Misguided Geek Tech Update Quick rundown of the Tech news of the day:  - Reportedly Apple has pre-ordered 10 million units of its new iPad Mini  - What will the new Apple tablet look like you ask?  From the same guy who brought us those fairly spot on iPhone 5 renderings, designer extrodinare Martin Hajek, now brings us the georges projections of what the new iPad Mini may indeed look like.  That is some sexy tech.  - With the recent announcement of a new Nook and the new Fire HD’s, Google has released some updates to keep their flagship tablet Nexus 7 relevant.  New features include an updated gesture search to make it compatible with the tablet, improving the user interface, boosting overall performance, and upgrading the contact search feature.  The update is out NOW on the Google Play Store. - From the “ohhh, thats sad” deparment comes Like-A-Hug jacket concept, where the jacket inflates a little bit, simulating a hug, whenever someone likes something you did on Facebook.  In a time where so much of our social interaction happens online, is the idea of tech simulating interpersonal interaction so hard to fathom? I know I keep making this excuse, but I cant re-state it enough, my life is INSANE right now, so sorry for the dearth in posts.  I will try my best to keep up 3-4 a week, but the site will be a little slow for a while, but stick with me, I should be back up to normal in a few weeks.
October 8, 2012 VIEW POST
Misguided Geek Friday Tech Update Quick rundown of the Tech news of the day: - THE IPHONE 5 IS HERE!1!!1! ZOMG GUYZ - IOS6 came out earlier this week. Apple’s new map system has been met with… well lets say “mixed” results. In response Google is ramping up efforts to get its own IOS maps into the App store by Christmas. - In mobile, non-Apple news HTC’s new Windows Phone offering, the 8x is getting some high praise. Featuring a uni-body design, Qualcomm S4 1.5 GHz dualcore processor, 16GB of storage and 1GB of RAM, HTC is looking to supplant Nokia as the “Signature Windows Phone.” - In sad news Walmart and Amazon have decided to divorce officially, as brick and mortar retail giant tells the online retail giant that they will stop selling the Fire Tablets and Kindle e-readers, this mus burn Amazon as Target dumped the Kindles a few weeks ago as well. It never made sense to me, that two of the biggest stores were selling the flag ship products of their biggest threats, Amazon the online super store. Here is hoping all my lovely readers have a great weekend, and check back Monday for more Tech, Gaming, and all around Nerdisms. As always, you can send me questions, comments, concerns, and love notes to @Joshartrip on twitter, or leave a comment here, you know you want to. Stay Geeky!
September 21, 2012 VIEW POST
Misguided Geek Friday Monday Tech Update Quick rundown of the Tech news of the day: For some reason my Friday post did not publish, sorry about that, but here it is in its entirety with some updates that came in over the weekend: - The new Ear Pods introduced at Apple’s iPhone 5 unveiling are better… but still sound like crap. - Speaking of the iPhone 5, Apple’s press release this morning gives the new gadget credit for being the most “Successful iPhone Launch Ever” as pre-orders surpassed 2 Million over the first 24 hours! -We already know that Apple is unrolling its new Maps app when IO6 officially drops on the 19th, but Amazon is apparently moving away from Google Maps as well with their Amazon Maps API moving to Beta. - Tech and Fitness company Fitbit already has a devoted following with its fitness trackers and scales, but their newest products the Fitbit Zip and Fitbit One add bluetooth connectivity with a handful of mobile divices, something sorely missing in early models of the gadget.  With this addition Fitbit, you have officially made it to my wish list, congratulations.  What a great way to start the week, a post that should have gone up the week previous.  I promise a full slate of post this week as I try to get back to my regular schedule.  Questions and comments are always appreciated, as always you can catch me on twitter @JoshArtrip, or @Misguidedgeek, or comment here in one of the post, I check them every 5-15 seconds.  As always, thanks for reading, and stay geeky!
September 17, 2012 VIEW POST
*Tim Howell is back with us offering a follow up to his first thoughts on the Nexus 7.  Now that he has lived with Google’s new tablet for a while, below are his findings.  I thank him for sharing, and hope he will be a regular contributor here on MisguidedGeek. Nexus 7 Follow Up:  Thoughts after the first week Here is a list of some cool features I have found after a week with myNexus 7, as well as some solutions and updates on some of the issues Ifound in my first look.Cool Features I have found:•       ScreenshotsThe Nexus 7 allows you to capture screenshots with the press of two ofthe side buttons (power and volume down). Choosing those two buttonsmake it difficult to accidentally capture your screen, but easy enoughthat you can do it quickly. •       Creating folders for appsOne of the features I always envied in the “iphamily” was the abilityto condense similar apps into a folder together. The Nexus 7 allowsyou to do that! You simple hold an app and place it on top of anotherand it will create a folder for them, which you can then name. •       Google DriveI was unaware that GoogeDocs had become a part of a new service calledGoogleDrive. Google Drive is a cloud based drive for you to store anydocuments. While the Google Drive does not work offline, it does allowyou to create any sort of document while you are online. Most peopledon’t think of a tablet when wanting to create documents, but as I amsans PC at the moment, it is perfect for creating short documents orspreadsheets.Solutions to Early Concerns:•       Downloading the Amzon App storeOne of the issues I had earlier with my tablet was the lack of theAmazon Appstore. Well through some playing, I found that you can go toAmazon.com, and have them send you the link to download the appstoreapp. All you have to do is access the e-mail they send from the tabletand you can download the app that way. I think Google made it harderto get to the appstore so that you would stick with Google Play, butthey didn’t make it impossible. •       Limited space is not an issue so farAnother concern I had about the Nexus 7 was its very limited space. Ipurchased the 16G version, but was still worried that I would use upthe memory very quickly. Well I have downloaded apps, music, books,and videos, and have used up very little of the hard drive. The cloudseems to be more effective than I anticipated at holding all of mydata and allowing me access it quickly. •       No Camera appYou have to download the Instagram app or Camera Quick Launch App to access the camera. However, since the only camera is a front facing, low-quality camera, it is rarely used. Still a Problem•       No HBOGO or TUMBLRSo far the biggest draw back to the Nexus 7 is the lack of apps. Mostof my apps have made the transition with no problem (albeit some ofthem are just expanded versions of the phone apps). Two of my favoriteapps are not currently compatible with the Nexus 7. Those two beingHBOGO and Tumblr. I’m still certain that these will be coming soon, aswell as more advanced versions of other apps, i.e. Facebook andTwitter. -Tim Howell Tim’s blog “The Side Effects of Boredom” covers a variety of topics, from sports and movies to comedy and high nerdity.  
August 22, 2012 VIEW POST
Misguided Geek Friday Tech Update Quick rundown of the Tech news of the day:  - A recent $110 price drop in its Kindle DX is leading many to belive that a whole new run of Kindle’s are about to be released by Amazon, some speculating that the new gadgets could come out as early as next week.  - As I discovered last week, Sprint has dropped the price of the iPhone 4S by 50 bones.  In a suprisingly… nice move Apple Stores will match the discount on their iPhone 4 and 4S by $49.01 to customers that cite the discount from the wireless carriers.  - In the background of the ongoing Samsung vs Apple war, lies Google who, according to CNET is silently supporting its brother in Droid.  Per the article, Google has remained silent because ““They don’t want to directly confront Apple.” - Maybe Google is to busy re-inventing the way we transport our bodies around to help Samsung as they recently boast that their Self Driving Cars have now logged 300,000 miles with no accidents.  If I cant have flying cars, I guess I can settle for robot chauffeurs.  Thats another week in the books, be sure to tune back in next week, same nerd time, same nerd channel.  Stay Geeky - MG
August 10, 2012 VIEW POST
*My pal Tim recently bought a Nexus 7, and I asked him to share his thoughts.  You can get more Tim over at his blog First Impression on the Google Nexus 7  I received my new Nexus Tablet a couple of days ago and here are my first impressions.The tablet is light and the size is great! It is easy to hold eitherone-handed or two-handed and the keyboard is easy to use either way, the sound is quite impressive for such a small device too.  There areonly three buttons , a power button, and the two volumecontrol buttons, all located on the right side of the tablet.  They’reeasily accessible without getting in the way while using apps. Theheadphone jack and usb ports are at the bottom which I have alwaysliked. It does feature a front facing camera, which I have yet toactually use.So far all of the apps I have work great! It is super-fast and the screen is beautiful. The device came preloaded with the latest Bourne series book and Transformers: Dark of the Moon which showcases the Nexus’s book reading and movie showing capabilities. Both of which are impressive.  As for an e-reader it is a perfect size and the auto dimming screen seems to allow for perfect reading in any light, including sunlight.   When I opened the device it greeted me with a personal greeting and once synched to my Google account downloaded all of theavailable/compatible apps I had already downloaded to my phone. I thought those were nice touches and made me feel more comfortable from the first time I touched the device. All of the apps run similarly if not identically to the phone counterparts. As for the battery life of the Nexus 7, it is advertised as having “9 hours of HD video playback, 10 hours of web browsing or e-reading and up to 300 hours of stand-by time.” In my experience (so far) I have kept the Wi-Fi on all day and used it intermittently, and the battery lasted for (an estimated) 22 hours. I was pleasantly surprised when picked it up this morning and it still had about 15% battery left after sitting all night. I am impressed with the batteries longevitywhile resting most of the time, but am interested to see how it works with some heavy app usage…There are only two drawbacks so far. A lot of apps that I have on myphone are from the Amazon App Store, which as of now is not compatiblewith the Nexus device. I am sure this is only because the Jelly BeanOS is new. There is no doubt in my mind that my apps that are notcurrently compatible will catch up soon.  The other is the size of thewidgets. The Twitter and Facebook apps are added to the screen in thesame size as on a phone. The problem with this is that when laying outa screen you are often left with small gaps between your widgets,which is just annoying to me and ruins the devices otherwise extremelyappealing look.  Many of the Google widgets, such as Gmail, My PlayLibrary, and calendar, are adjustable, which is the perfect solutionto the issue. I hope that with the increased use of tablets, especially Android powered tablets, both of these issues will be resolved very soon. -Tim Howell  Tim’s blog “The Side Effects of Boredom” covers a variety of topics, from sports and movies to comedy and high nerdity.  
August 9, 2012 VIEW POST
Misguided Geek Friday Tech Update Quick rundown of the Tech news of the day:  - Google Fiber, the companies ultra fast internet and HD TV service went live yesterday in Kansas City MO/KS.  For a $300 construction cost and anwhere from $120 to $0 bucks a month, you too could have access to up to 1 Gigabit of download speeds… if you live in Kansas City (Im looking at you Jonny).  - Andorid 4.0 Jelly Bean is finally making its way stateside, with reports that the Motorola Zoom being the first device to run the new OS.  As of last night Wi-Fi Xoom users had access to the update.  - Same day shipping is probably not feasible on a broad scale says Amazon CFO Tom Szkutak.  Brick and mortar retailers everywhere exhale a sigh of relief.   - A new patent application for Apple’s possible Google Glass competitor has recently been submitted.  The patent design shows a very uncomfortable HUD display with accompanying helmet. Thats all for this week folks, have a great weekend, and stay geeky!.
July 27, 2012 VIEW POST
As a follow up to my previous post about brisk early sales of the Nexus 7, apparently the sales for the 16GB version have been much better than previously expected.  In fact they have been so good that Google has pulled the 16GB version from their Play store. According to the Guardian Google expected the 8GB version to be the big seller, but apparently concerns with the fact that they cant upgrade the storage have lead to a run on the larger capacity tablet.  Good for Google, as I have previously, the success of these tablets can only be good for us.
July 23, 2012 VIEW POST
Sales are looking good for the Nexus 7 thus far if early reports are to be beleived.  The first pre-orders went out a few days ago, and already most retail outlets have sold out of their first shipments.  According to this Chicago Tribune article, Gamestop, Staples, and Sams Club already report either being sold out, or list the tablet as out of stock. People who were able to get their hands on the well reviewed, apparently high in demand gadget, are finding that Google, did not invested the same amount of time and effort as Apple has in the past regrading the unboxing experience, as evident  in the delightful video below:
July 18, 2012 VIEW POST