Category: Articles

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How Microsoft is Gaming Influencers and Algorithms with the Surface Duo

It’s a little bit brilliant.

I’ve written several editorials voicing my concerns about popularity algorithms and the responsibility of reviewers. We can’t escape the fact that online content creators need to be compensated for their work, but YouTube and Facebook style algorithms are designed to manipulate viewers into staying on a platform as long as possible. When those two objectives meet, it creates an echo chamber, a reinforcing cycle of confirmation bias which highlights and celebrates the most popular options. Any product outside the algorithm zeitgeist is dismissed as efficiently as possible.

Precious few smaller-volume sellers have successfully broken through this popularity trap.

What’s a manufacturer to do? Play the influencers against themselves! Continue reading “How Microsoft is Gaming Influencers and Algorithms with the Surface Duo”

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Take Better Photos: Smartphone Photography For Noobs! Updates for 2020 are now live!

I’m really proud of this one.

I started writing a blog post about phone photography in 2013. To explain one concept, I had to write another post to explain a different concept. That snowballed into a series of posts and videos. Eventually, the only thing that made sense was to turn it into a book, which was published in 2015.

Take Better Photos: Smartphone Photography for Noobs!

Every year I take another pass through revising the book, and the updates for 2020 are out now! Continue reading “Take Better Photos: Smartphone Photography For Noobs! Updates for 2020 are now live!”

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TCL 10L vs LG Stylo 6: LOW Budget Battle!

We can’t put EVERYTHING into one phone. We need to choose features, and balance that against a target price. As we near the entry level tier of handsets, there’s also a little less room for price fluctuations. Devices with smaller margins won’t find the same dramatic sales, or the same bargain used prices, as more premium handsets.

Right now, mid-rangers are enjoying some time in the spotlight. Pricing from Nord to Velvet, and several phones in between, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore the competition of even less expensive devices. We should expect more compromises, but as long as we keep expectations properly informed, someone shopping a modest budget should still be satisfied.

What should we look for in a phone that costs less than a screen replacement on an iPhone 11? Continue reading “TCL 10L vs LG Stylo 6: LOW Budget Battle!”

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ZeroLemon 90W 4-Port Charger: Not what I thought it was!

It’s always a funny quirk when you complain about something in a review, and then a company reaches out with something that helps solve that complaint. ZeroLemon has been solving a number of my problems of late.

Replacing the battery in my Note 4. Adding some run time in the field on my Pixel 4.

And now helping me charge my Pixelbook Go.

It’s just funny that I completely misunderstood what it was I thought I was going to review. Continue reading “ZeroLemon 90W 4-Port Charger: Not what I thought it was!”

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How the Pixelbook Go became our Family Computer

My favorite “unnecessary” Star Trek tech is in the Holodeck.

A Starfleet officer calls out “Arch”, and an archway with a touchscreen appears in the holographic simulation. It’s an utterly silly 1990’s idea of how we’d interact with computers hundreds of years in the future. When you think about Trek Tech, there’s really no need for such an elaborate mechanism to appear. A free-standing touch panel is all you need, but you’re also standing in a holographic environment, so why not make any kind of control surface you’d want out of the same “hard light” hologram magic?

That mini-nerd rant aside, the Pixelbook Go has become our family’s “Arch”. And we love it. Continue reading “How the Pixelbook Go became our Family Computer”

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LG Velvet Desktop Mode: Better Multi-Tasking!

While many have fixated on the processor in the Velvet, it’s easy to overlook how well rounded the phone is. One example? The Velvet can drive a pretty decent consumer PC experience.

Let’s take a look at LG’s new desktop mode!

Continue reading “LG Velvet Desktop Mode: Better Multi-Tasking!”

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Pixel 4XL: The most slighted phone of 2019 is still really good.

I’ve struggled with re-visiting the Pixel 4XL.

There’s an intangible quality to every phone that can’t quite be expressed by spec sheets and benchmarks. I can TELL you about the phone, and that still won’t properly convey how I FEEL about the phone.

With the Pixel 5 in limbo, it’s important to check back in with a phone that was pretty heavily panned by critics. For all my personal preferences on beastly hardware and mobile content creation, the Pixel 4XL is still the phone I have the hardest time taking my SIM card out of when I need to move on to a new review device.

There’s just something about the Pixel… Continue reading “Pixel 4XL: The most slighted phone of 2019 is still really good.”

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OnePlus 8 Review: It all comes down to 5G!

The OP8 is a powerful phone, at a price roughly two thirds the cost of a premium Galaxy or iPhone. However, the entire phone industry is dealing with increased component, carrier, and licensing costs. Any other year, and the OP8 would be an easier recommendation, but facing the cheaper OP7T, how do we qualify the “value” of 5G? Continue reading “OnePlus 8 Review: It all comes down to 5G!”

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