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.
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OverThought.org Publishes Comprehensive Guide to Improving iOS Battery LIfe

apple iphone 5s gold speakers headphone jack audio quality review somegadgetguyBattery life is voodoo.

No seriously, everyone “knows” what’s good for your battery. Charging it at night, during the day, disabling radios, fully depleting, never letting the battery get too low, turning on/off WiFi/BT/LTE/NFC. The tips and tricks are vast and often contradictory in what will result in better battery life for your mission critical communication gadget.

OverThought.org has written up a fairly comprehensive list of best practices for those of you wanting to hyper-mile your iPhone or iPad. Best of all it’s not just a trite list of useless suggestions like “use your phone less”, instead targeting specific usage scenarios and apps which can be notorious battery hogs.

From Multi-Tasking and App Quitting to turning off battery percentage, the article does a great job of examining commonly held notions about battery life, and delivers a number of great tips on how to get the most out of your mobile.

Even if you rock an Android or a Windows Phone, there are a couple good behaviors on this list which can help you out too. I’d highly recommend giving it a read.

The Ultimate Guide to Solving iOS Battery Drain

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Select AT&T Phones Now Supporting Google Wallet Tap & Pay, But Is It Too Late For NFC?

Google wallet on ATT LG G2The saga of mobile payments continues.

I woke up this morning to find my LG G2 had an update ready to install. I couldn’t find any changelog for what was being updated or what bug fixes were included, but I went ahead and ran it. Immediately following the procedure my phone had a new notification from Google Wallet.

Tap & Pay functionality is now supported on my LG G2.

Google tried to shake up mobile payments almost two years ago introducing the idea of NFC backed mobile payments. The first devices supporting it were the Nexus line, for me personally, the Nexus 7 tablet. I tried it out exactly once, as trying to pay at CVS with a mini-tablet tethered to my phone’s data connection was cumbersome to say the least.

Since then we’ve seen something of a feud over mobile transactions between Google and various carriers. Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T worked together on creating the ISIS platform, which is slowly starting to find support on the phones sold by those companies. Over this time period they largely blocked any momentum for Tap & Pay by banning Google Wallet on the devices they sold.

Is it too late for NFC?

Almost two years where consumers could have been getting used to the idea and building an infrastructure were essentially lost.

Recently it was announced that Best Buy and 7-Eleven would be getting rid of their NFC supported mobile payment machines. Credit card terminals which are more expensive to install, require more cashier training, and often can result in higher fees from banks.

More competition in this space is looming  from the Merchant Consumer Exchange. Like Best Buy and 7-Eleven, other companies such as Target, CVS, and Sears are a part of the MCX and are considering their own payment protocol based on barcodes like the ones used at Starbucks. A system like this could gain traction quickly as NFC payments require a special radio which the iPhone lacks, but barcodes only need to display on your screen.

The knowledge of this outside competition might be just the pressure needed to ease some of the entrenched cold war between Google and the carriers, but their squabble has cost them a considerable lead.

Are you currently using an NFC payment system like ISIS or Wallet? Are you more likely to try one in the future? Leave us a comment below!

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Sprint Offers up to $650 for Customers Switching to a Framily Plan

sprint framily plan bad commercialNo longer pushing unlimited plans, Sprint looks to be creating the 21st century equivalent of the party line with their new Framily plans. Get a group of people together to sign up for service and everyone pays less per line.

Now, if you’re porting your number over and recycling your current phone Sprint will offer up $300 in credit and also hand you a Visa pre-paid card worth up to $350. It’s the same experiment tried at T-Mobile and AT&T to varying levels of success. Sprint’s been a little quieter about their plans and deals, but their new slate of Framily plan commercials are quirky even if they don’t tell you as much about the service as they showcase talking hamsters.

Get it? Talking hamsters? Because you talk on your phone? And you’re probably not a hamster? Random!

The deal is good through May 8th, so if you were thinking of signing up you and your favorite eclectic mix of friends and family to Lil’ Yellow, the full PR is below with more details on the Switching Bonus.

Continue reading “Sprint Offers up to $650 for Customers Switching to a Framily Plan”

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Qualcomm: Quickcharge 2.0 Phones and Tablets on the Way

Qualcomm-Snapdragon-410 lte worldOne important aspect of battery life is how quickly you can get back up and running when you’re out of juice.

Qualcomm took the wraps off of their Quickcharge 2.0 tech, which will be built into new phones and tablets sporting the Snapdragon 800 chipset. Quickcharge 1.0 delivered 10 watts, 2.0 will deliver 60 watts. Quickcharge 2.0 will rely on a combination of the power management gear in the phone and the charger plugged into the wall, though 2.0 and 1.0 devices will be cross compatible for legacy support and future proofing.

The power efficient radio management should keep you out in the field longer, and when you do need to juice up, you shouldn’t have to stay tethered for long.

Full PR below with more info on specs and compatibility.

Continue reading “Qualcomm: Quickcharge 2.0 Phones and Tablets on the Way”

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Top five of the week starting March 31st – Leef, Lumias, and a Potato?

What a week! Tons of hot tech news dropped, and we got to have a little fun as well. Here’s a run down on your favorite stories from the last seven days!

micromax and prestigio

5- Microsoft BUILD 2014 Kicks Off With Windows Phone 8.1

Developers were the focus, but consumers finally got official word on all of the updates coming down the pipe for Windows Phone 8.1. Along with a pair of new Nokias, Microsoft looks to be building a much stronger portfolio as the third place mobile competitor.

Google-Fiber1

4- Google Looks to Become Wireless Carrier in Fiber Areas?

A little nugget from the rumor mill, but one welcomed by the internet community at large. With their reputation for market disruption, and the small successes they’ve found in delivering fiber internet to homes, it would seem many consumers would strongly consider doing business with Google as a cell phone carrier…

reddit banner

3- Corrupting User Moderated Web Sites: r/Technology Bans Tesla Stories?

When your site or service is built on volunteer workers, there’s always the potential that some of them might be corrupted by outside influences. Reddit had a meltdown when it was discovered that r/Technology had been shadowbanning any story with the word Tesla in it. Rogue moderator, or example of social news site corruption?

leef access microsd otg reader for android

2- Review: The Leef Access MicroSD card reader for Android Phones

As not all Android phones come with SD cards any more, this is a handy little gadget which can help you add and manage storage while you’re out and about!

potato unboxing long term review somegadgetguy

1- Potato Unboxing, 1st Impressions, Full Review, and Comparison to the LG G2

We decided to play along this April Fools Day, and produced this ridiculous 18 minute long video unboxing and review of one of our favorite sources of starchy carbs. Little did we now that many people online feel the same way about unboxing videos as we do…

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Office for iPad hits 12 million downloads, Microsoft still relevant…

BkUaUk-IMAAv3bJIt’s the thing about tech blogging which most gets under my skin, the confirmation bias. I love a little snark and editorial with my news, but the reality distortion field surrounding certain topics can be suffocating.

The Office for iPad roll out had a taste of that in the tech community. There was the expected gnashing of teeth over how long it took to port the suite over to the iPad, criticisms I also shared reflecting an older Microsoft which grossly underestimated their competition. However, it was some of the social media backlash I found most interesting. The idea that we just didn’t need Office anymore, that there were Office solutions available on the iPad which were “good enough”, and that Microsoft was so late, they weren’t relevant anymore.

Yesterday Microsoft announced via a tweet that Office for iPad had been downloaded 12 million times. It’s easy to get big numbers when you put out something for free, but that’s 12 million devices which now will potentially start converting more Apple users into Microsoft customers.

If anything it’s a small sign that Microsoft is starting to figure out that being a services company means having to make your services available to popular platforms. It’s another babystep out of the pit of irrelevance they were crawling into, and hopefully it means this tech game will get a bit more interesting this year…

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Phonebloks shows off new details for Google’s Project Ara modular phone

project ara prototype boardI’m really excited for modular phones. Replacing pieces when they get worn out, instead of having to buy a whole new phone.

Phonebloks took a tour around Google’s lab to see some of the new design work happening on Project Ara, recently acquired from Motorola. Discussing design and aesthetics, one of the highlights is the discussion on magnets for holding all the pieces together.

Here’s to hoping we see a full prototype in action soon!

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Free WiFi Calling For All Through Facebook Messenger

facebook messenger android free wifi callingIf you’ve been rocking the BETA, then you’re already aware of this, but it’s finally rolling out for all consumers.

If you’ve got the separate Facebook Messenger app installed, you can now call your Facebook friends over WiFi for free! The update to FB Messenger 4.0 brings this to all users alongside better support for creating chat groups and the ability to create shortcuts to specific chats on your homescreen.

Hit the update and get calling!

Facebook Messenger (Google Play)

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