Category: Articles

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Longterm Review: RAVPOWER Lipstick Charger and Flashlight

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Back in November of last year I reviewed the Ravpower Lipstick charger and I am here to give you my longterm update on this awesome yet inexpensive portable charger!

003I use this everyday for all of my gadgets and the Ravpower is always in my backpack or messenger bag ready to charge my device.  On one occasion, while riding my bike super-fast like Evil Knievel, I pulled the Ravpower out of my pocket to use the flashlight, as the headlight on my bike had run out of juice, and I dropped the Ravpower! NOOOOOO! It went skidding across the street kind of like that flat stone you skipped across the lake in the summer. It missed certain destruction from a car by about a foot or so.  I thought to myself  “Self, I have a feeling it’s done…” Continue reading “Longterm Review: RAVPOWER Lipstick Charger and Flashlight”

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FTC investigating T-Mobile for Bogus Charges on Customer’s Bills

T-Mobile LogoThis one is news to me.

Apparently there’s a practice called “Cramming”. It’s where a carrier will charge customers for premium SMS services, even if the customer never used those services. Getting celebrity gossip, horoscopes, or any other subscription entertainment media via text often comes with additional charges.

640px-US-FederalTradeCommission-Seal.svgWell now the FTC is investigating T-Mobile’s relationship with these kinds of SMS based services, as new evidence might show that T-Mobile continued to bill customers for years after being made aware that some of these charges might be fraud. Why would T-Mobile do this? They get a pretty hefty cut of that Premium SMS fee.

What’s most troubling is these charges are often contested by subscribers who notice, but the maximum refund rate in any given month only approached about 40%. Which means most months, over 60% of these fraudulent charges were uncontested. The FTC is alleging that the UnCarrier’s billing practices made it more difficult for consumers to discover these kinds of charges. Their complaint seeks to permanently ban T-Mo from this kind of practice, and to seek refunds for customers affected.

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Nokia Lumia 635 coming to T-Mobile July 9th

Lumia-635-2Nokia is raising the stakes on the entry-level game.

After scoring a hit with last years low-cost wunderphone the Lumia 520, the follow up this year is looking to continue that tradition of not punishing people for buying a “cheap” handset.

This will be the first phone to properly ship with Windows Phone 8.1 (our full review of Microsoft’s new OS), and it’s coming first to T-Mobile. Starting July 9th you can score one for $0 down and only $7 a month added to your plan. It’ll be less than $170 if you want to buy it outright.

A 4.5″ screen is powered by a Qualcomm 400 series quad core, 512MB of RAM, 8GB of storage (with MicroSD card expansion up to 128GB), a 5MP rear camera, an 1830mAh battery, and LTE for T-Mo’s 4G network.  It’s a solid step up from the Lumia 520, and more than covers the basics for someone wanting a solid smartphone experience.

The 635 will eventually land on other carriers, but Lil Magenta is where you can get it first. It’ll be closely followed by the Lumia 930, which we got a sneak peek of in the Verizon Lumia Icon. Nokia produced a hands on of the 635, which you can watch below.

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Google Retiring QuickOffice, Migrating all Features to Docs, Sheets, and Slides Apps

google pulling quickoffice from play storeDuring Google I/O we heard about native Office document support, and we were pretty sure that was built on the QuickOffice platform.

It looks like after Google Docs receives the updates to natively edit Office files, Google will be properly retiring QuickOffice from the Play store.  From the Google Apps Update blog:

With the integration of Quickoffice into the Google Docs, Sheets and Slides apps, the Quickoffice app will be unpublished from Google Play and the App Store in the coming weeks. Existing users with the app can continue to use it, but no features will be added and new users will not be able to install the app.

Short and sweet. Google acquired and retired in around two years. Fret not though as Drive and Docs will be getting much better soon…

 

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Don’t Tease Me Google – Will Android FINALLY Get Proper USB Audio Support?

google IO 2014 android L USB Audio Support somegadgetguyA long time ago (about two and a half years), and on a completely different blog, I bemoaned the lack of USB Audio support on Android. There were little hints of it buried in Ice Cream Sandwich, some proprietary solutions surfaced, and a few developers on XDA managed to get some forms of it working on certain devices running certain kernels with certain apps.

It wasn’t looking good.

USB Audio has long been one of the few features iOS could handily beat Android at. Plug a USB mic into an iPad. It worked. Plug a Headphone amp into an iPhone. It worked. Plug an iOS device into a car with USB support. It worked. I happen to be a recording professional, and drooled over mixing consoles which supported the iPad, but the benefits for general consumers were pretty clear too. You can even plug USB mics into Windows Tablets, USB Headphone Amps too.

During the Google I/O 2014 Keynote, we got yet another tease at a feature that many have been looking forward to since the platform’s inception. Buried in the list of updates projected on the wall were mentions of low latency audio recording and USB Audio. Be still my beating heart. Continue reading “Don’t Tease Me Google – Will Android FINALLY Get Proper USB Audio Support?”

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Is your phone compatible with Android Wear? Google has a simple test for you!

Screenshot_2014-06-26-11-34-36Short and sweet.

If you’re concerned that your Android phone might not be compatible with the new Android Wear watches coming out, Google has a simple test link set up.

Head over to g.co/WearCheck with your phone’s browser, and it’ll run a test to see if you’ll be able to sport a Wear watch. Chances are pretty good that if your phone was purchased within the last year or so that you should be good, but it never hurts to get that confirmed right?

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The Problem With Android Wear Watch Screens

Wearable tech will be hot. The smartphone market is maturing and starting to plateau, so manufacturers are pushing into new territories to expand on our relationships with data and services. Google’s Android Wear platform is an excellent step in the right direction to legitimize this new market segment.

It does suffer from one fatal flaw however: Battery life. 

pebble smartwatch review somegadgetguy direct sunlightPlaying with several different solutions for wrist computing, my favorite so far are the watches that can best replicate the experience found on traditional time pieces. Namely a screen that can always be referenced for small pieces of information no matter what orientation it’s worn, not depending on any gestures to activate it. I mentioned as much in my last FFC VLOG.

Of course in technology land, compromises have to be made. If you want crazy new features, you have to accept some new limitations.  Continue reading “The Problem With Android Wear Watch Screens”

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Android Auto Combines Your Phone and Car for Safer Driving

android autoAuto in-dash entertainment and navigation systems feel woefully out of step with the rest of the tech landscape. These types of services are far more powerful and updated far more frequently on our phones and tablets. There have been many times I’ve personally just wanted my phone to be the brain of my car.

Starting the Open Auto Alliance, Google plans to provide just that. Plug your phone into your car, and your car screen will show simplified driver friendly versions of the apps and services you might need while operating a motor vehicle. Relying on steering wheel controls and voice recognition services like entertainment, communication, and navigation should help reduce the amount of time drivers take their eyes off the road.

A new Android Auto SDK will help streamline the process of building a car app and releasing it. The initial push will focus on messaging and music services, and the API’s are almost identical to Android Wear.

Over 40 automobile manufacturers have already joined the Open Auto Alliance, and the first Android compatible cars will be released later this year.

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