Let's Talk Tech
Just in time for Earth day!
For you energy conscious folks out there, Google is now selling the Nest on Google Play!
$249 gets you a thermostat replacement which will connect to your home WiFi and learn your patterns to hopefully help you cut back on your energy usage.
Google purchased Nest back in January for $3 billion. In diversifying their product offerings, Nest looks like one of the first lifestyle products sold directly to consumers on Play.
Let’s get this out of the way right now. The One M8 camera is good. Maybe it’s even “very good”, but over the last year we’ve seen some excellent cameras bolted onto the backs of our phones by companies like Sony and Nokia.
The M7 was my favorite camera on an Android phone of last year, and was only bested by the likes of Nokia. It lost the resolution battle with only a 4MP sensor, but the combo of larger “UltraPixels” and Optical Image Stabilization made it one of the best devices to shoot on in indoor and low light environments. Outdoor pics were very good, low light pics were gorgeous, and video was nicely smoothed out by the stabilizing hardware.
My expectations were tremendously high for the M8.
This has been a long time coming.
Even as recently as a week ago I was kvetching about not being able to share pics from my Windows Phone to Google Plus while on a recent trip.
It looks like I can finally stop whinging about it, as the updates to Internet Explorer have finally included file management support for sites like G+. We no longer have to jump through hoops, or transfer our photos to other devices to participate!
If you’re rocking Windows Phone 8.1, and you’re on the Googles Plus give it a shot. The best camera phones on the market can now properly share on one of the best photo sharing services on the net.
Enjoy!
Competition is good.
AT&T is looking to bring 1Gbps fiber internet connections to over 100 cities and municipalities. On the list are 21 major metropolitan areas including my current home city Los Angeles.
“Californians are inventing and adopting new technologies every day. With today’s announcement, we stand ready to work with local leaders to bring AT&T U-verse with GigaPower to our state. This incredible technology will enable California entrepreneurs to innovate like never before and will give consumers the choice of an ultra-fast fiber network connection,” AT&T’s California President, Ken McNeely said.
Comcast has been upgrading connections to 100Mbps (one tenth the speed of gigabit fiber), Verizon has been stagnant with its FiOS offerings, but apparently the slow pressure building from Google Fiber was enough to move Big Blue to start offering up “GigaPower” to more consumers and businesses.
Whoever can run a line to my house first wins my business and some fresh baked brownies. You can read the full press release below.
Continue reading “AT&T Looking to Bring 1Gbps Fiber to 21 Major Metro Areas”
Google has thrown a lot of muscle into improving the Hangouts experiences. It’s a one stop shop for group IM, video calling, and it can replace your phone’s stock app for text messaging.
Alongside some bug fixes and performance improvements, Hangouts 2.1 also brings a merged conversation interface for SMS and Hangout IM. This makes it easier to move conversations back and forth between SMS and IM-ing as it’s now all under the same view.
There’s also a new widget to throw on your homescreen to help you keep up to date on all your communication endeavors.
Full press release below, and the Hangouts update is rolling out now on Google Play! So Google, think you can turn some of that attention to Google Voice anytime soon?
Continue reading “Hangouts 2.1 for Android Improves SMS, adds Homescreen Widget”
I wish Good Eats was back on the air. Until that time, I’ll just have to make do with Alton Brown producing his own amazing videos on the Youtubes.
If you enjoy mustards like I do, then you also know the frustration of how poorly designed most mustard bottles are. Alton has an ingenious solution for those afflicted with this terrible malady…
So first of all, it’s just kind of fantastic that the little copter wasn’t hit by one of the explosions.
VIMEO user Gasper C uploaded this video showing what it would look like if you could safely get up close and personal to an exploding fireworks show. Enjoy.
DJI PHANTOM FIREWORKS from Gasper C on Vimeo.
Queue the tirades of angry internetizens threatening to cancel/never do business with Netflix ever again…
In their shareholder earnings call, Netflix detailed their first quarter 2014 numbers. Subscribers are up 2.2 million, Â They’re seeing strong growth internationally, and overseas losses shrank by almost half, expecting profitability by end of year. Revenue was up around $200 million, but costs also rose in the light of the number of original programs to be produced and advertised. No fewer than eleven new series or new seasons of established season are in the pipeline.
A Netflix app will be coming to cable services which use TiVO DVR’s, with a hopeful nod at additional cable DVR’s in the future. Continue reading “Netflix to raise prices on new subscribers, arrive on Cable DVR’s”