If you have been reading this website, you will realize that I finally bulked up (or bulked down, depending on how you view it) from my Blackberry 8820 to a superphone, the Samsung Galaxy S II. When I was walking to the store to pick it up, I had butterflies in my stomach and I could not wait till it was in my hands. I did a lot of work to acquire this phone and so I was overjoyed to finally have it. With that being said, here’s my review and I’ll try to be as unbiased as possible .

The Device

When people first saw my new phone, the first thing that people said was “Isn’t that phone big?” or something along those lines. I was completely blown away as to how many people said that. In retrospect, yes it is big but isn’t size relative? I mean, when the first iPod Touch came out, wasn’t that a big mp3 player compared to the norm? Yes it has a 4.3″ Super AMOLED Plus screen that provides amazing clarity but to me, it’s not big. In fact, this phone is the thinnest and lightest in the Canadian market coming in at 8.49mm and 117g which in my opinion, makes up for the “bigness” of the phone. To put that into perspective, the iPhone has a 3.5″ screen and weighs in at 137g with its thinnest point being 9.3mm. To the casual observer this may not be a striking difference but compare it side-by-side and you’re looking at apples and oranges. They’re both fruit but strikingly different qualities.

I’ll admit that at first it was a little awkward to handle, but like transitioning from a physical keyboard to a virtual one, the end result has left me with no regrets. The ironic thing is, when I go back to my iPod Touch, it feels incredibly small but when I go from my iPad to my Samsung Galaxy S II, I don’t get that same feeling.

Another major difference between the Samsung Galaxy S II are the buttons on the bottom. Most Android smartphones have 4 buttons compared to the SGSII’s 3 which usually goes Menu, Home, Search and Return. I prefer the 3 button scheme that Samsung used on the GS2 because it’s less cluttered and there’s a definable center to it.

Software

I haven’t used the first iteration of the Samsung Galaxy S, but supposedly the new interface, TouchWIZ 4, is a drastic improvement from its predecessor. Most notably, the aesthetics and performance have been improved. I can’t speak much to this because I don’t use the default interface as I have installed an application called GoLauncher EX to replace it. I am currently fiddling with it and finding it quite versatile so I will keep you up to date on that one. Just recently though I updated my SGS2 from the stock 2.3.3 that Bell provides to a custom ROM called Sensation ROM 1.9 that has upgraded me to 2.3.5. The most notable improvements are the battery life (very significant) and when you scroll to the top and bottom, it flashes to let you know it’s reached the end. The call screen is more refined and allows for easier access to contact information. Overall, I’m in love with the software and thus the interface.

Battery Life

As I mentioned above, I’ve upgraded my phone and with that upgrade has come significant battery improvements. Before it would last me from about 10am-2am and the battery would be in critical mode. Thus when I would be heading out that night without my power cord I would recharge it before hitting the town. Now with the upgrade I have no worries as to whether it will last the day or not. On a power hungry day I’ll be down to 25% and on regular days it’ll be closer to 50% battery life left.

Features

Building on the software aspect of this phone, I was surprised to learn with the release of ICS, that a lot of the features that were innovative on it, were already a part of the SGS2. One feature was the “Reject a call with a text message”. This is a really cool feature and was already on my phone when I got it. It comes in handy for sure. I also enjoy the screen after the end of a call where it gives you the option of sending a message or calling again to that same contact. Another “cool” feature in ICS is being able to uninstall apps from the launcher. On my SGS2 I can do hold the apps and click uninstall. I can also drag apps from my home screen up to the top to remove it from the home screen.

Conclusion

Overall I am very happy with my SGS2. The only problem I had with it was the battery life but since that’s been resolved it’s been a dream to have. I still use my iPod Touch as it’s a great music player which I do believe Google still needs to improve on but since I like having two devices anyways I’m happy. Google is making strides with this, with the introduction of Google Music and so it will be interesting to see how it shapes up in the future.

If you have any questions about the SGS2 please don’t hesitate to ask and if any of you have comments about your experience with the SGS2 add them here. Until next time…

Popularity: 9% [?]

With the year coming to a close I thought it would be good to update the my list of some of the top apps you can get for free at the Apple App Store.

Productivity

For productivity there are a ton of different apps you can get for free that would be useful. There are three that I’d point out and one that is under productivity but not as useful as you may think (still it’s a neat app so it’s worth a mention).

Expense2Go

This app is great because I can easily enter a few of my expenses as I pick them up and easily track it. I find it comes in even more use for students like me who have to borrow money and keep track of how they spend their own money. All you do is create different reports for various things and enter each expense including the date, type of expense, amount of expense and any notes that may accompany that expense.

Evernote

After registering on the site, Evernote, you can easily add notes that can be viewed on your device, your desktop or the internet. You are allowed to create text, camera, or voice notes that can be emailed as well. It is a very versatile application and I highly recommend it.

Awesome Note Lite

This app is also a note taker but it also has other features that make it a good download. It separates your notes into: My Ideas, Study, Shopping and To-Do List. I like this because it combines a to-do list and a note taking device that also includes a shopping list because I always forget to stop and buy the milk.

Writepad

If you can master this app it may be a savior if you have bad handwriting like me. It is like a small tablet PC as you just write with your finger and it translates it into text but you only write one word at a time and there is a bit of a lag so it’s not really the most practical thing.

Games

I like strategy games so I chose a couple other than Sudoku.

Airline USA

This game involves directing the different forms of aviation from their origin to their destination and making sure each of their routes don’t crash. So at the beginning you have regular planes, then you get jumbo jets which travel slightly slower, and then blimps and then jets. It’s harder than it sounds . Let me know if you beat my high score of 69.

Traffic Rush

If you can’t tell by now my love for all things transportation then this will solidify it for you. This game also involves trying to make sure the cars don’t crash. The games setting is an intersection and the cars come from all sides and you speed up and stop them to make sure they don’t crash with one another. My high score for that is 129.

I don’t spend too much time on these games so I wouldn’t at all be surprised if you beat me.

Utilities

Flashlight

By far the best app in this department is the flashlight app. It is just as bright, if not brighter than the flashlight that comes on the Sony Ericsson phones and just as good as a regular flashlight. It’s very handy and has helped me in numerous situations.

Communication

Ping

This would be my favourite app if I knew more people in my area with Apple iPod Touch’s or Apple iPhone’s. Regardless I know many people will find pinging other Apple users for free very useful.

Popularity: 40% [?]

Google seems to be continually redefining markets time after time just like Apple obliterates the competition with its mind blowing gadgets such as the iPhone, iPod Touch and Magic Mouse. Google has GMail (best mail app out there by far for its continuous innovation), Talk and Maps Navigation (I know there’s much more Google has to offer but that’s a good summary for now).

Mark this day on your calendar, November 4, 2009, as a day the big navigation providers took a huge hit in their stock price because a lot of people realize that Google Maps Navigation could destroy their business. Sadly it’s only offered in the U.S. for now on phones with Android 1.6 or higher but there’s a bright end to the tunnel for Canadian consumers. DAVE Wireless, one of the three new wireless companies set to hit the market in the next 6 months, is planning to release Google’s phone with Android pre-installed. Now for the features of Google Maps Navigations.

• Search in plain ‘ol English (watch video). Much like searching on Google Maps, you don’t need to know the address of where you are going (unless it’s a house and then you may have trouble). All you have to do is type the name of the business (i.e. Best Buy) or the type (i.e. electronics)
• Search by voice (watch video). This is not a new feature as a Magellan GPS offers it, but now Google Maps Navigation does as well. Just speak your destination such as “Navigate to Air Canada Centre in Toronto”
• Traffic view (watch video). If your area is supported by Google Traffic then this feature is golden. On-screen you will see either green,yellow or red depending on the current traffic conditions on your route.
• Search along route (watch video). What I hate about some GPS’s (or at least mine) is that you can’t look at the map and see common things such as gas stations. Google fixes that allowing you to turn on layers such as gas stations, restaurants, or parking.
• Satellite view (watch video). A small feature but still cool is you are able to see a 3D satellite view of your route with Google’s high-resolution aerial imagery.
• Street View (watch video). This to me is the best feature. Just as you’re about to turn, Google Street View imagery is overlaid and navigation automatically turns on to Street View when you approach your destination. Pure genius!
• Car dock mode (watch video). Simply place your device on the car dock and it will activate a special mode that will make it easier for you to use your device at arm’s length.

Popularity: 17% [?]

The media has been abuzz lately about a new version of the Apple iPod Touch. Now in all honesty it’s nothing we haven’t seen before but what Apple is doing is trying to revolutionize the mp3 market by adding cellphone specs to a mp3 player such as a built-in camera and microphone. Obviously those two features aren’t something new and it will probably be the highlight of the new features packaged with the new Apple iPod Touch but what it will do is allow Apple iPod Touch users to download apps only useful to iPhone users such as Shazam. Granted, users will need to be in a WiFi zone but what’s stopping people from subscribing to personal hotspots offered by companies like Rogers and Verizon that will allow them to be always on the grid.

TruPhone

Now what might even further revolutionize the mp3 industry is the fact of the availability of some applications such as Truphone and Fring which allow Apple iPod Touch users to call other users with the same application for free once they are in a WiFi zone and with the built-in microphone you’ve now got a working phone that makes VoIP calls.

Now all of you must be asking when will this new Apple iPod Touch be coming out? Sources say the timeframe would be around the next two to three months which matches up with the new releases of other Apple products. This is all just around the time when school starts and students, who are usually the trend setters, go back to school and want to have the newest gadgets. Look for this mp3 player to change a small part of the world.

Update: Not only will the Apple iPod Touch have a camera but the Apple iPod Nano will have one too. “My company had got full information and dimension,” wrote a Chinese distributor in an email to a U.S. reseller. “Enclosed some image and instruction for your reference. Most of the sample available now. If you need some sample check quality please freely let me know.”

The cameras on the Apple iPod Nano will be placed in the bottom left corner whereas the Apple iPod Touch’s camera will be surprisingly in the center of the device at the top (not dead centre which I first thought when I read it). Going with what Apple traditionaly does, it will be a safe bet to say that both these devices will get double the storage at the same price.

• iPod Nano (fifth generation): 16GB for $150; 32GB for $200
• iPod Touch (third generation): 16GB for $230; 32GB for $300; 64GB for $400

Apple iPod Nano 5th Generation

Now although the Apple iPod Nano looks the same there are small changes it will have. There will be a slightly wider screen with a 1.5:1 aspect ratio up from 1.33:1 (I know, a small jump) and a smaller click wheel that will move down the device.

On top of that, I just found out that the Apple iPod Touch will most likely be able to take video whereas the Apple iPod Nano will not. Even so, with the Apple iPod Touch being such a huge success, it will deal a blow to the compact video recorders like The Flip (My review on The Flip) but it’s not like they were that great to begin with.

Popularity: 20% [?]

My friend told me of a problem she had with her Apple iPod. It froze and she couldn’t reset it via her computer. Now this usually works for most iPod users but there are times when the basics don’t seem to fix anything. I researched and researched and the simplest thing came up. Recharge your iPod because that might be the reason it won’t hook up to your computer. You may have to leave it in the wall outlet for some time before you can start using it again. When you plug it in to your computer again, make sure you have the latest version of iTunes to speed up the process.

There are other methods which include actually opening up your Apple iPod but I won’t go there as I’m not fully aware of what you should do so I recommend reading this CrunchGear Article to learn more and let me say; if you have to resort to this, I am praying for you.

My suggestion though is if you the two options above don’t work (i.e. reseting your iPod on iTunes or charging it for a while) then you should really consider sending it to Apple or wherever you bought it so they can take care of it. Hopefully it won’t too long to get your baby back.

Popularity: 5% [?]

When I first heard about this update through my friend, I questioned it because why would Apple jump from firmware 2.2.1 all the way to 3.0? Well in fact, when I looked it up, it was dead true. Now I’m here to tell you about it. Apple is planning a major revamp of its OS which includes many cool things that might just blow your mind when you put it all together. There are loads of features, 100 last time I counted but these are the ones that I decided to highlight.

iPhone 3.0 Software

Push Technology

Apple was late to the push technology game and so when it released it, it basically killed the battery life. Now, it’s reconfigured its system so that it eliminates background processes and thus improves battery life. This makes the iPhone more business friendly because it automatically updates you if you receive new mail for instance even when the application isn’t running.

Push Notification on Apple iPhone

Cut, Copy & Paste

This to me is one of the biggest improvements for the iPhone after preserving the battery. How many times have you had a URL or some sentence that you wanted to copy and paste but couldn’t? I know I have many times. Now you’ll be able to use it with text messaging and even in Web pages and photos from the camera album. With this feature, you’ll be able to move the copy points and shake to undo. Now why did it take so long to do something so simple? My take is that Apple as we know them likes to control as much as possible which is why they delete apps with no warning. There excuse is that they wanted to deal with the security issue and make it work well with the touch screen.

Undo Paste on Apple iPhone

Real GPS Capabilities

Now you’ll be able to get applications that will have turn-by-turn directions making it a fully capable GPS with the free upgrade for iPhone users. The bad thing is because of licensing issues, the Google Maps app will not be used in conjuction with the GPS so developers will need to get their own maps which leads to the fact that these applications will probably cost users money.

Peer to Peer Connectivity

This is big as well for me at least because I remember I could play Worms on my Sony Ericsson phone with my friend who used to have a Sony Ericsson phone and it’d be great. We’d be sitting like 5m apart and be playing against each other. I was totally surprised to find that the iPod or iPhone could not do this. I’m an iPod Touch user and I was delighted to hear that the Apple iPod Touch does in fact have Bluetooth but Apple kept it locked. Now with this update, both the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch will have Bluetooth so you’ll be able to use this feature. Apple will build upon the original framework of the iPhone Bluetooth system and unlock the iPod Touch system. On top of that, Apple will have add onto the peer to peer system by putting in “in-game voice communication”.

Spotlight

This isn’t huge but it’s still nice. Before you could only search one area of your iPod/iPhone, but now Apple has designed this nice feature that will allow you to search everything at once including mail, iPod library, notes, contacts and calendar. What Apple has done is unique in my mind because it’s very easy to access this feature. Go the home screen (which you can do by clicking the home button anytime) and swipe left and then search away.

Landscape Keyboard

You may ask, we already have this? Well you are technically right but what about when you’re in an app such as Mail? In that situation you can only use the portrait keyboard which can get tiring. The landscape keyboard will now be accessible in any app which to me is long overdue. If you don’t know already, the landscape keyboard has larger buttons, more buttons and the buttons are more spaced out.

Landscape Keyboard

Multimedia Messaging

This is such a basic feature yet it was not apparent to Apple to include it on the iPhone. Many of the basic cell phones have it yet one of the most sophisticated phones doesn’t (most sophisticated can be argued). If you bought the basic Apple iPhone, then you’ll be out of luck since it does not carry the required radio to run MMS on it.

Upgraded Bluetooth

If you own the newer version of the Apple iPhone you’ll now have the opportunity to buy wireless headphones/earphones to use with the upgraded bluetooth. Listening to music with Apple’s version of bluetooth headphones may be closer than you think.

Conclusion

The strange thing about this software is that for the people that would want it the most, it costs $0, or free, whichever way you flip it. For the people who might not need it and has less benefit, the Apple iPod Touch users, it costs $9.95 which makes me wonder who the sales and marketing department are.

Popularity: 10% [?]

On the same day Apple released an update for iTunes, Apple releases a new iPod Shuffle that has everyone talking, including the iPod Shuffle itself. The new Apple iPod Shuffle, scheduled to be released on April 3, 2009 has revolutionized the sub-$100 mp3 market, once again. Not only does it talk with its feature called VoiceOver, but it also is much smaller with a size of 1.8″ by 0.3″. This is about half the size of the previous generation, and that was small, but it is also smaller than a key! There are no controls on the actual device as they have been moved to earphone cord. The 4GB version, which can hold 1000 songs is available at a price of $79 USD or $99 CDN with two colours, black and silver. For some reason they’re phasing out the 2GB version, and keeping the 1GB. If anybody can explain this to me, be my guest. 

New Apple iPod Shuffle

The new iPod Shuffle has some things that might shake your head, but that might just be because your listening to your tunes with it. In any case, I’ve spotted some flaws with it. First off, the headphones with VoiceOver are great but what happens if you lose it or break it. Then you’ll have to shell out another $50 for the earphones themselves and that’s about half the cost of the mp3 player. It’s almost like buying a printer and paying for an ink cartridge. Another small thing is the lack of colour in the lineup. Only silver and black Apple? Come on now. To coincide better with the Nano lineup, I think it’d be better if they released the same colours so one sibling who is older can have a Nano and the younger sibling can have a Shuffle in the same colour. Last but not least, is the fact that the controls are on the headphones so you have zero flexibility in respect to changing headphones (as they fall out of my ear) and if you are using it while running or it’s cold, some people like to loop their headphones under their clothes and then you have a problem with changing tracks. 

With all it’s problems, comes benefits, definitely, in my opinion, outweighing the drawbacks. Previously you could not communicate with the Shuffle because the lack of a screen, but now it’s communicating with you, giving you an update when your battery needs charging or if you want the song/artist name, you can press a button and as the music volume dips, the iPod will tell you. On the new Shuffle, there is now the ability to have multiple playlists with the addition of VoiceOver. There are also 3 different modes of listening to your music, shuffle (if it didn’t have this feature, what would they call it?),  straight, and just regular.

Conclusion

This is without any doubt in my mind that this is the best Apple iPod Shuffle to date. Who knows what they’ll think of next. My hope would be a way to call someone. But that’s just a wish, first they’ll have to do it on the Nano. What’s your wish?

Popularity: 7% [?]

I just got my hands on a new portable video camcorder called the Flip Video Ultra Series, made by Pure Digital. First off, I’ve got to say that it’s got some slick packaging—even in the interior; it definitely hyped up my enthusiasm for this product. One thing that struck me as a huge plus to this camcorder was its compact design compared to the heavy, chunky one we have that lasts only 30 minutes with the LCD screen out. This one could fit in your back pocket and be thrown around, though I would not recommend the latter.

Design

Without a doubt, this compact camcorder is not up to Sony standards—not even close. Everything is basically plastic and even the buttons look cheap. The buttons are easy to press and are placed where it makes sense. It’s simple enough, though, and the colour scheme is ultra modern. It has a nice curved shape that fits the palm of your hands well. The exterior case is easily worn down and I can already see marks within the first week and I’ve barely touched it.

Package Contents

This compact camcorder is unique because you can always attach it to a computer with the included USB stick that is neatly attached to its side. It also does not require any software as the software is built-in to the camcorder. The one thing that wasn’t up to standards was the mechanism that released the USB stick. On my first try I was able to easily release it, but the problem came about when I tried to put it back in. Seems that I didn’t pull the latch down far enough so it just snapped back making it impossible to flip the USB back in. After further trial and error, I finally figured that I had to pull the latch down to the bottom where it would sit there until the USB stick was pushed and the latch would close shut. 

USB Stick

Another thing that struck me as interesting, was the  “Lock/Unlock” switch located at the bottom of the camcorder. At first I thought it would apply to all the buttons, which seemed logical. I tested it, and it turns out that it only applies to the battery case. Now this is another cool thing about the Flip Video Ultra Series, the battery case placement. It took me a good five minutes to figure out where the battery case was and I had to resort to looking at the instructions to figure out where it was. This is a perfect discrete place to put it and makes the design even better. 

Battery Case

Last, but definitely not least is the power button. With all the stupid things I’ve done with this camcorder, I feel even more stupid writing this, but hey, I’m an honest guy, so what the heck. To me, I think it would be common sense to put a symbol beside the power button to tell users that it is in-fact the power button. When I first pulled down on it, I figured it would do something else, but to my surprise, it turned it on. The great thing is that it takes no less than two seconds to turn on. 

Video Quality

This is where the good times stop in my mind. In all fairness, I would be totally surprised if this machine was built for quality videos. It comes nowhere near that even at close range. If you are more than 5 metres away from the point of interest, forget about shooting the video. This camcorder is made for close ups like birthday parties or stuff like that. Please, do not expect to get good family vacation videos out of this while you are visiting some gorgeous landmark in Europe. The screen is small, but it does its job: fair enough. It displays only the needed information such as the amount of time left and the status of the camcorder. At my company meeting for Junior Achievement, we put together some videos of us packaging our product, from  Xpress’d so if you’d like to take a look at the actual quality then be my guest. If you’d like to buy a customized white t-shirt then just leave a comment or head to the website above.

Find more videos like this on Xpress’d

Don’t expect to get great zoom either because it only has a 2x digital zoom, which is the worst of the two (digital and optical). Optical is by far the best, and even I can notice the difference when I switch from optical to digital zoom on my digital camera. 

The Flip Video Ultra Series provides you with up to 60 minutes of video on its built-in flash memory depending on which size you get. The 1GB holds 30 minutes while the 2GB holds 60 minutes. Both versions of the Flip Video Ultra Series store the video on MPEG-4 at 30 frames per second—perfect for easy transers to your iPod. Some camcorders have the option to switch to a lower quality but I’m glad this doesn’t because the quality is poor to begin with. At least Pure Digital has improved on its last models as the memory has doubled, but the amount of video recording time has stayed the same meaning they’ve actually made the video quality better. 

Overall

Without a doubt, I can say that this product is great for spur of the moment videos that you might not have the chance to capture because you left your true, hardcore camcorder at home. The video quality is not that great but it gets the job done. It’s keeping up with trends by allowing you to upload your videos directly to AOL Video, MySpace, and of course YouTube. They even provide you with a TV connector to watch your videos instantly on your TV (although I don’t see a reason). For $149 USD, it’s a little pricey, yet not expensive enough to make it undesirable. If you feel you have anything to share and any critisicm to this post, please feel free to comment and share your thoughts. 

Package

Popularity: 14% [?]