Swarm is Foursquare’s new check-in apprentice

2 years ago, i downloaded the foursquare app from the ovi store (AKA nokia store) and since then i have been checking in to everywhere i go. In short, foursquare has changed my life (literally), it has been an amazing journey so far. Earlier this month, the folks over at The Verge (most awesome site ever!) posted an exclusive interview with the Foursquare team about swarm. Apparently foursquare thinks that earning points and gaining mayorships is becoming stale and I have to agree with that. Other than the special occasions where I try to outpace somebody on foursquare, most of the time I really don’t care much about the points. On Friday, the hounds were released and Swarm landed on the App Store and Google Play Store (coming to the Windows Phone store in Summer).

Android In The Business Cloud

In the 21st century smartphones are basically taking over the world by storm and Android in particular is powering more than 80% of the smartphones worldwide. One of the current trends which Google and even Microsoft is heavily pushing out now is cloud storage. These days individuals and even big companies are beginning to store their data in the cloud because it’s simply more easier and with the internet being a norm everywhere, data can virtually be accessed anywhere. In today’s article, Dan Radak will be talking all about android in the cloud with enterprise users in mind.

Nokia's Lumia 930 is the Flagship Windows 8.1 smartphone

Earlier today, Nokia announced two new Lumia devices at Microsoft's Build 2014 keynote. Both of the new devices (Lumia 930 and Lumia 630/635) will be the first handsets to run Windows Phone 8.1 out of the box and the Lumia 630/635 is the first windows phone device to utilize on screen buttons and it also come without a camera shutter button. The Lumia 630 comes in single and dual SIM flavours which can support 2G/3G networks.

The innovative products of Tech Companies during April fools day

April 1st, the day when tech companies show their innovative side and the day where everybody claims its their birthday. This year google search does not recognize smells nor is nokia releasing their second generation oven, but instead, google is trying to train you into a pokemon master so you could stand a chance to work with them. Google started off the day by recruiting members of the public to join the quest to search for the ever mysterious pokemon all around the world via google maps on android, iOS and the web. In return you’ll get the title of “pokemon master” as well as the bragging rights because you successfully picked up all of the 150 pokemon scattered throughout the world map. All in all, for me it felt like a new game more than an April fool’s joke. The next major announcement which google made during the day was a new feature coming to gmail imminently and it’s called gmail shelfie (yes with the ‘h’). The word shelfie is actually a short form of the original words which are ‘shareable selfies’. This new theme also marks Gmail’s 10th anniversary and they chose to deal with selfies because the word ‘selfie’ was awarded the word of the year by Oxford Dictionary. I did quite like the themes which rotates every hour or so, whether this feature is here to stay for the long run is yet to be know (the current selfie theme is celebrating Gmail’s 10th anniversary).

Challenge Yourself to go Beyond the Hour this Earth Hour

Earth is the planet we live in and in the past few years people are starting to concern about the welfare of our planet. Earth Hour is one of the movement which is happening worldwide every year. It all started 8 years ago in Australia and today it has become a global effort and takes place in over 7000 towns and cities worldwide every year. During the predetermined day every year which usually falls on a Saturday in the month of March, people all around the world would turn off their lights for 1 hour (8:30-9:30PM) to show their support towards protecting the planet. Well this year, Earth Hour falls on the 29 of March which is today! and as of writing this article both New Zealand and Australia have completed their earth hour movement. So i would like to challenge you this year to go beyond the hour by turning off the lights when they are not used to conserve energy. Overall this 1 hour movement is not made to reduce carbon emissions because it has been proven that even if everybody shut their lights for one hour, it wouldn’t drastically reduce the carbon emissions we make everyday. However, this movement is to encourage people all around the world to unite and leave aside their differences to conquer a bigger problem. Also, to join in the movement i will be darkening the background of the blog for 24 hours to show our support towards the movement

"alright, lights off!"

My First Impressions on the HTC One (M8)

For years android phones have been criticized to be ugly looking and does not have a premium look and feel to it. But in 2013, that all changed when HTC announced the HTC One (M7) which featured an aluminium build which was solidly build and many said it was the iPhone of android phones. The original HTC One (M7) turned out to be the company’s best selling phone of all time and throughout the year, HTC grabbed numerous awards for the industrial build quality of the device. Fast forward to the present day, the successor to the original HTC One (M7) is announced and not surprisingly, HTC calls the new device the ‘HTC One (M8)’.

The Current State of Smartphones and App Stores | Infographic

These days, smartphones are all the rage and talk. basically everywhere you go, you would surely encounter someone which is staring blankly into their smartphone screen and not paying attention to their surroundings.

How I Made TouchWiz Look & Feel Cool!

For the past 35 weeks (~9 months), i have been using Nova Launcher as my main launcher on my phone. This week, i decided to go back to TouchWiz mainly because i wanted to know what is the performance and customizability difference between the two launchers. One of the main reasons why i went over to nova launcher is because i felt that TouchWiz was really lacking in some customizing opportunities compare to nova launcher which is deemed the most versatile third-party launcher available to date.

In addition to that, i was pretty much running out of ideas on how to customize TouchWiz for the ‘Weekly Homescreen’ segment (check out my weekly homscreen at our social media pages every sunday night). Well, since the very first week that i used Nova Launcher i already had the mindset that TouchWiz sucks is no match for Nova Launcher.

My Initial Thoughts of The Samsung Galaxy S5

6 years ago android was still in its toddler years and in 2009, Samsung was among the handful of manufacturers making android devices. At that time people were mostly having Blackberry’s or PDA’s and a partial amount of people going along with Apple’s iPhone 3G. 2009 was pretty much the year of android as it was gaining substantial users both Motorola and HTC were playing their A game as they were dominating the android market. Then on March 2010, Samsung announced their third android device, the Galaxy S—Samsung’s first two android devices where the ‘Samsung Galaxy’ and ‘Samsung Galaxy Lite’, these names sound familiar eh? The Galaxy S turned out to be a big success as Samsung managed to sell 10 million units that year (25 million units throughout its life). Their success was prevalent because they had a winning formula—their AMOLED screen was the big thing because it displayed out bright and vibrant colors. That’s not it, the device was also super slim and lightweight. Fast forward 5 years and the 5th Galaxy S device has been announced.

"the Galaxy S wasn’t meant to be a flagship device"

What is The Nokia X?

The dream of Android on Nokia’s hardware is finally a living and breathing reality. After numerous concepts and rumors about Nokia creating an android powered device throughout the years, Nokia finally dropped the bomb at Mobile World congress earlier this week. They announced a new category which is supposedly the convergence of Asha and Lumia in terms of design and software. Nokia X or ‘android on nokia’ is probably the last series of handsets bearing the Nokia name because after the Microsoft-Nokia acquisition is complete, the ‘Nokia’ name will most likely be changed to only ‘Asha’ and ‘Lumia’. What Microsoft plans to do with this line of devices is yet to be known but one thing’s for sure is that the first three devices will be in the hands of users this week and the rest of the story is yet to be known.

What To Expect From The Samsung Galaxy S5?

It’s 2014 and there is still no major device announcements by manufacturers, CES last month was basically the platform for accessories. However things are about to change radically this week as the Mobile World Congress is back again in Barcelona and this time around a flood of top tier devices are expected to be shown off. The biggest announcement for this year’s show is expected to be from Samsung because they have not scheduled a Unpacked event in MWC since like 2011 when the Galaxy S2 launched. A few weeks back, the company send out invites for the first installment of their Unpacked event for this year. Additionally, they also released a couple of teasers for the Unpacked event happening on Monday morning. In this article I’m going to discuss about what to expect from this event. 

The Parce One is an Elegant and Environmentally Friendly Power Adapter

Can you switch on your lights from your smartphone? In the past few years, home automation has become fairly popular amongst homeowners. Earlier last year the Nest Thermostat became a hot product mainly because it has a custom tailored personality based on your style of use. Since then the general public has been exposed towards home automation—although people have the mindset that the Nest Thermostat is just an intelligent thermostat, but it is still a form of home automation deep down. Well, today i'm not going to nag on about the Nest Thermostat, i'm here to introduce you to 'The Parce Idea' and the Parce One to be exact. The innovators behind this ingenious product says its "The World’s First Intelligent Energy-Saving Program for Everyone". The main idea behind the Parce One is to reduce unnecessary energy use and ultimately helps you lower your annual power bill by a marginal percentage (claimed to be about 30-50% ≈ 150€/ $200). 

Celebrating Our Second Anniversary, Entering The Third Year

Today is day 731 and it's time for our second anniversary, it really felt just like yesterday i came up with the idea of 'The Technology of Today'. Time flies pretty fast indeed, here we are celebrating our second year of existence. This second year has been a mixed bag for me, some stressful moments and some happy moments but overall its a bittersweet year for me. Last April i implemented the new V2.0 standard for this blog which switched up how i run this blog. The new version introduced a more personal POV writing for me; i completely stopped posting about current news and switched my focus to more original articles. I am happy to say that although i only managed to post up 295 articles in the past year, the pageload of the blog continues to grow. I will be continuing to utilize this new V2.0 standard and starting Q2 2014 i'll be introducing a whole new format to overhaul the existing one. The new format which i'll be introducing in the coming month will be more about putting content up and front so that you can be immersed with the topic in hand. With our second anniversary i am proud to say that i have reworked our blog's design which is now mostly custom and our logo(s) also have been reworked on too. In the coming days ahead i will be posting up two separate articles about our new blog and logo designs so you can understand more about it and how it came to. Before i close up this article i would like to say that i am really sorry for the lack of articles in the past few months, i was facing some time constraints and i was also busy completing the design of the blog. But fret not after this week i'll resume posting articles on a weekly basis. Well that's about it for my summary of the second year, this third year will be a spectacular one so stay connected with our page so you don't miss any of my future articles. Also follow us on social media so you can be updated with the latest in tech everyday. Finally i would like to thank you for your continuous support in us, i will work harder this year to push out more interesting and specific articles.

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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