May 1, 2013

I love accessories. I love decking out the ultimate accessory — with ultimate accessories. Again, as I like to say, it boils down to extending functionality. If I can do something reasonably well on my phone, then that is where I want to do it. Anything that helps me achieve that is of high premium.

My first thought when I got the iStabilzer Mount XL for review was “where have you been all my life?”

I was a big fan of the minimalist style; the black hard plastic worked well with the rubberized padding, with a minimum of screws at the bottom bordering the key piece that made it an adapter. Structurally, it felt quite sturdy; I’ve seen other adapters in the past, and a lot of them were clunky case contraptions that had to be made specifically for devices to account for differences in camera placement. The iStabilizer is a celebration of light utility.

It was light without being flimsy, and faced the drop tests with ease.

In practice, the mount used a nifty spring mechanism to adjust to the device and hold it securely. In my testing, it held my devices with a good deal of security without giving them a death grip that made me fear for the finish. It worked securely with standard tripods, and I wasn’t able to dislodge any piece from the other. Of course, it was invaluable at eliminating any shakiness in my videos, and even my distance snapshots were noticeably better

The true strength of this accessory, in my opinion, was the universal nature of it. It promised to work with devices ranging from a a Samsung Galaxy S3 to an Note II. In my informal testing, it worked flawlessly with a device as small as an LG Optimus S all the way to a thick-cased HTC EVO 4G LTE.

Simply put, I loved this piece. I loved that it can be used with several different devices and different tripods. I loved the lightweight design. I loved that I found it difficult to find something to dislike.

Well done.

Apr 30, 2013

My favorite technological concept? Convergence. In stark terms, I like to be as functional as possible while carrying as few devices as possible. It’s all about creating a hub of business, fun and everything in between, with my smartphone as the center.

This is one reason I found the multi-use Coda One Bluetooth Speaker so compelling. I mean, for real? This accessory promised to fill gaps with regards to mobile uses of bluetooth: car hand-free peripheral, wireless speakers and an ad-hoc handset.

Again… for real?

The review device came in an inviting package, with USB cable, clip and car lighter adapter. I really liked the build quality; I have seen folks use the term “feels good in hand” very ambiguously. Well, it made sense with the Coda One. It easily avoided being a barbell, and the gentle heft made it feel pretty, dare I say, confident. The design was pleasantly atypical, and made sense within the context of the device’s pledged goals. It was black, sleek and nice to look at, with the minimalist buttons, lighted indicators and cleverly placed ports.

Pairing to my phone was easy. My Android device easily found it, and the device announced the pairing robustly. The Multi-Function Button was a catchall function toggle of sorts, allowing me to switch modes. For the true techies, it supports Bluetooth 3.0. It did well in distance tests, and the visor clip made car testing a pleasurable breeze. Call quality was good both ways.

As a bluetooth speaker, it performed well. The output was good at short range, which made it pretty nice as a car accessory. For music, it did as well, but didn’t have the range of more expensive pieces. I’m an admittedly poor excuse for an audiophile, but I still thought the bass could have been a bit crisper. For stuff like music and podcasts, it held its own when close to me; at distance it was not as sharp.

I thought the use of the handset function was a bit gimmicky at first, but I found a major use for it: the final piece of a VOIP telephony solution for a tablet.For calls that came in while using the speakers, I simply adjusted volume and placed to my ear. Of course, the sound stream was not as direct as a “real” handset, but it did an adequate job.

All in all, the Coda Onemay not blow the roof off in any one category, but I felt its true value is in its overall utility and portability. It easily became close to indispensable, something that can be used for many things. It can be purchased on Newegg, eBay and Amazon, and moreinfo on this and other bCoda products can be found on Twitter and Facebook.

Apr 19, 2013

When we talk of Jabra, I’m sure bluetooth telephony comes to mind. Jabra has been in the wireless game for a while. Long enough to have major juice. Still, I figured that having the opportunity to review a wired headset from Jabra would still be an experience, so I jumped at it. Jabra Revo Wired Headset was supposed to deliver great sound with nice aesthetics to boot.

We’ll see.

The review piece came in a great looking, solid case with yellow and black accents. In a time when manufacturers scrimp on packaging regardless of price, it’s nice to see nice frills. It contained the headset, 3.5 mm male to male auxiliary cable, a storage bag and documentation (which included an exclusive unlock code for the Jabra Sound companion app).

The headset itself was a thing of beauty. The design angles demanded it be touched, and the greyish hues mixed well with black leather and burn orange cabling. At the risk of sounding like a lovestruck extra on Gone With the Wind, it was a sight to behold. The memory pieces on the audio outputs were indeed soft, and the padding on the headband hinted at an enviable attention to detail. The joints and extensibility were design decisions I appreciated. And it seemed tough enough; drops from about four feet didn’t faze it. I also liked the extra inlet for the new sweetheart or pesky kid brother to load up an extra headset.

But what about it’s real mission? Well, I am going to be very honest. I don’t consider myself an audiophile; I do like high end headset and speakers, and dislike warped sound. I’m a stoic guy, and am rarely prone to inappropriate public displays or inexplicable shouts of joy. I don’t fall for the hype.

The sound quality blew me away.

The sound was rich, belying the stated Dolby Digital collaboration. I thought it somehow separated the elements of the sound even while melding them together, all the while creating a hauntingly precise musical experience. It worked flawlessly with two music applications (including Google Music) and Netflix. The on-device controls worked for playing/pausing, as well as hanging up calls. The built-in microphone worked for calls, as did the volume buttons.

The Jabra Sound app was a cool extension which opened up a fairly basic music app and equalizer. Basic, because without stuff like shuffle, true music heads might sneer. It did have share functionality, so I won’t talk too much shade about it. The volume buttons did not work on my default third-party music app, but that was a minor quibble.

For a high-end piece of kit that lives up to its reputation, this headset is definitely an understated option. If wired headsets are one’s preferred option, these might do the trick. If they are not one’s preferred option, be warned: it just might be.

Apr 18, 2013

Frankly, I love what is happening in the mobile gaming space. With more powerful hardware and a dedicated corp of eager developers, the segment is booming. And why not? We manage business, control communications and so much more from our smartphones? Why shouldn’t we be able to play console-quality games on the go?

Duh.

Yes, you can get any of the dedicated gaming devices, but what’s the fun in that, especially when cell-based games sewn so much cheaper?

Enter Green Throttle Bluetooth Atlas Bluetooth Controller. Yessir.

The pair of review pieces came in a nondescript box that his the well packaged goodies inside. The boxes themselves each came stacked, weighing in with a gamepad, instructions, HDMI adapter and — this really impressed me for obvious reasons — batteries.

To be honest, I was surprised at how light the controller was. It seemed sturdy enough though, surviving two drop tests on hardwood without any discernable damage.

To get the controllers up and running, I had to download the companion app Arena, which not only streamlined the pairing prices, but collated compatible games very nicely. Pairing was painless, and the distances allowed was equitable.

I tried the controller with several compatible games, and the performance was impressive. I didn’t detect lag, and I found the experience quite enjoyable. I thought the re-pairing process was slightly inconsistent, but I was generally back up in seconds anyway, albeit manually.

The added HDMI cables take the whole system to a whole new level by allowing for functionality with big screen TV for portable entertainment.

When it comes to handheld gaming, I liked this item enough to want to splurge on compatible titles. This testament to its efficacy also reveals my biggest quibble: I want more games! Thankfully, with available SDK and an all-call to developers to join the party, I am sure that that specific gripe will be licked soon. Customer service was topnotch in my limited interaction.

In a word? Fantastic. This is an item that is helping change the gaming paradigm, and it is always awesome when great ideas actually make it to consumers. With cost effectiveness and mobility on its side, the Arena Controller does seem like a compelling item.

Mar 14, 2013

I love my accessories. Like apps, I love anything that allows me to add functionality to my device. Thankfully, Android is in a place that with regards to the availability hardware accessories.

Unfortunately, finding device-specific pieces can be tough, as the range if specs varies widely. The market for generalized, universal aftermarket pieces is therefore quite robust. When it comes to car mounts, different wiring conventions muddy up the waters. Thus, universal mounts sometimes provide the best values. Exomount 2, from Exogear, definitely packs in utility.

First, it looked good. It came in bright white (black was the other option), with red and black accents. It looked sturdy enough, made out of hard nosed plastics, and seemed to possess a minimum of moving parts. I liked the compact feel of the item. The spring mechanism was responsive, and easily maneuverable with one hand. It used a ball joint to facilitate movement along an axis, and there were screws to adjust flexibility.

It was designed to grip multiple surfaces, and used a suction mechanism with a lock lever to effect this. In my real world tests, it worked proficiently on walls, glass and mirror. When applied diligently, it seemed to be very firm. The clip itself was strong without damaging the phone — I have seen that happen with other mounts. It worked well with three devices I tried, cased and uncased (another big test for me, as I prefer keeping my devices cased). It easily accomodated my EVO LTE (2.71 inches wide), and looked like it could EASILY do more.

The drop tests didn’t faze it. I dropped it from about 6 ft up several times, and it didn’t crack. To be fair, I didn’t pelt the ground with it, but I doubt most people will either.

The exposed spring might be an issue in the future, and I could seer where the white finish could get a bit dingy, but for the present, it was hard to focus on probabilities. It looked and felt quite good.

The universal car mount from Exogear was a fun, functional piece of kit that showed versatility and durability.

Jan 22, 2013

Android’s gamepad support is something that makes gaming on the platform different; while it’s not a very widely used option as developers still design for touch screens, it exists as an option. However, few actual pieces of hardware are designed for it, as most people just jerry-rig up an Xbox 360 controller to their tablet or phone. This is where Nyko’s PlayPad shows promise: it’s a Bluetooth gamepad available in a miniature version that’s great for traveling, or a full-size Pro version. I picked up the Mini version, and what I found was a great idea that was sadly lacking.

Now, one of the more exciting features of the Nyko PlayPad was its announced functionality to be able to map touch controls to the various gamepad buttons. Well, that’s not quite available yet. Nyko says it’s forthcoming, and its Nyko Playground software is still in beta. There’s functionality to theoretically remap keyboard presses to gamepad buttons, but the controller has to be synced though their app. Good luck with that, as it is practically impossible to get it set up through the app itself on Android 4.2 – if an update ever comes out to make the app actually work on one of the most popular Android devices out there, we’ll say something because otherwise a lot of the value of this controller is lost by not having this ability. It does work as intended on the Motorola Xoom, which runs 4.1, and Sonic CD worked great with it.There are third-party tools to do similar things, but they generally require rooting. In short, this is not a cool hackery tool, it’s just a Bluetooth gamepad.

So, just as a Bluetooth gamepad, how does it function? It’s passable. Getting it synced in gamepad mode is an absolute nightmare on the Nexus 7 on Android 4.2 – I found that it was easiest to sync it up in iCade mode (which emulates a keyboard, designed for iOS usage, though Chrono and Cash supports this on Android), then switch over to the gamepad mode. I think. Once it’s synced up, it works fine. For games that use all-digital controls (Orangepixel’s whole library is perfect for testing), it’s fine, though the button assignments are very strange – it feels like Y is one of the main action buttons for whatever reason. It’s not the same as an Xbox 360 controller, that’s for sure. The iCade layout is wonky as well. This is all based off of an off-the-shelf retail unit, as well.

The analog joysticks are not clickable, so there’s fewer action buttons (an issue that pops up in Dead Trigger), and they’re the sliding kind of joysticks made famous by the PSP, so they’re functional, but not exactly ideal for 3D games. The PlayPad Pro, by comparison, has more traditional analog sticks, so it may work better for first-person shooters and the like (try Madfinger’s titles, as they generally contain controller support). The controller can also act as a mouse for touchscreen games or just for remote control, but with these joysticks, it’s far from ideal. All the buttons, including the digital face buttons, digital shoulder buttons and analog triggers, all work well.

While I really like the idea of this compact, rechargeable, and versatile controller, its many strange quirks in functionality keep it from being a high recommendation. Its wide availability (GameStop carries the controller) may make it a top choice for those hunting down an Android gamepad. Just go in with low expectations.

Oct 12, 2012

Phorus promised an equivalent to AirPlay for wireless sound playback for Android back at CES 2012, and it’s finally a reality. The Phorus Play-Fi PS1 Speaker, originally known as the Phorus PlayCast, is starting to make its way out to the world. Phorus sent us a review unit to test out its functionality.

What the device does is to play music wirelessly, primarily over wifi, though there’s also Bluetooth and a 3.5 mm line-in jack to aid in the process. It currently supports just Android for its Play-Fi app, available from Google Play.

Setting up via wifi requires an Android device on the same network; launch the Play-Fi app downloaded from Google Play, choose the Play-Fi that needs to be set up, choose the wireless network it should be connected to, and then put in that wireless network’s password. The device will connect to a temporary network created by the Play-Fi, which will then connect to that network automatically from now on. Resetting to another network is easy, just hold down the wifi button on the bottom until it beeps twice. The lights on the buttons are covered when pressing them, so it can be hard to tell just based on that action alone when the light is going off.

Once the Play-Fi is set up, it can be named, which is important because the Play-Fi app supports multiple Play-Fi Speakers, making it possible to set up a whole home network with Play-Fi Speakers. Choose the speaker to use, and then select what kind of audio to play: Pandora, from media servers, and from the device itself. The app’s built-in Pandora works really well; it’s possible to log in and play music from saved stations, the quality is great and overall it’s just a good experience that shows the potential of the whole ecosystem. Playing music off of the device works too, though some files may be unsupported. DLNA media server functionality requires good server software, which can be hard to find. I was unable to get it working with my Mac.

The Play-Fi Speaker is really convenient; wifi music streaming works well and there’s no seeming audio loss versus a wired connection, perhaps because the device is decoding and playing back the music directly. Whatever trick it’s doing, it’s working well and is the best way to use the Play-Fi Speaker. It’s almost as if it was made to work with it! There’s a cradle that can hold a phone or 7" tablet, and a USB port on the back that appears to work with charging, though my Galaxy S III recognized it as a data+charging USB connection. It comes with a pair of very short mini- and micro-USB cables, ostensibly for charging purposes, which helps prevent a tangled mess, because if someone’s buying a wireless speaker system, that’s specifically what they’re trying to avoid.

The Play-Fi Speaker itself works well. The problem is that the Play-Fi app is limited in terms of what it can play over wifi. Yes, it can play back most any common music file on a device. That’s not a problem. But let’s look at Google Play Music. It’s great for streaming songs and managing which songs are on and off the device without any hassle, but recent app updates have hidden the song files in the data partition of an Android device, making it hard for anything but the app itself to find the files. So it basically requires music to be stored on the device itself, which is often just inconvenient. Forget using Spotify or Rdio with this at the moment over wifi. The sound quality is really good, superior to many speakers that I’ve owned with noticable bass for the small package, but it wasn’t anything that made me jump out of my seat and exclaim how great the sound quality was. It’s really more about the convenience of the package and what Phorus claims to be “room-filling” sound, which for what it’s worth, it can get loud. Sound was definitely audible throughout my studio apartment, which isn’t saying much, but it will be satisfactory volume-wise for many users. The volume can be adjusted either from the Play-Fi Speaker or the app.

Ironically, the easiest way to make sure I got high-quality music playing through the Play-Fi Speaker was to plug my phone in through the auxiliary wired audio port on the back. Everything played with that. Not so convenient, but it worked. Bluetooth audio works as well, which also makes this compatible with iOS devices, but there’s a noticeable drop in sound quality, that even a non-audiophile like myself can tell the difference in. Avoid this if possible.

So, while Phorus is going after AirPlay, considering the limited utility of the Play-Fi app right now and even the availability of reverse-engineered AirPlay sources like DoubleTwist, the Phorus Play-Fi Speaker is hard to recommend unless it fits exactly into a particular use case. What really needs to come is an audio driver that would just be able to capture and play all audio over wifi to the Play-Fi, which would fill in all the gaps and make this something truly worth the cost. Phorus should open up an API for music apps and interested developers to take advantage of this hardware system.

The Phorus Play-Fi Speaker is available now for $199. The Phorus Play-Fi Receiver is available for $149; it is identical to the speaker version but requires users to plug in their own speakers.

Jul 30, 2012

Google’s first Nexus tablet, the Nexus 7, was long-rumored and much-anticipated by this writer and many others. I went crazy waiting for an early-evening UPS delivery of my Nexus 7. Now it’s here, and let me just say: this device is a well-built piece of hardware, with software that really starts to justify the Android project’s existence. Google and Asus have a device that they should be proud of, and is a fantastic 7″ tablet choice.

First off, yes, opening the box is a pain. Be ready with a good knife or sharp scissors to cut the black tape the keeps the box closed. In the box is the Nexus 7, a charger with micro-USB cable, and a product safety guide. It’s Apple-style minimalistic packaging, though everything is black rather than Apple’s traditional white. Taking it out of the box, the Nexus 7 feels absolutely amazing to hold. It’s thanks to the rubberized back that it just feels so comfortable, that it practically melts into the hand.

While it has magnets for “Smart Cover” functionality, the only other way to unlock the Nexus 7 is to use the button on the upper right side of the device. This does lead to some fumbling around when picking it up, as it’s easy to reach for a button that isn’t there. While I don’t want to root for a company to go under, RIM needs to sell their touch bezel technology from the BlackBerry Playbook to other manufacturers, if only because it would be fantastic to unlock face-button-less devices like this one.

The screen is absolutely beautiful: it has a higher pixel density than the iPad 2, and it absolutely shows. Colors are vibrant, and everything looks crystal clear. Though, the screen does seem very saturated; having it on too bright causes some eyestrain, while reducing it can make it too dim but still very “bright” – auto-brightness seems to favor making the screen very dark. As well, there appears to be a glitch either in software or hardware that causes parts of the touchscreen to randomly become unresponsive. Locking and unlocking fixes it.

Battery life is about 7 hours, give or take depending on what’s being used with the device. Given that the 7“ size affords a smaller battery than 10” tablets, it is a solid feat, and there’s no need to be paranoid about being near a charger at all times like with many Android phones. By default, the device disables wifi when the screen is off; I recommend going to the Settings and at least enabling wifi to be on when the device is charging, so that notifications can still come in.

With the Nexus 7′s limited storage options, the question has been this: is it worth going for the 8GB or 16GB version? I have to say the 16GB is the better choice, as there’s really only 5.92 GB to work with on the 8 GB version that I got, and it does feel rather limiting. The lack of an SD slot is a real shame. There’s no HDMI output at all, either. However, a USB OTG cable will work for mice, keyboards, and other USB accessories.

The interface choice was a curious one: the launcher and virtual buttons are based on the phone interface, not the tablet one, so there’s still the Android phone status bar at top, and just the back, home, and app-switching virtual buttons at the bottom. However, Gmail uses the tablet interface, and other apps seem to kind of pick and choose just which interface they wish to use.

Because the 7" screen is so big for a phone yet too small for a tablet, it leads to some awkwardness as it isn’t as easy to tap anywhere on the screen as it is with a phone. However, with 1280 resolutions becoming more standardized with phones like the Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy S III, this does mean that apps will work well enough on the 1280×800 screen, even if made for smaller phones. Many tablet-optimized apps aren’t ready for the Nexus 7, though. As well, many EA games are oddly not available for the Nexus 7 yet.

The default Jelly Bean homescreen launcher only works in portrait orientation. That choice seems designed to encourage using the Nexus 7 in portrait. While I prefer to use 10“ tablets in landscape, I like using this in portrait. Typing is easier in portrait, as the keyboard is very comfortable to use with one’s thumbs; it’s about as wide as a standard ~4” Android phone is in landscape. However, leaving a landscape app to see the device automatically shift to portrait is jarring. It feels like there should be a better way to handle this.

Sure, there are third-party launchers, but since the stock Jelly Bean experience is otherwise so clean and effective, why mess with perfection? With rooting, it’s possible to lower the PPI to something that will enable the tablet interface, and this is something power users might want to consider. I like leaving my device as pure as possible, though.

Jelly Bean is a fantastic OS, though it is mainly just advances on the foundation set down by Ice Cream Sandwich. Regardless, it absolutely shines on the Nexus 7. Google Now is useful for tracking weather, seeing sports results, and getting information based on one’s latest Google searches. It’s possible to access Google Now from anywhere by sliding upward from the Home button, and searches can be started by saying “Google” instead of tapping the microphone button on this screen. What’s creepy is that other Google searches will cause elements to appear in Google Now, even if they were made on other devices, not necessarily the Nexus 7. I started getting scores for Miami Marlins games after making a couple of searches about their GM, and after searching for AT&T once, I suddenly had directions to an AT&T store waiting for me. It is somewhat unsettling, though unwanted cards can be easily cleared.

Chrome is the default browser on the Nexus 7; the classic Android browser is now dead. Chrome is incredibly speedy and has many of the same options as the desktop version, though managing a large number of tabs is problematic, especially in portrait mode. WordPress still doesn’t quite work properly in the browser, which is just annoying.

The Nexus 7 camera is foward-facing only and isn’t perfect as there’s definitely visible noise in shots. This camera is clearly designed for video chatting, and maybe Instagram self-shots.

The Jelly Bean keyboard is Google’s best keyboard yet, and it’s great to use in portrait. Landscape is a different story, however. There’s only a full-size interface available, and it’s just awkward to use. It’s not thumb-friendly. It’s too small for proper two-handed operation either from an angle or from directly above, and the virtual buttons at the bottom mean trying to rest hands on the bottom of the device just doesn’t work out all that well.

Now, thumb keyboards do exist for Android, such as Thumb Keyboard and SwiftKey Tablet X, but the problem is that both lose the smoothness and great autocorrection that the Jelly Bean keyboard has. It’s a tradeoff that isn’t really worth making, except perhaps on a case-by-case basis, when typing in landscape for a long period of time. But even then I’d rather just type in portrait because it’s thumb-friendly anyway. This is something for Google to consider in Key Lime Pie, or whatever they call the next Android version.

The Nexus 7 is packing some powerful hardware under the hood to make the Android experience top-notch here. Thanks to Jelly Bean’s “Project Butter”, the Tegra 3 chip, and the plentiful 1 GB of RAM, this is an absurdly smooth Android experience. The sluggishness and lag that typically happen on an Android device is gone! Games, even ones like Dead Trigger which take full advantage of the hardware, run exceptionally well. This is the dream of Android tablets: a comfortable yet capable device, that can play pretty much any game on Earth. Everything I’ve tested runs well on the Nexus 7. Even the official Android Twitter app works well. I’m impressed. Well, everything except for the Facebook app, but that’s a terrible app any way.

For gaming, holding the Nexus 7 in landscape is very comfortable, thanks to the rubberized back and light weight. I do enjoy playing games on it, though there is a sort of downside to the 7“ form factor: It’s not as engrossing as the 10” size. A 10“ device lets the user get lost in what’s on their screen, oblivious to the world around them, if they so choose. The 7” size doesn’t really do this. It’s more of just a large handheld screen to use. To get that same sensation, I’d have to hold it uncomfortably close to my face.

That is why I consider the Nexus 7 in many ways to just be a great, very large phone. It’s meant to be used primarily in portrait like a phone, with occasional landscape usage. It does fit in large pockets, though it’s not going to slip in and out. I find it replacing a lot of what my iPad does, and I usually have it on my desk while on my computer, picking it up and checking it while something else is happening on my desktop. It sits in the middle of a phone’s convenience, with a tablet’s large-screen experience, while losing some of the portability of a phone and the productive utility of a tablet.

This is the thing that the Nexus 7 taught me, though: there’s a reason why Google is pushing the Play store on the Nexus 7. There’s a reason why a user’s library is on the main home screen when it is first set up. This is designed for casual use and entertainment more than as a powerful workhorse of a device. It won’t replace my iPad as my favorite tablet to work with; in fact, I typed up this review on my iPad. But, as a way to check email and Twitter, and to play games? It’s perfect. This is the first Android device where I feel like I can play games for real fun, not just as an obligation. Sure, the library of Android games is still problematic (and many games are still just second helpings from iOS) but this is the device that won me over. It also gives me hope that the Ouya might really be able to succeed because this thing is capable.

Do I recommend the Nexus 7? Yes, and I give it a very high recommendation. Do not get this expecting it as a great choice instead of a 10“ tablet like the iPad. Understand the advantages and disadvantages of the 7” size. But for the cost, the hardware is top-notch though lacking in secondary features. This is a fantastic device, and an example of why Google’s Nexus project is so full of possibility. With a device like this, Google can bring together a great hardware and software experience. It’s something that other Android devices have lacked when I’ve used them, and I am absolutely enamored with the Nexus 7.

Nov 28, 2011

I am a true-blue, dyed in the wool Apple iOS device supporter. I have had an iPhone since day one, and I own and work with iPads and Mac computers every day. But I have to tell you, right here: I am seriously, significantly impressed with Barnes and Noble’s new Android-based nook Tablet. Wow.

Opening the now-familiar nook-style packaging, I felt something I’ve only experienced with the Apple design-centric packaging before – a sense of familiarity and comfort. I’ve owned a nook since the very first eInk device they released in November of 2009, and have upgraded since then to a nook Simple Touch eInk reader. Each iteration of the nook device has been boxed in a similar solid feeling cardboard box. These boxes are easily opened, with the cord and power plug in a separate bottom section, the device itself snugly ensconced in the top. Lifting the lid on the nook Tablet was like coming home, and my inner geek squee-ed a bit.

The device itself is beautiful – looking almost exactly like last year’s nook Color (which I skipped since, well, I *have* an iPad) except the shade of grey of the frame. The screen is a long 8.1 inches by 5.0 inches, and the whole device feels solid yet intimately holdable, with a weight of 14.1 ounces and a thickness of just shy of a half an inch. At first, I thought using it in landscape orientation, especially while reading, would be awkward. After several days of comfortable before-bed reading, I can say that it excels as an e-reader in either orientation.

Speaking of reading, as a long time B&N account holder, I already have about 40 books that I’ve either purchased, sampled, or gotten for free through the in-store promotions over the last couple of years. It’s a joy to turn on the nook Tablet, log in to my B&N account, and have most of my preferences and books ready for download to this specific device. This is cloud-based heaven for book and content lovers. Even my social network preferences were filled in from the one account log in. Brilliant!

Reading books is as fantastic as ever. Tapping on words and passages brings up a host of options, including an onboard dictionary look up feature as well as an easy social network sharing ability. The LCD backlit display isn’t the way I want to read all my books all the time – I’ll save my nook Simple Touch eInk reader for that – but it’s very usable, allowing me to adjust brightness down in a dark room with a fairly low glare screen. Good stuff when I only have the one device.

But I didn’t pick this one up to be my eReader. The nook Tablet has a 1 GHz dual core processor with 1 GHz of RAM (twice that of the competing Amazon Fire). The onboard memory is 16 Gb (with an unfortunately under explained 1 Gb only reserved for user owned and ad hoc data – more on this in a tic) with an micro SD slot to expand that with up to an extra 32 Gb of storage space.

Barnes and Noble doesn’t talk up the walled memory approach it’s taking with the nook Tablet. Essentially, users have only 1G of onboard memory allowed for their own non-B&N content. The rest of the 16 G is reserved for B&N content, which will include some reported third party media partners soon, as well as their own movie rental service. Add that kind of data, as well as the larger sized magazine content already available, and that “only B&N content” section will likely fill up fast. I was initially disappointed that this was the approach, but so far have not had an issue with it, and don’t expect to.

The app store approach here is similar to Amazon’s – Barnes and Noble curates their own version of the Android app store to provide an easy of entry to neophyte potential customers. While I still plan on rooting the device at some point to make te entire Android experience available on my new tablet, I sincerely appreciate this approach when I consider my parents or other family members who might want to dip their toes into the water of downloading apps without having to manage the chaos that is the Android app marketplace. Even with my technical savvy, I have to say I enjoyed the hand-holding.

The app store on the tablet itself is well laid out. Pressing the ‘n’ button at the bottom of the device brings up the navigation buttons, which include home, library, shop, search, apps, web and settings. Tap apps and get the currently installed apps on the device. This can be laid out in two styles: a grid/bookshelf type view in either a general or alphabetized flavor and a list view with app icons to the left, descriptions to the right. At the top of any of these views, a SHOP NOW link is present. Tap it and go directly to the apps portion of the B&N online store, provided the nook is connected to the internet via WiFi. Categories are perhaps more fine grained than what I’m used to on the iTunes App Store, with each large category further refined with smaller subcategories. For example, the Education and Reference category has Children, Dictionaries, Special Education, Medical, Encyclopedias, and Legal subcats. Granted, many apps in each of the subcategories seem spurious (why is Amazing Zen Quotes in the Special Education category?), just having more specificity is truly wonderful. I look forward to more apps and better categorization in the near future.

Searching for apps is another matter, however. When searching for a specific app, I found that the results include books and magazines that match the search term as well. This is no way to run an app search. A search for ‘IM’ brought up IM+ (for $9.99 – ugh), but only after five books with the word “I’m” in the title. I’d like to see a separate search for apps that does not include books, even if the app offerings are currently slim.

Which, interestingly, does not seem to be the case. I’m tempted to say that the app store on the nook Tablet feels more populated than the Nintendo DSi online store felt when it was first launched, but I don’t have any hard numbers to back that up.

What doesn’t this tablet have? Well, a camera, 3G, GPS, or Bluetooth. That’s a lot of missing stuff to make this a full tablet experience. However, is this such a bad thing? This is a new tablet category, as can be seen with the competitor, Amazon’s Kindle Fire, which doesn’t have these things, either. No, what this new type of tablet brings to the party is a sweet little consumer level device at a great price point. What swayed me to the nook side of town was the extra & expandable storage, the fact that I am already a Barnes & Noble customer (my purchased books are now available on both my nooks and my computer), and the local presence of a B&N store in my city for warranty or other tech support. That being said, this is a fairly user friendly device – folks new to the tablet or the eReader scene will be able to use the nook Tablet right out of the box. To me, that’s a big mark in the nook Tablet’s favor.

Overall, the nook Tablet is a fine entry level device for media consumption, book reading, and basic internet functionality, like email and web surfing. It’s not an iPad killer, nor even much of a competitor. It’s in fair competition with Amazon’s Kindle Fire, and – I believe – is the better of the two devices on specs alone. Of course, not having a Fire to back that opinion up is something that I’m willing to change, if I end up with my hands on a Fire. For now, though, I’m glad for the purchase of the nook Tablet, and look forward to taking it with me to places that the iPad might be a bit of an overkill. Man, I love the future.

Aug 10, 2011

Android tablets have been something of a mythical beast, often mentioned, but rarely seen in the wild, at least as long as the iPad has been the popular tablet of choice. So most of my experience with Android tablets has been secondhand, until I recently got my hands on a Motorola Xoom Wifi tablet, running Android 3.2.

The Xoom feels about the same weight as the iPad, if not maybe slightly heavier, but the difference, if any, is such where actual measuring tools would have to be used to determine any weight difference. The hardware feels very rugged, like it could take a beating and keep on ticking. The battery life of the Xoom will depend on how much background processes will be running, and if a lot of notifications are active, but I approximate 6-8 hours of continuous usage without a charge; with occasional usage, I can go a couple days without charging the Xoom. The Xoom comes with a micro-USB cable and a separate wall charger; the cord on the wall charger is of very generous length, and using the Xoom while it is charging is very easy, unlike with the iPad’s obtrusive dock connector. The interesting element of the Motorola Xoom is that it actually has fewer buttons than the iPad, having just a lock/power button on the upper left side of the device, and volume keys.

The rear-facing camera is solid, and comes with a built-in flash. However, there is no “tap to focus” like on other Android devices, focusing only happens when the shutter key is pressed, and even then it does not provide a good preview of what the final image will look like. That’s really the problem with the camera in general; pictures are practically impossible to set up. This is a competent camera, though. A front-facing camera is available as well, though there’s no Skype available for the Xoom yet. Google Talk video support works, though.

All the ports are put in positions where they are out of the way of the hands in pretty much any orientation; the headset port is on the top, the charging ports are on the bottom of the device, and the volume keys are on the top left. If turned upside down, the volume keys are difficult to press accidentally. In portrait orientations, the ports are still well out of the way of any hand placement, though the tablet feels a bit top-loaded due to its taller aspect ratio. In landscape mode, the widescreen 1280×800 resolution of the Motorola Xoom makes it better for viewing videos, and makes it great for multi-column apps like Gmail and Twitter apps like Plume. A thumb keyboard comes highly recommended, though there isn’t one pre-installed with the Xoom.

There is the occasional slowdown while using the hardware, and the lack of any kind of default task manager makes clearing applications out of RAM a problem after a couple of days of continuous uptime. Power cycling usually solves these issues; rebooting is not available on the default software, and would likely require rooting. Still, for a device that is touted for its dual-core processor, it’s disappointing to see the slowdown that often pops up. The browser suffers from some of this occasional slowdown and lag. Flash does not come pre-installed, but can be easily downloaded and installed from the Android Market.

A comparison of the Android tablet OS compared to iPad’s iOS can be found in this The Hills Are Greener column, but the main drawback to Android 3.x is that tablet apps are harder to find. A variety of apps do work when stretched out to tablet resolution, yes, but it does lead to weirdness with the user interfaces. A lot of these apps are in the Android Market’s “featured tablet apps” section, as well!

Using the Xoom has been an entirely different experience from the iPad because of the differences. The Xoom is a great piece of hardware, and the base OS is very solid and well-designed for tablets. With more available apps on the Market, the tablet experience could improve. For those looking for an Android Tablet, the Xoom seems like a great choice, and will become something that I will regularly use, especially for productive activities, like writing and the most important activity of all: tweeting.

Jul 26, 2011

These days, I’m getting more usage out of my Droid X than ever before, and it’s all thanks to a gadget called PowerSkin — a rugged, soft-silicone casing with a built-in battery pack that keeps your phone charged while keeping it safe from abrasions and sudden impacts.

Prior to using the PowerSkin, I was getting about 10 – 12 hours of battery life before needing to scramble for a power-outlet. Depending on usage, some days I’d get much less than that. In the best usage case scenario, I was on vacation a few weeks ago, shooting pictures, texting, tweeting, making a few short phone calls, using the GPS and looking up information online. Even while using maximum power saver mode, the battery only lasted about 8 hours. That’s pretty good for how heavily I was using it, but it was still stone cold dead long before we were done having fun. With the PowerSkin, I’m certain it would have lasted much longer.

Despite its awesome power, one downside to the PowerSkin is that it’s very bulky, almost doubling the thickness of the phone while adding a little more weight. The overall width is also increased. In a way, this is a good thing, because it means the case will absorb plenty of shock energy during an impact. However, this is also an annoyance; I had a tough enough time slipping the phone in and out of my jeans’ pocket before PowerSkin; with PowerSkin, forget it. My other concern is that the lip at the top of the case doesn’t extend over the front of the phone enough to hold it in place during an impact. This is the one area where the case seems to have the least amount of grip on the phone, and while I don’t think it’ll pop out, it bothers me that it could.

Finally, it’s great that you don’t have to remove the phone to charge the PowerSkin, but I’ve discovered an odd behavior. While charging the PowerSkin with the phone inside, if the phone’s battery is low enough to draw external power, it constantly behaves as though you are inserting and removing the power cable every second. I don’t like this, at all. It seems to take much longer to charge both devices and I’m concerned that it might damage something to continually go through that cycle. As such, I’ve gotten into the habit of charging the devices separately if they are each significantly drained. Otherwise, I charge the PowerSkin with the phone inside without any problems.

Regardless of these minor issues, I find that I’m very pleased with the performance of the PowerSkin. Compared to other external power devices I’ve purchased, the PowerSkin outperforms them all. I get the security of a rugged, good looking case without the need to carry any additional peripherals. Because of that, I highly recommend the PowerSkin to anyone looking to get more use out of their phone.

For more information on the PowerSkin, and to see if one is available for your phone, simply visit Power-Skin.com.

Jul 8, 2011

Recently, I was offered the chance to try out a new product from the folks at ThinkGeek.com. It’s a small attachment for your Android or iOS device called the JOYSTICK-IT, a solid aluminum arcade stick that you can easily attach and remove by suction cup without causing any harm to your screen. It’s designed to give you more tactile control over your touch-screen based games.

The way it works is through the spongy, wire mesh at the bottom of the stick, completing the circuit between the capacitive touch-screen and your finger tips. By rocking the stick in any direction, the mesh touches those points of the screen and works just as well as if you weren’t using the stick at all. It’s a simple concept that works pretty darn well with any game that offers a directional pad/analog stick control scheme. Where the JOYSTICK-IT really shines, though, is old-school, arcade games — Pac-Man, Frogger, etc. For reviewing purposes, I used the JOYSTICK-IT with a couple of my old favorites: Meganoid, Grow and a few classic console emulators.

Even though Meganoid only offers left and right controls on the directional pad, the JOYSTICK-IT easily fits between them. Grow is a little tougher, however. It was actually a little harder to dial in the precision controls required to outmaneuver some of the faster fish. In this case, I actually preferred using the touch-screen as is, completely negating the desired effect of the JOYSTICK-IT. As for the emulators I tried, it certainly gave me back the level of control I’ve been missing, although it’s hard to say it was an improvement over more traditional, hardware based directional pads and buttons.

The main downfall of the JOYSTICK-IT is that, while the tiny suction cup has quite a bit of grip to it, it tends to pop right off if you get too aggressive with it. Because of this, it’s hard for me to recommend the JOYSTICK-IT as anything more than a gimmick, a pure novelty. You’ll also want to be wary of games with “floating” controls as they tend to center where ever the JOYSTICK-IT first touches the screen. If you can, set the controls to a permanent spot to get the most out of the JOYSTICK-IT.

At $17.99 for the mobile phone version, while the construction feels solid, the price is way too high for what little it offers. You can buy a larger version for tablets at $24.99 (or get a 2 pack for $39.99). I haven’t tried the larger version, but I can assume the larger surface area of the suction cup would make for a much better grip. Either way, it just doesn’t appear worth the money, to me.

The idea and concept behind the JOYSTICK-IT is a sound one, even if the execution leaves me a bit wanting. While it’s still attached, it’s a great little device that really gives you back that feeling of control you’ve been missing from most touch-screen based games. Everything from dual analog stick shooters to classic arcade games and emulators for console games of yesterday greatly benefit from having this little gizmo seated firmly between your fingers. But, then, as soon as you get into it, it pops right off and you’re left back at square one. My advice is to avoid the JOYSTICK-IT. Again, great idea, but not enough improvement over existing conditions to make it truly useful.

You can find the JOYSTICK-IT for iPhone/Android handsets for $17.99 by going to this page on ThinkGeek.com while the iPad/Android tablet version at $24.99 (2 pack for $39.99) is available on this page on ThinkGeek.com.