Tech news, gadget reviews and how-tos on just about anything and everything.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

T-Mobile Samsung Vibrant Review

Although Apple's new iPhone 4 is the one making waves here in the US, T-Mobile won't just let AT&T hog all the glory that's why they've released the Samsung Vibrant to compete with Apple's finest. So, can the T-Mobile Vibrant bring it? Let's find out.

Design


The T-Mobile Vibrant probably won't win in terms of design. Although this mobile phone is thin, it lacks any style that would grab anybody's attention. It's made of all plastic with silver lining around the edges. With its 4 inch screen, the phone is somewhat huge but surprisingly, it's way lighter than the iPhone 4. The phone is so light that some might mistake it for a toy. The only thing that would make this phone appeal to the fashion conscious is that it comes with two back covers although the colors available is only gray and purple. Overall, even though the phone would seem cheap with its all plastic materials, the weight of the phone is actually a plus factor for me.

Features


The T-Mobile Samsung Vibrant comes with Android 2.1 but will be upgradeable to Android 2.2 in the near future. It also comes with Samsung's touchwiz interface for Android. With the 1GHz processor, navigating Android is a breeze. Scrolling through menus is fast and responsive and Samsung's touchwiz interface made it possible for horizontal scrolling through the main menu, just like on the iPhone.

Missing HTC Sense for Android? Samsung has also made some of their widgets available for Android. Accuweather and Buddies Now are reminiscent of HTC Sense's Weather and Friend Stream widgets.

The T-Mobile Vibrant comes with Swype interface, combined that with the big screen and typing messages on this thing is a breeze and any mistypes would be very minimal.

This mobile phone comes with a 5 megapixel camera and 720p video recording. Like most mobile phone cameras, the camera on this thing is gorgeous in daylight shots but since there's no useable flash, night shots are all washed out. 720p video recording is also good but again, only in well it areas.

Perhaps what I like best about the T-Mobile Vibrant and the feature that trumps the iPhone 4's is the web browser. You can use multi-touch on the browser or tap to zoom, there's text reflow, and flash support. I really like the web browser, it's top notch.

Multimedia wise, the Samsung Vibrant delivers. It's able to play DivX videos as well as MP4, H.264 and H.263 video files. Watching the preloaded Avatar video on this thing is really enjoyable. Audio quality is good plus the Samsung music player is better than the stock Android. You can see a cover flow like interface when you hold the phone in landscape mode.

As for the Vibrant's phone functions, well, callers on the other end of the line can hear me well and voice quality over the speakers is also good. My only gripe is that the phone seems to have signal issues. Signal strength on my phone is only one bar compared when I transfer my sim card to another mobile phone which has full bars. Maybe it's because the Vibrant is trying to prioritize catching T-Mobile's 1700/2100 signals over the GSM signals.

Conclusion


Overall, I think the T-Mobile Samsung Vibrant is a good smartphone choice for T-Mobile users. Those who envy people at AT&T with their iPhone 4s can grab the Vibrant which is a really good alternative, maybe even better if you're an Android lover. The phone is pretty user friendly, as great features, and with T-Mobile's current promotion of getting another Vibrant for free, well, you can't beat good value for money.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Hollywood Hospital iPhone App Review

I've only been revently addicted to app downloading on the iTunes store. I've bookmarked some websites that alerts you when some paid apps have become temporarily free and it's thanks to one of these websites that I've downloaded Hollywood Hospital.

Hollywood Hospital is a time management game for the iPhone. All you have to do is tap on the patients and let the doctors check them without losing the patient's patience. It sounds easy enough but don't be fooled. Getting a gold star is not that easy.

There's nothing new about the gameplay exceptbsome insertion of mini games in the middle of the game. The minigames are okay if things are not hectic but I would recommend turning it off in the options menu because it can become annoying at higher levels. Once you get all gold stars, turning on the minigames can provide good replay value. The characters can move quite slowly which could be annoying, I hope they speed things up a bit with an update.

Graphics wise, Hollywood Hospital doesn't have that much to offer, it's cartoony and q bit pixely. The sounds be loud and annoying at times.

For 99 cents, Hollywood Hospital can provide you with hours of fun, really good value for money if you like time management games. I would have given this five stars but I scraped 1 star because of the bit slow gameplay.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Starcraft II Reviews on Amazon: Not very promising

Wow, I didn't know a game could cause such a buzz. I admit, Starcraft is one of the first real time strategy games I got hooked to. I played similar games such as Warcraft but I don't know, there's something about Starcraft's charm maybe that's why after 12 years, it's still one of the most popular real time strategy games.

Anyways, when I heard that Starcraft II wings of liberty will be coming out, I'm very tempted to buy one. But like any smart buyer, I immediately looked for reviews online. I was disappointed that my favorite game review site, gamespot.com doesn't have one yet but it's a good thing that Amazon.com has customer reviews.

Well, the initial reviews doesn't look promising. Two stars only and 12 out of 19 customer reviews marked it as a one. The big turn off for me is according to most of the reviews, it requires internet connection even if you only want to play the single player game. It's really a bummer. I mean, sure, most of us in the US have a broadband connection but come on, what if my internet connection is down? Whatever happened to just popping in the CD to play the game? And what if you have internet connection but it's slow? How will that affect the game?

I'm sure Starcraft II is a great game with great graphics and for those who have T1 internet connections, I'm sure they'll have no problems but for simpletons like me who just wants single player games without having to connect to the internet, maybe we'll just wait until Blizzard patches it to allow to play the game without having to connect to the internet---or maybe some clever hacker will do that in the near future even before Blizzard does.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

First batch of iPhone pre-orders sold out

If you thought of importing an unlocked iPhone 4 from the UK since pre-orders here in the US are already sold out and you don't want to wait in line, well, think again. Coz in the UK, iPhone 4 pre-orders which will be shipped by June 24th are already sold out and the next batch will get shipped by July 2nd. Ouch. In that case, you might want to get an unlocked one from the other countries where the iPhone 4 will be released come July. 


Or you could go the hard way and just wait in line on June 24th. See you there.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

iPhone 4 Pre-order starts June 15th

Apple fanboys and curious mobile phone users alike, if you want to make sure that you're one of the first persons to get their hands on Apple's newest mobile phone, the iPhone 4, then you can pre-order straight from Apple's website starting June 15th.

Why pre-order instead of just lining up? Well, based on the iPhone 4 features, it's easily one of the best, feature-packed mobile phone in the market today. Even some Apple critics are excited about the new iPhone 4 so I'll bet Apple is in for another record breaking first week of sales.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Zenonia: RPG game for iPhone and Android


Craving a final fantasy-like game on your iPhone but don't want to install an emulator? Try Zenonia. Zenonia is a classic RPG game on the iPhone. It has anime, you buy weapons, potions, magic, the only difference is that it's not a turn-based fight, you actually have to tap continuously on your screen to fight monsters. It's tiresome but fun.

The story line is intriguing enough, a Holy Knight takes finds a mysterious baby, raises it and then the knight mysteriously dies. The boy then goes on an adventure to find out who killed his father.

Zenonia has the all the elements of a good RPG game. The only problem is that if you're an avid gamer, you'll have to get used to the touchscreen controls. The touchscreen controls are also very minimal. The transparent directional buttons on the right, and the action button on the left. In the middle, you can touch the icons to activate your magic. The magic icons are small and its difficult in the middle of the fight when you have to activate a specific magic and you end up activating the other icon. Frustrating.

But all in all, Zenonia is a fun game. It's available for download for your iPhone or Android mobile phone.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Iron Man 2 Gadgets

So, I've seen the movie, lots of gadgets, explosions, in short, it was awesome. I haven't seen much product placements, at least in terms of gadgets. If you have any high res screenshots that you want me to identify, I'll try my best to identify it. Anyways, here are some of the gadgets I've seen in Iron Man 2.

Penny Pott's mobile phones

It's easy to identify mobile phones in movies, just look for who's sponsoring the film. In this case, it's LG. So, Penny Pott's mobile phone is sort of a flip landscape phone while the front looks like a regular mobile phone. I wasn't able to get a closer look but it could be any of the LG EnV mobile phones shown below.



LG EnV Touch

LG enV3


Tony Stark's phone/PDA


When Tony was trying to figure out a new element while watching his father's videos, he was busy reading a book and tapping away on his PDA or nowadays, it might be a smartphone. Now this is a bit tricky. I don't know any LG phones with a flip cover. Touchscreens with flip covers are Motorola's specialty but I don't think the latter is a sponsor on the Iron Man 2 movie. Anyways, here's the closest phones I could find that match Tony Stark's phone in Iron Man 2.




Motorola Krave ZN4




HP Jornada 928


Microsoft Surface


When Scarlett Johanssen was first seen in the movie, Tony Starks was boxing and he decided to do a research on Scarlett on a table that's also a computer. Now while this seems futuristic, Microsoft Surface has already been around and almost does the same thing.



Tony Stark's cars


Now this is easy. Tony Stark's car are easy to spot because Audi has already released a press release announcing what models were featured in the movie.



Audi R8 Spyder



Audi A8 Sedan

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Pocket Empires: MMORPG game comes to Android

If you've just purchased a new Android phone, there's no need to be envious of the 100,000 apps that the Apple iPhone is boasting about. Android is coming close, 50,000 apps and counting...plus, most of them are free. One of these free apps is Pocket Empires. 


Pocket Empires is like a mobile version of a typical MMORPG. You build cities, recruit armies, attack monsters, conquer them to join your team, and defend yourself against other attackers. Sounds exciting? Well, yeah, at first but building cities and upgrading them takes hours. Conquering monsters also takes hours because you need around 50 health to do that and you're only given 100 health. So how do you exactly conquer monsters in Pocket Empires? It's kinda numbers game. In the game's help section under spying, you're given an idea of an estimate of the number of monsters under the description, "few", "several", "pack", "zounds", "overwhelming", etc. Now although you don't know how powerful these monsters are, the best way is to start with a "few" monsters and then attack with more than 50 of your recruits. It's trial and error. 

I admit, its kinda addicting but although the game is free, it could be expensive if you don't have unlimited data plan. Pocket Empires won't work if it can't detect network access, either via GPRS/3G or WiFi. 

If you've already tried all the free games in the Android market, Pocket Empires is worth a look. 

Friday, April 23, 2010

Samsung Monte now available in the UK

The Samsung Monte, Samsung's latest touchscreen wonder have been seen all over the UK. Unlike Samsung's past mobile phones which seems to be exclusive to Vodafone only, the Samsung Monte have been seen on O2, Orange, and Vodafone so this looks like a phone that all carriers will offer.

That's good news for UK customers because they'll have more options. Hopefully, we'll see the Samsung Monte on Pay as you go too.

Read Samsung Monte Reviews to see if this mobile phone is for you.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Xpreia X10 working on T-Mobile 3G

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, the Japanese-Swedish mobile phone manufacturer's flagship Android handset is already available outside US. If you can't wait for the North American version of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 to be available, you know you can always import one but why would you import a $700 phone only to find out that the 3G is not working?

Well, fear not because the Xperia X10 seems to be working on T-Mobile's 3G bands, according to a user at howardforums. So excited Sony fanboys who don't mind getting a contract on T-Mobile can import one from the eBay sellers offering the X10 for sale. If you're still undecided, here's a Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Review.

The Sony Ericsson Xperai X10 features a 1GHz snapdragon processor, Sony Ericsson's own UI on top of Android 1.6, and 8 megapixel camera among others.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

UK getting the HTC Desire and HTC Legend

Darn, lucky b*stards. Sure, we got the Nexus One even before they did but come on, I think the HTC Desire is sooo much more cooler than the Nexus One. Think about it, HTC Sense with Flash plus multitouch on everything and not just on Google Navigation. I'm telling you, HTC is shortchanging us.

The HTC Legend is another cool mobile phone. An aluminum unibody makes it a Macbook phone. The specs is also much better than the HTC Hero. I'm so tempted to pre-order this and import it but at £528.68 for the Desire and £399.99 for the Legend and with the current exchange rates, not to mention, customs, this is just waay over my budget. I guess we'll just have to wait until for the North American version of these handsets.

Via: Cellphone-Reviews

Friday, March 5, 2010

Remotely Access Your PC

What is "remotely accessing your pc"? Well, it means taking control of your PC from another device like a laptop, another desktop, or your mobile phone.

Why would you want to this? Well, for a number of reasons. You might like to have access your PC while you're away, or you might want someone to see your desktop in real time like if they're troubleshooting your PC.

How do you you go about this? Well, you can remotely access your PC in a number of ways. NMCNNIC.COM has two ways of accessing your PC: through your smartphone or your desktop/laptop. Head on over to the link to find out what software do you need.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Samsung Galaxy Spica gets leaked Android 2.1 ROM

Although Samsung's cheapest Android is not available with any contract in the US yet, for those countries who have access to this mobile phone, it may be wise to invest on this as it seems that the rumors that it will be getting an Android 2.0 update is true, based on the leaked ROMS posted at Samsung Firmwares.

Of course, those who have the Samsung Galaxy Portal in the UK, you have to wait for the official T-Mobile update. But it's nice to know that Samsung is supporting this phone, unlike their previous Samsung Galaxy model which seems to be stuck in Android 1.6.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Motorola Droid vs. Nokia N900

For those of you who are still undecided whether to get the Motorola Droid on Verizon or get the Nokia N900 on best buy (unlocked), here's a comparison of Motorola Droid (UK) and the Nokia N900.

Although the Nokia N900 wins in the multimedia department as well as the browser (for me, speed and flash support are the only thing that matters), the fact that it's still selling as unsubsidized in the US, is a bit of a turn-off for some.

On the other hand, the Motorola Droid is the more pocketable of the two, has better screen resolution, and a more fluid interface. Put this with the fact that it's cheaper on Verizon plus Verizon's wide 3G coverage and the scales are tipping towards the Motorola Droid here in the US.

I wonder when will T-Mobile or AT&T get the N900?