 2013