Lg Optimus G Review

The optimus G is my Nexus 4, those on a GSM network like T-Mobile and AT&T plus the many many smaller networks, were able to get their hands on the Nexus 4, those of us on Sprint were not that lucky. I am looking at the Optimus G now as it is the base model for the Nexus 4. It has many of the same features and sometimes they are exactly the same. There are differences like 13 mp camera or SD card on AT&T.

The device is visually nice! Much like the Nexus 4 (the more popular device) this phone also has  a glass front and back and a stylish back under the glass. The cameras on both Optimus G phones (at&t and sprint) are both squared off, the sprint model sticks out a bit, but not enough to bother me. The glass is awesome but shows fingerprints a bit, but they can easily be wiped away with a wipe of a cloth. The power button is on the right side of the device and the volume buttons are made on the left, just opposite the power button. The three buttons on bottom are not software buttons like the Nexus 4, but they are indeed soft buttons, not really physical by any means.

The 1.5 ghz quad core processor is crazy, the phone feels so fast. It is nice, smooth and as previously mentioned, quite quick. It doesn’t do anything slowly, there are some phones that lag, there are some phones that hang, but really, not this one. The speed and software together.... wait LG software? Yeah that is right, I am saying that I like LG software, I usually do not, I have enjoyed their hardware, the Revolution and the G2X were good by way of hardware, it was built well, but the software left much to be desired I personally felt, however, that is not the case here.

The phone is a fun little delight to use, at first I was afraid, I was petrified... (sorry), to drop it or break it. Now I am not so afraid, I am not banging it into walls or into other phones, but I am not handling it like a feather or like a baby. I am using it like a phone. The front and back are made of glass, that is what worries me and many others, but it does not need to be babied. That is a plus!

Today I did some tests on 4g and other data, the Sprint device does not yet have 4g in my market and the data is quite sad. The AT&T model on the other hand has speeds well over 21mbps! Everything downloaded amazingly fast and there were no real issues. The data on both was not a hinderance to battery and was not absolutely awful, the Sprint model needs some work when it comes to data, but neither needs help in the calls department, they were clear and loud enough.

Overall I have no major issues with the device, everything device gives qualms and I guess this one is the glass. If you know my previous work you will know that I haven’t really liked LG devices, but this changes a few things. I actually like LG right now, they made two great phones (the glass is troublesome but they are great). I would recommend these to anyone who wants a Sprint or AT&T powerhouse.

REVIEW: Press (RSS Reader)

We have all seen the RSS readers out there, I know I have gone to one on my phone and deleted it a week later because it didn’t have Google syncing or deleted it because it didn’t auto populate my feeds even though it did have Google account sync. Sometimes the UI just isn’t up to par and sometimes it just isn’t easy to navigate. I know everyone has preferences and there are some out there reading this that think I am crazy because they love their specific third party RSS reader, which is fine.

My preference and recommendation is Press. This reader is not only beautiful but also easy to navigate and understand, they integrated the holo UI into it and it works well. This is one of the applications people talk about when you talk about Android done correctly. When it comes to voting for a great third party application for RSS readers, I choose this one.

Give the images a look and see what I am talking about, from things like marking all as read to starring, it all looks amazing, it is easy to come back and find what has been read, what is starred as important and what is read already (as it has been cleared off).

Why I use Ingress (Why you should too)

Niantic Project, November 1st 2012. That is the first time I heard about this, Viral videos and links were posted to a site and crazy things started happening. Phones were hacked, then stolen, then searched for and then Tycho went missing. Lots more videos were posted, lots more documents were found and then portal hacking started.

If ANY of this sounds cool to you or like a movie or anything like that, this is the game for you! You download the game from the play store (android exclusive). You then pop on Google+ or twitter and see if you can't score an invite! I did, not too hard.

What I used to get my invite! (markers app for android)

After you get your code, then the fun starts, you login and look for portals! Portals are found on your game map or at ingress.com/intel. You can also get suggestions from the Google+ pages and Google Groups sites. That is where I go for the goods.

Un-hacked portals are octagons, hacked portals are circles with the octagons with resonators sticking out of them and colors of the team that hacked the portal, find the blank ones and they are yours, find the ones of opposite color and XMP bust them, find the ones of the same color and link them for your team.

I hope to get more codes soon and go crazy.

Why I am Betting On Motorola.

It seems very few people realize that Google purchased Motorola, it all started in 2011 and finished off this year, Google currently owns Motorola Mobility, they put their own CEO in, their own head of mobile and surely many others. Motorola has helped out when it comes to Google Glass, and there are rumors or a Motorola Nexus phones (yes Motorola does have to bid like everyone else).

One thing that is really putting me back in a positive direction as well is the fact that the Razr series is doing well, The three latest phones are boosting my confidence for sure. Razr M and The new Razr HD phones both looks great, I know first hand that the Razr m feels great. When these phones were announced I was not confident in the show, but with the devices themselves. The person who showed them off put no confidence in me, however, when the CEO stepped out and said the Future of Motorola starts now, I felt good!

I expect good things from this company soon, I would like to see either a razr nexus or a whole new nexus from them and hopefully a great screen!

Heres to Motorola in 2012!

Back To the Nexus S 4G, GoodBye Palm Pre

I have gone back to my Nexus S 4g for two reasons, 1st, I like it and I missed it. The pre was great but there have been some apps updated that I have missed, features that I have not seen since I switched phones and over all apps that I like using, like Google Now. Palm built a great phone back when it was indeed palm, but that is gone.

2nd, I got a new job working at a Google Nexus call center! I figured having my palm phone doesn't really prepare me for that whole thing. I will go back to the palm phone sometime in the future, maybe it will be when they figure out Android 2.3, with calling and more features, course, then again, could I go back? Android 2.3 seems so long ago now even though I just reviewed phones with that OS on it, even though I have a phone that technically should still be on good old 2.3 Gingerbread! I know that it seems no one will ever put 4.0 or 4.1 on the palm pre, they can not even get 2.3 working solid, I hope to get a pre 2 or pre 3 in the future, when I have lots more disposable income.

So I am glad to be back with my Nexus S, I have my nexus 7, hoping to get a Galaxy Nexus!

My Week WIth A Palm Pre: Day 5 - 7

This is the wrap. I have hit a week plus a few days. I have decided that I will be keeping the phone for at least another week, the phone has awesome android styled features. I have talked about this all week, two posts, 7 days.

I have not had many problems, kind of odd because I thought I would! I thought I would crawl back to android! I thought I would be calling Sprint asking them to switch me back by now but I think it is the subtle similarities that I talked about earlier this week. The cards that you use, the length of the battery, the way that messenger works. Not only does the messenger send texts but also works with AOL and Gtalk and others. I only use GTalk and SMS/MMS, but it is awesome. The browser is lacking, if I decide to upgrade to webOS 2, I will indeed check the browser.

In a few weeks I will be back on my Nexus S, I will be back on Jelly Bean and I will using all my old apps again! Excited! A bit sad! When I do get back, i think i will attempt to put android 2.3 on the phone, some say WiFi is a bit wonky and that you can not make phone calls, that is why I am getting back to the nexus S first. I will of course be documenting this as well as my move to WebOS 2 if I decide to do that! I am hoping that I can also find my way into an HP Pre 3, but that is looking more difficult and a bit costly!

For now that is all, I have thoroughly given it a lot of crazy times, made calls, texts, sent instant messages, browsed the web, downloaded apps, attempted a bit of homebrew, failed. Looked over how to put a new version on it, looked at how to put Android on it. It has been a heck of a week with WebOS and I wish they were still around, however, that means Android would not be as nice. Take the good with the bad.

My Week with a Palm Pre: Day 3-4

So I am rounding up on day 3 and 4, yesterday was a bit drab with the phone, you don't always get to power through a day and get crap done, but here we are, end of day 4 and I have decided that it is still a cool phone. I am still taking in a lot of the features, I miss the 5 mp camera that a lot of phones come with, also found myself searching for the front camera that does not exist on this device, didn't think I missed it, didn't think I could miss it! I thought I never used it!

I am still thinking that I will be upgrading to WebOS version 2 and do another week of webOS but that probably will not be for a few weeks, I want to use this phone and get the most out of it before I potentially ruin it by bricking it. I do not think this will happen, there are instructions despite them being a bit old.

I still really like a lot of webOS features, this phone acts new despite being from 2009, it does not feel like an aging droid 1 or other phones from that era. It kind of acts fast, I finally see what people meant by it works really well with multitasking. Really well, I can either get rid of items or keep them stored in a card. This is sort of like the Android way to do it, but it is a tad different. I like it.

I know these write ups are not long, but this is an old extinct OS, and I just want to put a few things down to let people know what I think of something that clearly shows how Android will be, and kind of where it came from.

My Week With the Palm Pre: Day 2

So I am at day 2 of this device. A palm pre, a phone that is no longer supported. I have looked around the web and it turns out that not only can I get android on it (with no phone calling and no sound) but I can also get palm OS version 2! I have not done either and will not be doing either until after this week is over, maybe even a few weeks. Palm version 1.4.5 is nice enough for now. I have come to realize how much I like 4g service, whether it be LTE or wiMax it is quite nice to have, the palm pre has EV (Ev-Do), which is basically just 3g from what I can tell.

The apps I like just aren't there, yeah there is homebrew but I am having a few issues loading certain homebrew apps. I am still figuring it all out and getting it all working. I am excited to test it all. So for me the future holds some homebrew and upgrading the OS. The OS upgrade seems really cool, version 2 comes packed on the HP errrr Palm Pre 3, which is a phone I just don't have access to. Since this old phone can get version 2 of the OS I figured I would give it a shot. So far it seems a bit difficult to do so.  I need to run WebOS Doctor and another program or two, so far I am just getting all the downloads finished. I guess I will let you know how this all goes so that in a few weeks I can load it up and be ready to go!

I am still missing Google+ as an app and if I didn't have other phones to review, I would probably go back to my nexus s, but this little experiment is working quite nicely since I have other means.

My week with a Palm Pre: Day 1

Saturday the 22nd I found it, a phone that I was latter the game in finding. I've used few other phones by the same artist and loved them. Now here, Saturday the 22nd was my day and when all was said and done I was able to purchase it for 50 bucks. I am talking about the sprint palm pre. The other phones by the same designer are the sidekick 2 an 3 as well as the nexus s, not to , mention the hp veer 4g and the hp touchpad. The designer is matias Duarte and by proxy Andy Rubin.

Rubin and Duarte have worked together on a few projects, Android is the latest and Sidekick was one of the most notable. Duarte also worked at Helio.

If you notice any similarities between his run at Palm and Helio, this is why. 

So we are going back a few years to where Duarte worked at Palm, the Palm Pre, a phone I now own and have been using for about a day now, a day plus some. Here are some of my musings, some things I have noticed. 

1.  webOS is very pretty. 

it is a pretty and functional OS, it of course has a browser etc and it works well. You can see a lot of webOS in android, a lot! Cards are a part of webOS and on Android there are cards when you click the recently used button.

2.  The Keyboard is awesome!

I am a fan of the smaller, nice palm pre keyboard, it is a similar one that was on the HP Veer 4g and I quite liked that device as well, a bit small for me, but where the Veer was too small, the Pre is just about right!

3.  The phone is a great shape

This phone slides up to reveal the keyboard i just spoke of, it has a curved design that reminds me of the nexus s or galaxy nexus, it when fully opened it reveals the curved design I mentioned. 

These are just day 1 thoughts, I will go through out the rest of the week, new post tonight or tomorrow with more thoughts and ideas, I am toying with hitting up the android port for this device, but right now, it is kind of... not working well.

Another Guide To Google+

Wait a second! Sooooo Google+ is Dead?

No it really is not, those are just the words of people who really do not know how to use it correctly. The average user signs on, wishes they had friends on the site and doesn't sign in for a few months, when they do... they post "chirp chirp chirp, wish this place wasn't a GHOST TOWN!" 

You need to GET STARTED! 

If you do end up getting through that and still don't know anyone at all, you should EXPLORE a bit! Find out what topics are hot, what others are talking about. I also like to search my favorite topics. 

These are some of my favorite things. I like a broad list of topics, from wrestling to phones to gaming. I am a big fan of a lot of this stuff and i get a full list of posts every time I search. I love meeting new people who have similar interests. I just start talking to people who's posts I find, it usually ends up friendly, unless I have a slightly opposing view, then sometimes it goes poorly. 

I have met many people over a year on the site, and I hate to brag, but it proves a point, I have over 10,000 followers and I am NOT the only one. I have many of my friends who have far more followers than me. The point is, many people I follow and many people who follow me have thousands of fans and that means the site is far from dead. My stream is full every day and it updates a lot. Facebook is boring and dull usually while my G+ stream is just as popular as my twitter feed, it is usually more active than my Twitter feed as well, due to the fact that I get people to interact, I actually have interaction circles where people are mostly interact with me, so I post to that circle! 

I am a big fan of Google+ and that is quite evident, Twitter rarely gets used and Facebook is just so I can see how the family is! 

Google+ hangouts are another key, once you meet a few people, start a hangout or if you are truly brave, feel free to go Public and invite a bunch of people. 

This site has changed over the course of a year, very much. It is much more interactive and useful as well now. You can start a PAGE now, that is like a group or a page on Facebook, you can also start a page and do a hangout from it. 

There is much more and I am sure I will talk about it in the future. Use these steps and you will be fast tracked into the world of G+

Thinking of posting photos here

I think I will just get interesting photos and posting them around. I hope to get some google project glass in the future and would love to use it for photos and video that can be put anywhere.

I will start with this one

Got it on the Evo 4G LTE. Let me know if this is something you have interest in.

New Toy To Review: Sphero

Figured I would jot down a few of my thoughts on this new review unit for androidheadlines.com, usually I get phones or phone accessories, I guess this is technically an accessory but not like usual. The usual is a phone battery, a stylus, headphones etc. This is a totally different thing... just all together!

Sphero is a robotic ball made by Orbotix that is controlled by Android or iPhone smart phones. I will have to ask them if Windows Phone is coming. I have been testing it out after arriving home to find it waiting for me. I now have a pretty good hang of it. Driving it with one of the 8 or so apps that you can download right from the app store or from the google play store.

Here it is showing off its LED

This is a picture of it lighting up, there is an LED light inside and any color you can create by mixing paint together, can be replicated. I am a fan of it. I guess we will see where this review goes, check into androidheadlines.com for the full review. Also pictures and otherwise will be on my google+ page

Brand new car

After searching and thinking and a bit of research I got this 2007 VW Rabbit, it has a lot of what I want. I'm very pleased with it. The civic will live on in our hearts (cheesy line).

New rally car for a new era

Adios Civic

This is my 2001 civic, I got rear ended a little over a week ago and now I get the chance to get a new car.

REVIEW: Blackberry Torch 9850

Intro

Blackberry was sort of my first truly real smartphone, sure the sidekick counts, but only kind of. Blackberry really did it all. I had a blackberry pearl at first, the good old 8100. I followed that with the global 8830. I sold both of these phones but really liked them for their time, my biggest issue was how slow they can be once something better comes out and how outdated they become, it happens so fast! I wanted to see the Torch 9850 (no keyboard) with my own eyes and hands to see if it had some of the same issues or if they wised up a bit.

Looks

It looks good! It is clean and some may mistake it for the newest android phone, not sure if that is what blackberry wants, but on the other hand it could be exactly what they want. It is clean and easy to use with no keyboard other than what is on screen. The lock button is not something that sticks out much, it is actually built into the top of the phone and you have to press down on top to get it to lock or unlock, it does not even look like a button. The trackpad looks good, some trackpads make me not want to use the device, but this one beckoned to me, called my name so to speak. I just wanted to mess with it.

OS

We are using blackberry OS 7, that is much better than the last time I reviewed a blackberry, a whole OS updated! It feels a bit faster than OS 6 and is definitely faster than what I used on the pearl and 8830 a long time ago. The OS has come a long way and blackberry should be proud of themselves for this. It is a good OS again, back when I had the 8100 it worked quite nicely, then again there was not a whole lot to compare it against other than feature phones and so of course it was better. Now it is finally coming back as a competitor, RIM is trying to get there and they sure are giving a good fight!

Imagery

Final Thoughts

I am finally excited to see what is next, after this one. The 9900 sounds promising after playing with this phone, I also had a LITTLE, very little time playing with the playbook at best buy and it isn't bad either. The 9900 paired with a playbook could actually be kind of decent, nothing spectacular but it could be cool. I am interested in blackberry again, not as a full time phone but as something that could be good in the future, something that could compete if they work at it even more.

REVIEW: The HP Veer 4G

Intro

I have wondered the "deal" is with WebOS for a while now. I have had friends who liked it a lot, also had people I follow on social networks who really liked it, many were reluctant to give it up, many didn't want to move on to Android as WebOS started to die. A lot of them were basically forced to as WebOS was not doing well and it wasn't being very supported, now we are really in too deep as they have cancelled all hardware and claim to support the software.

Looks

It looks kind of nice, a very clean round form factor. I like it a lot, many have liked it. It comes in white or black and I got white. It is shaped like.. well a round rock kind of, the perfect kind for skipping.  It is clean and smooth, the keyboard is quite nice if you ask me, even for being so dang small! It's set up in Qwerty mode, the buttons are really easy to press as they are raised. Many many people like how this device looks, I have only seen white but I have heard time and time again this week "if that was in black."

OS

The OS, as mentioned is WebOS. It was recently purchased by HP. Palm of course was the bigger part of that. The version I am running is 2.1. From what I read, Palm... HP whatever is quite fragmented, more so than Android is ways, this is one of those things that proves it. The Pre 3, which is no longer coming to America was set to run version 3, the cancelled tablet, (TouchPad - Review Coming) is also on version 3. Version 2 added a few things, one of them was tab stacking, and it is kind of a cool feature.

Imagery

Final Thoughts

I had some fun with the phone, no doubts there, I took it to work and gave it a good run. Many co workers wanted one or something like it, the size and form factor is a draw for many people, me included (although it'd be too hard to give up my 4.3 inch evo screen). WebOS is a thing of beauty, it makes me excited to get a touchpad and mess with the next iteration of the software, that is until stable Android is on it.

It really makes me wonder what failed with Palm/HP/WebOS. A lot of people like the devices, the form seems like something many like, the style and over all design is great too, it could be the pricing, the TouchPad and Pre I heard wasn't ideal for price. This one though, the Veer 4G seems nice. It is only one penny with a new contract. A PENNY! 

I have so many people that do not want to come to Google+ and some people calling it a failure. It must suck to be on the team at Google in a way because you hear this negative stuff when people have barely given it a chance. 

MySpace never reached this level of popularity.
It took Facebook a very long time to get where Google+ is as well.
Twitter just reached this level in the past few years.

What can be done to get people over from these sites and get them to engage? I think Circles are important and it seems to be something people do not understand. Since this site looks and feels more like a Facebook, it is treated as one, a lot of people expect others to follow them, or for a friend finder system to say oh Joe EveryMan is on here and you went to the same school. That doesn't happen as much. It seems this site is built around interests, are at least that is how I use it. I have 53 circles. Sometimes I share very specific things and other times it is very bland, other times it is cool and important and it goes public, or maybe I just want an opinion from a lot of people. 

The very specific things I share are about food and other such specific topics. I think circles need to get used in a better way for the new people. I also think the mobile app and site need a few changes, nothing major, just a few things to keep it in the loop of tech. +1 on posts is important to me, so is editing, how many times have I spelled a word wrong due to auto correct? 

All this said, I have 600 people circled and I share content as well as comment on content, I use hangouts nightly, usually in 3 or 4 a night. Do not be afraid to hangout, what is the worst that can happen, you may learn something? 

Motorola... wait, win phone 7?

Google+ Invites

These are Google+ invites, now you too can be part of it! YAY!

https://plus.google.com/i/ANKUpg-7dOY:NFuIBIj8EQY

The link looks weird but, hey, it's an invite

RIP my dog lola

We just lost little lola, she passed on, my little tea cup chihuahua, my first real dog that i owned, she was my dog. I loved her a lot and i know she loved me. She was a great friend and companion and was always excited to see me. RIP my little dog. I will never forget you.

Such a cute little dog! I miss her already!


Some video of my little dog, RIP

An image +shay corbett drew