IPhone 6 Review

The new iPhone 6 is much bigger than all other iPhones made in time past, much more comfortable to hold with improved camera. It was launched during a special event organized by Apple on the 9th of September 2014. 

Three devices where unveiled that day, the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and the iWatch. The Phone 6 has a 4.7in display while the iPhone 6 Plus has a 5.5in screen display. 

It is hoped that both models will help Apple reach more clients that were not using iPhone 5 or older. The question that goes unanswered is "What about those who prefer the 4in screen phones of the previous models of iPhone (iPhone 4 and iPhone 5)?" 

iPhone 6 has different storage capacities, it has the 16GB, 64GB and 128GB. There is no 32GB. I will recommend that you go for the 64GB or 128GB , because experience has shown that unlike other phones that the memory can upgraded, iPhones including iPhone 6 can not be upgraded. So when you have the need to have a larger capacity, you now discover that you are stuck with 16GB. Just like with every other phones, the higher the capacity, the faster the processor of your phone but this solely depends on the amount of video, apps, photos, music stored in it. Talking about processor, the iPhone has a 64-bit A8 processor, which is much more powerful than the A7 processor of its predecessors. The processor has a speed of 1.27GHz which is lower than Samsung's Galaxy S5 which has a speed of 2.5GHz. Both iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have the same RAM size of 1GB just like its predecessors.  

Apple has modified the shape of its new device, it is 6.9mm thick (that’s about eight stacked credit cards), weighs 4.55 ounces with rounded edges. This makes it comfortable to hold. It has a big screen with a resolution of 1,334 x 750 and 326 ppi density also makes watching videos, playing games and viewing images much more exciting.

If you are conversant with the iPhone 5s, you will notice that it has a round volume button, the new iPhone comes  with long metal ovals and the sleep/wake button has been moved to the right side of the phone. 

One draw back on the iPhone 6 is that the camera lens protrudes slightly so when the phone is laid flat, it does not sit evenly. There might be a technical reason behind that decision, or perhaps Apple might change this with future models. The good thing is that the camera is 8 MP that uses a new sensor called “Focus Pixels” with LED flash, auto-focus, advanced face detection and digital image stability.

The battery life is slightly better than its predecessors with a standard battery capacity of 1810 mAh which is not removable. With active usage the phone can make it through the day with about 20 to 30 percent of battery life still left.

The price of iPhone 6 varies, the 16 GB costs $650, the 64 GB costs around $750 while the 128 GB costs around $850. 

iPhone 6 also features a new  new super-fast WiFi chip and an improved Touch ID fingerprint sensor. The NFC of iPhone works with Apple Pay mobile payment service. 

Apple has no intentions of making its NFC open to third-parties and will only work with Apple Pay. Which means that developers coming up with new apps can't use this feature.

Lenovo Yoga Tablet 10 HD+ review

If you want an affordable tablet, then Lenovo Yoga Tablet is the tablet for you. With its top quality screen, 16 hour battery life (a really very long battery life), one charge. A 10.1 inch screen, 1,920 x 1,200 IPS display; Qualcomm Snapdragon 400; 2GB RAM; 16GB storage; 802.11n Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 4.0; microSIM slot; microSD up to 64GB; 9,000mAh battery; 626g.

Unlike other tablets, Lenovo yoga has an adjustable kickstand hinge that props the device into several positions, and a 9,000mAh battery plus it’s got a full high-resolution 1,920 x 1,200 screen, front-facing speakers and a quad-core processor. It’s about $155 cheaper than most top tablets like apples iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab and Sony models. It’s got 802.11n Wi-Fi rather than the future-proofed 802.11ac hardware included in the Samsung and Sony models. It has an 8 Mega-Pixel camera and a 1.6-megapixel front-facing shooter.

One other striking thing about this tablet is that its display is High Definition (HD) that is 1,920 x 1,200 IPS display that makes watching HD YouTube videos so cool. Has a loud accurate sound and a useful multi-window mode. For better viewing it is advisable to tilt it up when it’s on flat surface.

Just like Yoga 10, Yoga 10 HD has an unusual spiral notebook aesthetic. The tablet has a cylindrical aluminum hinge that holds the battery. It comes with android 4.3 processor and 2G RAM that allow it to surf the Web and play movies reasonably well. The audio is excellent good for listening to music. Lenovo sells a $79 Bluetooth keyboard that can snap onto the top of your Yoga tablet for those who want to type when tablet is in the stand mode.



The tablet has three modes: Stand Mode, Tilt mode and Hold Mode

Stand Mode: allow you have a video conference with someone or watch a video clip while working on your PC



Tilt Mode: very useful when looking down at the tablet, and its useful for when typing, just like having a slightly tilted keyboard.



Hold Mode: of course when you want to carry it around

QR Codes (Quick Response Codes)

For most Blackberry (BB) Users, Quick Response (QR) Codes are nothing new. You may have seen it before, even if you are not a BB user. QR Code is the trademark for a type of matrix barcode or two dimensional barcode. It was evented by Denso Wave in 1994 with the sole purpose of tracking vehicles during manufacture. It is a machine optical label that uses four standardized encoding modes (numeric, alphanumeric, byte / binary, and kanji) to efficiently store data; extensions may be used too.

QR codes can store URLs (Uniform Resource Identifier ), contact details like vCard, phone numbers, messages (SMS) and even an encrypted message for fast readability compared to the normal UPC (Universal Product Code) barcodes as illustrated below. That is why the name Quick Response (QR) was derived.

Even though it started off in the automotive industry, it is now widely used in product tracking, item identification, time tracking, mobile marketing, blackberry messenger, Even the Japanese immigration system now uses encrypted QR codes when issuing visa in passports for security reasons.

When you look at a QR code you will see square dots (black modules) arranged in a square grid on a white background, which can be read by an imaging device such as a camera or most modern smart devices with a camera and processed using Reed Solomon error correction until the image can be appropriately interpreted.

Today, most publications like university catalogs, business cards, books, magazines, articles have a QR code printed on them. Even the boxes of printers, TVs or other electronics now come with these codes. When you bring a QR reader close to the code, it quickly detects it and translates it to a message that can easily be understood by the user. When scanned, most QR codes takes you to the website (URL) of the organization or company that has the QR code. A printing company recommends that the minimum size for a printed QR code should be 0.03 inches (0.76 mm) square for a single "module", that is one "bit" of the code, to ensure that the printed result is legible for scanners or smart devices.

Having a QR code on your business card makes it easy in the sense that clients may forget your website address or even misspell it, or may not have the patience to type it out. With QR codes, this problem is taken care of.  Also BBM users can easily scan codes of friends and spontaneously add them to their contact list. It can’t get any better or I might just say perhaps someone may just invent something better.

With the beauty of this technology, comes its down side. It is advised that you should only scan reliable QR codes as some codes could carry malicious scripts or take you to a dangerous website with browser exploits.

Nokia XL Dual SIM Smartphone

The new Nokia XL is a 5-inch screen, unlike the Nokia X or Nokia X+ which are 4-inch screen smart phones. It measures 141.3 X 777 X 10.88mm, weighs 190g and comes in blue, green, yellow, red, black and other colors.

Features

Nokia XL comes has a 5 megapixel camera (camera resolution: 2592 x 1944 pixels) with autofocus and flash and of cause a 2 megapixel front facing camera. It is also a dual sim smart phone.

Performance

Nokia XL runs on Qualcomm Snapdragon 8225 dual core chipset, with maximum clock speed of 1GHz. Its  has a Random Access Memory of 768 and 32 GB of storage space using micro SD card.

Memory

User data storage is in device (Memory card), its phone memory is 4 GB, it has an expandable memory card type ( MicroSD). Nokia generously offers free cloud storage of up to 15 GB on  OneDrive.

Software

It is an android (4.1.2) phone  and does not come with Google services like Gmail, Google Maps, Google Drive, Google Chrome, Google+, YouTube or Google play. In other words, Nokia is promoting its own app which can be gotten from Nokia store and and services that require play service will not work well on Nokia XL.

Battery Life

It has a Battery capacity of 2000 mAh, a battery voltage of 3.7 Volts

Maximum standby time with dual SIM is  30 days

Maximum standby time is 37 days 

Maximum talk time (2G) is 16 hours

Maximum talk time (3G) is 13 hours

Maximum music playback time is 37 hours

Ford Amazing Self-Parking Car

The Engineers at Ford motor comapany have come up with a new technology for their cars, the self parking system which is much different from the park assist which only parallel park with the driver controlling the gas, brake and gear selection. This time, the car can take the wheels and park by itself. 

The driver will have a remote control that when a button is pushed, the car would look for a perfect spot and park (at speeds of up to 18 miles per hour), when the right spot is located, another button is pressed, (whether the driver is inside the car or not) for the car to park itself. For the car to park itself, the remote control has to be pressed for the whole parking maneuver.