Can Smartphones REALLY compete with Point & Shoot and DSLR cameras?

phone camera vs DSLR vs point and shoot test review somegadgetguyEach generation of smartphone ushers in improvements to the cameras on the backs of our handsets, and now they’re starting to rival what we can do with traditional point and shoot cameras.

I’ve even seen some claim that our phones now compete with SLRs, so I felt it was time to take a look at one important aspect of photo and video performance: depth of field.

For this shootout we’ll be comparing the video output from the iPhone 5S, Galaxy S4, HTC One, Optimus G Pro, Lumia 1020 and comparing it to a Samsung Galaxy Camera P&S and a Canon 7D DSLR.

Review: Slickwraps Carbon Cover for the HTC One

htc one slickwraps reviewJust a quick hands on video for your viewing pleasure. The HTC One is a gorgeous phone, but it can be a bit nerve wracking to use if you’re trying to keep it free from scratches. Plus, sometimes it’s just fun to personalize.

Slickwraps covers are adhesive plastic guards which cover just about every surface on your phone. Available for a number of devices, in a number of styles and colors. Let’s see what it looks like on the most attractive phone in the Android ecosystem!

Weekly Tech Roundtable: Nexus 5, Lenovo Yoga, and #iVerge Outrage – Google Hangout Video!

weekly tech roundtableIt’s Saturday! Which means we spend the morning wrapping up all the week’s tech news. Catch opinions from the editors of Boored At Work, Mobile Burn, BWOne, and yours truly as we chat out this week’s headlines.

On the docket:

  • Nexus 5 is ALIVE
  • We ask for more Android 4.4
  • Lenovo’s Yoga bends and twists our opinions
  • What’s up with the PS4 and MP3’s
  • And The Verge wins our USELESS award of the week

Sit back and relax. We’ve got tech to talk!

iFixIt Tears down the iPad Air, Scores low for repair-ability

ifixit ipad air teardownNot terribly surprising, but still something of a bummer.

Not for the Apple faint of heart, but iFixit has worked they’re dissecting tools over Apple’s newest iPad, and the results are somewhat poor. The new iPad Air scores a 2 out of 10 for repairing. It’s part of the trade off for having a powerful and sleek slate, cramming all of the guts into a package that slim is a serious feat of engineering. One which also requires the use of some pretty hardcore glue on the battery.

We should be able to count on a similar score and disassembly process with the new iPad Mini as well.

This continues Apple’s trend of gluing devices shut and locking the consumer out of hardware. It’s standard operating procedure for most tablets, though it’s a touch troubling on laptops and desktops, as their proper computers are becoming more difficult (if sometimes impossible) to upgrade.

Check out iFixit’s tear down, they do a great job of including a little wit while they eviscerate your favorite tech. They also posted this cute little video to show off the iPad’s new guts.

Friday Fun: The New York Subway Signs Experiment – Playing With Subway Conductors

new york subway driver pointI love things like this, subtly warping reality for a person in a fun way. Acknowledging something specific about what they do, which other folks might not be aware of, and using that thing to get a laugh or a smile.

Apparently New York Subway Conductors have to point at special signs at every stop they make. So how might they respond if you added something funny to those sign?

A MONSTER Video Review of the iPhone 5S from a Windows Phone/Android User

apple iphone 5s gold camera lens sensor dual LED flash review somegadgetguyIt’s time folks. I was there for the iPhone 5S launch day. I’ve played with the phone for a while now.

It’s time to talk iPhone.

I have not used an iPhone since the 3G. I’ve recently become a fan of Windows Phone, and I still use Android as my daily driver. iOS7 has brought some pretty significant changes to the Apple ecosystem, and now we have the first generation of iPhone purpose built for this new software.

Let’s see how it holds up to the expectations and ramblings of an angry smartphone geek.

Related:
Our comprehensive iPhone 5S camera and speaker tests!

My Fave Halloween Freebie: A Legal Blu-Ray Quality download of ‘Night of the Living Dead’!

Night_of_the_Living_DeadI’ve been peddling this one for years now folks, and I’m always amazed by people who don’t know about it.

George Romero redefined the zombie genre with his 1968 classic Night of the Living Dead, but it wasn’t originally titled that. It was originally called Night of the Flesh Eaters, but when the distribution company changed the name, they accidentally deleted the copyright from the titles. Romero’s greatest work fell instantly into the public domain.

You can own, share, and edit the film any way you want. All totally legally.

The movie is still remarkably effective. It’s claustrophobic and paranoid. Plus there’s just something fun about old black and white horror flicks. There are several ways to watch the movie today. Several versions have been uploaded to Youtube, there’s a version on Netflix, but by far my favorite is the one hosted on Archive.org.

On the site is a high definition rip of the film which clocks in at over 16GB. It’s one of the best looking copies of the film I’ve ever seen, and looks incredible on HD TV’s and monitors. Give yourself plenty of time for the download though. That’s a pretty big file for Archive’s servers to dole out.

Enjoy and Happy Halloween!

Night of the Living Dead in HD on Archive.org (FREE!)

Continue reading “My Fave Halloween Freebie: A Legal Blu-Ray Quality download of ‘Night of the Living Dead’!”

Google announces TONS of new features for Hangouts, Google Plus, Photo & Video sharing!

morning with google plusA whole suite of new features for the folks using Google Plus!

In the Hangouts app, users will now be able to share location with a simple button press. I’ve been in situations where people have asked “where are you” and now a simple tap can share a Google Map location with them.

hangouts where are you location sharingWhat most people have been itching for though is SMS integration, and now the Hangouts app is including the ability to add text messaging to chat.

For people broadcasting with Hangouts on Air, you’ll now have the ability to plan a Hangout ahead of time, and this will create an event page you can use to promote the Hangout. It’s a nice one-piece solution as we’ve been doing this manually to share our Hangouts with people online.

hangout spotlight background blurNew broadcast tools allow hosts to control the microphone volume of HOA participants. Increase or decrease their chat volume, and now we can finally remove someone from a Hangout. This is welcome control for those of us trying to create professional videos during live broadcasts.

For standard Hangouts video calls, users now have more creative tools to play with, like blurring the background behind themselves. Also we’ll be able to see animated gifs, for all our stop motion photo animation needs.

Moving to Google Plus, over 1.5 BILLION photos are uploaded every week. Google will be unleashing new organization and editing tools to help back up and share your experiences.

auto awesome google plus photo editing 3Photo scanning will allow for searching the content of a picture without tags. If there are pics of your dog un-tagged, searching for “dog” on G+ will bring up your pet pics. New photo editing tools can help improve the look of your pics. Either via “Auto-Awesome” or Snapseed integration, you’ll be able to touch up your pics before sending them out. Snapseed is introducing a new HDR filter to help improve pics which might be a bit under or over exposed.

auto awesome google plus photo editing 4Auto-Awesome will now track through multiple exposures to create animated gifs, composite images, or use the new Eraser tool to eliminate moving objects from your photos. Say you have a series of shots from a vacation, and someone walks in front of your frame, Eraser can scrub that distraction out of your shot. This’ll pretty much encourage people to take series of photos for every set up instead of just one pic and done.

auto awesome google plus movie editingLastly a new auto movie feature is being added. Collecting all of your pics and vids from a time or place, Google will auto-magically combine them all and add background music to present you a share-able highlights reel of your latest adventure. Users can manually edit elements, or select themes which will change up the music, editing, and effects.

If you’ve been jamming on G+, there are going to be a bunch of new features to play with. You can catch the whole announcement video below!