Lifesperience

I wonder if Jelly beans are that happy when they're about to be eaten? Just three years ago, Samsung popularized the "phablet" category with its "Note" series of extra large phones.  With the huge screens, large batteries, and S pen technology, the Note series have sold in the millions and are only rivaled in popularity by Samsung's other "S" flagships in the Android space and of course Apples iPhone. Originally released with an earlier version of Android Jellybean in late 2012, the Note 2 has only received minor updates and was stuck at version 4.1.2 for almost a year since Samsung decided to skip Android 4.2 altogether in favor of Android 4.3.  The result has been a long wait for the Note 2 to finally get its first "major" update since it has been released.   Read on for the differences that I've found. Transparency and new Samsung icons. The first minor difference that you will notice is the transparent status bar on ...

My Nexus 7 anxiously waits to try on its new outfit. As the holidays come arrive with tablets being a hot ticket item, it is a safe bet that many will find a Nexus 7 (2013) model under their tree this year.  Once the box is open, most people will want to protect their shiny new toy and the choices are many.  This review is about the Caseology case for the Nexus 7.  How does it fare?  Read on for the review. Picking up the case, you will notice that the feel of the "leather" material on the outside feels good in your hand.  Opening up the case, the inside has a gray suede like material that while stiff, feels soft to your touch.  This material will not scratch up the glass or the "soft touch" backing to your Nexus in any way and it feels like it has decent shock absorption.  The case walls are just thick enough to absorb a fall but thin enough to not add any unnecessary bulk to your Nexus.  Of note, there is no branding anywhere on the c...

The team up that no one has demanded, but should have. As a man who grew up loving the first generation of Transformer cartoons, I have fond memories where I wished for Blaster to have been an actual working radio.  How awesome would that have been back in the eighties to have been able to pop Ravage into Soundwave and having the ability to record and play back music? Imagine my surprise when one day cruising Amazon, I ran into an updated design of "Ravage" as a working USB thumb drive instead of (for obvious reasons) a cassette tape.  Not believing my own eyes, I saw that this device has 32gb's of flash storage and actually transforms to a working USB drive and back to panther mode.  Without hesitation I placed my order, paid my $19.99, and a few days later my package arrived. "Ravage" in "Panther" mode. "Ravage in "Thumb drive" mode The first thing that I noticed was the cheap overall build of this device.  The joi...

Pikmin moving my data. Cute. Now that the new age of console gaming has arrived with all the major players having presented their offerings to this generation of gamers, I recently decided to pick up a Wii U.   Many people have their reservations about the power of this system, but that is a topic for a different article.  The reason that I picked this up was the price was right, and now that the system has been out for a year, the games that actually take advantage of the hardware will start to arrive shortly. Currently, there are relatively minor differences in these new generation of systems from the former when presenting graphics.  The huge leaps that we are used to from every other console generation upgrade are not as immediately apparent this time around.  While graphics will continue to improve to differentiate the current generation from the last generation with time, it won't be by the leaps and bounds from the last 25+ years of gaming. These day...

With the holiday rush already upon us this week as Black Friday approaches, the worlds number one online retailer has launched a new strategy to keep you shopping from home.   As early as today (from personal experience.  I received a package this morning) Amazon has worked out a deal with the U.S. Postal service for Sunday delivery of their products.   The only catch at the moment is that this deal only applies to New York and Los Angeles with plans to expand to other cities to begin in 2014. The deal should help the struggling US Postal service and make Amazon even richer as many customers typically bought from local retailers on weekends due to not wanting to wait until Monday for deliveries.  With this deal, I placed an order on Friday morning and received my Amazon Prime package this Sunday morning.   Of note, an Amazon Prime account is not necessary for this according to sources for The Verge.  The service will be available to all Amazon subscrib...

WiFi is great! Wifi is everywhere!  Except when it's not!  Even the best of WiFi routers have zones in your home or apartment that are just too much for them to handle.  It could be interference, it could be that the walls are too thick, a bad angle, other obstacles in the way, or just that your device simply doesn't have a sensitive antenna.  When all that you want to do is watch some Netflix or play some Call of Duty and your signal is low to nonexistent, it can be an extremely frustrating experience.  So what is the solution for this problem? Should you have to run ethernet cables through your home and damage your walls with staples and drilling?  The answer is no .  There is a solution called Ethernet over Powerline that is as easy as plug and play and can save you hours of manual labor running wires. What is Ethernet over Powerline? As per Wikipedia: Home networking (LAN) Power line communications can also be used in a home to interco...

One of the most appealing reasons for the purchase of a Nexus device is the guarantee of timely updates directly from Google.  With a slight delay of about a week due to some last minute bug fixes, Google has started to deliver the 4.4 Kit Kat update to their Nexus devices. These devices include: Nexus 7 (2012 & 2013) Nexus 4 Nexus 10 Nexus 5 (ships with 4.4) I received my 4.4 Android system update prompt yesterday afternoon and after pressing to restart and install, my system started the upgrade process which took about 20 minutes to complete from full shut down to a usable home screen. Update prompt on the Nexus 7 Upon my first boot, the first thing that I noticed was how quick my device felt.  Swiping through my home screens and the app drawer was definitely a lot more responsive than it previously was on 4.3.  Deciding for myself to check if this was a placebo effect of a refreshed system, I pulled up the Google keyboard (which also received a...