Limited Edition Ouya Unboxing [Kickstarter Project]

Another article featuring yet another Kickstarter project that I have backed. This time I'm talking about the Ouya, the $99 Android game system! So check out what's in the box in my brief unboxing video bellow and perhaps even order one.

So some initial thoughts on the Ouya: 

The Ouya console is very nice looking and feels sturdy. It has the necessary specs, a Tegra 3 processor, 8 GB of storage, wifi, bluetooth, ethernet, micro usb, and hdmi. The software however doesn't seem caught up to the quality of the console quite yet. There aren't that many apps/games on Ouya yet, and installing XBMC, MX Player, or other video playback apps is a bit of a pain. The other thing is it doesn't seem to have hardware acceleration working correctly. They should work to have a working video playback software installed on the device from the get go. That way the device can be used as almost a Google TV box. I have high hopes though that as developers (XBMC's team is working on a great Ouya compatible version) and the Ouya team get more time to work on the device that great things will happen.

Unified Remote - Android App Of The Week [Week-11]

Today's App is for remotely controlling every aspect of your desktop/laptop computer via your phone! This comes in handy for when you're using your computer to present a Power Point presentation, watch a movie with VLC, or just can't be right there at your computer. To set up the app is easy. Just download the client app on your phone and install the server app on your computer. You can connect via WiFi or via Bluetooth.

                 


There's a lot of things that you can do with the Unified Remote. You can open up files, kill processes, control the computer via a mouse or keyboard, and you can do even more with the paid version. I have been using this app for the past 3 weeks since I use my laptop as my primary source of media playback through my tv. I hook my laptop up to my TV and then play videos through my laptop. With the Unified Remote, I can then pause, play, load files, increase the volume, etc all without having to get up off the couch. I just have to have my phone with me!

Unified Remote

Unified Remote Full

Flickr - Android App Of The Week [Week-10]

Flickr has recently released some pretty hefty changes to their services. Something that no other image hosting service has done. They are allowing you to upload 1 terabytes of images to the cloud. While other services measure in gigabytes, they're measuring in terabytes. We're talking about being able to store over 200,000 3 MB images. They use to offer the ability for you to go back to view the most recent 200 images and to upload 300 MB worth of images each month. Now you can go back and view ALL your photos, and upload as much as you want so long as you stay within the 1 terabyte. You could embed images into blogs and you don't have to worry about bandwidth issues. Flickr is where I have been storing all my blog images for this blog. Best of all, it's been free for me.

The UI update that the flickr app got makes it in line with the looks of a modern android app. Featuring a slide out navigation drawer and other little attentions to detail, the attention to detail is a welcome addition to the flickr world. The website even got a makeover too! 

 

I highly do recommend using flickr for image storing needs as it's a very effective way to store all those personal memories and it comes with the added bonus of being able to host the images to share via blogs and websites. Flickr has really done a great job with their changes and I expect for them to be competitive again. Download the app and enjoy a terabyte of storage for all your pics!

Flickr

The HTC One and Sense TV

The HTC One has everything in it (except HTC opted to exclude the kitchen sink). Don't believe me? It even has an IR Blaster! An IR Blaster is a device that emulates an infrared remote control to autonomously control a device that is normally controlled only by remote control key presses. In laymen's terms - we're talking about a remote control built into your phone through the power button.

I was excited to hear that they added remote control capabilities into the HTC One, that way I don't need to find a remote (which is generally misplaced). I just have to know where my phone is and I always know where my HTC One is located at.

The app works really well and is very easy to pair with your TV. I've had some problems with it pairing with certain things like a digital TV converter box, and certain TVs. Another problem I have is just changing channels goes up in the channels, but doesn't go to channels that actually have shows on them. That's because for example, channel 5 has nothing on it, but 5.1 does. This probably has something to do with the transition to all digital TV or something with my Vizio TV. As HTC develops their Sense software more I'm positive the kinks will be worked out!

The UI of the app is clean and simple to use and has the necessary buttons to navigate through all the menus and channels. All you need is one device and you control all your TVs in your house! Changing to different programmed remotes is easy and has a TV guide that syncs with the cloud. Swapping back and forth between channels is extremely easy as you can just pull down the notification and you'll see recent channels that you've been on with a little thumbnail of what show is on that channel. 

You can favorite shows and get reminders for upcoming shows in BlinkFeed, which make Sense TV more than just a universal remote app. It's an entire assistant to help you watch what you want to watch. If you don't already have an HTC One, you might want to hold off on chucking all those universal remotes and replacing them with the HTC One. For HTC One owners, you really could!

Sense TV: ★★★★★★★★★☆ (9 of 10)

The HTC One and Battery Life

One of the things that worries a lot of smartphone users is how long their device will last day to day. My general rule for battery life is if it can get me through an entire day (from when I wake up to when I sleep, so about 18 hours or so), then it is enough battery life for me. I'm telling you now, don't hold off from buying the HTC One if you main or only concern is the battery life, either because you think it won't have enough or because it doesn't have a removable battery. It's not an issue for me, and I'm betting, it won't be for you. The 2,300mah capacity battery is great! You'll be missing out on beautifully crafted device full of useful features.

The one problem about rating battery life for smartphones is that every person uses their phone differently. So I may get 18 hours which is really good because I'm using my device for all sorts of things and it still gets long battery life, someone else could get 24 hours but barely be using it. I've used the HTC One S, Nexus 4, HTC Sensation, HTC One, and the LG G2x. The HTC One easily outdoes all of them in terms of battery life. It does so while also having a quad-core processor, 1080p screen, crisp boomsound, and a large 4.7" screen! So that's something to really be impressed by. I would say that the HTC One in comparison to the Nexus 4 has about 30% better battery life under my battery usage. Which is great. Also the battery goes strong for video playback. Check out this video bellow where I took the HTC One for a spin playing videos non stop until it died. For more details on the test check out my blog post about it.

Pretty good, right? People don't always use their phone for endless playback though. So moving on to some real world battery samples. I use GSam Battery Monitor to get my battery statistics. Bellow is my very first day of battery use after getting my phone. The default Sense battery information is pretty scarce so the information isn't that great, but it shows 16 hours of usage time. The picture on the right is with GSam Battery and is more useful as it shows that I had the screen on for about 2 hours 20 minutes. All of my battery tests are done with my brightness set to 50% for the majority of time, bluetooth always on (connected to my Pebble Smartwatch), GPS off, WiFi on, Auto Sync on as needed, and battery saving mode on (with only cpu power ticked).

So having 2 hours and 20 minute screen on time and still being able to have the device being used and unplugged for 26 hours is pretty good! So after over a month of data collected my average battery life is around 22 hours! This battery result is from today, but the battery usage for this particular usage cycle is pretty low because I had GPS on for awhile going around town getting information for Sensorly so I can map more T-Mobile LTE locations. But even then, I still managed to make it through the day!

The other aspect about battery life is how long does the battery take to recharge from really empty to completely full. As for the HTC One, it takes a longer than usual amount of time. It will take almost twice as long as any other phone I've owned. Around 3-4 hours for a full charge. Although the HTC One has the Snapdragon 600 processor, which supports the QuickCharge feature, but it looks like HTC opted out. One possible reason why, is because the battery is not easily replaceable and having longer charge times allows for better battery health.



Giving a clear rating for battery is hard. On one hand I get great battery life, but on the other hand I know that the battery isn't replaceable and that there are other smartphones out there with bigger capacity batteries. Take for example the Galaxy S4 and the Galaxy Note. So taking into account all that, my rounded up score is something I stand behind.


Battery Life: ★★★★★★★★★☆ (9 of 10)

Sensorly - Android App Of The Week [Week-9]

Sensorly is a user generated carrier coverage mapping app. Users collect data to provide Sensorly with coverage for different connection types (2g/3g/4g/lte/wimax/hspa+/etc) and even wifi! The app is available for iPhone's too, so iOS users can help provide information too! I started using this app recently to search for T-Mobile's newly set up LTE network in my area (Southern California) and help provide coverage details of where T-Mobile's new LTE is. The app uses GPS to be able to accurately record where you take your trips and provide the information. You can manually record data or you can have it do it passively, which will take more battery.

 

The more people that contribute the better the maps become. They aren't going to be the slightly fake maps that carriers post to make themselves look better than they are. If there's a lot of data entries you can have really precise coverage information. That information is extremely helpful for deciding which nettwork is right for you! The other thing that the app can do is speed tests.

The above screenshot is a speedtest I took on T-Mobile in my area which was just recently deployed. Not too shabby speeds. Can't wait for these speeds to be everywhere as LTE is deployed in more locations. If you're on T-Mobile or any carrier, help out and join the community to create more accurate user generated carrier coverage maps!

4G,CDMA,GSM,WIFI Coverage maps