Chris Leckness » Gadgets

Chris’ Virtual Yardsale #1

Chris — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 04:43:21 +0000

When I had a bunch of cases and accessories that I had for review on Aximsite and Mobilitysite, I would come here and have a Yard Sale Contest. What I would do was offer the items up and let readers choose what they want and comment for a chance to win the item. This was fun, but things are different these days. While 50% or more of the items I would give away were purchased by me, the rest were review or demo units. These days, I don’t have much coming in and I buy most of the things you see me use or review online. I don’t have the income from advertising to purchase these items and give them away like I used to. That said, I will be selling things more often. I will post most of these here on ChrisLeckness.com since I don’t have the time or patience to use Craigslist or Ebay.

So, what do I have up for sale today?

32 GB Zune HD - I purchased this for my flights this week despite having other Zunes. I don’t see myself using it often enough to justify hanging on to it.
AT&T Elevate 4G/LTE Hotspot (No contract) – I paid $269 cash for it last week to have back up data at CES for uploads. I can’t really see hanging on to it moving forward.
Samsung Chromebook in Arctic White (model #500C21-H01) – This is the original Samsung Chromebook that didn’t sell too well. I didn’t use this very much and never activated the 2 years of FreeVerizon data (100mb/mo).
JVC Everio HD Video Camera (model #GZ-HD300BU) – This is the camera most of my videos over the last year have been shot with. I don’t think I have ever even had it out of my house. I replaced it with a newer Sony video camera last week. Nothing is wrong with it and the only reason I replaced it is because it doesn’t have a external microphone input.
Sony Ericcson Xperia X10 (White Taylor Swift Model) – Only used it for a week.

If you are interested, I can provide photos and info on what comes with it, etc… Make offers via contact form.

My CES 2012 Wrap Up

Chris — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 06:32:19 +0000

I have skipped the last couple Consumer Electronics Shows since I stepped out of writing about mobile when I sold my websites. The show has changed a little since my last attendance. It seems to have gotten more crowded, but the quality of the show seems to have declined. More big companies seem to skip having a booth, limiting their presence to private meetings and side shows like “Digital Focus” and “Showstoppers”. I actually believe I like it better that way. I was able to see 50-60% of what I wanted to see at the two side shows.

First off, I want to thanks Xavier Lanier, Owner of Notebooks.com and GottaBeMobile.com for bringing me along for coverage of CES 2012. While I personally feel I didn’t do as much as I wanted to, I tried. I spent a great deal of time and money before the show to position myself to be able to produce more content faster while at the show. I didn’t want to have to spend my evenings uploading videos and writing. My plan was to upload videos and write as it unfolded. I failed. My laptop had troubles and my MiFi kept losing connection at 70-80% on my YouTube uploads. I was miserable. On top of my technical issues, I didn’t want to duplicate content so I didn’t waste a lot of time looking at some of the phones that others from our team were scheduled to cover. Check out this post to see what I planned to work with.

The Phones

I was able to check out most of the phones I wanted to get hands-on with though. While I didn’t take videos, I got to get familiar with them. Here are the phones I got hands-on with:

Nokia Lumia 710, 800, and 900. Check out Chuong’s Lumia 900 1st Look video.
HTC Titan II. Here’s my 1st Look Video.
Motorola Droid 4. Check out Adam’s Video.
Motorola Droid RAZR Max. Check out Adam’s Video.
Samsung Galaxy Note. Check out Adam’s Video.

I didn’t get around to checking out the LG Phones unfortunately. I skipped most of Samsung’s offerings as well.

I decided not to trek over to check out the Sony Xperia Ion either since I didn’t want to get excited about a phone that will take forever to get Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) based on my previous experiences with the Xperia line.

Nokia Lumia 900

I absolutely love the Lumia 900. Perfect screen size, fast, and the Cyan color is sexy. The camera, even though I didn’t get unload photos off of it to check out on a big screen, seems awesome. The build quality is top notch and feels very premium. The only issue I have with it is that I am no longer an AT&T customer, so I am going to have to either grab a new line on AT&T or wait for a Verizon equivelent. The Nokia Windows Phones eliminate one of the things that draws me to Android – free, quality navigation. I really do not like the implementation of Bing’s navigation. Nokia’s added navigation solution looks great.

HTC Titan II

It’s basically a rehash of the HTC Titan, but it’s got LTE. Having LTE is a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it. The battery drain on current LTE devices is massive. I love to see big speed tests but most consumers, myself included, don’t need that much data speed. The Titan II is running the same version on Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) as the Titan and looks and feels almost identical. What is different is the slight boost in battery, support for LTE and HSPA+ as a backup, and a huge boost in camera specs for the front and rear cameras. The styling of the Titan II is has changed a tad with a slight curved profile in a similar was to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

Motorola Droid 4

If any of you have been reading my ramblings for a while, you’d know that my form factor of choice for a long time was the slide out keyboard. Since screens have gotten bigger and onscreen keyboards have gotten better, I was able to leave that dying form factor behind. The original Droid was well done and offered a really slim form factor while still having a slider. The Droid 4 is super thin considering. I’d love to buy the Droid 4 and rotate between it and my Galaxy Nexus.

Motorola Droid RAZR Max

This one is dead sexy, but I’d rather have the Galaxy Nexus. The battery is massive on the RAZR Max though. It has a 3,300 mAH battery compared to the regular Droid RAZR’s 1830 mAH battery. It’s really not a RAZR at that point since the additional juice sacrifices it’s razor thin profile.

Samsung Galaxy Note

I never thought I would ever say this, but… it’s too big. It’s like having an HTC Advantage up to your ear. No, not really, but it’s close. I really don’t think I could use the Galaxy Note as a phone, a mini tablet yes… just not as a daily driver phone. It’s very nice otherwise.

The Events

I had a great time at the press events, dinners, and parties that I had a chance to attend.

The AT&T Developer Summit was top notch, but I wish the opening keynotes wasn’t 2 1/2 hours. The last 30 minutes with all the phones being announced was great. Having Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, HTC’s Peter Chou, and Nokia’s Stephen Elop all on stage was a treat.

As always, the Pepcom press event was top notch. I had a great time watching the 2nd half of the Alabama/LSU National Championship game. ROLL TIDE. Digital Focus afforded me time to play with the HTC Titan II and Nokia Lumia 900 without being beat up side the head with some rude guys massive video camera. I had an awesome time catching up with some PR folks I haven’t seen in a couple years, especially Palm reps that now represent HP.

I was very impressed with Showstoppers as well. In the past, it’s been an event that I have jumped in/out of fast but I ended up staying the entire time and still didn’t talk to everyone I wanted to. They’ve definitely stepped it up a notch.

Dinner with Microsoft arranged by Sonus Group was very nice. It was a great Italian dinner at Maggiano’s that included social conversation about Windows Phone with Greg Sullivan and Ben Rudolph from Microsoft. I walked out with an Samsung Focus Flash that I ended up giving to Adam Mills to review. We should be giving it away as a contest prize on GottaBeMobile when he’s done too.

Famous People

I had a few encounters with famous people!

I shook hands with Ludacris.
I was pushed out of the way by LL Cool J’s handlers just before I took a photo from about 2 feet away from him.
I hollered out “Roll Tide” when Andrew Luck got on stage at the Lenovo/Microsoft party, but then shook hands in a photo op with him 10 minutes later.
I was a few feet from the AWESOME Alistair Overeem on the show floor. It was uncomfortable because I had 100′s pushing behind me to get closer. I wasn’t able to get a good photo either. I will say though, he doesn’t look as big in person as he does in the octagon.

Other People

I was happy to meet my fellow staff at GBM this week. I’ve already met Xavier a couple times, but I met the rest of our team for the 1st time! KT Bradford, Chuong Nguyen, Adam Mills, and Josh Smith. I had a good time with them all.

I ran into a lot of fellow bloggers/writers that I’ve known for years and loved running into them just like old times. I met many newer folks in the industry that I have been following and conversing with on Twitter for a couple years, but never met in person too! There are too many to name, so I won’t try and risk leaving someone out.

Special shout outs to my great friends that I always love hanging out with at events… Matt Miller (middle in photo above), Mike Temporale, Johan Van Meirlo (right), Judie Lipsett, Graham Skee (left), and more.

Wrap Up

Overall I had a great time and enjoyed covering CES again. I was excited to see so many phones shown and announced at this CES, it seems like there were more than usual at a CES. I am sure there are some surprises for MWC (Mobile World Congress), but many companies laid out some love this week.

I had a great time socially, but I am very frustrated with how poorly I did at live coverage of the events. Hopefully I can redeem myself in May at CTIA in New Orleans.

I might start collecting these mini Android Collectibles!

Chris — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 02:38:29 +0000

I got a case of these in, busted them and my wife thought they were so cute that she claimed a couple.

I am reading some websites to see which that I got are rare and found that this clear blue one is.

I’ve also found that there were others released earlier which is a no brainer since the ones I got are series 02. I guess I am going to be spending money to complete this collection. Why? No idea, but I am a collector by nature. It’s in me.

A Message to LSU Fans, REMATCH ROLL TIDE!

Chris — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 17:04:14 +0000

Now here’s a video that explains this whole Alabama vs LSU thing perfectly. It’s exactly how I feel about the situation.

I will be in Vegas on January 9th, I sure hope that Pepcom has TVs running at the event I will be at during this game. If they don’t, I am going to have to skip the event which would suck considering the Pepcom event is the best 3-4 hours of CES.

Oh, another thing about Bama to share, an Alabama theme for Windows Phone 7.

Check out GottaBeMobile for how I did this. If are interested in getting a hold of this theme, just contact me.

Canon PowerShot S100 vs Canon PowerShot SX230 HS

Chris — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 00:27:48 +0000

Last month, I needed a point and shoot camera. I headed out to Best Buy and played around with all the point and shooters they had. Unfortunately for me, the Canon S100 wasn’t there yet. It was recently released and I had to travel to Birmingham to grab the one I have now.

I am not much of a photographer, but I know what I want my photos to look like and the SX230 HS wasn’t giving them to me.

Here’s a comparison of the two cameras:

Here’s a couple quick shots taken in 100% auto mode:

SX230 HS on left and S100 on right

SX230 HS on left and S100 on right

SX230 HS on left and S100 on right

The Verdict?

No verdict yet. I used the SX230 for about 1 week, but only a couple hours for the S100. The verdict is still out. From my quick tests, I don’t see a ton of difference. This was only in auto mode with no flash, so I might find a bigger difference in other modes.

Verizon Galaxy Nexus First Impressions

Chris — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 07:03:32 +0000

I am currently reviewing the Samsung Galaxy Nexus along with 5 other writers on GottaBeMobile. Yes, 6 writers from 1 site are collaborating on a review of the Verizon version of the Nexus. I actually purchased my Galaxy Nexus today rather than getting my hands on a demo later. So far, I love it. We’ve posted a good amount of goodness over on GBM so far, including Adam Mill’s First Impressions. I decided to go ahead an give my little love to the device over here for now. I have some other posts in line over there on the subject.

The Verizon Samsung Galaxy Nexus

That’s a mouthful there! The Galaxy Nexus landed in Verizon stores on December 15th, 2011 after a ton of delays. Some gave up waiting, some didn’t. The awesomeness everyone was waiting for was a phone with the newest version of Android dubbed Ice Cream Sandwich on a well built phone. It was worth the wait in my opinion!

1st Impressions

Hardware

The hardware is absolutely to die for. Perfect size for big hands like mine. It feels very similar in the hand to the HTC Titan I love so much. The weight of the device isn’t too heavy, but it’s just heavy enough that you know it’s there. The screen is so close to the edges of the device that it feels like it’s much smaller than a phone with a whopping 4.65″ screen.

The screen is 4.65″ of full HD goodness. The resolution is a true 720p (1280×720). It’s bright and very sharp. Icons and graphics are crystal clear.
The body of the Galaxy Nexus feels really solid considering the materials used to build it. The body feels plastic, but not cheap.
All the buttons are well made but I don’t care much for the placement. The volume buttons are on the left side, right where my thumb rests when I am talking on the phone. The power button is fine on the right side, but I would prefer it on the top of the unit. The sync/charge port and 3.5mm headset jack are on the bottom edge of the device.
The rear battery cover is a pretty thin plastic that feels really cheap. I hope I don’t have to take it on/off often. I am afraid it might break. The surface of this cover has a kind of non skid coating to aid in grip.

The Camera - Although it’s only a 5 megapixel camera, shoots decent photos and full HD video (1080p). See my post on GBM for some sample images and videos.

Call Quality – I had a good 20 minute phone call with Matt Miller in Seattle. He was on a GSM Galaxy Nexus and I was on the Verizon Galaxy Nexus. We both commented on how great the call clarity was. He has an issue with his speaker phone where the volume is very low but the Verizon version of the Galaxy Nexus I have is plenty loud outside, even with an air conditioner running behind me.

Device performance – No troubles at all. The only hang ups I had with the Android 4 stumbling was when I was downloading dozens of apps. Once I was done adding apps, I did a restart on the phone and ever since then, flawless. Navigating through the OS is fast and I haven’t encountered any hiccups.

Battery Life - The Galaxy Nexus battery life in my 1st day of use was rough. I went through a couple charges throughout the day. I have to give forgivnes to the Nexus though. It never left my hands for more than the time to charge up a little from the time it arrived. I was very rough on it and ran the screen brightness full blast. After realizing that the screen was eating up 62% of my charges, I changed the settings to auto-brightness. This was not enabled by default and I think it should be. Once I adjusted this setting, battery life has gotten much better.

Software

This is the bigger draw of the Galaxy Nexus. I know the hardware and big beautiful screen are desirable, but the big reason the Galaxy Nexus is flying off Verizon’s shelves is Ice Cream Sandwich. ICS aka Android 4 is the latest and greatest from Google. The Galaxy Nexus is the 1st device to run this new OS. You can also be assured that it will be the 1st to get future upgrade since it’s Google’s flagship device for ICS.

There are a ton of improvements and added features with this release, so many that I can’t list them all. You can check out another one of my posts over at GBM for some of the coolest tips and tricks I’ve discovered so far in my 1 day journey with this phone.

I’ve had a blast today taking the time to learn the new features and how to get around in ICS. I will share more about the software experience at a later date.

Conclusion

It’s way to early to form a overall, lasting opinion of the Galaxy Nexus right now. So far, I feel it’s the #1 Android Device on Earth currently. I could see a case being made for some other current Android phones like the Rezound, Droid Razr, Galaxy S II Skyrocket, and others if they were running ICS already, but they aren’t and this hardware is pretty hot. I have it neck and neck with the iPhone 4S and HTC Titan.

I plan to use this one as my DAILY DRIVER for a good amount of time.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus VS. HTC Titan

Specifications

Screen

4.65″ HD(1280 x 720) Super AMOLED
Contour Display (curved glass)

Size (mm)

67.94 X 135.5 X 9.47 (LTE)

Weight

145.5 g (5.1 OZ)

Data

LTE/CDMA
WIFI
BLUETOOTH

Memory

Storage: 32GB
Memory: 1GB RAM

Camera

5MP continuous auto focus
1.3MP Front
LED Flash
Zero shutter lag
Video recording in 1080p

Network

Varies

USB

Micro USB

Features

BATTERY: 1850mAh
OS: Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0)
CPU: 1.2 GHZ dual core processor
NOTIFICATION: 3 color LED
MICS: 2 Mics
BUTTONLESS
NFC
ACCELEROMETER
GYRO
COMPASS
PROXIMITY/LIGHT
BAROMETER

More Nexus on GBM (Links)

Here are some articles that we’ve posted at GottaBeMobile already for further reading:

Domains for Tornado Relief

Chris — Thu, 05 May 2011 17:37:13 +0000

I’m tired of sitting on these waiting for time to do something with them. Instead, I’ve decided to unload them. 100% of the sale price will go to Tuscaloosa tornado relief.

Here’s the list:
Planetfreebie.com
Tabletsite.com
WP7site.com
Wpmvp.com
Wrrx.com
Zunewiki.com
Hardresetguide.com
Slashshrug.com

Contact me for more info.

Selling my toys, 10% of sale goes to Tuscaloosa Tornado Relief

Chris — Tue, 03 May 2011 18:22:25 +0000

OK, so I have been trying to get around to selling a few toys that I don’t use as much as I should. My wife has given what she thinks we can afford to assist Tornado victims here in Tuscaloosa, so I decided to give 10% of the sale of my toys to them as well. I will donate directly to local relief organizations, not the Red Cross. Let’s say I sell my Harley for $6,000, I will buy $600 in water and other items of need and deliver them to my chosen organization.

So, what’s up for grabs?

2008 Harley Davidson Roadster XLR1200r – $6,000 (old Craigslist Posting)
Canon 7D DLSR Camera w/ 18-200 lens ($600 lens) – I bought this setup for $2000 last year with plans to use more than I have. I don’t use it at all right now. I will throw in an 8GB professional CF card too. Make offer.
Jugs Jr. Baseball/Softball Pitching Machine – $1000 (link) – Less than a year old and has spent 80% of the time in the shed. Cage was destroyed in tornado and this is the 2nd time it was damaged, this time too much to put back together. I have decided not to replace the cage and the machine is now useless to me.
COMbat Rusty Bumgardner Anti Virus Reloaded Fully Loaded: VIRSP5-RB Slow Pitch Bat - 34″/26 oz – Never used, still in plastic shrinkwrap. Planned to use this season, but decided not to play. Paid $299 from Justbats.com (link to bat) last month. Will take $250 for it.

I’ve been trying to get around to sell these items for a few weeks and now I have a reason to go forward. I can use a portion to help Tuscaloosa’s Tornado victims. I have some other items to add later, but for now, just these 3.

Please contact me via contact form, email, or if you have my number… the phone. Thanks.

Speed is in the hands of the holder!

Chris — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 04:39:17 +0000

You know that old phrase, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”? Well, with data speeds on any carrier in the US, speed is in the hands of the holder! What I mean is that some carriers are stronger, better equipped in some cities. The speeds I get in Chicago might not be the same as what you get in Atlanta and vice versa. Verizon might suck in your town, but Sprint might be awesome. I know this seems like common sense, but so many people down a carrier that might suck in their city, but that same carrier might blow away the rest in another area. For example, Verizon used to be the only 3G carrier in my town until not too long ago. AT&T got theirs 3G going and they were the 2 best until T-Mobile started kicking a little ass. Sprint, in my town, has always been weak. I don’t think Sprint sucks, they just don’t do well here. I could go with AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile here and do just fine. T-Mobile seems to have faster data speeds than AT&T here though. Anyhow, you get my point. City to City, networks change. No one carrier is awesome everywhere.

Someone over at TiPB did a speed test in Denver putting the Verizon iPhone 4 and the AT&T iPhone 4 against each other in some basic speed tests. In the browser, they seem pretty comparable, but in the speed test apps, AT&T prevailed. Weird huh? The similar results in Safari could be explained by the versions of iOS on the 2 devices. From what I understand, they aren’t the same build right now. If you do the same test in another city, you are likely to get different results. If you are looking for the best data rates in your town, the best thing to do is test them all or talk to friends who have already figured it out.

Here’s the video from TiPB for your viewing pleasure!

It really pisses me off seeing one carrier or another get hammered by someone just because they suck in their city. What carrier performs best in your city?

Windows Phone 7 Tidbits

Chris — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 05:15:18 +0000

I promised I wouldn’t be doing a lot of mobile posting here, but there are a couple things of interest to my Windows Mobile fans out there.

Yes, if you missed it, I removed myself as a Windows Phone MVP back in October 2010. Most of you already knew that, but I was surprised to learn recently that many of my friends and readers didn’t know.
Dell Venue Pro is the best Windows Phone 7 device? My buddy Matt, after struggling over getting one or not, finally got a review up and calls it the best WP7 device to date. Nice. I was seriously considering getting one myself back when they were announced, but decided to wait for more mature Windows Phone 7 offerings. When I say more mature, I am referring to the OS and not the hardware. Give me a Motorola Atrix with Windows Phone 7 (with 2-3 updates) and I’d be happy. I am confident that the little gotchas that keep me from using WP7 full time right now will be ironed out soon. In fact, I know this.
Another friend of mine, Jon Westfall, became the 2nd friend to author a Windows Phone 7 book. He recently released Windows Phone 7 Made Simple and you can grab in on Amazon for $23. The other book is one that Matt wrote a while back.

For the record, I don’t hate Windows Phone 7. It just doesn’t fit the bill for me right now. Go ahead, call me an Apple fan boy. Those that don’t know that I was a Windows Mobile guy for 10 years will laugh with me.