Two tech geeks.

  • Could Google Glass become essential to photography?

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    Jenxi

    For the moment, the topic of privacy will always come up during the discussion of Google Glass. Privacy issues aside, if Google continues to improve Glass, it could become a very useful tool to photographers.

    You can view more examples of photos taken with Google Glass by Trey Ratcliff on Google+.

    These Astonishing Images Convinced Us That Google Glass Will Change Photography Forever

    What Glass does is allow hands-free photos to be taken — thus removing all the shake and wobble of hand-held photography. It’s probably one of the defining advances Glass will make in photography: Humans can hold their heads almost perfectly still while taking a picture; we can’t do that with our hands.

  • Moto G reviewed. King of budget phones?

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    Jenxi

    In Asia and other emerging markets, it’s common to see many cheap Android phones being sold. Considering that they’re usually a mix of a low-end display, underpowered processor, a tiny bit of RAM, it’s no suprise that the user experience is often horrible. At $179, the Google-owned Motorola is continuing Google’s initative to offer decent off-contract low-priced Android phones. Certainly a win for consumers.

    Motorola Moto G review – the best budget smartphone is just £135

    It is fast, fluid, with a sharp 4.5in screen and a long battery life that’s more than enough to get you through even the most arduous of work days – something most premium phones costing three times as much as the Moto G struggle with.

  • SmugMug’s Camera Awesome app took 20 months longer to be developed for Android

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    Jenxi

    PetaPixel reports that SmugMug’s Camera Awesome app is finally available on Android.

    For Android fanboys offended that it took 20 more months to bring Camera Awesome to Android than iOS, you might want to give SmugMug a pass on this one.

    Both apps actually went into development at the same time, but the fact that Android is fragmented across so many different devices with varying screen sizes and capabilities caused serious headaches for the design team.

    “It turned out to be so much more difficult than iOS,” CEO Don MacAskill told CNET. “The plethora of devices is a real pain. Earlier versions of Android had some serious issues around memory management, so taking and editing photos was basically the thing you couldn’t do without jumping through all kinds of hoops.”

    The trouble developers face due to Android’s fragmentation.

  • EASA allows use of electronic devices on board

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    Jenxi

    The European Aviation Safety Agency(EASA) allows use of electronic devices on board.

    In the long term, the Agency is looking at new ways to certify the use of mobile phones on-board aircraft to make phone calls. EASA recognises the wide proliferation of personal electronic devices and the wish of the travelling public to use them everywhere.

  • PlayStation 4 review by Polygon

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    Jenxi

    Polygon reviews the PlayStation 4.

    An in-depth review coupled with a gorgeous page design for a beautifully crafted console.

  • Smart move Apple

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    Jenxi

    Ed Dale thinks Apple’s soft launch of the Retina iPad mini was a brilliant move.

    By soft releasing the iPad Mini Retina, Apple achieved three crucial things.

    • Apple’s biggest fans got theirs first. Who knew about this first? The people who follow the Apple blogs and digerati. Judging by Twitter, this worked perfectly.
    • The grey market queing for the iPad Mini Retina was going to be immense. By going online the incredibly poor optics (The front of Apple lines, which attracts a lot of media, was full of people who were not fans but paid to be there) are mitigated.
    • The last thing Apple wants is 100’s of customers turning up everyday to be dissapointed in a store which is meant to be a happy place – Apple does not want their stores to be associated with disappointment and frustration!!

  • Elon Musk wants to build an electric pickup truck and supersonic jet

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    Jenxi

    Autopia reports on Elon Musk‘s plans for an electric pickup and supersonic jet.

    At the New York Times DealBook conference, Musk said there’s an “interesting opportunity to make a supersonic vertical takeoff landing jet,” something he began to envision after the Concorde service ended nearly a decade ago.

    Modeled after the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. — the Ford F-150 — Musk envisions a truck oriented towards consumers rather than fleets. But first, Tesla has to deliver its Model X SUV and its third-generation, mass-market EV in 2017.

    Dream big.

  • Evernote to learn your habits

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    Jenxi

    Mashable reports how Evernote will be able to learn your habits in the future.

    For Evernote, utilizing this data means teaching the app how to learn the habits of its users. For example, if a user has her weekly project meeting on the calendar each Tuesday, Evernote should be able to surface her meeting notes for her, or even prepare a blank note in preparation for the meeting without any work from the user.

    “We want to make Evernote better at reorganizing itself to suit the way that you use it,” he says. “To wrap itself around your brain.”

    This is something all apps should strive towards. Having an app that knows my habit well will make it very hard for me to want to switch to a different app. This will be great for user retention.

  • The Nexus 5’s “exclusive” launcher works on other devices

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    Jenxi

    Ars Technica reports about the Nexus 5’s “exclusive” launcher being available on other Android devices through a workaround.

    Late yesterday, a new version of Google Search hit the Play Store for everyone running Android 4.1 and higher—Google Search version 3.1. All the Google Home code was completely intact, meaning that Google just shipped its new launcher out to every modern Android phone. In order for Google Home to work, it requires a tiny enabler app that comes with the Nexus 5. The enabler app isn’t being shipped out to these other devices, so while 99 percent of the code is now on everyone’s device (or it will be when the rollout finishes), it’s disabled.

    Why include the code but not enable the function?

  • One Coin to rule them all

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    Jenxi

    Aside from the cheeky, and possibly misleading name, Coin is a product that could go a long way to helping us solve the issue of fat wallets. After all, why carry so many pieces of plastic when you can just carry one? It’ll have additional hurdles in countries where security chips are implemented in cards, instead of just relying on the magnetic stripe. The good news is that the folks behind Coin are already aware of this and working to offer support for chip and pin future versions.

    Tired of a fat wallet? Coin lets you hold all your cards in a single connected card

    In a brief demo of Coin’s technology, I can confirm that it actually works: Simply swipe your cards using a card dongle like Square’s and Coin’s app securely stores all of the card information for you. You can hold up to eight cards on the Coin card at once, which you can cycle through using a small button and display on the front of the card. Paying is as simple as swiping like a normal credit card.