Author: Juan Carlos Bagnell

Juan has been obsessed with consumer electronics since before computers had GUI’s. Out of college he worked on a JIT computing contract which supported DOE facilities in New Mexico. He’s been featured on numerous podcasts and radio shows lending his tech insights. You can also find him in LA directing voice over actors and producing spoken word recording.
Posted on

Quechua partnering with Archos for Rugged Android Smartphone

quechua-phoneI love rugged phones. There are a ton of smartphone gimmicks out there, but features like “drop resistant” and “waterproof” really light me up.

Quechua makes rugged outdoor activity clothes and gear, and now they’re moving into the world of consumer electronics. Working with Archos, they’re targeting the rough and tumble set. The Quechua phone will have a five inch screen (resolution to be announced) with a 1.2GHz Qualcomm quad-core, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of storage and a MicroSD card slot for expansion.

Not the most exciting specs to be sure, but it’ll be IP54 certified against water and drop damage. It will also sport a huge 3500mAh battery, which on these low power specs, should provide excellent run time. No LTE, but this looks like it’s following in the footsteps of other branded devices like Caterpillar’s licensed rugged phone.

Released for European markets, expect a price of €230 (about $310), and here’s to hoping Archos brings a similar design to the USA. This also reinforces how competitive the entry and mid level unlocked markets will be over next year.

Quechua Press Release (via Gadget Tech)

 

Posted on

German Federal Motor Transport Authority Gives Tesla Clean Bill of Health Following Vehicle Fires

model-s-blue-front2_960x640Posted on the Tesla website yesterday, the German Motor Authority (KBA) reviewed the Tesla data provided following the incidents in Seattle, Tennessee, and Mexico. The KBA has the power to perform investigations and initiate recalls.

They’ve concluded that no manufacturer defects were found and Tesla was not responsible for the vehicle fires. This could’ve been a disaster for Tesla as Germany is aggressively pushing alternative energy and electric vehicles. As Tesla sock has already taken a hit, a move from the KBA would likely have tainted Tesla’s reputation for an entire generation of consumers.

Instead, Tesla got a fist bump and a “we cool”, so hopefully this will help their reputation recover in Europe. Nice timing indeed as the Model X Sport Crossover should start delivering next year.

It also leads me to wonder why vehicle fires in internal combustion engine cars aren’t covered as viscerally in the media as the three fires Tesla Model S sedans have encountered…

Read the full statement at the Tesla blog.

Posted on

Review: Nokia Purity Pro Bluetooth Headphones with NFC Pairing! (BH-940)

nokia bh905 bh940 purity pro wireless bluetooth headphones nfc pairing review somegadgetguyI LOVE audio gear. Speaker reviews. Headphone reviews. They’re all good!

I haven’t tackled a pair of cans for a while, and thankfully I’ve got a MONSTER pair of Nokia cans to check out (see what I did there). One of my first gadget reviews was the wonderful Nokia Bluetooth BH-905’s, and now with the BH-940’s Nokia has added NFC pairing to their wireless headphone formula.

Retailing for around $250, let’s see if this is peanut butter jelly time!

Buy the Nokia Purity Pro Headphones on Amazon.

Posted on

The Future of Amazon Delivery? Drone to door service. 30 minute local drop off!

image-gallery-02._V367569984_Amazon is pulling out all the stops in their competition with traditional brick and mortar retailers. They used to be free from taxes, but many major markets now tax internet sales. They’re currently experimenting with local storage lockers, they might single-handedly save the US Postal Service, and they’re now talking high tech.

Yup. Drone technology might be the new front in their war on package delivery times. Dubbed Prime Air, these unmanned aircraft will be capable of carrying up to a five pound payload. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but over 80% of Amazon’s shipments are less than five pounds. For customers within a Prime Air zone, packages could be delivered in as little as 30 minutes. It sounds like a great solution for those times you need a cable or memory card quickly. There’s no way I could make a trip to an electronics store and back home in Los Angeles in less than half an hour.

Sign me up!

Pump your brakes there Juan. There are still plenty of kinks to work out. Sure there’s still technology hoops to jump through, but the bigger issue is getting swarms of flying devices through FAA approvals.

Still, CEO Jeff Bezos is optimistic that we could see an Amazon Air Force relatively soon, like four or five years. Maybe on the outside chance this happens quickly, we might even see a limited trial of the service by the end of 2015.

We wont have flying cars like Back to the Future 2 promised us we’d have, but if I don’t have to leave my house for deliveries, that might be almost as good! Check the Amazon video below for more info on Prime Air.

Posted on

Cyber Monday PSA: Moto X is on sale for $350 off contract!

moto x cyber monday sale motorolaMotorola’s fresh spin on Android can now be yours for a very nice price!

If you’re shopping Cyber Monday deals, this is a pretty good one. How about $150 off a Moto X?

This brings Moto’s top handset in line with Nexus phones, and Moto is already rolling out KitKat. For the 16GB model, you can schnag one today only for $350. No contract, no financing. $350 and you own it outright.

Quantities will be limited, and the sale runs through today only, but for those lucky folks who can buy one at this price, you can pick one up for Sprint, Verizon, T-Mo, or AT&T. No carrier or color/customization restrictions. Go nuts! Sale starts at 8am Central time!

You folks buying phones this holiday season, will this price point tempt you to open your wallet? Are you considering a Motorola this year? Drop us a comment below!

Moto X Cyber Monday Online Specials.

Posted on

Happy Thanksgiving from SomeGadgetGuy

To all my friends and Netizens.

I hope you’re safe, warm, and doing something fun.

Now I gotta jump into some food prep!

somegadgetguy cooking with a surface 2

Posted on

Review: Using a Ballistic Hydra Rugged case for iPhone 5 on an iPhone 5S

ballistic hydra waterproof case iphone 5s test review somegadgetguy

There still aren’t a lot of rugged and water-proof cases built specifically for the iPhone 5S. Thankfully, the changes between the 5 and 5S aren’t so severe that you couldn’t use a 5 case on a 5S, but there will be a few compromises.

The Ballistic Hydra is ready to go! Let’s take a look at how someone might better protect their shiny, pretty iPhone from drop and water damage!

Shop for the Ballistic Hydra rugged case on Amazon.

More info on Ballistic cases at: http://www.goballisticcase.com/

Posted on

Ask Juan: Why won’t my Moto X show up as a USB drive on my Mac?

surface connected to lg g2 file management transfer somegadgetguyFrom our Facebook page, Robin asks:

Here’s a question relating to Android… When I plug my Moto X into my Windows PC using the supplied USB cable, it shows up as a storage device and I can copy stuff to/from it with no problems. But when I plug it into a USB port on my wife’s MacBook Pro, it’s not even recognized as a device. How can I access my Moto X from Mac OSX?

Hey Robin,

It’s because Apple can be frustrating about supporting standards like MTP. Apple refuses to natively support the USB Media Transfer Protocol. It’s how you can plug your phone into a PC and see files on your phone and computer at the same time.

There are two different ways to share files between a phone and computer, MTP and Mass Storage. If you use Mass Storage, the storage on your phone becomes a standalone drive for your computer, and your phone will no longer be able to see any of those files. That was fine during the Windows Mobile and early Android days. You’d plug in your phone, and it would essentially become a dead lump of a USB drive. Now though, we don’t want to lose access to our precious communication tools, even for a brief file transfer. That’s why Android and Windows Phone now utilize MTP. It comes with some drawbacks like slower file transfers, and you can only move one file at a time, but your phone wont be separated from its storage while connected to a computer. Given the trade off, I’d rather be able to connect my phone to my computer, and still being able to use it as a normal phone with all of my files and apps intact.

The iPhone just doesn’t work that way, so Apple doesn’t feel any great pressure to support other mobile device file management protocols. As far as they’re concerned you should be using iOS and iTunes.

Google did release an Android file manager program for Mac users which might work for you – http://www.android.com/filetransfer/

If that doesn’t work you might need to look at cloud solutions. The nice thing about Android, it’s silly easy to move files on and off via services like Google Drive, Box, and DropBox.

You could also do a local network sync via an app like AirSync –http://www.doubletwist.com/airsync/ or Air Droid – http://www.airdroid.com/ which will use your home WiFi network. It wont be as fast as a cable connection, but it’ll be faster than Bluetooth. 

But yeah. Short story long, this is basically Apple’s fault.

Proudly powered by WordPress