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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AT&T adds Unite Pro to Hotspot Lineup – Connect 15 devices to LTE over WiFi

ATTUNITE3[1]Business solutions often involve work groups. Try to connect a couple road warriors to data while on the go, and you can quickly max out most portable hotspots. Add in the fact that each person on the team will usually have more than one device, and keeping everyone “fed” gets even more difficult.

AT&T is adding the Netgear Unite Pro to their hotspot lineup, and while it comes with a number of handle features like dual band WiFi, a touchscreen, and 16 hours of battery life, the feature most will probably consider first is that it’s capable of connecting up to 15 individual devices over WiFi to share a 4G LTE data connection.

It might bog down a bit if all 15 try streaming HD video at the same time, but you should be served PLENTY of bandwidth to get your work done.

Unite Pro will cost $50 when it goes on sale November 22nd. Full PR and a video after the jump.

Continue reading “AT&T adds Unite Pro to Hotspot Lineup – Connect 15 devices to LTE over WiFi”

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The argument for buying the most expensive phone you can, even if you aren’t “tech-y”…

WP_20130728_004A quick thought here. We recently published our holiday tablet buying guide, and I’ll be releasing our phone guide later this week, but going through the list of candidates something struck me.

We keep saddling non-tech-y folks with under-powered hardware.

There’s this idea that because someone might not be super tech savvy, that all the bells and whistles of a premier smartphone will be wasted on them.

“Why would I want to spend money on stuff I might not use if I just want to check my email and make phone calls?”

Continue reading “The argument for buying the most expensive phone you can, even if you aren’t “tech-y”…”

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PSA: Qualcomm’s Toq Smartwatch available Dec. 2nd for $349.99

qualcomm toq smartwatch faceThe smartwatch market is growing ridiculously quickly. From early novelty with niche players to seeing big boys like Samsung enter the field. We can’t go a week without another Apple or Google smartwatch rumor. Qualcomm’s entry into this field is particularly exciting as it marks their first direct-to-consumer endeavor.

If you know about Qualcomm, it’s likely because you know what kind of processor is in your phone. They aim to change that relationship with Toq, their first smartwatch, which we covered following the announcement back in September. While the watch looked cool, and we were happy to hear about broad phone compatibility, we didn’t have a release date or pricing information. Now we have both.

Toq will be available JUST in time for the holiday gift buying season, and starting December 2nd you’ll be able to pick one up for $349.99. As the Galaxy Gear will only work with select Samsung phones, Toq could be an interesting alternative for those wanting a bleeding-edge smart experience strapped to their wrist. We’ll find out more early next month!

You can find out more info on Toq at: http://toq.qualcomm.com/

Related:
Qualcomm Toq Competes For Your Smartwatch Affection
New Qualcomm Radio Power Management Means More Run Time, Less Heat

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NVIDIA partners with IBM for GPU accelerated Super Computing, Unveils Tesla K40 GPU

NVIDIA_Tesla_K40_GPU_Accelerator_TopSo most folks understand that they have a special chip or card in their gadgets which runs the graphics on their computers, phones, game consoles, etc. A Graphics Processing Unit is really good at crunching numbers to provide us things like detailed environments, high resolution textures, dynamic lighting, and fluid particle effects. A GPU is purpose built to chew through information our CPU’s aren’t great at dealing with.

Over the last couple years, that number crunching ability is now being harnessed for other computing tasks. As an example, my video editing software uses my GPU to render video, so my aged workstation is still pretty quick at pushing high quality HD video out the door. The fact that I have an old CPU, doesn’t hamstring me that much.

2_Piz_Daint_destra_con_persona_LRWell, moving up the computing ladder, many number crunching super computers are incorporating GPUs. Piz Daint in Switzerland, activated earlier this year, utilizes NVIDIA K20X GPU’s. It was built for life science, physics, and meteorological simulations. The system is not only the fastest supercomputer in Europe, but it’s also up to 7 times more energy efficient than traditional computing solutions.  Continue reading “NVIDIA partners with IBM for GPU accelerated Super Computing, Unveils Tesla K40 GPU”

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Wearable Tech Review: The Martian Passport Bluetooth Smartwatch (with speakerphone test)

martian passport smartwatch review somegadgetguyIt’s a question of ergonomics.

How do we interact with pieces of data in a more organic way. Smartwatches look to aid in that interaction by taking some of the burden off of our phones.

While full face displays are currently all the rage, Martian has taken a more traditional clock-face approach to serving up notifications to our wrist.

Let’s take a look!

Shop for Martian Smartwatches on Amazon.

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AT&T selling Nokia Lumia 2520 tablet for $399 on contract

lumia 2520 20Well lookee here. You might be able to score a deal on the tablet I named best of the year for Windows 8.

Just like the post title says, you can pick up a Nokia Lumia 2520 on Big Blue for $399 with a two year agreement. That’s about $100 off the regular price. Not a bad deal if you were looking to save a little green this holiday season. The deal gets better however, if you were looking to pick up a Lumia smartphone too. Grabbing a Lumia 1520, 1020, or 925 will drop the price of the 2520 down to $199. That’s a pretty decent chunk of change if you were looking at shopping both.

You can check out our hands on video of the Lumia 1520 and 2520, or hit the jump for more details on AT&T promotion.

Continue reading “AT&T selling Nokia Lumia 2520 tablet for $399 on contract”

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ESRB releases new PSA to help parents understand video game ratings

6mCM8RmLet’s get something straight. Laws don’t change behavior. Only society can change behavior.

We have laws against texting while driving, and while cops can write citations for things like Google Glass (which seems counter-productive), people will still do dumb things like watch movies on their tablets while operating motor vehicles. As a society we need to make behaviors unfashionable. We’ve made smoking in public areas unfashionable. We’ve made drunk driving extremely unfashionable.

There are laws which prevent retailers from selling adult media to minors, but it’s still up to parents to police what their children consume. Keeping parents engaged and informed is critical to this conversation, no small task in light of the overwhelming amount of media to be aware of.

We need to get over the stigma that “vidya gamez ar fer kidz”. The average age of a gamer is 30, and it’s likely that almost as many people over the age of 30 play games as under the age of 30. The medium has grown up with the Atari generation, and now the content produced reflects far more mature tastes than many non-gamers might expect. As with feature films and TV, the Entertainment Software Rating Board publishes ratings that parents can use a starting point in making decisions on what titles they might purchase for their children.

This short PSA is a good starting point for people wanting more info on what those ratings mean.

And I don’t mean for this to be a condemnation of parents who might decide their child is mature enough to handle a game’s content. What we need to move towards as a community, to protect our properties from external censorship, is encouraging more informed discussion on content. Helping parents find tools which easily inform their purchasing decisions. Helping them to become a  more active part of their child’s video gaming experience.

As I’m sure that games and consoles will be hot gifts this holiday season, let’s make sure we’re shopping smart. For more info please check out: http://www.esrb.org/

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AT&T offers minimum $100 trade in for your old phone, or donate to Cell Phones for Soldiers

ATT logoRunning now through December 7th, customers on Big Blue can knock AT LEAST $100 off a new phone purchased on a two year contract by handing off their qualified old phone.

If your phone is worth more, you’ll get more for it, and that’ll cut the price of your new phone purchase. Not a bad way to encourage more recycling, and I’m all for rewarding that behavior. You’ll always want to check what your phone is worth on the open market however, as you might be able to score more cash through online auction or other trade in services. If convenience is your jam though, AT&T will help you keep everything in house and easy.

I’d also like my fine readers to consider not accepting the cash. If you were shopping a new phone, you can apply your trade in credit towards a new purchase, or you can opt out and AT&T will donate those funds to Cell Phones for Soldiers. This time of year, these types of devices can be invaluable in keeping our service men and women connected to their families. If you have the means, your old phone could be a small but welcome help to a family separated this holiday season.

Full PR after the jump.

Continue reading “AT&T offers minimum $100 trade in for your old phone, or donate to Cell Phones for Soldiers”

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