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Category: Mobile
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Published: Tuesday, 07 March 2023 23:28
Just last week in the middle of the night we had a train derailment about a block up the road from my house which took out the power for a day. While I had a few lights I could run, I let all of my UPS’s run down not knowing it would be a long outage. I ended up being not prepared at all to keep my mobile devices charged up. I ran my phone down not being able to sleep watching videos so in the morning without power I couldn’t charge it. I was able to charge it in the car as well as my drone which even with three batteries was also completely dead. But it left me wondering what I could do differently. The typical USB battery backup is nice but I’m the worst at keeping them plugged in. I came across an option from Anker that I thought might help me though, their 733 Power Bank (GaNPrime PowerCore 65W). It is essentially a three-port 65-watt USB adapter but with a battery built in as well and the idea for me at least is that I would keep it plugged in using it as a charger and have something fully charged and ready to go if the power goes out. Today I’m going to check it out and see if it will fit the bill, so let's dive in!
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Category: Mobile
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Published: Thursday, 15 September 2022 14:06
For years the biggest issue that I would have with my mobile devices was keeping things charged and ready to go. I’m always really bad about remembering to charge devices and when phones took a long time to charge this would lead to me panicking hours before I leave the house trying to get at least some charge into my phone and often plugging in for the drive to get a little more. That has gotten a lot better with quick charge options, a lot of devices can get a full charge in that “panic” window but you do need to have AC adapters and cables that can handle it, we are now seeing their capabilities reach the point where one adapter can fan charge your phone and laptop and Anker is a big name in that area. They recently introduced their new GanPrime lineup and before I go on vacation this year I wanted to check out a few of their new and older devices to see if I could improve on my charging setup so today I’m going to check out some of what Anker has to offer and see what they are all about.
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Category: Mobile
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Published: Friday, 10 January 2020 20:57
The phone market seems to make the PC market look slow with new models constantly coming out. For OnePlus they have a sort of cadence with their launches and you can start to catch the drift as you see the OnePlus 6 in mid-2018, the OnePlus 6T in the fall of 2018, the OnePlus 7 in the spring of 2019 along with its 7 Pro variant and then in the fall of 2019 they launched the OnePlus 7T and later the OnePlus 7T Pro. I took a look at the OnePlus 6T alongside the Note 9 and S9+ from Samsung’s Galaxy lineup earlier this year and now today I am checking out the OnePlus 7T, skipping the original 7 and 7 Pro, and testing the 7T against the Samsung S10 and the OnePlus 6T. I loved the 6T so I am really curious to see what OnePlus changed for the 7T and to see if it checked all of the marks like the 6T did with performance, display, camera, and battery life.
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Category: Mobile
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Published: Wednesday, 26 June 2019 22:00
OnePlus has their new OnePlus 7 out now and leading as their flagship but with the 7 being available it also pushed down the pricing on the Oneplus 6T. I’ve been using the 6T for a while now and with the new discounted price I thought it would be a good time to check it out and see how it compares with a few of today's top phones. I’ve got the Note 9 and S9+ to test alongside of the 6T today which are both similar in size and the S9+ is similar to the 6T in that it was a flagship that was recently surpassed by the S10. So let's check out what OnePlus has to offer with the 6T then run it through all of our tests to see how its performance compares.
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Category: Mobile
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Published: Friday, 24 February 2017 11:33
There are only a few phones that I get really excited about every year. The LG V20 is one of those phones, the ultra-premium feature list with things like a built-in headphone DAC are always interesting. This is also one of only a few phones on the premium phone market that has a removable battery and expandable memory. Those features and the aluminum body all help it stand out in a crowded market, but today I’m going to see what else the V20 has going for it and find out just where it stands for performance.
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Category: Mobile
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Published: Monday, 14 November 2016 16:29
So over the past few years I have reviewed 23 different mobile devices and on top of that I have tested and used at least another 23. In that time I have used every variation of Android available, Windows phones, multiple Blackberrys, and even a few Palm devices before they went away. What has been missing though has been a proper test of an iOS device. I’ve toyed with iPads and iPhone and even owned a few different iPods but its never been enough to really get a feel for it. Part of that is because I’ve never bought an iPhone for myself but it also comes down to review sampling for iPhone never being available through the channels we have worked through. Well with the launch of the iPhone 7 that changed, Verizon had a phone for me to check out and I have been using the iPhone7 for about a month and a half. In that time I have put aside any bias and learned how iOS works and tested the new iPhone 7 to see what it is all about. I’m certainly not the first person to cover the phone, but come with me to check out a first time iPhone users experience.
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Category: Mobile
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Published: Tuesday, 20 September 2016 18:29
Not too long ago the idea of a premium phone was really just a big screen, a fast CPU, and maybe a decent camera. Over the past few years, the premium phone market has really grown and with that we have seen a wide variety of different features help set these phones apart. With the new Moto Z line of phones, they have a few different phone options including the Force model that I’m going to check out today. Features like high battery life, a shatterproof screen, and a fingerprint reader will be useful to everyone, but it’s the Moto Mods that I think everyone will remember the Moto Z Force for. The phone has a back panel that lets you swap out different back plates and a few premium features like an additional battery, a speaker, or even a projector. Verizon sent along the Moto-Mods speaker along with the phone for my testing so I do get to get a feel for the hot swappable features.
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Category: Mobile
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Published: Tuesday, 05 July 2016 20:55
The other day I took a look at the Bose SoundLink Mini II that Verizon had sent over as an example of ways to get more functionality out of your mobile phone. Well, today I’m taking a look at the second product. This time around it’s the new Fitbit Blaze. I’ve taken a look at fitness bands in the past, but not from Fitbit. Fitbit is by far the most popular fitness band manufacture, so I’m excited to see what they do to set themselves apart from everyone else. Not the mention the Blaze looks to be a bit of a departure on their part as well. So let’s dive in and see what it is all about.
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Category: Mobile
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Published: Thursday, 28 April 2016 19:02
With LG’s main phone line being their G series it wouldn’t be a big surprise if you hadn’t heard of their V10. I have been testing the V10 for a while and every time someone asked what phone I had they had no idea what the V10 was. You might remember the LG commercials for it though with their focus being on the camera. That’s because the V10 added manual video controls as well as a vine like ability to stitch together short clips. Add to that there are two front facing cameras it’s clear that the V10 wanted to improve on the camera experience. Well after spending time with the phone I think there is a lot more to the V10 and I wanted to go over my experience with LGs premium smartphone. Read on to find out how things went.
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Category: Mobile
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Published: Wednesday, 27 January 2016 22:20
Generally, I tend to consider myself up to date with technology, I mean I spend my days testing and writing about the latest and greatest. Every once in a while though something slips past me. A few years ago at CES Razer introduced their Nabu. It wasn’t really the first of its kind with Nike and Fitbit especially doing things that were similar, but it was very surprising to see Razer, a gaming company jump into the market. It wasn’t really until in the past year when I noticed just how popular Fitbit has been with even my own mom having one before me. Well my wife recently decided to get them to start working on bettering ourselves and Razer came back to mind. So today I’m going to take a look at the Razer Nabu and see what it’s all about.
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Category: Mobile
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Published: Wednesday, 02 December 2015 20:15
When it comes to the smart phone market, I think we can say that the Samsung Galaxy line launching a new phone makes waves similar to the new iPhone launches. They have a large portion of the Android market. I’ve been lucky enough to have the chance to test and review a good portion of their product line over the years with the most recent being S6. Well about 4 months after the S6 launched Samsung brought out their larger Note 5 and I have been testing it. Today I can finally sit down and talk a little about my experience as well as dig into the phones features and benchmark performance as well. So sit down, relax and let’s take a look at the Galaxy Note 5.
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Category: Mobile
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Published: Friday, 26 June 2015 15:48
While there seems to be an endless number of Android phones on the market, for those of you shopping for one this summer are most likely only going to be looking at just a few. The perennially popular Galaxy S lineup being at or near the top of that list. This year Samsung introduced the S6 with two models (and just recently announced a third), you can pick from the regular Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge. On top of wanting to see what the new Samsung phones had to offer, I also really wanted to take a closer look at the difference between the two phones. I spent a little time with the original S6 and then spent a bunch of time with the Edge to see what sets it apart and also to see what justifies its higher price point. So today I’m going to talk a little about my experience.
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Category: Mobile
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Published: Friday, 13 February 2015 20:09
You may not realize it but with our phones and tablets, we tend to live our life around them rather than get devices that let you live the way you want to live. What I mean by that is for the most part a lot of us continue to want faster, thinner, and a bigger screen but we tend to completely forget a few things when shopping for a phone. For starters, what good is a phone or tablet if the battery is dead before you know it. Additionally we are careful with our phones and tablets around dust, dirt, and water because generally all of those things will ruin your fancy new phone/tablet. Remember when you could push someone in the pool without worrying, now you have to be concerned that they don’t have their phone on them. Well Sony has been pushing a lot of their product lines towards focusing on people with an active lifestyle and that means they now have a few devices that are waterproof and dust resistant. Well today I’m going to take a look at their Xperia Z2 tablet and Xperia Z3v phone to find out if having a waterproof phone/tablet is a big advantage.
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Category: Mobile
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Published: Friday, 12 December 2014 13:40
This fall I had the chance to take a look at two of the most popular Android phones on the market and compare how well each of them performed compared to each other. The response to that was overwhelmingly positive. So to follow up with that today I will be taking a look at another pair of flagship Android phones, this time the Droid Turbo and the latest version of the MotoX. While both phones have a lot of similarities, a lot of you might still be wondering which phone is best for you. Today I’m going to run through their features, performance, and find out if one or the other stands out from the crowd.
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Category: Mobile
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Published: Friday, 17 October 2014 11:10
Picking your new phone is a big decision; you are going to be stuck with it for the new few years. Because of that you don’t want to pick the first one you look at. This is especially difficult for people who have been in the Android ecosystem because there are such a wide variety of phones. Currently two of the most popular are the LG G3 and the Samsung Galaxy S5. Both have a lot of similarities and big followings. I’ve been using both phones for a good portion of the summer, today I’m going to look back and see how they compare to hopefully help a few of you decide on what phone is best for you.
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Category: Mobile
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Published: Monday, 16 June 2014 11:39
When I picked up a new laptop this year, I had a strict set of requirements for a new laptop bag. I wanted something that matched the portability of my new Yoga 2 Pro, something that was different from the standard run of the mill bags, and something that fit the laptop perfectly. Surprisingly trying to find a laptop bag that fit an ultrabook was a lot harder than I thought, most manufactures ignore the laptop thickness and just size by the screen size. I did run across a company called WaterField that makes a wide variety of bags, including bags to fit my laptop. Today I’m going to take a look at their VertiGo Travel Bag and a Sleevecase to keep my Yoga 2 Pro nice and safe.
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Category: Mobile
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Published: Monday, 19 May 2014 20:15
Both my wife and I have been putting our Nexus 7’s to a lot of use for a few years now. They have been used for reading, gaming, redditing, facebooking, finding dinner while traveling, as a GPS, countless other things, and most importantly they have both been used to end debates about who is right or wrong almost daily. Of all of the devices that we have they rarely get left behind when traveling or when we are out and about. We opted to wait when we saw the Nexus 7 2013 simply because replacing both devices can add up a little when you add in new cases, screen covers, ect. Just before heading out for our vacation this summer Verizon Wireless offered to send a new 2013 Nexus 7 with LTE over for us to toy with. Today I will talk a little about how it compares to our older Nexus 7 and how well it worked out while on vacation.
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Category: Mobile
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Published: Friday, 11 April 2014 13:10
Variety is the spice of life, this applies to anything in your life. This is especially true in the phone market. Most people think of Android and iOS phones when thinking of modern smart phones but the third largest in popularity are Windows phones. Not only are they third, but their popularity has continued to grow. It’s about time that we get one in and see what all of the buzz is about. The latest and greatest Windows phone is the Nokia Icon, I have been living with it for a few weeks now and I am excited to tell you guys/girls about the phone and my experience with it.
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Category: Mobile
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Published: Wednesday, 05 February 2014 09:17
For what seemed like months we have seen commercials for the LG G2 on television. Recently Verizon Wireless sent one over for us to check out and I have been putting it through daily use. For the most part the G2 is a lot like other phones but it does have a very unique placement of its volume and power buttons. Where most phones have the buttons on the sides or top, the G2’s buttons are on the back of the phone. So today I’m going to talk a little about my experience with the G2 and Verizon Wireless’s network.
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Category: Mobile
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Published: Friday, 20 December 2013 17:36
This past year at CES Nvidia introduced a new mobile product called the Shield. At the time, even after having a little time to play with it on the show floor, you could say I wasn’t exactly excited about it. The idea of gaming on a tablet was starting to win me over but I just couldn’t imagine trying to carry around something so bulky. This past spring and summer I spent even more time gaming on my tablets, especially the Nexus 7. Emulators and an ever growing collection of games started to win me over. Add in Nvidia’s changes to their drivers and the possibility of being able to stream PC gaming to the Shield and by the time it launched I had been converted into a full on fan of the device. Now nearly a year after its introduction I can finally sit down and talk about my experience with the Shield. Did it live up to my expectations? Read on time find out.
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