*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
So, this little guy has been making its way through the inter-tubes.  No its not a Playstation Vita, this lawsuit begging device is the Droid X360.  This bad boy is running Android 4.0 ICS, and comes pre-installed with count ‘em 9 EMULATORS including the classic NES and N64, to the Game Gear and Playstation.  See specs below: The Droid X360 comes with Android 4.0.4 installed, a 1.5GHz processor (not sure if it’s a dual core), 512MB of RAM, 8GB of onboard storage, a 5-inch capacitive touchscreen display (800 x 480), HDMI-out, a microSD slot (support up to 32GB), a mini USB port, 2800 mAh battery, a rear 2-megapixel camera and a front 0.3-megapixel shooter. And it includes two analog sticks! No pricing yet, its being manufactured by a Chinese company, and my guess is that Chairman Mao wont let this one out of his sight.  Expect this to never ever make it stateside.   More pictures and hands on details over at Micgadget.
July 25, 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
Redditor WoolyDawg5’s NES emulator mod is an amazing piece of home built tech!  Reddit
June 20, 2012 VIEW POST
MisguidedGeek Thoughts on the Microsoft Surface Hey guys, after reading articles from Giz, Engadget, Lifehacker, TechCrunch, Cnet, among others, I have a few thoughts on the new tablet from Microsoft. First off, I dont like reusing the “Surface” name, it makes me think of the big touch displays on table tops, not a new tablet computer. I think Microsoft has learned its lesson from Zune, remember, the infamous “Ipod killer”?  The specs from the first zune, were arguably better than the Ipod, however lacking the design and music service was.  With the Surface, which Ive already seen called the “Ipad killer” they realized you cant just be better, you have to be WAY better.  The Apple brand is now the standard, to sway the public, you have to offer something vastly superior, otherwise, why wouldnt they just buy an Ipad? Windows 8?  Windows RT?  These are more things that could turn off your average consumer… again if its confusing why wouldnt I just buy and Ipad? That said, if the specs are there and the execution works and the price point is competitive I would be very tempted to go with the RT version over a new laptop. I love the form factor of the Ipad, but hate that it cant be my primary device.  If the RT solves that, then Im sold. PRICE POINT IS KEY.  It has to be the same price of the Ipad (Windows 8) and cheaper, if not much cheaper than the Macbook Air (RT). Is this the end of so called “premium” android tablets like the Asus Transformer Prime? The keyboard/touchpad/cover has to work flawlessly, any quirk and you lose one of your biggest selling points. This should go without saying, but this thing has to work.  So far we have only seen renderings and been told how it will work, from the hands ons I have seen, all you could do with the device itself is turn the screen on. I hope this is an Xbox, not a Zune I want this to be great, I really do, strong competition inspires technical innovation.  Next could be the first great Android tablet, then another Ipad, and the Surface2, constantly improving and hopefully lowering the entry level cost for “premium” tablet computers.  This can only be good for us gadget addicted consumers.  Let me know what you think in the comments.
June 19, 2012 VIEW POST
This is what a GPS looked like in 1992… I wonder how to make it give me directions using Yoda’s voice? Reddit
May 26, 2012 VIEW POST
Wired’s Gadget Lab takes an in depth look into the Pebble Smart Watch, the most successful Kickstarter campaign ever.  This should be required reading for any gadget enthusiast, the Pebble is one sweet piece of tech, or any aspiring silicon valley entrepreneur.  Hit the link for the full article.  Wired
May 14, 2012 VIEW POST
September 8, 2011 VIEW POST