Top 5 Last Minute Tech Stocking Stuffers

Portable Battery Pack

Perfect for anyone that is always looking for a charger or a wall outlet so they can play another level of candy crush without their phone dying, make sure to look for a pack with large capacity (6000 mAh+ is ideal to charge most phones a couple of times) as well as a USB port to allow for all sorts of devices, and if needed support for tablets.

Google Chromecast

This funky looking device plugs into a HDMI port on your TV and basically turns it into a smart TV for around $35, however a phone, tablet or computer is required as the Chromecast can’t do anything by itself. But with a quick explanation almost anyone can get Netflix, Youtube, Pandora and much much much more on their TV

Earbuds

Who doesn’t love some tunes once in a while? On the bus commute to work, office, school, walking on the street or anywhere else that music is required but playing through speakers isn’t an option, a pair of earbuds is essential. I recommend sticking around the 20-30 dollar price range for good sound to value ratio. Sony and JVC are safe bets for the low price range.

Storage

USB Sticks for the student and office worker, MicroSD cards for loved ones who watch lots of movies or listen to tons of music on their phones and full size SD cards for the photographer in the family! You can’t go wrong with a nice large (32gb+) addition of storage

Bluetooth Speaker

For sharing their new favourite band or jamming out at home a bluetooth speaker hits the spot. But be warned, some speakers at lower price rangers are just junk, do some research and go with name brands on this one (JVC, Bose, Monster, UE etc.)

3 best free iPhone scanning apps

3. Genius Scan

Genius scan is a simple scanning app that doesn’t off much more than taking picture, cropping it and putting a black and white filter on it, there is limited support for sharing in the free version. When zoomed in the text just really doesn’t look very sharp (with all the scans I took)

2. CamScanner

CamScanner is easily the most fully featured scanning app and allows for password protection of scanned documents as well as a ton of sharing and uploading functionality. When zoomed in text is moderately sharp and overall very readable.

1. InstaPdf

Very, very simple scanner with a lovely interface, quite sharp and perfectly readable with a bevy of sharing options including microsoft onenote.

I got invited to Ello, and well, it’s interesting.

Today I finally received my invite to the underground, possible Facebook killing social network called Ello. My very first impression was, it’s as sparse as it gets. The only setup I did was my username and profile picture, there was no “find friends” area to allow me to see other friends on Ello and because of that it really just seems like a bunch of strangers posting to a site where I don’t really feel I belong. I’ll admit, the sites minimalistic design with great attention to animations make using Ello an aesthetically pleasing experience but there just isn’t anything to it, all you can do right now is post text updates and upload pictures, gifs or (maybe?) videos. There is also a section called noise where the Ello teams favourite posts from the site are curated. There’s not chat and the only way of communicating with other members is through tagging them in comments. Honestly when it comes down to it I don’t know what to think, its refreshing to see a site without ads that promises to keep your privacy but I feel Ello has a long way to go before hitting the mainstream.

Spotify connect

The other day spotify FINALLY updated both their mobile and desktop apps to allow one to be controlled by the other. Which is a really really fantastic feature, great for lazy people like me wanting to change the song without getting off the coach!

Amazon Echo

Amazon has recently very very quietly released a new device that they are calling Amazon Echo. The device is essentially a speaker/microphone dedicated to a personal assistant (like Siri, Google Now or Cortana). It features a seven microphone array allowing the device to hear you “anywhere in the room” as well as hear you while music is playing (We will have to see how well that really works). Of course it integrates fully with amazons range of services for music, shopping and apps which could set it back as the amazon ecosystem really isn’t as widely used as Apple or Google’s, but the Echo really has one huge thing going for it. Available by invitation right now, Echo will set you back only 199$ but, if you are a prime member this price drops to 99$!! This could be the beginning of home connectivity for everyone. Click here for more info and to request an invitation!
ELLO INVITE COMPETITION IS OPEN
https://technewsandreview.wordpress.com/2014/11/17/ello-invites/

Google Fit

As of right now you can download Google’s answer to Apple’s Health Kit from the Google Play Store. Fit looks to compile all of your health and activity data in one place through connected apps and the ability to add your own activities (walking, biking, running, etc.) so far it seems a little more comprehensive then health kit. Simple and clean animations make the app a real joy to use and again trump the Apple alternative. If you use a Android Wear device this app is a blessing, it allows you to keep track of your activity using your watch even while the watch isn’t paired to your phone meaning that you don’t need to be lugging your phone on runs with you just to keep track of data! If you’re a health nut or just looking to count your steps, give Fit a look.

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iOS 8(.1) Issues, fixes, keyboard and other awesome features.

I recently updated my iPhone 5 to iOS 8.1, this fixed a major bug that I and many other people were having where a single press on the home button would take you to the recent apps screen, it was very irritating and I’m glad to see Apple squashed this bug. A major new feature in iOS 8 is the updated keyboard with predictive text which is meant to guess the word you are typing as well as the next word you are going to say. This feature works seamlessy and I surprised my self by using the suggested words very often. However if you don’t like it you can just swipe down the bar and hide it. My next favourite feature is handoff and continuity, when typing this post on my macbook I was able to pick up my iPhone, swipe from the bottom left on the home screen and open right to the same page (editing the post). This works the other way as well, when I have a handoff compatible app open on my iPhone an icon pops up on the far left side of the dock allowing me to open the same app and continue from where I left off. As of right now this only really works with apple apps (Safari, Messages, Reminders, calendar etc.) my personal favourite has to be mail, typing a long email on your phone really sucks so the ability to open your laptop and continue typing the email there is just incredible. As soon as I get around to getting a sim in my iPhone I’ll get to the text forwarding and ability to answer phone calls on your mac!

Quick update on the Nexus 6 and 9

Today in a blog post Google announced android L lollipop. This will be released along with the new nexus 6 phone and Nexus 9 tablet, both with beefed up specs to compete with flagships of this coming year. For me however the 6 inch screen is too much on the phone. (Made by Motorola)

The Nexus 9 in my mind is definitely the new nexus device to get awesome screen with (thankfully) front firing speakers. This tablet is also available with a keyboard attachment by google! (very much like the Microsoft surface line).

It’ll be really interesting to see how these fare against the new Apple phones and tablets (air 2 and mini 3)

3 Awesome News apps for Android

In no particular order here are my three favourite News apps for android (iOS coming soon)

SmartNews

Bright and well designed SmartNews offers easy to read headlines and simple swipe through categories. My favourite feature of this particular app however is the smart read functionality, this allows you to read web articles easily without all the clutter (pictured below), this also helps when you are on Network or slow WiFi.

Banjo

Really really well designed News app here, big categories Trending Events from around the world to go along with normal News categories.

Flipboard

A classic News app, really great if you want to keep up with technology and of course the lovely flipping interface just simply can’t be beat.

Download links

Flipboard

Banjo

SmartNews

My first iPhone, iOS 8, Yosemite and Handoff!

This week after another day of my nexus 4 dying before 3pm I decided I’d try the used iPhone 5 I’d been offered for a medium amount of money, it has a slight scratch on the screen and doesn’t always like to charge but it runs just fine. However I have not made the full switch, I will always carry my Nexus (or other Android device) with me just because I can’t give up the insane customizability and function. So far however my iOS 8.0.2 experience has been quite nice, paired with the Yosemite Beta on my Macbook Handoff (continuity) has worked perfectly. Of course been a Google enthusiast and Android user I quickly put most of the stock Apple apps in a folder to keep them out of sight and out of mind, with a full suite of Google apps including Google Play Music I’m feeling quite at home! So far I haven’t tested out too many of the features I wanted to (my SIM is in my Nexus still) but the camera is incredible compared to what I’m used to, speakers are crisp and battery life is pleasing. As for software some of the features like recent contacts on the multitasking screen seem a bit useless as well as the notification pulldown not been quite as useful just yet. A big part of what this means however is iOS app reviews! Throw me a comment down below or email with any apps you suggest!

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