Blackberry Apps on any Android (with APK links)

The Blackberry Priv hasn’t yet reached the masses but the first party Blackberry apps for android have already been stripped out for general consumption by some APK genius’, so far I have got the BB Keyboard and Calendar working perfectly. The calendar doesn’t offer much in the way of new features but the keyboard is actually an absolute delight to type on and I may end up using it on the daily. Be sure to download BB services to ensure everything works smoothly, let me know your experiences!

 

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Credits to XDA

Microsoft Windows 10 Device Event

Following along with Autumn’s usual tech madness, Microsoft held their first Windows 10 Device event. It was all hardware right from the get go and Microsoft quickly announced two new windows 10 flagship phones, the Lumia 950 and the 950 XL, two true premium devices.

The 950 sports a 5.2” Quad HD Amoled Display powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808, thats a 1.8ghz Hexa-core processor. On the back is what promises to be a fantastic camera, 20mp paired with Carl Zeiss optics and a triple LED Flash (hopefully) allowing for natural skin tones even in the darkest situations. All of this is will be kept going by a 3000 mAh with quick charge VIA a USB-C connection. The 950 XL is a very similar device with a few important spec bumps, a 5.7” screen, Snapdragon 810 and a 3340 mAh battery to name a few. The stand out feature here is liquid cooling (!?) which could be huge. These phones start at $549 and $649 respectively

On the other end of the scale is the all new Lumia 550, the first true Windows 10 budget device. A 5 inch display dominates the face of the phone, powered by a 1.2ghz Snapdragon 210, although the storage only starts at 8gb, there is support for microSD up to 200gb. A smaller but still completely usable 2100 mAh battery should keep you going. The 550 starts at just $139.

Stuck between computers and phones, is the microsoft display dock, which enables Microsoft Continuum, or the ability to turn your windows 10 phone into an (almost) fully fledged desktop experience. Plugging in via USB-C gives you access to HDMI and USB for a display and keyboard/mouse. Right now however, the desktop experience is pretty bare bones, no side by side apps, or even windowed apps for that matter. But while plugged into the display, you can still use your phone to its full potential to text, call etc. and most importantly, it makes me want a windows phone, for the first time.

On the less portable side of things (but still quite travel friendly) Microsoft announced some pretty killer new devices. The new Surface Pro 4 shouldn’t surprise anyone, but that doesn’t make it any less of an incredible product. In the same body as last year, Microsoft managed to fit a slightly larger screen with PixelSense promising high contrast and low glare. A new generation of processor at each level (Core m3, i5 and i7) will keep the Tablet/Laptop super hybrid running smoothly, at the top end, you can now go up to a crazy 16gb of RAM for some serious power. As usual, the surface comes with the Surface Pen for note taking, sketching etc. new this year is an eraser on the end of the pen which allows for the deletion of lines without the need of pressing any buttons.

Alongside the tablet-laptop hybrid is, well, a more laptop oriented tablet-laptop hybrid. The all new Surfacebook is the professional friendly Macbook Pro competitor that consumers have been waiting for. Starting at $1500 (CAD) it definitely is a high end laptop, a huge feature here is support and inclusion of the Surface Pen, with a detachable screen, this turns into a very attractive hybrid.

I know this has been quite a long one, so I’ll leave a couple smaller things out for now, but look for a future post on some more microsoft related things.

Budget Bluetooth Earbuds

I recently received the NeoJDX Wingz ($33 on Amazon), these earbuds are marketed as extremely fitness friendly and it definitely shows. It’s not that the earbuds look bad, they just look… sporty. There is a oval shaped piece attached to each bud to allow for battery, antennas, mic etc. but the earbuds remain lightweight and are easily the best fitting pair of Bluetooth earbuds I’ve tried for under $50, I have no trouble running, walking or riding with these in. One feature I feel could’ve helped the fitness aspect would be a small cinch to allow the earbuds to sit tighter on the back of the head during a workout as right now, the cord between each bud is a little long and can get caught on shirts, equipment or what have you. Sound quality is remarkably good for this price point, they also get loud enough to overcome traffic, people or any other possible distractions (please don’t blast these as you cross the street, you will get hit by a car).

One major issue (though not a deal breaker) is the quality and placement of the buttons. The Play/Pause button is on the face of the right earbud, meaning that when you press it, you are literally pushing the bud right into your ear, this can be very uncomfortable. The Forward/+ and Back/- are on the side of the right earbud, which is much better placement, but they are simply too small and hard to press. I really believe NeoJDX needs to go back to the drawing board on these buttons, because they do detract from an otherwise fantastic product.
Before wrapping up I would also like to mention the attention to detail that went into these earbuds, in the box you will receive a variety of bud tips (?), wings to keep them in your ears and a nice carrying case (great touch) and a charging cable (micro USB). All of this comes in a nice clear plastic display case, I know it’s not a reason to buy one product over another, but it just shows this company values their customers. 

 

Make sure to check out my review of the Asus Zenfone 2 here

 

Google Event September 29th

The annual google event to kick off the holiday season is just around the corner and there are some major device rumours floating around, and without further ado, let’s look at the extremely likely announcements we’ll see this tuesday (and maybe a couple moonshots).

First up, Nexus, or, Nexi? Yes that’s right, it’s all but confirmed that we will be getting not one but two new nexus phones this year from two different manufacturers. This two device release would be a first for the nexus line, but makes complete sense following in the current trend of dual smartphone releases from Samsung and Apple (among others). Starting with the updated nexus 5, the current rumoured name is the Nexus 5X, this phone will likely be a direct sequel to the popular Nexus 5 from LG (the X will still be made by LG), here’s a quick rundown of the rumoured specs:

5.2” (up from 4.9” on the 5) 1080p display.

Snapdragon 808 with either 2 or 3gb of RAM

13 Megapixel back camera (protrudes slightly, if you care)

5 Megapixel front camera (don’t worry, this one doesn’t protrude)

2700mAh Battery (decent)

USB Type C (it’s coming people, get ready)

Fingerprint Sensor (finally!)

16 or 32gb ONLY (this is bad)

As the cheaper of the two phones, the Nexus 5X is rumoured to be priced at around $399 and will come in White, Black and Mint.

 Source: Android Police

Now, onto the exciting one, the upgrade to last years Nexus 6 (made by Motorola) is rumoured to be made by chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei and will likely be named the Nexus 6P, from leaked pictures, this looks like a wild phone. Up top is a giant camera bulge, stretching from edge to edge, some would call it terribly ugly while some would call it an innovative design, I am somewhere in between. One thing nobody can argue is, this looks like a premium, metal phone, and that’s just dandy. Let’s go over the rumoured specs:

5.7” (Down from 6 inches) 1440p Display

Snapdragon 810 (Straight fire) with 3gb of RAM

11 Megapixel Back camera (Expect lot’s of explaining around the camera to justify the bulge)

7 Megapixel front camera (cool.)

3450mAh Battery (this is the best news ever)

USB Type C

Fingerprint sensor

32, 64 or 128gb (GOOD)

The Nexus 6P is rumoured to be priced around $650 (base) and will come in Silver, Frost, (rose?) Gold, and a beautiful Black.

Source: Android Police

Next up is Chromecast, I am an absolute lover of my chromecast, it’s essentially magic. And I don’t think anyone would be surprised when the 2.0 version of the dongle is announced, leaked photos show a rounder, smaller dongle in yellow, black and red. On the software side, the Chromecast is rumoured to promote content discovery, instead of just sliding through pretty photos on the homescreen, the ‘cast’ may bring up movies, tv shows and music for your entertainment purposes. With all luck, the Chromecast will retain the extremely popular $35 price tag, which will surely help it off the shelves.

Source: 9to5Google

Chromecast Audio is actually a product I had never heard of until I started really searching around, it is rumoured to work like the original chromecast but instead of plugging into a TV, it goes straight into the AUX port of your favourite speakers allowing you to stream music, along with multi room syncing (if you buy more than one of course). The killer here will be Spotify support as they have previously skipped the chromecast when it comes to partnerships, this device could be huge (not size wise…)

So there you have it, be sure to check back here after Tuesday September 29th for a roundup of what actually happened compared to the rumours.

Apple Music had a 3 month impact

Apple music is nothing new, being able to stream unlimited tunes to a phone, tablet or computer has been done either successfully or horrendously by companies for years. Spotify and Google Play (among others) have risen to the top and gained the most prominence. Apple has long been the king of purchased music, no-one will ever dispute that iTunes is the most popular place to purchase single songs or whole albums. But, being Apple, they had to throw their hat into the well established industry of music streaming (yes I know iTunes radio existed). Offering a novel 3 month free trial to users, Apple Music had millions of day one users and tons of buzz in press and over social media, the biggest differentiator for Apple was Radio, or more specifically, Beats One Radio which is a station on Radio, on Apple music. There are other stations in on Radio but Beats One is the only one that is live (24/7!!!!!) and the only real difference from other large streaming services.

Being the tech geek I am, of course I quickly signed up for the free trial (then cancelled it so I was never charged) and used apple music for a couple days, well apple music streaming at least. This was mostly due to the fact that I was already well ingrained into Spotify with hundreds of playlists set up for optimal listening pleasure. But something that I routinely kept coming back to was Beats One, it’s amazing how novel it can be to think that thousands of people across the world can be listening to the odd DJ’s spinning tracks on Beats One at the same time as you, it’s not a new concept, but because it’s Apple, it’s popular. But here’s the kicker, my 3 month free trial just ran out and I was legitimately disappointed because I was going to miss Beats One, that was until I realized that anyone with an apple device (for now) can listen to Beats One for free! No subscription required. This of course was great news as I can continue to jam out to whatever’s happening on the station, however from a business standpoint I just don’t get it. Beats One was the only big differentiator from other services and you don’t need a subscription to access it? For this reason alone, Apple music lost millions of (free trial) subscribers who just went back to their regular services. Apple needs to rethink their strategy.

Top 5 Back to School Apps

Back to school is just around the corner, and that means a slew of new phones, tablets etc. that need to be filled with productive (and not so productive) apps. In this list you’ll find single, or groups of apps meant to make your next school year slightly easier.

1. Google Drive Suit

Google drive is one of the best options right now for mobile text, spreadsheet or presentation editing. Just for signing up, you get 15gb of cloud storage free which doesn’t sound like much but I’ve been using the service for over 3 years and I’ve only used up half a gig of the 15 for documents. On Android and iOS (sorry windows phone users) there are separate, free, apps for Docs (think Microsoft word), Slides (Powerpoint) and Sheets (Excel). If you use Android the experience is slightly better with seamless printing with Google Cloud Print. I would argue though, the best feature overall is the real time editing allowing more than one person to edit the same document in absolute real time.

Android iOS Web

2. Cram

Every single year, I always tell myself that I am finally going to use flashcards to memorize all the little bits of info for each class. But I never do, until last year, days before a big test I was procrastinating, browsing the app store and I came across this great app. Cram lets you create flashcards via text input, or, just by taking a picture of the note. This feature is incredibly useful and makes creating flashcards extremely easy. Going through the flashcards is a great experience using games and different tactics to memorize info.

iOS Android Web

3. My Study Life

A beautifully designed app that gives you an intuitive way to keep track of your class schedules, homework, tests and exams. The flexible scheduling actually allows for school schedules, weather your school is a semester system, terms, week by week or day by day, this app will allow you to schedule your year. The only thing missing here are widgets.

iOS Android Web

4. CamScanner

Easily digitize your school life by scanning whiteboard notes, papers, receipts (why not?) or whatever you like. Simple app with auto upload features and OCR available. Another great option is Microsoft Office Lens

iOS Android

Office lens

iOS Android

5. Games

School is hard, get some games! Strongly recommend Leo’s Fortune, Asphalt 8, whatever you can find to blow off some steam!

Windows 10 on the HP Stream 7

Windows 10 has launched and updates have been rolling out to devices over the past few weeks, if you reserved your copy but still haven’t received your update, I suggest you update manually as I have, I will leave a link in the description. The update took a little while but I mostly just left my tablet charging for a few hours and when I came back it was finished. Being quite an underpowered, cheap tablet, I didn’t expect the stream to handle windows 10 too well, but I have been pleasantly surprised, I’d say it runs just as well as windows 8.1 if not slightly better. That is, when it does run. I have had numerous occasions when apps either froze or quit altogether. Thats not to say that I didn’t have this issue before, it is an 89$ tablet after all, but I have noticed it more with the new update. The features that are great about windows 10 are of course great here, cortana runs surprisingly smoothly, The new edge browser is sleak, if underpowered, and mail has a welcome update for gmail users. Overall I’d say that windows 10 has a great new interface as well as some killer new apps and features, and if you have a windows tablet or computer, I would strongly recommend you give it a shot no matter what the level of your device. As a side note, if you are not happy with windows 10 there is a one button shortcut to undo the update and return to Windows 8.1 (or whatever your previous version was)

Asus Zenfone 2 Review

It’s been a while since I have posted here! And things have changed, most notably, I have been using the Asus Zenfone 2 for roughly 3 days and thought I would write a review for this device. If you’re not familiar with the Zenfone 2 it is a mid-range (priced) phone with what would be seen as high end specs. For 299$ unlocked for the more premium model you get almost unheard of specs in this price range, a 2.3ghz Quad core Intel Atom Z3580 processor (64 bit) a 533MHz PowerVR GPU with 4gb of DDR3 RAM, this all powers a 5.5in FHD (1080p) Display. For cameras we get a 13mp f2.0 (Toshiba sensor) rear facing shooter with Dual Tone flash,  up front there is a 5mp f2.0 wide angle camera. So what does all this come to in the real world?

First up, the Cameras. The front shooter is perfectly fine for selfies that are destined for social media, but don’t expect anything exceptional, video conferencing also looks just fine. The back camera delivers good looking photos but is really lacking in the fine details, I shot both with the built in camera app as well as Google’s camera app. Though not much different I preferred the pictures outputted by Google’s app, however the Asus default does include some great features such as super resolution (combines 4 pictures into 1 52mp Shot) and low light mode which blends pixels together in order to bring in more light. Samples below.

Sample Video, no audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RfUPgC1jac

Performance on this machine is fantastic. It’s as simple as that. With 4gb of RAM there really never is any lag, playing 3D games is a breeze and everyday tasks don’t even make a dent. However, I have found the phone to be warm (not hot) to the touch on many occasions. Just for reference I switched to the Google Now Launcher and Next Lockscreen just for personal preference, but performance is identical to stock ASUS software.

Battery on this machine is interesting. Today for instance I started using my phone (off charger) at 2pm and now at 8pm I am down to 40%, however that is with heavy usage, lots of screen on time and many pictures taken, brightness has been set to full or near full for the whole time. The phone is still also suggesting I will get another 5hrs off of the battery with similar usage. A huge bonus here is the included (on the higher end model) quick charging which will get you about 60% battery in two thirds of an hour charging (40mins). This has proven very accurate and extremely useful. Every phone should have this from now on.

The screen that has been taking up most of my battery is a nice one, colours pop and viewing angles are more than decent, however the panel does not get bright enough to read easily in bright sunlight, as well as not dimming enough for nighttime use. Very frustrating.

Wrap Up

The Asus Zenfone is an amazing buy for this price (299 off contract), the performance is unmatched by other midrange devices and almost every other aspect meets or exceeds expectations, however there are a few catches. Cameras are both decent but not amazing, the phones single, rear firing speaker is barely passable, battery life is good but not great, and the power button is awkwardly placed at the very top of the phone right in the centre, though thankfully you can double tap to wake/lock the device.

Verdict

Buy. If you are in the market for a midrange priced phone, this is the one to get. No question about it

CES 2015 so far

CES 2015 has been on for a couple days now and heres a quick rundown of my personal favourite announcements.

LG G Flex 2

Update to lasts years G flex that was met with moderate responses, the G Flex 2 comes with a much needed 1080p 5.5 inch screen (smaller and higher res than last year), Laser focusing for the back camera and updated internals.

New Dell laptops

The XPS 15 now has a 4K screen (everything else stays the same)

The XPS 13 is now the worlds smallest 13 inch laptop because of an edge to edge screen, also boasting a new high accuracy trackpad and 15hrs of battery life.

Toshiba Encore 2 Write

This tablet comes in 8 or 10 inches and ships with a TruPen stylus made with Bamboo (349 and 399 respectively)

Lenovo AnyPen technology

This technology allows you to use any metal object (Pencil, Pen, Fork????) on a Yoga Tablet 2 as a stylus.. interesting.

Parrot CarPlay and Android Auto console

Thats right! This console runs both Android Auto and Apple’s CarPlay to bring hands free control and awesome smartphone integration to existing cars (as its a standalone product).

Lets see what else CES 2015 turns out!

Best Looking Free iOS apps of the year

Yahoo Weather

Simply Beautiful, Yahoo Weather offers a great, simple vertical interface that presents the info you need right away (temperature, condition, location, time). A simple swipe up reveals extra info such as, Forecast for the next 24hrs (hourly), a week forecast, Precipitation forecast for tonight, overnight, early morning and morning, a more detailed version of the current weather, a map showing weather around your area (with colour coded graph info), Wind & Pressure and last but not least Sun & Moon, which shows when sunset and rise is, and the current moon phase. The best thing is, all these different sections, all fully animated,  can be rearranged for your taste, and all the info is displayed over a beautiful (changing) image of your current location from flickr.

Forza Football (soccer)

Though not for everyone, Forza Football is simply gorgeous, as well as very functional offering real time results, notifications for every major event during a game as well as a widget in the notification centre with live updates.

Tempo

Nicely designed Calendar app with lots of different views as well as insights into the people you are meeting with allowing you to see there recent Facebook post, tweets and linkedin feed

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