Sunday, January 31, 2016

Facebook's timeline time machine caught me off guard

A brief flashback!

Whether you like it or not, Facebook is a still the undisputed king of social media as it still ranks on top of the list in terms of monthly active users. While, It is not the most well-loved social media platform, Facebook is still a necessity just because it is the most commonly used social network out there (unless if you're in China or North Korea). I still remember that I wrote a piece about facebook a couple of years back signifying my 5th year on the social media platform. This year will my mark my eight year on facebook and this article will serve as an update towards that article from 2013.

The inspiration for this article comes from one of Facebook's newer inventions to improve the 'social' experience. That is the 'on this day' segment which brings back some nostalgic posts from a couple years back on that specific day. I get where Facebook is going for with this segment, it's like the History's channel 'today in history' segment where they relook at the past. This feature has been on my timeline for the past few weeks already but earlier this week, the significance of this section struck me.
Facebook updated their logo, have you noticed it? — "2015 is the time for change as this is the first time since 2005 that Facebook is changing how their logo looks like. The new typography design isn't too far from the original, it's just the font have been given some rounder edges." Continue reading.
I stumbled upon a flashback of a poll from the WAA page about what company do you want to see a phone from and the top vote was for Microsoft to make one. Well, at that time, it was so much of a pipe dream that Microsoft would be making phones as Nokia was thriving at it. But little did we know that Microsoft did eventually buy over Nokia's mobile division and currently we are living in the world of Microsoft Lumia phones opposed to Nokia Lumia phones.

Sunday, January 17, 2016

4 Apps to get you started with Windows Phone

the essentials

As you might already know (if you have been following this site), I am quite an advocate for Windows Phone. I was instantly attracted to the Lumia 800 with its striking cyan color and even until today, the concept of a live tile still feels like something other platforms should adapt. Windows Phone might always end up being the third wheel when compared to both iOS and Android due to Microsoft's app ecosystem in which popular developers just don't see the need to bring their app into the Windows Store
Lumia 630 Review"Another thing which i was seriously bugged about is that there is no proximity sensor and if you don’t know what a proximity sensor is used for, it is that sensor which turns off your display when you take a call so you don’t accidentally press" Continue reading.
Big named apps like Snapchat and specifically the entire Google app selection like Gmail, Google Maps, Google+ and Google Photos still do not exist on the Windows Store because the people behind them don't like Microsoft. While the Windows Phone app gap definitely exists, devoted developers like Rudy Huyn have expressed their loyalty to the Windows platform by filling out that app gap with an unofficial version that tends to work better than the original one.

But here it is, 4 essential apps that you need to have on your Windows Phone or Windows 10 Mobile device.

Sunday, January 10, 2016

What happened during CES 2016

Taking notice of product launches and trade shows is a big part of blogging about technology and the annual Consumer Electronics show is a dear part of me as I have been tuning in to all the announcements for a couple of years now and frankly speaking, everything feels a little boring now. As the years go by, I begin to look away from CES just because everything about has changed. Sure, the new products are exciting but all the major announcements or headlines are basically a little overkill. So, here I am writing about a recap of what I can remember most about CES 2016.

Not going to talk too much about the overkill stuff like the Samsung fridge with a gigantic tablet display. It is the future and all but at the moment it is impractical whatsoever due to it's relatively high price tag. But instead, I am going to focus on the mobile technology part of CES 2016. Maybe a little about the cars and home appliances but generally speaking, I am not an expert or advocate of either genres. So, it's just mostly about the new tablets, computers, laptops. Fitness trackers and mobile accessories.

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Here are 12 Windows Store apps for your new Windows 10 PC

Nothing beats that feeling of laying your hands on some new hardware and I'm pretty sure that some of you out there have picked up a new device or received a gift in conjunction with the holiday season. I have personally gotten myself the new surface pro 4 and you can read about my first impressions of the device in my previous article. Well If you have recently gotten your hands on a new Windows 10 powered computer (or even a Mac) or if you want to see what apps that I use on a daily basis, here is a list of my must have apps on a computer.
My first week with the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 — "The deep hardware and software integration allows the Surface Pen to perform at it's tip top condition without any latency issues compared to other third party apps. I am quite happy with Windows 10 so far and I have been using it since it was made available to everyone" Continue reading.
First off, I would go to www.ninite.com and start selecting a few applications from the list and download the installer so that I don’t need to go to a bunch of different sites to get the download packages. I have been using ninite for quite some time now and it is a very useful tool quickly get started. Then I continue the installation process with other programs like Photoshop and visual studio which are not available on ninite. Finally, the last thing I'll do on Windows 10 specifically is to uninstall the get skype and get office app.