Happy New Year from all of us

It's the time of the year again to flip over to another year. Time does past so fast as it felt like it was the starting of 2013 yesterday. Well first i would like to wish everybody out there no matter which part of the world you are situated a very Happy New Year. I would like to thank YOU for your continuous support in us, i will be continuing to write articles this year but with a whole new format which is much more immersive than before. Again Happy New year everybody and have a prosperous year ahead. 

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays From The Technology Of Today

It's this time of the year again and behalf of The Technology Of Today i would like to wish those who is celebrating Christmas today a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays to everyone else. I was actually scheduled to write a few christmas/holiday themed articles year but i cancelled it off because am currently i'm busy with the Year In REVEIW series. This is the second time i've cancelled the holiday article so next year i'll try my very best and hopefully i get to share my thoughts next year. Again Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to everyone.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Review | Final Thoughts

Introduction

In 2011 Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Note at the IFA trade show in Berlin, at that time smartphones were still in the 4.3” ish size and the biggest screen size was around 4.7” and the next jump in screen size would be a 7” tablet. With the introduction of the Galaxy Note, Samsung has successfully created a new smartphone category dubbed the phablet, this category is for users which want a phone with a big screen but in the same time being portable and pocketable. Samsung managed to execute the task properly by introducing software enhancements to the Galaxy Note lineup of device which increases the efficiency of executing tasks on these big screen devices. Since then different companies have tried to recreate the success of Samsung’s Galaxy Note lineup of devices but till today no one has come close to taking the phablet crown away from Samsung. Fast forward 2 years from the announcement of the original Galaxy Note, Samsung has unveiled 6 android powered devices under the Galaxy Note name and one of the device is currently the company’s flagship device; the Galaxy Note 3, the third Galaxy Note phone from Samsung. Well if you have been following our social media pages, then you would have known that I have picked up a Galaxy Note 3. I’ve been playing around with the device for more than 2 weeks now and the time is now right for me to share my thoughts on the device as my fanboyism for the device is now not active. I will be re highlighting back the points which is pointed out in my hands on review article of the device which I did about a week ago.

My Hands On Review Of The Galaxy Note 3

Earlier this week Samsung started sales of the Galaxy Note 3 in 149 countries worldwide and I managed to pick one up. If you have been following us on twitter or facebook then you would have seen me having some fun with the device. So without further ado let me start today’s topic which is the my first impressions of the Galaxy Note 3. I’ve been playing around with the device for about 5 days now and to be honest I’m still a bit blur in the features section of the device. It seems that every day I am learning about a new feature. I have to say that there is literally a massive amount of new features which Samsung is bundling with the Note 3 and in order to utilize the device to its full potential you’ll need to dig up all of the hidden features and learn them up. Most of the new features which are present in the Note 3 are related to either the S Pen or accessibility. The feature which I like the most is the new Action Memo which replaces the old popup S Note on previous generation Note devices. The new action memo is like the most powerful thing in the phone. You can just scribble out some notes and save it, and when the time comes you can click the special button on the top and you can toggle a bevy of functions like call this number, search the web, etc. I’ll be going more in depth with this in an upcoming article all about the S Pen. Also the handwriting recognition engine on the Note 3 is just amazing it can detect my poor handwriting pretty accurately. I wasn’t quite happy about the new multi window as most of the new functions to it like running two same apps at once is only available to Samsung apps. With the new Pen Window feature I’m actually pretty impressed with it as you can really multitask more efficiently with it. But there is a slight downside which is currently there is only a limited amount of apps which support it and most of those apps are simple ones like calculator, contacts, etc. 

Some Interesting Facts About Multitasking | Infographic

Hello guys today here i'm going to talk a little bit about multitasking, which is something most people are familiar with. The 21st century has been all about the digital era with multiple screens at our fingertips. Basically what i'm trying to say is that now you are not only just looking to your monitor but you are also prone to look on the screen of your smartphone or tablet. Recently i came across this infographic about students multitasking while studying. As a student and an avid blogger i'm always juggling between these two and after reading through this inforgraphic, it does make some sense why i always don't seem to study much when i'm close up to the computer. The infographic basically says that students who use social networks won't get good grades and multitasking among students is pretty much a myth with just a slight 2 percent of the population being able to do so. Well i'm no different then what the infographic says, i'm constantly looking at my twitter feed on one monitor and looking through my reader and email on the other monitor and sometimes i can feel the pain of multitasking during live events when the news starts overflowing. 

Unboxing Of The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 GT-N9005

Tomorrow Samsung will be starting the sales of the Galaxy Note 3 in 149 countries in the world. Well today i have the unboxing of the Galaxy Note 3 GT-N9005 which is the international LTE model. This unboxing is by our friends over at the Daily Note II & 3 youtube channel. If you would like to see more videos about the Note 3 you can check out his channel because his videos are very in depth and he covers up a lot topics.

Cyanogenmod Has $7 Million To Build A Better Version Of Android, My Thoughts

Specifically when talking about custom ROMs the first things which comes to mind is CyanogenMod. They have been here for quite a while and is among the most popular ROM makers around. They have ROMs for a lot of devices and they have quite a number of dedicated developers backing them up. Well, yesterday CyanogenMod announced that they have raised $7 million to fund CyanogenMod.Inc in making a better version of android and yes they are now a company. Their main goal is to become the third mobile OS in the market and in their blog they even stated a point which is they are so big in android that their estimated active users are about 8 million and they say that if they are considered a mobileOS then they would be the third largest mobileOS outpacing Windows Phone.

My Thoughts On The iPhone 5S, is 8MP Really Enough ?

On September 10, Apple introduced a duo of iPhones which is the iPhone 5C and the iPhone 5S. If you would like to read my thoughts on the iPhone 5C click here. The iPhone 5S will be replacing the outgoing iPhone 5 which has been already discontinued. The iPhone 5S is continuing Apple’s tradition which all started with the iPhone 3GS where devices ending with the letter ‘S’ will be merely internal upgrades with minor cosmetic upgrades. Apple’s release cycle are also similar to intel’s approach on their processors release cycle. The launch of the iPhone 5S thus confirms Apple’s way and routine of releasing iPhones and I also think that there are getting themselves comfy in the month of September to reveal new iPhones. Moving back the topic in hand today which is the iPhone 5S.

My Thoughts On The iPhone 5C, Do Users Really Want A Colorful iPhone ?

On Tuesday, Apple held their September 10 event where they announced the iPhone 5C and iPhone 5C. In this article I will be specifically discussing about the iPhone 5C, if you want to read about my thoughts about the iPhone 5S you can read it here. Apple announcing the iPhone 5C was no surprise to anybody which has been reading the news for the past few months leading up to this week. Basically we knew everything about the iPhone 5C and the event was just to make things official, even Phill Schiller said on stage during the event ‘you may have seen this at the internet’.

Well enough about that, the iPhone 5C Is Apple’s iPhone aimed towards users which don’t have too much money to fork out for an iPhone. The device comes in 5 colors and is not exactly that colorful like what the rumors stated. The iPhone 5C is powered by hardware which is about 1 year old now or if you put it in a better sounding way it works like an iPhone 5 but doesn’t look like one. The iPhone 5C is made out of polycarbonate but Schiller did say that the wireless signals of the device will be good due to the metal antenna just below the colorful polycarbonate shell, the antenna will also be acting as a rigid frame for the iPhone 5C. 

Additionally the iPhone 5C will be coming in 5 brightly colored shells which include green, blue, yellow, pink and white. I am still wondering where the black model is but I’m having a hunch that Apple is looking at the market response for the device and if the response is good then they will add more colors to the bunch. The device will be coming in 16GB and 32GB flavors.

My Thoughts On The Samsung Galaxy Note 3

Earlier this week at the Samsung Mobile Unpacked Episode 2 in IFA, Samsung took the opportunity to show off their third generation Galaxy Note device dubbed the Galaxy Note 3. If you would like to read my thoughts on the unpacked event in overall you can do so here. Moving on to the main topic today which is the Galaxy Note 3, this time around Samsung has upped the anti and they have produced a device which is stylish and has also introduce features which people will use actually use. First up, I’ll be talking about the design of the Note 3, Samsung has revamped their design terms of their Galaxy series of smartphone with the Note 3. This time around they are throwing away the hyperglaze back and ushering in a faux leather back which deep down is still plastic, they also did something a bit cheeky by giving the Note 3 a little of classiness by adding stitching’s on the back cover. Also on the back the camera on the Note 3 elevated out so there will be a slight bump on the back, i just hope that Samsung did think things through so that the lens cover does not get scratched when it is placed flat on a surface. On the sides of the device Samsung again tried to fool the eye by putting an aluminum like look to the side but in reality the side is still made up of plastic. The front of the device is housing a 5.7” FHD Super AMOLED display. The device’s overall look is similar to the Note 2 but just a little bit more squared off. At first I was not quite a fan of the design of the Note 3 but after some time I pretty much liked the design of it. Samsung managed to keep the dimensions of the Note 2 on the Note 3 and the Note 3 is also thinner and lighter.

My Thoughts On Samsung's Mobile Unpacked Episode 2 Press Event

This week was one with full of new device announcement which were presented at IFA in Berlin. Earlier this week Samsung held their Pre-IFA mobile unpacked episode 2 event which saw the announcement of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy Gear and the 2014 edition Galaxy Note 10.1. In this article here I will be talking about my thoughts on the event overall, there will also be another dedicated article where I will be talking all about the Note 3, you can check out that article here.The Samsung unpacked event this time around is as big as ever and as usual to events these days we already knew what was coming the only device which caught me and other netizens is the announcement of the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition. Previously the rumors suggest that Samsung would announce a 12” Galaxy Note tablet but that didn’t see much light during the event. I was a bit bummed out about the event which only lasted about 1 hour and is pretty short because the Galaxy Note II announcement last year lasted nearly 2 hours.

'3 new devices, the Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy Gear & Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition'

The event kicked off a bit late as usual and in the starting a promo video about the design of the Note 3 was shown off for a few minutes. Then Jason Bradley took the stage and did a little intro to the event. J.K. Shin then took the stage and announced the new Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition. Towards the end of his short speech he showed off the Galaxy Gear which he had worn on his hand the whole time. Then came the demo for the three devices announced and that’s pretty much what the whole event was about nothing much more. You can check out the full length event stream in the video below courtesy of Samsung Mobile

Well on to my thoughts on the event, I actually was not so happy about the sheer length of the event but the rest of the event was pretty well planned out. One thing which came to me by surprise is that Samsung actually has a pink colored device at launch. The Note 3 demos were more centric towards the S Pen and I have to say when the dude on the stage said that the Note 3 came with leather on the back I was like saying, why would you do that ? Also at first I didn’t quite like the thought of the design but after they elaborated more in it then I started liking it. The design of the Note 3 to me is a winning run because it throws away the curved and round shape of the Note 2 and has a bit more professional look to it with more angular edges. Additionally prior to the event I was hoping that Samsung would not make the Note 3 just a bigger S4 then it would just be a smaller Galaxy Mega. But seemingly things went my way and the design of the Note 3 has its similarities to the S4’s design but overall the Note 3 has a radically different design in hand.

'the Note 3 takes design cures from the S4 but has its own style'

 That’s all for my brief talk about the Note 3, for a more in depth look into what I think about the Note 3 click here. Next is the Galaxy Gear which is Samsung’s take on a smartwatch, the watch according to Samsung has technology from the next decade and I stand to agree on it. The Galaxy Gear has an AMOLED screen which means that the battery of the device can be conserved when showing the clock. At first I was pretty hyped up about the Galaxy Gear and then when I talked to my friends about the device, they pointed out a flaw in the Galaxy Gear. It is the overall device which is not water resistant by any means and whether it can survive the daily tear and wear is another thing. One thing which I was thinking is that why would they put the charging pin point on the downside of the watch’s display which will be the side facing your hand, so theoretically if you sweat then the contact points will be affected. Well you’ll just have to take this thought lightly because I have yet to see the device. Samsung took a bold new move by showing of vivid and bright colors on the Galaxy Gear and Galaxy Note 3. One thing I’m concerned about the color of the Galaxy Gear, the device comes in 6 different color and the straps all have ridges on them. The problem with ridges and bright colors is that over time it will collect dirt and dust due to the surface and your hands moving over the strap every now and then. According to Samsung the watch will last you 25+ hours so for you road warriors out there this is not something which you’ll be carrying out. The way you answer on the Galaxy Gear is something which I can say Samsung really thought of, you just basically raise the Gear to your ears and then automatically the call will be answered; but the first look videos which I saw the past few days noted that the speaker of the Galaxy Gear is not that loud so you would have to stay clear of the crowd to answer calls with the Galaxy Gear. Overall the durability of the device is the main problem with the Galaxy Gear and as usual the first gen devices are mostly more clunky due to the lack of knowledge towards the category. So, I’m hoping that Samsung would improve on the battery life and the overall durability of the Galaxy Gear next time around.

'Samsung is showing off their innovative mind with the Galaxy Gear'

The Galaxy Gear will be launching alongside the Galaxy Note 3 on September 25 and will be able to connect to the Galaxy S4, S3, Note II and Note 3; however non Galaxy devices can’t connect to it yet. Additionally Samsung is also highly advertising the Galaxy Note 3 and the Galaxy Gear which makes a perfect duo and both of the devices will work seamlessly together. Finally is the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 which is the second gen Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet. This time around Samsung did things right by putting a high res display on to their tablet. The design of the Note 10.1 2014 is similar to the Note 3. Overall the features of present in the new tablet is identical to the one on the Note 3 but just in a bigger scale. I also came to notice that Samsung has revamped their tablet UI and placed the app drawer icon on the bottom opposed to their usual step of putting it on the top right which is hard to reach. Well that’s about it for my thoughts on the event, stay tuned for next week where I will have another article about my thoughts on the Apple’s Sept 10 event.

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Why A Gold iPhone Would Make Perfect Sense

Today is the 24rd of August and the Summer season is about to end which means Fall is arriving and that is when all of the exciting events unravel. Various companies will be holding press events for product launches all around the world and today i'll be specifically talking about Apple and to more precise, the iPhone will be the main topic of today. If you have not been unplugged from the internet or dissociated with social networks you would have most probably heard about Apple's upcoming iPhone(s) which will include the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 5C. In this article i will be touching on the iPhone 5S leaks which has increased in volume in the past few days.

"as usual leaks are overflowing as we near the launch event"

Well, this whole week was a usual week with a lot of news and leaks but something which caught my eye in the pool of news topics is the rumor of a champagne gold iPhone which then lead to a string of leaks and mockups which flooded the internet. But if you give this rumor a thought, with prior iPhones several companies have been opening services to make gold colored iPhones and even in an overkill statement, some also tried burying the iPhone with real gold. Personally i think that this rumor has a future and i'm pretty much standing by it, you may begin thinking why? 

To understand why Apple is potentially producing a champagne gold iPhone, you have to go way back to WWDC 2013 where Apple announced iOS 7. If you read my article on my thoughts about iOS 7 a few months back then you would have known that the thing which i detested the most on iOS 7 is the icons which are brightly colored. In addition to that if you have been noticing one thing on the iOS 7 product video you would understand where i'm going on with this article. The iOS 7 product videos and demos did on stage were all done on a white iPhone 5. Continuing my point, the stock iOS 7 homescreen is full of vivid an bright colors which is perfect on a white panel but for a black panel it'll just look bad. I can see why Apple chose to make the sacrifice in making iOS 7 look more nicer on a white iPhone because white iPhones are selling better than its black counterpart. Going back to my main point the introduction of a champagne gold iPhone is actually pretty plausible. Plus, people love the color of gold which is calm and signifies premiumness. Well i have basically said everything in my will about the champagne gold iPhone, wheter you choose to believe, thats for you the reader to deiced. Do tell me your thoughts about this topic in the comments below. 

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My Thoughts On The LG G2

First up I would like to say that I am about 1 week late in writing this, I was supposed to write it up last Saturday but here I am today writing it. Well let’s get on to today’s article which is about the LG’s new flagship smartphone the G2 which is the successor to the Optimus G. Unlike its predecessor LG has opted to drop the Optimus name and leaving only the G. Moving on to the device itself; the G2 is the same as every flagship android phone released this year, by similar I mean that the hardware that the G2 is storing is currently as powerful as possible. Talking about powerful, the G2 houses the currently top of the line mobile chip, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor which in this case is clocked in at 2.26GHz, alongside the chipset is the Adreno 330 graphics chip, 2GB of RAM is in the package as well as 32GB of storage which cannot be physically expanded. Filling up the front of the G2 is the massive 5.2” True HD IPS display covered with Gorilla glass 3 sums up a 424 pixel density, turning back the device shows off the 13MP camera which does have optical image stabilization as well as the unusually placed volume rocker and power button. In the dimension standpoint the G2 is not the most thinnest device ever but it’s dimensions are bearable by all means. With all that impressive hardware, LG has jammed in a 3,000mAh battery which has a ‘stepped’ design (basically it means that there is more space for the battery cells compared to conventional battery designs). Other than that the usual wireless connectivity features like wi-fi are present on the device.

"the most powerful smartphone on earth period"

Moving on the design of the G2 which is a total departure from the standard smartphone design not in terms of form factor but in terms of usability. As you can clearly see there are no physical keys on the sides of the device, LG has relocated them to the back of the device which is just below the camera module. Well this is surely a bold move by LG but I think if the user gets used to it its actually a pretty practical change because in this past week I did try holding my phone with my fingers on the back opposed to my usual way of wrapping my fingers around the device because the buttons are on the side. I found that when I using the my phone to make calls the most natural place to put my finger is on the back and my finger is just laying flat on the camera module which does cause smudges to appear. LG did take into account that if you’re holding your phone like that you will be wanting to rest your finger on the camera module so they actually covered the camera module with a sapphire crystal glass lens cover to prevent smudges on it so your picture won’t come out being blur. In addition to that LG also demoed on stage during the announcement that taking selfies on the G2 is made easier with the volume rocker keys on the back which also can act as a camera shutter button. Another cool design implementation is the speakers which are dual speakers on the bottom of the device alongside the earphone jack and microUSB port. What’s interesting about it is that LG is stating that it is the first Hi-Fi smartphone and it is capable of pushing 24 bit 192kHz sound through the speakers. I’ll just have to try it myself to see what difference can it make and wheter it is better than the dual stereo BoomSound speakers on the HTC One which is currently the best on the smartphone market.

Dropping on to the display of the screen of the G2 which has a bezel which is 0.1” wide, the display is of course an IPS display and during the even LG even compared the display to the AMOLED panel found in the Galaxy S4 and they said that the G2’s display has more pixels than the AMOLED panel because the G2 is using the standard RGB matrix pixel arrangement whereas the AMOLED panel is having the pentile matrix where pixels are share thus there are lesser pixels present. Another innovation on the display of the G2 is the inclusion of GRAM (graphic memory cache) to help beef up the battery life during the use of static applications. The common usage scenario is when you’re either reading a book or browsing the web on the G2 the GRAM will come to play because in conventional phones when you are reading something off your screen the pixels will refresh automatically but in the case of the G2 the GRAM will store the image of that current screen and thus eliminating the need of refreshing the image every second and ultimately saving battery life. Other than that LG did some more thinking about the reposition of the power key which is on the back and when the phone is laid flat on the table the keys are not accessible. So they implemented a feature called KnockON which will enable you to lock or unlock your device just by double tapping the screen, this feature is similar to Nokia’s glance mode on Lumia devices rocking the Amber update.

Continuing to the software of the G2 which comes with quite a lot of novelty features but the feature pack is still not as humongous as Samsung’s. First up, the G2 is running almost the latest version of android which is 4.2.2 and on top of it is LG’s practicalUX which is a new name for their UI. Among the features, the one which I feel is the most practical is the SlideAside feature which is basically a cool new way to multitask. You literally store the apps you would like to multitask on the left side of the screen and when you want to use it you just slide it out and it is ready for action. I’ll have to try it out myself to see how nifty the feature is. Other features are AnswerMe which is something like Samsung’s Direct Call but it works differently, it enables you to answer calls just by putting the phone near your ear. Plug&Pop is yet another novelty feature which is similar to Samsung’s page buddy, it basically just recommends options or related features for your to choose from when your plug in either an earphone or a USB cable. In my experience of using the Samsung version of it, the feature is really a handy one and all OEMs should implement it. TextLink is something which looks and sounds cool but I don’t think its that practical to all users, It basically allows you to export information from the text messages to your calendar, memo, etc. QuickRemote is essentially just a fancy name for the universal remote app on the G2 powered by the IR blaster. GuestMode in the other hand is really like a carbon copy of kids corner on Windows Phone which can be enabled with a different unlock pattern on your lockscreen. Additionally LG also tweaked the software of the G2 of you can long press the volume rocker keys to activate smart memo and the camera. Alongside support of 60fps 1080P video, LG has also added a feature on the camera which is called Audio Zooming which basically enables you to focus the audio at a single point, I find that this feature will be pretty useful to most of the users.

“there are a bevy of software features on the G2”

Finally I’m going to talk purely about my opinions on the device. The thing which I absolutely adore about the G2 is not the display or the camera but the customization in the software. In case you didn’t know you can actually modify the icons on the G2, for me that is a big plus because currently on my phone I’m running nova launcher and I’m constantly changing the icons. The change in the icons can also strongly impact the look of your device. On the G2 LG opted for on screen keys, and I’m not such a big fan of it because when I’m using device with on screen keys I always tend to accidentally trigger the buttons. But one thing which LG did on the G2 is that they have a setting to enable you to change the order and the look of the on screen keys which is a big plus for me even though I somehow detest on screen keys. In addition, as a left hander i'm always complaining why OEMs won't put the power lock button on the left side but on the G2 it would be more fair because the buttons are on the back. 

"a little justice for use left handers"

Another thing which I was a bit down is that the G2 does not have a microSD card slot but LG did make it up by having 32GB of storage on the device. However in the news topics along the past week, the Korean G2 has been shown off and it has a microSD card slot but the negative about that is that the device is 0.1cm thicker. Moving down to availability of the device, till today there are still no solid dates but LG did say its happening in the fall. The device will be coming the over 130 carriers worldwide in launch and the 4 main US carriers will all have it. But the problem I can see LG facing now is competition with the devices being released in the fall. Devices like the Galaxy Note III and iPhone 5S will be hitting markets around in the starting of fall. In other stories, recently a Vietnamese blog said that LG will be making this year’s nexus phone for the second time in a row and the device will be based on the G2. My conclusion of the LG G2 is that it may succeed but don’t expect a big success because in this era of smartphone powerful specs don’t contribute much plus in about 3 months down the road these specs will be dethroned by newer chips. The success of the G2 is highly dependent on how LG is going handle marketing of the device. 

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Which Version Of The Galaxy Note III Will Your Country Will Receive ? We Have The Whole List Here

Well, last week Samsung sent out invites for their Unpacked event which will take place on September 4 in IFA at Berlin. The obvious star of the show is the third generation galaxy note which its details are not that clear yet. Additionally Sammobile has released a complete list of the countries which will be receiving either the 3G or 4G version of device. They noted that if the country is receiving 2 of the variants, the 4G version will be making its way in first. The 3G version will be packing the octa core exynos processor and the 4G version will be utilizing the snapdragon 800 paired up with the new Adreno 330 graphics. What's interesting to see is that this time around Samsung will be starting off the storage at 32GB but 16GB version will be available but not at launch. You can check out the whole list below: 

Source: Sammobile
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My Experience Being On Facebook For 5 Years

Facebook was launched in 2004, which means that it has been nearly a decade that it has existed on the web. As of March 2013, there are 1.15 billion monthly active users worldwide. I’m pretty sure that you yourself have a facebook account.

"facebook has embiggend our lives"

The growth of facebook is really phenomenal and before is start my article today, I would like to talk about some interesting statistics about facebook which I found over the past weekend, some of these stats might sound unbelievable but they are indeed accurate. The largest age group on facebook is actually users aging in at 45-54 years old and the second largest is usersaged 24-34 years old. In addition to that, 25% of facebook users are from the united states. 92% of corporate companies prefer using facebook compared to other social networks to market their products. Also, more than 50% of the fortune 500 companies have facebook pages. 

These are some of the short facts about facebook, maybe in the forseen future I will compile all of these facts in to an articles. Moving on to today’s article, I am going to talk about my experience in using facebook for this past 5 years. First up I will start with a story of how my first facebook account was created. My first ever account was created by me my friends which were nagging me to create an account for a few weeks, in the end they helped me create the account and that’s how it started out for me. Seemingly enough my first facebook account was created on the 8^th of August 2008 or 08.08.08, that day was also the first day of the Beijing Olympics.

"i didn't realize it until i was researching about this article earlier this year, really a coincidence"

At the time when I was still not quite an internet user but I did have a myspace account and I also was blogging around that time. Moving to facebook which was in that time still not that widespread yet was pretty hollow as I only had about 20 friends or so and the only thing which I did on facebook that time was to use the poke button to poke my friends. Up to today I have a few facebook accounts and the present account which I’m always using was created 1 year after my first account. In that timeframe where joined facebook, the social network was more towards app/games than sharing content or consuming content as most of the content mainly because people who want to write their thoughts would either blog about it in blogger or write a tweet. Additionally to that in early 2009 twitter saw an explosive growth and somehow I created my one and only twitter account that year. 

Well towards the end of 2009 I started playing restaurant city because I saw my siblings play with the game on facebook and that game was a high ranked game on facebook in that year alongside pet society. Among all of the games I played on facebook in the years, reataurant city was the best. But sadly when EA bought playfish the game when south in terms of user base. Well earlier this year I was like bored reading up tech news so I thought why not I fire up restaurant city and see how my restaurant is doing and the yeah a page came up saying that the game has retired I was like saying fu*K. Seemingly enough I might have missed their email about the retirement of the game. 

Moving forward to 2011 I joined Google+ and in the start it really wasn’t that pleasant mainly because the page is not centered but always facing the left hand side (found out this only happens in high res displays only) leaving a big white empty spot on the right (what is google thinking?!), this can be seen in the present with the new youtube layout which has the same orientation which sides to the left hand side leaving a lot of empty unused space on the right. But last year Google overhauled the layout of Google Plus which is the current 3 slot feed which uses up the available realestate. Well Google+ is actually a very excellent social network which in terms of design can easily trump facebook. But the reason why people don’t loiter around Google’s homegrown social network is because many of our friends are just not there and Google+ is really a bit complicated at first but after learning its actually more simpler and well planned compared to facebook. 

I’ll be doing a few articles about Google+ early next year to showcase some of its features, so stay tuned. One of the most memorable events which I remembered in my 5 year in facebook is when the social media giant introduced the timeline profile with the timeline cover in late 2011. People were like saying they did not like it and said that they preferred the old one which had a little bit more customizations. But personally I like the timeline profile from the start mainly due to the inclusion of the timeline cover which gives a profile a certain personality. 

Fast forward to the present day in which LG has taken the wraps off their new flagship smartphone the G2. Facebook is pretty much a totally different thing compared to when I joined facebook 5 years ago on this very day. In todays generation people are constantly holding up their smartphones and using apps. The facebook app on mobile has evolved a lot in the years since it was introduced. Currently the facebook app is basically an advertising platform for advertisers with an ad popping up in every 7-8 feed items. In the desktop, facebook has also changed a lot with inclusions of new features recently like graph search and the new news feed which is more intuitive. With the phenomenal growth of facebook, practically all of your friends have a facebook account.

I used to have 1000+ friends and in the past few months I have been filtering and refining my friends list and I found a lot of people which I did not even know in my friends list. With facebook being not that safe in this era I’m locking down my account and I’m still in progress to filter my friend list into groups. I have to say in these 5 year facebook security has been increased and hacking a facebook account is not as easily done than a few years ago. One of the things which I don’t quite like on facebook is the news feed, currently facebook is filtering a lot of content so basically I’m looking at about only 30-40% of the content shared by my friends and on the mobile app that percentage gets lower. 

It just feels seemingly wrong that you have so many friends and you don’t always see their content. But I have found a simple workaround which is to classify your friends in to lists and you can see all their content. Another thing which i do not like one bit at all are these pages which post up fake giveaways asking you to share the photo and like the page and in return they seem to have a lot of stock of devices like the Galaxy S4 and iPhone 5 to give away for free, now these are just ridiculous. Also there are like these pages stating that if you like a photo they will donate a few cents to the situation in the photo and that is just outrageously a scam in disguise.

"users must be more aware"

Additionally in this time, facebook and other social medias are an important asset as it has the power to convey information like breaking news to everybody in a strike. Take for example there is a natural disaster and not everybody watches the news so social media comes to play where everybody starts sharing out the news and it becomes a frenzy of activity. This is about it, my experience of being on facebook for 5 years which all started without my consent. 

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Swiftkey Review | A Premier Typing Experience

In this modern era which we are currently living in, smartphones are everywhere and there are barely a handful of smartphones which comes with physical keyboards. Well if you have been following me on facebook or twitter for some time now then you would know that previously i was a somewhat hardcore SWYPE fan. I've been using SWYPE even when i was using my Nokia symbian device. But recently (1 month ago) SWYPE has been showing some signs of lag when swyping and it does tick me off. After that i didn't quite care because these days i don't type that much. But after that i was ultimately fed up and i decided not to use it and try using the Samsung keyboard which i gave up after typing a tweet. So then i turned to the #1 top paid (at the time of writing) app on the play store which since my last encounter (October 2012) was not so good compared to swype. When i started using the keyboard i liked the way the words were predicted, seemingly enough this time around the predictions are more accurate unlike the last time i used it. Another thing is that the holo theme of the swiftkey keyboard is very similar to SWYPE's. One thing which i was not quite happy at first is the number pad which is on the left opposed to the usual top aisle placing on standard keyboards. But after some time with it i got used to it. One thing which i do truly miss from swype is the shortcuts. My rating of the swiftkey keyboard on a scale of 1 to 5 is a solid 4.5. It did not get a solid 5 because the word prediction for my case is still not there yet.

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Comparing The HTC One mini & The Samsung Galaxy S4 mini

Late last week HTC finally announced the HTC One mini after weeks of leaks. So today i'll be doing a short comparison between both of the device and comparing them feature by feature. But i have to say that the end decision is pretty compelling. First up i'll introduce these two devices, the HTC One mini like its bigger brother has an aluminum unibody exterior which makes it feel more premium and is nice to hold in the hand with the curved back. The S4 mini in the other hand is also very similar to its bigger brother in terms of looks that is. In the end the biggest decision you have to make is wheter you want plastic or aluminium. Of course there are pros and cons in each material. 

"From a distance its hard to differentiate the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S4 mini"

Moving on to the heart and soul of every smartphone which is the hardware powering it. Well both of the device actually come with pretty similar hardware but there is no clear winner as both devices took some compromises. I'll start from the bottom, both handsets are powered by a dual core Snapdragon 400 CPU and the S4 mini has the edge by being clocked at a higher 1.7GHz compared to the mere 1.4GHz the One mini comes in. In terms of RAM the S4 mini once again takes the edge by having 1.5GB of RAM compared to the One mini which only boasts 1GB of RAM. In the storage sector the One mini packs 16GB of internal storage which is not expandable by any physical way, the S4 mini has 8GB of internal storage which is expandable via microSD card. In data connectivity the One mini has the slight edge because in the international model it has LTE whereas LTE on the S4 mini is not on the standard version. Moving on to the display, both devices have the same screen size which is 4.3" and the One mini has a major advantage because it has a 720P resolution which concludes a 342PPI whereas the S4 mini has a qHD resolution and that computes out a mere 256PPI only. In terms of extras the both devices have some hit and runs. The S4 mini has NFC but only for the LTE model, it also has an infrared port on the top; however nifty features like dual shot and airview found on the Galaxy S4 is not present here. On the One mini, HTC does not bundle in NFC nor an infrared port, but in the long run it does feature most of the main software benefits found on the HTC One mini like HTC Zoe and Blinkfeed. It is noted that at the time of writing both device are running android 4.2.2 with their respective manufacturers skin on top of it. Moving on to the camera which is always a debate on smartphones these days; I can't really justify things here because the camera on the One mini is using a different type of technology whereas Samsung is just merely slapping in a standard 8MP camera. The One mini has the same Ultrapixel camera found on the HTC One whereas on the S4 mini its simply just an 8MP camera. 

"Both devices take a compromise hit"

Well as i said in the starting both devices have their own capabilities and it really up to you wheter you want plastic or metal because the hardware is seemingly identical across both devices. If i were to choose one of the device is would take the HTC One mini because of the better screen. 

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My Thoughts On The Lumia 1020

Yesterday, Nokia held their July 11 event in New York City and they have taken wraps off the latest addition to the Lumia family called the Lumia 1020. Well prior to launch there was quite a lot of leaks, in fact nearly everything was leaked out 1 hour before the event. Those leaks did take away some thunder for Stephen Elop on stage. I can say that this is the second most leaked device this year and the first place being the Samsung Galaxy S4 which was leaked pretty extensively prior to its launch. Well enough about that today i'll be talking all about the Lumia 1020. Ever since the 808 Pureview launched in MWC 2012, netizens were asking when will Nokia ever combine that sensor with a the Windows Phone OS.

We were betting high on Nokia's 2012 flagship phone dubbed the Lumia 920 but it merely came with only an 8MP camera but Nokia did introduce some pretty cool innovations alongside it. Since then Nokia has introduced 2 other devices based on the Lumia 920 which is the Lumia 928 and Lumia 925. Deep down the DNA of the three devices are there but they are just presented in different forms to suit different needs. After about a year or so since the inception of the 808 pureview, the Lumia 1020 was born and the netizens were overjoyed for the 41MP sensor which is powered by the third ecosystem and not on a dying platform (symbian). Apparently the stockholders were also quite happy with the device as their stocks surged after the event. Oh yeah if you missed the even yesterday you can watch the even here

[Image courtesy of TheVerge]

Moving on to actually talking about the Lumia 1020; I was literally super excited when i first saw the leaked image of the Lumia 1020 earlier this week. The yellow body and black camera lens seemed to match very well. Before i go in too much about my thoughts for the device, i'll first touch on the specifications of the device. The Lumia 1020 comes with a 4.5" Puremotion HD+ display, a 1.5GHz dual core snapdragon processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage which is not physically expandable, a 1.2MP wide angle front facing camera, a 2000mAh non removable battery, LTE support and the usual knick knacks like bluetooth etc. The main star of the phone of course is the 41MP sensor which is referenced from the 808 pureveiw. One of the downside of the Lumia 1020 is that is does not have wireless charging built in but Nokia did add to contact points to attach a wireless charging sleeve on to the device.

The overall dimension of the device is similar to the Lumia 920 but this time around Nokia has managed to make it lighter even with a more advanced camera on it; it weighs in at 158g which is a bit lighter than the 808 pureview but is not as light as 2013 flagships by any stretch at all. In this article i won't talk too much about the camera itself as it would be a lot to talk so i have decided to do so in the upcoming article which i will explain every single bit about how the camera works and what does 41MP mean in a smartphone. To sum things up here the Lumia 1020 basically has the same specs as the other 3 flagship Nokia Lumia devices with the exception the Lumia 1020 having 2GB of RAM which is most probably needed so that the camera can process the images with much more ease. You can look up all of the specs in detail below here:

"The Lumia 1020 is basically the Lumia 920 we all dreamed of"

In the event, Stephen Elop was mostly talking about the zooming capabilities thus the hashtag for the event was #zoomreinvented. The thing which i found most impressive on the Lumia 1020 is not the hardware but the software, the engineering team at Nokia has really done a good job. One of the features are that you can take a shot whether zoomed in or out and after that you can zoom back in or zoom back out. Another feature is the low exposure which will open a window to a ton of camera effects like the one they demonstrated on stage which is writing in mid air with light. The Nokia Pro Camera app was just the thing the Lumia 1020 needed to add a little more professional feel to the device. 

The new camera app will allow users to change manual settings like ISO, shutter speed, etc; the UI is similar to the one found with the Galaxy Camera by Samsung but Nokia's version is far more simplier to use. In the coming months Pureview branded Lumia phones like the Lumia 925 will be getting this new camera update with the Amber update. Additionally the 41MP sensor on the Lumia 1020 is back side illuminated and also comes with OIS, i'll cover that in more in depth in the article dedicated to the camera on the Lumia 1020. In the event, Stephen Elop did touch on the audio of the Lumia 1020 which looks to be as powerful as the one found in the Lumia 920. That's pretty much it for the camera section of the Lumia 1020, stay tuned for the dedicated article coming in a few days time.

"Zoom has a new definition"

Earlier today while i was researching about the device i found out that there are some pretty positive feedback from both tech sites and the commenters. It seemed that the people which had their hands on with the device found that it is very nice to hold in the hand and is not too thick by any stretch. The weight was also said to be very balanced. Personally looking at the spec sheet i do think the same, the weight and the dimensions were perfected. The camera grip accessory is something quite interesting as it makes the Lumia 1020 look like a standard point and shoot camera with the inclusion of a 2 stage camera shutter button and a tripod mound, this accessory should be quite a popular one. But one thing i still can't find out is the exact thickness of the 1020 including the camera hump. The Lumia 1020 comes in yellow, black and white and in the US it will be coming exclusively to AT&T on July 26 for $299 and will also be heading to China and select European markets by this quarter. Below here are some sample images taken with the Lumia 1020, Download the original image and try zooming in you will be amazed by the detail which the image poses.


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Nokia Unveils The Lumia 1020 | Watch This

Yesterday Nokia held an event in New York City in which they finally unveiled a 41MP Lumia phone. The entire event lasted exactly 41 minutes with an additional 10 minutes for Q&A. If you missed the event you can watch it below in the video. I'll be doing an article about the 1020 right after this so stay tuned for it. 
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Hands On With The Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3

Well, i have not been posting new articles in this blog like for about 2 weeks because of some technical difficulties and some time problems. But nevertheless things will go back to normal speed by next week. Moving on to today's topic which is about the Galaxy Mega 6.3, this device has been in the market for quite some time now and last week i had my hands on with the device. The Galaxy Mega series of devices which currently consists of the 5.8" and the 6.3" model is Samsung's take on bigger smartphones. This lineup however still bears mid range specs and you can say that it's a class lower than the Galaxy Note series of devices. It's pretty obvious that Samsung is launching this device now to see the consumer response to gigantic phones of screen sizes of extreme proportions. In reality now big phones are quite a popular scene in the sea of smartphones. Personally when i go out and walk around in the shopping complex i mostly see people using the Galaxy Note II more than the Galaxy S4. Yeah moving on to today's topic which is my hands on with the Galaxy Mega 6.3. When i first held the phone i was like, "OMG, this phone size is like PERFECT!". I literally said that, from a Galaxy Note user's standpoint the Galaxy Mega is really like normal. I didn't think it was too big or too small, its size was actually pretty perfect to hold in the hand. While i was at the shop trying out the device people were like looking over at me holding the device as it was uncommonly bigger than the usual smartphone we know and love.

"The big size of the device catches the eyes of consumers"

The hardware of the Mega is really similar to the Galaxy S4, so if you have held a Galaxy S4 before than that's how the Mega will feel like. The Mega still has the checkerboard pattern which Samsung introduced with the Galaxy S4. Specs of the device are mid ranged, with a dual core CPU, 1.5GB of RAM, the usual sensors, two cameras, and a 6.3" 720P LCD display. Overall the display on the Mega is ok, not too bad and not too good either. One thin i have to say is that the UI/skin seems to be not optimized fully for the screen, some of the text look rather small and teeny and this is clearly seen in the notification bar section. The good thing about this phone is the big screen, you really need to see it to really feel it as the screen is HUGE and multiwindow on the Galaxy Mega is awesome. I think this is the only Samsung device where multiwindow comes to play perfectly, on the Galaxy S4 multiwindow looks small and on the Galaxy Note 8.0 multiwindow looks big but on the Galaxy Mega it seems to have the most equal experience. Additionally, i find it sad to see that Samsung didn't bundle in an S Pen with this device, if they did the experience on this device would be even better. Finally, the Galaxy Mega in the software side is similar to the flagship Galaxy S4 and so can i say with the hardware too. So in the end of the day if you want a big screened phone the Galaxy Mega 6.3 is a very good choice with a balance of price and performance. 

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