The Samsung Galaxy S2 is by far the best smart phone released in 2011.  Even the much anticipated iPhone 4S couldn’t touch the specs and performance of this amazing device. But what makes the Samsung Galaxy S2 such a fantastic phone?  Let me tell you…

Lets start with the basics, but first i need to point out that this is the Samsung Galaxy S2 Epic 4G touch version of the phone, found on the Sprint network.  You may find that some other models of this phone vary slightly.

The Samsung Galaxy S2 is a big phone.  Despite being big, it still manages to be surprisingly thin, and incredibly lightweight. The Samsung Galaxy S2 is in fact so lightweight, that the ‘flimsy’ feel to it is one of the largest complaints of this phone.  Don’t be deterred by this though, the Galaxy S2 is far from flimsy, it has  a high quality plastic case, and the tough Gorilla Glass. In drop tests the Galaxy S2 actually protects the phone much more effectively than the iPhone 4S. The overall size of the phone is 5.11 x 2.74 x 0.38 inches wighing in at 4.6 ounces.

What really makes the Samsung Galaxy S2 is it’s large clear super AMOLED plus 4.52 inch screen that is bright, clear and low power consumption. it has an 800×480 resolution, which is a little low compared to the competition, but not noticeably so. From personal use, the screen of the Galaxy S2 is very clear, sharp and bright, it stays visible even during daylight and quite easily blows past smart phone screens out of the water.

Inside the Galaxy S2 things get even better. A 1.2 ghz dual core, 1 gig of ram, and 16GB of built in internal storage make this phone a powerful device by itself, but compare it to the competition (including the iPhone 4S) and you can see just how far ahead of its class the Samsung Galaxy S2 really is!

The battery can last well over eight hours talk time and 10.5 days standby, and is a lithium ion 1899mAh beast that will help power this phone.  From personal usage, which includes heavy data use, I tend to need to charge this phone on a daily basis, but this does include everything from watching movies on the go via 4G, to checking my emails and playing games.

Feature wise the Samsung Galaxy S2 comes with everything you would expect, including Siri like voice usage, apps, flash compatibility, web browser, GPS navigation and all the applications you can download.  One thing worth mentioning is that although the Samsung Galaxy S2 has 16GB of internal memory, only 2GB is available for your ‘system’.  The system file is also where many app files are stored, this means that if you install a large number of apps, you may find yourself limited when it comes to installs.

The Samsung Galaxy S2 uses Gingerbread 2.3 (maybe upgraded to ice cream sandwich)  which is a beautifully crafted OS.  My favorite feature of this operating system is the ability to add ‘widgets’ straight on to my dashboard screens. This means for the information I need on a regular basis, I don’t even have to load apps anymore, the information is right there where I need it.

One thing that will capture any budding photographers attention is the 8 Megapixel camera, any budding YouTuber will also fall in love with the front facing camera, which while not high-res, is great for taking videos of yourself talking.  You can also use this camera to do live video chat, and with the 4G network this works incredibly well.

Yes, one of the big benefits of the Samsung Galaxy S2 is it’s true 4G connectivity.  You need to have a 4G network for this to really work, some carriers have what amounts to “3G plus”, which is actually quite a bit slower.

This smart phone has more than just a 4G connection. It also works with 3G, WiFi, WiMax, Bluetooth and of course GPS. This wide range of connectivity means that it is actually pretty hard not to get a data connection.

All in all the Samsung Galaxy S2 is absolutely everything you could want in a phone, it is large but thin, tough but light, fast and powerful.  If you are looking for an iPhone 4S alternative, this is it.

Don’t forget to buy a Samsung Galaxy S2 case though!

2011 has been a great year for geeky gadgets and tech advancements, which means that there is plenty to choose from for Christmas this year.  I will be giving you three great Christmas gifts for 2011 to help ease the pain of browsing through endless shelves of items!

Looking for The Perfect Christmas Gift!

Looking for the perfect Christmas gift can be hard, even if you know a person really well. Fortunately these gifts are going to light up the eyes of most people!

Nintendo 3DS

When I first heard about the Nintendo 3DS and it’s glasses-free 3D capabilities I didn’t think too much about it, until I played on one. The 3D really does look 3D and you find yourself being drawn in to the game as it’s 3D world envelopes you.

While the Nintendo 3DS has very few downsides (A heavily reduced battery life being the prime example) it does come with more benefits than you can shake a stick at.

While the 3D screen is of course the main feature (and a great one at that) but it also lets you take 3D pictures, and it includes a gyroscope and accelerometer, letting you control your games with movement as well as controls!

Combining the 3D with movement based controls makes the Nintendo 3DS unbeateble in my eyes, and with the recent price drop of $80, it is now one of the most advanced yet affordable consoles on the market!

The Nintendo 3DS is a great Christmas gift for adults and children alike! You might want to check out some of the best 3DS games as well, to find the perfect accompyment to this amazing gadget!

The Amazon Kindle Fire

For those who love a more traditional style of entertainment, The Amazon Kindle Fire provides ebooks, films and more on the latest from the Amazon Kindle series.

Boasting full color and a multi touch screen, te Amazon Kindle Fire moves away from the traditional e-reader style of ‘soft’ reading and instead embraces the more colorful iPad format.

Based on the android platform, the Amazon Kindle Fire offers many of the things you would expect from a tablet PC. You can watch movies, tv shows, play games, browse the web and read your email on top of the basic e-book functionality.

What differentiates it from competitors tablets is the price.  At $199 on release this is a huge reduction on the $600 iPad price tag.

As of right now it looks like the Amazon Kindle Fire is the best well rounded portable entertainment device.

The iPad 2

The iPad 2 is an even more powerful version of the original iPad that turned Tablet PC’s in to a popular consumer product. With plenty of bells and whistles, the iPad 2 is a fantastic companion for both business and personal use. While it might not have enough capability to replace your laptop just yet, it is an amazing way to keep track of email and do research while you work.

For personal use the iPad 2 is fantastic for both entertainment and organization.  The near unlimited selection of apps means that you can use your iPad 2 to do anything from track your jogging performance, to play Angry birds.

While the iPad 2 really is one fantastic device, it does come at quite an expensive cost.  The good news is that there are plenty of other tablets available which provide the same, and often better functionality than the iPad 2, although they don’t carry quite the same cool factor.

f however you are buying this for someone who thinks the Amazon Kindle Fire is simple not enough, the iPad 2 is the most saught after tablet PC available!

I have to admit I had kind of figured that the arms race on keyboards was over.  We already had wireless, we had functionality, and we had streamlined.  Therefore I was a little bit surprised when I saw the Logitech K750, the Logitech Solar Keyboard land in my tips e-mail address.

When I first saw this keyboard I have to admit, I did think it was a little bit of a gimmick, after all, is it really that much trouble to change batteries out every few weeks?

After digging a little further though, I began to discover that this simple idea has been built in to a truly fantastic Logitech wireless keyboard.

The first instant my opinion changed on this keyboard arrived when I thought about the number of times that I had been ‘caught short’ with my keyboard running out of juice before some major deadline. A late night trip to Walmart for a $2 pack of batteries is much more expensive than a cost of the batteries in terms of fuel, time, and of course mental stability.

To be honest I began to think having a solar powered keyboard might actually be a surprisingly good idea. Of course once I had decided this I also began to wonder whether it was worth the cost, since this is far from a $5 keyboard.

The truth of the matter is though that this keyboard delivers much more than solar power to the table.  To start with the looks of the Logitech K750 alone make this worth a few extra bucks. It’s ultra thin design combined with some beautiful curves make this one beautiful wireless keyboard.  It also comes in four colors, so you can quickly find a color that suits your style.  While I have to admit I prefer the black Logitech K750, the white Logitech K750 is perfect for those who want a keyboard to match their Mac.

All in all the Logitech K750 Logitech solar keyboard is a fantastic wireless keyboard which combines functionality with performance.  In true Logitech style the K750 looks good, has fantastic design, and will perform reliably for years to come.

 

 

 

I was pretty surprised to find a spam email in my inbox today telling my to get in on some early Christmas deals.  These must be some really early deals!

But what struck me when I saw this email is that how many companies are not even targeting potential buyers anymore, which actually makes spam a rather expensive marketing technique.  Even though technology has advanced a lot over the decades, sending an e-mail still costs money, and sending out thousands of e-mails daily can actually cost a fairly large amount of money.

Without delving too deeply in to the fluff of this subject, I think the most surprising thing is that these companies are nto spending more resources to garner potential leads, rather than spam every inbox and gain a poor reputation.

While A little extra research could save these marketing companies thousands of dollars in wasted advertising, I have to be honest. I don’t think any amound of client targeting will fix things fora  company offering Christmas Deals in June.

There are few iphone games out there that have really caught my attention.  Angry Birds just about made it, but apart from that I tend to play games like Sudoku, basically iPhone ports of an existing puzzle.

So when I visited SXSWi last weekend I was amazed to find a game which not only showed a huge amount of promise by itself, but also brought some fantastic new features to the table for iphone gamers.

The Traveller-AR iPhone MMORPG is set in a vast universe, by vast we are talking over 40,000 systems and 350,000 explorable objects, pretty vast right? This huge number of star systems is not some random creation, it has been well thought out, and each object that appears comes from the old Traveller pen and paper role playing game from which Traveller-AR is based. That’s right, Traveller is an established brand which has had thousands of roleplayers dilligently fine tuning it for going on 40 years.

Continuing on the same vein as a true roleplaying game, Traveller-AR gives you a huge amount of customization and flexiibility to your game.  Different ship types and customizations, different player types and more will help you craft your game in to the kind of game that you want it to be. Do you love to trade? do you love to explore, do you love to invade? or do you love to fight? Traveller-AR has got you covered in it’s immersive iPhone MMORPG environment.

Traveller-AR is one of the first mobile games I have seen released that I can honestly say compare to true MMORPG games such as World of Warcraft. It combines the same community feeling, with an expansive world to explore, and a character to advance.

One unique feature of Traveller-AR has to be the Augmented Reality feature.  This immersing style of game-play actually overlays the game world over the real world as seen through the iPhone camera. This means that you can see planets and space ships orbiting over your own home, and with a simple click you can engage these objects in trade or battle.

All in all I am really looking forward to the release of Traveller-AR (set for Summer 2011), and definitely want to get started building up my character on this unique iPhone MMORPG!

The Nintendo 3DS is the latest DS Console release from Nintendo, and it is definitely an exciting prospect for those of us who fell in love with Nintendo DS Games. From Mario to Donkey Kong, and even Streeht Fighter, and Zelda, we are looking forward to some classic Nintendo heros return in Full 3D with the Nintendo 3DS!

The Nintendo 3DS gives you 3D gaming ,without the need for glasses. This is in itself a fantastic achievement. I don’t think anyone would have bought this console if it required the use of 3D glasses (Nobody wants to look that stupid in public). But this new 3D technology really does look rather good!

As the Nintendo 3DS has not been released yet, hands on testing has been very , and while I did have a little chance to play about with this console at a recent convention, I would still like to investigate it a little more. There are some features that I do feel I can talk about now though!

To start with, the big problem with the 3D depth is that it can suffer for less than optimal lighting conditions.  Fortunately the Nintendo 3DS comes with a 3D depth slider.  This simple slider can be adjusted for your viewing angle, and lighting conditions. It can even turn the Nintendo 3DS in to a 2D Nintendo if you are in really bright light!

One of my favorite features of the Nintendo 3DS is it’s 3D Digital camera.  This 3D camera is built in to the Nintendo 3DS, and it allows you to take amazing 3D pictures of you and your friends! This might not seem like a huge deal, but trust me, these photo’s are amazing!

All in all the Nintendo 3DS is a fantastic handheld console.  The 3D view definitely provides more engrossing entertainment, and I am really looking forward to seeing how it progresses over the next decade, true 3D Pokemon, or Street Fighter battles might not be that far away!

If you have done any web development in the last 2 years you will have undoubtedly come across the CSS3 standard, and the Mozilla and Webkit substandards which are contributing to the final CSS3 release.  While CSS3 might have been in development for several years, and has provided some great tools for webs designers, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has refused to include some of the best web design additions in the last decade. That is until the release of IE 9.

The lack of CSS3 in Internet explorer has created a huge amount of work for web developers who try their best to make a website look good in any browser.  While Chrome, Safari, and Firefox all have curved borders, gradient backgrounds and varying levels of transparency, IE9 remains blocky. Creating a design which does not look completely out of place on Internet Explorer is a huge amount of work if you want to use CSS3.

This is causing problems for Micrsoft as several websites have now blocked IE users from their website, stating that people must download a more current browser.

Maybe it is this kick in the teeth to the out of date Microsoft browser which spawned IE9, a faster, more reliable, HTML5 and CSS3 compliant browser.

And yes, it seems Microsoft have finally got their act together for now, IE9 is CSS3 compliant, and it also has had a massive overhaul to improve it’s speed, performance and compatibility. The bad news is that IE9 with CSS3 is still only available for people with Windows Vista SP2 and up, meaning that many Webmasters are still left with a conundrum on whether to only support IE9, or try and keep the website looking good for legacy browser users.