Want an Android phone without even knowing it?

Today, Amazon released their new smartphone, the Fire phone. Amazon has been selling their Fire tablets like crazy, but will they be able to do the same with their phone? For those of you that aren't aware, Amazon uses whats known as a "forked" version of Android. To put simply, it IS Android, but Google has been entirely stripped away. Remember that Google's Android OS is open source, meaning that anyone can use
their OS without having to pay for it. However, you can only get Google Services (mainly the Play Store) when you  purchase a license from Google. So even if you have used Android for years, if you pick up Amazon's Fire Tablet you probably wouldn't even know it was Android.

Back to the phone! Amazon threw the metaphoric kitchen sink at their phone in regards to software and tricks. They even brought the trivial 3-D back into the smartphone world. It has (and I'm not lying) four cameras on the front of the phone to watch your face to help control some of the software features. However, below I will discuss some of its features and why I personally don't think it will succeed.

1. Firefly
Firefly is a software feature in which you can scan almost anything with the rear camera, and it will transport you to a description of the item or to the product page. Scan a painting, and it will give you detailed information about the painting. Scan a jar of peanut butter and you will be taken to Amazon to buy it.

Is the neat? Yes. But there are apps everywhere that can already do this for you. And do you really need an even easier way to spend money then to just simply scan something and buy it off of Amazon?

2. Gesture Interface
In the software, certain things can be done by simply tilting the phone. Browsing a photo gallery, you can simply tilt the phone to go to the next Picture. While in maps, you can tilt the phone forward or backward to zoom in/out of the map. This also comes in to play with the cameras on front, when browsing a news article, it will track your eyes and scroll the page for you.

I'm sorry, but when did swiping your phone with your thumb or finger become so difficult? Personally, I don't want to tilt my phone when I'm trying to read or look at something. I can already see where the eye tracking can go awry when I'm reading an article (ever looked around a web page while reading?).

3. Apps???
To the all important app section. Remember at the beginning where I talked about Fire OS being a forked version of Google's Android? Amazon does not come with the Google Play Store. So any app you purchased on another Android phone, may not be here. Amazon's smartphone comes with their own App Store, which has a little over 240,000 apps. That definitely is a lot, but pales in comparison to the likes of the  Play Store and Apple's App Store, which both have over one million apps.

The bad part here, is that when you have an Android phone, you can download the Amazon App Store. A lot of people i know do this because of Amazon's Free App of the Day feature.

4. Specs and Price
A quick rundown of the Fire Phone's specs gives you a 4.7inch 720p display, Snapdragon 800 processor at 2.2GHz, Adreno 330 GPU, 2GB of RAM, 32/64GB of storage, 13MP camera with OIS, and a 2400mAh battery. Although the screen resolution is extremely lacking in a sea of 1080p smartphones (not to mention the upcoming 2K display waves coming), the rest of the specs are very decent. With a lower resolution display and last years processor, you would think that Amazon would price this phone very competitively. Strangely, they did not. For the 32GB version, it is $199 on a two year contract. The 64GB version is $299 on a two year contract. What makes matters worse, when a lot of smartphone makers are trying to get into consumers pockets, Amazon (in my opinion) shoots itself in the foot and makes their phone a carrier exclusive to AT&T.

Having an Amazon app available on all the major smartphone platforms, makes me wonder what sense this phone makes. What are your thoughts?

Oppo Find 7a thoughts.

Chinese manufacturer Oppo may not be to recognizable here in the states, but back in Chine, they are a well known top phone manufacturer. Their most recent run in the flagship smartphone game, the Find 7 and Find 7a, definitely doesn't skimp on anything either. I have been using the Find 7a for the past couple of weeks as my daily driver and I have been very pleased with the device so far.

With the Find 7a, Oppo's lesser version (though it can still compete with any company's flagship phones right now), comes with a 1080p Full HD display, Snapdragon 801 processor, 2GB of ram, 16GB of internal storage with an expandable micro SD storage slot for cards up to 128GB, and a removable battery. As you can see, the little brother of the Find 7 is no slouch. The Find 7a also comes with Oppo's Color OS, their version of Android. While it is definitely not the worst version of Android I've used (sorry Samsung, TouchWiz is terrible...), it was easily not the best either. They add a lot of customizations, but also a lot of bloat. There is a theme section that will let you change the entire look of the phone with other Oppo themes. However, they were all too cartoon-ish for my taste. If you have ever seen or used MIUI, then you will be right at home with how most of the themes look.

I was very pleased with the camera on the Find 7a. The shutter speed was instant and the Ultra HD option in the camera app to take 50MP images looked great. See below for some samples:
Pic 1, Pic 2, Pic 3, Pic 4

Two of my favorite features are the fast charge they added, and the notification light dubbed Skyline Notification. Their fast charge is not only a feature they market, but completely true. Included in the box is a brick plug in USB charger that ups the output from the normal 1A of charging ability, to 4A! Oppo says that a 5 minute charge will let you make a two hour phone call, and a 45 minute charge will bring your battery from 0% to 75%. I can tell you, those claims are not lies or gimmicks, the fast charging is simply amazing. I remember getting home with 15% battery left from work, putting it on the faster charger and making dinner. When I came back, my phone was at 90%.

With all that said though, will I be sticking with the Find 7a for the foreseeable future? Sadly, no. There is a lot to like about this phone. The screen is great, fast charging, add on storage option, removable battery, skyline notification light, great camera; but there is nothing that sets it apart in my eyes. Oppo did a great job with the Find 7a, its just not for me.

The best phone in the World!

The other day I was reading an article I found online from the New York Times talking about how the iPhone 5s is leaps and bounds above the new Galaxy S5 (5s, S5...that made me laugh), and that the 5s is the best phone in the World. Although I wouldn't say that the Galaxy S5 is the best phone out there, I couldn't disagree with this article any more. In my personal opinion, iOS is still lagging far behind Android in terms of software, and even Android phones made a couple years ago beat out the iPhone. Of course this is just my opinion. However, this got me thinking, is there a "Best Phone in the World"?

(The Samsung Galaxy Zoom. Yes, this is actually a phone)

Ask any friend with a smartphone and they will tell you how amazing their phone is. Why else would they have signed a 2 year contract for a discount on purchasing it, or spent the money to buy it at full price? Now, you could argue that they bought it because of a blind brand loyalty, and for some people that's very true. But not everyone walks into their local carriers store and plops down close to $200 on the newest model of their device without looking at other options. They want to find a device that will fit them and their day to day lives. What is most important part of the phone? The camera? User interface? Screen quality? Every person has different points of interest for the phone they want to buy. 

Finding a phone for you is strangely like finding a wife (or husband). Everyone knows that there is no such thing as the perfect woman; just the perfect woman for you. I believe that this also stands true that there is not such thing as the best phone in the world; just the best phone for you.

What is YOUR perfect phone?

Oppo's Find 7a won me over.

(Yes, the notification light is along the bottom of the phone, too cool)

I talked before about two little known manufacturers (Oppo and OnePlus) and how their upcoming smart phones really got my attention. Putting top notch specs in a phone that is very extremely well made and giving it an unlocked price of $499 was too good to pass up. Yes, $499 is a lot to pay for a phone, but take a minute to look up the unlocked prices (not subsidized by a carriers two year contract) of a brand new iPhone 5s or Galaxy Note 3 and you'll see its about $150 dollars cheaper. What really made me pull the trigger were the 'gifts' that Oppo is throwing in to people that pre-ordered their phone. An extra battery, a flip view cover, and a 32GB micro SD card are all included in that price. To buy those separately would have been close to $100. Their 13MP camera also really caught my eye, especially since it has the ability to take 50MP photos. Yes, you did not read that wrong, 50MP! It does this by using a pretty neat software trick. It takes 10 rapid shots, picks the best four, and then combines them into one clearer 50MP image. The results are actually very good, I will definitely post some samples once the phone arrives. Until then, I have to be patient while I look at all the photos and video reviews the Internet has to offer...*sigh*

Make your android, yours!

I posted an article a while ago talking about whether or not to root your device. In it, I talked about how not only are OEM's making it much less a need to root with all of the extras they are putting in their phones, but also because of all the customization apps that you can download right to your phone to make it so much more personal. I want to talk about one such app today; Themer.

Themer is an all encompassing home launcher replacement, meaning it will become what you see on your phone when you select it. Once you open the app, it gives you a very quick tutorial on how it works. From there, you are on your way to downloading your new home screen replacement.

 From the main menu, you are given options on how you would like to sort the themes it has, settings, sharing your theme on social media, setting it as the default home screen, and logging out. Once you download a theme it goes into your My Themes tab and you can quickly come back to one whenever you like. 

Changing between themes is almost too easy. Open the app, select a theme, download it, and your done. Themer also gives you the ability to set Gesture controls. These determine what happens when do things such as swiping up, swiping down, pinching in, and so on. For example, when swipe Up on my home screen, Google Play Music opens up without me having to interact with the app icon (or even looking for it). Below are just two themes that Themer has available, however more and more are added every day. 

I highly suggest you give Themer a try, you can download it for free here.

A great experience with a mobile carriers customer service? You bet!

At the end of last week on Friday, I decided that I wanted to contact T-Mobile and request an unlock code for my device. For those that don't know, when you purchase a new phone from any carrier (T-Mobile, AT&T, etc), that phone is 'Locked' so that it can only be used on that particular network provider. When the phone is 'Unlocked', you can put any carrier SIM card in it and as long as the phone has the required frequency bands that your provider needs, it should work flawlessly. Anyone can contact costumer support for their network and request an unlock code, however there are certain requirements before they'll give that to you. They are all different so I suggest looking on their website if you are interested.

Now, I have heard horror stories about AT&T taking weeks to give unlock codes to people. On T-Mobile's website, it even stated that it could be 2-3 business days, so I was not expecting anything to happen overnight. However, that is exactly what happened. The woman I talked to was extremely nice and at the end of our conversation stated that I would be getting an email with unlocking instructions in the next few days. The very next day, I received an email with an unlock code and instructions on how to use it. I could not be happier with how easy and hassle free T-Mobile made it to unlock my G2. The Un-Carrier is easily continuing to make strides in the mobile world.

Oppo and OnePlus have my attention.

The smartphone market is indeed a big one. Many manufacturers try and compete for your business. Most everyone knows the major players, Apple, Samsung, LG, HTC, Sony. But there are a few company's that make great phones that not many people are aware of. Oppo and OnePlus are just two this year that are really getting me excited.

Oppo's Find 7a is a great looking smartphone with top of the line specs. 1080p screen? Check. Great build quality? Check. Expandable memory? Check. With a price tag that's below most manufacturers flagship phones ($499 unlocked), they really want to make consumers stop and take notice.

OnePlus' phone (OnePlus One) has been able to stay very secretive. We know that spec wise it is easily among the top of the heap, but we have no idea what the phone actually looks like. With an April 23rd announcement coming around the corner, their under $400 phone is definitely in my sites.