Karen Jackson, Author at Argyll Free Press

Kazam Tornado 455L Review

July 22, 2015 By Karen Jackson Leave a Comment

Not too many people have heard of the Kazam Tornado 455L, and frankly, you aren’t missing that much if you’re only looking for flag-ship phones. You see, The Kazam Tornado 445L is a budget smartphone, that doesn’t look, nor feel, like a budget smartphone.

The Kazam Tornado 455L looks exactly like Sony’s Xperia line, and it aims to compete with the Japan-based company.

Kazam Tornado 455L Review

What is the Kazam Tornado 455L? What are the Kazam Tornado 455L specs?

It’s Kazam’s way of competing with Sony. You can take it with you in the pool, because it’s waterproof, and you can even drop it on cement, from pocket-distance, without fearing that you just destroyed your phone – it’s equipped with Corning’s Gorilla Glass.

It’s quite slim, and its rectangular shape makes it look high-end.

The Tornado’s key features, and specs:

Primary Camera 13 mp
Quad-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon 410 CPU
Android 4.4
Large screen

It’s not the best smartphone on the market, but for those specs, and priced at about $200, it’s one device you should test before deciding what to buy.

It’s in no shape to race against Sony’s flag-ship phone, but if you want something that resembles their top-of-the-line product, the Kazam Tornado 455L might be just the one for you.

Kazam Tornado 455L Price: $200

Kazam Tornado 455L

Design Talk

So we’re going to start with its design.

Like I said before, it resembles perfectly Sony’s Xperia device, and this is clearly no coincidinc. It’s a lot of things, but being new, and original just doesn’t stick to Kazam’s smartphone.

The Tornado 455L is Sony Xperia Z3+’s cheaper, and less powerful doppelganger. Here’s the thing. It doesn’t feel, or look like a budget device. This way, Kazam tries to garner some loyal Sony fans. But does the cookie crumble?

You can find Corning’s Gorilla Glass on both the front, and the back side of the phone. Usually, budget phone makers tend to envelope their devices in low-quality plastic, but not Kazam. Although, you can feel the plastic, which is not high-quality, but neither poor, on the sides of the smartphone.

Because it’s not entirely made out of plastic, it doesn’t make those annoying creaking sounds that usually appear out of the blue when you put a little bit of pressure on cheaper smartphones.

I mentioned earlier that the Kazam Tornado 455L was waterproof. Not the good kind, mind you.

Sony, and other flag-ship manufactures, build water-resistant USB ports, and headphone jacks. Low budget ones, don’t, and this is the case with the Tornado 455L. It has waterproof flaps, that need reflapping after use. Kazam’s rubber flaps cover the phone’s four ports – one microSIM, one microSD, one microUSB, and the headphone jack.

Micro this, and micro that, but unfortunately, the rubber flaps are poorly constructed, and this can be noticed quite easily. It becomes so annoyingly tedious to just unseal, and reseal them. Also, you can’t just push them back in place. You need to seriously do some finger dancing, and push like your newborn baby is on his way.

It’s a 5.5-inch smartphone. They will always seem too big for my hands.

The smartphone feels smooth, with no blocky, or sharp builds, and buttons feel high-quality. Note, they feel, but they clearly aren’t. I didn’t encounter issues with them on my one month test period, but I could feel them cracking under their very own weight.

Kazam Tornado 455L

Screen Talk

It does feature a 720p resolution, but it’s stretched out on the 5.5-inch screen. Whatever you do on your smartphone – play games, watch movies, or short clips, surf the web, or type away borderline endless messages – you’ll need a big screen.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t excel in this area. Indeed, it does look pretty good, but when you start a Google search, and start reading an article, you’ll notice pixels.

It doesn’t do well when showcasing pictures. You can see that the colors are bland, and quite lifeless. Colors look like someone threw a shade of grey goo over them. It doesn’t have those vibrant colors that you might be accustomed with. No sharp, and fresh images for you.

One thing which I ignored completely, but found that other tech reviewers bashed to smithereens, is the auto-brightness mode. Sure, indoors brightness should be set to low, and outdoors should go to its maximum capacity, automatically. But the thing i, it doesn’t do this very well, and it flusters every time. When you set it manually, you won’t have problems with seeing text when you’re outside, on a sunny day.

Kazam Tornado 455L

Software, and Performance Talk

The downside of buying a Kazam Tornado 455L is that you’re going to be stuck with Android 4.4 Kitkat, which by now, is starting to feel old, and tired. No, you can’t even upgrade to Lollipop. Android M is out of the question.

Although you’ll be missing out on the game-changing Lollipop, and the unreleased Android M – which won’t bring new big features, instead it will focus on polishing already implemented stuff – Kitkat 4.4 isn’t really that bad.

You can still run everything that’s available on Google Play. The downside being that it will indeed feel outdated. The substantial visual improvements that Lollipop came packed with aren’t, clearly, present.

But there’s a silver lining here. The majority of budget phones that force themselves to run Android Lollipop tend to kill themselves slowly, because Google’s latest update just wants their heart, and soul. You can’t give something that you don’t have, right?

Asphalt 8

This way, by implementing a limit, which is 4.4 Kitkat, Kazam eludes performance issues.

It’s quite the eager rabbit performance wise, even though it has a slow processor when compared with high-end products. The Snapdragon 410, which is paired with 2 GB of RAM, makes the 720p smartphone quite a catch. The majority of Snapdragon 410-devices are usually equipped with a tiny 1 GB unit.

The Snapdragon 410 does well even with Asphalt 8, but not on max settings. It can run, and play almost anything on the Play Store, only with a few games, and apps that just don’t work that well. You can still run them, but think of lower framerates, and a sluggish experience.

The 64-bit chipset, which is on the low side of performance products from Snapdragon, tends to heat up when using 4G internet. Because it’s being hugged to death by two glass sides, temperature tends to rise higher than the norm, but somehow, it doesn’t reach molten lava levels like Sony’s Xperia Z3.

Kazam Tornado 455L

Camera Talk

The primary 13 megapixel camera which can be found on the rear side of the phone outputs the same quality as older flagship smartphones a.i Samsung Galaxy S4, Motorola Moto X, and LG G2, and G3.

The secondary, front, 5 megapixel camera is more than capable of taking selfies for Facebook, Instagram, or whatever cool new social media platforms you kids use today.

While it is old, the rear primary camera doesn’t output low quality as you may think, and it bodes pretty well in low light setting. Although, it falls short when compared with the iPhone 6, even the iPhone 5.

If you keep your hand steady, you can get pretty good pictures, but only if. I dub the Kazam Tornado 455L SlowPoke. Shutter-speed is super-slow, and it will take a while until it you get your desired photo.

The dual-LED flash comes in quite in handy when illuminating people’s faces.

If you’re looking for a smartphone for taking pictures, I recommend you look elsewhere. The motive being that its camera unit, although equipped with 13 megapixels, just takes so long to shoot a decent picture. It feels like there’s a tiny man inside of your device that slowly paints what he sees, and if you move it just a little bit to the left, he gets grumpy, and smashes his canvas.

The HDR mode should be used only if you’re immortal. I got sick of it after trying it for a day, and didn’t use it that much. Not just because it takes so long to work, but also because it somehow warps the picture taken, and makes it look ethereal, and otherworldly. Creative types might love it. I just hate it.

Also, if you’re shooting still objects, like statues, buildings, and whatnot, you need to go to your smartphone’s gallery to see your end result. Kazam doesn’t seem to make anything easier when it comes navigating on their device.

It saddens me that the Kazam Tornado 455L has such an awesome hardware, but the budget phone manufacturer went the wrong way optimizing the whole thing.

What I found underwhelming also was the quality of the lens. I don’t want to call it poor, or just plain sucky, because preferences, are preferences, but I expected something more from the 13 megapixel unit. Pictures tend to have a purple tint, but I found no issues with sharpness.

All in all, out of 100 pictures taken, I only managed to salvage 20’ish. If you don’t mind scouring through countless duds, and if you have a happy triggerfinger, go for it. I don’t want to repeat this experience.

If you want to take videos, be warned that the Kazam Tornado 455L is limited to only 720p. As far as I know, the Snapdragon 410 processor can shoot 1080p videos. This is odd, peculiar, and I’ll further look into this issue to find out why it’s factory limited.

Kazam Tornado 455L

Battery Life Talk

Kazam’s Tornado 455L battery consists of a 2,600mAh unit, which performed rather mediocrely when tested with a continuous 720p video. It lasted about 8 hours and 30 minutes.

Day to day use drained Kazam’s battery, and I had to plug it into a charger before I went to bed

In all fairness, it isn’t bad, but it isn’t good. When you think that this is a budget phone trying to resemble a flag-ship one, you tend to get pass this little thing.

Kazam Tornado 455L

Sound, and Call Quality Talk

I found the sound, and the call quality rather poor. You don’t have a grille from whence the sounds comets, and it seems that it squeezes through the plastic sides – somehow.

At the beginning of our review, I noted that the Kazam Tornado 455L resembles Sony’s Xperia Z3+. I should just add that it does so only visually. Quality wise, it doesn’t even touch Xperia’s toes.

The thing is, it definitely lacks clarity, and pumping up the volume doesn’t do any good. In fact, it worsens the situation by adding distortion to it.

It has a noise cancellation mic on the back, but it doesn’t help it that much.

Kazam Tornado 455L Verdict

Should you buy the Kazam Tornado 455L?

If you’re on a budget, and you just want to spend $200 on smartphone that resembles some high-end product. Sure. Go ahead. If you don’t plan on taking pictures, and you just want a decent device, it’s more than worth it – price to value ratio.

Pros

– Large 5.5-inch screen

– Enveloped by two Corning Gorilla Glass panels

– Okay’ish battery

Cons

– Disappointingly stupid camera

– Annoying water proof rubber flaps

– Horrible sound quality

– Mediocre call quality

What else can you buy for $200?

Asus ZenFone 2

Well, the Asus ZenFone 2 is under $200, and it offers a quad-core 1.8GHz Intel Atom Z3560 processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of on-board storage. It’s equipped with a 5.5-inch 1080p LCD screen. It runs Android 5.0 Lollipop, and it’s main camera is a 13 megapixel unit. It also has a secondary 5 megapixel front facing unit.

Motorola Moto G

How about Motorola Moto G – the second generation smartphone from Motorola. It’s about $180, and the 5-inch device features a 1280 x 720 resolution, a quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor at 1.2 GHz. It has a rear facing 8 megapixel camera, which can’t be used for serious photography, but it does well in the Post-to-Facebook department It also has a 2 MP front facing unit.

The downside is that it only has 1 GB of RAM. It runs Android 5.0 Lollipop, and be sure that the company will continue to bring new updates to their smartphone for the next two years. Even though they probably will kill the device.

Xiaomi Redmi 2 Pro

And the last one which I can recommend at the current moment is Xiaomi Redmi 2 Pro. It’s about $200, but it comes equipped with 2GB of RAM, and a quad-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon 410 processor. The 4.7-inch 720p LCD display is just perfect in size. Not too big, and not really that small.

As the previously discussed Motorola Moto G, Xiaomi Redmi 2 Pro has a rear facing 8 megapixel unit, and a front facing 2 MP camera.

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Google Maps Tracks Places You’ve Been on a Timeline

July 22, 2015 By Karen Jackson Leave a Comment

If you leave everything on default, Google Maps will track every single place you’ve been on a detailed timeline. Hey, it comes in handy if you get blackout drunk, and want to retrace your steps for your misplaced keys.

Google’s new feature is only available for Android, and desktop users.

If you just love to stalk yourself, Google Maps will most definitely please you, and your new hobby. Think of it like something on the lines of Google Definitely Knows The Things You Did Last Summer.

This new tool that the big G just implemented will let users browse through their history, and if you pair it with their, also new, Google Photos, Google Maps will even show you pictures you’ve taken when you reach certain destinations on your route. It’s possible due to having Location History turned on – which it is by default.

You can even stalk yourself in real-time. A tool that aims to pleases the psychopath inside of you.

But leaving all the jokes aside, and paranoia, it can be really helpful if you don’t remember the let’s say route to your girlfriend’s apartment. Users can even stalk their loved ones, and catch them red handed. ” You said you were on a diet Timmy. This Timeline says otherwise. You made 25 trips to McDonald’s today!”

Users of Google Map’s new feature can re-name their frequently visited spots – they will translate into the traditional Google Maps, and also Google Now.

If you’re misbehaving, and don’t want your dearest SO to find out about your trips to The Hilton each Friday night, you can easily turn Google’s feature off in your account. If you get a thrill by the fact that you might get caught, then just don’t disable it.

The team behind Google Maps describes best their new feature –

Have you ever wanted a way to easily remember all the places you’ve been — whether it’s a museum you visited during your last vacation or that fun bar you stumbled upon a few months ago? Well, starting today, Google Maps can help. We’re gradually rolling out Your Timeline, a useful way to remember and view the places you’ve been on a given day, month or year. Your Timeline allows you to visualize your real-world routines, easily see the trips you’ve taken and get a glimpse of the places where you spend your time.

You can read more on Google’s official blog.

I, for one, won’t keep this enabled on my device, nor desktop. It’s a little bit scary, isn’t it? Google doesn’t need to know where I’m going, what photos I took in the places I frequently visit. Sure, they don’t disclose this information, but you never know who’s in charge of your personal data.

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Google Fiber is Going to Be Free for Public Housing Residents

July 16, 2015 By Karen Jackson Leave a Comment

Google Fiber is going to be installed for free, and it will continue to be a free service to those residing in public housing, and for low-income housing residents.

The program will be launching only in the USA.

Google Fiber has started in the Kansas City Area; Austin, Texas; and Provo, Utah. The service is planning to expand to Atlanta; Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, N.C; Nashville, Tenn.; Salt Lake City; Phoenix, Portland, Ore., San Antonio; and San Jose, Calif. Of course, Google isn’t going to stop there.

Internet users across the US are sick and tired of Comcast, and their shenanigans. It’s just a matter of time until Google will envelope the whole country in fiber. But, is this a good thing? Giving Google so much power? Setting the big G on the path of owning a monopoly?

Until those kind of problems arise, and bet your sweet tush they will, eventually, Google is helping low-income residents in select communities. The free service will be available in every Google Fiber market.

Mapping the Digital Divide- Google Fiber initative

From The Mapping The Digital Divide

This service will be a part of ConnectHome, a program issued by The White House, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development – simply put HUD – that aims to offer a free, and reliable Internet connection in order to educate school-aged children about the Internet, and the endless possibilities it has.

Erica Swanson, who is the head of community impact for Google Fiber, has said, in a blog post on Google’s official blog, that – ” We’re proud to partner with HUD to connect families in four of the communities they’ve selected — Atlanta, Durham, Nashville and Kansas City. We’ll also extend the program to every other current and future Google Fiber market.”

It seems that Google isn’t going to be the only one in this new adventure that aims to help those less fortunate. Provider CenturyLink is going to offer their services at lower costs for families living in assisted housing – for the first year, $9.95 per month, and for the next four years the price is going to go up to $14.95.

Also, Cox Communications, and Sprint, will do the exact thing, but in different areas – Macon, Meriden, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans for those who are eligible to enter the program that The White House, and HUD have initiated.

To be fair, The Devil, oups, I mean, Comcast, has done the same in the past with their Internet Essentials.

Swanson also notes that this is just the beginning, and going further is crucial for the initiative to be successful – ” Providing an Internet connection is just one piece of the puzzle. People can only take advantage of the many benefits of the Web when they understand why it matters and know how to use it.”

In November, Google initiated their free Internet and digital literacy program which enlisted housing residents from Austin, Texas. About 90 percent of the users that used their Google Fiber free service agreed to take the classes, and more than half of those initially enlisted successfully finished the course.

Although this seems extraordinary, and I applaud their actions, there are a lot of things to be done. Giving certain people the puzzle pieces is fine, and dandy, but helping them solve the whole puzzle is another thing. Also, there a lot of other less fortunate families that can’t enlist in the Google Fiber program. The White House seems to agree with me – “[…] there is still a substantial distance to go, particularly in our poorest neighborhoods and most rural communities, to ensure that all Americans can take advantage of the opportunities created by recent advances in computing and communications technology.”

This comes as a reminder that everyone needs to help everyone if we want humanity to evolve into something more.

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New Logi Blok Cases Will Protect Your iPad If You Drop It

July 15, 2015 By Karen Jackson Leave a Comment

When we first heard last week that Logitech was equipping itself with a new logo, and a new brand called Logi, we didn’t really know how to react. Or even how to pronounce Logi. Well, exactly like we used to – Low-gee. But still, it seems like a weird idea.

Today we witness Logitech’s new Logi Blok Cases that protect your iPad from unwanted damage. The first products to appear under the Logi brand name are set to launch this August. The Blok family will protect your most cherished iPad Air 2, and iPad Mini.

The Logi Blok Cases are equipped with unique extra-absorbent polymers which, Logitech notes, will help protect your device – your iPad can withstand drops from up to six feet high onto hard surfaces like concrete.

The Logi Blok Cases aren’t the first protective cases to appear, and considering that they are quite expensive I don’t know how Logitech will make a buck out of them. An expensive new-comer trying to put its foot in the door might not be received that well by the public.

Considering that there are cheaper ones out there, which have their positions cemented in the industry, the Logi Blok Cases might flop hard.

I’m using at the moment Speck’s DuraFolio iPad Case, which is much cheaper, and is already known in the industry.

The Logi Blok family is comprised of:

The Logi Blok Protective Shell
The Logi Blok Protective Case
The Logi Blok Protective Keyboard Case

The Logi Blok Protective Shell is for iPad Air 2, and all the model available for iPad Mini. It’s just a protective shell, which Logitech likes to put it as – ” […] a simple and sleek design that is ultra-protective, yet maintains the integrity of the iPad to make it feel as though you’re holding the iPad without a case.”

The Logi Blok Protective Shell is going to be available in black, violet, red, teal, blue, and it will cost you $40.

The Logi Blok Protective Case is a little bit more expensive $70, and it can – “[…] firmly hold your iPad at any angle within a 50-degree range.”. It’s going to be available only for the iPad Air 2. It will be available in black, red, violet, teal, and blue.

The Logi Blok Protective Keyboard Case for the iPad Air 2 will feature a detachable screen cover, and keyboard, and it will be equipped with a special designed row for iOS shortcut keys. It will cost about $130, and it will come in black, teal, and blue.

The Logi Blok Cases family will be available in U.S., Australia, New Zealand and a few select countries in Europe when August hits.

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Ethernet Adapter for Chromecast Launched by Google

July 9, 2015 By Karen Jackson Leave a Comment

Google has launched an Ethernet Adapter for Chromecast – it costs $15.

The little dongle-shaped Chromecast was launched way back in 2013, and it has been one of the most popular devices for those wishing to stream Google Cast apps – Netflix, and YouTube reign supreme. Also, the dongle can mirror select Android devices.

Of course, owners could watch other content as well through HDMI ports – almost every new TV set comes with an HDMI port, so the need for Chromecast is growing with each passing year.

The little device has come along nicely since 2013 – its popularity skyrocketed, and most blame this on Netflix. The big G’s iteration of the Chromecast supports 2.4GHz Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n bands, instead of the sought-after 5GHz Wi-Fi 802.11ac bands which increases bandwidth – let’s hope that in the near future, Comcast, and other companies that are plaguing our internet will offer a reliable internet connection.

Google has listened to its community and its Ethernet adapter is the perfect option for those who wish to add a wired connection – not only your speed will skyrocket, but the connection will be more reliable. It’s about $15, and if you have a hard-to-reach WiFi hot-spot, then this is the best solution.

But, unfortunately for some of us, the Chromecast Ethernet Adapter which was added in Google’s Store on Wednesday is now listed as Out of Stock.

At the current moment, we don’t know when Google will replenish the stock, but we’re sure that it won’t be long – it sold out in a day; if Google doesn’t capitalize on this, they must have a horrible sales strategy.

Also, for those living outside of the US, I have some bad news. Google might be selling their Chromecast Ethernet Adapter only in the states, so tough luck guys.

” This optional accessory lets you connect your Chromecast directly to your router to create a fast and reliable connection for your Chromecast.”, the Ethernet Adapter’s Google Store details.

Those who were lucky enough to be able to order one can connect their Ethernet Adapter with an included USB, and run an Ethernet cable from the router to the power supply – then, just plug it in, and voila, you can enjoy the high-speed internet lane!

But Google isn’t the only one to tackle this kind of technology. Lenovo launched this May its own version of media streaming dongle-shaped device called Lenovo Cast. It’s puck-sized, and it costs $49, and it will be available worldwide starting this August – it can mirror Android devices to TV screens at 1080p resolution.

There are rumors that Google is planning on announcing a next-gen Google Chromecast this year – probably called something like Chromecast 2. Keep it simple, and easy to remember.

We’re going to update the article as soon as the Ethernet Adapter comes back in stock, so be sure to check this page once in a while.

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$2000 Phantom Speaker from Devialet Lands in the US

June 21, 2015 By Karen Jackson Leave a Comment

This alien look-alike egg is actually a top-shelf speaker from French company Devialet – called Phantom Implosive Sound Center.

Audiophiles will always find new ways to hear crystalline highs, or low bass sounds that give your tummy tremors. If you’ve got $2000 on your hand and nothing to do with them I would immediately tell you to put them in a bank, but since I’m not your momma I’ll tell you to go crazy and buy the Phantom speaker!

Devialet’s speaker uses a traditional power socket, it can connect to an intelligent audio router, and it can eve use Bluetooth, and WiFi through the Spark application.

Devialet makes its presence in the states with two models a) 750 watts, and b) 3000 watts – pre-order it now, and get it as soon as September.

Even if you aren’t a part of the niche that Devialet markets its Phantom speaker, you have to applaud the state of the art device. It weighs 23 pounds, and its made out of polycarbonate, and aluminium.

Devialet makes their own chips in order to ensure that audiophiles get the best experience out of their products – the Phantom speaker has their Analog Digital Hybrid chip which provides a true, and spectacular digital amplification.

The Phantom speaker automatically adjusts the volume so it can’t be blown out by curiosity, or recklessness – their chip takes care of this, while at the same time providing a distortion-free audio session.

This compact technology that involves pressure levels associated with a rocket launch is the fruit of 10 years of hard work, and $30 million of funding.

You can play music through Devialet’s optical input, or through its Spark app – available on iOS, Mac, and Android. You can connect your computer, or mobile device to the WiFi network as the audio router, and the Spark app will help you set up.

The app will let you play music from your local storage, or from Deezer, and Qobuz – Devialet is French, so go figure. The company has hinted that Tidal might be supported in the near future. I don’t use any of these three so this might be a deal breaker for me – give me Spotify, and Google Play support, and I might think of selling a kidney to buy your product Devialet.

Devialet wasn’t designed just to look spacey, but acoustic laws were taken into consideration so the Phantom speaker provides the best experience possible.

No review in the world will be able to express how a speaker sounds, so if you’re interested in buying the Phantom speaker I highly recommend you don’t pre-order it, and just visit a retail shop and try it out. Here’s a sample of how it sounds.

Going to buy a Devialet Phantom Speaker? Don’t forget to invite me to the party!

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Amazon Reveals New Kindle Paperwhite

June 18, 2015 By Karen Jackson Leave a Comment

The new Kindle Paperwhite will go on sale on June the 30th.

Amazon has worked hard to redesign their Kindle device, and the company has managed to stick with the same price – even though it has a ton of added features, and improvements.

The new Kindle Paperwhite sports 300dpi which doubles the existing resolution that his older sibling has. Amazon also announced that they have a new font available for the Kindle called Bookerly. It’s specially designed to work on Kindle’s new screen, and it will offer a more pleasant reading experience – it’s super easy to read at any point size.

Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos has stated that – ” The new Kindle Paperwhite obsesses over the details that matter most to readers – we’ve added our highest-resolution display so the words are crisp and clear on the page, a new font that is crafted exclusively for reading Kindle books, and a new typesetting engine that makes pages beautiful.”

Battery life stays mostly the same, even thought the screen can output a better resolution. Also, as I said before, the price will remain the same – that’s $119. The WiFi, and 3G variant will be a little bit more expensive, and it will result in you coughing up $189. You can pre-order yours right now on Amazon.

Their new Paperwhite will be on par with the Voyage device – both of them are offering crisp, and excellent quality images, and text.

A spokesperson for the company has noted that – ” With twice the pixels as the previous generation Kindle Paperwhite, the display delivers laser-quality text, making it easy to read comfortably at any font size, including at smaller fonts so you can fit more words on each page.”

The really good thing about Amazon’s new Kindle Paperwhite is the fact that it feels and looks just like the old one – why fix something that ain’t broken?

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AMD Will Launch 8K Capable Fiji Radeon 300 GPU

June 17, 2015 By Karen Jackson Leave a Comment

This year’s E3 event seems to be filled with surprises – not only gaming wise. AMD noted that it will launch an 8K capable GPU called Fiji Radeon 300.

8K? Holy jumping jacks Batman, I have yet to own a 4K capable machine. At this point, it’s better to wait for the 8K capable GPU to be released. Sure, it will cost a little bit more, fine, a lot more, but you get a much bigger, and crisper resolution.

Most people at an E3 event are interested on what new games they will be able to play in the following months, and the year to come. The majority of companies that have their own keynote are doing just so. But here comes AMD to focus only on hardware and talk about their new products – and I have to say that the Fiji Radeon 300, and its siblings, are just phenomenal.

AMD will be focusing on the company’s Future Graphic Technologies which includes High Bandwidth Memory (HBM).

“Our latest pioneering breakthrough in memory technology, smashes through performance walls and establishes a new, open industry standard,” said an AMD spokesperson.

According to the company, AMD will bring the ” new era of gaming” with their new Fiji product line – the new High Bandwidth Memory succeeds GDDR 5.

You can take a look just down below at an 8K screenshot – 7680 x 4320; that was made available by AMD. It showcases Battlefield 4. I embedded the image, but I had to resize it to fit the page. If you want to see it at its full resolution you can do so right here.

This is just jaw-dropping. I’m really curious how it’s like to play an 8K Battlefield 4 multiplayer match. I’ll most likely get distracted by all the details in the game, and I’ll get killed, or kicked for exploring.

At the current moment, we don’t know if the 8K capable graphic card will be made available for purchase right after E3 – most likely it’s going to be released sometime this Summer.

It seems that AMD is fighting back and their trying to get some of their customers back – Nvidia currently has 70% of the marketshare.

It’s been a tough period for AMD. Users have reported that AMD builds output lower performance than Nvidia builds, even though both of the builds have almost the same exact technical specifications. An 8K capable GPU might entice former customers to come back to their initial love, but it seriously depends on what the new graphic card’s price will be.

Are you thrilled about the new 8K capable GPU? Are you going to buy it when it’s made available?

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Oculus Rift and Microsoft Have Announced Their Partnership

June 14, 2015 By Karen Jackson 1 Comment

The internet is in an uproar. Oculus Rift has just announced their partnership with Microsoft. More exactly, their virtual reality headset will come paired with an Xbox One controller.

Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe also announced that their Oculus Rift device will fully support Windows 10, and its users will be able to play Xbox One games directly inside their, er, heads via Xbox-to-Windows streaming.

It is unknown at the moment what other services Microsoft will provide for the Facebook-owned virtual reality device.

Microsoft’s Head of Xbox Phil Spencer sported a huge grin on his face when it was time to take to the stage and announce their unlikely partnership. But even though the internet hates it, for whatever reason, I seriously applaud their entrepreneur spirit.

It makes sense, doesn’t it? It’s a way to counter attack Sony’s Project Morpheus, and who would be better to do so than one of the most known virtual reality headsets on the planet. Oculus Rift has a super-high brand recognition – mostly because it was the first that tackled this trend, and partly because Facebook acquired it and made everyone wonder how Zuckerberg will tackle social media in the VR medium.

Oculus Rift is already built, and it’s in the polishing process – can’t say the exact same thing about Project Morpheus; we have no clue what Sony’s up to.

It’s a pure win-win situation for Microsoft. They don’t have to maintain the VR hardware, they only have to make their software compatible, and easy to use. Unlike Sony, who will most likely adopt the same thing for their VR headset. Sony needs to develop its product first, and then tackle compatibility issues that it may encounter. Or maybe Sony will shock as all, and when the time comes it will have all its problems fixed.

Whether the trend will ship towards augmented reality, or it will stay in the VR medium, Microsoft is more than prepared. The big M has enough time, and resources to focus on their HoloLens project and not worry about Oculus – which big daddy Facebook can easily take care of by opening its deep pockets. Some say that they are filled with gold, and others warn that they are drenched in tears of social media users from around the globe.

This might also be Microsoft’s chance of winning the console wars. Its Xbox, and Xbox 360 were gold, but when you talk about next gen consoles, PlayStation 4 is the reigning king.

Oculus Rift is also offering up to $10 million to help indie developers build games for their VR headset. I think they’re off to a tremendous head start, and Sony might just release their VR headset in time to barely taste the dust.

Image Source: 1, 2, 3, 4

Self-Driving Cars Never Caused Accidents, Says Google!

June 9, 2015 By Karen Jackson Leave a Comment

Google claims that their self-driving cars were never at fault for the accidents caused. Most of them were rear endings, and others were minor scrapes.

At the moment there are about 23 Lexus RX450h SUVs driving around California, and some think that Google is just sugar-coating the accidents that involved their self-driving cars, in order to continue testing them on public roads.

John M. Simpson, who is the Privacy Project Director for US organization Consumer Watchdog, has made repeated calls that Google needs to offer complete transparency, and that the big G needs to release all of the information regarding the minor incidents – ” We now know a few more details of what happened. The problem is that it’s Google’s version and they want us to take their word for it.”

At the moment, the incidents appear to be minor, but nobody knows for sure what Google is hiding. Why not just release all of the information to the public and get rid of these false allegations? Or maybe, they aren’t false at all, and Google is hiding some nasty things under its hood. Pretty shady if you ask me.

Simpson added that – ” Google is dribbling out bits information in the hope to silence legitimate calls for full transparency. They are testing on public roads and the public has a right to know exactly what happened when something goes wrong.”

Google’s on-going self-driving cars project spans over six years, with more than 1.8 million miles driven – at least, that’s what their May 2015 report states. Their vehicles were involved in 12 minor accidents. At first glance, that’s really not bad. Six years, almost 2 million miles, and only 12 minor accidents? Well, it’s like living in a utopia were almost everyone is paying attention to the road.

Consumer Watchdog claims that these minor accidents may in fact be caused by Google’s self-driving cars stopping too sudden – ” […] the vehicles tend to stop more quickly than human drivers expect.” But let’s face it, human drivers stop too sudden all of the time. This only means that the driver that was behind didn’t keep the distance required, and wasn’t paying attention to the road. The person driving behind is almost always at fault for rear-ending.

In a recent article written by one of my collegues, we found out that Google’s self-driving cars have a maximum speed capped at 25 miles per hour. The self-driving cars are also tested near Google’s HQ in California, Mountain View – they are accompanied by safety drivers.

Only time will tell if Google is actually putting all of us in mortal danger, or if these allegations are truly based on paranoia. I’m more inclined to believe the Consumer Watchdog’s claims, rather than the big shady G.

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Kazam Tornado 455L Review

Kazam Tornado 455L

Design Talk

Kazam Tornado 455L

Screen Talk

Kazam Tornado 455L

Software, and Performance Talk

Kazam Tornado 455L

Camera Talk

Kazam Tornado 455L

Battery Life Talk

Kazam Tornado 455L

Sound, and Call Quality Talk

Kazam Tornado 455L Verdict

What else can you buy for $200?

Asus ZenFone 2

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Xiaomi Redmi 2 Pro

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