App Review: Nokia MixRadio for Windows Phone

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Let me introduce you to Nokia MixRadio. I ride my bike everywhere I go and this app keeps the tunes flowing without any interruption of ads. You might be asking yourself: “Isn’t there a Nokia Music app already?” Actually Nokia re-branded the Nokia Music app to Nokia MixRadio with a fresh new UI and features.

Nokia MixRadio offers up a novel way to discover new music and artists. With over 18 million songs available you should have no problem making your own custom mix of music to take with you wherever you go. This app has over 150 prescribed playlists by Nokia’s very own mixologists! You can download 4 playlists which equals about 8 hours of music. Mind you with the free version of the app you still get a ton of streaming music for free however you can only skip ahead 6 songs per hour.  If you need even more music you can upgrade the Nokia MixRadio app for $3.99 a month which includes unlimited downloads. Continue reading “App Review: Nokia MixRadio for Windows Phone”

Review: Using a Ballistic Hydra Rugged case for iPhone 5 on an iPhone 5S

ballistic hydra waterproof case iphone 5s test review somegadgetguy

There still aren’t a lot of rugged and water-proof cases built specifically for the iPhone 5S. Thankfully, the changes between the 5 and 5S aren’t so severe that you couldn’t use a 5 case on a 5S, but there will be a few compromises.

The Ballistic Hydra is ready to go! Let’s take a look at how someone might better protect their shiny, pretty iPhone from drop and water damage!

Shop for the Ballistic Hydra rugged case on Amazon.

More info on Ballistic cases at: http://www.goballisticcase.com/

Gadget Review: Ravpower Lipstick Charger and Flashlight

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Today this little gadget came in, so let me introduce you to the RAVPower Luster Mini 3000mAh Lipstick Charger.  The RAVPower weighs in at a mere 3oz so it is very light in your pockets or messenger bag.  It even comes with a clip, a very shiny chrome clip so you can put it in your shirt pocket on pants pocket. These little yet very functional gadget measures 4.6 X 0.9 X 0.9 so you can pretty much say it is very compact.  The RAVPower Lipstick Charger comes in a few choices of color such as black, pink, silver and a champagne color.

This is what comes in the box:

  • 1 – RAVPower  Luster Mini 3000mAh Lipstick Charger
  • 1 – USB to Micro USB cable
  • 1 – User Manual

The RAVPower is going to be one of your best friends when you are out and about and don’t have access to your wall charger. One of the very useful features of this lipstick charger is that it doubles as a flashlight and lights up with an intense 8 lumens! Drop your keys in the dark car? Grab your RAVPower lipstick charger and let the light shine to find your keys amongst those butterfinger wrappers under your seat!  When you use the flashlight, the RAVPower has 3 modes: high, low and strobe. This would come in handy if you are a bicyclist and your headlight happens to go out, you could easily use this as a backup light so you will not get a ticket from the local Police. Continue reading “Gadget Review: Ravpower Lipstick Charger and Flashlight”

Using the Surface RT 2 for Podcasting and Voice Over Recording (RT not Pro)

surface 2 audio recording mobile home sound USB microphone Zoom h4n somegadgetguyIf you’re into mobile audio, field recording, voice over, or podcasting, it’s been the dream for a while. The ability to use our consumer tablets as recording solutions.

It still hasn’t come to Android. Plug a USB mic into an Android tablet, and it’ll likely power up, but Android wont know what to do with it. Microsoft might have the hardware to offer up a solution for us mobile audio junkies. Let’s take a look at how recording works on a Surface 2, and what happens to the files you create after you’re done editing.

SomeGadgetGuy’s 2013 Smartphone Awards! The Best of the Best!

SGG Smartphone awards 2013 smallIt’s that time!

Wrapping up the year, we’re going to take a look back at the year in smartphones. Unlike our Tablet Buying Guide, there are many aspects to shopping a phone. Instead of declaring a one-size-fits-all winner, we’re going to run down a list of individual features. We’ll hand out awards to the best of the best in categories like Camera, Speakers, and Battery Life.

If you’re shopping a phone this Holiday Season, we hope this will help you make a buying decision on those features which are most important to you!

Let’s get to it!

Continue reading “SomeGadgetGuy’s 2013 Smartphone Awards! The Best of the Best!”

One Today brings charitable crowd-funding to your smartphone – 1 new cause every day.

WP_20131122_19_11_06_ProWhat could you do with $1? Probably not a lot right.

Well what could 100 people do if they each chipped in a dollar? A thousand people? A million?

It’s the spirit of giving, and it’s important that we check in from time to time. Our tech can be used for trivial things and terrific things.

When it comes to crowd-funding, million dollar projects take up most of the mind share, but we haven’t completely exhausted the idea of bringing a crowd of people to contribute money to an idea. One Today is one possible solution for finding and funding.  A new project is highlighted every day, and users can decide whether they wish to contribute a dollar.

Projects run the gamut of social causes, from protecting coral reef, to fighting malaria, or contributing to the World Food Program. A new cause every day is served up right to your phone.

The idea of small, painless transactions makes a lot of sense. Even a relatively small group can quickly build a significant amount of capital. To that end, just as you might easily share a picture on social networking, One Today provides participants with easy tools to help spread the word on causes they care about.

Google One Today

One Today on Google Play

Top 5 for the week starting November 18 – Instagram, Expensive Phones, and Dopey Tech Support

WP_20131120_17_53_09_ProThese were the top read and shared stories from SomeGadgetGuy last week! Kind of an eclectic round up. I love it!

Let’s jump in!

5 – Microsoft Support: If your Surface wont turn on, just tap on “”Settings”…

So much fun finding these little gems. Bad tech support advice direct from a major tech company. Microsoft is usually pretty good about this too, but this one slipped through. It seems like reasonable advice. Until you use your brain and think about it…

LootCrate Whats in the box4 – Friday Fun – November Loot Crate Un-Boxing! CELEBRATE!

My second Loot Crate! I had to share what was inside! Each month a box of cool geeky gear is dropped off at your door. If you’d like to shop a Crate, you can save 10% by using promo code “SGLOOT” at check out!

3 – The argument for buying the most expensive phone you can…

The conventional logic would assume that if you’re not very tech savvy, then maybe you don’t need all the “bells and whistles” of more expensive gear. Here however, we take a look at what benefits there might be for shopping premier phones, with a few tips for saving cash while doing buying high end.

WP_20131120_12_10_56_Pro2 – Hands on Dreamwork’s ‘Dragons Adventure’ for the Lumia 2520

We’re entering another services and software era. Our phones and tablets are crazy powerful and come chock full of movement and location sensors collecting data. Now we’ll see more apps taking advantage of that raw power. We take a look at Dreamworks newest family game which uses geolocation tracking on a tablet and ties into a parents phone for participation.

1 – Instragram BETA for Windows Phone vs 6Tag and Instagram on Android

instagram vs 6tag app comparison somegadgetguyNothing like a good old fashioned showdown, and this was the most shared story of the week! Instagram is finally on Windows Phone, so let’s see how the BETA app compares to the established 3rd party app 6Tag!

We’re nothing without you readers, and we certainly can’t compete against the big blogs by ourselves. We always greatly appreciate not only the likes, but the sharing on social sites like Google Plus, Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit. The more we get to talk with other tech fans, the better we get, and soon we’ll be able to reward that participation with some fun contests coming up soon!

Thanks for reading, and if you feel we missed a big story this week, or you have a hot tip, please drop us a line on our Contact Page!

Weekend listening: Our Surface 2 Speaker Quality Test

WP_20131120_17_53_09_ProOur first Windows tablet to hit the SomeGadgetGuy Test Bench!

We never did get our hands on the first Surface, but Surface 2 is ready to go! We’ll playback some movie and music samples to see how it stacks up to phones and bluetooth speakers! The audio level for our tablet tests is normalized to compare directly with the HTC One, so listen back to that test and you’ll be able to hear how the Surface 2 stacks up!

Previous speaker tests:
HTC One
Lumia 920
JawBone JAMBOX
LG G2
Lumia 1020
HMDX Jam Classic
Galaxy S4 Active
Nokia Play 360
HTC One Mini
LG Optimus G Pro
iPhone 5S
Pantech Discover