Samsung’s Galaxy Note 5 – The Good the Bad The Ugly

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Samsung’s latest phablet

The Good

  • Rear Camera 16-megapixel with Flash

  • F1.9 lens and OIS (optical image stabilization)

  • Front Camera  5-megapixel

  • Display 5.70-inch, Super AMOLED

  • Resolution  1440×2560 pixels, Quad HD resolution

  • Dimensions (mm)  153.20 x 76.10 x 7.60   –  (in) 6″x3″x .3″

  • OS  Android 5.1 :  Lollipop

  • Processor: Exynos 7420 octa-core (2.1GHz quad + 1.5GHz quad) 64bit, 14nm,

  • 4g Ram

  • WiFi N, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, GPS and NFC

  • 4G LTE enabled

  • Battery capacity 3000mAh, Fast charging, with the ability to charge Wirelessly

  • Wired Fast Charging:  30minutes 50%, 90 min. Full
  • Weight 171 grams, 6.03 ounces
  • Scroll Capture
  • S Pen Menu
  • UHQ, or ultra high-quality audio

The Bad

  • First Release 32gigs only
  • No SD Card to expand storage
  • Non removable glass back – Non removable Battery

The Ugly

  • None yet

In Canada, Pre order as of August 21, $359 Cnd, 2 year term or $860 no terms.  This early release only available in Black Sapphire, 32g.  Rogers and other carriers offers one of the Wireless chargers as a promo among many other perks.

banner-Galaxy-Note5-03

Non removable glass back casing with metallic sides,

Non removable glass back casing with metallic sides,

 

 

Elegant phone!  Soon we’ll be looking at what’s in the box! Also, some of the early accessories for the Note 5, such as chargers and cases.

 

 

 

 

 

Next, I will feature Android 5.1 Lollipop.  Early spoiler, The Note 3 and Note 4 are available to upgrade to Lollipop, but some users are already reporting some slowdowns due to the older processor.  If you’re happy with your performance, don’t upgrade unless you want some of the new features.

 

 

 

My New Music Player is my old Android Phone

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After year 2000, everyone started to refer to a music player as an Ipod.  Truth is, for those of you spending lots of moneys on toys around that time, there were plenty of other options to play digital music.  I’ve said this in other posts, Apple did it right, for the music player and took over the Computer industry after that.  It was about marketing delivering a product people wanted,

The other makers slowly withdrew from the race and by 2007 when the great Iphone started taking over the cell phone market dislodging RIM’s Blackberry, Apple had turned their little music player into the ever so popular Iphone.  Nokia, Sony and Rim’s Blackberry once leaders, soon fell so far behind, today they are almost irrelevant in the Noerth American digital phone and music player market.

Think of Sony with holding on to the music player market for over 15 years with the Discman!  Today, Apple’s Ipod hardly exist anymore, tagged to disappear and be replaced by it’s IPhone.

IPod Photo 2005Well my Ipod photo just died after 10 years of cranking up the tunes.  Not being a IPhone guy, my retired Samsung Captivate, will do a fine job replacing it.  Android apps do a  pretty good job of MP3 apps, but none really interface the same way as ITunes.  It’s not to say they do not do a good job, but we all got use to the Itune interface.  If you have an IPhone, you will never consider another music player.
Apple does funny things though.  You can’t use your old Iphone as easily as an Android for a Music player.  I don’t get why?  Most people upgrade their Iphones, ’cause there is a new one.  That leaves a whole bunch of hardware lying around that could be rendered useful.   Let alone increase Apple app store traffic and revenue.

To get started using an old iPhone as an iPod Touch, insert a SIM card into the phone — be sure the card is from the same wireless carrier that the phone uses. Connect the iPhone to an Internet-enabled computer with iTunes. The program will activate the iPhone, letting youuse it as an iPod Touch.

Source:  www.popsugar.com/tech/Turn-iPhone–iPod-Touch-31915752

The problem there is from one release of the IPhone to the other, the sim card format gets upgraded too.  So it can be done, if you have a friend with a compatible working sim card from the same carrier, but not so easily.  In my books, that’s a set back for Apple.  Nevertheless, it doesn’t appear to hinder their success.

My new music player, Samsung Captivate SGH- I896

My new music player, Samsung Captivate SGH- I896

What the Android MP3 players are lacking the most is the desktop driven playlists.  To navigate on your digital device is just not as efficient I find.  Maybe I’m just old.   The new generation has adapted well.
I’m planning to get a Note 5 in the fall.  The Galaxy 3 will become my Music player.  Equipped with 64G+ it should do the trick!  For now, I’m using my old Samsung Captivate as an MP3 player and I am quite pleased with it.   With a 16g chip it hosts as much music as a require.

Google Music has stepped up to the plate, but I haven’t given it full control yet.  They came in so late into the Canadian Market I was already running after solutions.  Winamp came close, but presently is not being developed any further.  PowerAmp is my choice player on my Samsung Galaxy 3 but I find the rocket player does a great job too.

Samsung has always had the larger physical product.  Apple has just caught on and are now making larger phones,  Samsung has been accused of copying Apple, not this round.  Apple is copying the competition responding to market demands.

Next, keep an eye on the Digital Cameras plunging market.  The cameras on cell phones have taken a new dimension.  It’ll be interesting to see who wins that race.

ITunes Not

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ITunes 11 - big disappointment.

ITunes 11 – Big Disappointment.

I have a 2005 IPod photo 30g.  I’ve treated well and Apple had up until now improved greatly on their music management interface:  ITunes .   I don’t follow the the beat with the upgrades as I am running a PC and an old IPod.  There’s no reason to.
This afternoon, the message came up, while I was talking and I agreed to upgrade ITunes. It seems Apple took a big step back on this version, perhaps improving the views but all at the same time killing the drag and drop from your computer to the Music library.  I thought this product was improving,  I could drag and drop right into a playlist and the song would be added to the librairy.  So really the best way to get music according to Apple is through the Apple store on your device or on your ITunes and then sync.

So the new process is ctrl O to open a location on your PC and chosse the song you want to add to the library.  Once that’s done, you find the song and right click on it to add it to your playlist.
For the last few years, I must say, Apple was winning my soul for the best music management program.  I came from a large Lyra which allowed you to create a directory and drag and drop songs.
I clouded a whole bunch of Music with Google player and test drove the interface.  this too is doable, just not an option in Canada.  Google as I have ranted many times hasn’t brought their music service north of the border yet.
PowerAmpThe Android solutions really don’t have a desktop interface to make playlists, mind you I will be looking at this closer.  I have a feeling my Galaxy S on Gingerbread will become my next Music player.  I’ve invested in PowerAmp for my Android Music player.  Ranked the top player, I’ll have to look at the desktop options to create playlists and manage music.

Goodbye Apple

So i did a little more digging on the Apple, you know sometimes you miss something…However, it doesn’t look as though I did.

My next search was about managing Android playlists from the desktop.  I hate doing playlists directly on the device.  It narrows your visual scope and I find narrows your options.  Unfortunately, this didn’t pan out too well either.
Next I found this article:

Music Player Showdown: Which Desktop Player Is Best for Syncing to Android?

winamp-is-dead-300x225I mentioned, above that Poweramp was my player of choice for Android.  For Windows, I use Winamp, which also has an Android interface.  Perhaps Winamp came into the race a little later, still Lifehacker highly recommends the sync interface.
Winamp you should know has somewhat ceased.

More on that when I return with some results!

Google Music: Only, not in Oooooh Canada….

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Google RantGoogle Style..   I would like to know why Canada is being Held back from this service.  Here is a list of countries where the service is available.

MUSIC

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States

Music All Access

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States

With rumors of the Ipod starting its exit strategy due to the decline in sales, I wonder when Google will step up to the plate and make their service available to everyone.  Itunes surely is the leader, leaving not too many alternatives.
Now that I’ve had the chance to test drive the Google service Google Play Music, well I’m not that impressed.  Save for the 20,000 songs you can upload, the interface on the cloud, is clunky.  Don’t forget we are talking Google here.  One of today’s leaders on the cloud.  Where I live, we still get:
sorry Google Music2

So I had to find a way of checking it out.  So yes, it’s better to have it than not to have it, considering the price, but it could use navigational or organizational perks.  I’ve been doing mobile music since RCA Thomson came out with the Lyra 2201.  Oh yeah, so that would be 2 years before the first IPod came out.  Couple years later I graduated to the Lyra 2840.
What Apple brought to the table was a good way for the mass to manage, own, purchase music, after Napster got put on hold.  Personally, I never liked Itunes, but I got used to it.  On the Lyra, I just dragged and dropped and the song would copy over.  Totally like an external drive.  Playlists were directories if I remember well.  That of course changed later.

I’m getting away from my focus here…  Google Play Music, should be made available everywhere and it deserves a better mobile interface.

Google Search Operators – Part 1

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Google-S

 

 

 

Google is the everyday search engine for most of us.  Here are a few tricks to help you along with your results.  Google has a fun page called Search Tips and Tricks.  You can also try the operators listed below to narrow down your searches or querries.

References:  https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/136861?hl=en
References:  http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference.html

Use Quotes:    “meaning of life“ to get results on an exact phrase.

Use the dash  –  :  to exclude types of results like a minus
Example:  cat -feline or -icanhascheezburger
cats -site: http://icanhas.cheezburger.com/tag/Cats

Use a domain a domain type or site search:
Example:  taxes site: .gov
racking site: costco.com

Use link: to find pages that link to a url
Example:  link: tclarke.ca/android/

Use filetype to return specific results in file format.
Example:  videotron filetype:pdf  will return all pdf files on Videotron.
You get better results by not putting a space between the colon and the key word.

Here are some of my notes which you can play around with to help you improve on your results.

allintitle:
inurl:
related:
site:
number..number
OR
IN
AROUND()
*           (wildcard)
filetype:
-query (to exclude)
map:
daterange:
allintext:
link:
“query” (use quotations for exact term or phrase).
define:
allinanchor:

Key Words and tricks
City time
Location sunrise…sunset

…………Part 2…  We’ll look at Chrome and some apps that could change the way you do things!

 

Google Tools and Services Intro (Multi Part Series)

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Google

Christmas shopping this year in various shops, I noted that there are less computer books available in book stores and less software in computer shops.  When I inquired, I was simply told that`s all through shopping on line.   Chapters is our local book store in this city.  Hard to beat!  The computer book section I remembered had dwindled down to a couple of shelves.  To make a long story short, I headed down to the magazine area of the store, which is the entire basement and bought magazines as stocking stuffers.  I walked away with 4 or 5 magazines for about $100.  There are more apple peeps in our family, so I got a 2013 Apps review/Must have apps.  Ipad mini tricks etc… 1 Samsung magazine and of course 1 Google Magazine.

I took a week end off for reading recently and made notes as I read the Google Magazine.  I hope readers will benefit from these.  Where possible, i will cite examples and references and give links to the services.

Hope you Enjoy

Year End

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Roku AppBest wishes for the Holiday Season, and wishing you the great toys for 2014.  My New year`s resolution, explore more Google stuff.  From a point of view of leading the Market, Samsung is at the top, Apple lagging in Revenue behind and Google Ranking     # 14 on the revenue scale.  Microsoft still achieving higher Revenue than Apple?  Suprise here but check it out.

So why the Roku App.  Well It’s my latest toy and Play Store has an App for it.  I’ve just installed it and haven’t taken it for a test drive yet.  This sort of product has to be hurting the cable industry.  Hurry guys, get with the program.  I was a little disapointed to find commercials on some of the better stations… Just like I tunes did to the music industry, perhaps Netflix, Hulu may do something similar for Television and movies.  Of course, you don’t need a Roku to stream these but Roku offers a nice package.

Take a step back, see how much you’re spending on your Cable bill VS how much you watch.  Now take that money, slash your cable service a bit,  get a better Internet package and explore the streaming possibilities.  If you have a family and teens, i don’t think this will be much of an issue.  You can always bring it to the table as discussion.  Some of you may have already done this with your Telephone land line.  All your family members have a cell phone?  What are you waiting for?  Review your options here.

I’ll get back to you on the Roku App :)  In the mean time I’m watching episodes of Nikita, FarScape, 3 minute news and streaming Pandora.

Edit- The PlayStore Roku App works great with Galaxy 3 and Roku 3.

Happy New Year