I've been using Android phones for a long time now, and Linux even longer, but recently I have become something of a fan of Windows 8. I am running 8 on one of my laptops and have a Surface tablet. I really like it. I have been seriously considering dropping my Galaxy s3 Android phone for a Windows phone. As I am on Verizon and don't want to switch carriers I am currently limited to two phones, the HTC 8x and the Nokia 822. The HTC is arguably the higher end hardware and would normall...

I avoided the whole iPad surge patiently waiting on a fully functional Windows tablet. So for Christmas my wonderful wife decided I had waited long enough! The Surface was finally released and getting good reviews so right before ordering I (me being me ) decided I should do some investigating . I had been wanting an Asus tablet because I have an awesome Asus laptop that will smoke most desktop PC's that has giving me a ton of trouble free service.(second Asus laptop) The last few months I h...

1998: Motorola d520 This was a gift from a friend who was tired of not being able to get a hold of me.   1999: Motorola M3188 Oooo cool flip cover over the number pad   1999: Nokia 8210 So tiny and cute (mine was blue)! Sold this to a friend (sucker) and was able to afford these 2 phones with the money: Nokia 6210 Nokia 3330   2001: Siemens ME45 Needed a robust phone for work.....th...

I'm finding myself frustrated with my "friends" at Verizon Wireless. Example #1: My Samsung Galaxy SIII phone.  Owners of this phone on the Sprint network are currently enjoying the goodness that is Jelly Bean for their phone firmware.  Having used Jelly Bean on the Google Nexus 7 tablet that I had (and since sold to a co-worker, having bought that device from another co-worker that often plays musical chairs with his tech devices, fire-selling them to myself and others as he co...

Jury is out on the new maps.  The satellite images are newer than what is on Bing or Google though. Siri is noticeably better than it was previously. I was able to ask “Where’s a good Pizza place around here?” and it got me a list.  I asked it “Are there any new Bruce Willis movies out?” to which it found the Expendables and The Cold Light of Day and where they’re showing. I haven’t noticed anything else.  I saw Passbook (the new app) but can’t tell you if it does anythi...

Over at MacRumors they have an article reporting on benchmarking results from PrimateLabs.  The iPhone 5 comes in with a total score of 1601.  The iPad 3, by contract, is 766.  Mine’s on order.

So the iPhone 5 is out and naturally the fans and detractors have lined up. For me, the iPhone 5 is a no-brainer upgrade. LTE.  I have LTE on my iPad and it makes a huge difference when I'm traveling.  If the only thing the iPhone 5 had was LTE, I'd still upgrade from my 4S to it. Of course, that's not the only thing in the iPhone 5 delivers. Here are a few of the things I care about to varying degrees: It's about 20% lighter than the 4S.  I kind of c...

As some of you know, the latest iPhone update caves into AT&T’s request to have their HSPA+ connections labeled at 4G. AT&T: I’ve used 4G. I’ve spent lots of time with it. You sir, are not 4G.  When I use my iPhone for data and I’m using AT&T’s “4G” network, it is note terrible. It’s definitely a fast 3G. I get typically 3 to 5 Mb/sec. However, when I use my LTE hotspot with it, I get 15 to 20 MB/sec. THAT, to me, is 4G. It is a huge experience difference too...

    The great smart phone can’t seem to avoid it’s one fatal downfall (so to speak): The toilet. How many have lost a phone to the throne? OK, put down your hands. That might just become a thing of the past. Wouldn’t that be great? Well, three companies showed off their stuff at CES 2012… HzO, P2i and Liquirepel all are coming to the rescue. Apparently, 82.5 million phones have been damaged by moisture. I’ve seen posts here in forums so thi...

There’s been a lot of talk about the New York Times article on why Iphones are made in china. If you haven’t read it, you can find the article here . I was reading comments on Slashdot and it was apparent that most of them didn’t read the article. They assumed it was all because of “cheap labor”. According to the article, it has more to do with the type of expertise that is readily available there – lots of people with mid level technical knowledge (i.e. people with say 2 yea...

So yeah, why should PC's have all the screen shot fun? Windows Mobile iOS Android RIM webOS Both phones and tablets. I think it would be fun to see what people are sporting on their mobile devices. Please try to keep it 'clean' and it might be helpful to include links to apps and widgets you use.             The Background is Android Stock Clock Widget is Fancy Widgets ...

I recently bought a new and faster Micro SD card for my Epic 4G. I tried to copy the files on my old Micro SD card over through my Windows computer; however Windows Explorer failed. I have a number of applications installed on my SD and Windows was just not happy with .gz format files, etc.  A number of back up and cloning utilities were suggested at various forums; the one that I found be the best, in terms of small footprint and ease of use, is the HDD Raw Copy tool from HDD Guru. It i...

Has anyone here ever used F.Lux on iPhones, Macs, Linux and PCs? I just discovered this app for PC and it adjusts Color Temps and Brightness to match the time of day of your selected region. I think is pretty cool. I have been using for 3 days now and I think the claims of less Eye Strains are true in my opinion. I am always on my notebook at night and I do sufer from eye strains. Just thought I would share this finding In that note can notebook or laptop screen colors be calibrat...

I'm fairly certain that importing CM7 into eclipse first wasnt a good step.  I really dont know enough yet to do much with it besides build it, and that is all done on the command line anyways.  Its just cluttering up eclipse now, so I'm gonna take it out and just work with a basic project and play around with layouts. The logic for the search should be straightforward, so I'll have to dig up my Java book and start picking away at that, in between dodging around layout s...

Ok, so I can create, view, and delete branches in Git. Repo sees them, and knows which one you're on, in the various git-enabled directories (I think... I've only tested one additional branch in one directory. I wonder if it can track two different branches in two different directories?) My current challenge is this... I know that I should be able to build an installable .apk that I can push to my phone to test any changes I make to the Phone or Contacts apps, but I currently only kno...