GoButler, your real, personal, assistant

In the past few years, virtual assistants have been growing in popularity. Google has one, Microsoft has one, Apple has (probably) the most used one, but they all have one fatal flaw for now. None of them can really do anything. Sure, they can answer most simple questions, create calendar appointments and in most cases, send messages, emails, etc. But none of them can yet make things happen in real life, yes I know thats an odd thing to think about. But that’s where GoButler comes in, its more butler than assistant, as the name implies, but that ends up making it a bit more useful. As the website states, “GoButler is a free, text-based service that operates as your personal virtual assistant! Our trained operators, known as ‘Heroes’, are here to make your life easier – from food delivery and travel bookings to restaurant reservations and more. We save you time, getting you what you need, when you need it – at your fingertips!”. So what does that mean in the real world? Well for me personally, the best use is food delivery. In good-old Canada, data is expensive, so the ability to text a number, ask for sushi suggestions and then ask for it to be delivered and have it show up when i get home, is.. fantastic. You can also book flights, hotels, make dinner reservations, have flowers delivered to a loved one, or pretty well anything (legal) just text your country’s GoButler number (Available in USA, Canada, Britain, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria), and ask, a “Hero” will get back to you within a few minutes. So why not give it a go? It’s actually free.

GoButler’s Website

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.

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.

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)

Spotify discover weekly is the best thing to happen to Spotify lately

Spotify unveiled Discover Weekly a little while ago but it has just fully started rolling out now (at least to my devices) and it’s the best thing to happen to Spotify in the last little while.
Spotify’s app is a bit rough, I think everyone can agree on that, the navigation can be confusing and there seem to be many simple features missing like automatic offline mode when, well you’re offline. Discover has been apart of Spotify for a while, but in the past I personally have hardly used it because the only things being suggested were artists and whole albums. While that can be nice, it doesn’t really help me discover artists because I hardly ever have the time or interest to listen to a whole album from an artist I have never heard of, solely based on an algorithm. Discover weekly fixes a few of these problems by creating a playlist of various songs from various artists across lots of genres based on your interests (still from and algorithm). This is a much better way to discover music for someone like me, if I’m listening to a whole album from an artist I may really like one or two songs from that album, now instead of having to hunt through the whole album just to find a couple of songs that I really like they can be put into one playlist that updates weekly. When I have some time, I just throw on some noise cancelling headphones and listen through the whole thing, saving the ones I really enjoy for later, knowing that next Monday it will be a completely new list of songs to discover. Spotify Discover Weekly should be rolling out to everyone in the next few days or weeks, I strongly suggest you give it a shot if you’re looking for some new tunes.

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

.

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.)