Technicational

I spent a afternoon with three of Microsoft Jamaica top execs to discuss and better understand the ins and outs of Windows 8 and Office 2013. This round table talk (the table was actual round) was very informative and enlightened even to me who is a geek by today's standards. The flood of information I got was overwhelming and due to my word limit... I will have to summaries most of the questions and answers as best as possible as shown below.

Questions about Windows 8

1. What are the minimum requirements for Windows 8.

2. What are some of the benefits moving from Windows 7 to Windows 8?

3. Will consumers have any issues with driver compatibility or older applications not being supported?

Questions about Office 2013

1. Why is Office 2013 better on windows 8?

2. Is Office 2013 able to operate on any other operating system apart from windows 8? And if so, what would be the limitations?

3. What are the added features the consumer would get in Office 2013 running on Windows 8 over its predecessors (Office 2k3 and Office 2k7)?

Final Thoughts

 So, there you have it... If you ask me it's not a bad step forward for Windows or Office at all and I am eager to see how all of this would translate on a tablet device. Also, I would like to extent my thanks to Michael Lea(Microsoft Retail Account Manager) Marcelle Smart (General Manager of Microsoft Jamaica) Rennex Callaghan (Technical Advisor at Microsoft Jamaica) for their time and the elegantly crafted round table experience.

So a couple of weeks ago I did a iPad Mini review... I had to wait till the mob subsided outside the office doors before I started the Nexus 7 review. Certainly didn't want two angry mobs outside waiting on me at the same time. Anyway this week I plan to conclude these... these... these crowd infuriating reviews with the Nexus 7 review. So, let's be quick about it... don't want the mob catch me in office like last time.

Nexus 7

The Nexus 7 is the most successful  7" inch tablet in the market right now. This device has sold more units than how Blackberry sold apps last year...hhhmmm bad comparison, anyone can beat those numbers. The Mobile industry analyst Benedict Evans has crunched the numbers on newly-released tablet sales figures from Asus and arrived at an approximate estimate of total Nexus 7 tablet sales for 2012, which is between 4.5 and 4.8 million units, you can just imagine where those figures are now. This device also has an impressive specification sheet that only has strong points after strong points and also manage to keep its price significantly lower than all its competitors. Take a quick look at the specification sheet below and be amazed with the price I quote after.

After viewing an impressive specification sheet like that you would certainly think that the price attached to it would be something that will suddenly trigger bowel movement. But no Pepto-Bismol is needed... this device is quite affordable for what you're getting. For around $40,000 dollars or less you can get a 32gb Wi-Fi only version locally brand new which is still cheaper than the 16gb version of an iPad Mini. This leads me now  to the Pros and Cons section of my article. This section is to highlight points that consumers  may consider a delight or a ache to deal with.

Pros

Cons

Final Thoughts

I must say that I'm a big supporter of both iOS and the Android platform, but I'm also a financially embarrassed like most person these days. So, the better product may wow me, but the cheaper product will certainly get my money. Fortunate for Jamaicans like me the cheaper product happens to be good too and has the wow factor... Please don't hurt me Apple users. The product mentioned in this article was provided courtesy of Royale Computers and Accessories telephone#: 906-1067, 906-1068, and 754-5048.

Two weeks with the Samsung Galaxy s4 (S4) on my desk and I  already have some major strong points and drawbacks for the device. The Galaxy S4 (I9500) is one of the most powerful and feature rich Smartphone that has been release this year, but with so much feature and power comes a whole new set of quarks and problems. So, without anymore waiting this is my view/review/summary/synopsis of the Samsung Galaxy S4.

Let's Talk Specification

This phone is a super computer with a super AMOLED screen... I wouldn't be surprised if Samsung managed to squeeze in a miniature toaster oven in this phone too. This is one well built phone when you take a look on the specification sheet. Just look at some of the hardware that's in the S4 below.

Sigh, there wasn't a toaster oven include on the specification sheet... Darn it, I was looking forward to that one.

Let's Talk Features

Camera

The Samsung Galaxy S4 is very detail when it comes to photos, but that isn't the outstanding feature of the camera. The various modes that you can set within the camera app is what pushes the envelope on technology. One such mode is  Eraser mode which can erase anyone or anything that wasn't mean to be in the photo, and yes... it does work.

Optical Reader

Optical Reader let's you point the camera at a word to  get the meaning and pronunciation of the word, which is all done without internet access.

S Translator

S Translator is a built-in application that translate English to a myriad of other languages or from other languages to English. Certainly would have been a great asset to me back in college doing introduction to Spanish.

User Interface (UI)

The leap in processing power from Quad Core (4 CPU's) to Octa-Core (8 CPU's) is reflected in a fast and responsive user interface that you'll realize as you pick up the device, but I am guessing that also contributes to the heat problem that I'll mention later in the article.

Smart Pause

Smart Pause is a lovely feature that pauses a video when you are not looking on the screen and resumes it the moment you start looking on the screen again. It works 70% of the time but the other 30% can be real annoying because it keeps doing the opposite of what it's made for. Luckily there is an option to turn it off.

Let's Talk Problems

Heat Dissipation

Great balls of fire... could have been a true to life song about me if I had continued walking around with the Galaxy S4 in my pants pocket. The phone tends to get hot at random moments when not in use. So save your future children and don't walk with it in your pants pocket guys... no joke. Hopefully this will be rectified in a firmware update. Wait... they did include a toaster oven... silly me. Pop Tatars here I come!

Games

I didn't know that this would be a problem for me, but it turned out to be. The S4 comes with a couple of games, but they aren't full games... no they are demos that you'll have to purchase the full version of. That's not so bad, but it gets worst... These games can't be uninstalled! You can't get these games off unless you go the good old rooting/hacking method. That's something that hurts me... I want full control of what stays and goes on my phone and I do believe that I'm not the only person in this world that believes this.

Final Thoughts

They are many more great features I neglected to mention but getting into those would result into an epically long article, but these great features uses up almost half of the storage space that is supposedly meant for the user. So a 16GB model will roughly have 9GB remaining for the consumer to use. Anyhow, the fact still remains that the Samsung Galaxy S4 is the best android phone out now and will hold that title for some time to come. The Samsung Galaxy S4 is truly a double edge sword.