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% [?]

Everyone knows that we are in a recession at the moment and spending is coming to a halt. Although we are seeing signs of a climb back to prosperity, we all really need to think long and hard about our spending habits. Maybe you talk a lot on your cell phone when you’re at home, or you never look for good deals when buying stuff. It seems we all have room for improvement and I’m here to give you some tips on how you can put some extra money in your pocket.

First off I’d like to talk about one of our most prized possessions. No, not your significant other, I’m talking about your cell phone. It’s been there through thick and thin and it’s always helped you connect to your friends and loved ones. But how much is it taking from your wallet? Sometimes it seems too much. Well you have two options if this is true. If you are at the end of your contract you can look for a new, more value based contract that suits you better. Or, like me, you have a contract that you signed that isn’t going to end anytime soon and you’d like to get out of it without paying any extra fees. I have solutions to both those problems right here.

Someone Without/Almost Expiring Contract

If you have the luxury of being able to choose a brand new contract you’re in luck because right about now in Canada, more than 3 new companies are going to be offering new cellphone services such as DAVE, Public Mobile and Globalive. This will bring lower prices and different plans so personally I’d wait till they start releasing their plans which would be around the 2nd half of 2009. If you’re an eager beaver and can’t wait then there is a wonderful site dedicated to helping you find the best plan suited for you. Granted this site is for the U.S. only but it is still a good tool. First off it’s not only for cell phones but it’s also for gas and credit cards but we’ll get to that later.
The cellphone aspect of this website deals with you entering in your monthly usage by either estimating or by importing your bill. On top of this it asks for your zip code so it can find local deals. With all this information it gives you a result for the best deal in your area from all of the carriers in the United States. While BillShrink didn’t find me a good deal in the area, it doesn’t mean it won’t for you. I have an Employee Pricing Plan so I have a good deal to start with but you might not be as lucky so it’s worth a shot.

Someone Still in a Contract

This section is applicable to Canadians, Americans, Australians and the good old English. If you are someone in the unlucky position of still having a contract for a good chunk of time like me (I have 2 years left on my plan) then you have a savior. CellSwapper is a site dedicated to helping people like you and I find people who want to take over our contract in exchange for theirs. You just list your plan details and any incentives you’d like to give so people will more likely exchange plans with you and then you post. All you do is wait until a good offer comes up and you can message people and discuss ways you can work out a deal. I got an offer but turned it down because it wasn’t what I was looking for but it was a great experience and I highly recommend it.

Coupons

When shopping online it’s always good to try and get a deal when you can. That’s why I always search on Google to find any coupons that might be offered. One of the popular ones is RetailMeNot. They even have a Canadian version of RetailMeNot. There are numerous other ones including:

Current Codes
Coupon Cabin
Coupon Mom
Fat Wallet
Coupons
Coupon Code
Coupon Chief
Deal Catcher

Save on Gas

Gas is not as expensive as it was during the Summer of 2008 but it’s still up there and it’s important to be able to save every dollar that you can. That’s where GasBuddy comes in. It is a network of numerous local sites that you can go to, to look up gas prices in your area. Users update gas prices constantly so you usually get the most up to date price. If you live in Ontario, we are even more lucky because we have someone who will tell us the price of gas for the coming week at Tomorrow’s Gas Prices, Today. If you know of any other state or province that does this, please let me know.

Popularity: 6% [?]

In these times, it’s important to save money wherever possible but you still need to get out, enjoy yourself, and splurge once in a while because you deserve it. With the recession hitting us hard, it’s made businesses and it’s killed businesses. One of the types of businesses that keeps on surviving would be discount stores, but the one I’d like to focus on would be the websites that help you find deals. My brother uses this a lot because he’s young and he still has a job that pays well and he likes to travel. So he uses a variety of websites to help him find the best deal on flights and hotels. Now since he lives in the States, he lives so close to many major cities so he usually only looks for hotels. For example, I was with him over the March Break when we went to Vermont and we found a great deal on a Best Western hotel that was up to standards like most Best Western Hotels. Regular price was $110/night, we got it for $54/night and this was on the weekend as well. 

Let me take you further into this with a brief overview of a variety of websites that will help you save money too.

The whole point of this is not to find the cheapest deal out there, but to find you the best value which can mean staying at a 2 000 square foot hotel for $120/night which is peanuts if you think about it. 

Hotwire

This site is great, whether you are living in the United States of America or The Great White North (i.e. Canada). I was amazed at the great deals they are giving in Toronto, ON for next weekend that I was really tempted to buy a weekend stay at a 4-star hotel in Downtown Toronto East just for the heck of it. Now don’t go with it just yet, because there are other measures you can take to find yourself the better deal. This site offers great deals but it’s at a fixed rate.

Hotwire

TravelZoo

This site also offers fixed rates and great deals and this is where my brother booked a hotel room in downtown Boston for 50% off the normal price. This is much harder to navigate and find deals but it’s still worth a try.

Priceline

Now Priceline is where you can really save some money if you’re lucky. Right off the bat they have some decent hotel rates and they organize it in a good fashion just like Hotwire. Priceline makes its money on the regular deals it offers that are usually higher than Hotwire which is why it can offer extroadinary deals with its unique “Name Your Own Price” option.

Priceline Search

Here, deals can be made or lost. The big thing you have to remember when going down this path is you only get one shot. So don’t lowball it but make sure you also don’t put the price too high. Another drawback of this is you don’t know which hotel you are getting. All you know is the area, the amenties and the star level. To me, this is good enough but if you want an exact location because of logistic reasons, it might not be the best way to go, and you might want to pay up for that luxury. 

Priceline Name Your Own Price

So next time you are looking to go on vacation, remember these very special websites as they will always save you money.

Popularity: 6% [?]

When my friend at Cutedge went to make his first video post he had to go through many hoops to find a piece of software to record his computer screen as he went and did his tutorial. Now there is a website that will do this for free without having to download anything to your computer. The servic is called ScreenToaster. If you ask me, the second word could use some work as it doesn`t really reflect the service it offers. 

In any case though, the service is great for something that is free. It offers a full array of options including a start menu which asks you what part of the screen you`d like to record, whether you`d like audio, and whether you`d like to use your webcam. The best thing about this service is that you can go to wherever you`d like to start your recording and then press (Alt+S).

After recording you can either upload the video to their site where they have multiple categories, upload it to YouTube, or you can download it to your computer as an .avi file for later enjoyment, better editing or anything else. Below is an example of the recording abilities you can have with this service. One thing I found while using it is it slows down the computer considerably so if your comptuer is already slow, then this isn’t for you.

Popularity: 4% [?]

The big guys have flooded the industry include Canada Post, DHL, UPS, USPS, Purolator, and FedEx. They charge a hefty amount even if you use them directly and might not advertise all of their options—much like Rogers. I heard a horror story from a friend: he was getting charged $100/month with his Blackberry. His friend found a deal from Rogers that was not advertised and now he pays $60/month and gets more features. Now back to shipping. There are some websites that will help you compare different companies, with different options such as overnight or 2-day. This will help you easily save money on shipping, which is usually pretty pricey. They also make it easy find a rate, as they usually don’t initially ask for too much information. I remember that UPS had a huge form for me to fill out that would have taken at least ten minutes. 

For all of the websites I tried to ship from Markham, ON to Stamford, CT to keep the competition even as well as using the same package, a t-shirt from Xpress’d that was 200g.

ShipGooder

ShipGooder makes it pretty easy to find a rate, only asking for the start and end postal/zip code as well as the weight and number of packages. What I love about this form is that as soon as you’ve entered the postal/zip code, it will verify with you approximately what city it’s from. It’s a nice little touch that goes a long way. Once you’ve entered the information, a neat table will appear. It sorts things by cost and time frame. This is much better than other sites where they sort by companies, since it doesn’t make any sense at all if you’re just trying to save money.

One thing I dislike about ShipGooder, which also happens to be a huge damper, is the fact that when you’ve made a selection, it will take you to the respective shipping company and you’ll have to fill out the information again with more details. 

Shipping Sidekick

This site has a good tool, but it lacks in design. I initially thought the link to the shipping calculator was an ad because it was buried within more ads.

As you can see, even the link is pretty indescript, and doesn’t make you feel comfortable. The tool is not that bad and is lengthier than ShipGooder. The one problem is that it can only calculate a rate for within the U.S. but it gives you a link to a website that lets you ship internationally. For this site, to make it as accurate as possible, I chose to ship the package from Stamford, CT to Jacksonville, NC. ShippingSidekick has the same kind of setup as ShipGooder with a table to show the different rates. The difference between the two tables is ShippingSidekick colour codes the companies. One cool thing is that it sorts things by the date of delivery, though I’m not sure how accurate this is.

As you can see, it’s pretty ad heavy, which can get annoying—especially when you’re filling out the form. The great thing about this website is that there’s an option to print off the label directly on this site, as well as organize a pick-up location. The horrible thing is you’ll have to register as a user with its affiliate whom you’ll have to pay called eShipper. You’ll also have to input all the information again which is horrible.

Which Ones Better?

They have their benefits but they both make you input the information again and go through getting a new quote. It’s something so simple and should be implemented on these sites. I like the fact that ShipGooder is much simpler and works well for any country. It is quicker, cleaner, and possibly more reliable. In terms of price I believe ShipGooder wins because of the fact that ShippingSidekick package did not have to go through customs and is in US dollars. Therefore, those extra costs would probably put it over the $12.70 that ShipGooder charges.

Links

ShipGooder

ShippingSidekick

Popularity: 4% [?]

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% [?]

Digital cameras have become better quality, cheaper and with more choice, it’s sometimes hard to choose which ones right for you. But in any case, more people have digital cameras and more people have the internet which is why there are more choices to edit your photos online, and for free. There are four sites that I highly recommend. Photoshop Express, Splashup, Picnik, and Fotoflexer.

Photoshop Express

Photoshop Express gives every user a fairly familiar interface. Some of the buttons from Photoshop are here, but only the basic ones such as touchup, resize and distort. They have just added a Beta Decoration tab which is nothing special at all. The reason I do like it though, is because of its huge and clean interface as well as the ability to save your photos in a library online. The drawback is you do have to make an account although you can take a test drive to see how it works. It doesn’t provide a quick job, as you have to sign in, but it’s one of the quicker sites to use.

Splashup

This site is new to me. I came across it while doing this review. I was surprised to see it uses the same core as Photoshop Express and that’s the new Adobe AIR. This lets websites work much faster and it shows on Splashup. The great thing about Splashup is it looks like a real piece of software as it has the toolbar on top with File, Edit, and so on. It also is heavily based on Photoshop as the layout is virtually the same. An interesting fact is that it is one of the only web editors that will allow you to select a portion of the image and apply an effect. Usually you have to apply the effect on the whole image. Splashup uses layers which is very helpful when you want to do some more creative stuff. The downside is it isn’t very intuitive, much like Photoshop. 

Picnik

PC World gave Picnik top marks but I’m not a total fan. Yes I admit that it is very intuitive and fun to go on, but it doesn’t have all the features I’d like it to have for what I normally do. To me it has very basic features except for it’s resizing tool which does a great job I must say. It’s much faster that what every other editer has and it does allow you to print, unlike any online editor I’ve seen. 

Fotoflexer

I’ve saved best for last, because that’s what I do. Fotoflexer I will say right off the bat is that it is slow. But it makes up for that in a massive amount of useful tools such as it’s form of magic wand as well as other unique tools. Surprisingly, Photoshop Express and Splashup which is heavily based on Photoshop, does not have. It has 34 effects and you can go in full-screen mode. You are allowed to upload more than one image at a time which is great for editing images heavily. The tools are seperated into different categories and the only problem I found with that, is it’s hard to figure out which one a tool may be in as you can only see one category at a time. 

What to download for Editing Photos for Free on Your  Desktop

If you want something special for your desktop that you’ll always have access to, I highly recommend Paint.Net. It’s free, offers a ton of tools comparable to Photoshop and it has a much friendlier interface, almost like a Mac. To download Paint.Net go to download.com. It is compatible with Microsoft Windows Vista and you can get it for Mac.

Popularity: 7% [?]

A good friend of mine at CutEdge let me in on a secret, or I just went to his site and read a couple articles. I enjoyed them and took him up on his offerings to join Adrive and MediaMaster.

“For the couple of days I’ve been using ADrive, I’ve been able to access it 24/7, both at school when I need data and at home when I do the homework.”

When I first went to the site, I was impressed just like any new website that is recommended to me by my good friend at CutEdge and I was equally impressed by the services it offered. ADrive gives us internet users, the chance to own an account that will hold up to 50GB of files, with no fee whatsoever. With no hesitation I clicked the Join Now link and started to register. I entered my usual information but was surprised, yet relieved to learn that my password was not sufficient enough. My password had to be at least 8 characters long, contain a capital letter, and have at least 1 numerical key. Now some people might say this is a pain the butt, but most dually note that this is a hug security feature. The internet is a scary place and ADrive is doing the best to keep it as safe as possible. After registering and logging in, I browsed away, only to come back to this drab screen. I asked myself if a popup came up, but quickly discovered there was no pop-up and it was the website I had been eagerly awaiting, ADrive. The utility of this site though is great and because of its basic design, the ease of use is apparent. Most file uploaders only let you upload one file at a time, but this one let me upload about 150 photos at a rate of 45-65kb/s. It was a long wait but it didn’t slow down my computer at all.

This is a great program because as it’s slogan states, “Your Music, Anywhere”. It’s the perfect slogan as users can upload music to the website and play them from any other computer with an internet connection. Setup is easy and with no downloads necessary. They have an uploader but it works all on the internet and uploads at relatively decent speeds. By no means is it speedy as one song took around 5min to upload a 4300kb file with only 5 files set to upload. The more you add to the task, the slower it operates and slows down your computer. One thing I love about this site is the album art. Offered on iTunes and Windows Media Player, MediaMaster is by far the best at it. If it gets anything about the album wrong, you can change it, entering in a different artist, album name, and lets you select a different album art based on that info.

I noticed a few drawbacks at first to actually playing the songs. I couldn’t figure out why, when I double-clicked the track, it wouldn’t play. I am a little impatient so within a couple seconds, I double-clicked another track. Little did I know that this site is streaming the music to you and it takes a little bit of time to load it. Wait approximately 5sec and the music will start playing. Another quirk I noticed when you select an album, it shows you all the songs on that album, but bolds the one you uploaded. This can get a little annoying but gives you a quick reference to the albums track list. Finally, I must say that the experience is great and I’m extremely happy with the quality of the service. The music stream is constant and does not provide any interruptions and it does it all with a nice clean interface.

Popularity: 8% [?]