Let's Talk Tech
I can’t tell you how excited I am to see a full fledged video editor on Windows Phone. Now with some of the best cameras ever bolted onto our smartphones, we now have the ability to cut up high resolution video directly from the phones that shot it. Best of all this app is cross platform for any Windows device with a touch screen.
Here’s our full review, feature walk through, and tutorial of Movie Creator on Windows Phone 8.1! Enjoy!
Samsung created the phablet market as we understand it today with the original Note. The Note has become their Bleeding Edge platform, superseding even the Galaxy S line in cramming high tech guts into a phone. The Note 4 also brings the new design language we saw first on the Galaxy Alpha. Does the whole package live up to the extremely high expectations the Note line has created? Let’s take a look!
comScore released their quarterly smartphone rankings for the period ending in September.
Android showed a modest increase to 52.1% of the overall market. Apple lost ground, and now represents 41.7% of the pie. Microsoft gained another .2%, and now sits at 3.6%, while Blackberry shrank a little more to hit 2.3%.
While Apple might have lost market share, overall the smartphone market is a growing market, and looking at individual manufacturers, Cupertino still reigns. Remember the iPhone owns 41.7% of the market, with the next closest competitor being Samsung who also saw growth to 29%. LG continued their growth trend hitting 6.9% of the market while Motorola was down to 5.4% and HTC dropped to 4.4%.
comScore also examined what apps were most popular, and while Google dominated the list, Facebook ran away with the top spot as the most used app on any phone. You can check out the full app list below.
Kyocera went BEAST MODE in building the Brigadier, and they’re only the second company to use Sapphire Crystal for their display. After using the Brigadier for a couple months, let’s chat about the experience of using this rugged little brick…
Photojojo’s Wide Angle Smartphone Lens has a neat trick. It can split in two, to become a macro lens. Especially for us folks NOT using the iPhone, this is a pretty handy camera accessory. Let’s get up close and personal with some macro shots from the Lumia 1020 and 1520!
Shop the Photojojo Wide Angle + Macro Smartphone lens on Amazon.
More info on Photojojo products.
If you were looking to shop a selfie phone for yourself or a loved one, but were concerned the HTC Desire EYE might not make in time for your holiday Selftivities, fret not.
The Desire EYE, and its 13MP front facing camera with dual LED flash, will be an exclusive on Big Blue, and while AT&T does not have a firm release date or pricing info yet, they are confirming that it will be available and shipping before the holidays end. You can catch AT&T’s full PR below for more info! Continue reading “AT&T Confirms HTC Desire EYE Will Arrive in Time For Holidays”
It’s a feature I’ve been struggling with recently.
We’ve quickly stepped up through higher resolution displays, with higher PPI (pixel per inch) counts, and now it’s pretty common to hold pocketable computers which have the same resolution screens as the super large TV’s we enjoy mounting in our living rooms.
Higher resolution screens provide a more pleasant visual experience. Text is crisper. Photos are more detailed. It’s easier on the eyes, and stepping back to lower resolution screens can make you feel like you need to visit an optometrist.
However, after we started building out smaller 720p screens, I worry that we’re starting to see diminishing returns on packing more dots into a phone display. Continue reading “Do QHD Phone Screens Provide Enough Benefit to Outweigh Performance and Battery Woes?”
I try not to editorialize TOO much while covering press releases, but I am bothered by the “bigger is better” trend in smartphones. Flagships are starting to blur the boundaries between “regular” sized and “phablet”. Mini phones are almost always hamstrung versions of their larger stablemates. In Android land, there is exactly one mini phone which still retains higher-end specs, and Sony just gave it a refresh.
The Z3 Compact steps down to a 4.6″ display with a 720p resolution, it loses 1GB of RAM (down to 2GB), and it packs a smaller battery at 2600 mAh versus its big brother’s 3100 mAh. Besides those, it retains almost all of the hardware from the larger Z3. You’ll find the same Qualcomm 801 Quad-Core processor. Both have stereo speakers, and water submerge-able builds.
The Compact has the same 1/2.3″ camera sensor packing 20MP, 4K video, and optical image stabilization. Plus Sony will be bringing PS4 remote play to both the Z3 and the Compact for you console gamers out there.
It’s a largely premier specs sheet. At a time when even Apple will be moving up in screen size, and with the mid-range market getting hammered, Sony is providing a shot in the arm to a segment of the smartphone market which is often ignored. Pricing and availability will follow soon, and you can read Sony’s full PR below.
Continue reading “Sony Xperia Z3 Compact Crushes “Mini” Smartphone Competition”