Let's Talk Tech
The Active uses a lower res camera sensor than the regular GS4, and it’s one we’re very familiar with. First making an appearance on the GS3 and Note 2, this sensor doesn’t hold any surprises, though Samsung’s camera app has improved over the successive phones utilizing this hardware.
It does come with one really neat trick though. How waterproof is your current smartphone?
Let’s take a look.
This is hysterically cute.
In the past, 3D goggles never really delivered the virtual reality experience they claimed they could. Current gen 3D tech is getting surprisingly good however, and the head tracking tech built into Oculus Rift provides for an extremely smooth experience, cresting that mind warping realism we’ve been seeking for so long.
This woman isn’t prepared for what’s about to happen on this roller coaster simulator, and that’s why this video rocks.
Tech moves fast, and what was top of the smartphone heap on week is old news the next. In actually using these devices, that aggressive release cycle can induce a little liberal guilt whenever I consider the amount of e-waste being generated.
We’ve long considered the dream of a modular phone which can be upgraded over time. Unfortunately the opposite trend is taking root in the phone industry. What little access and upgradability we did have, like swapping a back plate, battery, or increasing storage is often going away in the name of sleek design.
Well Dave Hakkens wants to change that. He’s released this teaser on Youtube showing his design renders for PhoneBloks, a phone which will last longer, allowing users to upgrade the components they care about over time. The concept rests on a Lego-like system of pieces that the user picks to customize their experience.
He’s starting off with a social media push on Thunderclap, and if this concept interests you, if you’d like to see this move beyond design renders and mock ups, head on over to PhoneBloks.com.
(via Andrew on G+)
Enobong Etteh from Boored At Work joins me to talk about the Apple September 2013 Keynote which introduced the new iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C and iTunes Radio. We’ll also take a stab as to why the stock market wasn’t very excited by the news, with Apple stock falling 12 points after the unveiling.
Boored At Work on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/booredatwork/
No joke. Nokia nailed it.
The Lumia 1020’s monster 41 megapixel PureView sensor is an absolute beast. Even when the output is scaled down to 1080p video, you just wont find a phone camera as capable of delivering the kinds of photographic output you’ll receive from this Lumia. Plus it has the first digital zoom which is actually worth using! It’s a whole new tier above what we would normally consider “premier” smartphone optics.
Yet with all of the accolades I can throw at this phone, no camera is perfect. Let’s go hands on with some video samples!
How meta is it watching Mike Tyson play Punch Out? One of my all time favorite NES games, though I was never able to beat it. It does make me feel a little better about myself that one of the most ferocious boxers in history, who was the subject of this very game, was unable to get past the very first opponent. Come on Mike! It’s Glass Joe!
It never ceases to amaze me what people can create. You’d think by now we’d have exhausted Beatles media, remixes, and mash ups. You would be wrong.
Industrious Youtuber JOSIV5 has created something kind of awesome in it’s simplicity. By slicing into the Beatles tracks on Rockband, he was able to pull the vocals out of the mix. What remains is a quiet reduction of some of the most recognizable songs in pop music history. Altogether familiar, yet an entirely new way to experience music we know so well. “Pure” Beatles if you will. Enjoy!
Benchmarks really can’t tell you how a phone will perform in real world situations, but they can show relative performance between devices. Android seems to be entering a phase of “efficiency”, with mid-range phones utilizing dual-core processors. Even the Moto X, which stands as a premier handset for Motorola, only uses two cores to get the job done.
Let’s take a look at how the HTC’s Mini performs in a number of synthetic benchmarks against its big brother One and an older handset running similar internals.