Posted in Products with tags Sena on January 3, 2015 by itnerd
Something that ended up on my desk to review is this Sena Hampton Flip SP case of the iPhone 5/5s. The case is made of leather is meant to protect your iPhone 5/5s by having a flap that covers the screen while looking stylish. It’s a case that designed to also be a wallet as it has two card slots. It’s very thin and doesn’t any bulk to the iPhone at all. But the case does extend beyond the edges of the iPhone. That way if you drop your iPhone, it will have some protection. The iPhone fits into a plastic shell that holds the phone in place, but still gives you access to all the controls and plugs as well as the speaker at the bottom of the iPhone. The flap uses a snap closure to keep the flap closed. The one I got was black, but it is also available in brown, tan, and red. The leather black version has a slightly glossy look. The overall construction is excellent. Any stitching is well done and it’s clear that a lot of time and effort went into making this case as upscale as possible.
Gripes? If you want to charge the phone or otherwise use the Lightning port, you cannot use the snap closure. It’s a minor gripe, but one worth mentioning. I found the card slots to be a bit tight which makes removing cards harder than it should be. But it is a new case and I am guessing that over time they will loosen up. One thing that I should point out is that the Sena website says that this case has three card slots. Mine has two. It seems that they’ve made a change to add a third card slot. So the one you get might be that version.
The Sena Hampton Flip SP for the iPhone 5/5s goes for $59.99 at the Apple Store. If you need a case for your iPhone 5/5s, this is a case is worth looking at.
You’re likely thinking that if I am doing a review of a movie, it’s going to be one that appeals to nerds like me. That isn’t the case. The Imitation Game is very engaging movie that will reach a variety of audiences and may even leave you in tears by the end of it.
The Imitation Game revolves around the groundbreaking computer scientist, mathematician, and and cytologist Alan Turing with Benedict Cumberbatch playing Turing in a role that I believe will earn him an Oscar nomination because of how deep and layered his performance is. You’ll watch as Turing is recruited into Britain’s top-secret Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park to do the impossible. Crack the Enigma code which Nazi Germany was using to send messages to their military assets in the field. This is where you discover how brilliant Turing was as he developed a machine to crack the code. But you’ll also discover how socially awkward he was, as well as the fact that British society pretty much destroyed his life because he was a homosexual. Something he was only recently pardoned for posthumously.
Another thing that will stand out to you is the performance of Keira Knightley who plays Joan Clarke who is someone who should be a role model for any woman who wants to get into science or technology. Turing fights to get her onto the team to crack Enigma by any means at his disposal and in return, Clarke displays undying loyalty to him. Knightley does a masterful job playing Clarke as and I suspect that she too may get an Oscar nod for this performance as she gives a very emotionally complex performance that made my wife cry when we saw the film.
In terms of historical accuracy, which is usually a big deal for me, this movie does have some misses. For example, in the movie the machine that Turing creates was called “Christopher” after a child that he went to school with whom he had a crush on. In reality, the machine was named Bombe and he wasn’t the principal designer. Another miss is the fact that Turing is portrayed as having either Autism or Asperger Syndrome and is so awkward that he is socially isolated. From all accounts, this may not be accurate as he did have close friends and while he was “odd” it is not clear if having either of the above conditions was the cause of it. Finally, the number of people working on cracking Enigma was in the thousands and not a small group of people as the movie depicts. Having said all of that, none of this detracted from my enjoyment of the movie. Also, it makes the movie far more accessible to a broader audience and not just to nerds like me who know the story of Alan Turing backwards and forwards.
The Imitation Game is in theaters now. If you want to see a movie that you will enjoy on multiple levels, this is it. I highly recommend it.
Full disclosure: Prior to using an iPhone 5 and then an iPhone 5s, I was a die hard BlackBerry user. My first one was a RIM 957 and I’ve had a succession of BlackBerry devices ending with the Torch. Then with the company, then called Research In Motion, looking like it was on death’s door, I abandoned the BlackBerry for iOS.
Fast forward to today, I have in my possession a BlackBerry Classic supplied to me by Rogers. The goal of this device is to appeal to BlackBerry users who loved BlackBerry devices such as the Curve and the Bold who will then preach the gospel of BlackBerry to their employers who will be swayed to buy BES 12 for their organizations. Personally, I think they’re on to something. Let’s start with the design. If you have seen the last BlackBerry Bold, it looks basically the same. But under the skin are some important details. For starters, it has some weight to it. Something that is missing from most smartphones that I test and something that I welcome. The back is textured, just like the BlackBerry devices of days gone by. But the back is not removable which is something that some die hard’s may freak out about. The screen (a 720×720 pixel IPS display) is bigger and touch sensitive, not to mention way better than any BlackBerry Bold that I recall. All the buttons are in the same spots that BlackBerry users expect them. That includes the ribbon of buttons above the keyboard along with the trackpad that so many BlackBerry users rely upon, but I wonder if it is extraneous in the Classic seeing as there’s a touchscreen in play. It does work and it does feel natural when editing documents. But I have to admit that the trackpad was irrelevant in any other use case. The only major change is the charging port which is now on the bottom centre. As for the keyboard, it looks and feels exactly like BlackBerry keyboards of days gone by. That’s a good thing as it will not be a factor for anyone upgrading from an older BlackBerry.
Now onto the OS. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. BlackBerry OS (version 10.3.1 in this case) is still the most intuitive mobile OS out there. Features such as the BlackBerry Hub and extremely intuitive gesture set are now joined by the BlackBerry Assistant. The latter creates a Siri like interface to do whatever you need to do via voice. BlackBerry Blend is there. If you’re not familiar with it, you should be. Simply download an app on your MacBook, Windows machine, Android and iOS tablet and once your devices are connected, you’ll be able to use them to manage and move files back and forth, send and receive messages (BBM, email and text) remotely, access your contacts and calendar and view movies stored locally on your BlackBerry. It’s just like OS X and its Continuity feature. Only it works with multiple platforms. By the way, you also get access to 300,000 native apps in the BlackBerry App Store and you can use Android apps as well along with having access to the Amazon App Store. Oh, one other thing. For those BlackBerry die hards who miss BrickBreaker in BlackBerry OS 10, it’s back and it is exactly how you remember it.
In terms of what’s under the hood, here’s what the Classic brings to the table:
1.5GHz dual-core processor
2GB RAM / 16GB internal storage that is expandable via a Micro SD card
8MP rear camera
2MP front camera
1080p video capture @ 30fps, 720p video capture @ 60fps
LTE
WiFi (b/g/n/a)
Bluetooth 4.0
Now those specs aren’t going to set the world on fire seeing as the Passport has a lot more under the hood and is way faster. But you’re likely not going to complain. In my testing, it was perfectly acceptable with the exception of a couple of minor hiccups when loading HTML5 intensive web pages. Speaking of web pages, the Classic is the first BlackBerry that I’ve encountered that doesn’t run Flash. Thus, I could not use speedtest.net to do my speed testing. Instead, I had to go to speedof.me which uses HTML5 to test the speed of your Internet connection and got 37.6 Mbps downstream and 4.73 Mbps upstream on the Rogers LTE network.
As for the camera, it’s an 8MP shooter that appears to be identical to the ones in the Z and Q series BlackBerry devices. Which means that it should be good, but not as good as the one found in the Passport. To test that, I went to Pearson Airport in Toronto to shoot planes landing. First, here’s some still pictures. Click to see them at full size:
Now here’s the video. Set it to full screen and 1080P:
One thing that I should point out is that you can take a video and shoot stills at the same time. That’s what I did in this case and it worked out very well.
Now, the battery live is one area where this phone shines. You’ll get a day and a half out of it easily. That should take away any battery anxiety that you might have. So what is this going to cost you? The BlackBerry Classic is available at Rogers for $49.99 on a two year plan or $500 outright. This is a smartphone that isn’t going to appeal to everyone. If you’ve never used a BlackBerry, this isn’t the BlackBerry for you. You should look at the Passport or one of the Q or Z series BlackBerry devices instead. If however you’ve had a Bold or a Curve and you want something similar, this is the BlackBerry for you. You will feel right at home other than the fact that you’ll have to transition to BlackBerry OS 10. And that’s not a hardship by any means. If BlackBerry had come out with this two years ago, I may not have defected to the iOS camp. Thus I think it will stop other die hard BlackBerry users from defecting from BlackBerry.
Posted in Products with tags Award, Jeep on December 14, 2014 by itnerd
This is the last award that I’ll be handing out and like the other car categories, this decision was a toss up. On one hand there’s the Mazda CX-5 GT which brought insanely great handling, a extensive suite of technology, and good fuel economy to the table. On the other hand there’s The Jeep Cherokee Limited which lives up to the Jeep heritage and brought its own array of technology to the table along with good fuel economy. In the end, I gave the nod to the Jeep Cherokee Limited. Granted, most SUVs never touch dirt in any significant way. But the Jeep Cherokee Limited will handle off road conditions with ease thanks to one of the more advanced four wheel drive systems on the market. That’s something that you’ll appreciate in other conditions such as a winter storm. Not only that, it has a ton of technology in it including ParkSense which gives the Jeep Cherokee Limited the ability to parallel and perpendicular park itself. That makes it ideal for your urban adventures in addition to your off road adventures. To top it off, it has a 9 speed transmission mated to the V6 engine to keep your fuel costs down. Something that I appreciated when I was testing it for my review last summer. To be fair the CX-5 almost pulled this one out because it quite frankly is a very good SUV that deserves a very good look if you are in the market for one. But what tipped the scales in favor of the Jeep was ParkSense and its off road capabilities. Those points made it my choice for the best SUV of 2014.
This was fun to do as it really made me think about what truly are the best products that I review. Congratulations to the winners and I look forward to doing this again next year.
I have to admit that I had a tough time choosing between the Volvo V60 R-Design and the Hyundai Genesis 5.0 Ultimate as they were both cars that impressed me. The reason why the Hyundai Genesis got the award is that you get yourself a luxury car that has excellent performance, fit and finish that is at worst equal to the cars it competes with, and a broad suite of technologies on board including a really cool way to open the trunk for a price that is thousands less than their German or Japanese competition. Now I almost gave this award to the Volvo V60 because it is an excellent alternative to an SUV that is really, really quick and handles well. Not to mention that it has a great feature set from a safety perspective. But Hyundai has managed to flip the script by coming up with a car that shows the world that luxury doesn’t have to be expensive seeing as it is exactly $62K CDN fully loaded. Quite simply, the Hyundai Genesis is a car that should make everyone else in this market rethink what a luxury car should be. As a result, it’s my pick for the best car over $40K.
Posted in Products with tags Award, Mazda on December 12, 2014 by itnerd
I really had to think about this one as I had two cars that were under $40K that really impressed me this year. The first was the Chrysler 200s which really shows how the Detroit company has evolved since their alliance with Fiat. The second is the Mazda6 GT which surprised me in a number of areas from performance to fuel economy. I could have gone either way on this one, but in the end the Mazda6 GT gets the win because Mazda managed to do what I thought was impossible. Which is to create a mid-sized car that has surprising amounts of power from its four cylinder engine, exceptional handling equal to a car several classes above it, beyond excellent fuel economy thanks to its SkyActiv technology along with i-Eloop being tossed into the mix on the GT trim level, a full suite of technology including Smart City Brake Support and Adaptive Front Lighting System and High Beam Control, while keeping the price within the reach of most of the car buying public. Now to be fair, the Chrysler 200s almost pulled this one out by having all wheel drive and a V6 that put out almost 300 horsepower which is sets it apart in this class. But the exceptional handling of the Mazda6 along with the fact that it was around $35K CDN fully loaded got it over the line first. Either car deserves a place on your shopping list, but the Mazda6 GT gets my award for best car under $40K.
Posted in Products with tags Asus, Award on December 11, 2014 by itnerd
Choosing a winner in this category was hard. Asus has a full suite of tablets that run Windows 8.1 and Android. Examples of this are the Asus Memo Pad 8 (ME181C) and the Asus VivoTab Note 8. Plus they have convertible tablet/ultraportable notebooks such as the Asus Transformer Pad TF103C (Model K010), Asus Transformer Book T100, and the Asus Transformer Book TX300. But one interesting non-Asus choice that crossed my desk was the Alcatel Onetouch Pop 8 which unlike the Asus products, serves up HSPA connectivity to go alongside WiFi connectivity. That’s a very extensive list of tablets to choose from. But at the end of the day, one tablet stood out to me. That one was the Asus Memo Pad 8 (ME181C) for the following reasons:
Of all the tablets that I reviewed this year, it had the best camera by far.
It had the best screen as it was bright and had a great viewing angles. Not to mention that at 8″, you get a bit more screen real estate to work with.
It has 10 hours of battery life which is outstanding.
It’s priced at $299 CDN which makes it more than affordable.
If you’re in the market for a tablet that doesn’t come from Apple, I’d give the Asus Memo Pad 8 (ME181C) a very good look. It’s a very deserving winner of the best tablet award.
Posted in Products with tags Award, Nomad on December 10, 2014 by itnerd
What made the NomadKey (AKA: The Nomad ChargeKey) the winner of the accessories category is the fact that this is a cable that you can carry anywhere because it is on your key chain. That makes it indispensable in my mind and you have no reason not to be able to keep your smartphone’s battery topped up. Clearly others thought the same as you could not get your hands on the NomadKey for a very long time when it first became available. Thus it made this decision a no brainer. As an aside, I also reviewed a product called the ChargeCard which is a credit card formatted version of the NomadKey. However it is no longer available which is a shame because it was just as useful. Regardless, whether you have an iPhone (in which case you can use the Lightning version), Android phone or Blackberry (in which case the Micro USB version is for you), consider adding this award winner for best accessory onto your keychain.
Not everyone needs a iPhone 6 or a Samsung Galaxy S5. Some of us simply need a basic smartphone that does everything we need it to do at a low price point. Now, it used to be if you were looking for something at the low end of the market, you’d have to live without a feature or two. However that isn’t the case Motorola Moto G LTE. Just look at this feature set:
Android OS 4.4 KitKat
1.2Ghz quad-core processor which makes this phone feel quick.
1GB of RAM
4.5-inch display (1280 x 720 resolution) which is very impressive.
5MP camera with a 1.3MP front-facing camera which does a great job of taking stills and 720p video.
8GB of internal storage
Micro SD Slot for more storage
LTE, WiFi, Bluetooth
None of that sounds entry level does it? It also for the most part did not perform like an entry level smartphone. For example, it was insanely fast on Rogers LTE network which is the last thing that I expected from an entry level smartphone. However the price both on contract ($0 at Rogers) or outright ($224.99 at Rogers) sure says entry level smartphone. That makes the Moto G LTE the perfect smartphone for someone who wants to get their child their first smartphone, or someone who needs a low cost smartphone. It’s also a deserving winner of the award for the best entry level smartphone.
The first award of the seven that I am handing out this week was very easy to come up with. The BlackBerry Passport is a unique phone that has a lot going for it. It has a wide screen that allows you to see more and do more. It’s fast as well as having phenomenal battery life. Plus it has a keyboard that doubles as a trackpad. If that’s not enough, BlackBerry Blend allows you to send and receive e-mails, text messages and BBMs on ANY platform unlike competing products from Apple. All of this conspires to make this phone the most unique phone on the market. Thus its no shock that it is getting a lot of positive attention. I have given this company its last rites on more than one occasion over the years, but no longer. Clearly BlackBerry has their mojo back and the Passport is proof of that. They’re a deserving winner of the best smartphone award.
