The OC Technophile » Uncategorized

Review: the Kindle Fire

David Amodt — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 02:34:57 +0000

The Amazon Kindle is easily the worlds top selling dreaded for books and the Amsazon marketplace for Kindle books one of the best. Amazon has taken the Kindle to new heights with the release of the first color Kindle, The Kindle Fire. The Kindle Fire is a 7″ color reader that does so much more than books. It is built as a consumption device for the Amazon marketplace that includes books, music, movies, apps, magazines, and of course Amazon.com itself.

The Kindle Fire is built on the Android platform but you wouldn’t know that by using it. When you first open the device, your Amazon content is just there. Your books, music, and tv shows load up and are just there, with no syncing to iTunes or other programs needed.

The electronic of the classic Kindles is gone as a more digital approach is taken with the Fire. The Fire features 8GB of memory which allows for music, apps, and videos to work like a gem. You. Can login to your Amazon video on demand and just start watching movies and tv shows. Amazon is giving one month of Amazon Prime away so you can test the waters of their service and if you like it, a $79 charge covers you for the year.

I really enjoyed the compact size of the Kindle Fire and the ability to fit it into a jacket pocket or pants pocket. The books appear even more beautiful as ever and the Kindle Lending Library allows for one rental a month of a top selling book, currently Moneyball on mine.

Does the price of $199 appeal to you? The Kindle Fire costs $300 less than the iPad but is a different machine than the iPad. It isn’t a creation machine, it’s a consumption device. If you use Amazon and it’s products you’ll love this product. Apps like Netflix, Hulu, and others load on the Fire and hundreds of games like Angry Birds are on the Amazon AppStore.

We like it and highly recommend the Kindle Fire. 9.5/10.

Sprint ending unlimited 4g on hotspot accounts

David Amodt — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 16:48:43 +0000

Sprint has updated its policy effective 11/1/11 for its hotspot users to nix unlimited 4g data. With various reports on Engadget and Sprintfeed, data used on hotspot accounts will now be used in standard usage buckets. Changes like this do allow users to terminate their contracts with no ETF though. Unlimited 4g is appearing to go the way of the dinosaurs.

Galaxy Nexus Revealed

David Amodt — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 03:26:00 +0000

Samsung yesterday revealed one of the worst kept secrets phonewise with the Nexus Prime. The Nexus Prime will be the latest Google flagship phone with a high resolution display, dual cameras, 1080p video shooting options, Android 4.0 and a Verizon Wireless carrier arrangement when it launches next month. Plenty of hype and leaks filled tech blogs before the announcement by Samsung yesterday.

Updated 10/21/11: Proper phone title given.

Ice Cream Sandwich Revealed

David Amodt — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 19:47:39 +0000

Google yesterday revealed their latest Android operating system labeled Ice Cream Sandwich. The latest updates include face unlocking, revamped music and social integration, and a bevy of overall system enhancements.

Apple iPhone event tomorrow. What do you expect?

David Amodt — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 01:15:18 +0000

Tomorrow is the big event for Apple as the media gathers at the Cupertino campus to see the unveiling of the latest iPhones from the consumer giant. Various rumors have spread regarding carriers, models, prices, and specs. Will it be a single phone, a iPhonr 4s, an iPhonr 5, or all of the above. At 10am tomorrow, the event begins and we will see what happens. What do you think?

Sprint Getting iPhone 5?

David Amodt — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 01:09:57 +0000

The Internet and tech world has been buzzing about the possibility of Sprint grabbing exclusive rights to the latest iPhone from Apple. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Sprint has outlaid multiple billions of dollars to gain rights to the latest iPhone which will have unlimited data, 4g and wimax speeds, and faster processor and camera resolutions. By doing this, Sprint is looking to gain additional new subscribers, gain current customers with the addition of added lines, and more. It proves a large gambling for Dan Hess and the Sprint board, but can prove a huge win if played right.

Amazon Kindle Gets Fired Up

David Amodt — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 06:47:33 +0000

Amazon this week launched their latest edition to their Kindle lineup. While minor revisions to the existing Kindles were made, the most dramatic overhaul was the Kindle Fire. The Kindle Fire is a $199 7″ android based tablet which will let users consume the entire Amazon ecosystem which includes music, movies, books and more. Priced $300 less than the iPad, the Kindle Fire will be an initial loss leader according to initial reports. Preorders are available now with a launch in mid November.

New Facebook Pages. Have u tried them?

David Amodt — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 06:03:47 +0000

Facebook has rolled out their new timeline and media sharing features across their site. Our easy question, have you migrated to the timeline?

Why The HP Thinkpad Failed and Succeeded

David Amodt — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 01:41:48 +0000

The HP Thinkpad was the latest tablet addition to what is being considered an overloaded market of portable computing. Apple controls over 90% of the market with its iPad line of tablet computers and other Android variants including the Xoom and Asus Transformer line fill the rest of the tablet storefront. The HP Thinkpad featured WebOS which if you aren’t familiar with it, is almost a web based interface for computing brought by Palm and others in the past few years.

The Thinkpad was brought with huge fanfare and celebrity endorsements to the market at a $499 and $599 pricepoint. Sales were poor and the developers didn’t develop for this market, thus HP decided to pull out from the hardware market in the past few weeks. HP will continue to develop and license WebOS which is owns but for a $1.2 billion pricetag, there had better be a lot of licensing for them to make profits back on this investment.

The Thinkpad was a 9″ tablet with a touchbased interface. The problems with it included a sluggish performance, a lack of top named applications by developers, and well sales. What the HP Touchpad did do right was multitasking and present a beautiful display to use the limited applications on.

HP dropped the prices of the Touchpad to $99 and $149 in the past week and according to estimates by ifixit, are taking a $200 loss on each one sold. Best Buy couldn’t unload them at full price, but are having Black Friday type lines for the ones at the lower price.

Is $99 or $149 the correct price for a tablet? Probably not and most up and coming tablets won’t be featured at these prices. Amazon with an upcoming tablet is likely to embed their Amazon marketplace deeply into the tablet. Is $299 a fair price for an Amazon tablet?

The tablet market is new and a tough market for manufacturers to survive on. HP tried and failed. Others including Toshiba Asus, and Android tablet makers have a free operating system and low costs to try to make money on. Will they make it against Apple, who is to say. The iPad is a killer tablet and the economic market will decide the tablets fate in the next few years. HP tried and brought out a nice looking tablet, but maybe with Android it would’ve succeeded further or failed.

Google+ Review

David Amodt — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 06:40:56 +0000

The latest and greatest social network has launched this past week and it was revealed by Google. The newest network is called Google+. The reinvention of the social network has now occurred with the reinvention of the levels of friendship, networking, and social contacts along with instant messages and video conferencing.

Google+ was launched and to a very limited invitation list which immediately got the attention of the tech press, media personalities, and bloggers across the internet. Google+ is almost Google Buzz on steroids but even more.

Users are able to place their contacts in several circles which let you organize your social life. Friends, Acquaintances, Followers, and others separate people you met at a conference versus your Aunt Betty, and your coworkers. The ability to follow specific news streams also you to only read that information that is pertinent to what you need. Facebook does this with lists, but is a lot more clumsy in the way it does this.

The video conferencing feature is the killer feature here. Whereas certain internet sites have allowed 10-20 users to join a specific video room to chat and gather, the hangout feature lets you start a video room immediately and lets 10 users join in as well. This spontaneous video chat room is a strong feature for families, work groups, study groups, and more as the product rolls on.

The Google+ project is in a limited beta feature and most users won’t be able to join quite yet. Although invitations fill the internet from Twitter and eBay for serious sums like all Google products.

Overall, Google+ is a solid beginning product and it’ll be interesting to see where it goes. Will it get 750mm users like Facebook? Who knows but with Google, anything can happen.