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News & Features, Reviews April 16, 2013

Huawei Ascend Mate Australian Launch Review

Huawei is making a splash in Australia with the launch of the new Huawei Ascend Mate, a 6.1-inch “phablet” to take on the Samsung Galaxy Note II. At the launch today in Sydney Australia, Gear Diary was able to spend some one-on-one time with the phone that Huawei describes as “Designed for a multimedia experience”. There is no question the Ascend Mate is a large phone, with a 6.1” IPS+ display dwarfing even its obvious rival, the Samsung Galaxy Note II. Just as surprising is the price, AU$429 when it launches on April 20, 2013. To put that in perspective,…

News & Features March 24, 2013

Careful, Google Is Listening

I had two very odd encounters with Google ads yesterday. It’s common for Google to push ads based on emails, as Microsoft helpfully pointed out in their “Scroogled” campaign. But usually those ads appear because of something in your email or search history. That doesn’t explain the ads I saw yesterday, as they were dead-on accurate to conversations I had held over iMessage and in person … not through Google. First, Sarah went out of town this weekend and left me a list of to-dos around the house. One of them was to straighten the large area rug in the…

Editorials March 22, 2013

Google Reader and Google Keep, You Get What You Pay For

Google Reader and Google Keep are two different services, but when placed side by side they offer a cautionary tale for anyone using the web. There has been a good deal of chat among the Gear Diary team on our backchannel, and Judie, Mike, Carly and I have been further discussing the demise of Reader and the introduction of Google Keep among the four of us quite a bit. Here’s some of what we have to say… As Joel posted Wednesday, Google has just rolled out Keep, their Evernote and OneNote competitor. Evernote, as you likely know, offers users a…

Reviews March 21, 2013

Google Keep Review – Neat Freaks Need Not Apply

Yesterday Google launched a new service called Google Keep. After playing around with it a bit last night, I have a much better idea of what it can and can’t do, and what it really is. Will it be good enough to replace Evernote? Is it even close? In a word, no. Google Keep Phone Interface The phone interface is reminiscent of the Google Now interface; each note appears as a card. There’s a Multi-column view and a single column view. Across the top is the bar you interact with to add notes. tap the note to create a note, the…

News & Features March 20, 2013

Google Keep Launches – Google’s Evernote and OneNote Answer

I was just starting to listen to This Week in Google live after work, when right before the show they shouted Google just launched Google Keep! I’ve already got it installed on my phones and my tablet. What IS Google Keep? It’s very similar to services like Evernote or OneNote. It’s designed to take notes, make checklists, and more. It hangs off of your Google Drive, and it uses the new real-time API that Google also announced this week. Google Keep doesn’t appear to support tagging like Evernote does, and while you can import pictures into your Google Keep, it does not appear to look at…

News & Features February 22, 2013

Chromebook Pixel – A Bad Idea?

Chromebooks have been a bit of a mixed bag for many people. Some users love the idea of a lightweight, browser-focused operating system, and others feel like a computer that just runs browser apps is a waste of money. When Chromebooks occupied the $199-$300 space, they fit a niche as a lightweight “secondary machine”. Yesterday Google branched out in a shocking new direction, announcing the touchscreen, high-resolution, Chromebook Pixel. A touchscreen Chromebook is big news all by itself, but the price is really generating buzz. At $1,299 for the WiFi model, is Google overestimating the appeal of ChromeOS? The Gear…

Reviews February 21, 2013

Picashare Picasa Sync iOS App Review

I hate synching my devices to computers. It’s much simpler to use iCloud and Photostream than it is to fire up the beast that is iTunes these days. In an all-iOS environment, this works great. But if I have a number of photos that need to be edited in Picasa, it’s a pain to download what I need from Photostream or email them back and forth to myself. Picashare for iOS can upload photos to Picasa and Google+, but does it really make life that much easier? Read on for the full review! Picashare is pretty simple. Log in with…

Editorials February 6, 2013

Why ChromeOS Is Positioned to Attack Windows 8, and Windows 8 Deserves It

I have something of a unique perspective on ChromeOS. See, one day in December 2010, I came home to find a mystery package on my doorstep from Google. It turned out the “Sure, I’d like to beta test a Chromebook” form I’d filled out netted me a CR-48, one of the original beta Chromebooks. So I’ve seen the operating system mature from a simple web browser to a capable operating system over the last few years, and I have to say, it’s impressed me immensely with its stability and flexibility. It doesn’t surprise me at all that Acer is seeing…

Gear Bits, How to Do It Yourself! January 23, 2013

How to Get Your Google Contacts onto Your iPhone

In the past week, we’ve heard results from AT&T and Verizon, and in the particular case of Verizon which had iPhones account for TWO THIRDS of its smartphone sales, 20% of those sales went to former Android users. I have detailed my years long Android exclusivity, which just ended in late December with the purchase of an iPhone 5. I got one for my wife and we got them for our teenage sons … so we are an iPhone Family now! But we are also all heavy GMail users, and users of Google services in general. So while my contacts…

News & Features December 13, 2012

Google Maps Has Returned to the App Store for the iPhone!

What to my wondering eyes should appear, but Google Maps for iOS, with turn by turn so dear! Yes, that’s right. Yesterday Google Maps was reintroduced into the Apple App store, so now your supported iOS device of choice can now (re)enjoy Google Maps to your heart’s content. Many users were very unhappy with the removal of Google Maps with iOS 6, and the problems with Apple’s own Maps app. There is now cause for holiday rejoicing as enthusiasts can hop over to the App store and install their new, improved copy today to get to where they need to…

Gear Bits December 8, 2012

Google’s Project Glass is Tech You Should Know About

What does ‘Augmented Reality‘ mean to you? It’s been a huge buzzword in certain tech circles this year, but what’s the big deal? If you’re like me, the negative associations are endless. You remember laser tag. You remember watching those awful 3D films with the red/blue lenses when you were little. Maybe you even remember Nintendo’s Virtual Boy console from back in the day. In any case, you’d be hard pressed to find an example of augmented reality that wasn’t a gimmick. Which leads us to Google’s latest project, the incredible Google Glass. Project Glass is one of the company’s…

News & Features November 28, 2012

Apple’s Profit Compared to Everyone Else’s Profits

Everyone familiar with the tech world knows that Apple is insanely profitable … but have you ever wondered just HOW profitable? The folks at Statista took on the challenge and made a chart of Apple profits compared to other companies. But if you have looked at similar graphs in the past, you know that Apple is SO MUCH more profitable that there is a lack of perspective! So instead the graph stacks up groups of other companies and compares their cumulative profits to Apple. It is pretty amazing to look at the graph: Apple is more profitable than the combination…

Editorials November 21, 2012

FTC and EU Prep Google Anti-Trust Cases … Gimme a Break!

I think it is fair to say that I am very critical of Google – mostly because of the old adage ‘trust least those who claim to give you something for nothing’. My basic view of Google is that they have successfully leveraged ‘free’ into a way for people to open up their most personal data and allow Google to sell it to the highest bidder. But at the same time I see a real problem in which since Microsoft, ANY company who has a monopoly (or at least huge market share) is immediately eyed by many for anti-trust actions….

News & Features November 19, 2012

Common Sense, Please! Apple is NOT Releasing Android Apps on Google Play

I know I shouldn’t even have to say this, because the news IF Apple was going to port something like GarageBand to Android would be so huge that no one would be surprised when it landed. But this weekend some Android users managed to get tricked into thinking that Apple had ported and released some of their key iOS apps to Android … and paying ~$5 – 10 for the fake apps. It isn’t clear whether those buying the apps were refunded, and what was done to the people who posted the apps – it is the downside of the…

Editorials November 16, 2012

Are These Android Market Share Numbers Good for Anyone?

By now the Gartner global mobile phone sales/shipment estimates for the 3rd quarter of 2012 have been widely disseminated, and they are summed up nicely at places such as TechCrunch. For those looking for the basic bullet points, here goes: – Overall mobile phone sales declined ~3% in Q3 – Smartphone sales increased by 47% during the same time. – Samsung has overtaken Nokia as largest handset maker. – Samsung & Apple account for ~50% of smartphone sales, >100% of smartphone profits – Samsung alone owns nearly 1/3 of smartphone market (and almost 40% of sales) – Samsung, Apple, ZTE…

Editorials November 2, 2012

Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD Sales Surge, Bucking Trends and Challenging the iPad Mini

Image courtesy of Pinoytutorial There is one very clear reason (or rather – TWO) that Apple needed an iPad Mini this year: the success of the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire. I wrote about things I love about each device recently, and I also noted an analyst report that pegged Google-based sales of the device at ~1 million for the second quarter. Turns out that things (as always) aren’t so simple. First off, Amazon went immediately on the attack as Carly noted here, citing that their BEST Kindle Fire HD sales came after the iPad Mini announcement. Amazon said: “Wednesday…

Editorials November 2, 2012

Google Election Tool Helps You Map Out Your Voting Plans

In case you haven’t visited Facebook lately, Election Day is fast approaching, and things are getting increasingly bitter and partisan (and less truthful if what I am seeing is any indication). The reason for this is pretty clear: people feel this election is incredibly important for any number of reasons. And it is – in fact they ALL are. We focus on the huge national election, and yet things like the quality of your local schools are much more impacted by the choices of your state and local government. So a while ago as my wife and I were discussing…

Editorials November 1, 2012

5 Reasons (Each) Why I Love the Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire HD

I have been highly critical of Android tablets (shock, I know) for a number of reasons, and 7″ tablets in specific. But as has been pointed out, I also tout enjoying the Google Nexus 7 quite a bit for a number of reasons. I was also the last one holding on to my launch-day Kindle Fire from last year, and pre-ordered and have happily kept the Kindle Fire HD. All of that screams ‘cognitive dissonance’ to me, so I thought it was worth explaining – and what better way than to list a bunch of things I love about each…

Music Diary, News & Features October 30, 2012

Google Music Will Get ‘Match’ Capabilities

Google has a huge blog post here related to their product announcements On November 13, we’re bringing music on Google Play to Europe. Those of you in the U.K, France, Germany, Italy and Spain will be able to purchase music from the Google Play store and add up to 20,000 songs—for free—from your existing collection to the cloud for streaming to your Android devices or web browser. We’re also launching our new matching feature to streamline the process of uploading your personal music to Google Play. We’ll scan your music collection and any song we match against the Google Play…

Editorials, Reviews September 16, 2012

My 7-Day Nexus 7 Experiment – Quality and Service are PROBLEM #1 for Google

When the Google Nexus 7 came out, both Dan and I pre-ordered one as I noted here. We discussed it in a video chat, and from that I had committed to a ‘7 Day Nexus Challenge’. The 7 days have long since passed, but I had wanted to get to the conclusion of my ‘initial Nexus experience’ before writing about it. So, here goes … Some background My pre-order through Google was confirmed and then canceled within a few hours for unknown reasons. Perhaps I should have taken that as an omen, but instead I just did another pre-order the…

News & Features August 26, 2012

Apple’s Big Patent Win, and What It Means for Smartphones

The Apple/Samsung patent trial’s jury shocked everyone by returning a verdict extremely quickly on Friday afternoon. Once we had the full details, I asked the team here at Gear Diary what they thought. Was this a game changer for Android and smartphones in general, or just another chapter in “lawyers gone wild”? Bryan: Yeah but remember, some of us don’t want to hear it: 😉 (Sorry, couldn’t help myself! :)) Dan: Agreed. Not surprised but I do think people will debate the issue for a long time. After all, as we learn in the Jobs bio, much of what Apple did initially…

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