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Archive for November, 2011

New Rogers Commercial Shows What The Droid Razr Can Really Do

Posted by Alan Buckingham at 3:44 PM on November 26, 2011

Everyone is probably familiar with the new Motorola Droid Razr commercials.  They are on TV almost continuously it seems, but Rogers, of Canada, has a new twist in their Razr TV ad.  If you have seen the U.S. ads then you know that the ad is more special effects than actual phone – you just see things getting sliced in half by the unseen Razr.

Rogers has gone one step further and is actually slicing things with a real Motorola Droid Razr, and they filmed it with a super slow-motion camera so you get to see all of the action.  The ad features a Razr being fired from some sort of air gun and proceeding to slice through an egg and a cake.  In the end, the icing is wiped off of the screen and the phone starts like nothing has happened.  Of course, there is no telling if it’s really the same phone that was shot out of the gun, but the effect is still good for a really cool commercial.  You can check it out below.  It’s titled “Motorola Razr VS The Baker’s Dozen.

Posted in Android, mobile, TV

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Before You Cyber-Shop, Become Cyber-Safe: Tips to Shop Safer Online.

Posted by Jeffrey Powers at 11:56 AM on November 25, 2011
cyber-safe

Be cyber-safe

It’s that time to go and get your gifts for the kids, parents, siblings and the hubby. Some of us braved the cold and dark of night to stand in line for some super doorbuster deal. However, others stayed at home with cocoa and a restful nights sleep, for their trip to shop means turning on the computer and getting it all online.

As you get ready to brave the online crowds on the website, let’s run through a little checklist so you can be safe in purchasing items. With these ideas, you are better protected from malware and scams.

Update Your Computer, Browser and Anti-Virus

This is probably the most important thing to do. There are several security updates that patch holes to your computer. If you are planning on entering a credit card, you want to make sure nobody can watch your transaction. Run some scans on your computer, run the updates to the computer (Mac or PC), then open up your web browser and check for updates.

- Chrome : Choose the wrench icon on the right and “About Google Chrome”. It will update software automatically.

- Firefox: Choose the “Firefox” tab on the top-left. Choose “Options -> Options”. Select “Advanced” and the “Update” tab.

- IE: Go through Windows Update to get the latest version

- Safari: Through the software update option

- Windows 7: Windows Start button – Type in “Windows Update” in the Run box.

- Windows XP: Open IE browser and type in Update.microsoft.com

- Mac: Choose the Apple and Software Update

Anti-Virus may be trickier since there are different versions out there. Most important, if you don’t have anti-virus on your computer, put it on now. Avast and AVG are two great programs that have free versions.

What Websites are You Shopping At?

If you are going off the beaten internet path, it’s important to make sure the website is a verified seller. Most of the time, you can find badges on the site saying if they are trusted. When in doubt, do some simple searches. Also check the retailer’s reviews at a site like Resale Ratings.

Finally – When you are checking out, make sure you are on a secure page. Chrome, Firefox, Safari and IE all indicate if your credit card will be encrypted or not. If the lock icon is closed, you are on a secure page.

Email: Trusting links, Query Confirmation Email or Bank Email

You might be getting tons of “Black Friday” or “Cyber Monday” deals through email. Be careful what you select – there are misrepresented Spam mails out there. I just got one the other day from the New York Times to get a 1 year subscription. The email looked like it was from the NYTimes, but the links went to some other site like newyorktimes.some_domain_name dot com.

When in doubt, do a Google search on the email deal. If Walmart is having an online sale, then go to Walmart.com and find the deal through their website.

You might also see confirmation emails that could be phishing schemes. You get an email saying “Congratulations: You just purchased…”, but you didn’t purchase anything. There is a link saying “I didn’t purchase this” or something related. When you click on the link, it tells you what to do on a refund.

DON’T CLICK! (don’t even trust the links in the email)

What you should do is go to the website directly and find a phone number to call. Verify with an agent there is a purchase for you. Also, check your card statements. some purchases update within minutes.

Buy with Credit Card

Speaking of Credit Cards, most major cards and Paypal come with fraud protection. If you feel unsafe about any purchase, make a call to your credit card company. Never purchase online by sending a check or  wiring cash to someone’s account. If they cannot get a verified payment service like Paypal, Amazon, Visa, Mastercard, American Express or more, then this purchase isn’t worth it.

Ask For Help

Ok, so you are not Internet savvy. You read through this article and your head began to spin. If that is the case, then ask people for help. Talk to your friends. Seek out someone you know that does this stuff on a regular basis. What is worse is if you do not update your computer. Never think “Oh, I’ll just do it later…”

Cyber crime rises during the holidays. We are purchasing more online. So it’s important to stay safe. That, and get the best deal on a tablet…

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Boogie Board Rip Hands On Review

Posted by Andrew at 4:00 AM on November 25, 2011

Boogie Board RipThe Boogie Board Rip from Improv Electronics is an electronic clipboard that will save handwritten notes and drawings to Adobe‘s .pdf format for later transfer to a PC via USB. You draw or write with the included stylus on the pressure-sensitive 9.5″ dark monochrome LCD screen, which results in light coloured lines and writing.  When you want to save your work, you simply press the “Save” button at the top. To start over, the “Erase” button wipes the screen. It’s that easy.

Here’s a few scribblings and the complementary .pdf. I’m no artist. That’s an A4 notebook behind it for scale.

Improv Electronics Boogie Board Rip

Improve Electronics Boogie Board Rip PDF

I’m not sure exactly how the stylus and the screen work together to record the image as any stylus can be used to write on the screen, but only writing from the included stylus will be recorded in the saved .pdf. Sometimes, I found that I wasn’t pressing hard enough for all the lines to be recorded; if you look at the picture of the hedgehog, you’ll see that the drawing is much spikier than the .pdf. This was an early trial picture and you get used to pressing that little bit more firmly.

Boogie Board Rip Hedgehog

Boogie Board Rip Hedgehog PDF

The internal memory is only 8 MB but this is sufficient for around 200 .pdfs. Getting the .pdfs off the device is simple – just connect up via micro USB and the Rip appears as an external drive. I had no problems connecting it up to both Windows and Linux machines. The Rip has an internal rechargeable battery which charges via the USB and lasts ages – the manufacturer suggests a week of normal use and I can see no reason to disagree.

I found the Rip to be a great partner for tools such as Evernote. I could take notes in a meeting and then transfer the notes into Evernote, creating a chronological record of meetings and discussion. Personally, I was looking for a simple paper notebook replacement that was a relatively cheap and robust, and nowhere near as expensive as a full tablet.

In the end, I had mixed feelings about the Rip. It does what it does well, but it’s not the complete package that I need it to be for the Rip to replace my A4 notebook.

First, the 9.5″ screen is too small. Being used to A4 notebooks, I struggled with the narrower page and often used the Rip in landscape mode rather than portrait to get extra width.  If you are a Moleskine person, more used to the A5 format, it will perhaps be less of an issue but I look forward to a larger screen.

Second, the “resolution” of the screen and stylus combination isn’t detailed or fine enough. When I write with my normal handwriting, it’s difficult to read the writing on the screen because the lines are quite broad. As a result, I have to write larger which compounds the small screen issue. To be fair, the saved .pdf does record the handwriting accurately so perhaps I just need to get over the display and rely on the .pdf.

Boogie Board Rip Handwriting

Boogie Board Rip Handwriting PDF

I admit that I have specific needs so I would also emphasise the Rip’s good points.

First it’s very easy to use. There are two buttons, “Erase” and “Save / Wake” and when you do press the buttons, the device responds almost instantly. There’s no PIN or password to enter.

Second, it’s lightweight with little difference between it and a paper notebook.

Third, the saving of drawing and notes straight to a .pdf is the brilliant bit. No need for scanning or special paper. I can instantly upload the .pdf to Evernote (or Microsoft’s OneNote) for a historical record of meetings and other activities.
Finally, it’s fun and you’ll never run out of paper.

In summary, Improv Electronics’ Boogie Boards are styled as paper replacements and they’re not far wrong but for me it’s just not there. At the moment, the Rip is best suited to drawings and sketches but falls short for handwriting, so I’ll be keep my A4 notebook for now. However, I genuinely look forward to the Rip 2, which will I’m sure will have a larger screen and a more detailed stylus.

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Posted in Gadgets, review, Toys

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SlingBox and Boxee Box Together

Posted by KL Tech Muse at 2:01 AM on November 25, 2011

Slingplayer Boxee AppSlingBox is now available through the Boxee Box. SlingBox connects directly to your cable or satellite box and allows you to watch anything that is available through that box no matter where you are. It works whether you are in the next room or the other side of the world. It comes in two version one that runs standard definition video and the other both SD and HD video. The Boxee box is a separate box that allows you to watch and listen to your favorite content from the Internet, including Netflix, Vimeo, MLB, Pandora and Flickr just to name a few of the hundreds of apps that are available on the Boxee Box. Now there is one more addition to the Boxee Box the SlingBox app.

Now if you have a monitor with a Boxee Box attached to it you can use your SlingBox through it. This would be great if let say if you have Boxee Box attached to a monitor and you don’t want to pay for another cable box, but you would like to watch live TV on it occasionally. Perhaps you have a summer home again you can use the SlingBox app on the Boxee Box to watch what is on your cable box at home. The SlingBox application is free however for it to work you must have an actual SlingBox, which run from $179 for the SlingBox Solo and $299 for the SlingBox Pro HD. This application works only with the stand alone Boxee Box and not the Boxee application you run on your computer. If you have a SlingBox and a Boxee Box, this application is a great addition.

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Posted in application, Information

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TGP # 33 BLACK FRIDAY ON WEDESDAY

Posted by Gadget at 8:17 PM on November 23, 2011

The Gadget Professor Welcome to The Gadget Professor’s podcast, Show #33 hosted by Don Baine.

Today”s show features a review of the BLACK FRIDAY ADS. WHAT ARE THE URLS YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT. WE ALSO FEATURE 2 FREE APPS FOR THE ANDROID. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! Sit back and relax while you watch The Gadget Professor.

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Podcast (tgpa): Play in new window | Download | Embed

Posted in Information, tgp

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Apple’s Black Friday Deals Don’t Feel Like Much

Posted by Jeffrey Powers at 12:16 PM on November 23, 2011
Apple Black Friday Teaser

Apple Black Friday Teaser

Ah, Black Friday. The day where you push and shove to get in a store for a “Doorbuster deal”. This year, Apple will be getting in the game with their own Black Friday Deals. But are the supposed price reductions a discount, or a slap in the face to the consumer?

Apple is doing something they haven’t in a long time. Put a sale on their computers. Usually, if you want to buy a Mac, prices are set and you have no choice. However, this holiday season, Apple is doing something different – they’re putting devices on “Black Friday” deals.

According to 9to5mac.com, this Friday you can get a 16GB iPad2 for $458 – A $41 discount. Macbook Air, Macbook Pro and iMac will all get $101 discounts, and iPod Nano and Touch will get a $11 discount. accessories will also be discounted.

So the best deal out of the group is the Macbook Air for $898. While it is a discount to normal prices, this doesn’t feel like a Black Friday deal. Usually, if you stand in a line for hours, you can get a free MP3 player or 20″ LCD TV. You can get a 20% discount on certain items in the store.

Apple’s discount is about 10%.

With Kindle Fire being $199 and nook color at $249, then add in the fact that Blackberry Playbook just got reduced to $300, Apple’s $41 discount on an iPad might not be the magic number for people to get excited in standing in a Apple Store line on November 25th. Then again, Apple always has been about quality, and with quality comes price.

Still, some fans hold Apple products on a silver pedestal. They will pay whatever price Apple puts in front of them. So a $41 discount might be a big deal to someone who wants an iPad.

Conspicuously missing was any price breaks for iPhones. Especially since Best Buy posted their Black Friday circular (in which an Apple TV is $10 off). Some other phones will be 30-50% off on Friday.  Six Android smartphones will be free (with 2 year activation).

The LG Thrill is one of those phones – a 4G phone with glasses-less 3D technology. It matches the specs to an iPhone 4S. That would be a good reason to hit Best Buy when they open.

Still, any discount is a good one. So get your running shoes on and get ready for a long day in shopping lines. Unless you are like me, waiting for Cyber Monday to get all the deals online…

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Posted in Apple

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Google Search on iOS Devices

Posted by KL Tech Muse at 10:44 AM on November 23, 2011

Google Search

Google has updated their search app in the iTunes store for both the iPhone and iPad. I do recommend downloading it, but it is not without its problem. On the face of it the app is a way to search in the Chrome world on the iPad. When you search for something it pops up within the application, no going out to Safari. It uses instant search so it is very fast. If you click on a link in search, the link page shows up on the right side, but the search page still remains on the left tab, so you can easily go back and forth. If you are searching an image, you can open it to full size and then swipe to the next similar image like a carousel. You can do voice search which is great especially on the iPhone, where it can be hard to type.

The real strength though are the apps that are included within the Google Search Application. Now you can use Google Maps, Docs, Mail, Calendar in fact any app that is available through your google account is available through this application. Now you can up date your google docs or view your pictures in Picasa. However you can only view your pictures, you can’t add them from your iOS photo gallery. I tried to do a post on my personal blogger blog and I couldn’t figure an easy way to add links or photos. It is great for writing up the post, but you have to use the desktop version to add these. That is the problem with this app, there are a lot of things that you can’t do within this application that you can do with the web version of the application. The second problem is it does tend to crash a lot especially when it is working hard.

Despite these problems I do recommend downloading the app. Like a lot of Google products I expect it will improve overtime. Plus the fact that Apple has let an app into the market is actually surprising to some people, so how long it will stay there is a mystery. Have you tried the new Google Search app on your iOs device, what do you think of it.

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Posted in google, Information, iOS

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Make Magazine: A Gift for the Tinker in Your Life

Posted by KL Tech Muse at 4:55 PM on November 21, 2011

Make Magazine One of the best gifts you can give a child or young adult are gifts that encourage them to explore and think. When I was younger one of the best Christmas gift our family received was a book of craft making. That book got used so often that the binding broke and it was held together by duct tap. You could tell what our favorite projects were by the amount of stains on the page. The magazine Make is the modern equivalent of that craft book, only cooler. The magazine comes out quarterly and is available in both paper and electronic form. Each magazine is filled with projects both simple and complex. There are projects that involve robotics, electronics, woodworking just to name a few. There are projects that are right for everyone from kids to adults. The magazine also contains articles by other makers, their tips and tricks.

Pendulum Build Challenge
The magazine is only a small part of the maker community. It also includes the Make web site. The Web site includes videos of various projects people have made and how they made them. There are also audio and video podcast available from the site. You also get to meet various members of the community, who they are what they do and how they got started. There is a great community forum where ideas can be exchanged and problems can be solved. Plus there is the Maker Shed Store which allows you to buy what you need for your projects.

If they really get into the community and making things. They might want to participate in a local Maker Faire. Maker Faire is where the Maker community gets together and shows off their projects to the general community. These aren’t all small projects either, some are quite large. There was the attempt to build a 50 ft mechanical snake or perhaps you would like to help build the world’s largest tesla coil instead. These are just two of the projects that were shown off at various Maker faire around the U.S. and Canada in 2011 In 2011 there were major Maker Faires in the Bay area, Detroit and New York. However throughout the year there are a lot of smaller more local faires around the country.

Make magazine and the Make community isn’t for everyone, but if your kid is starting to take things apart or asking you how something works, it might be a great place to start. The paper and digital edition of the magazine is $34.95 a year and the digital edition alone is $19.95. Well worth the price considering how much someone likes to tinker can learn from them.

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Ebay Acquires Hunch Recommendation Engine

Posted by Jeffrey Powers at 1:32 PM on November 21, 2011
hunch

hunch

Auction site eBay announced it has acquired  Hunch, for an undisclosed price. Founders Chris Dixon, Tom Pinckney and Matt Gattis, will stay on at eBay and remain based in New York

Hunch is an online recommendation platform launched in 2009. It uses web data to create “Hunches” and map them so it can start to predict the products, services, websites, or just about anything. The program can then focus your searches to popular items, or items tailored on your history.

“We are engaging consumers in innovative ways and attracting top technologists to shape the future of commerce,” said Mark Carges, Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President, Global Products, Marketplaces. “With Hunch, we’re adding new capabilities to personalizing the shopping experience on eBay to the individual relevant tastes and interests of our customers. We expect Hunch’s technologies to benefit eBay shoppers as they browse and buy, and to bring sellers on eBay new ways to connect the right products with the right customers.”

The staff at Hunch believe this will be a great integration to eBay. They will be able to integrate into search, advertising and more. For instance, Hunch has a Netflix engine, in which you sign in to your Netflix site, then it will search for movies you might want to watch.

Hunch Netflix Engine

Hunch Netflix Engine

 

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Price of Chromebook Drops. Will You Buy it Now?

Posted by Jeffrey Powers at 1:00 PM on November 21, 2011
Chromebook Display at Google Places Event

Chromebook Display at Google Places Event

Google announced they are dropping the price of the Chromebook by 30%. Some Chromebooks will be as low as $299. But questions still arise if a Chromebook is in your holiday wish list, when you can get a Kindle Fire, nook Color for less. Even the iPad could be in more stockings than the ultra-portable laptop.

Chromebook came out back in June as Google’s answer to a PC that didn’t have a complicated OS to it. You would load the Chromebook up to a Chrome browser; inside, all your applications would be in the cloud and the data you create would also mostly reside in a cloud drive. However, if you were in a 3G deadspot or didn’t have Wifi, then your work would be rather limited.

Competing with a Tablet

Chromebook’s price drop is pretty much an attempt to counter the prices of the Kindle Fire and nook color tablets, which debuted to the general public last week at $199 and $249 respectively. The tablet – which you could connect a bluetooth keyboard and mouse – could technically become a more functional notebook than a Chromebook itself. And with prices at $100 lower than the device,  will a Samsung or Acer Chromebook even be in your holiday purchase radar?

What is Chromebook’s Market?

Google Chair at SF Airport

Google Chair at SF Airport

Chromebook has to figure out where their niche is going to be. Maybe as a laptop for the kids, or a machine you can keep in the kitchen to call up recipes or as a kiosk in a public place? Back in September, I saw the Chromebook lounge in the San Francisco Airport. Those kiosks would be great for people that have hours to wait but don’t have a computer to check their Facebook profiles or email on.

Remember when the Netbook was a popular item two years ago? What happened to that? The answer is the netbook disappeared fast. You can still get a netbook, but just like the Chromebook, why should you spend $300 or more for a device that is the same speed and power as a Kindle Fire or nook Color?

So now we can start to see the impact of these two new tablets are bringing to the holiday shopping season. Chromebook has to compete with something more compact and useable. Google has not released any data regarding Chromebooks sold, but a DigiTimes report (premium content site) says it all:

“In June 2011, Acer and Samsung launched their Chromebooks ahead of other PC brand vendors, but by the end of July, Acer had reportedly only sold 5,000 units and Samsung was said to have had even lower sales than Acer, according to sources from the PC industry.”

What does that mean to Chromebook? Simply: It’s time to drop prices and hope the Chromebook will sell well in Q4.

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