latechna » Review

iPhone 4

logtech — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 21:56:23 +0000

WWDC 2010– Apple announced their new iPhone at the recent WWDC 2010 conference. The new iPhone 4 will have a new body design and a few new hardware and software features. The design change includes a squarer rounded edges and a “stainless steal band”. There is also the new Retina display which is suppose to provide higher more crisp picture on the iphone’s screen. The phone also now has the A4 processor made by Apple which is suppose to make it much faster.

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Other more interesting features include two cameras, one in the front and one in the back. According to Apple the camera on the back will shoot 5-megapixel pictures and HD video (720 p; 30 fps) The camera also a a small LED flash. Along with the camera there is also going to be a iMovie app coming to the App Store for $4.99.

There are other smaller features that will ship with this new phone this summer, but the most talked about at the conference was, “FaceTime”. FaceTime is a video conference call on the iPhone. You will be able to call other iPhone 4 users and be able not only to talk but see. However, the app only works on Wi-Fi and you can only call other iPhone 4 customers. We will also see whether other company like Skype launch service which will do the same thing but reach to a larger connection network.\

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Over all the iPhone 4 is a nice upgraded, however it seems to be just that. If you currently own a iPhone and you are not eligible for the upgrade than you may want to take a second look before paying out. Even though it has some nice new features like FaceTime and the new camera, you will still get the new iOS4 as a iPhone 3G customer. If your in the market for a new phone it is definitely worth a look, but take a second look if you are just upgrading.

Available July 14th for $199 (16GB) and $299 (32GB)

Opera Mini iPhone/iPod Touch

logtech — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 03:49:26 +0000

Opera Mini has finally been released on the Apple iPhone and iPod touch. From the current test it is 10 times better than Safari. The first thing you will notice is speed. Pages load much faster than Safari (lifehacker chart). The speed of a loading website makes a considerable different especially when on Edge or 3G. The tab browsing on Opera is nice, it is out-of-the-way and easy to use. Page zooms are quick, however we found sometimes they were to quick. We also found there is only one zoom level, however, Opera will re size everything so you don’t have to worry about that too much. One feature which we found useful was search in the website which Safari lacks. With some test we found that Opera had some trouble with formatting pages, cutting off text, and making headers too big. However, this does not take away from the over all experience. Over all it is a speedy browser that has some issues like startup time and zoom, but is probably one of the best mobile web view experiences yet.

Update: Skyfire another mobile web browser may come out on the iPhone and iPod Touch soon; it might have flash.

sikuli

logtech — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 01:27:48 +0000

“Sikuli is a visual technology to search and automate graphical user interfaces (GUI) using images (screenshots).”-sikuli.csail.mit.edu. latechna video below.

Apple's iPad

logtech — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 02:27:37 +0000

Despite the name, Apple’s new iPad is an attractive device. In essence the tablet is a 9.7 inch iPod touch with the ability of 3G. It runs on a new version of the iPhone software and has a fairly high quality screen. It has a very nice browsing experience (except no Flash yet) and a good mail client. Viewing pictures is a clean and easy process however there is not build in camera which is a disappointment. Video including Youtube, will play in HD . The AppStore and iTunes are the same except for the addition of iBooks. iBooks is like iTiunes for books, and that’s about it. iBooks is defiantly not a new idea but will help a industry. And of course there is a maps app and a calendar app. Most apps in the store will work on the device. The most important part of this however is the price. The starting price is at $499.99. This was a lot lower than expected, however it is not surprising because if they priced it at 999 for example, it should be more like a computer which it is not (Price list below). The 3G is a lot cheaper than you get with a computer at $ 30.00 for unlimited data. The iPad is said to last 10 hours and a month on standby. Over all this is a sleek device that will create a new category that we will see change the way we do computing. However, this is probably not the device to define this new tablet category. (The iPad wifi is available in 60 days and the 3G in 90 days).

	16 GB	32 GB	64 GB
Wi-Fi	$499	$599	$699
Wi-Fi + 3G	$629	$729	$829

Hunch.com

logtech — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 02:59:51 +0000

For the last few days I have been looking at hunch.com. This online service is simple yet unique. Basically you get a account and type in the search “what I’m making a decision about”.

It will pop up relevant questions on what you were trying to deiced on. One example is what type of computer should I buy, it will ask you questions like how big, brand, price, ext. After about 10 questions it shows three results. Most questions are user generated, however it seemed to be pretty good at coming with up with good results Hunch.com offers questions on about anything, the interface is simple and easy. I just hope they are creating a mobile version, that could be useful.

Jinni review and invites

logtech — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 02:02:28 +0000

Today we reviewed Jinni.com which is a service that allows you to search movies using plain English. Take a look at our video review below. We have 5 invites to give out so if you want one leave a comment below.

Sling.com Review

logtech — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 05:14:25 +0000

I spent the past week taking a look at sling.com. Its from the makers of popular Sling box (I have one and must say I love it). Sling.com allows sling box users to view videos like on hulu, and soon short clips that people have captured using their sling boxes. You can also watch your sling box through Firefox, or Internet explorer browsers just by installing a plug-in. Everything worked very well and I did not run into any problems. The videos that you view on play in a sling.com’s own player but the content is streamed from sites like Hulu. We are hearing that sling.com will be coming out November 10, according to Techcrunch.com

Google Chrome

logtech — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 05:09:24 +0000

My first impression of Chrome is, “got to have it”. Chrome is Google’s new and first web browser. Is does not come to me as a large shock however, I found the web browser to be very nice experiments. It is clean and really, really simple to use. A lot of new browser now like Chrome and IE8, have new privacy opinion.

Mygazines.com, a Youtube or Hulu for Magazines?

logtech — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 21:19:18 +0000

Besides the odd name, mygazines.com is pretty cool. The concept is that someone scans and uploads their magazine to the site and people view it, simple. However it seems odd that people can upload these newly released magazines, like from this month, without getting in any legal problems. This almost seems impossible, that’s why I emailed the company to ask them how this is legal, I will post the response as soon as I get it. But forgetting the legal stuff this site is easy use. It is a little slow, but once you get your magazine its not that bad. There of course in this web 2.0 world, is a social part to the site. You can share articles and bring in your contacts. You do get what you get for free, some magazines are low quality, however most are not that bad. Over all its a great site, but it will be seen how long this site can last.

NBC Olympics Online Player

logtech — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:12:43 +0000

NBC Olympics