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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NASA develops new RADAR which can detect human heart beat under 30 feet of rubble

NASA FINDER disaster relief radar heartbeat detectorI happen to live in an earthquake prone state, so the fear of being buried alive under a collapsed roof is very real.

NASA has developed a new tool to aid disaster relief first responders. A small box the size of a carry-on suitcase (an actual carry-on, not those gi-normous bags YOU try and cram into overhead space) utilizes RADAR to detect human heart beats through tens of feet of rubble and debris.

FINDER, which stands for “Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response”, isn’t just a tech proof of concept either. NASA has worked on fleshing out the device’s ecosystem focusing on ease of use and portability. FINDER’s battery will allow for up to 14 hours of use, and it’s controlled via tablet. NASA believes that most people should be capable of using FINDER after only a few minutes of introduction, and that it’s little different in operation than pointing a flashlight down a dark tunnel.

Lastly, even though FINDER is bleeding edge rescue tech, NASA estimates that individual units could sell for around $10,000. In terms of speeding up disaster response, that’s not a difficult price to pay.

(pic via PhysOrg)

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TLD gives us a sneak peek of the iPad 5 casing!

This is actually a pretty decent scoop. TLD has gotten their hands on an iPad 5 shell, and they spend some time comparing it to the current iPad 4. The design will be very similar to the iPad Mini, thinner and slimmer with more rectangular edges. I still want to see a “pick it up off of a flat surface” test, as the Mini can be incredibly difficult to pick up off a tablet without sliding it around, potentially scratching it.

iPad 5 looks like it will feature much smaller bezels, but this means it’ll be an even tighter fit for all of the guts inside. Hopefully battery life doesn’t take a hit, and fingers crossed it doesn’t run any hotter than the current iPads do.

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Jon Rettinger from TechnoBuffalo back tracks on his original Surface Pro review in time for Surface Pro 2.

I wrote a longer maudlin article about agenda “journalism” and bias. I had no idea I’d be rewarded so soon with another perfect example of why we journalists need to take a more nuanced approach to reviewing, and at least try to overcome our natural personal bias.

Screenshot (91)Windows 8 has been incredibly divisive in the tech community. Most of the commentary surrounding MS’s new OS has been pretty negative, and there have been a number of criticisms regarding changes to the UI. See, when you change something as well established as Windows, a UI which hasn’t been significantly altered since Windows 95, people are going to freak out. For as much as we like to think we want “new” and “bleeding edge” we don’t weather actual change all that well. Windows 8 was a shock for me, but after a couple days on a touchscreen laptop, I came to not only really like the UI, but also appreciate the improvements to file management and hardware resource management.

That’s the kicker however. I had to take a couple days to get used to it. I didn’t write up reviews and thoughts during that time. I wanted to understand it before I shared my experiences with readers, even though I was hopelessly behind the tsunami of early angry reviews.

Windows 8 is far from “bad”, it’s actually quite good. If Microsoft is guilty of anything here, it’s not making a bad product, but doing a miserable job of communicating with consumers what the changes were going to be.

And now, in time for the Surface 2 launch, we’re seeing people “come to appreciate” the changes to the UI. Now Windows 8 is “elegant”. Those adorable scamps, they just had to “get used to it”, and wouldn’t you know it, it’s not really as bad as their initial reviews would have led MILLIONS of tech enthusiasts and blog readers to believe. It’s almost like you get more honest and accurate information when you don’t put an un-boxing and first impressions video up as your proper review of a product. Interesting.

Sorry to pick on you Jon, but welcome to the club. Glad you finally figured out how to use a product that most of us haven’t had any serious or significant issues with. I hope you enjoy the Surface Pro 2 even more. Maybe spend more than a day with it before you “review” it?

Hit the jump for Mr. Rettinger’s ACTUAL review of the Microsoft Surface and Windows 8.

Continue reading “Jon Rettinger from TechnoBuffalo back tracks on his original Surface Pro review in time for Surface Pro 2.”

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Google updating Wallet, Send money to other Wallet users, store Loyalty Cards

google wallet updateThe dream of mobile payments, tapping a phone to a store kiosk to pay for your shopping. Google’s been slowly pushing into this consumer relationship with Wallet. Storing your credit card information, and utilizing NFC to tap & pay at select retailers.  This hardware functionality has progressed very slowly as cell carriers have been trying to push a competing standard called ISIS, which uses a different kind of security which is incompatible with Google’s offering. Pretty much means we consumers get left without a working solution. Any time there’s a “format war” it’s bad for the industry (remember HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray). As it stands now, only 29 phones have proper NFC tap & pay functionality. I’m sure you notice a disturbing lack of Verizon and AT&T handsets on that list…

We’ve heard little news from the Wallet team over the last several months, but it looks like Google has been busy working on a Wallet expansion. Rolling out soon to Android users in the United States, Wallet is about to learn a few new tricks.

Google opened up the ability for Wallet users to send money to other Wallet users through GMail, and now that’s coming to the app. In a clear shot at services like Paypal, transfers from a linked bank account are free, and a 2.9% fee will be attached when sending money with credit or debit card.

In addition to payments, Google is also expanding the scope of Wallet to take some of the strain off of your physical non-digital wallet. If you’ve got a stack of store Loyalty cards, you can leave them at home now. Wallet will store and track your cards, coupons, and points alongside your purchases. Having used similar services, it’s nice just pulling up the card on my phone instead of having a bunch of filthy, peeling, plastic tabs on my key ring.

The Wallet update will roll out this week.

More info on the Google Commerce blog.

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So long Google Nexus 4, and thanks for all the fish…

nexus 4 out of stock on google play somegadgetguyThe King is dead. Long live the king.

The market disrupting Nexus 4 is no longer in stock for either the 8GB or 16GB flavors on Google Play. LG’s first attempt at a pure Google handset was a controversial entry into our list of Nexii. Some loved the glass back, some loathed. Some people felt the camera under performed, and heavy users wished for more battery life.

What no one complained about however was the price. Starting at $199 OFF contract, Google found a brilliant price to shake up the mid-range and high-end markets. In sharing the Nexus 4 with friends and family, telling them it was a $200 phone, few realized I meant $200 out the door, not $200 on contract.

But all good things must come to an end. Google isn’t known for being sentimental. You wont see the Nexus 4 stick around as a lower cost alternative. Now we play the waiting game for the Next Nexus. It’s been teased and leaked, and we know LG is behind this next one as well, most likely a cousin to LG’s G2 like the Nexus 4 was to the Optimus G.

Fingers crossed Google can keep disrupting smartphone pricing…

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Review: Blue Microphone’s Yeti Pro USB Microphone

Screenshot (88)An oldie, but a goodie.

Let’s take a look back at one of the best USB microphones currently on the market. The Yeti Pro is still chugging along as a great solution for those wanting to improve their home recording or podcasting capabilities.

Time to go hands on with this multi-pattern wunder-mic!

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Agenda “Journalism” and Waiting for “Perfection”

WP_20130728_004I think we’re at a tech crossroads. I’m not sure which road we’ll travel down.

There’s a problem with how we talk about news in this industry. I’m complicit in that problem to a degree, and around me I’m watching the foundation of this market start to crumble. At its core, we tech journalists are beholden to metrics like views and bounce rates. To satisfy those demands we have to get you, the reader, to actually engage. The most popular sites among us have developed a number of handy tricks to goose interactions from their subscribers. Tactics known so well that we’ve coined terms like “Flame Bait” to describe them. We all know what’s going on when we come across these types of tactics, and we know that the site using them is rolling in traffic.

As with political news delivery, the tech landscape is fragmented into reinforcing a reader’s previously held notions. We don’t strive to challenge anymore, to present the “new” in this industry. If your site starts to find some popularity among a certain niche of readership, that’s what you are. An Apple blog. An Android blog. A Microsoft blog. You’re done. Whatever commentary you can hope to offer beyond that branding, you’ll always be colored by that general perception. Your audience will take those things for granted, as they too are fans of the things you like, and hate the things you hate.

Moving beyond the natural biases an author holds, we all hold a certain bias regardless of our attempts at objectivity, we’re human, but beyond those biases I’m saddened to see once respected organizations catering to blatant agendas. Misrepresenting products for no other benefit than to increase site hits, start flame wars, and satisfy an audience who doesn’t want to see competition, but see their “side” win. Whatever that might mean… Continue reading “Agenda “Journalism” and Waiting for “Perfection””

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Apple extends older app support for legacy iOS users

itunes app store legacyFragmentation is a fact of life. As new gear arrives, older gear will stop receiving support. As developers move on to newer operating systems users can become frustrated when some devices get updates and others don’t.

Apple weathers this storm better than most of their competition, but even they aren’t completely immune. They are taking a savvy step towards improving the experience for people using older iOS devices. The iTunes store now allows you to install older versions of apps. That way, if developers are supporting newer version of iOS than what’s on your phone or tablet, you’ll be able to backtrack to versions which do support your iDevice.

This kind of legacy support really improves the experience for people who hold on to their tech for as long as possible. If you’ve got an older phone, tablet, or iPod Touch give it a whirl.

(pic via Reddit)

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