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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Real World Battery Test: The LG G2 – 47 hours to “Critically Low”

lg g2 battery critically low run time test 47 hours somegadgetguyThis is the longest it has ever taken me to run a battery test.

Run time is a difficult feature to test. Benchmarking usually means throwing high usage scenarios at a device to see how long it can last under “worst case” usage. The phone runs hot, which means it runs somewhat less efficiently, and you end up with a number that you can share. If you test all phones the same way you can somewhat compare how all phones perform when they run hot.

The problem with real world testing is it takes longer, and your testing isn’t going to be consistent. Maybe I took more calls on my HTC one than I did during my Galaxy S4 during a similar 24 hour period. Maybe I gamed longer on the iPhone than I did on the Moto X. Basically I’m saying you should take the following with a small grain of salt… Continue reading “Real World Battery Test: The LG G2 – 47 hours to “Critically Low””

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Blackberry: An interim CEO and the illusion of action…

blackberry os 10 handsets z10 q10 smartphonesI wanted to take a minute to look at the Blackberry situation before reporting on it.

Earlier this week it was announced that Blackberry would not be bought out by Fairfax Financial, the company would not be going private, and that CEO Thorsten Heins would step down. Fairfax and other investors will be offering up instead a $1 Billion bond to help float the company, as its cash reserves are starting to dwindle. John Chen is stepping up to the plate as interim CEO, receiving a $3 million salary and over $80 million in restricted stock. John Chen was responsible for fixing up Sybase, a corporate data solutions company.

At its core, Blackberry has been facing a crisis of identity. Like Microsoft, BB missed the boat on the consumer driven data services market. Our favorite little tic-tac keyboarded phones were corporate sweethearts, but BB was late in attempting to crack into the general consumer demographics where Android and iOS dominate. The new BB Z10 was a first step towards offering up corporate friendly mobility which would be pretty enough for consumers to enjoy.

Of course it was not successful. Continue reading “Blackberry: An interim CEO and the illusion of action…”

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Microsoft Support: If your Surface wont turn on, Tap on Settings…

LB_8705This is just funny.

Occasionally things bork. Happens to all gadgets. It’s frustrating, but you find some support and you get the problem fixed. For those times when your shiny brand new Surface tablet wont turn on, Microsoft has some helpful advice.

From the MS Support page:

If your Surface RT or Surface 2 won’t turn on, here are several steps you can take to pin point the cause and fix the problem.

Before you begin
***Step 1: Unplug the Surface power cord from the electrical outlet, and if you have any of the following remove or disconnect them from Surface:

  • Power supply
  • Surface Cover
  • microSD card
  • USB devices such as printers, keyboards, or mice
  • Video or audio cables or adapters

***Step 2: Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and tap Settings.
***Step 3: Tap Power, and then tap Shutdown.
***Step 4: Next, make a few preliminary checks:

Is the electrical outlet you’re using to charge your Surface working properly?
Try plugging something else into the outlet and see if it works.
Are conditions right for recharging?
It’s best to charge your battery near room temperature. Surface is designed to work between 32° and 95°Fahrenheit (0° and 35° Celsius).
Are the magnetic charging connectors clean and free of damage?

Wait what… Rewind that…

It doesn’t look like Microsoft really thought out steps two and three there…

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Star Wars Episode VII scheduled to open December 18, 2015

star_wars_logo_640_large_verge_medium_landscapeTime to dust off your lightsabers!  Star Wars is coming back to the big screen!

Announced today on StarWars.com, we’ve got the official date for our return to that distant long ago galaxy:

With pre-production in full-swing, a confirmed release date of December 18, 2015, has been set for Lucasfilm’s highly anticipated Star Wars: Episode VII.

“We’re very excited to share the official 2015 release date for Star Wars: Episode VII, where it will not only anchor the popular holiday filmgoing season but also ensure our extraordinary filmmaking team has the time needed to deliver a sensational picture,” said Alan Horn, chairman of The Walt Disney Studios.

Star Wars: Episode VII will be directed by J.J. Abrams (Super 8, Mission: Impossible III, Star Trek) and is being scripted by Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan (Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi). Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, and Bryan Burk are producing, with Tommy Harper (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Jack Ryan, Star Trek Into Darkness) and Jason McGatlin (Tintin,War of the Worlds) serving as executive producers. John Williams is returning to score Star Wars: Episode VII.

Shooting is scheduled to begin spring 2014 at Pinewood Studios.

I’m actually really looking forward to a new series of films helmed by J.J. Abrams. I kinda felt the Abrams Star Trek films better resembled the kinds of space adventure movies that the Star Wars universe deserved.

I wonder when I’ll be able to pre-order tickets…

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Ask Juan: Why is Google Text-to-Speech a separate app now?

Screenshot_2013-11-07-10-38-28Starting today you’ll start seeing an app to update you’ve probably never seen before: Google Text-to-Speech.

This is Google’s software engine which drives all of the speech capabilities on your phone. Every time your phone talks to you, it’s using some kind of software library to translate text into that helpful robotic voice which gives you turn by turn directions in Google Maps or answers your questions in Google Now.

This is a service which until now was built into Android and only updated whenever an update for the OS was pushed to phones and tablets. Like the  Google Keyboard, now this service lives on its own in the Google Play app store.

Google has had issues with device and feature fragmentation, and other companies often install their own TTS engines, which is why Samsung and LG phones have a slightly different “personality” than their Nexus counterparts.

Let’s take a look at the what the service does, and what it sounds like!

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Can Los Angeles light up Fiber for the whole city? Free broadband internet for all?

Los Angeles winterDamn I hope this can work.

LA City Council officials are working on a Request for Proposals. They want companies to offer bids on an extremely ambitious project, namely lighting up fiber optic broadband internet for every business and residential area in the Los Angeles city limits. No piecemeal, staged, “testing” of the viability for the potential, to maybe, some day, consider, trying a starter market in one corner of a McMansion in Beverly Hills. They want to go whole hog, all or nothing.

The plan for the proposal so far would be to offer up a baseline low level service for everyone for free. It could be ad supported to offset costs, and most likely speeds would top out around 2Mbps, yet it would be available for everyone. This could be a huge boon for those in lower income neighborhoods, areas not often well supported by current ISP’s, and tremendously helpful in an economy where many have to choose between home internet and low cost cell phone service to remain competitive in the job market.

For those who can afford it, higher tiers of service will be made available, most likely topping out at gigabit bandwidth, resembling services like Google Fiber. This backbone could also be used to power WiFi hotspots in public areas.

The implications of such a move could be remarkable.  Continue reading “Can Los Angeles light up Fiber for the whole city? Free broadband internet for all?”

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UPDATED: Twitter sets IPO stock price at $26

BYbRFlJCEAATMmI

The speculation can end.

In true social media fashion, Twitter announced their stock price in a tweet. Of course there was a lot more info to announce than could be contained 140 characters or less, so they cheated by posting a picture… full of text…

At $26 a share, Twitter could drop more than $1.8 Billion into its coffers, and you too could own your very own piece of “TWTR” when it goes on sale this Thursday.

All that’s left is to see how the market responds…

***UPDATE***

In morning trading the stock opened at $45.10, and has held to around $46 so far. It’s estimated that Twitter will receive over $2 Billion, and there’s been far less drama today than during Facebook’s shaky public offering.

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Activision announces $1Billion opening day sales for ‘Call of Duty: Ghosts’, while we wait for Next-Gen sales numbers…

IMG_20131105_224423Great news for Activision, but potentially troubling news for Sony and Microsoft.

Activision today released sales figures topping $1 Billion for it’s opening day release of Call of Duty: Ghosts, a new series to its popular shooter franchise. This obviously points to the $800 Million opening day performance of Rockstar Game’s GTA: V, even though these two opening day “sales” figures aren’t directly comparable.

Rockstar announced sales to consumers for it’s opening day, while Activision is talking about sales to retail channels. Regardless, it’s still juggernaut sales performance considering Activision somehow manages to pop out a new installment every year.

What the entire industry now awaits are CoD sales numbers for the PS4 and XBox One. Nearing the release of these next gen consoles, Activision opted to release versions of the game compatible with Sony and Microsoft’s next systems. Those sales figures could be valuable data for gauging what early console adoption might look like, and how engaged the consumer base might be.

It must be a difficult decision for the hardcore gamers out there. Play CoD immediately or wait for next gen consoles to arrive. Activision can only hope that some of their consumer base might actually motivated to buy the game twice…

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