Category: Reviews

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App Review: Nokia Refocus for Windows Phone – Shoot first THEN make sure your subject is in focus!

nokia refocus logoLike something out of a bad CSI re-run:

“Zoom into that flower. Enhance. See if you can clean up that focus.”

It’s a trip that we can now do things kinda like that. Refocus turns your Lumia into a Lytro style camera. Hold your camera steady for a couple seconds as the camera scans a scene, and then you can choose what to focus on later. We’re now officially living in the future.

Let’s take a look!

Refocus on the Windows App Store.

Here’s an example of how Refocus works. The flower pic I showed in the video can be embedded, allowing you to play with the focus points in a web browser.

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A Brief Comparison – The Nokia Lumia 2520 vs the Microsoft Surface 2

WP_20131120_12_11_21_ProThe Lumia 2520 tablet launches today!

And while I’ve already named it the Windows Tablet of the year, and we’ve put it on video, I thought I’d do a brief rundown comparison between it and Microsoft’s own solution for Windows RT the Surface 2. What follows are my personal experiences handling both tablets, and if you disagree with me, it’s most likely because you’re wrong.

Build Quality and Construction

I have to give a subtle edge to the Lumia here with the matte finish Lumias. I don’t like glossy gadgets, and the matte black 2520 has an excellent feel in the hand. There’s a grippiness to the back plate which feels great in the hand without feeling like cheap rubber or tacky plastic. You could almost describe it as satiny or velvety. The red Lumia is striking, we don’t see tablets in colors, but I don’t like fingerprint smudges.  Continue reading “A Brief Comparison – The Nokia Lumia 2520 vs the Microsoft Surface 2”

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Instagram BETA for Windows Phone vs 6Tag vs Instagram on Android! FIGHT!

instagram vs 6tag app comparison somegadgetguyIt’s finally here!

Always the ultimate tech irony, the best smartphone cameras in the world had no official native app to upload pics to the world’s most popular social photo service.

No longer. Instagram is finally officially on Windows Phone as an open BETA. Let’s see how it compares to the popular third party solution 6Tag, and what features the Android version might have that IG will have to catch up on!

Follow me on Instagram!

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Hands on: Dreamwork’s Dragons Adventure for the Nokia Lumia 2520 – ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ GPS Game

WP_20131120_12_10_56_ProThis is cool folks.

I think hardware is starting to plateau. Phones and tablets are now “powerful enough” for the services of today, and I think we’re going to see a pendulum swing back to software and services over the next year as developers start tapping into all the raw sensor data available in consumer gear.

I got to spend the day at Dreamworks Animation Studio today to get hands on with their new collaboration with Nokia. A game called ‘Dragons Adventure’ will be launching exclusively for Nokia phones and tablets starting with the Lumia 2520, and it’s featuring some really forward thinking tech… Continue reading “Hands on: Dreamwork’s Dragons Adventure for the Nokia Lumia 2520 – ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ GPS Game”

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Review: RAVPower Wireless Card and Flash Drive Reader – Use WiFi to share files between phones and tablets!

ravpower wireless card reader movie streamingI’m stoked to see more gadgets like this.

Getting files on and off our tablets and phones can be painful. As much as these devices claim autonomy, often we still need to resort to plugging them into proper computers. Wireless drives afford us more flexibility in handling our mobile data, allowing us to build portable clouds, and providing us easier solutions for sharing media with other people.

Let’s take a look at RAVPower’s entry into this gadget class with the RP-WD01.

More info on RAVPower devices.
The RAVPower Wireless Card reader on Amazon.

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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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The most powerful Android phone? Benchmarking the LG G2.

LG G2 benchmarks optimus g pro comparisonIn Android land we care about specs. We care about them a lot. Before even handling a device, many will scrutinize things like processor, storage, and RAM to make purchasing decisions.

Here stateside, the LG G2 was one of the first phones to utilize Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 series processor. This is an architecture improvement over the very solid Snapdragon 600 used in phones like the HTC One and Galaxy S4. How much of an improvement? That’s what we’re going to take a look at in this video.

LG’s Optimus G Pro uses the 600 series chipset, so this obviously isn’t a competition. This is a comparison to see how improved the new processor is, so I don’t want cranky fanbois telling me how this isn’t a “fair test” or other such nonsense. We KNOW the G2 is going to win most of these. We wanna see by how much!

There are links after the jump if you want to skip to specific bench marks, or you can watch the whole battery of tests below. Let’s get to it!

Continue reading “The most powerful Android phone? Benchmarking the LG G2.”

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Review: Netatmo Urban Weather Station – Is the air around you fit to breathe?

netatmo urban weather station review somegadgetguyThere’s a new trend in home automation and monitoring that I kinda like.

For those of us who can’t install big server-style brain systems, there’s a new crop of individual sensors and monitors which connect to our home networks individually, and are controlled by the devices we already own. Netatmo is a one such device which promises a bevvy of weather and air quality reports for your viewing pleasure.

What’s interesting is watching these types of products become more mainstream. Not only can you find gadgets like this on Amazon, I managed to snag this on the AT&T store. Come to think of it, this might not be a bad sensor package to add to a service like AT&T Digital Life or other home monitoring solutions…

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