Tech Watches

A little bit ago I posted about Google Glass, the first real widespread form of wearable technology that's gained any significant buzz. Today I'm going to cover a new form of wearable technology, a piece that many already own. Smart watches may seem a bit funny to think about, having a smartphone equivalent on your wrist, but there are some huge strides being made in the market that will one day make smart watches a pretty hot product.  

I'll start out with the current smart watches. In the category right now, Samsung is the leader (who would've guessed?). They have two smart watches out called the Pebble and the Gear. Both of these watches connect to the Samsung Note phone but the Pebble also connects to Apple and other Android devices. These watches basically link to your phone and will receive much the same information. For example, if you get a text these watches will notify you of it and let you read it. The Gear even allows you to respond through voice command but its not very good. Once again with the Gear you can also make calls and can operate apps, such as Snapchat Micro, which uses its tiny built in camera. Overall the Gear, though newer and somewhat more improved than the Pebble, has a ways to go before it would become a viable commodity to technology users. The second smart watch that's out and working well is the Sony Smart Watch II, obviously a very creative name. This watch performs in a mash-up of the Pebble and the Gear using a touch display but no real microphone or camera or anything.

 After reviewing what's out there its time to go to the possibilities. The world's most valuable company, Apple, is rumored to be creating a smart watch as reported by patent watchers. This is an interesting concept because historically Apple has released the right product at the right time in the right way, meaning that this could be the beginning of the era of smart watches. Other companies such as Google will invariably develop smart watches in the future as well, and they offer to be pretty cool.

Smart watches also have the potential to replace phones. If the watch has all the features of a phone and is more durable and easier to access, why not just drop the bulky piece of metal and plastic that you carry in your pocket or hand everyday? Smart watches are, in my opinion, a technology on the horizon of mass use, and I have already promised (on video) that I will be one of the first buyers of Apple's smart watch when it comes out.





The Galaxy Gear









One of the Rumored Designs of the iWatch

Phone Compare: Moto X vs. HTC One

The most popular phones out right now are the Galaxy S4, the Moto X, and the HTC One. Each phone features Android 4.2.2 Jellybean as its operating system. The Moto X and the HTC One are the most comparable to each other, so here I'll explain the small differences that differentiate the two.

For starters, the processors (controlling speed) are the same clocking in at 1.7 GHz (if that means anything to you). The two phones also have the same RAM, battery life, screen size... blah blah blah. So this comparison may have led people to believe that teh phone are the same, and to be completely honest, they're extremely similar. The main difference just from looking at it  is the composition of the body. The HTC One has an aluminum body that is very durable and very lightweight while the Moto X is a soft plastic. If you were to throw both, the HTC One would hold up better, but not by much. Another difference is that the screen resolution is slightly better on the HTC One. Now its not huge at all, we're talking 1080p vs 720p, and most who have reviewed the Moto X testify that it doesn't look like a 720.

Even as I write the differences, many may be thinking that these are basically the same phone once again, and here is where I'm going to prove you wrong. See, the real difference between the two phones is the manufacturer: HTC vs Motorola. This matters because Motorla is owned by Google, aka the maker of Android. This allows the Moto X to have a different software design than any other smartphone. Its the first phone that you can experience what is called "full Android". For one, it has an enhanced lock screen for times when you shouldn't be looking at your phone continuously. It just looks black and displays what you need to know: texts, e-mails, notifications, etc. Another really cool feature is that the phone is always listening, for example if you say "Okay Google Now..." Google Now springs up ready to take input for a reminder, date, etc. Finally for majorly cool features, the phone can actually sense when you're driving to make navigation and reading texts more road-friendly. You can have text messages spoken out loud for example so you don't have to take your eyes off the road and potentially end up in an accident.

 Overall I'd say just from the software alone and considering the fact that both phones have mostly the same hardware, that the Moto X is the phone to choose. I personally am switching in about a month and I may just write up a review after I get it.

Moto X

HTC One

Making Sight Cooler

Many people around the world have bad eyesight and need glasses for it. The only problems with the glasses of today are that the only thing that it helps with is your eyesight. Google Glass is changing that with a pretty cool piece of technology they've built. Google Glass is basically just a set of glasses with some processing power built into a small compartment on the side. This compartment then projects its operations onto the glass and what the user sees. The basic ideas that Glass started out with is using it for a GPS. Why plug in an address when you can speak "I want to go to San Francisco" and it can give you a route there. Another intended use was to be synced with a person's phone such as with smart watches. For example, say you get a text while you're at a meeting, instead of pulling out your phone and being disruptive you can just look in the corner of your glasses and look at it. This could work the same way with tweets, e-mail, and news. Those are some of its basic intended uses, but as always the people have thought of more. What Google has done is allowed developers (talented ones) to write software for apps on Glass. Some apps that have been proposed are the familiar Snapchat, which would use the built-in camera to take a picture easier than with a phone. There has also been an app that was developed that you can take any given building and redesigns the outer design with what you see. There are some pretty cool ideas out there for Glass, and unfortunately at the stage that Glass is in in development, it just can't handle a lot of things. Not to mention it’s only available by getting it especially provided to you by Google, and if it does get released publicly, it will be over $1000. Google Glass has brought up some ethical arguments as well about how integrated humans are with technology, an argument doubtlessly brought up with every new gadget, but actually a lot more relevant here. One argument is asking if anyone would be able to stay focused. If you've constantly got updates that you're looking at while driving or while at work will people ever be productive? That focus question also brings safety into it. Although apps have the potential to make the roads safer by making drivers more aware of their surroundings, it also has the potential to distract them. All in all Google Glass is a very interesting idea that with some work and some good old American ingenuity could be a very viable and useful tool for society.

The Rising Star of Samsung

I’m sure that everyone who will read this has probably heard about Samsung. Over the last 10 years Samsung has grown exponentially in their market share of the electronics industry. Many are familiar with their Galaxy smartphone line and their Smart TV’s, but what you may not know is where did they come from, and what has enabled them to get as far as they did. If you guessed that Samsung started out in electronics, you are dead wrong. Samsung started out in the 1930s as a fish company, and in the 50s grew into textiles and life insurance. The Samsung we now know was the product of a decision to switch to electronics. Samsung started out with TVs, then moved to refrigerators, computers, computer parts, smartphones, cameras… long story short there are almost nothing that uses electricity that Samsung doesn’t make. But how did they get this good at what they do? The first one is that Samsung products are very reliable. This is what drives many consumers in their direction. The reason for this reliability and also another reason why they sell so much is that they make most of their own parts. This both drives cost down and helps the computer work well. Having parts from the same company is like having a bike with parts that are made from the same company. If you have a bike and the wheels, frame, and cables are all made from a different company they might not have the exact measurements for your particular bike, making it work just a little worse. Samsung has also been smart by incorporating products they’ve already built into their new products. For example, next time you look at a Samsung product look at the screen and compare it to another. Samsung generally has very good screens due to their manufacturing of TVs, an advantage that companies like Asus or Lenovo don’t have.  All in all if you are looking at buying any electronics, Samsung is a good option. Although they’re relatively new to markets such as personal computers or cameras, Samsung tends to go all-out in a new product. Just about everything they make is a reliable, cheap, and high performance product. And to think, this top-level computer company started out as a fish company, who would’ve thought of that?

        Samsung's Smart TV

    The new internet-connected Samsung Camera

A World Using Only the Internet

If you are reading this, I assume (and dearly hope) you know how to use the world wide web. The internet was created in 1969 when computers in Stanford and UCLA were linked together, and from there has expanded to arguably be the most important invention in history. I love the internet not only for the vast amount of fun it can bring you, but also because just about anything anyone has ever known can be found on the internet. Whereas before you would have had to look something up in a book, you can just Google it. Obviously students find it incredibly helpful if they are stuck in a class, leading many to wonder; How did people graduate before 1969? So by now I think I've outlined that the internet is pretty important to me and everyone else in the world but now for the interesting part. There is strong evidence that we may be headed for a time when everything is based completely on the internet. Looking at the last few years for proof, we see the invention of cloud storage, keeping personal data in online servers, and many programs downloaded on the internet without need of a disk. Just building off of these developments, what if you had a computer that you had nothing downloaded on? What if you had a computer that had just an internet browser? All of your programs, e-mail, word processing, games, pictures, etc. were on the internet. Another recent development that will help steer the world in the direction of complete reliance on the internet is the extensiveness of wireless internet. It has become hard to find a location you go to that does not have some form of wireless internet, and its going to get harder. For example, New York City is doing a cool project that will give free public internet throughout the city. Now for the impacts of the world completely dependent on the web. For good effects, it would make things a lot simpler for everyone, and would decrease the price of computers, think of taking out the $75 cost of a large hard drive and replacing it with something for $6. The only thing I see that could be negative is that its too many people relying on one service. If it gave out, the whole world could ave the potential to shut down. Not to worry though, the internet is designed in such a way that it won't ever fully go out. I hope with this post I've opened your mind a little bit to the possibilities the internet still has, even if you think we've used it about as much as possible. As ever, things are changing to create a world we could have never imagined, and everyone will be affected by it.

The Internet: Where you can find these pictures....

...or a full account of the French Revolution

iOS vs. Android

As many of you probably know, the battle between the two major operating systems for mobile devices has been raging on since their creation. Each one boasts a series of unique benefits that could lead you to choose it. The question is: Is there really a better option? Well to start off I'll say that I'm a bit of a hypocrite. I am a big fan of Android but I currently have am iPhone running iOS. Luckily though I will be switching over soon so my morals will be all straightened out.

Comparing the two operating systems there's one thing that stands out the most; iOS just feels better, it is more fluid, more intuitive.Everything is easier to do on iOS which is the reason I got my iPhone. The unfortunate thing is that with this ease it becomes harder to do things that are outside the box. Say for example you want to change the color of your keyboard. Anybody with an iPhone, iPod, or iPad will indefinitely tell you that they either did not know it was possible, or that it took a little bit (okay, a lot) of searching. On Android, there are several free apps that directly edit your keyboard that are easy to find. The reason for this is that Android is based on Linux, which I talked about in my last post, and iOS is based on Unix. These are basically the same, but Unix is less open making it harder to change things, and that's something that's really important if you're a nerd like me.

 As far as apps go on the two systems, they have about the same apps, but another differences lie in the hardware. Going to any phone store and looking at the tags, it is apparent that Android far outnumbers iOS in the number of phones. Android is used on almost every smartphone maker's models whereas iOS is only on, of course, the iPhone. So most likely, if you're going for cost-effectiveness or for a better made phone, you'll be looking at a pool of Androids. Plus if you're an environmentalist, you might just want to stay away from Apple products...The reason for the large number of Android phones is that the maker of the Android operating system, Google, gives it out for free which is a pretty attractive prospect for phone manufacturers.

 Overall, I like Android better because you can actually do more. You're not stuck in the boundaries of the system but can change how everything looks and operates, basically you can do two things: make it look cooler and be more efficient. With the millions of iOS owners around the world, its clear that not everyone agrees with my views on phones, but I've done my best to lay out for you why my way is definitely the right one.

        S4 Android: Arguably the most technologically                 advanced phone in history

iOS Devices

What's Linux?

For many, the word Linux is a new one to them. Not many know about Linux and what it can do, or how to get it. Today I am going to explain to you what it is and what you can do to try it without the risk of screwing up your computer. To start out, I’ll briefly explain what Linux is. It is what’s called an open source operating system for a computer. The operating system of a computer is basically what you see when you turn it on, and open source means you can tinker with it pretty easily. The easiest thing to understand about Linux at first is that its logo is a penguin, so whenever you see that on a computer, you can almost always be sure you’re getting into Linux. Linux at the start does not look that different from Windows or Mac computers. The cool thing about Linux is that you can change it. For example, say you want to see what the weather is and what your calendar has on it. You can put that right on your home screen. You can even do a cool trick where you establish 4 different “workspaces” where you can flip what you see on a screen. To make this easier to understand: imagine you’re working on a paper, but also want to do some social networking, and play some minesweeper on the side. You could put Microsoft Word and the internet on one screen, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram on another, and put minesweeper and a cheat website on the other. All going at the same time, but you only see one of them at a time allowing you to focus only on whatever topic you want. Don’t worry if this is a bit confusing, the error is probably on my part, you really have to see it to fully understand it. Linux is full of things like this, you can basically make your computer show whatever you want it to and make it move around however you want it to. It really brings a new definition to “making a computer your own”. Now for how to get it. In my experience, I’ve found the easiest way to get Linux is through a free provider called Ubuntu. Basically, if you want to put Ubuntu on your computer, you’ll need a flash drive and a computer. First you need to downloadthe .iso file onto your computer. Then you need to create a bootable flash drive. Basically once you’ve gotten to this point, turn off your computer and put the flash drive in. Then turn on the computer again and go to booting options, usually by hitting escape. Then click Try Ubuntu and you’re ready to go. If you do decide to play around with this fun piece of software I hope it works well for you, and if you don’t I hope you’ve enjoyed reading!

              Ubuntu Main Screen

Switching Between Desktops