Impressive Prototypes - CES 2013

As booths are taken apart and lights are taken down, the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is officially over for 2013. People from all over the world gathered from January 8th - 11th for the event that took place in Las Vegas.

To start off, let's start gaming.

If you're really into gaming, computer gaming specifically, you may have heard of the company, Valve. Valve, who is popular for the 'Steam' community, had a lot of buzz going around at this year's conference. It was announced, that could be a big threat to Nintendo, that the company will be releasing a new game box shortly, that will bring PC gaming straight to the TV, without the need of connecting to a computer. The prototype doesn't feature everything like the Xbox and Playstation do, (like multimedia and Video-on-Demand services) but still poses a threat to Nintendo, as they just launched their social features only in December. Valve is working with Xi3 Industries to produce their console.

Nvidia's 'Project Shield' (Jered Newman / Time.com)

While Valve takes all the buzz for a new gaming console, Nvidia (best known for PC graphics processors and more recently, mobile chips) took center stage with their new handheld console, Project Shield. (Watch demo of the device) The device is a bit larger than the size of an Xbox gamepad, which features Nvidia’s Tegra 4 processor inside. A 5-inch, 720p touch-screen folds out from the controller, much like an older Nintendo Gameboy would.

Featuring an Android operating system, the handheld console has many different features. One feature that seemed to grab the attention of attendees of CES, was the device playing PC games over a home network. (With the requirement that the PC has a newer Nvidia graphics card.) Attendees were pleased to notice that lag was insignificant while playing games like Call of Duty: Black Ops II. The device can also play Android games.

Leaving games behind, let's talk about something that didn't catch quite as much buzz, but is still intriguing to hear about.

Courtesy of The New York Times 

This device is called ivee. Ivee is an alarm clock, but with a twist -- this clock has voice-recognition software. You say "Hello ivee," and the device responds with a "Hello." Then, you simply tell it what time to wake you up.

Not impressed yet?

Well, ivee can also connect to wi-fi connections. Connect ivee to your home network and it can serve as a voice-control central for any wi-fi capable device that may or may not already have voice-recognition software. Demonstrations included using ivee to change the temperature on a thermostat. Or using it to tell a Roomba vacuum to clean up in an area. Or use it in conjunction with a Belkin smart plug to turn on and off a lamp. The wi-fi also allows ivee to get simple information from the web, as well, such as the weather forecast for a nearby city.

As ivee is just in the beginning stages of being produced, not many companies have provided ivee with their application programming interfaces, or APIs, which still makes things a little hard. For things to really take off, the companies founder, Jonathon Nostrant, is hoping to work out some more business connections.

So as CES 2013 has closed it's doors, everybody here at VegasKidReviews has been impressed with the many impressive prototypes that may never be made for the public market. After seeing all of these new gadgets, I know that I can't wait to see what's going to be revealed at CES 2014!

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]

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?

The Sony Dash: Pros and Cons

Not too long ago, I was looking for a present to get my mom. I knew I wanted to get her some kind of tablet other than the iPad because that was just too expensive for me. So somehow, I came across this product: The Sony Dash. It seemed really cool and it was really cheap, compared to the Apple iPad, coming in at just around $200. It wasn't until I read more into it that I didn't really like and opted for something else.

PROS:

1. Completely customizable.
The Sony Dash comes with many different apps that you can download to add to your Sony Dash. Unlike the iPad, you are able to have a stream (such as Facebook or Twitter) on the home screen that updates it automatically. There's no need to have to wait to update just when you open the app; the Sony Dash updates itself in real-time.
2. Apps are completely free!
When I came across this piece of information in the FAQ, I was amazed that they offered all of their apps for free! If you tried to get all of the top apps on an iPad, you can easily find yourself up $5 for each app!

All for around $199.

This product only costs a mere $200! That amount of money at the Apple store won't get you anything except for accessories to their products.


CONS:

1. Listen to internet radio... what about my own?
Sony provides an internet radio app so that you can listen to your favorite radio station. They even say you can reach your photos and videos... online. The Dash does not actually store any kind of information. It has no storage at all. The only way to get to your own music, photos, or videos is if they are online.
2. How portable is this "tablet"?
If you go to the Sony Dash website and look through the pictures, you won't even see one that shows a power cord connected to the Dash. It wasn't until that I read on the FAQ pdf file that I realized it had to be connected to a power source the whole time it is on because it has no battery. This is directly from the FAQ page:

8. Is DASH™ portable? DASH™ does not have a battery and requires an AC power cord (included).

I don't know if it's just me, but I would have liked to know this on the original website instead of having to look through the FAQ page.
3. Read some of the reviews of the product. Some of the customers have said things like, "Waste of money", "Not Worth It", "Returning it after 2 weeks." It seems to me that most people aren't a big fan of Sony's product that's supposed to compete with the iPad.

If you have a Sony Dash yourself, leave a comment below and let me (and everybody else) what you think about it!

iPad 2 Review

With Apple’s recent announcement of the iPad 2 coming out on March 11th, many are waiting for the doors to open that day and be one of the first one’s to get their hands on the iPad 2. Until the launch, nobody will be able to know how it actually measures up to Apple’s description of it. On the Apple website, it seems to be an amazing product with it being 33% thinner, up to 15% lighter, a dual-core A5 chip, and front- and rear-facing cameras. But are these differences going to make the iPad 2 that much different than the first generation iPad? Here are some of the things that I found that I think you should know before purchasing one:

1. iPad 2 is lighter and thinner.
   
   Apple called this the all-new design for the iPad. The main physical appearance is that it is 33% thinner than before coming in a 8.8 mm. (That’s thinner than the iPhone 4.) You’ll also notice that it is 15% lighter than the first generation.
2. iPad 2 has FaceTime.
   
   It was expected that the iPad 2 would have the front-facing camera like the iPhone 4. (As well as the one on the back.) The rear-facing camera has the same resolution as the iPhone 4’s rear camera taking pictures in 720p. The only downside to the rear-facing camera is that it doesn’t have a flash like many other tablets contain.
3. iPad 2’s battery life stays the same.
   
   Even after the add-ons that Apple packed into the new sleek design, they were able to keep the same 10 hour battery life, with the also stated month-long stand-by time from Apple. (But who’s not gonna touch their iPad for a month?!)
4. iPad 2’s display stays the same as the first generation.
   
   While everybody was hoping for a larger-scale retina display, their hopes were put down with this iPad launch. The new iPad still has the same 9.7-inch display. It would definitely be expected for the third generation to have a better display.
5. iPad 2’s graphics will be amazing!
   
   During the much awaited announcement, Steve Jobs said the graphics capability will be 9 times that of the first generation iPad. That promises the improvement of games on the iPad as well as the fact that is now has the same gyroscope the iPhone 4 and latest iPod touch has.
6. iOS 4.3!
   
   The latest version of iOS ships with the iPad and will be available for iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPod touch on 11 March. There’s faster Safari browsing performance; iTunes Home Sharing and thankfully an enhancement to AirPlay. Let’s hope it works now. (By the way, iPhone 4s can act as Wi-Fi hotspots too).
7. HDMI out.
   
   Like the HTC Evolution, the iPad will also have an HDMI out. Plug it into any HDTV and not only will it mirror what you do on your iPad, it’ll charge it while you do it. This feature will be great for those of you that like to use your Apple products for presentations and the like.
8. Shipments start on March 11th.
   
   You can order your iPad 2 on March 11th and it will be shipped to you from Apple for free! If you like to go into the stores to purchase your new product and not have to wait for it to arrive on your doorstep, Apple stores won’t start selling the device until 5pm on the 11th. But one advantage of getting it in-store, they offer free personal setup when you make your purchase.

So those are just some things that I found that helped me to make my decision to purchase the product. I’m excited to wait in line to buy mine and start using it! So what do you guys think? Is it worth the money to buy it or wait until iPad 3?