Are 2 Touch Screens Better Than One?

This Sunday, April 17th, a new kind of touch-screen phone will be available for purchase through Sprint. This touch-screen phone is out of the ordinary. Not only does it have a touch-screen, it features a second touch-screen that can be used side-by-side.

The Kyocera Echo looks like a normal Android phone at first glance, although a little thicker than usual. First thoughts is that it has some kind of fancy slide-out keyboard -- but no, it doesn't! Under the first touch-screen, is another touch-screen. A special hinge design allows the top touch-screen to slide up and be positioned directly next to the lower screen for side-by-side use. Use of the two screens can be very useful and productive side-by-side. You are able to use one app on both screens, or even split the screens and have two different apps open at once for use. Turn the Echo sideways, and you are able to view the Web on a combined total of a 4.7 inch screen.

At a 6.8 ounce phone, the Kyocera Echo is noticably heavier than the other competing phones; such as the iPhone 4 at 4.8-ounces, the Blackberry Bold 9700 at 4.3-ounces, etc. From sources able to have a preview of the phone, when in a phone call, the 0.68-inch thick phone seemed bulky; although, the calls sounded fine.

At this point, users are worried about battery life with the two seperate touch-screens. Sprint estimates the total talk time to be up to 7 hours. The phone does come with a spare battery that can be swapped with the original, or even act as a power source with the right accessories.

The $200 phone (with 2-year contract) must be used with one of Sprint's Everything Data plans that start at $70 a month, plus a $10 premium data charge each month. Like other smart phones, the Echo is hot-spot enabled to host up to 5 devices for an extra $30 each month.

[original article found on The Wall Street Journal]

White iPhone 4 Confirmed by Apple!

It looks like the white iPhone that is always delayed for reasons never explained by Apple will be coming out this Spring.

Ten months after the release of the iPhone 4, Apple has confirmed the release with The Wall Street Journal that is, without a doubt, coming this Spring. Apple never specified a release date or what carrier(s) the phone will be available on.

When the iPhone 4 first unvieled, Steve Jobs held in his hand a white iPhone 4. But when pre-orders started for the device, only the black model was available for order. At that time, Apple released a statement saying that the white iPhone was "more challenging to manufacture than expected" and they would have to delay the release for that version. This hasn't been the first time this has happened though. All iPhone owners know of the continuous delays for this model with every unviel of the iPhone.

At this point, with all the rumors of the delay of the iPhone 5, many are convinced that Apple is doing this to distract attention from the delay of the 5th generation iPhone. Especially since they WWDC seems to be more of a software release than a product release, this is looking more likely to be a distraction.

Steve Jobs hid iPad Development from Google's Eric Schmidt

Courtesy of MacTrast

There is no doubt that Jobs was furious when he saw Android's "pinch to zoom" feature while on a trip to Google's headquarters. Jobs reportedly hid Apple's iPad development from Google CEO, Eric Schmidt - even though Schmidt was on the board of directors at the time.

Steve Levy recently published a book about the complex relationship between Apple and Google. It specifically describes the battles between CEO's Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt. In the book, you will be able to read about the in's and out's of Google and how they started as a company and how they started to get involved with Apple, Inc.

Now back to the original post:

Jobs was fairly upset towards Google because he felt they were "ripping off" some of the iPhone's best features and incorporating them into the Android OS. After the news of this, Jobs felt he wasn't able to trust Schmidt any longer, who, at the time, held a seat on Apple's board of directors, each of which held details of Apple's innovations in technology. Eventually, Schmidt stood down for Apple's board, and the iPad was released only 6 months later.

The book is available for order from Amazon and includes Jobs referring to Google's "Don't Be Evil" motto as "Bullshit".

Apple in the Process of an HDTV?

There has been some past talk about Apple going into the HDTV business, but nothing has made it evident that it's a possibility, until now. Brian White, an analyst with Ticonderoga Securities, was recently at a China electronics trade show. He mentioned in a not to investors that he was able to get "data points" that show the production of a "Smart TV" release by Apple, as soon as the end of the year. Here is a quote by White:

"Our research suggests this Smart TV would go well beyond the miniature $99 second-generation Apple TV that the company released last fall and provide a full-blown TV product for consumers"

He continued on to say that Apple has been suspected to enter the HDTV market by company watchers, the Mac maker now appears to be "movind down this path at a faster pace than the market expected."

"The combination of Apple's powerful ecosystem, industrial design savvy, powerful brand and ability to reinvent product categories could make Apple a powerful force in the TV world over the next few years"

Courtesy of MacTrast

One analyst of Piper Jaffray, Gene Munster, seems to continually insist that an Internet-connected HDTV from Apple is expected. He has repeatedly forecast that Apple will introduce such a product in the years to come, with a price around the $2,000 range.

A product as expected form Munster, could have a lot of possibilities, such as a subscription service to iTunes which could allow users access to content at a flat-rate price. This possibily could very well negate the need for any kind of cable box or DVR. Although, White's public not gave no indication of any of the possibilities to come along with the TV, Apple has had a great amount of experience with HD displays on it's iMac desktop, which includes their first release of their 27-inch iMac in 2009.

Earlier in this year, Apple announced that they have invested $3.9 billion of their cash reserves to secure key components for their multiple products. At the announcing of this, many assumed the money would have gone toward securing displays for their products, including the iPhone and iPad. But Munster believes that the multi-billion investment is just more evidence of an Apple HDTV release. As he said in February, he believes that Apple would be able to build a TV up to 50 inches, though he predicted that a product of such size wouldn't launch until the early calendar year of 2012, at the earliest.

A Possibly Carbon Fiber Housing For The Next iPad?



iPad Carbon Fiber Mock-up. Courtesy of Gizmodo

 Last November, news rose quickly about Apple's patent for a carbon fiber casing for the iPad. Although the carbon fiber would make the iPad a lot lighter than with the aluminum housing, the carbon fiber can crack or break if it's bent or too much pressure is put on it. Within the patent, they describe a way to create a "reinforced device housing" that will help against those problems.

Well, just recently, Apple hired Kevin Kenny, a Senior Composites Engineer. Kenny started work at Apple this month after working for fourteen years at Kestral Bicycles, where he built and designed carbon fiber bicycles. The question is now, where is he going to direct his attention, and what products is he going to be working with? Will he be working on the MacBook? the iPad? or what about the iPod? Who knows... maybe he's working with multiple iProducts!?

But I can assure you one thing! There's no way that Apple is going to be coming out with an iBike!

iPhone 5 Not Released Until Early 2012?

Everybody is used to the "norm" when it comes to Apple's releases of products. One of the most known release is the iPhone at the WWDC, which will happen June 6-10 this year, is the next-generation iPhone. Each year since the first iPhone came out, an announcement has been released at WWDC for the newest iPhone release. This year, there are more rumors than usual expecting the iPhone release to be delayed this year or maybe even into the beginning months of next year. Analysts Avian Securities are making a pretty big claim that the iPhone 5 won't be into production until September. With production not starting until September, this would probably lead into a late-2011 or early-2012 release.

This claim was brought up by a conversation that Avian Securities had with a "key component supplier". The conversation is below, in full:

Supporting out comments over the last month, conversations with yet another key component supplier indicates that production for iPhone-5 will begin in September. This is consistent with Avian findings in the supply chain in recent months and we believe the consensus view is moving towards this scenario. In addition, our conversations also indicate the existence of a lower-spec/lower-priced iPhone in Apple's roadmap.
However, while our contacts have seen the placeholder in the Apple roadmap, they do not yet have insight into specs or production timing. This leads us to believe that any launch is likely a very late 2011 or more likely a 2012 event.
As a reminder, Avian has uncovered several data-points in recent months pointing to the existence of a lower-spec/lower-price iPhone. A lower-spec/lower-price iPhone has also been speculated in the press and gadget blogs, though we do not believe consensus currently discounts the existence of such a model.

While nobody has anybody clear evidence as to why the above conversation isn't true, there is no evidence showing that this information is false. Even though Apple has had consistent summer releases of the iPhone at WWDC, when you add up all of the rumors and and current events that can harm production of certain aspects of the phone (such as the Japan earthquakes), an end of the year release seems more and more likely. I guess one positive thing mentioned in the above conversation is the lower-spec/lower-priced iPhone possibility. It will be interesting to see what Apple does to make the iPhone more affordable.

Google Buying Mobile Music Sync Service, PushLife

Everybody who has an iPhone knows of the Android name. The Android has been increasingly popular, but doesn't hold up to all of the innovation that Apple puts into all of their products. Google has recently bought-out a Canadian mobile music synchronization service, PushLife. Google has willingly poured $25 million to by the company, which was founded by Research in Motion (RIM). PushLife's main service is to offer synchronization with iTunes between devices that were not originally made to be compatible with the program.

According to analysts' assessments, this acquisition will bring the rumor back that Google was preparing their own mobile music service. But as most of us already know, the news that Google was bringing Google Music Sync on Android smartphone was rumored a long time ago.

Either way, Google stated that the acquisition done to PushLife is not just only about the music sync technology, but rather the highlights the development team at PushLife, who judging, are very talented.

But like every other buy-out and rumor that starts, only time will tell whether or not they will hold true. But who knows, maybe Google is trying to give Apple a run for their money. Whether they are trying to or not, I know Steve Jobs isn't happy about Google's Android as he stated, "I don't know why Google jumped in the the phone industry. We didn't get into the search industry."

A New Update of Final Cut Pro May Add iPad, Thunderbolt Support

Okay, so this article is very interesting to me, as I am an avid FCP user. I originally saw this article over at Apple Insider. All I know is that I need to get me this update if the rumors are correct.

So here it is:

Comments given from an industry insider offered us a glimpse of what is expected to be released at the unviel, with possiblities of support with high-speed Thunderbolt, and possibly even iPad.

The details of the unviel came from Mark Raudonis, the head of post production at Bunim/Murray Productions. He was given an advance look at the anticipated software update, scheduled to be unvieled tomorrow, April 12th. His comments that were given were collected by FilmMaker Magiazine.

Speaking at the PreNAB Editor's Lounge 2011, Raudonis quoted hockey legend, Wayne Gretzky, in which he said he would "skate to where the puck will be" (which was also cited in the past by Apple CEO, Steve Jobs). Raudonis said the new version of FCP illuminates Gretzky's philosophy.

Here are some remarks mad by Raudonis:

"Where is the puck headed? Again, I can't speak specifically, but I think the rest of the time here will be very interesting. File-based workflows, Thunderbolt, iPad, competition, it's a moving target. Adobe, Avid, Lightworks. There's a lot of other stuff out there. And they (Apple) are certainly not ignorant of what's going on in the market at the moment. Apple is very good at going their own way and figuring out where things will be. They may not ask you what you want. They are going to tell you 'We're going to invent something different.'"

Raudonis commented and said that he was impressed with the new update for FCP. He also stated that Apple is planning on a release in Spring 2011.

The actual unviel of the update became known because Apple required some of the sponsors' presentations to be cancelled in or to have the appropriate amount of stage time neccessary to show off... I mean, demonstrate, the new update.

Steve Jobs Finally Approves Of Biography

A great announcement came from Simon & Schuster that one of their authors, Walter Isaacson, has actually gotten permission from Steve Jobs to write a biography on his life. This may be a bigger deal than you think, as Jobs has never authorized of any biography that has been released yet.

The book by Isaacson has been given the appropriate title: "iSteve: The Book of Jobs", making a play on words with, not only his name, but also all of the products at Apple. It has already been rumored that Isaacson, since 2009, has been interviewing Jobs, his family, colleagues, and even competitors of Apple. Simon and Shuster spokeswoman, Tracy Guest, made the first announcement about the book on Sunday (April 10, 2011) by announcing that the book will be published sometime early 2012. She also went ahead and stated that niether Isaacson or Jobs will be commenting on the announcement.

Many biographies of Jobs' life has been writter, but none have ever been authorized by himself. One biography, "iCon: Steve Jobs, The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business," actually got his active disapproval. In 2005, Apple banished works by John Wiley & Sons from its stores because the publisher had signed up the unauthorized biography by Jeffrey S. Young and William L. Simon.

"This is the perfect match of subject and author, and it is certain to be a landmark book about one of the world's greatest innovators. Just as he did with Einstein and Benjamin Franklin, Walter Isaacson is telling a unique story of revolutionary genius." - Jonathan Karp, publisher of Simon & Schuster

Steve Jobs, currently 56, has had numerous health problems and just released, in January, that he will be taking his third leave of absence at Apple, Inc. While he was away, he amazingly survived a rare, but curable, form of pancreatic cancer. He was able to re-appear at a press-conference in early March to make the announcement for the iPad 2.

Whiskey Militia

Courtesy of Whiskey Militia

So I talked about a website that I've used on a recent post. On this site, Whiskey Militia, I was able to buy Skullcandy Full Metal Jacket Earphones, which are originally $70, for only $25 plus shipping. I've also been able to buy some clothes, which are usually in the $75-$100 range for around only $40-$50. It's definitely a great source to use to find great deals! Here's the way it works:

• They have one sale at a time.
• There is no set time limit for a sale.
• If a product runs out (it displays how many are left), a new sale will begin immediately.
• You can combine shipping.
• Buy one item and keep it in your shopping cart for up to one week and have each additional item shipped for only 99¢.

There are so many good deals on this website! I've found so many things that I would have bought, if only I had the money for! I've seen a lot of different things on sale here: clothes (guys and girls), shoes, watches, sunglasses, snowboards (and accessories), and a lot more! This is definitely a site that will help you to save money on name brand things. But it's definitely not a website that nobody knows about. I've seen things go out of stocks within minutes of it being put up, while other things last the hours at a time. Here's a quote directly from their website:

We offer one ridiculously sweet product at a stupidly low price until it sells out. The first fresh-iest, hesh-iest deal drops each midnight and sells ‘til it’s gone. And it always sells fast. You'll whine like a little baby when you miss it. After that another steal drops and sells till it's gone, then another, and another, until we get bored and call it a day or until the next midnight arrives. - Whiskey Militia

So you have it directly form their website! They've always got the best deals and name brand products. So if you see something that you think to yourself, "OMG! I have to have it!", don't waste time looking at all of the unimportant stuff! Buy it before it sells out!

Skullcandy Full Metal Jacket Earphones

So you bought a new iPhone, and you've got the standard iPhone earphones that comes with it. I don't know about you, but I wasn't really impressed with Apple's headphones. To me, the sound quality wasn't that great, and it started to hurt my ears after listening to music for a while. I wanted to get the most out of my music but these standard earphones weren't really working for me. After looking around for a while, I found these:

Courtesy of Skullcandy.com

Skullcandy's Full Metal Jacket Earbuds. Buying them from Skullcandy would have absolutely broke my bank, but luckily, I found a website called Whiskey Militia (which will have a review shortly!) where I was able to buy my earphones for only $25 plus shipping! These earphones are everything that I wanted my earphones to be! They provided rich sounds while being able to hear every part of the music. They were definitely more comfortable than Apple's cheap earphones, and even has a mic so that I can use it while on a call on my iPhone.

The quality of these earphones are so much more than Apple's. The sound that I got from these the first time I plugged them in was absolutely amazing! I was able to hear every part of the music clearly, with a deep, rich bass and clear vocals. Even when turning the volume up on these, the quality stays the same and seems like it would almost be impossible to ruin these by turning the music up too loud. Unlike any other earphones I've had, these are actually pretty comfortable! I could listen to music for hours without taking these out because of discomfort. They come with different sized earbuds to fit the size of your ear better. And another perk, these are even noise-canceling without having to destroy your eardrums with the loudness of your music.

Now that I've told you how amazing these are, lets get down to the only two things that I've found to be a down-side with these earphones.

• Number One: after a bit of use, the mic seems to lose quality, and eventually, the mic on my pair of earphones stopped working all-together. Although the mic didn't work, I was still able to use the button on the earphones to control my iPod (pause, next, previous, ect.).
• Number Two: if anything taps the wires, you can hear it no matter how loud your music is. For example, I tend to use my headphones when doing dishes, and when the wire taps against the counter, it's easy to tell that it just happened. Even just moving your fingers along the wire will create a sound that is impossible to hear and quite annoying when you're listening to music.

Like I said, those are the only two things that I've been able to find that I would consider a negative. I think that this product is definitely worth the money as it will last ages! I've already had mine over two years and they still work fine! When I still used Apple headphones, I was usually replacing them, about, every six months it seems like! But if you don't believe me, go look at some other reviews! If you have an experience with these, why don't you leave a comment and tell everybody how you feel about them?

A Quick Update

There have been some new changes going on with my website vegaskidreviews.blogspot.com. I just recently purchased my own domain name. It will soon be just VegasKidReviews.com. It will take a couple days to switch everything over to that domain name. So in the mean time, be patient so we can fix all of the links over to the new domain. Everything will be done, at the latest, by Saturday (April 9th, 2011).

**If a link isn't in working order, you can still get to the page by following these steps:

1. Take a look at the URL at the top of the screen. For an example, one link may be: http://www.vegaskidreviews.com/p/email-me.html.
2. To get to the page you want, simply add '.blogspot' before '.com' so that it will look like this: http://www.vegaskidreviews.blogspot.com/p/email-me.html.
3. Once that is added into the URL, you will be able to go the page that you would like.

Again, this will only be for another day or two. Eveything will be switched over by April 9th, 2011. If you aren't able to navigate to the page you want, make sure you check back over the next couple days to check to see if the problem has been fixed. Sorry for the inconvienence!

New iPhone User Tips

Talk to anybody that you know that has an iPhone and they will surely say that it's a phone like no other. But when you're converting to the iPhone from any ordinary phone can be a long, hard adjustment if you don't have experience using an iPhone or iPod touch. If you're a new to the iPhone community, here are some tips that will help you get started with your new phone.

Courtesy of: Apple.com

• Multitasking
• Using multi-tasking on the your iPhone is a very simple task, but can be very hard to come by if you don't already know how to use it. This feature is used, simply, to navigate between recently opened apps quickly without having to go through your home screen. To use multi-tasking, simply double-tap the "Home" button at any time. You will know that you tapped it fast enough when you see the screen slide up and a row of four recently opened apps. Although you can only see four apps at a time, just like the home screen, you can scroll back and fourth to see more recent apps. If you scroll to the left, you can even use some of your iPod controls; such as: play/pause, forward, backward, and even volume.

• Text tips
• Texting on the iPhone, when you are not used to it, can be a major hindrance. Here are a couple quick tips to help you to learn how to text on your new phone. 
• Periods. There are a few different ways to add a period to your text. You can do the old fashioned way of going to the symbols screen and hit the "." button; or you can do the quick, easier way of double-tapping the spacebar. By double-tapping the spacebar, a period will be automatically inserted.
• Predicted Text. No matter where you type on your iPhone, you will always be given some predicted words that the iPhone predicts for you. Sometimes this can be more of a bother than anything but is really useful when typing longer words or words that you're not too sure how to spell. Simply just tap the spacebar or the word that you want to enter. If you don't want to add the word, either keep typing your word or tap the "x" next to the predicted word.

• Folders
• Whoever it was that thought of adding folding to the home screen was a genius (in my opinion)! Apple has created the home screen so that you can group apps together by category, or in any way you want. By putting your apps together in folders helps you to keep your home screen organized and minimizes the number of screens you need. To organize your apps into folders, tap and hold on any app, for approximately three seconds, then drag one app on top of the app you want to create a folder with. When you first create a folder, your phone will automatically name the folder based on what apps you've grouped together. You are able to add up to nine applications into one folder. 

• Battery Percentage
• It's always a nice thing to know how much battery life you have left on your device. It comes standard on the the iPhone to show a battery symbol on the top right corner of the screen, but it can be hard to know the exact battery left. If you navigate through the settings (Settings>General>Usage>Battery Percentage), you can turn on the option to show the exact battery percentage directly next to the standard battery indicator.

• Notifications
• A lot of the apps that you will download, will come with notifications that are automatically turned on when it is downloaded. For some apps, such as your social networking apps, you will want to keep those notifications turned on. For other apps, such as games, you may want to turn off the notifications so you're not constantly getting updates to your phone. You can modify these changes easily by by going into your settings (Settings>Notifications), and changing what you want to change. Each app comes with three different ways to notify you: Sounds, Alerts, and Badges. Each has their own option so you can keep one on while turning the other off.

So those are some quick tips that I would give to some new iPhone owners. There are many different tips and tricks that will help you do what you need more efficiently. So talk to your friends and family that you know to help you with your needs. If you need help with any specific problem that you can't get the answer to, feel free to email you and I'll do the best I can to help you!