Jan 13

Google Releases Nexus One and Their Online Store

By Chase Buckner Cell Phone Reviews, Interesting Phone Stuff, Phones In The News 2 Comments »

nexus_one_list_ars-thumb-640xauto-10960Well the rumors proved true even in regards to the name of the new Google Phone – The Nexus One. Google fans are overwhelmingly excited about the Nexus one but even more excited about what the Google Store means for the new and refurbished cell phone industry.

The Nexus One is running the newest Android 2.1 software and comes with all of the awesome, pre-loaded apps like: Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube and Google Talk, and additional goodies like Maps Navigation and Google Voice. Its processor is insanely fast, it’s got a five-megapixel camera, and it shoots video as well. The Nexus one also has a really cool new feature, which is a voice-enabled keyboard for any text field. This means you don’t have to type at all anymore. Searching for a YouTube video? Just tell your phone what video you are looking for, and the Nexus One will type the search for you. It works the same for composing texts and emails. You can find more specs for the Nexus One here.

The craziest part of the Nexus One announcement is that it’s for sale at Google’s new web store as unlocked. For the first time ever in the US, you can purchase an unlocked phone from the manufacturer’s website and then pick the phone plan you want from any of the carriers that support the phone. Google’s store could seriously shake the pillars of what is the current mobile phone market in the US. It will be interesting to see how long companies like AT&T play along.

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Dec 16

Rumors of the new Google Phone Seem True

By Chase Buckner Phones In The News No Comments »

google-phone-coryobrien-twitterIt seems that the rumors about Google releasing a new Android phone (like the Motorola Droid) are true. Word on the street is that Google gave a number of its employees a sample of their new Nexus One, a name will not likely be the official name when it is released.

The Nexus One is rumored to be the first cell phone to run on Anroid 2.1. It is also supposed to be a little shallower in depth than the iPhone and posses a larger touch screen. Most exciting to me, is that it seems fairly certain that the Nexus One will be sold directly from Google as an unlocked cell phone, so you will be able to use it on T-Mobile or AT&T.

If the rumors are true, and day-by-day it seems clearer that they are, the new Google Phone should be released in January. Whether or not it will be fabled “iPhone killer” remains uncertain, but I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if anyone has a shot at taking down Apple, it’s Google.

For more on the new Google Phone, visit Engadget or The New York Times.

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Dec 15

Google Goggles Review

By Chase Buckner Cell Phone Reviews, Interesting Phone Stuff, Phones In The News 4 Comments »

goggles_landmarkGoogle never ceases to blow my mind with what we will soon be able to do from our new and refurbished cell phones. Google has recently released Google Goggles (currently available for only Android phones like the Motorola Droid), which allows you to use the camera on your cell phone to perform Google searches.

All you have to do is open Google Goggles, point at the building, book, business card, painting, etc., snap a picture, and the Google search results appear. It gets even better when you use it with local businesses. Just open Goggles, point your camera at the business and without even having to take the picture, Goggles will display the name of the business, which you can tap for more information like contact info and reviews. There is a nice little video on the Google Goggles page, where you can get more information about Goggles.

There has been some backlash about Goggles, however, as Google has been working to incorporate face recognition into Goggles. Face recognition means you could literally point your camera phone at someone walking by and if there is information about that person online, the search results for them would pop up. I admit, I’m not sure if this feature is scary or cool. Maybe scary cool.

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Nov 19

iPhone Blower App… Blows

By Chase Buckner Cell Phone Reviews No Comments »

Picture 1There are now hundreds of thousands of apps available for your new or refurbished cell phone, and we don’t normally like to write negative reviews, but this new app for the iPhone blows – both literally and figuratively. When switched on, the app makes a noise so loud that it blows air out of the bottom of the iPhone.Picture 2

The app is being advertised as wonderful because you can use it to blow out birthday candles, herbs, and refresh your skin… wow. What does it even mean to blow herbs? There’s a video of the app that does a wonderful job showing how incredibly annoying the noise that the thing makes is. Making this horrible app even worse is that it actually has a price tag.

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Nov 17

Urbanspoon App for Blackberry

By Chase Buckner Cell Phone Reviews No Comments »

urbanspoonlogoUrbanspoon’s much-loved app is now available via free download for your new or refurbished Blackberry. If you haven’t used it already on the iPhone, the Urbanspoon app is a restaurant finder with a little twist. Once set to your area (via GPS or you can just enter your zip), the app shows you three tumblers: the first shows a list of neighborhoods, the second shows types of foods, and the third shows a price scale. Once you click to spin the tumblers, the app will randomly select a restaurant.urbanspoonmainmenu

You can lock each tumbler, however, so if you are craving Chinese, just lock the type of food tumbler and the other two will spin and randomly show you different Chinese restaurants in different neighborhoods in your area. The app is really fun to use and is a great way to discover new spots to eat. When Urbanspoon lands on a restaurant, the app will show the restaurant’s info (capacity, owner, email address, inspection and permit history) as well as photos, menus, user ratings, and reviews.

You can download the Urbanspoon App at Blackberry’s Appworld for free, but be aware that it is highly addictive.

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Nov 13

Photoshop for Android Mobile Phones Review

By Chase Buckner Uncategorized 4 Comments »

Photoshop AppAdobe has recently released a free Photoshop App for mobile phones running Google’s Android software such as the new Motorola Droid. This is one of the coolest apps that I’ve seen released in a while, especially as the amount of megapixels in cell phone cameras continue to rise (the Droid comes with a legit 5 megapixel camera).

Photoshop for Android devices makes it incredibly easy to perform edits to photos on your smartphone and then upload them when you’re finished. When you open up a photo in your photo gallery, you are given the option to edit the photo. With a click, the photo opens in Photoshop, and you’re ready to start editing. At the top of the edit mode screen, there are three icons: crop, image correction and color effects, and soft focus. Under the crop icon, you can choose to crop, straighten, rotate, or flip the photo. If you click on the image correction and color effects icon, you have the ability to change the exposure, saturation, tint, or to make the photo black and white. The degree of these changes all depends on how far you slide your finger on the exposure, saturation, etc. scale. The soft focus button allows you to adjust the amount of “soft focus” that you wish to apply to the photo.Photoshop2

One of the nicest features of Photoshop for Android is that it has both an “undo” and a “redo” button, so you can make edits without fear of not being able to undo them.

Once you’ve finished editing your photos, you can upload them from your Android mobile phone directly to the Photoshop.com account, which comes free with 2GB (roughly 1,500 pictures) of storage for all Android devices. The photoshop.com account makes it easy to share photos online and is a good way to back up the photos on your mobile phone. You can even add captions before uploading. Android also has the ability to upload a large amount of photos even if the Photoshop app is not running, meaning you can be doing other things on your phone while photos are uploading to your Photoshop.com account. You can find a video demonstration of the Photoshop app for Android devices here.

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Nov 06

Motorola Android Review

By Chase Buckner Cell Phone Reviews 10 Comments »

DroidSince its recent release, the device that many are hailing as the newest “iPhone killer,” the Motorola Droid, has been getting some great reviews. If you haven’t already been moved to research the device from Motorola’s suspenseful ad-campaign for the Droid, the Droid is the newest smart phone from Motorola (on Verizion), and it is powered by Google’s Android 2.0 software. Apple’s iPhone has surely set the standard of what smart phones should do but if anyone can de-throne them, we’d put our money on Google.

The first thing that many hands on reviews of the device have reported is that it instantly feels very quick. Browsing menus and switching between applications is really fast, and it’s clear that the Android 2.0 platform is a big step up from its predecessors. In combination with its snappy processor, the Droid’s gigantic 3.7-inch display, containing over 400,000 pixels, makes web browsing easier than it has ever been. The impressive screen also displays impressive pictures from the Droids 5 mega-pixel camera, which has flash, zoom, and auto-focus. The Droid also records video of incredible quality as is shown in the review at engadget.Droid 2

Because the Droid runs Google’s Android software, it comes with Google Maps and Google’s navigation, built in and for free. The voice guided navigation looks really impressive and should definitely save you from having to buy a stand-alone navigation system. Motorola is offering a suction-cup window cradle for the Droid, which contains magnets allowing the Droid to automatically convert to Navigation Mode.

Another cool accessory for the Droid is the alarm clock cradle. When you insert the Droid into the cradle, the units combine to form a really nice looking alarm clock. If you’re like me, you use your phone as your alarm clock anyway, so this just makes it easier and more stylish.

Photo from engadget.com

Photo from engadget.com

The Droid also includes a 550MHz Texas Instruments OMAP3430 processor, separate PowerVR GPU, 256MB of RAM, CDMA Rev A., Wi-Fi, GPS, a digital magnetometer, accelerometer, proximity sensors, a 5 megapixel autofocus camera with dual-LED flash, notification LED, four touch-sensitive navigation buttons, a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard, 3.5mm headset jack, and a microUSB port.

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