Category: CES

Apple Cutting iPhone Component Orders by 50% – Is The Sky Falling?

Jan. 13 Android, Apple, CES, Featured, Google, iPhone / iPad / iOS 2 comments

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If what the Wall Street Journal is reporting is true, Apple is scrambling to remain a leader in the smartphone industry. The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple has cut component order by as much as 50%. This would be a huge indicator that iOS devices are not selling at the levels Apple expected.

There is no doubt Apple has been hurting in the last six months. Between a horrid Maps experience, a shake-up of executives, a falling stock price and loyal iPhone users looking over the fence at the greener grass on Google’s lawn. Android has defiantly taken a huge bite out of Apple and Apple has been slow to respond to the increased competition. Loyal users will only get you so far when your innovations slow down. You will hold them for a few product cycles but they will eventually move on if you can’t give them a device that outshines all others. Apple has to address the the number one thing said by Android users “Android already does that”.

During CES in Las Vegas last week I asked many diehard iOS users how they felt about the Apple ecosystem in general. The responses shocked me because the users all said the same basic thing that I have struggled with.

It boiled down to:

1. iOS is aging and needs a refresh with state of the art technology we have come to expect from Apple.

2. Apple needs to loosen up the strangle hold on developers and what is allowed in the app store. There should be no need for a jailbreak app store. Imagine a community where developers have much more control of their app. It wont happen but at least imagine it.

3. Investment, the iOS users I spoke to have huge investments like I do in Apple products and want that seamless functionality they have come to expect between Apple products. They also don’t want to have to reinvest in another OS.

4. Hope for iOS 7 and iPhone 6, These will be the devices and OS that either keep people with Apple and attract new users or push the loyal users away.

I am not an analyst looking at figures, graphs, stock prices and polls. I am the guy who talks to users everyday and count some of the most influential people in the smartphone industry as friends. Apple is far from being the next Nokia or RIM but there is no time like the present to take a stand and get things back in order before you start seeing articles that Ubuntu is now the second best selling device behind Android. It could happen.

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Nokia Skipping CES 2013

Dec. 18 CES, Nokia Comments Off

We are now less than three weeks from CES 2013 and all the companies are putting their last minute touches on their presentations, all but one of the big names. Nokia has cancelled their CES appearance and will not be presenting any new devices. Nokia has now decided to focus its attention on another electronic show Mobile World Congress 2013 which is about one month after CES.

We all expected to see Nokia’s new line of Lumina devices this year at CES along with their new Pureview devices. However we will just have to wait until Mobile World Congress and see what surprises Nokia has in store for us. Hopefully the company has some new and exciting things that they are applying the finishing touches to and Nokia will add some new devices and improvements.

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Review: Yurbuds IronMan Inspire Pro Earbuds

Jan. 31 Accessories, Android, Apple, CES, Reviews Comments Off

I dislike earbuds. Before the advent of the “in-ear” variety, when the world was stuck with only iPod earbuds, I literally could not wear them. They didn’t stay in my ear for more than about 10 seconds, and those 10 seconds hurt. Then came along the in-ear headphones with the changeable silicon tips. Instead of trying to sit on your ear, these snuggly fit inside the ear canal itself. This made it so they didn’t fall out, but extended listening periods became painful. Now we have a hybrid of the two which promises to be the most comfortable earbuds you ever wear, and guaranteed not to fall out.

I’d never heard of Yurbuds before, but apparently the company is the #3 headphone vendor in the US. These headphones are designed specifically for athletes, by athletes, and are made of some pretty tough stuff.

 

The Yay

Comfort: These headphones are comfortable. They were in my ear for the entire 5 and a half hour trip home from CES, and never once did I have to take them out due to being uncomfortable.

Strength: I can’t say specifically what the headphones are made of, but I was told that the gauge of wire used in the headphones, coupled with the sheath material, give them the highest tensile strength of any headphones on the market. This means they will last. I have given them some pretty big yanks, and so far they are going strong with no sign of damage.

Water Resistance: All Yurbuds products are moisture and sweat resistant. This doesn’t mean you can go swimming in them, but it means that sweat and rain are not going to phase them. Read more

The Hub PRIZM Stand Supplies Your Recommended Daily Value of Ninja

Jan. 31 Accessories, Android, Apple, BlackBerry, CES, iPhone / iPad / iOS, Tablets, Windows Phone Comments Off

 

There is a new accessory that has gotten my attention and that’s the Hub PRIZM stand. Already earning brownie points for being universal, the PRIZM just looks intense. Made of aircraft aluminum, this stand is made of 2 pieces that slide into each other, making it the smallest stand I have ever seen when packed up. They come in 2 sizes, one universal phone size and 1 universal tablet size. The tablet size is also perfect for holding books open. Although not advertised for it, I’m also pretty sure that they would make adequate self-defense weapons if the need arose.

Both sizes come in a staggering array of color choices. The phone size runs $24.95, and the tablet size runs $29.95. You can take a look at the color options at Hub’s website.

Waterproof Your Phone Without A Case!

Jan. 23 Accessories, Android, Apple, CES, Featured Comments Off

How many times have you dropped your phone in water or spilled liquid on it? Those “oh sh!#” moments could be gone forever with Liquipel.

Liquipel is a waterproof coating applied to your device using nano technology. The coating is not visible to the human eye and virtually untraceable. It keeps the same look and feel of your device without compromising the performance. Penetrating your entire device, Liquipel coats all vital components, inside and out, providing you with optimal protection against contact with liquid.

My first thought was does it really work? Yes! We had the privilege of getting hands on with this amazing product at CES 2012. Liquipel was by far one of the most innovative products showcased this year, and even I, the most skeptical of our team, was blown away by how well it worked. We were shown a treated iPhone that still worked after being completely submerged in water. In order to show us even further how well Liquipel did its job, we were shown a treated tissue paper versus an untreated one. The treated one actually repelled the water, with the water simply beading up on it and rolling off, while the untreated version soaked the water up and became a soggy mess.

Currently, Liquipel is only available to select devices. The approved list includes:

  • iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4, 4S
  • HTC Evo 4G
  • HTC Evo Shift 4G
  • HTC MyTouch 4G
  • HTC Thunderbolt
  • Motorola Droid X/X2
  • Samsung Charge

Although there is only a limited amount of devices currently able to be treated, Liquipel states that they are diligently working to expand the list of approved devices, so keep checking back with them.

Currently, Liquipel is only available in the U.S., and they are based in Santa Ana, California. If you reside locally, you may bring in your product to their physical location to be treated. If not, you must send in your device to be treated. Treatment times vary between 1-3 days of receiving your device to as little as 2 hours of receiving your device. Return shipping prices vary as well.

Liquipel has several treatment options on their website, from $59.00-$79.00. They are also currently offering free return ground shipping during their grand opening event.

You can get additional information at their website by clicking here or watch a video demonstrations via Liquipel’s YouTube channel here.

Overall, Liquipel seems to be a product that will truly change the way our electronic devices are used, and we are excited to see their approved product list grow in the future. This is definitely one product everyone will want to be have access to.

Hands On With the Samsung Galaxy Note

Jan. 17 4G / LTE, Android, AT&T, CES, Featured, Featured Video, Samsung Comments Off

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Without a doubt, the most advertised product at CES this year was the Samsung Galaxy Note. It seemed like every other bus on the strip or at the convention center was skinned with Note advertisement, and everywhere you turned you saw Note booths doing caricatures. It seemed a little overkill at first; advertising a 5 inch phone/tablet hybrid so heavily, especially after the poor adoption of the Dell Streak 5.

However, once I made my way to the Samsung booth, which happened to be the largest in the entire show, I finally got my hands on one. Yes, it’s huge. And yes, it is also a phone. However, what completely sets this apart from anything else is the included “S Pen”. Not just a stylus, the S Pen actually registers pressure sensitivity on the screen, turning it into a mini Wacom Cintiq. It also allows a long tap with the pen on any screen, from any application, and it will immediately screenshot it, allowing you to annotate or draw on top of the image.

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I love this phone. Even without Ice Cream Sandwich, which we were assured would be coming to the device eventually, it ran smooth as silk. Inside the monstrous body was a 1.4ghz dual-core processor, 1gb of RAM, a 5.3″ HD Super AMOLED screen at 1280×800 resolution, a giant 2,300mAh battery, 8MP rear camera with 1080p video with 2MP front shooter, and an HSPA+ radio for 4G speeds. Coming from my art background, I immediately recognized the potential for a portable sketchbook on your phone. Yes, there are apps like Autodesk’s Sketchbook Mobile that allow you to use a stylus to to create some pretty impressive art, but they lack the pressure sensitivity, which allows for natural lines like you would make with a pencil. It could also be incredibly useful for things like taking a screenshot of a Google Maps screen and annotating on it, then sending it to someone asking where you are or how to get somewhere. Students could potentially remove paper note taking from their lives. The possibilities are endless.

As of right now, the Note is set to debut stateside on AT&T. When I asked about a WiFi only device or a CDMA version coming out, the Samsung rep said “he wasn’t aware of any,” but that he had been asked the same question all day long, so obviously there would be a demand for it. There unfortunately isn’t a release date set for a US launch, but the rest of the world has had it for a couple months, and Samsung reportedly shipped 1 million units, so it will more than likely be pretty soon. Of all the phones ever released, this is the one that has the most potential to pull me from Verizon if a CDMA version isn’t released.

Check out a couple videos demonstrating the S Pen in action after the break.

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PowerTrekk Fuel Cell Charger Earns Our Title of “Most Disappointing CES Product That Should Have Been Amazing”

Jan. 17 Accessories, CES, Featured 1 comment

When I received a press email before CES titled “CES Debut: New gadget charges your phone with water”, I was ecstatic. I imagined running away from society to live in the hills, armed with nothing but a Bear Grylls knife and my water charger. I imagined all the times I had gone through the day to end up with a dead battery, and how that would never happen again as long as I had my water charger. It immediately became the thing I was most interested in seeing in the entire show of more than 3000 companies. Who cares about new phones or cases or accessories when your phone is dead? Your phone would never be dead with this. I fell in love with my fantasy of this product.

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Then I actually saw it. On my trip to the Venetian CES Halls, stuffed in the back corner of an exhibit hall that had nothing to do with mobile technology, I found PowerTrekk. I was so excited! I saw the product being demonstrated as I walked up to their booth. The charger itself looked great. I walked a little closer, trying to overhear what was being said. I saw the charger get opened. I saw the water reservoir. And then I saw something I was not expecting: a removable “PowerPukk”, which provided the power. Until then, I had assumed that this was some sort of hydrogen fuel cell technology that harnessed some small amount of solar energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Turns out, they have devised some chemical, which they claim is completely biodegradable and recyclable, which reacts with water to produce an electric current.  Still holding onto hope, I dove in and asked the pivotal question… “How long does the PowerPukk last?” The answer? “1 full charge.”

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I was heartbroken. All of my dreams of perpetually water charging my USB devices were shattered. Travelling the American Discovery Trail while still connected with a fully-charged phone at all times was now out of the question. What PowerTrekk had done and failed to mention was essentially create an incredibly-expensive battery that is about the size of a small can of cat food, and then require that battery to use water in order to output any power. One PowerPukk outputs 1500mAh of power to either charge whatever it’s plugged into, or charge the 1500mAh Lithium Ion battery in the top half. The price of this madness? €199, which at the time of this writing is over $250 US. Each PowerPukk costs €1.99, which is about $2.50. So for slightly more than the cost of a brand new Galaxy Nexus on contract with Verizon, you can buy a charger that will charge your phone about 2 times and require a tablespoon of water on top of it before needing to buy another Pukk.

Granted, the company’s vision is to provide reliable, ecologically friendly power to USB devices. It does that. However, the cost of doing that is outrageous. To put it in perspective, you could buy approximately 100 replacement batteries for your phone from eBay, or 2 external battery packs with a combined output of over 50 amp hours, which is enough to charge a typical smartphone over 30 times from dead to full.

Overall, if having a renewable way of charging your phone is a priority, your best bet is solar. The PowerTrekk Fuel Cell Charger is expensive, limited, wasteful, and underpowered. Looks like my dreams of a hydrogen fuel charger are still just that.

You can take a look at the PowerTrekk charger here at the company website.

OnLive Brings Cloud Based Windows 7 To iPad

Jan. 10 CES, Cloud Storage, Featured Comments Off

OnLive has done it again. First they made thin client gaming and now they have created a virtualized Windows 7 environment for the iPad. This development, announced at CES is going to free many iPad users from having to carry a Windows PC in addition to a laptop.

The basic service will be free and includes 2GB of storage with access to Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. A paid version of the service will be available for $9.99 a month and includes 50GB of storage and priority cloud service (faster).

Look for the app on Thursday. We will post when it shows up in the app store. To see OnLive Desktop in action follow this link.

This service will be coming to Android, Mac and PCs in the near future.

Motorola Atrix Launching March 1st

Jan. 14 Android, AT&T, CES, Featured, Motorola 1 comment

It has been only a week since the Consumer Electronics Show and Motorola setting the bar high with the announcement of the Atrix 4G. The Atrix is a powerhouse Android smartphone.

The Atrix has a dual-core processor, HD dock and laptop dock which pretty much makes it a smartphone and computer all-in-one. Read more

Skech Makes A Name At CES With Stylish Accessories For Apple Products

Jan. 11 Accessories, CES, iPhone / iPad / iOS Comments Off

There are lots of companies out there that make accessories for smartphones, but its always hard trying to find a quality product from the right company. If you havent heard of the company Skech, then now is your chance to learn more about this company and what they have to offer.

Skech is a company that dedicates themselves to making high quality accessories for Apple products like the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch and iPad. Their products range from shell cases, leather cases, hard cases, car accessories and charging devices. Read more

BlackBerry PlayBook Hands-On

Jan. 08 BlackBerry, CES, Featured, Tablets 1 comment

RIM (Research In Motion) gave us the opportunity to get up front and personal with their new BlackBerry PlayBook and I must say I was impressed by the speed and user interface. The 7 LCD screen is completely touch sensitive. This includes the borders of the screen, which lack physical buttons on the front. This is going to give the PlayBook a lot of flexibility with controls on the screen border. Read more

CIDERZ Bumpers For iPhone 4

Jan. 08 Apple, AT&T, CES, iPhone / iPad / iOS 1 comment

ScreenGuardz is a company that is based on giving you great screen protection for your mobile device to protect it from nicks and scratches. If youre rocking an iPhone 4 youre in for a good treat as they reached outside their element with the release of the CIDERZ bumper to protect your iPhone all around. The CIDERZ is constructed of two high quality materials, polycarbonate and TPE. With these two materials mixed together give you a stylish case that is ultra thin, protective, and easy to put on and remove. Read more